Chapter 30 - Dew

A/N: Sorry about the delay for this chapter!! it's just sooo long, nearly 15k words... 😅 Hope you enjoy!

One day, the Yueyang Clan's leader went out night-hunting with a few family members for about half a month. In the middle of the night, without any warning, they received the bad news and immediately hurried back.

The audience quieted immediately as the scene changed from Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian walking together suddenly to  a man they assumed to be  Chang Ping leading a small band of cultivators hurriedly through a dark forest back to their home. Chang Ping's devastated face when he saw the gruesome remains of his clan aroused many regretful and sympathetic noises from the audience.

Jingyi's mouth hung open in horror - he quickly shut his eyes but it was too late. The image of mounds of bloody pieces of limbs and flesh was imprinted in his brain. What had Chang Ping or his clan done to merit such a terrible fate??

In most cases, only few people knew about the tragedies that happened in smaller clans, but the circumstances back then were different. The Sunshot Campaign finished long ago, while the siege at Luanzang Hill only just ended. On the surface, the situation seemed rather stable. With the sudden disclosure of this event, the entire cultivation world was bubbling with discussion, some even exaggerating that it was the revenge of the revived YiLing Patriarch, Wei WuXian.

Wei Wuxian sighed dramatically. Honestly, the only thing the cultivation world did was gossip and exaggerate. He could imagine all too well them twisting the stories of the event in their little rumour-spreading huddles, making up worse and worse stories about him. Seriously, if he'd just revived, why would the first thing he did be lingchi all the members of a random clan?

The cultivators who remembered hearing and spreading those rumours averted their eyes, embarrassed. They had been so sure that when the 'terrifying Yiling Patriarch' returned to the world, he'd go on a vengeful killing spree. But from what they'd seen in these magic pictures, the only things Wei Wuxian actually seemed to be doing included flirting with his future husband, talking to donkeys and solving mysteries.

However, there wasn't any evidence, so it had been impossible to find the killer. Of course, Xiao XingChen didn't sit back and do nothing. He volunteered to be responsible for the matter and find out the truth for Chang Ping.

"Wow... what a decent person!"

"Fighting for justice, even if he's not directly related to the incident!"

The audience showered Xiao Xingchen with admiration.

"Where do you think he is now?" wondered another cutlivator.

The juniors who knew the story of Song Lan, Xiao Xingchen, A-Qing and Xue Yang looked gloomily at each other.

After a month, the murderer was finally discovered. The murderer's name was Xue Yang.

"Hah! I knew it was that rascal!" a cultivator said triumphantly.

"Everyone knew that, shut up!" his wife scolded him. Still, it was satisfying for most cultivators to have this confirmed.

Xue Yang was even younger than Xiao XingChen, nothing more than just a boy. Despite this, he definitely didn't tone down on his cruelty just because he was young. Ever since the age of fifteen, he had been a delinquent in the area of Kuizhou, known far and wide for his radiant smile, inhumane means, and merciless personality.

Everyone shivered. On the board, there was a picture of a sweet-looking young man. He looked completely innocent - except for the cruel expression he wore, the glint of insanity in his eyes, which were a little too wide open.

Zizhen glared at him. That monster had killed the entire Chang clan, and done terrible things to Xiao Xingchen, Song ZIchen and especially poor A-Qing! He was glad Senior Wei and Hanguang Jun had killed him in the end. If they hadn't, he certainly would have gladly done it!

Everyone's expressions changed whenever he was brought up in a conversation. When he was a child dwelling in the streets, it was said that he developed a hatred that lasted for years toward Chang Ping's father. He committed this crime in vengeance and for some other reasons.

"Why was he all alone in the streets as a child? Didn't he have parents?"

"Maybe they died... that's why he turned out to be such a delinquent!"

Wei Wuxian raised his eyebrows, unimpressed, at the, once-again, gossiping cultivators. "I spent a while in the streets after my parents died, and I didn't turn out like that." he muttered.

"Well, you became the Yiling Patriarch, which is similar..." started a cultivator, before he trailed off at the glare he was getting from Lan Wangji.

Wei Wuxian wanted to bury his head in his hands and scream. Why did these people still hold such a grudge against him? Did they seriously think he was on the same level of evil as Xue Yang? He fought back the bitterness. It didn't matter what other people thought about him. As long as he had his Lan Zhan by his side, he didn't care.

After Xiao XingChen found out the truth, he went across three provinces and Xue Yang was still happily picking fights with others. Taking advantage of the Discussion Conference that was happening at the Jinling Tower of the LanlingJin Sect's residence, when the most prominent sects met up and discussed cultivation methods, Xiao XingChen brought him over, explained the situation, and demanded severe punishment. With his straightforward list of evidence, most sects didn't have any objections, except for one—the LanlingJin Sect.

The scene flicked to a close up on the late Jin Guangshan's face. Immediately, there were noises of digust from the audience.

"Why is that pig objecting? How can he argue with such evidence?" ground out from cultivator.

Wei Wuxian was looking around to see where Madam Jin was, before suddenly remembering that she'd passed away shortly after he had from anger and depression after the death of her son and daughter in law, as well as the humiliation from the death of her husband. He felt a sudden wave a regret. He had wanted to talk to her about his shijie and Jin Zixuan, but apparently he wouldn't ever be able to clear things up with her. To be fair though, the majority of people from his past life were dead now.

Wei WuXian, "Objecting in such a situation would be placing itself against the entire world. Could it be that Xue Yang was a favorite with Jin GuangShan?"

Lan WangJi, "A guest disciple."

"...What?"

Involuntarily, Jin Ling's friends glanced at him. Jin Ling crossed his arms furiously. "Stop looking at me! Just because I'm head of the Jin sect doesn't mean I know why my stupid grandfather let that insane person be a guest disciple!"

Wei WuXian, "He was a foreign disciple? Back then, the LanlingJin Sect was already one of the four most prominent sects, right? Why would they have invited a delinquent to be a guest disciple?"

The cultivators in the audience nodded fervently. That was precisely the question they wanted answered too.

Lan WangJi, "This is the second connection." He stared into Wei WuXian's eyes, "Because of the Stygian Tiger Seal."

The room went dead silent at the last three words. They hadn't been expecting that! Clearly, Wei Wuxian hadn't been expecting them either, judging from his alarmed and uneasy expression in the pictures.

Wei WuXian's heart immediately skipped a beat. The phrase was definitely not a stranger to him. On the contrary, nobody was more familiar to those three words than him. Among all of the spiritual weapons he had forged when he was still alive, this was the scariest and most famous one.

"When you were still alive??" Jingyi muttered. "The way you say it, it's like your current life now isn't real."

"Of course I appreciate my life now!" Wei Wuxian replied. "My life now is much better than my old life, that's for sure. Probably because that damn seal I made is gone now...I hope."

Jingyi tried to imagine how this seal thing could have been so destructive, but he couldn't. He wondered if the pictures would show what it looked like when Senior Wei used the seal, but at the same time he wasn't sure if he wanted to see Senior Wei in a...killing mood. It just didn't make sense in his brain.

When Wei WuXian first created it, he didn't think too much about it. Single-handedly controlling corpses and spirits, of course he'd occasionally grow tired. Remembering a rare piece of iron ore he happened to have seen in a beast's stomach, he used it to cast a Tiger Seal.

The audience let that sink in for a few moments.

"So...you're saying..." Guo Wanxin said slowly, but with a faint incredulous smile, "...that you made the infamous Stygian Tiger Seal because you 'occasionally grew tired'. You made that thing out of laziness?"

"Not laziness, more like convenience." Wei Wuxian huffed. "The point is, I didn't intend to make a weapon of mass destruction... "

"What were you doing in a beast's stomach, anyway?" asked Jingyi.

Wei Wuxian wrinkled his nose, remembering that traumatic experience in the corpse sludge inside the Xuanwu's shell. "Don't ask...I'll tell you kids later maybe, okay?"

"Okay!!" chorused the juniors, to the annoyance of their parents.

But, after the Tiger Seal had been created, Wei WuXian only used it once before finding out that it did more harm than good. The Stygian Tiger Seal's powers were considerably greater than what he had imagined. He originally wanted to use it to assist him, but its powers were almost exceeding him, its creator.

Knowing that Wei Wuxian hadn't originally intended to create the Tiger Seal for violent purposes changed the audience's view on him quite a bit.

At the same time, he must have had a lot of power and skill to be able to create such an object so casually. And even then, he'd said that the powers of the Tiger Seal almost exceeded him - meaning he was still more powerful than it. Many older cultivators shook their heads. Why hadn't this prodigious young man stayed as a respectable cultivator? So much wasted potential...

Moreover, it didn't settle on one single master. This meant that if someone got hold of it, no matter who they were, whether they were good or bad, friend or foe, they were able to use it.

