Chapter 3 - Aggression

Wei WuXian wanted to wash his face to gaze upon the face of his body's owner after death, but there wasn't any water in the room, not even for drinking or washing. The only basin-like container was probably, he suspected, for lavatory purposes instead of cleansing. He pushed the door, but it was fastened with a latch, probably to prevent him from wandering outside. None of these things made him feel the joy of reincarnation at all! He figured that he might as well sit in the Lotus position and get used to his new home. Time flew by, and the day had passed. When he opened his eyes, sunlight seeped inside from the gaps of the door and windows. Although he could stand up and walk around, his still felt lightheaded. Wei WuXian was puzzled, Mo XuanYu's amount spiritual powers are insignificant enough to be ignored, so there shouldn't be a reason as to why I can't control this body properly. Why doesn't it work? Then, a noise came from his stomach, and he realised that this wasn't related to his spiritual powers at all. In fact, it was because this body had not practised inedia, and felt hunger. If he didn't scavenge for food, he might become the first villainous ghoul who starved to death upon arrival.

This time, a lot of cultivators couldn't suppress their laughter.

"Starved to death?? He really is a drama queen, isn't he?"

"Hahaha why is he sprawled over the floor, face down like that?"

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes, "He's always been like that, complains about everything, especially food!"

Lan Zhan suddenly remembered a time where he and Wei Ying had huddled on the floor of a cave together for seven days, without food or water. Wei Ying really had complained a lot about being hungry. He felt a warm bulb of fondness for his dear demonic cultivator flower in his chest, mentally reminding himself to feed his wife up more.

Someone stomped on the door and grunted, "It's mealtime!" The servant outside shouted again, "Chop-chop! What are you waiting for? Take the bowl out after you finish!" There were two dishes and one serving of rice, which looked quite unpleasant. Wei WuXian played with the pair of chopsticks that were stuck into the rice, feeling quite bitter. The YiLing Patriarch had just returned to the mortal world, but the first thing he came upon was a kick and a scolding, not to mention the leftovers that served as his welcoming-meal. Where was the blood and gore? The ruthless slaughter? The absolute destruction?

"Did I really think that?", Wei Wuxian muttered to himself, rather guiltily. "Ah, well, you can't blame me for being bored after 13 years of nothing!"

"Well well! Your thoughts betray you, Wei Wuxian!" Sec Leader Yao crowed triumphantly, "So bloodthirsty, the first thing you think of after you get resurrected is ruthless slaughter! Typical, typical..."

Most of the cultivators ignored his commentary, however, too engrossed in the story unfolding in front of them.

Currently, the two servants outside, A-Tong and A-Ding were quarrelling about their chores

A-Tong complained, "Delivering his meal is not the only work I do! How can you dare to go outside these days? With so many walking corpses out there, everyone's locking themselves in their houses."

Wei WuXian squatted by the door and listened while eating. It appeared to be that, ever since a while ago, the Mo Village hadn't been peaceful. Walking corpses, like their name, were dead people who could move, a type of low-level altered corpse. Unless the deceased person held strong resentment, they were usually dull-eyed and sluggish. However, to Wei WuXian, they were the most obeying puppets. When he heard them being mentioned, he even felt a sense of familiarity.

Wei Wuxian shrugged at the judgemental glares being shot at him from all directions. "What? It's true."

After listening to the light banter between the servants for a few minutes, Wei Wuxian finally lost his patience and kicked the door open, startling the wits out of A-Ding and A-Tong, who immediately tried to save face by attempting to shoo him away, like he was a dog. Wei WuXian gave A-Tong a light kick, knocking him over, and laughed, "How daring of a mere errand-running child to humiliate others like this."

With that, he headed towards the commotion in the east. Quite a lot of people crowded in and around the East Hall. "A member from the younger generations of our family used to be a cultivator as well..."

It must have been Madam Mo trying to make connections with the cultivation family again.

Wei WuXian didn't wait for her to finish speaking, and quickly hustled through the crowd, into the hall, and grinned, "I'm coming, I'm coming. Right here!"

