Reads Love |

Chapter 33 Grasses—Part One</h3>The Shudong area was abundant in rivers and valleys. With towering peaks and a rough terrain, only faint breezes passed the area, causing the majority of places to be enveloped in mist.Walking straight toward where the left hand pointed, the two of them came upon quite a small village.A few rails of fencing encircled thatched houses made from mud. A brood of colorful chicks scuttered in and out of the yards, pecking on the ground for rice. A large, bright-feathered rooster stood single-legged on a roof. With a twitching comb, it looked downward loftily, its neck turning left and right. It was fortunate that nobody had any dogs. It was likely that these villagers could only get their hands on a few chunks of meat a year, much less have any leftover bones to feed the dogs.In front of the village, there was a fork road, leading to three different directions. Of these, two were rather bare. Covered with a great deal of footprints, it was clear that they were often walked upon. Yet, the last one have been overrun with weeds. A square sign made from a piece of rock was positioned slantingly at this road. Subject to age and weathering, the sign was split down the middle with a large crack. Even from within the crack, withered weeds peeked out.Two large characters, which appeared to be the place that the road led to, had been carved onto the sign. One could manage to tell that the bottom character was the character for "city". However, the top character was complex in both form and brushstrokes. The crack just so happened to have run through it, causing a few broken bits of rock to lay scattered on the ground. Wei WuXian bent down and pushed the weeds aside. Even after staring at it for a long time, he still couldn’t figure out what the character was.Coincidentally, the direction that the left arm pointed at was indeed this path.Wei WuXian, "Why don’t we ask the villagers?"Lan WangJi nodded. Of course, Wei WuXian didn’t expect him to ask. With a large grin over his face, Wei WuXian walked toward the villager women who were feeding the chicken.Among the group women, some were old and some were young. Noticing the approach of an unfamiliar man, all of them looked nervous, as if they wanted to throw their dustpans away and flee back inside. Only after Wei WuXian exchanged a few words with them, a cheerful smile on his face, did they finally begin to calm down and respond shyly.As Wei WuXian pointed at the sign and asked a question, their expressions changed at once. They paused for a moment, and unwillingly started to converse with him. During the chat, they didn’t dare to look at Lan WangJi, who stood by the sign, at all. With the corners of his lips still curved upward, Wei WuXian listened intently. Eventually, it seemed as if the topic had switched, and the women’s expressions calmed again. They gradually relaxed and started to smile timidly at him.Lan WangJi stared at them from afar. He waited for a while, but Wei WuXian still didn’t seem like he intended to return. Slowly looking to the ground, Lan WangJi kicked a small chunk of rock that was by his feet.He stepped on it for a long time, rolling the innocent rock over again and again. As he looked up again, he saw Wei WuXian take something from his sleeves and hand it to the woman who spoke the most.Lan WangJi stood still, a blank look on his face. When he really couldn’t control himself anymore, ready to approach them, Wei WuXian finally sauntered over.He stood back beside Lan WangJi, "HanGuang-Jun, you should’ve went. There were even rabbits in the yard!"Lan WangJi didn’t react to his teasing comment and responded with feigned indifference, "What have they answered?"Wei WuXian, "This path leads to Yi City. The first character on the sign is ‘yi’."Lan WangJi, "Yi as in chivalry?"Wei WuXian, "Yes and no."Lan WangJi, "And why is that?"Wei WuXian, "The character is correct, but not the meaning. It’s not yi as in chivalry, but yi as in a coffin home."They stepped over the bundles of weeds and went on the path, quickly passing the sign. Wei WuXian continued, "The girls said that, ever since a long time ago, most of the people in that city have died early, either having short lives or meeting accidental deaths, so there were a lot of coffin homes for temporarily holding the corpses. Also, their specialty is in making coffins, paper money, and other sorts of burial goods. Everyone was skilled at no matter it be making coffins or paper mannequins, which is why it became known by such a name."Aside from wilted weeds and pieces of rocks, on the path, there were also cracks and ditches that were difficult to notice. Lan WangJi kept his eyes on wherever Wei WuXian stepped, while Wei WuXian talked as he walked, "They said that the people here rarely go to Yi City. The people inside don’t leave, either, for reasons other than the export of goods. In the past few years, almost nobody could be seen leaving. Nobody has walked on this path for years. Sure explains why it’s so hard to walk over."Lan WangJi, "And?"Wei WuXian, "And what?"Lan WangJi, "What did you give them?"Wei WuXian, "Oh. You mean that? It’s rouge."When they were in Qinghe, he bought a small compact of rouge from the charlatan that told him information about the Xinglu Ridge, and had always kept it with him. Wei WuXian, "You have to show people your thanks when you’re asking them things, right? I wanted to give them money, but they were too scared and didn’t dare to take it. It seemed like that they really liked the scent of the rouge. They had probably never used such a thing before, so I gave it to them."With a pause, he added, "HanGuang-Jun, why are you looking at me like this? I know that the rouge’s quality really isn’t that great. But I’m not like how I used to be, when I always had a ton of flowers and jewelry on me to give the girls. I really don’t have anything else to give them. At least it’s better than nothing."As if a displeasing memory had bubbled up, Lan WangJi’s brows twitched, and he slowly turned his Walking along the rough path, the weeds gradually became fewer, climbing back toward the sides, and the road also widened. Yet, the fog grew denser.As the left hand formed a fist, a city gate lay in ruins at the end of the long path.The tower in front of the city had missing paint and a broken roof. With one corner chipped off, it looked unusually dilapidated. The walls of the city were covered in graffiti done by some unknown person, while the red color of the doors had almost faded white, every single one of its doornails rusty and black. The pair of doors was left unlatched, almost as if somebody had just opened a slit and slipped inside.Even before entering, one could feel that this must be haunted with ghosts and demons running wild.As Wei WuXian walked down the path, he examined the surroundings carefully. At the city gates, he commented, "The feng shui is horrible."Lan WangJi nodded without hurry, "Barren mountains and turbulent rivers."Yi City was surrounded by steep cliffs on all sides. The cliffs tilted toward the center in an extreme manner, appearing both menacing and constricting, almost