The room went still again. That certainly sounded very dangerous. Some couldn't help but wonder to themselves if they would be able to wield the seal, and what they would do with it...

Lan Qiren could guess these thoughts by the distracted looks on many cultivators faces. Irritation bubbled inside of him, which he couldn't fully quell even after focusing his mind. In the end, these people were all power-hungry at heart. This was why inventions such as the Tiger Seal were not meant to exist! He supposed it lightened Wei Wuxian's guilt that he hadn't meant to create such a thing, but the fact remained that he'd put such a creation in the world, and that creation was the seed for many more coming in the the future. Pain blossomed in his head as he imagined the chaos the future would bring. Poor Wangji, who'd be the one dealing with all of it.

After the seal had been forged, it wasn't that Wei WuXian never thought about destroying it, but since the seal was created with much difficulty, it would've been extremely hard to destroy, costing him both time and energy.

"..." Guo Wanxin cleared her throat. "What type of excuse is that?? That's just being lazy. You could  have just destroyed it. So what if it costed both time and energy??"

Although her words were scolding, she sounded quite amused.

And, back then, he had already vaguely understood that he wasn't in a good situation and would be hated by everyone sooner or later.

With a weapon as appalling as the Stygian Tiger Seal, others didn't dare to act rashly, so he temporarily kept it.

"Well, I suppose that's a better reason." muttered Guo Wanxin, her amusement killed by the serious tone Wei Wuxian's explanation was taking.

Sizhui was feeling a strange combination of frustration and sadness. Everyone always said that Senior Wei had created the Stygian Tiger Seal as a weapon against other sects, and that was why the other sects couldn't tolerate him- but now it was obvious those were just excuses, or downright lies. Senior Wei hadn't meant to make such a powerful weapon, and he'd only kept the seal out of self defence - because of those other sects.

He separated the seal into two halves, making it so that they could only be of use when they were put together, and never used without careful consideration. He had only used it two times before, and both times caused great bloodshed.

"That sounds...reasonable." a cultivator said, sounding faintly disappointed. "Why didn't we ever hear this before? I thought you used it all the time."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but I wasn't insane. Or power-hungry." Wei Wuxian replied sarcastically. "You people just like making up stories that make me seem like I am. "

The first time was during the Sunshot Campaign. After using it for the second time, he finally decided to destroy one half of the seal. Before he could completely destroy the other half, the siege at Luanzang Hill happened, and it had since then been beyond his capabilities.

There were a few gasps, and a very uncomfortable silence. No one had known that about Wei Wuxian.

Lan Wangji thought about it - the second time Wei Ying had used the seal was at Nightless City. Wei Ying had been completely out of energy and strength in the cave, after everything that had happened - losing his closest supporters, his shijie... How had he summoned the willpower to destroy the seal? Doing so might have killed him...not that it had made a difference in the end, he thought bitterly.

"That's some bad timing..." Jin Chan muttered. "They should have done the siege a few days afterwards."

"They shouldn't have done the siege at all,  idiot!" Jin Ling growled back, suppressing the urge to start another scuffle with the pathetic boy. Did he have the power to kick people out of the Jin sect? Surely he could discreetly boot him down the stairs of Koi Towers...

Toward his own creation, Wei WuXian was confident to say that even if the sect that got hold of it, made a temple for it, and offered it incense every single day, the remaining half of the Tiger Seal was just a piece of scrap iron.

Several people snorted at the ridiculous thought of making a temple for the Stygian Tiger Seal, of all things. Wei Wuxian's dramatic tone also made it clear he was exaggerating - but now they guessed that maybe Jin Guangshan really was that desperate for the powers of the Seal.

However, Lan WangJi told him something shocking—it appeared that Xue Yang could rebuild the other half of the seal! Although Xue Yang was young, he was also quite clever, a bizarre eccentric.

The LanlingJin Sect discovered that he could use the remaining half of the seal to roughly piece together the other half. Even though the recreated version wasn't as powerful and couldn't be used for as long, it could already result in terrible catastrophes.

The cultivators in the audience immediately burst into rowdiness - some gasping in horror, others muttering with interest with their neighbours. Rebuild the seal?! That was a sure indicator of incoming disaster.

Jingyi sniffed dismissively at people's amazement at Xue Yang. "However clever  he might have been, he was just trying to imitate Senior Wei. And he couldn't even do it as good as him! It's not like he  invented anything. So he's always gonna be a hundred times dumber than Senior Wei!!"

Wei Wuxian gave a surprised laugh, then smiled fondly. He hadn't expected the juniors to think in that direction, but he appreciated their approval of his inventions. Even if they clearly did not understand how terrible the invention of the Tiger seal was.

Wei WuXian understood, "The LanlingJin needed to keep Xue Yang so that he could continue to restore the Stygian Tiger Seal, so they had to protect him."

Everyone had been slowly coming to this realisation too, and now that Wei Wuxian finally declared it out loud, outraged vitriol started pouring from the audience.

"That power-hungry snake! I'm glad he's gone now!"

"The Lanling Jin sect aren't happy with all the money and resources they already have?? How greedy!"

"Willing to harbour and protect a mass murderer so they can get a weapon to mass murder others! Such unethical practices from the Lanling Jin sect!" rumbled a sect leader, face creased in extreme disapproval.

Jin Ling flinched a bit from the shaming of his sect. Ugh, how was it his fault that his grandfather was that dodgy creep? How was he even meant to fix up his sect's reputation after this??

Perhaps, Xue Yang destroying the Chang Clan wasn't entirely to avenge what they did to him when he was young. He might have been testing on this clan of live humans what exactly was the extent of the restored Stygian Tiger Seal's powers!

There were sounds of understanding from the audience. It made sense, even if it was barbaric. Whatever Chang Ping had done couldn't have been enough by itself to merit the annihilation and torture of his whole clan.

The juniors frowned. If that massacre of the Chang Clan had been the work of the weaker copy of the Tiger Seal, that meant the original thing had been much worse. How was that possible?? They suddenly realised that many of the older cultivators must have seen much more terrible scenes than they ever had.

No wonder the rumors connected the case to him. Wei WuXian could almost imagine those cultivators clenching their teeth, "That Wei WuXian! If he didn't make this, our world wouldn't have encountered so many disasters!!!"

There were indeed many cultivators in the room who had said almost identical things just minutes beforehand. Their faces flushed red with embarrassment at having been called out by Wei Wuxian's creepily accurate thoughts from the past.

At the same time, the juniors were laughing raucously. Senior Wei's mocking mental impression of the 'those cultivators' was hilarious.

Returning to the original thread of conversation, they continued about what happened at the Jinling Tower. Although the LanlingJin Sect was determined on protecting Xue Yang, Xiao XingChen didn't waver either. As the stalemate continued, they finally startled ChiFeng-Zun, Nie MingJue, who didn't intend on participating in the Discussion Conference.

Many people cheered. For the younger cultivators, most of what they knew about Chifeng Zun, Nie Mingjue, was gained from awe-inspiring tales of battles, rather than personal experience. Because of this, many people stared in wonder at the now historical figure on the board. He looked just as huge and intimidating as they'd imagined.

He hurried over to Jinling Tower from far away. In spite of Nie MingJue being a junior to Jin GuangShan, he conducted himself in a strict manner and refused to tolerate Xue Yang no matter what. With an angry lecture, Jin GuangShan was left with no words and a great deal of embarrassment.

The whole room rang with laughter.

"Serves him right!"

"Go Chifeng Zun!!"

Lan Xichen tried not to chuckle as he imagined his sworn brother Nie Mingjue yelling at Jin Guangshan. He wished he could have seen it! His smile faded. But of course, neither of them were in this world anymore...

Nie MingJue, as the irritable person he was, unsheathed his saber on the spot with the intention of killing Xue Yang.

Nie Huaisang had to smile at that. Irritable was a good word to describe his older brother. Oh, how he missed that violent and angry expression! It really brought back good nostalgic memories when he saw his older brother swinging his saber to kill miscreants.

Everyone else made 'oooh' noises and eagerly watched to see if any  blood would spill. Unfortunately, none did - because another familiar person showed up.

Even when his sworn younger brother LianFang-Zun, Jin GuangYao, attempted to ease the situation, he ordered him to leave. After a harsh scolding, Jin GuangYao hid behind Lan XiChen, not daring to say anything else.

The atmosphere in the room went incredibly awkward again. No one looked at Lan Xichen, whose face had gone as blank as a sheet of paper - except for his brother. Lan Wangji knew that Lan Xichen had not fully let go from Jin Guangyao - he still missed him and still wanted to believe that the person he'd become so close with was not completely a lie.

Lan Wangji didn't know how to help his brother, other than give him time and space. Perhaps by reliving everything, and getting to see Jin Guangyao from a different perspective his brother would finally be able to move on.