Jiang Cheng felt ripples of equal measure of familiarity and foreboding - he knew that expression - it was the one Wei Wuxian made right before he stuck a graffiti turtle on a teacher's back, or replaced all the books in someone's library with erotic art books, or anything else generally nefarious. It sent an unwelcome wave of nostalgia washing over him. Would there ever be a chance for him and his shixiong to fully go back to how they were before? Whose fault was that?

A middle-aged lady, Madam Mo, sat in the hall, her husband sat below her, and the opposite side sat a few white-robed boys. Wei WuXian followed the voice and scanned over. He was surprised to see that they were really disciples of a "prominent clan". The boys wore robes with drifting sleeves and flowing belts, appearing to be ikemen and doubtlessly a treat to the eyes. Looking at the uniform, it was obvious that they were from the GusuLan clan. They must have also been younger generations of blood-relationship to the Lan family, as they all wore white forehead ribbons around a finger's width, with cloud patterns sewn onto them. The motto of the GusuLan clan was "righteousness". The forehead ribbon implied to "conduct oneself well", and the cloud pattern was the official pattern of the Lan family, of which cultivators who came from other families did not have the right to wear. Wei WuXian got toothaches whenever he saw anybody from the Lan clan. In his past life, he had always thought of this clan's uniform as "mourning clothes", which was why he would never mistake it.

Lan Qiren's goatee quivered with rage. "Mourning clothes?!"

Giggles and suppressed laughter floated around. Wei Wuxian's thoughts were precisely what they always privately remarked too!

"Senior Wei, you really know a lot about the Gusu Lan Sect! Were you planning to marry into the sect already?" It was Ouyang Zizhen, eyes round with wonder.

Wei Wuxian burst out laughing. "No! I mean, yes, but that's only because I studied there for half a year. Ah, those were fun days..."

"...you spent most of the time copying scriptures as punishment, Wei Ying."

"Well, yes, but I got to hang out with you, Hanguang-Jun ~ " Lan Zhan blinked.

Lady Mo was furious, but she didn't want to lose her temper and discompose herself, so she lowered her voice at her husband, "Who let him out? Get him back there!" However, Wei WuXian suddenly dropped to the ground, his limbs tightly clinging to the floor. After some struggling, Wei WuXian spoke, "I could go back if you wanted me to," he pointed at Mo ZiYuan, "But tell him to return the things that he stole from me first." Mo ZiYuan's face grew pale, "That's nonsense! When did I ever steal your things? Would, would I need to steal anything from you?"

Wei WuXian said, "Yeah, yeah. You didn't steal, you robbed!

Mo ZiYuan was furious, raising his foot to kick him. However, a white-robed boy carrying a sword moved his finger slightly, and Mo ZiYuan's feet slipped, falling to the ground with his foot only scraping him.

"Ah, was that you, Sizhui?" Wei Wuxian said in delight. Sizhui only blushed. "What a great filial instinct, protecting your father even when you don't know it's me. Such a good boy". He clutched his chest with semi-exaggerated emotion.

Wei WuXian still rolled on the ground, as if he was really kicked over, and pulled open the front of his robe, showing the footprint that Mo ZiYuan made yesterday. The others thought that, obviously, Mo XuanYu couldn't have kicked himself. Along with the fact that Mo ZiYuan had always been imprudent and arrogant, who else could have done it? Before this, Madam Mo ignored him, as she didn't bother to argue with a sick person. She ordered the others to take him out. Now she knew—Mo XuanYu had definitely come prepared. His head was completely clear and deliberately disgraced them. She felt both shock and hatred, "You made a big scene on purpose, didn't you?" Wei WuXian replied blankly, "He stole my belongings, and I'm here to retrieve them. Does that also count as making a big scene?"

"Pretending to be a clueless lunatic really comes easy for you, doesn't it, Wei Wuxian." Jiang Cheng scoffed. Internally, he was really enjoying this story. Any mother ruder and meaner than his own made him feel somewhat better, anyway.