as if it would collapse any moment. Bound by these dark, massive peaks and enveloped in the ghostly white fog, it appeared even monstrous than monsters. Even simply standing here would make one feel anxious and suffocated, along with a strong sense of being threatened.Ever since the ancient times, there had been the saying that "the greatness of a person brings glory to their birthplace". The opposite saying was also present. In some places, because of the terrain or location, the feng shui would be exceptionally awful. Surrounded by a natural gust of sinister energy, it was easy for anyone who lived there to die early or be generally unlucky. If all of their ancestors dwelled there, then they’d be even more unfortunate. Also, irregularities such as living corpses or the return of souls. It was clear that Yi City was such a place.Places like this were usually in secluded locations that weren’t under the control of any cultivational sect. Of course, even if they were, sects wouldn’t want to help either. Such situations really were annoying, even more annoying than the Waterborne Abyss. The Waterborne Abyss could be chased away. However, feng shui was difficult to change. If nobody wailed in front of their doors, the sects turned a blind eye and pretended that they didn’t know.For the city’s residents, the easiest solution was to leave the place. But, if someone’s family had been living at a secluded place for generations, it’d be almost impossible for them to make the decision to leave where they grew up. Even if five or six out of ten people would have short lives, maybe they would be the remaining three or four. It didn’t seem too unbearable.The two halted before the city gates and exchanged a look.Squeak. Supported by hinges on the verge of snapping, the two city doors, although being unable to align properly, slowly opened.Before their eyes, there was neither bustling streets nor violent corpses. There was only an all-enveloping shade of white.The fog was even a few times denser than the fog outside the city, allowing them to only see a long, straight street ahead of them. On the sides, there stood no passers, but only brooding houses.The two of them naturally walked a few steps nearer to each other, and entered the city together.It was still daytime, but no sound could be heard in the city. Aside from the lack of human voices, not a single note of caws or barks could be heard either. It was more than peculiar.Then again, since this was the place where the left arm pointed, it’d be stranger if it weren’t peculiar.They walked down the street for a while. The farther they went, the thicker the fog, as if evil energy permeated the air. At first, they could still manage to see anything within ten steps’ distance. And then it became impossible to make out any figure more than five steps away. In the end, they couldn’t even see their hands in front of them. The more Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi walked, the closer to each other they shifted. They could only manage to see each other’s face if they walked shoulder-to-shoulder. A thought suddenly popped into Wei WuXian’s mind, If someone took advantage of this fog and snuck between us, a third person to our group of two, it’d be hard to say whether or not we’ll notice.Suddenly, his foot stepped on something. He looked down, but couldn’t tell what it was. Wei WuXian grasped Lan WangJi’s hand firmly so that he didn’t go off on his own, bent down, and squinted. A head with a pair of glaring eyes ripped through the fog, jumping into his sight.The head had the face of a man with thick brows, large eyes, and two smudges of rouge that stood out acutely.When Wei WuXian stepped on the head, he almost sent it flying, so he knew how heavy it weighed. Being so light, this definitely wasn’t a human head. He picked it up and squeezed it. A large part of the man’s face sunk in. Some of the rouge was also smudged.It was a head made from paper.The paper head was skillfully crafted. Although the makeup was overly dramatic, the features were rather delicate. Yi City’s specialty was burial goods, so of course the technique of crafting paper mannequins was decent. Among the paper mannequins, there were substitute mannequins, which the people believed that, if burned for the deceased, would suffer in hell in place of them; there were also maidservants and beautiful girls, which would attentively care for the deceased in the nether world. Of course, these were really only made for the living to feel some relief. This paper head was probably a "Nether Brawler".Like its name, a "Nether Brawler" was a fighter, said to be able to protect the deceased from the bullying of other ghosts or tricky Judges; the paper money that the juniors burned wouldn’t be stolen away by other souls either. The paper head definitely had a large, sturdy body also made of paper to go with it. Someone had probably pulled the head off and thrown it onto the streets.The strands of hair on the paper head were jet-black and quite glossy. Wei WuXian touched it. The hair was firmly attached to the scalp, as if the head really grew the hair. He thought to himself, It really was crafted skillfully. Did they take real, human hair and glue it on?Suddenly, a thin shadow swept past him.The shadow was extremely bizarre. It ran past, brushing against his shoulder, and instantly disappeared into the thick fog. Bichen unsheathed on its own, chasing after the figure, but quickly returned to its sheath.The thing that slipped by him ran too quickly—a human definitely couldn’t have reached that speed!Lan WangJi, "Pay attention. Be careful."Although it only brushed past, it was difficult to say that the next time it came, it wouldn’t do something else.Wei WuXian straightened up, "Did you hear that?"Lan WangJi, "Footsteps and a bamboo pole."He was correct. During the moment, aside from hurried footsteps, they heard another strange noise. The ta-ta sounded rather clear, as if someone was quickly tapping a bamboo pole on the ground. Wei WuXian didn’t know why the noise was present.In front of them, from within the fog, came another series of footsteps.This time, the footsteps were light, slower, and greater in number. It seemed as if a group of people were carefully approaching, but not saying anything. Wei WuXian fished out a Gloom-burning Talisman and tossed it forward. If anything surrounded by resentful energy was in front of them, it would burn up, and the fire would probably somewhat light up the area.The people in front also noticed that something had been tossed at them. They immediately attacked.A multitude of differently-colored sword glares rushed over. Bichen unsheathed calmly and drifted in front of Wei WuXian, fending off all of the glares. On the other side, the people fumbled in confusion. Hearing the shouts, Lan WangJi immediately sheathed Bichen. Wei WuXian called out, "Jin Ling? SiZhui!"As he expected, he hadn’t heard wrong. Jin Ling’s voice sounded through the white fog, "Why’s it you again?!"Wei WuXian, "Well, actually, I want to know why it’s you again!"Lan SiZhui tried to contain himself, but his voice sounded delighted, "Young