In the end, the LanlingJin Sect could only give in. Ever since Xue Yang was brought to Jinling Tower by Xiao XingChen, he hadn't been scared at all. Even when Nie MingJue's saber was pressed against his neck, he still had a grin on his face.

A shudder rippled through the audience. Xue Yang was seriously creepy.

A vivid flashback of Xue Yang still laughing maniacally when he'd been stabbed through countless times, even when his entire arm was sliced off, flickered in Wei Wuxian's mind. He wondered how Xue Yang had come to be like that. Surely as a human, he was meant to feel pain and fear - but Xue Yang never had seemed to, somehow. He knew that Xue Yang had lost both his parents, which sucked for him, but as far as he knew, growing up on the streets didn't give you an immunity to pain and fear - he would know.

Before he was taken away, he spoke affectionately to Xiao XingChen, "Daozhang, you wouldn't forget me, would you? Let's wait and see."

At this point, Wei WuXian knew that the "wait and see" would make Xiao XingChen pay an agonizing price.

Xue Yang speaking in an affectionate tone set everyone's hairs on end. They suddenly all feared for Xiao Xingchen.

"He's dead, isn't he?" a young cultivator said gloomily. "I can sense it. Xue Yang probably came for him..."

"Stop being pessimistic!" his mother scolded. "You don't know that!"

Jin Ling opened his mouth, but Zizhen elbowed him in the side to shut him up before he could burst the mother's bubble.

The LanlingJin Sect was indeed the sect with the thickest face. Although, on Jinling Tower, it promised in front of all of the sects that Xue Yang would be executed, when it left Nie MingJue's sight, it immediately shut Xue Yang into the dungeons and changed the original decision to a life sentence.

The room instantly broke out with cries of outrage.

"What?! He can't just do that!"

"I never liked Jin Guangshan, but this... what a cowardly scoundrel!"

"If he wasn't already dead, I'd beat him up!"

Hearing about the matter, Nie MingJue was enraged and pressed on them again. The LanlingJin Sect rambled about, refusing to give him Xue Yang no matter how hard he tried. All of the other sects watched them from the sidelines, but, shortly afterward, Nie MingJue passed away from Qi deviation.

The room finally fell silent. Phrased that like, it sounded awfully convenient for the Lanling Jin sect... but the implications of that meant that Jin Guangshan had had Nie Mingjue killed - all for this Xue Yang who could repair the Stygian Tiger Seal! Surely, Jin Guangshan wouldn't go as far as assassinating the Red Blade Master, Chifeng Zun - the head of the Nie Sect??

Nie Huaisang hid his own secret smile - people were finally beginning to see that the death of his brother might not have been an accident.

He cultivated at a faster speed than any other past leader of the Nie Sect, and also died sooner than any of them. Now that the person who was most difficult to deal with was gone, the LanlingJin Sect became more and more reckless and started to think of worse ideas. Jin GuangShan started to try as hard as he could to get Xue Yang out of the dungeons so that he could continue to restore and examine the Stygian Tiger Seal.

However, this wasn't exactly something to be proud of. It was impossible for him to save the murderer of an entire clan from the dungeons without a valid reason.

"What valid reason could he conjure up? Xiao Xingchen showed everybody that Xue Yang was the culprit!" several people cried indignantly.

"The longer we watch Jin Guangshan, the more disgusted I feel. To think that he was head of the Jin sect for all these years and doing all this under the table!" the sect leader of the Ouyang clan, Zizhen's father, said, shaking his head.

Lan Qiren, nearby, was also simmering again with anger. Such blatant evasion of the rules and of his people's trust. He should have known, from his previous experiences with the sly sect leader, that he had been up to wicked practices.

So, they turned their attention to Chang Ping. From coercion to harassment, in the end, the LanlingJin Sect finally pressured Chang Ping into correcting his words, invalidating all of his past speeches. He announced that the wiping out of the Chang Clan had nothing to do with Xue Yang.

The juniors gasped. "No!"

Most other cultivators were just gaping open-mouth with fury at the board.

"This is the single most anger-inducing story I've ever been told." fumed one cultivator at last.

Wei Wuxian snorted without real mirth. "It gets worse."

Hearing the news, Xiao XingChen visited him to inquire upon the matter. Chang Ping responded helplessly, "What can I do aside from this? If I don't tolerate it, the rest of our clan's people wouldn't be safe for long. I'm really grateful, Daozhang, but... please don't help me anymore. Now, helping me would be harming me. I don't want the YueyangChang Sect to end yet." And thus, the tiger had been set free back to the mountains.

"But the rest of your clan's people won't be safe anyway if Xue Yang is released again!" burst out Jingyi angrily.

"And neither will Xiao Xingchen, his friends and the general population. No one will be safe with Xue Yang prowling around." Sizhui added with a frown. He internally wondered to himself if he would have stood his ground, if he were in Chang Ping's situation. He was sure he would have - Senior Wei had taught him enough about always sticking by what was right rather than what was easy - but then again, he had no idea what cruel methods the Lanling Jin Sect had employed to get what they wanted from Chang Ping.

Wei WuXian stayed silent. If he were Chang Ping, he wouldn't have cared how prominent or powerful the LanlingJin Sect was, or how much glory the road ahead offered him, and he wouldn't have let the matter go.

Sizhui blinked, then grinned. He had just been thinking the exact same thing! He knew that Senior Wei would never have caved into any coercion from anyone, no matter what they did, if it went against what was just.  He hoped that he would one day be as strong of a person as Senior Wei.

The cultivators in the audience didn't question Wei Wuxian's statement. They had no doubt in Wei Wuxian's unwavering personality and disregard for rules or authority - as admirable as it was, it was mostly terrifying - if Wei Wuxian wanted to do something,  for example, kill someone, nothing would deter him.

Instead, he would've went to the dungeons on his own, cut Xue Yang up so that he was nothing more than a puddle of flesh on the ground, and summoned his soul back to repeat the process to the point that he regretted ever being born in this world. But, not everyone was like him, preferring to perish together with his enemy.

The cultivators cowered in their seats. Yep, definitely terrifying. The audience members were all privately thinking to themselves that Xue Yang should be glad he didn't pick Wei Wuxian's old sect to try and massacre.

Sizhui made a face. He edited his previous thoughts to decide he wanted to be like Senior Wei in terms of personality, not methods. Sometimes he and juniors forgot that Senior Wei and the Yiling Patriarch were the same person. It was true that Senior Wei would only cut up people who really deserved it, like Xue Yang, but he personally didn't like the idea of ever doing that.

Some of the Chang Clan's people were still alive. Chang Ping was also still young, single, and childless, having just took his first few steps on the path of cultivation. No matter if he was threatened with the lives of his remaining family members or his own future and cultivation, he had to think carefully. Of course, he wasn't Chang Ping himself. He couldn't be angered or worried in place of Chang Ping, and he couldn't bear Chang Ping's share of mental and physical torment.

The cultivators who had previously been subconsciously shaming Chang Ping for being spineless immediately felt bad. Wei Wuxian had a fair way of looking at the world - maybe Chang Ping just had different values.

Meanwhile Jin Ling raised his eyebrows. "Weren't you also still young, single and childless? But you threw away your own future to become a  demonic cultivator."

Sizhui turned to Jin Ling and glared reproachfully at him, but Wei Wuxian just frowned and said, "I didn't have a future. I wasn't throwing anything away."

No one really understood what he meant by that, apart from Lan Wangji who looked at his husband in dismay, but Wei Wuxian didn't elaborate. He changed the topic and said brightly, "At least I'm not single anymore, and I have all these adorable kids to call my children!  I'm not sure if I can say I'm young, though. I'm definitely not old, right, Lan Zhan?"

"You are not old." Lan Wangji confirmed, to Wei Wuxian's delight.

"How old are you, Senior Wei?" a junior asked curiously.

"I'm...uh... " Wei Wuxian froze. How did he not know the answer to that question??

"Physically my body is about 28, since Mo Xuanyu sacrificed his body at 27. But because I died when I was 22, I'm really only 23 years old, mentally. You could say I'm 36, if you count the years I was floating around in hell..." He trailed off when he saw the traumatised look on the junior's face. "I'm the same age as Hanguang Jun!" he finished quickly with a strained smile.

Sizhui shot his father an unhappy look. He really should give more of a warning before throwing out a casual, 'I died when I was 22'.

After Xue Yang had been released, he started to take revenge again. However, this time, the revenge wasn't on Xiao XingChen himself. Xiao XingChen left the mountain alone and had no family. He only had a friend that he met afterward, named Song Lan.

The foreshadowing in the statement was very obvious to everyone - Xue Yang was going to target Song Lan in some way.

