Chapter 21 - Contentment

Wei WuXian replied, "Huh, so there's an evil being that eats humans there?" Having heard of at least thousands of legends like this and killed at least hundreds of them with his own hands, he found it somewhat boring.

"..." To most of the cultivators, 'boring' wasn't generally a word used when being told about a place housing a monster that eats people.

Jin Ling snorted. "Stop showing off! As if you've killed hundreds of man-eating beasts!"

"How am I showing off? You are are just intruding on my thoughts." Wei Wuxian shot back indignantly, "And why would I lie in my own thoughts?? Man-eating beasts might scare you because you've barely experienced real life, but there are plenty of worse things out there."

'What type of terrifying life does Wei Wuxian have?' the cultivators were thinking, remembering the ghost arm spirit and the soul-consuming goddess that Wei Wuxian encountered right after being reborn, not to mention the waterborne abyss and who knew what else from his past life. c

The charlatan continued, his voice rising and falling, "That's right! It is said that, in the ridge's forest, there is a 'man-eating castle' with monsters that feed on the humans living inside it. The monsters will devour anyone who ventures inside it without leaving a single crumb behind. No corpses could be found—there wasn't a single exception! It's scary, isn't it?"

The audience shuddered. People disappearing from the face of the earth without a trace, nor an explanation! What type of terrible beast was this?

No wonder that Jin Ling also came here. Unable to suppress the soulconsuming goddess at Dafan Mountain, he definitely came for the monster in the Xinglu Ridge again. Wei WuXian exclaimed, "Scary indeed! But, if nothing was left behind, and no corpses could be found, how can it be known that they were eaten?"

An older cultivator scowled. "Why is he asking such pointless questions? It is precisely because there are no corpses left that we know they were eaten!"

"One shouldn't judge before they have all the evidence. Vanishing does not mean they were necessarily eaten." Lan Xichen said in a mediative voice.

No one could argue with the esteemed Zewu Jun, of course, but there were still some sceptical faces.

Wei Wuxian rolled his eyes. "For example, they could have been kidnapped and dragged off to be tortured, or sold as slaves, or they could have just used being eaten as a cover up to escape from their debts, or run away with their secret lovers, or... they could still be in the Xinglu Ridge, of course."

The sceptical cultivators immediately shrank in fear against their seats at the grin on Wei Wuxian's face.

After a pause, the charlatan answered, "Of course someone saw it." Wei WuXian expressed his admiration, "But, before this, didn't you say that anyone who ventures inside it would be devoured without any crumbs being left behind, no exception? Then, who on Earth could have started this legend? How powerful would they have to be, having lived to tell the tale after seeing this kind of scene?"

"Ha! " Jingyi said triumphantly. "Senior Wei's got him!"

"..." The charlatan, "That's how the legend goes. How would I know?"

Wei WuXian, "Then, do you know how many people were eaten in the Xinglu Ridge? When were they eaten? Their ages? Their gender? What their names were? Where they lived?"

The charlatan, "I don't know."

Wei WuXian, "Qinghe's know-it-all? Huh?"

The charlatan picked up his basket in a fury, "The legends didn't have this kind of information!"

The audience laughed at the charlatan's furious face. Anger seemed to be a typical reaction to any sort of encounter with Wei Wuxian.

"I almost feel bad for that charlatan... Senior Wei absolutely took him apart and exposed him." Sizhui commented.

"Haha, you're right! I bet he'd never talked to anyone as rational or as smart as Senior Wei." Jingyi agreed.

Wei WuXian laughed, "No, no, don't go yet. Let me ask you something else. Is the Xinglu Ridge a part of the Qinghe region? Isn't Qinghe the Nie Sect's area? If there really are monsters roaming around Xinglu Ridge, why are they ignoring it?"

To his surprise, this time, the charlatan didn't answer "I don't know" again.

"Well, of course. Everyone knows the answer to that." a cultivator said, confused.

"Oh, that's right, Wei Wuxian didn't know about Chifeng Zun's death yet!" his friend said loudly.