Master Mo, you are also here? Then is HanGuang-Jun here as well?"Hearing that Lan WangJi might also be here, Jin Ling shut his mouth immediately, as if he had been silenced again. He was probably scared that he’d be punished again. Lan JingYi also shouted, "He definitely is! The glare before was from Bichen, right? It was Bichen, right?!"Wei WuXian, "Yep. He’s here, right beside me. You should come over."As soon as the boys knew that the ones in front of them were friend instead of foe, they immediately let out a few sighs of relief and scurried over. Aside from Jin Ling and some of the Lan Sect’s juniors, there were also seven or eight boys wearing clothes of different sects, who still acted hesitant. They were probably also disciples from distinguished backgrounds. Wei WuXian asked, "Why are all of you here? With such an attack, it’s lucky that I have HanGuang-Jun by my side. What if you hurt ordinary people?"Jin Ling retorted, "There isn’t any ordinary people here—there isn’t any people here at all!"Lan SiZhui nodded, "It is daylight, but there is fog everywhere. And there is not a single shop open."Wei WuXian, "This won’t matter for now. How did you guys run into each other? Don’t tell me that you arranged to night-hunt together." Jin Ling saw everyone as an eyesore and wanted to fight with everyone. And, since he already had an unpleasant interaction with the Lan Sect’s disciples, how would it be possible that they wanted to night-hunt together? Lan SiZhui obediently explained, "That would be a long story. We were originally…"Suddenly, a series of clucks and taps, the unusually ear-piercing noise of a bamboo pole knocking on the ground, came from within the dense fog.The juniors’ faces changed at once, "It’s here again!"<h3>Translator’s Notes

Chapter 34 Grasses—Part Two

Chapter 35 Grasses—Part Three</h3><h3>T/N: *You don’t want to be eating while reading this.</h3>He couldn’t help but loosen his hand, yet Wei WuXian saved the oil lamp just as it was about to hit the ground. Calmly brushing it against the burning fire talisman on the other hand, he lit it up and set it onto the table, "Did you make these yourself, Manager? They’re quite well-made."The rest finally realized that the people who stood in the room were not real humans, but actually paper mannequins.The mannequins’ heads and bodies were delicately crafted, the same size as those of real people. There were men, women, and even children. All of the men were "Nether Brawlers", crafted with tall, sturdy bodies and angered expressions. All of the women were fair-featured beauties, with hair in either single or double buns. Even when covered with loose-fitting paper clothes, one could still see their graceful postures. The patterns on the clothes were almost finer than those of real brocade robes—some were colored with rich, vivid ink; others were uncolored, left with ashen grays. On each mannequin’s cheeks, there were two smears of blush in pretense for a living person’s rosy complexion. However, none of their pupils had been added yet—the eyes were entirely white. The bolder the blush was, the gloomier they looked.There was another table in the room. On the table, there were a few candlesticks, each a different length than the others. Wei WuXian lit them up one by one, and the yellow light illuminated most corners of the house. Aside from the paper mannequins, there were also two wreaths placed on both sides of the room. Paper gold, ghost money, and pagodas were heaped up beside the walls.Jin Ling already had his sword slightly unsheathed. Seeing that it was only a shop that sold burial goods, he sighed with discreet relief and sheathed his sword again. In the cultivational world, even if a cultivator passed away, nobody employed the eerie, chaotic obsequies of the common folk. Since they hadn’t seen such things before, after the initial scare, curiosity sprouted from within their hearts. With skin covered in goosebumps, they felt that it was even more exciting than night-hunting ordinary beasts.No matter how dense the fog was, it couldn’t seep into houses. Ever since they entered Yi City, this was the only point in time were they could easily see one another’s faces, which set their minds at rest. Wei WuXian saw that they’d relaxed, and asked the old woman again, "Would it be possible for us to borrow your kitchen?"The old woman almost glowered at the lamp, as if she disliked the presence of any light, "The kitchen is in the back. Use it as you please." After her words, she dodged into another room as though she was avoiding the plague. She slammed the door so loud that a few even shivered.Jin Ling exclaimed, "There’s definitely something wrong with the hag! You…"Wei WuXian responded, "Okay. Hush. I need somebody to help me. Any volunteers?"Lan SiZhui hurried, "I can come."Lan JingYi was still standing as straight as a stick, "Then what do I do?"Wei WuXian, "Remain standing. Don’t move if I don’t tell you to."Lan SiZhui followed Wei WuXian to the kitchen in the back. As soon as they went in, they were overwhelmed by a foul stench. Lan SiZhui had never smelled such a terrible scent before. Although his head spun, he managed to stop himself from rushing back out. Jin Ling followed as well, but leapt outside again immediately after he entered. He fanned the air as fast as he could, "What in the world is this?!! What are you doing here instead of thinking up cures?!"Wei WuXian, "Hmm? Perfect timing. How did you know that I was going to call you over? Lend me a hand."Jin Ling, "I’m not here to help! Urgh! Did somebody kill someone but forget to bury them?!"Wei WuXian, "Young Mistress Jin, are you coming or not? If you’re coming, then come in and help; if you’re not coming, then go back and tell someone else to come over."Jin Ling raged, "Who are you calling Young Mistress Jin? Be careful what you say!" He pinched his nose for a while, debating with himself whether or not to stay or to leave, and finally humphed, "Well I want to see what on Earth you’re trying to do." With this, he stormed inside. Yet, he didn’t expect that, with a bang, Wei WuXian opened a chest on the ground, which was where the stench came from. Within the chest, there were ham and chicken. Blotches of green dotted among the red meat, while white, coiling maggots dotted among the green.Jin Ling was forced to exit the room again. Wei WuXian picked up the chest and passed it to him, "Throw it away. Anywhere works, as long as we don’t smell it."With a churning stomach and a head full of doubt, Jin Ling threw it out as he was told. He fiercely rubbed his fingers with a handkerchief, then threw it out as well. After he returned to the kitchen, Wei WuXian and Lan SiZhui fetched two buckets of water from the well in the backyard, and were currently cleaning the kitchen. Jin Ling demanded, "What are you doing?"Lan SiZhui wiped around in diligence, "As you can see, we are cleaning the kitchen hearth."Jin Ling, "What’s the use of cleaning the hearth? We’re not making food or anything."Wei WuXian, "Who told you so? We are making food. You can sweep the dust. Get rid of all the cobwebs up there."His words sounded so natural, so