Song Lan was also a cultivator of the time. He was a righteous, determined person and had a fair amount of appraisal. Both of them wanted to build a sect that valued common ideals instead of blood ties, which made them the closest and most like-minded of friends. The people of the time described them as such— Xiao XingChen the bright moon and gentle breeze; Song ZiChen the distant snow and cold frost.

The image on the board shifted to a double shot of Xiao Xingchen and Song Zichen - the former in white robes and the latter in black, side by side with matching horse tail whisks and confident auras. Seeing them leaning against each other, young and carefree, sent a pang in Wei Wuxian's chest. He didn't know why, but he'd always felt a connection to the two cultivators, and their tragic story had really had an impact on him. They seemed to represent what could have happened with him and Lan Wangji, if he'd had much worse luck.

The cultivators in the audience were lapping up the gossip material like they were camels at an oasis in a desert.

"Look at the way they're smiling at each other..." one cultivator mused. "They looks a bit closer than friends to me." His friend giggled in agreement.

"Friends can be that comfortable with each other without it becoming romance. Their connection is purely ideological and professional." another cultivator argued stoutly.

"They starting a sect together. Friends  don't do that!"

Wei Wuxian rolled his eyes and let the matchmaking fights ensue in his peripheral hearing while he concentrated back on the board.

Xue Yang put his hands to this side. Repeating his past technique, he wiped out the Baixue Temple where Song Lan grew up and studied at, and used poison to blind Song Lan's eyes.

The matchmakers collected stopped arguing in horror. Friend or more, such an extreme and brutal attack against Song Lan was way, way  out of line.

"His...his whole clan? Where he grew up at??" whispered a few cultivators to each other. "Xue Yang is so vicious..."

"And blinded too! Song Lan wasn't even involved with any of the Chang clan business!" another said, almost moved to tears.

The juniors couldn't say anything either. They hadn't known this - all they know of Song Lan was that he was now a fierce corpse, after being killed by Xue Yang while he was searching for Xiao Xingchen. Now that they knew this tragic context, it made everything seem so much worse.

This time, with his experience of wiping out a sect, he made sure to not leave any evidence. Although everybody knew that he was the one who did it, what would be the use of that? There wasn't any evidence. And, with Jin GuangShan's deliberate protection and the death of the violent ChiFengZun, nobody could do anything about him.

Wei Wuxian could audibly hear the grinding noises of a hundred or so cultivators clenching their teeth angrily together at once. He supposed it was sort of funny, not being on the receiving end of all the self-righteous anger and disgust - for now. It was certainly much easier being the one jeering other people. Personally, he didn't see the point of verbally abusing others and sneering at them at every opportunity. If someone really deserved it, he'd just rip them to pieces with his fierce corpses and be done with it.

Wei WuXian found this a bit strange. Although Lan WangJi looked as if he didn't care about anything, from Wei WuXian's past experiences with him, he absolutely couldn't stand wrongdoings, possibly even more than Nie HuaiSang's brother. Back then, the LanlingJin Sect had some dishonest ways of doing things, and Lan WangJi never bothered to be subtle about them. Even until now, he always refused to go to their sect's Discussion Conferences. If two cruel massacres happened, the news would've probably spread over the entire cultivational world and Lan WangJi definitely wouldn't have turned a blind eye to them. Why did he not go and give Xue Yang what he deserved?

This was really a good point that Wei Wuxian raised - no one else had noticed before this.

Wei Wuxian winced - he wished he could travel back in time and tell himself to control his thoughts - but of course, it was a bit too late now. The room was already full of muttered questions and theories. The Lan disciples bristled, ready to fight for the honour of their respected Hanguang Jun.

Lan Xichen, Lan Qiren and the few other Lan elders who knew about Lan Wangji's punishment all remained stock silent, with varying levels of discomfort, regret, and in Lan Xichen's case, miserable guilt.

Wei Wuxian realised that Lan Zhan didn't know that Lan Xichen had told him about about how he had gotten the discipline scars, and so Lan Zhan was now probably feeling conflicted about what to tell him.  He quickly turned to his husband, and said, "It's okay, I understand, you don't need to explain, I-" Wei Wuxian blinked, rendered temporarily befuddled when his husband met his eyes with an intense gaze. Those beautiful, clear, honey-coloured eyes... he felt like he could stare into them forever. Unfortunately, his annoying past self was rambling on with his thoughts and ruining the moment.

Just as he was about to ask, he remembered the scars that the discipline whip gave him. One lash of the discipline whip would already be quite severe. If Lan WangJi made some sort of a grave mistake and received so many lashes, he had probably been grounded for a few years. It was likely that he was either going through his punishment or waiting for his wounds to heal during the years when the incidents happened. No wonder he said had only "heard" about what happened.

Lan Wangji felt his heart warm. Wei Ying's faith in him always meant a lot more to him than the muted admiration from others. Wei Ying just knew immediately that the only way Lan Wangji would not act during such injustice was if he was unable to move. When Lan Wangji heard about everything that had happened while he healed and reflected on his mistakes in the Cold Pond, he had felt great bitterness and quiet anger that he hadn't been fit enough to intervene on behalf of Chang Ping or Xiao Xingchen.

Lan Wangji hoped that Wei Ying would never find out the reason he'd been punished - so far, he hadn't questioned him, which he was a bit confused about. After all, 33 discipline whips would indicate a very serious crime.

All the cultivators in the audience thought that Wei Wuxian's explanation made sense and quieted down again.

For some reason, in his heart, Wei WuXian cared quite a lot about those scars. However, it was inconvenient for him to ask directly, so he had to hold his thoughts for now, "Then, what happened to the Daozhang Xiao XingChen afterwards?"

"'For some reason'??" Zizhen said, dramatically facepalming. "How long are you gonna gloss over your actual feelings, Senior Wei??"

Jingyi pouted. He wanted to know how Hanguang Jun had gotten the scars (not for the same reason Wei Wuxian did, obviously, he was just really curious), but it seemed like an extremely rude thing to ask around about. Maybe he'd get answers soon from these pictures. In the meantime, he could hear more about Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan's high depressing story.

What happened afterward was certainly a tragic ending. When he left the mountain and his teacher, Xiao XingChen vowed that he would never go back again. He was a man of his words, but since Song Lan was not only blind but also badly injured, he broke his vow and carried Song Lan back to BaoShan SanRen's residence, asking her to save his friend.

The audience gasped. Breaking a vow like that was seriously not a good omen for Xiao Xingchen. Yet he had done it to save Song Lan.

"I dunno, that seems kind of romantic to me..." muttered someone on the Xiao Xingchen x Song Xichen side of the matchmaking war.

"He must have been really desperate." Guo Wanxin said. "I hope nothing bad happened to him because of that ."

For the sake that they were once teacher and pupil, BaoShan SanRen agreed. Thus, Xiao XingChen left the mountain once more, and he was never seen again. A year later, Song Lan also left the mountain. To everyone's surprise, his eyes, which were completely blinded, saw light again. However, it wasn't that BaoShan SanRen's medical skills created a miracle, but that Xiao XingChen dug his own eyes out and gave them to Song Lan, who was only involved in this because of him.

The pleased remarks about Song Lan's cured eyes immediately turned into choked exclamations of horror.

The mental image of someone digging out their own eyeballs from their sockets to give to someone else truly terrified and disgusted many of them, most of whom wouldn't claw out their eyes for their own mothers.

"Poor Xiao Xingchen...He really feels responsible for Song Lan's clan being massacred by Xue Yang, doesn't he? But it's not his fault at all!" Zizhen said, distressed.

"Well, it can't get worse than that... Nothing else horrible should happen to Xiao Xingchen now, right?" a cultivator said bracingly in response.

Zizhen pressed his lips together and looked down at his feet, feeling depressed.

Song Lan originally wanted to seek revenge on Xue Yang. At this time, Jin GuangShan had already passed away. Jin GuangYao took over the LanlingJin Sect and the position of Sect Leader. To show that things were going to be different, the first thing he did after he came to power was to get rid of Xue Yang.

At the words "Jin Guangshan had already passed away", many cultivators made satisfied noises.

It was strange, listening to the stories about Jin Guangyao that had been told before he'd been revealed as a back-stabbing, immoral snake.  He sounded like a saint compared to Jin Guangshan. However, they all knew that he hadn't really gotten rid of Xue Yang, just like his father.

Aside from never mentioning the Stygian Tiger Seal again, he also made amends to restore the sect's reputation, suppressing the rumors. Song Lan went to search for his past friend's whereabouts. At first, people still heard talk about where he traveled to. After some time, he also disappeared.

"Oh, so they both just disappeared?" some cultivators said. "They might be okay, then, right? Maybe they're living together happily in Dongying, away from all the messy sect politics here."

"Hahaha, that sounds a bit too optimistic. But I hope Song Lan found Xiao Xingchen eventually. It's not like Xiao Xingchen can look for Song Lan without his eyes, right?"