However, Wei WuXian spoke again, "Not only should he not have stolen my belongings, he shouldn't have stolen them in the middle of the night. Everyone knows that I am into men. Even if he was not ashamed, I knew to not look suspicious.

" Lady Mo gasped and shouted, "What are you talking about, in front of the villagers? How shameless—A-Yuan is your cousin!" In terms of running wild, Wei WuXian was definitely a master.

In the past, if he wanted to run wild, he would have to keep his status in mind, but now, he was a lunatic anyways, which meant that he could do whatever he wanted to, whichever way he wanted. He stiffened his neck and argued defiantly, "Even though he knew that I was his cousin, he chose to not avoid me, so who was more shameless? I don't care about your reputation, but don't ruin my innocence! I still want to find a good man!" Mo ZiYuan let out a loud scream and started swinging a chair at him.

Everyone cringed. They knew that the Yiling Laozu was crazy, but surely he wasn't this crazy?? Mo ZIyuan's loss of control was understandable, in this case.

Lan Zhan internally sighed fondly. If there was one truth in the world, it was that Wei Wuxian was indeed the master of being shameless.

Meanwhile, Wei Wuxian was sitting back and admiring his own commendable acting skills.

Wei WuXian rolled over and climbed up, dodging so that the chair only smashed on the ground, falling apart in the process. The mass of people in the East Hall were originally gloating at the disgrace of the Mo family, but, after the fight started, they'd all fled away. Wei WuXian bolted towards the group of boys from the Lan clan, who all gaped at the scene, and yelled, "Did everyone see that? Did you? The burglar is also beating someone up! How heartless!" Mo ZiYuan chased him, and was close to pouncing on him, when the leader of the boys hurriedly stopped him, "Please calm down. Words are more powerful than weapons."

Wei Wuxian beamed again. "Sizhui to the rescue again! Oh what lucky fathers we are, eh, Lan Zhan?"

"Mn. Sizhui has always done well."

Sizhui blushed again, embarrassed by his parents but also glowing with their praise.

Madam Mo saw that the boy was deliberately protecting the lunatic, and pulled a smile warily, "This is my younger sister's son. He's not so bright here; everyone from the Mo Village knows that he is a lunatic, and often speaks strange words that shouldn't be taken seriously. Cultivator, please..." Before she finished her sentence, Wei WuXian's head peeked from behind the boy's back and glared, "Who said that my words shouldn't be taken seriously? Next time, try stealing anything from me again. You steal once, and I cut off one of your hands!"

"I really shouldn't have said that last thing. Would've saved me a lot of trouble later." Wei Wuxian remarked.

Lan Zhan tilted his head, not understanding. Wei Wuxian laughed, "You'll see later!" It really was entertaining, re-watching everything and judging everything in hindsight. Seeing the hilarious contortions of Jingyi's face as he tried and failed to mask an incredulous expression made getting rudely sucked into this room completely worth it.

Wei WuXian leapt outside quickly, and the boy blocked the entrance at once, switching to another topic with a serious tone, "Then, we will borrow the West Courtyard for the night. Please remember the things that I've talked about—after nightfall, close all of the windows, don't come outside, or worse, walk toward the courtyard." Madam Mo was shaking from anger, "Yes, yes, please..." Mo ZiYuan found it beyond belief, "Mom! The lunatic insulted me in front of so many people, and that's it?" Madam Mo commanded, "Be quiet. Can't you wait until we go back?" Mo ZiYuan had never been at such a disadvantage or been disgraced like this before, with his mother's scolding making the situation worse. He was full of hatred, and thought, this lunatic is going down tonight!

"I have a feeling that it's going to be Mo Ziyuan going down tonight, heh."

"Of course he is. He has no idea that he's not going against his lunatic cousin, he's going against the Yiling Patriarch, haha!"

After Wei WuXian finished flipping out, he walked out the door of the Mo family's place, and showed his face around the Mo village. Although he surprised countless people, he was, in fact, loving every second of it, and finally realised the delight of being a lunatic. He was even starting to approve of the makeup that resembled a hanged ghost, almost unwilling to wash it away.