assured that, with a broom stuck into his hands, Jin Ling somehow obeyed. The more he cleaned, the more he felt that something was off. Just as he was about to throw the duster at Wei WuXian’s head, Wei WuXian opened another box, scaring him to the point that he darted out again. Luckily, this time, there wasn’t any stench.The three worked quickly. After a short while, the kitchen looked completely different. The house finally seemed a bit more lively, no longer haunted and long-abandoned. In a corner, there were some already-chopped firewood. They piled them into the hearth and set them alight using a fire talisman. They rested a large pot that they had already washed on the hearth and began to boil water. Wei WuXian poured some glutinous rice out of the second chest, washed all of it, and put it into the pot.Jin Ling, "You’re making congee?"Wei WuXian, "Uh-huh."Jin Ling hurled the cleaning rag onto the ground. Wei WuXian commented, "You see how you get mad after working for just a bit? Look at SiZhui. He worked the hardest and didn’t even say anything yet. What’s wrong with congee?"Jin Ling, "What’s not wrong with congee? It’s so watery and tasteless! Wait… I’m not mad because there’s something wrong with congee!"Wei WuXian, "It’s not for you anyways."Jin Ling was even more angered, "What did you say? I worked for so long, and I don’t even get any?!"Lan SiZhui, "Young Master Mo, is it that congee can cure corpse poisoning?"Wei WuXian smiled, "Yes, but it’s not the congee that can cure corpse poisoning—it’s the rice. This is folk medicine. Normally, you apply the glutinous rice to the scratched or bitten wound. In the future, if you ever find yourselves in such a situation again, you can try this. Although it’ll hurt a lot, it definitely works efficiently. But, since they swallowed corpse poisoning powder instead of being scratched or bitten, we can only make some rice congee for them to eat up."Lan SiZhui came to realization, "So that was why you intended to enter a house with someone inside. Only a house with someone living inside could have a kitchen. Only a kitchen could have glutinous rice."Jin Ling, "Who knows how long the rice has been here for? Can you still eat it? This kitchen hasn’t been used in at least a year. There’s dust everywhere and the meat’s even rotten. Don’t tell me that the hag hasn’t eaten for an entire year. It’s impossible that she has practiced inedia. How did she survive?"Wei WuXian, "It’s either that nobody has been living here and that she really isn’t the shopkeeper at all, or that she simply doesn’t need to eat."Lan SiZhui lowered his voice, "If she does not need to eat, then she would be dead. But the old woman clearly breathes."Using a spatula, Wei WuXian nonchalantly stirred the pot of congee, mixing in ingredients from various bottles and jars, "Right. You haven’t finished explaining. Why did you come to Yi City together? It wasn’t just by chance that you ran into each other and then us, was it?"The boys’ expressions immediately grew serious. Jin Ling replied, "I, the Lan Sect’s people, and the ones from other sects were all chasing after something. I came from the Qinghe area."Lan SiZhui also replied, "We came from Langya."Wei WuXian, Lan SiZhui shook his head, "We do not know. It never showed its face. We don’t even know what or who… or which organization it was, exactly."Ever since a few days ago, after Jin Ling lied to his uncle and let Wei WuXian go, he had been worried that this time Jiang Cheng would really break his legs, so he decided to sneak out and disappear for a few days, not appearing in front of Jiang Cheng until his anger subsided. He ran away immediately after he passed Zidian to one of Jiang Cheng’s trusted subordinates. Having arrived at a city on the border of the Qinghe area, his journey paused. In search for the location for his next night-hunt, he took a short rest at a large inn. At night, when he was memorizing spells in his room, Fairy, who lay by his side, suddenly started barking at the door. It was already deep into the night. Jin Ling ordered the dog to stop, yet he immediately heard someone knocking on the door.Although Fairy stopped barking, it was still restless. Its claws dug at the ground as it growled deeply. Already on the alert, Jin Ling asked for who the person was. There came no reply, so he got back to his business. However, after an hour, the knocks sounded again.Jin Ling leaped out the window along with Fairy. He circled around and went upstairs from the first floor, intending to see who exactly was messing with him in the middle of the night. Despite his efforts, there was nobody there. He waited silently for a while, but still didn’t see anyone in front of his door.Keeping an eye on this, he let Fairy guard the door. He was ready to attack the person at any moment and stayed awake for the whole night. Despite this, nothing had happened. There were only some strange sounds, as if water was dripping down.On the second morning, a scream came from outside the door. Jin Ling kicked the door open only to step into a pool of blood. Something fell from above the door. Darting backward, Jin Ling barely managed to prevent it from hitting him.It was a black cat!Someone, not long ago, nailed the corpse of a dead cat on top of his door. The strange dripping sounds he heard throughout the night were from the cat’s blood dripping down.Jin Ling, "It was the same after switching to a few different inns, so I went on the offensive. If I heard that a cat’s corpse happened to appear anywhere, I would go and see, since I just had to find out who was messing around."Wei WuXian turned to Lan SiZhui, "You guys as well?"Lan SiZhui nodded, "Yes. A few days ago, a few of us were night-hunting at Langya. During dinner one day, we suddenly fished out the unskinned head of a cat from inside the soup… In the beginning, we did not know that it was directed at us, but on that night, when we switched to another inn, we found the corpse of a cat in one of the bedsheets. It was the same for a few continuous days. We chased after it, arrived at Yueyang, and ran into Young Master Jin. We found out that we were searching for the same thing, so we decided to work together, and only arrived at this area today. We asked a hunter in the village in front of a stone tablet, and we were shown the path to Yi City."Wei WuXian thought to himself, A hunter?The juniors should’ve passed the village in front the road fork after Lan WangJi and he did. However, they didn’t see any hunters at the time. There were only a few timid village women feeding chicken, who said that the men were out shipping goods and wouldn’t be back for a long while.The more Wei WuXian thought about it, the more solemn his expression grew.From the narration, their opposition did nothing other than killing cats and dumping the corpses. Although it both sounded and looked scary, they weren’t actually harmed. In fact, these events stirred up their curiosity to get to the root of the matter.Also, these juniors met one another in Yueyang. Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi also came to Shudong from Yueyang. It almost seemed as if somebody was purposely leading the muddleheaded juniors to meet up with the two of them.To lead a few confused juniors to a dangerous place for them to face the violent limb of a fierce corpse—wasn’t this the exact same routine as the occurrence at Mo Village?And, this wasn’t the most complicated part of it. Right now, what Wei WuXian feared the most was that… the Stygian Tiger Seal might be within Yi City at this very moment.Although Wei WuXian didn’t really want to accept this possibility, it was nonetheless the most reasonable explanation. After all, someone who could restore half of the Tiger Seal had even existed. Despite the talk that he had been dealt with, who knew where the seal that he had restored went?Suddenly, Lan SiZhui, who had been squatting on the ground to fan the flame, raised his head, "Senior Mo, I think that the congee is ready?"Gathering his thoughts, he stopped stirring. He grabbed the bowl that Lan SiZhui had washed and tasted a spoonful of the congee, "It’s ready. Take it out. Feed one bowl to each person who had been poisoned."However, after it had been carried out, Lan JingYi only had one mouthful before spitting it out, "What is this? Poison?!"Wei WuXian, "How is this poison? It’s the cure! Glutinous rice congee."Lan JingYi, "First of all, I don’t know know why glutinous rice would be the cure, but I’ve never eaten such a spicy bowl of congee before!"The rest of the boys who had taste their servings nodded in unison, all of their eyes wet with tears. Wei WuXian stroked his chin. He grew up in Yunmeng. People from Yunmeng were all quite spice-tolerant, but Wei WuXian’s penchant for spice was beyond hardcore. Anytime he set about the kitchen, the food would be so spicy that even Jiang Cheng could only smash his bowl and curse. Yet, for some reason, he just couldn’t hold back from adding spoonful after spoonful of seasoning. It seemed that, this time, he wasn’t able to control his hands either. Out of curiosity, Lan SiZhui picked up the bowl and tried a mouthful. Even as his face flushed red and his eyes teared up, he pursed his lips and refrained from spitting it out, thinking to himself, The taste… is so scary that it almost brings about a sense of deja vu.Wei WuXian, "All medicine is poisonous to some degree. The spice will make you sweat so that you get better sooner."The eww-s coming from the boys revealed their disbelief. Nonetheless, with bitter faces, they ate up the congee. Within seconds, all of their faces reddened and their foreheads gleamed as they suffered from the agony. Wei WuXian couldn’t help but comment, "It’s not that serious, is it? HanGuang-Jun is also from Gusu. He takes spice quite well, so why are you guys like this?"Lan SiZhui answered with a hand covering his mouth, "No, Senior. HanGuang-Jun’s taste is very mild. He never eats spice…"Wei WuXian paused for a moment, "Really."But he could remember that in his past life, before he betrayed the YunmengJiang Sect, he had met with Lan WangJi in Yiling once. At the time, although Wei WuXian was widely reviled, it wasn’t to the point that everyone wanted to beat him up. Thus, pulling on a thick face, he asked Lan WangJi to have dinner with him so that they could reminisce together. All of the dishes that Lan WangJi ordered were packed with Sichuan peppers, and so he had always thought that Lan WangJi’s taste for spice was pretty much the same as him.Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t remember whether or not Lan WangJi actually picked up his chopsticks. Then again, he even forgot about how he said that the meal was his treat, so Lan WangJi ended up paying for them anyway. This was why it was only natural for him to forget such a detail.He didn’t know why but, all of a sudden, he really, really wanted to see Lan WangJi’s face."… Senior, Senior Mo!""Hmm?" Wei WuXian finally pulled himself together. Lan SiZhui whispered, "The old lady’s door… has opened."From somewhere came an eerie gust of wind, faintly opening the room’s door. The door swayed open and closed, revealing the vague outline of a stooping shadow sitting by a table within the frightful darkness. Wei WuXian signalled for them to stay put and walked into the room alone.The dim light of the oil lamp and candlesticks in the central chamber leaked inside. The old woman sat with her head hung low, as if she didn’t notice that someone had entered. A cloth lay on her knees, tightly stretched with an embroidery frame, suggesting that she was doing needlework. Her two hands stiffly stuck to each other as they tried to guide a thread through a needle.Wei WuXian sat down by the table as well, "Manager, why not light the lamp if you’re threading a needle? Let me help."He took over the needle and thread—the thread went through at once. Passing it back to the old woman, he walked out of the room as if nothing had happened and closed the door behind him, "There’s no need to go in."Jin Ling, "When you were inside, did you see if the hag’s actually alive or not?"Wei WuXian, "Don’t call her a hag. That’s quite rude. The old lady is a living corpse."The boys looked at one another. Lan SiZhui asked, "What is a living corpse?"Wei WuXian, "From head to toe, everything seems to say that they’re a corpse, but the person is actually living. That’s what a living corpse is."Jin Ling was shocked, "You’re saying that she’s still alive?!"Wei WuXian, "Have you looked inside?""Yes.""What did you see? What was she doing?""Threading a needle.""Did it go in?""… No.""Correct. She’s incapable of threading a needle. Dead people’s muscles are too rigid to perform complex actions such as threading needles. The marks on her face aren’t age spots, but livor mortis. And she doesn’t need to eat, either. It’s only that she can breathe which makes her alive."Lan SiZhui, "B-but, the old lady is already quite elderly. A lot of old ladies have poor eyesight and cannot thread needles by themselves."Wei WuXian, "So I helped her. Did you notice the other thing, though? From opening the door until now, she hasn’t blinked even once."The boys blinked a few times. Wei WuXian continued, "Living people blink to prevent eyes from becoming sore. Dead people, on the other hand, have no need to do this. And, when I took the needle and thread over, did anyone notice how she looked at me?"Jin Ling, "Her eyeballs didn’t move… but her head did!"Wei WuXian, "Precisely. When most people look somewhere, their eyeballs usually move, no matter how slight the movement is. However, dead people’s eyes don’t. This is because dead people can’t carry out an action as subtle as moving their eyeballs. They can only turn their heads and necks instead."Lan JingYi was baffled, "Should we be taking notes?"Wei WuXian, "A good habit, but do you think you’d have time to flip through your notes when you’re out night-hunting? Keep it in your minds."Jin Ling spoke through clenched teeth, "Walking corpses are already weird enough. Why do things like living corpses exist?!"Wei WuXian, "There are a lot of disadvantages to dead people: rigid muscles, slow movement, and so on. However, there are also quite a few advantages: the lack of fear towards pain, the inability