Moreover, the YueyangChang Sect was a small clan that was generally unheard of. And thus, a lot of things gradually faded away. Having finished listening to the long story, Wei WuXian sighed softly. A feeling of regret sprouted inside him, Meeting such an end because of something not related to him at all, it really was...

That feeling of regret was shared with many of the cultivators in the audience. That truly was one of the most depressing stories they'd ever heard - and it had to be true, because Lan Wangji was the one recounting it. It was sure going to be retold a few hundred more times until all the general public knew about it.

If Xiao XingChen was born a few years earlier or if I died a few years later, things wouldn't have had to be like this. If I was alive, how would I have not taken part in the matter? How would I have not made friends with such a person?

Wei Wuxian's thoughts stirred unease among the public. Xiao Xingchen combined with a Yiling Patriarch version of Wei Wuxian sounded a bit terrifying. They could definitely see the similarities in personality - strong willpower and moral compass, willing to go against the whole world for what they believed to be right. Combine Wei Wuxian's ingenuity, resourcefulness and demonic cultivation with Xiao Xingchen's optimism, kindness and prodigious talent in traditional cultivation... perhaps Fate separated them for a reason.

Immediately afterward, he laughed at himself bitterly, I would've done something? What could I have done? If I was still alive back then, perhaps the YueyangChang Sect's case didn't even need to be investigated before everyone decided that I did it. If the Daozhang Xiao XingChen bumped into me on the streets and I chatted with him, invite him to drink together, it's likely that he'd hit me with his horsetail whisk, haha.

"Why do you say 'haha' with such a not funny sentence?" Jin Ling asked with a frown.

It was clear to most of the audience that Wei Wuxian didn't actually find it funny - there was a wistful and very depressed tone to his thoughts, as if he for the first time resented his horrible reputation in the cultivation world. Being the first person suspected when something horrible happens, being pushed away every time he thought about making new friends... it didn't seem like a good way to live.

"That isn't true!" Sizhui said immediately. "Actually, I think you would be great friends. You could help Daozhang Xiao Xingchen fight for justice and he in turn would help mend your reputation."

Wei Wuxian brooded. "Ah well, no point wondering about what could have been."

They had already walked past the Chang Residence, toward a cemetery nearby. Wei WuXian saw the dark-red character of "Chang" on the pailou and asked, "Then, why did Chang Ping die afterward? Who killed the remaining members of his clan?"

The scene on the board was back to Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji walking along the path to the Chang Residence. Looking at the name 'Chang' on the cemetery hit different now everyone knew the context of the massacre.

The cultivators raised their eyebrows as they casually walked into the cemetery, still talking unconcernedly. 'It must be nice, being the two most accomplished and powerful cultivators alive in their generation. They can stroll anywhere they like in the dead of night and not worry about whether they're able to face whatever's waiting for them...' thought a cultivator sulkily

Before Lan WangJi could answer, a series of bangs came from amid the blue-tinted dusk. The noise sounded a lot like slamming on doors, but it wasn't. The bangs were carried out with force and at a fast pace, without a moment of rest. They sounded somewhat muffled, as if there was something separating them from the outside world. Their faces immediately changed. The fifty-or-so people of the YueyangChang Sect were currently lying in their coffins, slamming on their coffin lids from the inside.

Many of the audience had jumped at the sudden, violent noise. They had been watching mainly silent moving pictures with a slow, calm voice narrating over the top for quite a while, while the whole Xiao Xingchen story was explained. The transition back to the 'present' was quite jarring - the cultivators had to switch back into 'watching exciting action' mode.

"Banging on their coffins from the inside?? That is so creepy." Jingyi commented, shuddering, imagining alive people buried alive and desperately banging  for help while suffocating slowly. But they were obviously not alive, just transforming fierce corpses, probably.

It was at night they were frightened to death—they madly slammed on the doors, but there wasn't anyone to let them out. This was the slamming on coffins in the Chang Clan's cemetery that the liquor shop's waiter talked about! However, the waiter said that the haunting was ten years ago and stopped long before now. Why would the slamming happen to start again when they came?

"Ten years without haunting, and they just happen to slam and make noises again the exact date Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian visit? There's no way that's a coincidence." declared a cultivator, to general noises of agreement.

"Maybe Wei Wuxian's demonic cultivator presence woke them up." one of Jin Chan's friends suggested.

"That's stupid." Jin Ling snapped.

Without passing any words between them, Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi both softened their breathing, stealthily moving without making a sound. Propping themselves against the pillars of the pailou, they both saw that, in the center of the cemetery, there was a hole amid the tombstones. It was a deep, recently-created hole with piles of dirt surrounding it. Faint noises came from within the hole. Someone was digging out a grave. The two of them held their breaths, attentively waiting for the person in the hole to come out on their own.

The audience admired the Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji's fluid, coordinated movements. "They're so in sync with each other. This is what real cultivation partners look like."

"It's like they can read each others' minds!"

Before an hour passed, two people hopped up from inside the opened grave. Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi could tell that these were two people only because they had good vision. These two appeared as if they were conjoined twins. One carrying the other on their back, they were tightly connected together. With both of them wearing entirely black clothes, it was extremely hard to tell the two apart. The person that hopped up had long legs and long arms, standing with his back toward them. The one that he carried seemed lifeless, their head and limbs hanging down. This was only natural. Since the person was dug out from a grave, then it must have been dead.

There were varying sounds of disgust. Who would want to carry a 10-year-old corpse on their back?? And why was someone digging up a grave anyway - was there something special about the corpse?

"Maybe it's Chang Ping, and that's Xue Yang!"

"No, idiot, Chang Ping got lingchi-ed, he's just a skeleton now! But I think you're right about Xue Yang, who else would be digging holes in graveyards? Apart from Wei-" the cultivator broke off with a cough.

Lan Xichen refrained from sighing. People these days jumped to conclusions far too quickly, and relied on their biases and stereotypes to make guesses. Surely they could see that the person digging was far too stocky, and probably too tall to be Xue Yang?

Lifeless was what should've been expected of it. As he thought, the gravedigger suddenly spun around and saw them. There was a mass of thick, black mist over the man's face, making it so that nobody could see how their face and features looked!

Everyone gasped when the gravedigger spun around so suddenly.

"What is that mist? Looks like crooked tricks to me."

"They're really serious about not being recognised. Maybe it's someone important or famous!" other cultivators enthused.

Wei Wuxian made a face when he heard that. Now that he knew it was Su She, it seemed very pretentious of him to bother hiding his face and sword so well, as if anyone who saw him would recognise him. That sour rat had always thought he was more important than he really was.

Wei WuXian knew that he must have casted some sort of strange spell to block his face. Lan WangJi had already unsheathed Bichen, darted into the cemetery, and started the fight.

The audience cheered.

"Go Hanguang Jun!"

The gravedigger's reaction was extremely quick. Seeing the attack of Bichen's blue sword glare, he made a hand seal and also summoned a sword glare. The sword glare was the same as his face, surrounded by dense mist, and made it so that it was impossible to see what its color and style was. With a corpse on his back, the gravedigger fought in a strange way. The two sword glares clashed a few times.

"There's no way that grave-digger's going to win, with a corpse on his back..."

"And he's fighting Hanguang Jun! Why is he even bothering fighting if he knows he's going to lose?"

Lan WangJi summoned Bichen back and held it in his hand, a layer of frost climbing over his face. Wei WuXian knew why his face suddenly turned cold. It was because, during the fight, even an outsider like him could tell that the gravedigger was extremely familiar with Lan WangJi's sword moves!

Sizhui covered his mouth in silent shock. Many others were not quite as silent, and made loud gasps. The only people who would be familiar with the Lan sect sword moves, were of course, people in the Lan sect. But no one in his sect would be digging up graves for a not-righteous reason, which was implied by the fact the gravedigger was fighting with Hanguang Jun rather than explaining himself.

Lan Xichen looked similarly alarmed, before realising to himself that it was probably Su She, who'd been educated in the Lan sect before breaking away and founding the Moling Su sect. He frowned. What had Su She been up to in that graveyard? He hoped that Wangji and Wei gongzi wouldn't get too distressed over this, and start suspecting every Lan sect member.

Lan WangJi said nothing. Bichen's attacks were deeper and deeper, attacking with tremendous force. The gravedigger fell back a few times. As if he knew that, with a dead person on his back, he wouldn't be able to win against Lan WangJi and, if they continued to fight, he'd be captured alive, he suddenly fished out a dark-blue talisman from his waist. A Transportation Talisman! This type of talisman could instantly transport someone to hundreds of miles away, but it also expended a great amount of spiritual energy. It would take a long time for the user to regain their energy. Those with spiritual energy that wasn't powerful enough wouldn't be able to use them. Thus, although they were of very high quality, it was rare for anybody to use them.

