He poured a bowl for Lan WangJi. Without any thought, Lan WangJi took it over and drank up. Wei WuXian was unusually excited, staring at his face to see when it would turn red. Yet, even after he stared for a while, neither Lan WangJi’s face color or expression changed, staring at him calmly with light-colored eyes. There wasn’t any change at all!
Wei WuXian was extremely disappointed. As he was about to urge him for another jar, suddenly, Lan WangJi frowned and lightly rubbed at between his brows. After a few moments, with a hand supporting his forehead, he closed his eyes.
… He fell asleep?
… He fell asleep!
After most people drank so much liquor, they should become drunk first, and then sleep. How could Lan WangJi skip the step of getting drunk and go to sleep immediately?!
“Drunken” was the part that he wanted to see!
Wei WuXian waved at Lan WangJi, whose face remained serious even after he was asleep, then clapped beside his ears. There was no reaction.
Lan WangJi was surprisingly the type who collapses after just one bowl.
Wei WuXian didn’t expect this sort of situation to happen at all. Thinking as he shook his legs, he put Lan WangJi’s right arm around his arm, and dragged him out of the liquor shop.
He had already familiarized himself with the action of fishing things from Lan WangJi. After taking out the pouch containing money, he found an inn and asked for two rooms. He carried Lan WangJi to one of the rooms, took off his boots, tucked him in, and slipped into the night.
Stopping at a desolated area, Wei WuXian took out his flute by his waist, placed it by his lips, and played a melody. After this, he waited silently.
In these past few days, Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi spent their days and nights together. He didn’t have any alone time, so he couldn’t summon Wen Ning. Aside from hiding his identity in the beginning, there was another reason.
Wen Ning had killed the GusuLan Sect’s people before. Even if Lan WangJi treated Wei WuXian well, he couldn’t summon Wen Ning right in front of him. Or, perhaps, it was because Lan WangJi treated him well that he didn’t have the face to summon Wen Ning in front of him. No matter how thick his face was, this wasn’t the time to have a thick face.
Before he knew it, the eerie jingling noises sounded again.
With his head lowered, Wen Ning’s figure appeared from the shadows of the city wall ahead.
He wore all black, melting into the darkness surrounding him. Only his pupil-less eyes were a glaring, hideous white.
Wei WuXian put his hands behind him and slowly paced around Wen Ning.
Wen Ning shifted, as if wanting to follow his steps and walk in circles as well. Wei WuXian commanded, “Stand properly.”
He complied and stopped moving. It seemed as if his delicate features appeared even more dejected.
Wei WuXian, “Hand.”
Wen Ning extended his right arm. Wei WuXian grabbed his wrist and lifted it up, closely examining the iron cuff and chain locked onto it.
This wasn’t an ordinary chain. When Wen Ning flipped out, he became extremely violent, capable of twisting iron into sludge, so he wouldn’t have let it drag around like this. It was likely that this was a set of chains created especially to restrain Wen Ning.
Turned to ashes?
Trying as hard as they could to restore a damaged piece of Stygian Tiger Seal, of course some sects salivated at the Ghost General as well. How would they have been willing to turn him to ashes?
With a bitter laugh, he stood by Wen Ning’s side. After considering for a moment, he started to press his fingers into Wen Ning’s hair.
The person who kept and restrained Wen Ning must have prevented him from thinking on his own. To make him listen to other people’s orders, Wen Ning’s sanity must have been destroyed, which meant that they must’ve planted something inside his head. As he had expected, after pushing around a few times, Wei WuXian found a hard nib on an acupoint of the right side of his head. He put his other hand on the left side of Wen Ning’s head and found the same thing, resembling the end of a needle.
Wei WuXian pinched both needle ends at the same time and gradually pulled two black, long nails from within Wen Ning’s skull.
The two nails buried deep inside of Wen Ning were around an inch long and as thick as the red strings used for jade pendants. As soon as the nails left his head, Wen Ning’s features quivered faintly. A layer of black lines that resembled strands of blood climbed across the whites of Wen Ning’s eyes. It seemed as if he was trying hard to endure the pain.
How strange was it that, although he had died, he could still experience feelings of “pain”.
Judging from the intricate, complex lines carved onto the nails, it must have came from a unique source. Their creator was fairly skilled. It’d take quite some time for Wen Ning to heal completely. Putting them away, Wei WuXian looked down at the chains on Wen Ning’s wrists and ankles, thinking to himself that it’d be a bit inconvenient for them to hang around and make noise. He’d need to use a cultivational sword to cut them off.
The first that he thought of was, of course, Lan WangJi’s Bichen. Although it somewhat unbefitting to use the sword of someone from the Lan Sect to cut off Wen Ning’s chains, it was the best cultivational sword that he could get his hands on. He really couldn’t let Wen Ning drag so many burdensome things behind him.
Wei WuXian thought to himself, Okay. I’ll go back to the inn first. If Lan Zhan is awake, then I won’t do anything. If Lan Zhan is still asleep, I’ll quickly borrow Bichen for a while.
Having made his decision, he turned around. However, what he didn’t expect was that Lan WangJi was standing right behind him.
Chapter 31 Dew—Part Four
After he summoned Wen Ning, Wei WuXian’s state of mind was somewhat confused, so it was hard for him to be continuously alert. And, if Lan WangJi didn’t want someone to notice his arrival, he could do it without any difficulty. Thus, as he turned around and saw the even colder face under the moonlight, his heart almost skipped a beat.
He didn’t know how long Lan WangJi had been here for or if he had seen and heard what he was doing. If Lan WangJi had never been drunk in the beginning and followed him all the way here, the situation would be even more awkward, especially with him not saying anything to Lan WangJi’s face and sneaking out to summon Wen Ning after Lan WangJi fell asleep.
Lan WangJi crossed his arms in front of him and held Bichen in them. His expression was particularly stiff. Wei WuXian had never seen him with such an obviously displeased expression on his face before. He felt that he needed to speak first and explain the situation, ease the atmosphere, “Ahem, HanGuang-Jun.”
Lan WangJi did not reply.
Standing in front of Wen Ning, Wei WuXian stared across at Lan WangJi. He touched his chin and, for some reason, felt exceptionally guilty.
Lan WangJi finally let down the hands that held Bichen and walked a few steps forward. Seeing that he went toward Wen Ning with a sword in his hand, Wei WuXian thought that he was going to kill Wen Ning, Oh no. Don’t tell me that Lan Zhan really pretended to be drunk so that he could kill Wen Ning after I summon him. Of course. Nobody actually gets drunk after just a bowl.
He blurted, “HanGuang-Jun, listen to me…”
With a loud smack, Lan WangJi hit Wen Ning.
Although it sounded quite strong, it didn’t actually do any damage. Wen Ning only staggered a few steps backward after the blow. He wobbled a bit and regained his balance, standing properly again with a blank face.