to think, how easy they are to control. Somebody thought that they could amend for the disadvantages of corpses and create perfect corpse puppets. This was how living corpses came into being."Although the boys didn’t say anything, one single sentence was written all over their faces— "This person must be Wei! Wu! Xian!"Wei WuXian didn’t know whether to laugh or frown, thinking silently, But I really haven’t done such a thing!Although, it really did sound like his way of doing things!He carried on, "Ahem. Alright. Wei WuXian started it. But, he successfully made Wen Ning, or the Ghost General. To be honest, I’ve always wanted to ask—who exactly came up with this title? It’s so dumb. Anyways, there were some other people who wanted to imitate this but weren’t good enough, so they used improper means. Targeting living people instead, they developed living corpses." He concluded, "A type of failed imitations."Hearing Wei WuXian’s name, Jin Ling’s face froze over. He snorted, "Wei Ying himself used improper means."Wei WuXian, "Yep. Then, the ones who developed living corpses used the most improper means of all improper means."Lan SiZhui, "Senior Mo, what should we do now?"Wei WuXian, "Some living corpses may not know that they’re already dead. I think that this old lady is one of the confused corpses. Let’s just not disturb her for now."Out of blue, a series of the crisp taps of a bamboo pole knocking on the ground suddenly sounded.The sound came from nearby a window, which was sealed shut by strips of black, wooden boards. All of the disciples in the central chamber turned pale. Ever since they entered the city, they had been constantly pestered by the sound. They now panicked whenever they heard it. Wei WuXian gestured for them to be quiet. All of them held their breaths as they watched Wei WuXian walk to the window and look outside through a narrow slit between the boards.As soon as Wei WuXian approached the slit, he could see a field of white. He thought that the fog outside was too thick for him to see anything. Suddenly, however, the whiteness rapidly shrunk backward.He saw a pair of white, hideous eyes, glowering at the slit between the boards. The field of white he saw wasn’t fog, but the pair of pupil-less eyes.<h3>Translator’s Notes

Chapter 36 Grasses—Part Four</h3>Jin Ling and the group felt that their hearts were about to jump out of their chests, as they feared that something would happen to Wei WuXian as he was looking outside and that he would collapse with his hands covering his eyes. With an ah of exclamation coming from him, the boys’ hearts skipped a few beats. Even their hair seemed to be standing, "What happened?!"Wei WuXian spoke as quietly as he could, "Shh. Don’t talk. I’m looking at it."Jin Ling lowered his voice so that it was even quieter than Wei WuXian’s, "Then what are you seeing? What’s the thing outside the door?"Wei WuXian neither took his gaze away nor gave a straightforward answer, "Hmmm… Yes… This is amazing. Truly amazing."The expression that could be seen from the side of his face was filled with delight, and both his praise and exclamation sounded as though they were from the bottom of his heart. The disciples’ curiosity immediately overrode their nervousness. Lan SiZhui couldn’t help but ask, "… Senior Mo, what is truly amazing?"Wei WuXian, "Wow! It’s so pretty. Be quiet, you guys. Don’t scare it away. I’m not done looking at it."Jin Ling, "Move! I want to see.""Me too!"Wei WuXian, "Are you sure?""Yes!"Wei WuXian took his time stepping aside, as if he was unwilling to leave. Jin Ling was the first to move over. He looked outside through the thin slit between the wooden boards.It was already nighttime. In the cold atmosphere, even the fog in Yi City had somewhat dissipated, just barely allowing one to see the street at a few meters away. Jin Ling peeked for a while. Failing to find the "amazing", "pretty" thing, he was rather disappointed, thinking to himself, I didn’t scare it away by talking, did I?Just as he was about to give up, a small, shrivelled figure suddenly flashed before the slit.Having seen the entire appearance of the entity without any preparations, Jin Ling’s scalp prickled from the shock. He almost bursted out but, somehow suppressing the exclamation that was still in his chest, he actually managed to stay silent, and maintained the stiff, bent-down posture. After the tingles above his head had passed, he turned to Wei WuXian in spite of himself. Wei WuXian, the root of the commotion, leaned on the window beside the door. With one corner of his mouth curving upward, he raised his eyebrows and gave Jin Ling a sly smile, "Doesn’t it look pretty?"Jin Ling glared back at him. Knowing that he was making fun of them on purpose, Jin Ling grit his teeth, "… Yes…"With a change of heart, he straightened up and casually replied, "It’s so-so at best. Only barely worthy of a look!"After the comment, he moved aside, waiting for the next person to be fooled. Their deceiving words roused the rest of the group’s level of curiosity to a peak. Lan SiZhui couldn’t hold himself from staying still and walked to the same spot. Just as his eyes approached the slit, he bursted out with an "ah!", but in all honesty, unlike the previous two. With a face full of panic, he jumped backward from the shock. He only found Wei WuXian after dizzily spinning around a few times, then complained, "Senior Mo! There is a… a…"Wei WuXian responded in absolute awareness, "There’s a that, right? No need to say it out loud, else it’d no longer be a pleasant surprise. Let everyone go see for himself."It was impossible for the others to still dare go over after they saw Lan SiZhui’s terrified reaction. A pleasant surprise? More like a nasty fright. All of them waved their hands in refusal, "No thanks. No thanks."Jin Ling spat, "The situation’s already like this and you’re still playing tricks. Just what in the world were you thinking?"Wei WuXian, "You joined me as well, didn’t you? Don’t imitate your uncle’s tone. SiZhui, was it scary?"Lan SiZhui obediently nodded, "Yes."Wei WuXian, "That’s good. This is an excellent opportunity for your cultivation. Why do ghosts scare people? It’s because when people are scared, their consciousness fades while their spirit surges, which make the easiest moments to suck out their yang energy. This is why ghosts are the most afraid of those who are fearless, who aren’t scared of them. There are no opportunities to seize, so there isn’t anything that ghosts can do to them. Thus, as disciples of cultivation, your number one goals are to become braver!"Glad that he didn’t take a curious look due to his inability to move, Lan JingYi muttered, "Braveness is determined at birth. What can you possibly do if you were born a coward?"Wei WuXian, "Were you born knowing how to fly on swords? People only know how to do it after practicing and practicing. Similarly, people can get used to things after being scared. Does the outhouse reek? Is it disgusting? Trust me, if you live in an outhouse for a month, you’ll even be able to eat your meals in there."The boys were absolutely terrified. They dismissed the claim in unison, "No you cannot!!! That is impossible!!!"Wei WuXian, "It’s only an example. Okay, I admit that I haven’t lived in an outhouse before. I don’t know if you can actually eat in there. I have no evidence. However, you must try the one outside the door. You must not only look at it but, moreover, look carefully. Watch for the details. From the details, find any hidden weaknesses in the shortest time possible. You must take the situation calmly and search for chances to counter-attack. Alright, have I said enough for you to understand? Most people wouldn’t have the opportunity for my guidance. Make use of it. Nobody move any further away. A single-file line, please. Look one at a time.""