Instead, a smudge of disdain appeared on his face, "The Nie Sect? If it were the Nie Sect from back then, it definitely wouldn't be ignored. Before the second day of the legend's appearance, the Nie Sect would have raided where the monsters roamed at once, in the most resolute way possible. But, isn't the sect leader of the Nie Sect now, heh, that 'head shaker'?"

The audience rippled with secretive laughter, sneaking glances at where Nie Huaisang was seated.

Nie Huaisang of course already knew of this nickname and didn't react much, still preoccupied and glum about how his sect's secrets were about to be spilled the cultivation world soon.

The leader of the QingheNie Sect used to be ChiFeng-Zun, Nie MingJue. After his father, the last sect leader, was outraged to death by the leader of the QishanWen Sect, Wen RuoHan, he took over the Nie Sect before he even reached twenty, doing everything in a direct, forceful fashion. He was also sworn brothers with ZeWu-Jun, Lan XiChen, and LianFang-Zun, Jin GuangYao. After the Sunshot Campaign, the Nie Sect was quite powerful with him in the lead, its influence almost reaching that of the LanlingJin Sect's. But, after a qi deviation, he died in front of the public's eyes, and so, the next person in line for the sect leader position must have been his younger brother, Nie HuaiSang.

Wei WuXian inquired, "Why is he called the 'head shaker'?"

The charlatan, "Don't you know the story behind it? No matter what other people ask Sect Leader Nie, if he doesn't know it, he won't say anything; if he does know it, he's too scared to say anything. If you ask too harshly and force him, he'd shake his head again and again, saying as he cries, 'I don't know, I don't know, I really don't know!' He'd then beg the other to let him go. Isn't it obvious why he's called the 'head shaker'?"

Wei Wuxian now glanced at Nie Huaisang, who seemed completely tranquil despite being ridiculed so thoroughly on the board. He now knew (or suspected, at least) that much of what Nie Huaisang showed to everyone else was just a disguise to hide his real mastermind plot.

In the past, Wei WuXian and Nie HuaiSang studied together, so there were a few things he could comment about this person. Nie HuaiSang wasn't an unkind person. It wasn't that he was not clever, but that his heart was set somewhere else and used his smarts on other areas, such as painting on fans, searching for birds, skipping classes, and catching fish.

"Thanks, Wei-xiong! At least one person understands me!" Nie Huaisang exclaimed dramatically.

Lan Wangji cast his mind back to try and remember what he knew about Nie Huaisang. Most of what Lan Wangji remembered of Nie Huaisang back in the time where they all studied together at the Cloud Recesses, was just suppressed jealousy of all Wei Wuxian's time and attention he got, so that wasn't helpful.

Because his talent in terms of cultivation really was poor, he formed his core around eight or nine years later than the other disciples of the same generation as him.

Nie Huaisang pouted. "Nevermind. Wei-xiong, how could you reveal that to everyone! I might die of embarrassment now." He wasn't actually being serious, though. He knew that Wei Wuxian had not had any choice in having his thoughts displayed for everyone in the cultivation world to see.

But now, many of the audience felt empathy for Nie Huaisang. Not being naturally gifted in cultivation was indeed a real setback, especially for someone from such a prominent sect and with such a domineering older brother.

When he lived, Nie MingJue was often exasperated by the fact that his brother didn't meet his expectations, so he disciplined him strictly. Despite this, he still didn't improve much. Now, without his older brother protecting and supervising him, under his lead, the QingheNie Sect declined day by day.

Nie Huaisang looked away. Knowing that he had disappointed his older brother so much had always given him a hollow feeling. His brother had died without peace in knowing that the sect was being left in capable hands. But how was he to know that his older brother, who he'd assumed would live forever, would be murdered by that twisted snake, Jin Guangyao?

