Chapter 22 - Contentment

The noise came from all around them. It was an ocean of whispers, rustles, and giggles, from in front and behind, above and below. The voices involved both male and female, old and young, loud and quiet. Wei WuXian could even hear a few fragmented sentences, but they came and went, not allowing him to catch any specific words. It really was too loud.

The audience groaned again as they were assaulted yet again by on onslaught of noise. How could Wei Wuxian bear to listen to this all the time, and even try to listen for words in this garbled mess??

Sizhui's face was scrunched up, but seemed the least affected out of all the Lan disciples. He tried to listen for the fragmented sentences that Senior Wei mentioned, but perhaps it was an acquired skill with demonic cultivation, because he couldn't concentrate at all through the wall of noise. Though he did hear something about 'kill' and 'revenge' and - perhaps -

Wei WuXian continued to press on his temple with one hand, and used the other to grab a palm-sized Compass of Evil from the Qiankun Bag. The pointers on the compass shakily spun two times, then started to spin faster and faster. A few moments later, it spun madly around!

"Oh." Wei Wuxian said as he suddenly recalled the details of what they discovered. "Now I understand why it did that! I'm glad it wasn't my compass that was faulty, haha."

"What do you understand?"some older cultivators asked sourly. "We still don't understand over here, care to explain?"

Wei Wuxian ignored them. If they weren't going to ask nicely, and were too dumb to figure it out themselves, he certainly wasn't going to waste his breath on them.

Last time, on Dafan Mountain, it had already been strange when the Compass of Evil didn't find the direction. This time, it went as far as to spin all by itself, without pausing for a single moment. This situation was even more unbelievable than the pointers not moving at all! The foreboding shadow in Wei WuXian's heart grew denser.

He called out loud, "Jin Ling!"

With a start, everyone suddenly remembered that Jin Ling was currently missing in this creepy place. Sizhui silently reassured himself that since Jin Ling was completely fine now, Senior Wei and Hanguang Jin must have solved everything. He did hope though that his friend hadn't gotten into too much trouble.

Jin Ling was feeling uncomfortable with all the side-glances directed at him. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy the attention (as a general rule, the more attention he got, the happier he was), it was just that the majority of the glances were worried and pitying. It felt a bit humiliating to be the helpless damsel in distress needing to be rescued by the seniors.

The two had already walked for a while inside the stone castle, but they hadn't seen anyone. Wei WuXian had shouted a few times, without receiving any reply. The first stone rooms were all empty, but, as they went in deeper, in the center of one of the rooms, there was a black coffin.

"...a coffin?! So this is a tomb?"

"But whose coffin is it?" The cultivators speculated amongst themselves, immensely enjoying the thrill of the drama.

"I say, it must be someone important - why else would they build these stone buildings around them?"

"Maybe it's someone really evil, like Wen Ruohan, that's attracting the man-eating monster!"

It was quite odd for a coffin to appear here. However, the wood used was a deep black, and the shape was also crafted in a skilled way. Seeing this, Wei WuXian had an exceptionally strong affinity toward it.

"Oh, of course the Yiling Patriarch has an affinity with coffins and corpses. After all, he's always digging them up. How disgusting!" Sect Leader Shan said spitefully.

"Of course I have to dig them up, would you prefer me to make my own corpses by killing irritating people like you?" Wei Wuxian snapped. Sect Leader Shan instantly went pale.

He couldn't help but patted it a few times. The wood was sturdy and the sound was firm. He praised it, "What a nice coffin."

Jiang Cheng frowned at the coffin. Why was Wei Wuxian admiring it so much? Did he want it for himself?? He flinched at the thought.

The juniors cringed. "Senior Wei, how can you just pat the coffin like that?? What if it's really Wen Ruohan inside??"

Wei Wuxian just laughed. The kids were so gullible! As if Wen Ruohan's body would be left alone and buried in such a nice coffin rather than sliced to sheds, burned and scattered in the wind.

Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian stood on opposite sides of the coffin. After passing a look between them, they extended their arms at the same time and opened the lid.

There was a collective gasp - no one was expecting them to just open the coffin, just like that. They certainly wouldn't have had the guts, but luckily Hanguang Jun and the Yiling Patriarch did, so everyone wouldn't have to wait to see who was inside the coffin.

Mianmian and her friends admired the way Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian communicated with just a look. Their movements  aligned with each other so well, like they were two parts of the same whole. It was so romantic!