… Do we really have to?"Wei WuXian, "Of course. I never joke around. I never fool people, either. Let’s start with JingYi. Both Jin Ling and SiZhui have looked already."Lan JingYi, "What? I would not have to look, would I? People under corpse poisoning cannot move. You said so yourself."Wei WuXian, "Let me see your tongue. Ah."Lan JingYi, "Ah."Wei WuXian, "Congratulations. You have been cured. Bravely make your first step forward. Come on!"Lan JingYi, "I have been cured already?! You are kidding, right?!"With his protests denied, he could only toughen up and walk toward the window. He looked once, then looked away. He looked once more, then looked away again. Wei WuXian knocked on the board, "What are you scared of? I’m standing here. It won’t break through the board, much less eat your eyeballs or anything."Lan JingYi jumped away, "I’m finished looking!"And then, whenever someone’s turn came, there’d be sharp gasps of fright. After everyone went, Wei WuXian spoke again, "Finished looking? Then, everyone, tell the group what details you’ve picked up. Let’s summarize."Jin Ling fought to speak first, "White eyes. Female. Short and skinny. Fine looks. Holding a bamboo pole."Lan SiZhui thought for a moment, "The girl’s height reaches my chest. She is only wearing rags and does not look too clean, dressed like a beggar roaming the streets. The bamboo pole appears to be a white cane. It is possible that her white eyes were not formed after death, but instead because she had been blind before she passed away."Wei WuXian commented, "Jin Ling had greater quantity, while SiZhui had higher quality."Jin Ling’s lips twitched in dissatisfaction.One boy spoke up, "The girl is only around fifteen or sixteen. She has an oval face, with a lively air about her delicate features. She fastened her long hair with a wooden hairpin, which had a small fox head carved onto the end. She’s not only small—her figure is slender as well. Although she’s not that tidy, she’s not grimy either. After some grooming, she’s bound to be a lovely girl."Hearing this, Wei WuXian immediately felt that this boy would have a very promising future. He vigorously praised, "Well done, well done. The observations are both detailed and unique. Child, you’ll definitely be the sentimental type after you grow up."The boy blushed and turned to face the wall, ignoring his peers’ laughter. Another boy spoke, "It looks like that the sounds of a bamboo pole knocking on the ground were from when she was walking. If she had been blind before she passed away, she would not have been able to see even after she became a ghost, so she could only rely on the white cane."Another one of the boys argued, "But how would that be possible? You have all seen blind people, have you not? Because they cannot use their eyes, they move and walk slowly, in case they bump into anything. However, the ghost outside the door has swift movements. I have never seen such a nimble blind person before."Wei WuXian smiled, "Good job. Props to you for thinking about this. This is exactly how you should analyze. Don’t dismiss any points of suspicion. Now, let’s invite her inside to get some answers."As soon as he finished his sentence, he immediately took off one of the boards. Not only the boys inside, even the ghost outside the window jumped from his sudden movement, warily raising her bamboo pole.Wei WuXian first greeted the ghost, then asked, "Maiden, do you have any The girl widened her eyes. If she were a living person, she must have looked as adorable as can be. However, with no pupils and only two streaks of blood pouring from her eyes, it only made her look scarier than ever. Some more people in the back had gasped. Wei WuXian comforted them, "What are you scared of? You’re gonna get used to seeing people bleeding from the seven qiaoin the future. It’s only two of the seven that are currently bleeding, and you can’t handle it? This is why I tell you to experience more things and toughen up."Before this, the girl had been irritatedly circling in front of their window, knocking on the ground with her pole, stomping her feet, glaring at everyone, waving her arms around. Now, however, her actions changed. She gestured, as if she wanted to express something. Jin Ling wondered, "Strange. Can’t she talk?"Hearing this, the girl’s ghost paused, then opened her mouth.Blood gushed out from her empty mouth. Her tongue had been pulled out from its root.The disciples were covered in goosebumps, yet they felt a same sense of sympathy, So that was why she could not speak. Both blind and mute—how unfortunate.Wei WuXian, "Is she using sign language? Does anyone understand?"Nobody understood. The girl was so anxious that she stomped her feet, using her pole to write and scribble on the ground. Yet, she clearly wasn’t from a scholarly family. She was illiterate and couldn’t write anything. With only a mess of stick-figures, no-one could understand what she was trying to say.Suddenly, from the far end of the street came a series of sprinting footsteps and human pants.The girl’s spirit suddenly disappeared. She’d probably come back again, though, so Wei WuXian wasn’t worried. He quickly put the board back and continued peeping outside from the slit. The rest of the disciples wanted to see the situation outside as well, and all squeezed in front of the door. A row of heads stacked from the top to the bottom, blocking the entire slit.Although the fog had thinned for a while, at the moment, it started to circulate again. A figure clumsily broke through the fog and rushed over.The person was dressed in black. As if he had been injured, he staggered as he ran. A sword hung by his waist, which was also enveloped in black cloth. Lan JingYi whispered, "Is he the mist-faced man?"Lan SiZhui whispered back, "Probably not. The mist-faced man had entirely different moves from this person."A group of walking corpses followed the person. Moving quickly, they soon caught up to him. The person faced the attacks by unsheathing his sword. Its bright, limpid sword glare sliced the fog open. Wei WuXian silently cheered, What a good move!However, after the attack, the strange yet familiar spurts sounded again. The black-red powder shot out from the corpses’ severed limbs. The person was surrounded by them. With nowhere to hide, he stood where he was, and was immediately engulfed by the powder. Lan SiZhui was shocked by the scene. He urged in a hushed voice, "Senior Mo, this man, we…"Another group