After he grew up, especially after he became the sect leader, he was often troubled by all kinds of affairs unfamiliar to him and looked for helpers everywhere, mainly his brother's two sworn brothers. One day he'd go to Jinling Tower to complain to Jin GuangYao, and the next day he'd go to the Cloud Recesses to whine to Lan XiChen. With the two leaders of the Jin and Lan Sects supporting him, he still barely managed to settle on the sect leader position. Nowadays, whenever people mentioned Nie HuaiSang, although they didn't say anything on the surface, the same phrase was written on their faces—good-for-nothing.

Nie Huaisang couldn't keep his unconcerned face up for so long. He couldn't help but feel a spike of hurt. How did Wei Wuxian cope with being insulted day and night and accused for things he didn't do, still with a smile on his face??

Lan Xichen frowned at the board. Despite what the scenes showed, he was very fond of his former sworn brother's younger brother. Nie Huaisang did always bring his troubles to him, but Lan Xichen had always been happy helping him, just like his an older brother would.

Remembering the things that happened in the past, he couldn't help but to sigh at it. After Wei WuXian finished asking about the Xinglu Ridge, he still helped the charlatan's business by buying two compacts of rouge. He tucked them into his clothes and walked back to Lan WangJi.

The cultivators didn't know what to say. Wei Wuxian was such a strange person - after harassing and mocking the charlatan, he helped his business - but by buying rouge of all things! It wasn't as if Wei Wuxian had a significant other to share it with, or wanted to use it himself- did he?

The latter still didn't appear to have any intention of asking for the pouch back. In silence, they walked toward the direction that the charlatan pointed at together. There was a large cedarwood forest on the Xinglu Ridge, with a wide trail amid the shade of the trees.

After a while of walking, they didn't meet anything out of the usual. Regardless, in the beginning, they didn't hold high hopes anyway, and only came here just in case. If a frightening legend of any area was true, then there would definitely be detailed information.

At Dafan Mountain, where the soul-consuming goddess haunted, it was easy to find out where the victims lived and what their names were—even the nickname of A-Yan's fiance. But, if the charlatan was unsure of the names and details of the victims, it was most likely a case of exaggerated hearsay.

"Oh." A junior said in disappointment. "I guess that does make sense. But I wanted to see a beast!"

Jin Ling considered correcting him. After all, he had gone to investigate Xinglu ridge before Senior Wei and Hanguang Jun, and he knew that it did exist, and had also nearly sucked him forever inside its walls, but he decided to let the board do the explaining. As annoying as it was, Wei Wuxian's narration was much better at explaining than he was.

After a bit less than an hour, they finally met a setback. From ahead came seven or eight figures, staggering toward them.

The same junior gasped, his eyes lighting up. This looked promising!

Their eyes were white and they wore ragged clothing, appearing as if even a light breeze would be enough to blow them over. With their extremely slow speed, it was easy to see that they were a group of walking corpses of the lowest level possible.

"Easy for you to see, maybe." The corpses still looked plenty unnerving to some of the juniors.

Not only were these types of corpses bullied among their peers, if they met a slightly strong human, one could kick over a row of them; if they met a slightly fast child, they would soon be outran by a few blocks. Even if the victim was extraordinarily unlucky and had a few gulps of yang energy sucked out of them, they wouldn't die from it anyway. Aside from how awful the corpses looked and smelled, they weren't threatening at all.And thus, if they appeared during a night-hunt, most of the elders simply ignored them and left them for the juniors. This followed the same logic as hunting tigers and panthers instead of rats.

"Oh. Wow." the junior, a disciple of the Jiang sect, said, disappointed that there wouldn't be a fight, but entertained all the same by Wei Wuxian's description of walking corpses. They seemed to personally offend him for being so pathetic and not scary enough.

Seeing them walk over, Wei WuXian knew that something was going to go wrong, and ducked back behind Lan WangJi again. As he had expected, when these walking corpses wobbled to about twenty meters ahead of them, as they saw Wei WuXian, they were so terrified that they immediately turned around to retreat, their speed two or three times faster than when they came over.

"...Why are they running from you? You aren't that scary." Jin Ling asked with his eyebrows raised.

"They obviously know I could snap my fingers and make them pull their own limbs off to use as shovels to dig their own graves." Wei Wuxian replied with a smirk.