The moment the lid was opened, the noise around them suddenly multiplied, flooding through Wei WuXian's ears in the manner of tidal water.

Everyone flinched, but grit their teeth against the pain so that they could keep watching to see who was inside. However, all they could see was a haze of ominous darkness.

It was as if, before this, they were secretly watched by countless pairs of eyes—the owners of the eyes silently monitored and discussed every word they spoke, every action they performed, and suddenly became agitated as they saw that the coffin was about to be opened. Wei WuXian thought of a few dozen possibilities, already prepared to fend against strong odours of rancidity, stretching claws of monsters, an overflow of poisonous water, toxic smoke that dispersed quickly, or attacks from resentful spectres. Of course, his greatest wish was to see Jin Ling.

Jin Ling blushed. He could never get used to knowing that Senior Wei was his uncle and cared about protecting him so much.

Jiang Cheng was also getting upset. Where was this reckless nephew of his? How could he end up in a coffin??

Despite this, nothing happened. Nothing. Surprisingly, this was an empty coffin. Wei WuXian was a bit startled, but also a bit disappointed at the fact that Jin Ling wasn't stuck in here.

"...Thanks." Jin Ling muttered, but not with real annoyance, as he knew what Wei Wuxian really meant, even if it came out sounding weird.

"I know that you're missing and they need to find you," Jingyi commented, "But personally, I'm glad you weren't in that coffin. Coffins are for dead people."

"Oh." Meanwhile, the cultivators looked extremely put off by the anti-climatic reveal of the empty coffin.

Lan WangJi went slightly nearer. Bichen unsheathed by itself for a few inches, its cold light shining on the bottom of the coffin. Only then, did Wei WuXian notice how it wasn't that the coffin was empty, but that the object inside was a lot smaller than what he had expected, and hid inside the deepest part of the coffin. Inside the coffin, there lay a long sword.

"Oh!" Now, the cultivators' interest was recaptured. What type of place was this? Who made coffins for swords??

Lan Xichen raised his eyebrows, utterly at a loss for words. He had no clue what was going on, and was tempted to demand Wangji to explain to him, seeing as he had neglected to mention any of this to him before.

The sword had no sheath. The hilt seemed to have been casted from gold, appearing to be quite heavy in weight. Its body was slender and its blade shone. Resting on a layer of red cloth at the bottom of the coffin, it reflected a bloody shade of scarlet, emitting a chilling air of destruction. A sword was put inside a coffin instead of a corpse. There really wasn't anywhere not peculiar about these stone castles in the Xinglu Ridge, revealing mysteries every step they took. The two closed the coffin lid and continued walking. They found other coffins like this in some other rooms. Looking at the texture of the wood, their ages were all different. And, within every coffin, there was a long sword.

"Those are very decent blades." commented one cultivator, who had been a blacksmith before, "I'd say they are all worthy to belong to sect leaders. But they aren't actually swords, they are sabers, like those wielded by the Nie sect."

The Nie disciples had been avoiding eye contact for quite a while now, and were starting to look very stressed. They kept glancing at their sect leader, but Nie Huaisang seemed to have accepted the inevitable and was watching with a disgruntled expression. Wei Wuxian sent a sympathetic but amused glance his way.

Even until they went inside the last room, there still wasn't any trace of Jin Ling. Wei WuXian closed the lid of the coffin, feeling slightly worried. Seeing his knitted eyebrows, Lan WangJi thought for a moment, put the guqin horizontally on the coffin, and raised his hand.

Jian Cheng frowned. It was clear that Lan Wangji was only helping find Jin Ling because his beloved Wei Wuxian was worried about Jin Ling. Nevertheless, he was grateful for whatever Lan Wangji was about to do. He cursed himself again for not being present to help and then scold his nephew.

A melody poured from his fingers. He only played a short excerpt, and then took his right hand away from the guqin. He stared attentively at the still-vibrating strings. Suddenly, the strings quivered, and one note sounded on its own. Wei WuXian asked, "Inquiry?" Inquiry was a famous piece composed by an ancestor in the GusuLan Sect. Different from Evocation, it was used when the victim's identity was unknown and there wasn't a medium. The player used notes of the guqin to inquire, asking questions to the victim, while the victim's answers would be transformed into melodies by Inquiry and shown on the strings.

"Woah. That's really useful!" some cultivators exclaimed enthusiastically. That was basically the ability to speak with the dead! But who was Hanguang Jun going to talk to, if the coffins didn't actual contain dead people, only swords?