"Oh no!! He's going to escape!" wailed Zizhen, who seemed far too invested in the fight. "Senior Wei, why are you just standing there, watching??"

"When Hanguang Jun is in the middle of a sword fight, I don't make a habit of getting in the way." Wei Wuxian sniffed. "Because our Hanguang Jun is already the best. And I don't use a sword, obviously."

"Oh, that's true....." Zizhen said, then added with a pout, "But if he escapes we'll never know who he is or what he was doing!"

Wei Wuxian rolled his eyes, "Patience, kid!"

Seeing that he was about to escape, Wei WuXian hurriedly clapped twice, got down on one knee, and slammed his fist on the ground. The strength of his punch passed through layers of dirt, reached the depths of the soil, and penetrated the thick coffin lids, provoking the corpses trapped inside. With crackling noises, four bloodied arms shot up from the ground, grabbing both of the gravedigger's legs!

"Oh, Wei Wuxian's finally decided to help out." several cultivators said, rolling their eyes. But they still leaned forwards to watch, captivated in the way Wei Wuxian could just clap and get corpses to do his bidding.

"That was a cool punch!" Jingyi said enthusiastically.

Others weren't as sure. "But surely those hands aren't enough to stop the gravedigger. Why doesn't Wei Wuxian get the corpses to rise and rip him up?"

The gravedigger seemed as if he didn't care at all. He poured his spiritual energy toward the bottom of his legs, blasting the four corpse hands away. Wei WuXian pulled out his bamboo flute. A shrill, piercing melody ripped open the curtain of darkness that had fallen. Two human heads emerged from the ground along with their bodies, climbing upward from the gravedigger's legs and winding around his body as if they were snakes. Opening their mouths, they prepared to bite down at his neck and arms.

Everyone quieted when they heard the bamboo flute melody.

"What is Wei Wuxian even making them do ?? Give that gravedigger a hug?"

Wei Wuxian grinned but didn't reveal what his past self was planning.

"Are you making up the songs on the spot or are there specific tunes for making corpses do things? Like whatever they're doing now?" Zizhen asked curiously.

Zizhen's father steamed with anger. "Zizhen!!!! Enough!!! Talking and night-hunting with the Yiling Patriarch is one thing, but don't learn demonic cultivation from him!!"

"What's wrong with talking to Senior Wei?? I'm not aiming to learn to be a demonic cultivator!" Zizhen shouted back.

Wei Wuxian paused before answering Zizhen unconcernedly, "There are rules of course, but I'm usually composing them on the spot. I guess a less experienced demonic cultivator would use the basic ones that make the corpse wake up, or fight, or rip itself to pieces, etc."

Zizhen was very interested, but held himself back from asking more questions in case his father grounded him for a week when they got back home.

The gravedigger snorted with disdain, as if he was saying "what a petty trick", and sent spiritual energy throughout his body. Yet, this time, only after he released his energy did he realize that he had been fooled. He sent the corpse that he carried on his back flying off as well!

Everyone stared as they registered Wei Wuxian's clever trick. Slowly building up his trick with the corpses to make it look petty and a minor inconvenience, and then tricking the gravedigger into throwing away the same corpse he'd dug up was a surprisingly smooth move.

No one knew whether to congratulate him out loud for such an effective, but gross prank, but they inwardly admired the creativity nonetheless.

Wei WuXian laughed uncontrollably as he smacked the tombstone, while Lan WangJi caught the corpse with one hand and attacked with Bichen using the other.

"Umm... Probably not the right time to laugh, but I guess you have the already have the corpse?" Sizhui said uncertainly.

On the other hand, Jingyi laughed right over Sizhui "That was hilarious! The gravedigger's just standing there in surprise, hahahaha!!!"

Seeing that what he had just dug out had been snatched away, that he couldn't even win solo against Lan WangJi, let alone the mischief of another person, he didn't dare to stay any longer. He hurled the Transportation Talisman on the ground. After a loud noise, blue flames surged up toward his sky. His figure disappeared into the fire. Wei WuXian knew that the gravedigger had a Transportation Talisman on him, which meant that, even if they caught him, he could find an opportunity to escape. The corpse that he dug out was already a clue, so he didn't have any regrets.

"I guess that's true. So getting the corpse from him was really the best possible outcome." Guo Wanxin said reasonably.

Others were thinking along similar lines to Jingyi, laughing about the angry and petty way the person threw the Transportation Talisman to the ground and escaped, after his prize was rudely tricked out of him by Wei Wuxian.

"What a total failure of effort for him!"

"Bad luck for him Hanguang Jun and the Yiling Laozu just happened to be strolling around and bumped into him."

Lan Bai sighed gloomily, the odd one out among all his junior friends. "I hope we find out who they were and what they were trying to do eventually."

He walked over to Lan WangJi, "Let's see who he dug out." As he glanced at it, he was somewhat surprised. The head of the corpse had already been split open. From within the cut, there wasn't any blood or brains leaking out, but wads of blackened cotton.

"EWWWW!!" Jingyi yelled. "Someone CRACKED the skull open and replaced the blood and brains with COTTON??"

"Maybe they needed the brains specifically for something and wanted to soak up the extra blood with cotton?" Sizhui asked, shrugging. Gore didn't get to him as much as it got to Jingyi.

Wei WuXian easily jerked the corpse's head off. With the delicatelycrafted dummy head, he spoke, "What is this supposed to mean? There's a fake corpse made of cotton and rags buried in the Chang Clan's cemetery?"

Everyone jumped when Wei Wuxian suddenly pulled the head off, then relaxed when they saw it was just a dummy, especially Jingyi.

"Why was he digging up a fake corpse?? This makes no sense." some cultivators complained, frowning.

Having had weighed the corpse in his hands when he took it, Lan WangJi knew what was wrong, "Not all of it is fake." Wei WuXian felt the corpse from head to toe and discovered that, aside from its drooping limbs, only its chest and abdomen felt firm and real. After he tore off the clothes, as he expected, he found that only the torso was real. All of the other body parts were fake. The head and limbs made from cotton were to "deceive" the torso, so that it still thought it was attached to its owner's body. Seeing from the skin tone and the part where the left shoulder cut off, this must be the torso of the dear friend.

The room filled with 'ohhhh's of understanding.

"Wow!! This is tying up really neatly. What a nice coincidence!" Zizhen smiled brightly. "They've already found an arm, both legs and the torso! Only another arm and the head to go."

"Unless those parts got divided into smaller parts. Like fingers, or a missing ear." speculated Jin Ling darkly.

Sizhui elbowed Jin Ling, who stuck his tongue out at him.

The gravedigger was here for this. Wei WuXian straightened up, "It looks like that the person who hid the corpse already noticed that we're investigating the issue and came to transfer the torso somewhere else in case we find it. To come early isn't as good as to come in time. We just happened to bump into him, haha. But," with a change of tone, he continued, "Why was the mist-faced gravedigger so familiar with your sect's sword style?"

"So there is something very important about the corpse in pieces! And there's at least one person who's very invested in hiding it. Wow, you two were so lucky you didn't arrive an hour later, otherwise who knows how long it would have taken to track down the torso!" Guo Wanxin said fervently.

Wei Wuxian considered. "I never thought about it like that! I guess we were guided there, but how long we stayed at the liquor store and the time we took to travel to the Chang residence could have easily ruined everything! I love having luck on my side, it's a nice change!" he said cheerfully.

Guo Wanxin frowned. "Who was guiding you??"

Wei Wuxian smiled mysteriously but didn't reply. When she turned around to the front again, he winked at Nie Huaisang, who pouted at him.

It was obvious that Lan WangJi was also thinking about this matter, the coldness on his face yet to fade.

Wei WuXian spoke again, "His cultivation is quite high, enough to support the energy used for one Transportation Talisman. He casted spells on both his face and sword. It's understandable that he casted a spell on his face—after all, he wouldn't have wanted to be seen. But most lesser-known cultivators wouldn't have needed to cast a spell on their sword to cover it, unless, of course, it was either somewhat or very famous in the cultivation world. He'd then have had to cover it, because if everyone could recognize his sword glare, his identity would be revealed as soon as his sword was revealed."

Wei WuXian asked suggestively, "HanGuang-Jun, from your fight before, do you think that he's someone you know really well?" It'd be inconvenient for him to be more specific, such as Lan XiChen or Lan QiRen.

The cultivators had registered Wei Wuxian's hints that the gravedigger was a Lan sect member who thought himself to be famous or important - but Lan Xichen or Lan Qiren?? That was utterly ridiculous, neither of them would ever do such a thing or fight with Lan Wangji - would they? Everyone turned not-so-discreetly to stare at Lan Xichen and Qiren.