Jiang Cheng gave an all-suffering, exasperated groan. "'Finally realised the delight of being a lunatic'?? Only you would say something as stupid as that. So you're able to do whatever shameless things you want without your reputation being smeared, good for you!"

He fixed his hair and looked at his wrists. The cuts didn't seem like they were healing at all, which meant that a slight revenge like this would not be approved by the forbidden technique. Would he really have to eliminate the Mo family? To be honest, it wouldn't be too difficult of a task.

"Huh?"

Sect Leader Lan Xichen smiled. "Well done for trying other possibilities before thinking about eliminating the Mo clan. A more ethical way of dealing with the situation than most would have."

Wei Wuxian was rendered temporarily speechless by the praise. (emphasis on temporarily)

"Thank you, Zewu-Jun. It's all thanks to those Lan principles Master Lan taught me all those years ago, of course."

Lan Qiren continued his diligent task of ignoring everything that came out of Wei Wuxian's mouth. It was perhaps a wise strategy for him to prevent succumbing to qi deviation triggered by Wei Wuxian's incessant shamelessness.

The Lan juniors gave 'ohh's of understanding. "So you weren't just being an annoying lunatic, you were testing to see if humiliating them would be enough?"

'That makes a lot of sense!"

"Of course, Senior Wei is smart."

The other cultivators looked as if they wanted to interject, but thought better of themselves.

The disciples of the Lan clan were standing on top of the roofs and walls, discussing with a solemn look. Although the GusuLan clan contributed greatly during the siege on him, at that time, these juniors were either not born yet or still young children. He shouldn't direct his hate towards them, so Wei WuXian decided to linger around and observe what they were going to do.

"Oh...are you angry at our sect for what we did?" Jingyi asked with a touch of guilt.

"Hmm.. I was a little bit, not at you guys though." Wei Wuxian sighed. "I'm not mad at any sects in particular now, though. They were just following the leader, that pig, Jin Guangshan."

Jin Ling shifted in discomfort at the mention of his infamous grandfather.

After a while, he felt like something was wrong. Why did the fluttering black flags on top of the roofs and walls look so familiar to him? This type of flags was called the "Phantom Attraction Flag". If it was set on a living person, it would attract all of the spirits, wronged ghosts, moving corpses, or evil beings within a certain area, so that they would only attack that person. Because the flag-bearing person would be turned into a living target, it was also called the "Target Flag." It could also be set on a house, but the house must have living humans inside of it. Then, the attack range would expand to include everyone inside the house. Because of how there would always be a sinister energy that surrounded the area in which the flag was set in, as if there was a swirling black wind, they were also called "Black Wind Flags". Arranging the flag formation in the West Courtyard and not allowing anyone to approach them must have meant that they wanted to lead the Walking Corpses here and capture them in one go.

"...that was the longest speech I've heard him talk about. He really does know a lot about anything demonic related, huh."

As for why they looked familiar... How could they have not come across as familiar? The creator of Phantom Attraction Flags was none other than the YiLing Patriarch! It seemed like that, although the cultivation world hated him on the surface, they still used the inventions that he came up with.

Many of the cultivators coughed and looked away. Wei Wuxian made a legitimate point. It was just that some of the things he invented were genuinely useful!! But it wasn't like they could just forgive all his sins. Listening to Wei Wuxian mock them now, they felt embarrassed again.

Sizhui was gaping at Wei Wuxian. "You... you were the one who invented Phantom Attraction Flags? But no one ever gave you credit for it!"

Wei Wuxian sighed. "Ah, it would be naive for me to think they would give me credit. But using it blatantly everywhere while still condemning me...And you all call me shameless!!"