If the strings vibrated on their own, it meant that Lan WangJi had already brought a spirit in the castle here. After this, the two would start asking and answering using the language of the guqin. The language of the guqin was a special skill unique to the GusuLan Sect. Although Wei WuXian knew a wide variety of things, there were still some that he was unable to learn, such as the language of the guqin.

"That was about the must humble thing you've ever said." Jiang Cheng said, rolling his eyes. "At least you admit that you won't ever know everything!"

"Maybe I will learn the language of the guqin one day." Wei Wuxian said thoughtfully, contradicting Jiang Cheng's words entirely, "Since I'm technically married into the Lan sect, I'm allowed, right?"

Lan Qiren ground his teeth together, unable to lie but also irked that Wei Wuxian was technically part of the Lan sect.

"Mn. I will teach you." Lan Wangji said placidly, to Lan Qiren's further fury.

He whispered, "HanGuang-Jun, help me ask what is this place, what is it for, and who built it." As he mastered the language, without any hesitation, Lan WangJi confidently played a few limpid notes. After a few moments, the strings played two notes on their own. Wei WuXian quickly asked, "What did it say?" Lan WangJi, "I do not know."

Lan Xichen, who clearly understood the language of the guqin, and recognised the very rare glint of playfulness in Wangji's eyes, painfully restrained his laughter.

"What?" The cultivators looked in shock at Lan Wangji. How could he not know??

Wei WuXian, "What?"

Lan WangJi replied in an unhurried manner, "It said, 'I do not know'."

"..." Wei WuXian looked at him, suddenly remembering a conversation about "whatever" a few years ago. Touching his nose, he was at a loss for words, and thought, Lan Zhan is so bright. He even learned how to make me speechless.

I learned from you, Lan Wangji thought to himself, I spent 13 years replaying again and again every word you had ever said to me, and regretting my responses. Of course I was not going to waste my second chance to convince you to stay with me forever.

With the first question unanswered, Lan WangJi played another sentence. The strings responded again, with the same two notes as before. Wei WuXian could tell that, this time, the answer was "I don't know" as well.

He asked, "What did you ask it, this time?"

Lan WangJi, "How it died."

"...How could the spirit not have known how it died?? What a totally pathetic thing." snorted a few cultivators.

"Don't make fun of the dead." Sizhui said mildly, but firmly. Lan Xichen nodded at him with approval.

Wei WuXian, "If it was secretly killed when it was not paying attention, then it'd explain why it doesn't know how it died. Why don't you ask it if it knows who killed it?"

Lan WangJi raised his hands to play another phrase. Yet, the answer was the same two notes— "I don't know". It was a spirit who had been trapped here, yet it didn't know where this was, how it died, and who killed it. This was also Wei WuXian's first time meeting such a deceased person.

"If it's the Yiling Laozu's first time meeting such a deceased person, out of all the dead people he's met, this is truly a very special spirit!" said one cultivator sardonically. Really, this person must have wandered around while he was alive with his eyes shut.

With a change of thought, he spoke again, "Then, let's ask something else. Ask him whether it's a man or a woman. There's no way that it doesn't know this."

The cultivators watched intently. If the spirit didn't know this, it was either a newborn, or just happened to be a genderless person.

Lan WangJi did as he was told. After he took away his hands, another string sounded in a strong way. Lan WangJi translated, "A man."

Wei WuXian, "We finally know about something, huh? Ask again, whether or not a boy of fifteen or sixteen entered here." It answered, "Yes."

Wei WuXian asked again, "Then where is he right now?"

The strings paused for a moment, then replied. Wei WuXian hurried to ask, "What did he say?" Lan WangJi's face was solemn, "It said, 'Right here.'"

"Huh?? But we watched them check every single room!" Jingyi exclaimed. "Jin Ling, do you remember where you were hiding??"

Jin Ling huffed. "I don't remember much after I broke into the stone bunker. I wasn't hiding anywhere."

Wei WuXian was dumbfounded. "Here" probably referred to this stone castle. But, before this, they searched through the whole place, and hadn't seen Jin Ling.

Wei WuXian spoke, "It can't lie, right?" Lan WangJi, "I am here, so it cannot." Indeed, it couldn't. The person inquiring was HanGuang-Jun. Under his control, the spirit who came was unable to lie, and had definitely been answering the truth.