The current Lan sect leader, Lan Xichen, smiled benevolently back at the starers, further confusing them. He didn't seem bothered by Wei Wuxian's suspicions. When Wei Wuxian caught his eye and mouthed 'sorry', he just waved it off. On the other hand, Lan Qiren shot a murderous look at Wei Wuxian. In his head, he was boiling with anger - how dare that boy accuse him of digging up a corpse and having a hand in the dismembered corpse situation?! Utterly no respect for his elders, some people never changed!

Lan WangJi answered assuredly, "No." Wei WuXian was quite confident in Lan WangJi's answer. To him, Lan WangJi wasn't the kind of person who'd hide or run away from the truth. If he denied it, that meant it must have been wrong. He didn't like to lie, either. In Wei WuXian's opinion, if someone asked Lan WangJi to lie, he'd rather silence himself and not talk at all. Thus, Wei WuXian immediately excluded the possibility of the gravedigger being these two.

Lan Qiren unclenched his teeth and the veins in his forehead stopped popping out so prominently. At least Wangji knew how to recognise his brother and uncle. Of course that manky corpse-digger couldn't have been either of them!

The rest of the audience exhaled in relief. They laughed it off with their neighbours as if they'd never really suspected Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren (they had, of course, but Lan Wangji's word was gospel).

Lan WangJi put the torso into another double-layered Qiankun Pouch and put it away properly. The two walked around for a while and wandered back to the street of the liquor shop. The young waiter was true to his words. Most of the other liquor shops on this street had closed already, but their banner was still up and their lights were still on. The waiter was outside, eating from a large bowl. Seeing them, he beamed, "You're back! We kept our word, didn't we? Did you two see anything?"

Wei WuXian laughed as he answered. With Lan WangJi, he walked back to the table they sat during the day.

Something about seeing the familiar, ordinary face of the waiter immediately set the cultivators in the audience at ease. There had been some exciting action and stories so depressing they couldn't be true, so now they were ready for a light break from the serious topics.

"What a nice waiter. He really did wait for them!" a cultivator said with an idle smile.

"Well, he's a waiter. Waiting is what waiters do." replied his companion lazily.

They all listened, relaxed, as Wei Wuxian gave a highly abbreviated and simplified recount of their trip to the Chang clan cemetery. Then finally, he turned to Lan Wangji to continue discussing privatel.

With liquor jars crowding on the table and by his feet, he spoke, "Right, what were we talking about? Suddenly interrupted by the gravedigger, I still don't know how Chang Ping died."

Lan WangJi continued the explanation with simple, direct words. Xue Yang, Xiao XingChen, and Song Lan left one by one. Some disappearing, some passing away. Quite a few years after the incident passed, one day, Chang Ping and the remainder of his clan's members died overnight due to lingchi.

Jingyi blinked rapidly. Were they back to talking about Xiao Xingchen and the Chang clan. That depressing story wasn't finished ?? There were more tragic events after Song Lan having to be cured by his friend clawing out his own eyes? And ouch, more lingchi??

"Lingchi again?"

"Must have been Xue Yang, then!"

"That rascal! He already wiped out Song Lan's sect, and the majority of the Chang clan. Why can't he just leave them alone??"

Moreover, Chang Ping's eyes were dug out. This time, nobody could find out who the murderer was. After all, everyone apart of it had vanished. However, there was one thing that could be determined. From the wounds, it could be verified that the sword that was used to lingchi them had been Xiao XingChen's sword, Shuanghua.

When they heard that Chang Ping's eyes were dug out, everyone scoffed, muttering to their neighbours about how obvious it was that had been Xue Yang. Those conversations stopped very abruptly with that last sentence.

"Shang...Shanghua?? But Xiao Xingchen would never- he would never do something like that!" Zizhen cried out.

Everyone had indeed heard and seen how kind and righteous Xiao Xingchen was. It did seem very unlikely that he'd use the horrible technique, lingchi, on anyone. But doubt had already started to creep over their minds.

"I guess Xiao Xingchen might have been angry enough by Chang Ping withdrawing his statement that he'd kill them..."

"And the eyes were dug out. So maybe Xiao Xingchen was angry that he had no eyes anymore and took it out on Chang Ping?"

"In that case, how dishonourable! Pah!"

Wei Wuxian and the juniors gaped in open incredulity at the cultivators already so quickly changing sides against Xiao Xingchen after praising his character just half an hour beforehand. Did they just all have the brains of sheep??

The bowl of liquor that Wei WuXian was holding stopped in front of his mouth. He was shocked by this turn of events, "He was lingchi-ed by Xiao XingChen's sword? Then was he the one who did it?"

Lan WangJi, "Xiao XingChen had disappeared. There were no conclusive evidence."

"No conclusive evidence!" Jingyi said forcefully, glaring around him at the still-gossiping cultivators. "And I'm very sure Xiao Xingchen didn't do it."

Sizhui nodded seriously. "It is best to reserve judgement to when you have solid evidence. There is no point spreading rumours or insults beforehand."

Wei WuXian, "If he couldn't be found alive, then has anyone tried soulsummoning?" Lan WangJi, "Yes. Nothing was found." Nothing was found. He either didn't die, or his soul had dissolved.

"Well, soul-summoning didn't work on Wei Wuxian's soul, and his soul is clearly not dissolved, so it can't be that accurate." a cultivator commented.

Wei Wuxian, unexpectedly, laughed. "That's right! If he was dead, I doubt his soul would want to respond to any random person summoning him. Maybe he just wanted to rest in heaven for a bit without being disturbed."

Several people sent him sidelong glances, assuming he was referencing himself.

"Lan Zhan, did you personally try soul summoning me?" Wei Wuxian asked out of the blue.

Lan Wangji looked away, then nodded. "Mn. Many times." His face didn't give anything away, but Wei Wuxian could sense it was a topic he found painful. He racked his brains for something to say that could alleviate his partner's painful memories.

"I definitely would have responded to you, if not anyone else. My ghost would definitely  not have missed the opportunity to tease you a few more times, haha! I think after all that happened my soul got a bit traumatised and wandered too deep into hell, though. Not that I remember anything, of course."

Sizhui noticed that his dad often subconsciously referred to his time being dead as 'hanging around in hell', while for other people it was generally 'heaven'. He frowned. Did Senior Wei think so lowly of himself? That wasn't right at all!

As a someone who specialized in the area, Wei WuXian had to comment on the matter, "Things like soul-summoning, you can't rely on them too much. Time, place, and person all play a part in it, so of course it'd sometimes go wrong. I'm guessing that a lot of people think that it was Xiao XingChen's revenge? HanGuang-Jun, what about you? What do you think?"

Everyone stopped their muttered gossiping to listen to Lan Wangji's opinion. Whatever he said, they would accept as truth.

Lan WangJi slowly shook his head, "One should not comment without understanding the whole picture."

Wei WuXian admired his attitude and principles a lot. Grinning as he drank another gulp of liquor, he heard Lan WangJi speak again, "What about you?"

The audience thought this sounded fair, although they were disappointed that Lan Wangji wasn't going to confirm or deny whether Xiao Xingchen did it or not upfront.

Then they noticed the way Wei Wuxian was smiling admiringly at Lan Wangji, and the way Lan Wangji was initiating a conversation back with Wei Wuxian. Even the background music had turned a familiar, sweet, slow tune. "Oh, they're back to flirting." The cultivators rolled their eyes, but were entertained nonetheless.

Wei WuXian, "Lingchi is a type of torture. Its meaning involves "punishment", anyways. Digging out the eyes also makes it quite hard not to associate it with Xiao XingChen, who also dug out his eyes. Thus, there's nothing wrong with these people guessing that it was Xiao XingChen's revenge. However," he thought about how to phrase it, "I think that, in the beginning, Xiao XingChen never asked for Chang Ping's gratitude when he first stepped in. I..." Before he finished thinking of what should follow the "I", the waiter eagerly brought over two dishes of peanuts.

The audience was listening raptly, absorbing his every word - then sighed with impatience when they were interrupted by the waiter.

Unfortunately, he didn't add any more analysis afterwards, only repeated the same vague conclusion that Lan Wangji came to - that with time and more evidence, the truth would become clear. But how long would that take??

Having been interrupted, Wei WuXian didn't need to continue anymore. He looked up at Lan WangJi and smiled, "HanGuang-Jun, why are you looking at me like this? I'm not saying anything. Just like you, I don't understand the whole picture, so I'm not going to comment either. You're right. Before knowing all of the turns and twists, causes and effects, nobody should presume anything about anything. I only ordered five jars, but you bought five more jars for me, so I'm afraid I won't be able to finish all of them by myself. How about if you drink with me? This isn't the Cloud Recesses, so it doesn't violate anything, right?"