A disciple standing on the roof saw him lingering around, and spoke, "Please go back. This isn't where a person like you should come." Although he was being driven away, it was out of kindness, and the tone also differed from those of the servants in the Mo family. Wei WuXian caught him off guard and quickly hopped up, grabbing one of the flags. The disciple was startled and jumped down to chase him, "Do not move. That is not something you should take." Wei WuXian yelled while running away, looking like a real lunatic with his hair dishevelled and limbs flinging about, "I'm not giving it back, I'm not giving it back! I want this thing! I want this!" The disciple caught up to him in a few strides and grabbed his arm, "If you are not going to give it back, I am going to hit you!"

"Jingyi!" Lan Zhan admonished.

Jingyi gave a yelp. "Hanguang-Jun, Hanguang-Jun, I am sorry!!! I shouldn't have said that!!" He turned to Wei Wuxian, "Senior Wei, I am sorry for saying that!"

"Ah, it's ok, Lan Zhan, he didn't really hit me!"

Lan Zhan gave a long look at both of them, then glanced at his brother, Lan Xichen, who smiled genially. He decided to let it go.

During the tug-of-war, Wei WuXian had already checked over the Phantom Attraction Flag in his hands. The motifs were drawn correctly and the incantations were complete. There wasn't any errors, so nothing would go wrong while using them. However, the person who drew on the flag was lacking in experience, so it would only attract evil being and moving corpses from within five li. That should be enough, though. There shouldn't be any malicious creatures in a place as small as the Mo Village.

"Oh! You- were checking our incantations, Senior Wei!" Sizhui exclaimed, "I was wondering why you were staring at the flag so intensely. Thank you Senior Wei!"

The other cultivators present were also more than a bit surprised at the Yiling Patriarch's supposed niceness towards the boys.

Lan SiZhui smiled at him, "Young Master Mo, the sky is growing dark, and we are going to start capturing the walking corpses soon. It will be dangerous at night time, so it would be best for you to return to your room." Wei WuXian looked him over. He was fair and refined, with a dignified appearance and smiling faintly. Wei WuXian silently approved of him. The flag formation was set in an organized way, and his mannerisms were also respectful, making him a disciple with astonishing potential. He didn't know that, at a conservative clan such as the Lan clan, who on Earth brought up such a junior.

Wei Wuxian burst out laughing, again. "Hahahaha! Of course, who else would be able to raise such a lovely kid, other than the lovely Lan Zhan!"

Sizhui was struggling to keep a huge, undignified grin off his own face as he heard for himself his father's first (well, first in a long while) impressions of him. Hanguang-Jun didn't tend to verbally express his praise, so this made him feel very special.

Lan SiZhui spoke again, "This flag..." Before he finished, Wei WuXian threw the Phantom Attraction Flag onto the ground and humphed, "It's just a flag, so what's the big deal? I can draw way better than this!" He sprinted off the moment he threw the flag away. The boys who stood on the roof to watch the bustle almost fell off from the laughter, after hearing his ridiculous words. Lan JingYi also chuckled from anger and picked up the Phantom Attraction Flag, "What a maniac!"

Jingyi wailed his apologies again. "Senior Wei! I'm sorry! I-"

Wei Wuxian cut him off, "Don't worry, Jingyi, there is no shame for you having fallen for my terrific lunatic acting skills. How were you meant to know that I could actually draw the flag much better! Hahahaha..."

Lan Zhan narrowed his eyes. "You still called Wei Ying a maniac behind his back. We will discuss punishment when we get back. I am taking count."

Jingyi hung his head.

Wei WuXian continued to roam around, doing nothing, and finally moved back to the small courtyard that belonged to Mo XuanYu. He picked a relatively clean spot, and sat in the lotus position again. However, before daylight came, he was pulled out of meditation - a series of chaotic footsteps quickly approached, along with cries and screams. Wei WuXian heard a few phrases being repeated, "... Barge in and drag him out!" "Notify the officers!" "What do you mean 'notify the officers'? Beat him to death!" He opened his eyes to see that a few servants had already came in. Someone cried out, "Drag the insane murderer to the Main Hall and make him pay for it with his life!"

Everyone in the room leant forwards in their seats, eagerly anticipating the violence sure to follow.