The cultivators who had heard turned around to look at him in horror.

"A normal person would run in terror from the Yiling Patriarch too. A walking corpse would naturally know of the grandmaster of demonic cultivation's reputation as well." an older cultivator from the Huan sect said reasonably.

Wei WuXian rubbed his temples, turned around, and spoke in a fearful voice, "Wow, HanGuang-Jun, you're so cool! They were so scared when they saw you that they ran away at once! Haha." Lan WangJi was speechless.

"Haha, I guess you actually already knew who I was by then, so it didn't work on you?" Wei Wuxian sighed, having been caught in the lie.

"Mn. Walking corpses would not run from me.  I wanted to tell you, that I knew, but you seemed to like pretending to be Mo Xuanyu."

"Hmph." Wei Wuxian sulked. "I only liked it because I thought no one knew it was me, so I could do anything I liked as a madman, without fear of ruining my reputation. "

"And instead, you just seemed extra shameless in front of Hanguang Jun!" Jingyi laughed.

Wei Wuxian shrugged. "Ah well! Hanguang Jun still stuck with me, so I guess he didn't mind!"

"I don't mind." Lan Wangji said right away, the tips of his ears starting to go red again.

Wei WuXian pushed him while laughing, "Let's go, let's go. Let's get off this ridge. I don't think that there are any other monsters. The people here are so gossipy that a few useless walking corpses became ruthless monsters in their mouths. Things like the 'man-eating castle' must have been fabricated as well. Such a waste of efforts, don't you think?" Lan WangJi only started walking after a few more pushes from him. Before Wei WuXian caught up, a series of wild barks suddenly came from far away in the cedarwood forest.

Wei WuXian's face changed instantly. He shifted behind Lan WangJi in lightning speed and squatted into a ball, arms hugging the other's waist.

Lan WangJi, "... It is still far away. What are you hiding for?"

Wei WuXian, "I-I-I-I-I-I-I'm gonna hide first then see. Where is it? Where is it?!"

The audience stared, not fully comprehending how Wei Wuxian had shifted completely from laughing and overconfident, to panicked and child-like. Even his voice had gone a bit high-pitched and baby-like. They still hadn't fully registered that the evil overlord, the Yiling Patriarch, was actually scared of such normal creatures.

Lan WangJi listened intently for a moment, and responded, "It is Jin Ling's black-haired spiritual dog." Hearing Jin Ling's name, Wei WuXian stood up at once, but squatted back down after hearing a few more barks.

Lan WangJi continued, "If a spiritual dog is barking in such a way, something must have happened."

Wei WuXian groaned a few times, then stood up with effort, his legs still trembling, "Th-th-th-th-th-th-then let's go and see!"

The audience couldn't help but sympathise with Wei Wuxian. He clearly wanted to find his nephew and help him, but at the same time, he had the crippling fear of dogs. They could hear the trembling in his squeaky voice, the trickles of sweat on his forehead.

Lan WangJi didn't move at all. Wei WuXian cried, "HanGuang-Jun, why don't you move? Move! If you don't move, what do I do?!" After a moment of silence, Lan WangJi replied, "First... let go."

There were giggles among the people in the audience who recognised how adorable Wei Wuxian looked, clinging to his beloved Lan Wangji for protection.

The two pushed and staggered. Although they followed the barks of the dog, they only circled two times around the cedarwood forest. The spiritual dog's barks also appeared sometimes near, sometimes far. Having listened to a long while of barking, Wei WuXian finally grew somewhat used to it, at least ceasing to stammer as he spoke, "There's a maze array here?" This maze array was definitely created by a person. A while ago, he said that the legends of the ridge were all hearsay, but, now, things were getting interesting. After about fifteen minutes of barking, the black-haired spiritual dog still wasn't tired out. The two followed the sound after they found the method to exit the maze array.

"Maze array?" some of the more bright cultivators muttered to themselves. Maze arrays were generally used when there was something to be hidden or avoided. Wei Wuxian, even in his half-addled state as a result of the presence of a dog, was still right in something interesting was clearly going on.