This had also been something a few cultivators were half wondering about, but too embarrassed to say out loud. It wasn't that they doubted Hanguang Jun's abitlies, but how could Jin Ling be in the bunker if all the rooms were empty apart from the coffins with swords in them?

Wei WuXian proceeded to search around this room, looking for any mechanisms or secret rooms that he had missed. After a thinking for a moment, he played a few more phrases. However, after he received the answer, his expression changed slightly.

The cultivators raised their eyebrows. A small change in Lan Wangji's expression was the equivalent of a drastic change in an ordinary person's one. The spirit must have said something very strange to have affected Lan Wangji this much!

Seeing this, Wei WuXian asked, "What did you ask this time?"

Lan WangJi, "How old he was; where he was from." Both of these questions were attempts to find out the identity of the spirit.

Wei WuXian knew that he definitely received some sort of an unconventional answer, "How was it?" Lan WangJi, "Fifteen, from Lanling." Wei WuXian's expression changed as well. The soul that "Inquire" had found was Jin Ling?!

"WHAT?" Jiang Cheng yelled, his dignity forgotten as blood rushed to his head in horror. "YOU DIED? YOU MEAN THAT PATHETIC SPIRIT WAS YOUR SPIRIT? AND YOU NEVER MENTIONED ANY OF THIS TO ME??"

"I don't remember dying! I have no idea what happened!" Jin Ling yelled back, in a panic.

His friends had all swivelled around to look at him in horror. After inspecting him carefully to make sure he wasn't a ghost, Sizhui asked, "Then, how did you come back?"

Before Jin Ling could snap something rude back, Wei Wuxian interrupted, "Hey kids, and Jiang Cheng, chill out! You'll see for yourself soon enough, anyway."

He listened intently. Amid the noise that seemed to have bombarded here, there really seemed to be a few weak shouts coming from Jin Ling. They were faint, however, and indistinct.

Jiang Cheng's face was now pale as the uniform of the Lan sect. The cultivators were shocked, now convinced that Jin Ling had indeed died - how else would Wei Wuxian, master of the dead, be able to hear Jin Ling's shouts.

Jin Ling wanted to hide. He certainly had no idea he had died, temporarily or  not, and found the idea very horrifying - and mortifying, because everyone was looking at him like he was some sort of illusion. Besides, why were the shouts of his spirit so feeble??

Lan WangJi continued to ask. Wei WuXian knew that he was asking for the precise location, so he stared fixedly at the strings of the guqin, waiting for Jin Ling's answer. This time, the answer came a bit slower. After he finished listening, Lan WangJi spoke to Wei WuXian, "'Stand at where you are, face the southwest, and listen to the strings. After each note is played, walk forward one step. When the sound stops, it will be right in front of you.'" Without saying a word, Wei WuXian turned toward the southwest.

There was a hush as everyone saw the grave expression on Wei Wuxian's face. The absence of a smile and his usual jokes showed how seriously worried Wei Wuxian was. Naturally, since his nephew seemed to be dead.

Behind him came seven notes of the guqin, so he walked seven steps forward. However, nothing had appeared in front of him. The notes continued, but the pause between them grew longer and longer, and he also walked slower and slower. Another step, and another, and another... After the sixth step, the guqin finally silenced. No more notes sounded. And, before him, there was only a wall. The wall was made of grey-white rock bricks, pieced together tightly. Wei WuXian turned around, "... He's in the wall?!"

"Oh!!!" The audience finally understood, embarrassed they hadn't thought of it before. Of course, the only place to hide in the stone bunker would be in the walls!

"Oh gosh...you-you actually died??" Zizhen squeaked in terror. "How would you breathe in that wall?"

Bichen unsheathed. Four streaks of blue light swept past, and a neat pound sign had been carved onto the wall. The two went forward to take apart the bricks. After removing some of them, a large sheet of black dirt was exposed. It seemed that the stone castle was made to be double-layered, filled with dirt between the two layers of hard rock. Using his bare hands, Wei WuXian dug out a large chunk of dirt.

Wei Wuxian really seemed desperate, clawing without dignity at the dirt to find his nephew. Nie Huaisang watched, guilt weighing down his stomach. His sect's stone bunker had really nearly killed Jin Ling, the heir of the Lanling Jin Sect. What a disaster that would have been if Wei-xiong and Hanguang Jun hadn't been there in time to save him!