Everyone groaned. Did Wei Wuxian ever take a break from harassing Lan Wangji? It wasn't like he was ever going to be successful - everyone knew that Lans didn't drink alcohol-

He had already prepared himself to be bluntly rejected, but who knew that Lan WangJi replied, "I will drink."

The 'tsk'ing noises and laughter immediately stopped as everyone froze, turned to their neighbours to silently ask if they heard Lan Wangji's response right, then turn back to the board to stare in shock.

Lan Xichen winced. This was probably not good for his little brother's reputation. Or his uncle's health (he was quite aware of the suddenly absence of sound, include breathing, from his right, where Uncle Qiren was sitting). On the other hand, he knew that Wangji had a hard time refusing anything his beloved Wei Wuxian wanted, especially now that he had a second chance to be with him after that tragic first life. He sighed, and hoped that Wangji hadn't done anything too questionable while he was drunk.

Wei WuXian clicked his tongue, "HanGuang-Jun, you really have changed. Before, I drank a tiny jar in front of you, and you got so mad. You even threw me off the wall and hit me. Now, though, you're hiding jars of Emperor's Smile in your room and secretly drinking."

The room was still silent in shock, but several people's eyes's twitched at the mention of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji's first meeting on the wall of the Cloud Recesses. That had been intense.

At the mention of secret drinking, the juniors turned around to look at Lan Wangji in curious disbelief. There was no way !! Lan Wangji's face was blank as usual, but Wei Wuxian beside him looked like he was having a hard to controlling his laughter - he was practically doubled over, shaking and laughing silently.

Fixing his collars, he answered in a calm voice, "I did not touch any jar of Emperor's Smile."

The room relaxed considerably. Wei Wuxian cracked up again. There was something so funny about watching Lan Zhan fix his collars and maintain his dignified air, right after agreeing to drink with him.

Wei WuXian, "Why did you hide them if you're not drinking anything? Saving them for me? Fine, fine. You didn't touch them. I'll believe you, okay? Let's talk about something else. Come. I really need to see just how many cups would it take to make an abstinent disciple of the GusuLan Sect drunk."

Everyone flinched. He wasn't serious was he-

Sizhui felt a sudden panic. He wasn't sure if he was meant to be watching this, especially if any 'adult moments' happened after Senior Wei and Hanguang Jun were both drunk. But the two cultivation partners in question seemed perfectly at ease, Senior Wei in particular not looking particularly guilty or worried, so Sizhui reassured himself that nothing would probably happen.

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.

All the cultivators in the room drew in a gasp as one, holding their breaths and watching with Wei Wuxian to see Lan Wangji's reaction. It felt sort of wrong, like they were intruding on a private moment, but they were far too interested to care.

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.

There were some laughs in the audience at Wei Wuxian's pout, but mostly the adult cultivators were impressed - for someone who never drank alcohol, having no reaction to a whole bowl of liquor was very impressive.

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!

Most people tried to restrain their laughter, seeing as Lan Wangji was still in the room and could hear them all, but many couldn't hold it in and doubled over, laughing like children.

The actual children (or teenagers, more like) were watching with their mouths hanging open. No Lan sect disciple had any thought of laughter in their mind, more a kind of horrified fascination.

Lan Qiren looked like he was slightly less likely to have an aneurism when he saw that Wangji was safely asleep and not doing anything embarrassing. He has no idea... Lan Xichen thought to himself with a mental wince. He knew all too well what happened to his little brother when he drank alcohol - and he also sincerely hoped no one would think to try and take advantage of Wangji's low tolerance for alcohol. Luckily, he was quite certain that Wangji would not drink for anyone other than his beloved Wei gongzi, and he was too clever to not notice a spiked drink.

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.

Lan Wangji was watching his partner lug and carry him around and tuck him into bed like he was a baby, and was finding it hard to keep his trademark straight face.

"Aww, look how he's taking care of him - wait, where's he going?!"

Everyone gaped in disbelief as Wei Wuxian jumped unhesitatingly out of the window. Lan Wangji turned to Wei Wuxian, his expression a hair's breadth south of neutral to indicate that he was unimpressed.

"Sorry, but it was definitely quite necessary! And you were meant to be sound asleep." Wei Wuxian giggled nervously.

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.

"Wen- Wen Ning??" squeaked a few cultivators, surprise and alarm breaking off any remaining giggles at a collapsed Hanguang Jun.

"Wow, Senior Wei, doesn't it look kind of bad if the first thing you do when Hanguang Jun isn't there is play your flute and summon Wen Ning?" commented Zizhen.

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.

"So, there is a limit to your shamelessness." Jiang Cheng noted. "I wouldn't have guessed."

Wei Wuxian send a sideways glance at him. He could usually tell when his shidi meant what he said or if he was just saying things for the sake of saying something rude, but it was hard to tell from this distance, where he couldn't see his face clearly. Wei Wuxian wondered if Jiang Cheng still had a grudge on Wen Ning, despite all that had happened after his resurrection, all the times Wen Ning had saved him or Jin Ling.

"If you just asked Hanguang Jun straight up about summoning Wen Ning, I'm sure he would've said yes. Especially if it was for a good reason." a Lan disciple said fairly to Wei Wuxian.

Lan Wangji sent a withering look at the disciple that told him to be quiet. The Lan disciple paled then added, "Or maybe he wouldn't have! You know. You never know."

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.

Nearly everyone in the room shuddered. Sizhui shuddered not out of fear and disgust, like the majority of the cultivators, but out of sadness and concern. What had happened to his friend - or, more accurately, his uncle?? Something had been done to him to make the pupils vanish from his eyes, making him look like a regular fierce corpse.

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.

Lan Wangji was frowning openly at the board now. His whole face sat in an unhappy expression that was completely out of character for him.

Wei Wuxian suddenly remembered how Lan Zhan had never liked Wen Ning for some reason, and realised his husband was probably sulky because it looked like Wei Wuxian liked to hang out with Wen Ning behind his back.

"Lan Zhaaan. Don't look so grumpy, I promise I don't sneak around while you're alseep very often! And checking up on Wen Ning is important, because he's my friend."

Lan Wangji was still looking pointedly in another direction, not at the board, but his facial expression relaxed somewhat. Though that might have been more due to the fact that Wei Wuxian had leaned his head affectionately on his shoulder.

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.

Sizhui glared at the screen, feeling a rare flash of anger. Who had done this to his friend?? Didn't they know what a gentle and sweet person Wen Ning was?? How dare they take advantage of that and enslave him so cruelly??

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.

Many sect leaders looked very uncomfortable at that statement, because Wei Wuxian was right. Others frowned.

Jingyi snorted. "What hypocrites! They criticise Senior Wei for having Wen Ning to help him and vow to turn him to ashes, but the moment they get the opportunity, they hide him away and want to use him for themselves!"

Lan Xichen nodded and said, "Well spoken." He pointedly stared at the cultivators who were now not meeting his eye.

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.

Lan Wangji abruptly looked upset again, but most of the cultivators were curious to see how someone planted something inside Wen Ning's 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.

Sizhui's mout fell open in outrage - someone had put those monstrous things in Wen Ning's head to destroy his consciousness and sanity? He greatly wanted to know who had done such a disgusting thing, so he could make sure they stayed far away from Wen Ning in the future.

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".

The members of the audience suddenly felt sympathy for Wen Ning. That was very unfair for him, being bound in chains and controlled by two nails in his head. They didn't know much about Wen Ning's personality, really, but if he'd really been under the control of those things, maybe his crimes weren't as bad as they thought.

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.

Lan Wangji sent a narrow-eyed glare at Wei Wuxian. Why was Bichen the first thing he thought of? Wei Wuxian widened his eyes in return, looking especially mischievous that made Lan Wangji fear once again for the safety and sanctity of his sword.

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.

Sizhui agreed vehemently, but he wondered how his father no. 1 would sneak his father no. 2's sword away - surely that was a bit dangerous, considering his father no.1 couldn't use the sword to fight and his father no. 2 might need it?

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.

At this jumpscare, many people made a squeaky sound of fright.

"Oooh... someone's going to get into trouble..." whispered some people, and there were a few quiet snickers.

Lan Wangji frowned. He had absolutely no memory of ever confronting Wei Ying and Wen Ning in this alley. With dread, he realised that he couldn't remember, because he was under the influence of alcohol, and would likely do something he would regret. Then again, he couldn't have done anything too bad, like randomly profess his feelings for Wei Ying, as Wei Ying hadn't known about his feelings until much later.

The screen faded to back on that entertaining note and everyone sighed, impatient to see what Lan Wangji would say in reaction to seeing Wei Wuxian sneaking around with Wen Ning. Instead, all they could do was gossip with the people in their surroundings about the Stygian Tiger Amulet, Xue Yang, Xiao Xingchen and Wen Ning.