The mystery of the ghost arm clearly wasn't close to wrapping itself up - it just kept accumulating more strange things and growing bigger.

Not long afterward, the silhouettes of creepy, stone castles appeared amid the cedarwood forest.The castles were made of greyish-white stones, its surface covered in green vines and fallen leaves. Every one of them was made into strange semi-spheres, appearing as if a few large bowls were turned over on the ground.

The atmosphere immediately shifted in the room. The stone castles gave an extremely unsettling aura - there was something very off about them. It wasn't hard to believe that some sort of monstrous beast dwelled nearby.

Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren both looked concerned and, in Lan Qiren's case, irritated. Wangji hadn't told them about this. From what they could see so far, these stone castles were extremely suspicious.

Who would have known that there really were such stone castles inside the Xinglu Ridge? It seemed that the legends didn't appear out of thin air after all. However, it'd be hard to say whether or not this was a "man-eating castle", and what beings were inside of it. Jin Ling's black-haired spiritual dog was outside of the cluster of stone castles. It ran around them, sometimes grunting in a low voice and sometimes barking wildly. Seeing that Lan WangJi approached, it backed off slightly out of fear, but, instead of running away, it barked even louder at them.

"Senior Wei might be scared of dogs, but I think Fairy is scared of Hanguang Jun." mused Sizhui.

"As it should be! At least it knows its place." sniffed Wei Wuxian. "Luckily I have my mighty Hanguang Jun to protect me, hahaha!"

It then looked toward the stone castles, its front paws restlessly digging into the ground. Wei WuXian hid behind Lan WangJi and spoke in a pained voice, "Why is it still not going away...? Where's its owner? Why is its owner gone?!" From upon hearing the barks until now, they hadn't heard anything coming from Jin Ling at all, not even cries for help.This black-haired spiritual dog must have been brought here by him, and it must have been the one who broke the maze array as well. Yet, it seemed as if a living person just disappeared like that.

There were gasps. The way Wei Wuxian phrased that... like Jin Ling was one of the people who vanished without a trace, after being eaten by the man-eating beast! Jiang Cheng's hand clenched on the inactive Zidian. What had that little brat gotten up to behind his back??

Jin Ling's friends quickly swivelled to look at him as if making sure he was actually there and still alive.

"So did you get caught by the beast??" Jingyi asked, his eyes wide.

"Wow... and you escaped??" Zizhen added eagerly.

"Oh, well, I'm so glad that I know you are fine, otherwise, I would be so scared watching this!" Sizhui exclaimed.

Jin Ling didn't know how to reply to the surprising worries of his friends - on his behalf! It made him feel strangely warm and ticklish inside. He didn't say anything, though he could feel his face going red.

Lan WangJi spoke, "Let us go inside to see." Wei WuXian, "How? There's no door." There really wasn't a door. The grey-white stones were stuck tightly together, without any space for doors or windows. The dog yelped as it leaped. It seemed as if it wanted to bite the corner of Lan WangJi's robes, but didn't dare to, so it went around him to bite Wei WuXian's clothes instead, tugging him in a certain direction. Wei WuXian's soul almost flew out of him. He extended his arms toward Lan WangJi, "Lan Zhan... Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan... Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan!!!"

"Look at that, Jin Ling! Your dog is more shameless than I am, look at how it's targeting me!" Wei Wuxian complained.

Lan Xichen sighed. Wei Wuxian had before wondered how Wangji had known it was him in Mo Xuanyu's body. Clearly though, Wei Wuxian hadn't been very subtle. No one else in Wangji's entire life had ever had the audacity to use his birth name, Lan Zhan, in friendliness or in disrespect -apart from their mother, of course.

The dog dragged Wei WuXian, and Wei WuXian dragged Lan WangJi. The dog lead them halfway around, to the back of the stone castle. To his surprise, there was an entrance about a person's height in the wall. The shape was uneven, and there were fragmented pieces of rocks on the ground, which meant that it had just been violently blasted open with the use of a magical tool. The inside of the entrance was too dark for anything to be seen, aside from a red light that faintly shone.