Surrounded by the coal-black dirt, there was a human's face, eyes tightly shut. It was the missing Jin Ling!

Jin Ling stared at his own face embedded in the dirt, feeling sick. He didn't recall any of this - to think that he could have just suffocated in the dirt like that, and die in such a stupid way!

Sizhui and Zizhen had their hands over their mouths in horror, and even Jingyi looked terrified with his eyes as round as coins. Jin Ling couldn't help but be warmly surprised that they cared so much. So this was what having real friends was like?

Having his face enveloped in dirt, as soon as it appeared, air poured into Jin Ling's mouth and nose. He immediately started to cough and breathe. As Wei WuXian saw that he was still alive, his heart finally calmed. Jin Ling really did almost die. Or else, "Inquiry" wouldn't have caught the still-alive soul that was about to leave his body.

"Oh thank god! You didn't die, after all! I'm so glad!" beamed Sizhui, making Jin Ling's face go raspberry red.

"Wow! You survived being suffocated in that wall?? So cool!" Jingyi added, similarly relieved.

Jiang Cheng huffed, his heart rate and demeanour going back to normal now that he knew that his nephew hadn't actually died before. "You little brat! Watch me make sure you never go night hunting alone again!"

The good thing was that only a short while passed after he was buried into the wall. If it took them any longer, he would have suffocated to death.

As annoying and pesky as Jin Ling sometimes was, the whole room of cultivators couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief with Wei Wuxian that Jin Ling had been rescued in time. It really was extremely lucky that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji had been led there by the ghost arm the same time Jin Ling got sucked in - maybe a bit too big of a coincidence?

The two hastened to dig him out of the wall. However, who knew that, as if dirt clung onto a carrot being pulled out of the ground, the moment Jin Ling's upper body emerged from the dirt, the sword on his back caught on something else and dragged it out. It was the ashen bone of a human arm! Lan WangJi laid Jin Ling flat onto the ground and felt for his pulse.

Jin Ling wrinkled his nose. Not only had be been buried in dirt, he had been buried in dirt with who knew how many other disgusting rotting bodies. He was going to take another bath when he got home eventually.

Wei WuXian, on the other hand, took up the sheath of Bichen, and skillfully started to poke around in the dirt, following the length of the bone.

Many of the cultivators pursed their lips in distaste. It didn't take a genius to know why Wei Wuxian was so eager and skilful when excavating dead bodies.

After a short while, a complete skeleton appeared before their eyes. This skeleton was the same as how Jin Ling looked, buried inside the wall in a standing position. With ghastly pale bones and pitch-black dirt— the contrast was distinct yet glaring to the eye.

Jiang Cheng repressed a shudder at Wei Wuxian's comparison between the skeleton and how Jin Ling had looked. If Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji hadn't been there at the stone bunker, maybe Jin Ling would have looked like that by the time Jiang Cheng tracked him down. The thought made him so nauseated, he had to bite down on his tongue.

Wei WuXian dug a bit more through the ground, and broke away a few pieces of bricks on the side. After some more rustling around, sure enough, he found another skeleton nearby. This one hadn't decayed completely yet. There were still some flesh on the bones, and long, messy hair on the skull.

"Urgh..." Jingyi muttered. He still couldn't really stomach gruesome sights - that night in Yi city had stretched his limits to the breaking point. Fierce corpses were one thing - because they were usually an intact, stiff body, but decomposing dead bodies with scraps of flesh hanging off them - no thank you!

From the ragged clothing in the shade of a watered down red, he could tell that this was a woman. However, she wasn't standing, with her skeleton bending down. The reason of this was that there was a third skeleton beside her, squatting down by her feet. Wei WuXian stopped digging further. He took a few steps back. The noise in his ears was as wild and turbulent as tidal waves. He could almost be sure of it. The inside of this stone castle's thick walls was packed with human corpses.

Above, below, southeast, northwest; standing, sitting, lying, squatting... Just what on Earth was this place?!

"So many corpses... but from where??" Guo Wanxin murmured. Lan Xichen wanted to know the answer to this too. With the first mystery of the missing Jin Ling finally solved, there remained the other mystery of what this weird bunker with its sword coffins was for.

After some time of reflection, he had now a few suspicions about who was behind this elaborate mystery, but he really hoped that when Wei Wuxian invariably figured everything out, he would explain it all.

Unfortunately, the board faded back to black again, and he settled back in his chair to rest his eyes and his ears.