"I wonder who broke into it..." one cultivator remarked sarcastically. Still, they had to admit that Jin Ling had guts. Not many people would look at those creepy stone bunkers, rumoured to house a man-eating beast and dare to break the wall to get in.

The pitch black interior and the faint red light didn't look comforting at all.

The dog loosened its teeth. It made another series of barks toward the inside, and madly wagged its tail at the two of them. It was clear that Jin Ling must have broke open the stone castle by force, but something happened to him after he entered. Bichen unsheathed on its own by an inch. The blade of the sword emitted a cold glow of light blue, illuminating the dark path ahead. Lan WangJi bent down and went inside first. Wei WuXian was almost stirred crazy by the dog, and rushed inside as well, nearly crashing into him. Lan WangJi held his hand to support him, and shook his head, either out of dissatisfaction or unwilling resignation.

The black-haired spiritual dog appeared like it really wanted to follow him, also trying to rush inside, but it seemed as if it was blocked outside by some sort of a force. It couldn't break the barrier no matter how hard it tried, so it could only sit down outside of the entrance, its tail wagging faster and faster. Wei WuXian was so glad that he almost knelt down for it. Taking his hand away, he walked a few steps inside.

Now the audience gave a short laugh at Wei Wuxian's comically grateful look upwards, as if he was thanking the heavens. After the threat of the dog was gone, he reverted completely back to his normal self, no traces of embarrassment remaining.

The distant shade of blue light coming from the sword almost appeared to be white when surrounded in this darkness. The Xinglu Ridge was covered in a tall, deep forest, so it was quite chilly. And, inside of the stone castle, it was colder than it was outside. Wearing only light clothing, there was wind blowing through Wei WuXian's cuffs and behind his back—the cold sweat due to the dog had already dried. The light at the entrance had disappeared as if it was a candle having been snuff out. The deeper they went inside, the darker and more spacious it became.

The top of the stone castle was spherical. Wei WuXian kicked a few pieces of rocks on the ground. He could hear a slight echo. He finally couldn't endure it any longer and stopped in his tracks, pressing his right hand on his temple and scrunching his brows.

"What's wrong with Senior Wei- ah!!" Sizhui began to ask, before receiving his answer. Before there had been a faint, ominous background tinkling music. Suddenly, it switched to a close up of Wei Wuxian's face, furrowed in pain, revealing what he could hear - layers upon layers of whispering, shrill screams, shouting, wailing, and various other sounds of woe. The noise was unbearable to most, especially to those of the Lan sect. Everyone flinched as a particularly loud roar, like that of a person's dying moments, echoed through the room, and presumably also through Wei Wuxian's head.

Lan WangJi turned around to ask, "What happened?"

Wei WuXian replied, "... It's so loud." Inside the stone castle, there was only dead silence. It was as quiet as a cemetery. Actually, it itself also seemed similar to a cemetery. But, in Wei WuXian's ears, right now, they were already surrounded by noise.

To the utmost relief of everyone in the room, the horrible sounds at last died away.

Wei Wuxian coughed. "Well...uh...sorry? Not that I should be apologising, because I didn't ask for this to happen."

"Is that what you hear all the time??" Jingyi asked, gobsmacked, his ears still ringing.

"Not all the time, but when I'm around tortured and discontented spirits and beings, yes, I can hear their cries. An unfortunate side effect of using resentful energy and getting too close with evil spirits." Wei Wuxian said airily. "Don't worry, I'm used to it! It comes in handy sometimes, for information. Though usually it's just... meaningless screaming and crying."

Lan Wangji gazed at Wei Wuxian in wordless dismay. He knew that Wei Ying never liked to show any kind of pain or suffering. He just wished he knew of a way to help Wei Ying and alleviate him from such pain - the heavens knew that Wei Ying had suffered enough.

"That's horrible!!" Sizhui exclaimed, distressed. The cultivators had to agree. Being subjected to such ear-torture would be enough to drive any of them mad.