of walking corpses went over and surrounded the person. The circle shrank smaller and smaller. His sword slashed out again, and more corpse-poisoning powder bursted out. He breathed in more of the powder as well, appearing as though he was already beginning to lose his balance. Wei WuXian spoke up, "We need to help him."Jin Ling, "How do you intend on helping him? We can’t go over there now. The corpse-poisoning powder is everywhere. You’re gonna get poisoned if you go near."After a moment of thinking, Wei WuXian left the window and walked inside the central chamber. The boys couldn’t help but follow him with their eyes. Differently-postured paper mannequins stood silently between the two wreaths. Wei WuXian strode in front of them, and stopped in front of a pair of female mannequins.Each of the paper mannequins looked different. Yet, this pair seemed as if they were purposely made to be two twin sisters. Their makeup, clothes, and features were all the exact same. With curved brows and smiling expressions, one could almost hear their "hee-hee" laughter. They wore double-buns, red earrings, gold bracelets, and embroidered shoes, closely resembling a pair of maids from a wealthy family.Wei WuXian, "How about these two?"He lightly brushed his hand against a boy’s unsheathed sword, producing a cut on his thumb. Turning around, he smeared two pairs of eyes, four pupils, onto the mannequins.Then, he took a step backward. With a faint smile, he chanted, "Eyes behind thy long lashes, lips parted, smiling in tease. Mind not the good or evil, with smeared eyes I summon thee."Out of the blue, a chilly breeze drifted across the entire shop. The boys couldn’t help but tightly grip their swords.All of a sudden, the twin mannequin sisters suddenly trembled.The next moment, giggles of "hee-hee" really came out of their brightly tinted lips!It was the Summoning of Painted Eyes!As if they saw or heard something hilarious, the pair of paper mannequins giggled incessantly. At the same time, the eyes painted with human blood spun rapidly inside their sockets. The sight was truly stunning, but also truly frightening. Standing before them, Wei WuXian lowered his head in salutation.With respect, the pair of paper mannequins also bowed slightly, returning salutations of a higher level.Wei WuXian pointed outside the door, "Take the living person back inside. Other than him, eliminate everything."Shrill laughter emerged from the mouths of the paper mannequins. An eerie gust of wind threw the doors open!Side by side, the two mannequins swept outside and into the circle of walking corpses. It was beyond belief how, although they were mannequins made from pieces of paper, they had such strong powers. With dainty shoes and drifting sleeves, they severed the arm of a corpse with one swish of their hands, then severed half of a head with another—it was as if the paper sleeves had been turned into keen blades. The flirtatious giggles continued to echo through the entire length of the street, bringing about both horror and allure.Not long afterward, the fifteen or sixteen walking corpses had been chopped into broken chunks that lay limply on the ground!The two paper maids gained a complete victory. Obeying the command, they carried the weakened escapee inside. Then, as they jumped outside again, the doors closed on their own. Each of them guarded each side of the entrance as if they were lion statues that guarded estates, and finally quieted down.The disciples inside the room were shocked speechless.They had only seen and heard the descriptions of improper cultivation methods from books and their own seniors. At the time, they couldn’t understand it, If they were improper methods, then why would so many people still want to learn them? Why would the YiLing Patriarch still have so many imitators? And, now, after they had seen it with their own eyes, they finally realized the fascination around these sorts of practices. Moreover, this was only the tip of the iceberg—the "Summoning of Painted Eyes". Thus, after the boys got over the initial shock, there were no signs of repulsion on their faces, but instead excitement that couldn’t be concealed. They felt that it enriched their experiences, allowing for more conversations between their juniors and them. Jin Ling was the only one who didn’t look too well.Lan SiZhui went over to help Wei WuXian with the stranger. Wei WuXian spoke, "Nobody come near. Be careful not to touch the corpse-poisoning powder. It’s possible that even physical contact would poison you."When the person was carried inside by the paper mannequins, he was already in a state of only half-consciousness, appearing as if there was only little energy left of him. Now, though, his mind had become clearer. He coughed a few times, covering his mouth with his hand as though to prevent any powder that he had coughed up from affecting other people. He spoke in a low tone, "Who are you?"The voice sounded extremely tired. He asked the question not only because he didn’t know who the people in the room were, but also because he couldn’t see anything.A thick layer of white bandages wrapped around the man’s eyes. He was probably blind.And, not to mention, he was both blind and relatively good-looking. With a high nose bridge and thin lips that had the hue of a soft red, he could almost be described as handsome. He looked quite young as well, somewhere between a boy and a man, naturally gaining the sympathy of anyone who came across him. Wei WuXian wondered to himself, Why have I been meeting so many blind people in the past few days? Both heard and seen; both alive and dead.Suddenly, Jin Ling called out, "Hey. We still don’t know who he is, whether he’s friend or foe. Why should we save him without taking any considerations? If he’s a bad guy, then wouldn’t we be letting a snake in?"Although this was indeed the case, it sounded rather awkward when spoken in such a frank tone right in front of the person himself. Strangely, the person wasn’t angered and didn’t appear to be worried that he’d be thrown out at all. He smiled, revealing the small tips of two canine teeth, "Young Master, you’re very right. It would be best if I leave."Not expecting this sort of reaction at all, Jin Ling paused for a second. With no idea what to say, he hastily snorted. Lan SiZhui hurried to mediate between the two, "But it is also possible that he is not a bad person. No matter what, not helping a dying person is against our sect’s rules."Jin Ling stubbornly continued, "Fine. You’re the good guys. If someone dies, it’s not my fault."Lan JingYi fumed, "You…" Before he could finish his sentence, it was as if the cat got his tongue.It was because he saw the sword that the man propped up against the table. The black cloth wrapped around it had somewhat fallen off, and the body of the sword could be seen.The sword was forged with unequaled skill. The sheath was in the color of bronze, with intricate patterns of frost hollowed out. Through the patterns, the body of the sword shone through as if it was made of silver stars, glistening with snowflake-shaped flecks of luminescence. There was a pure yet bright sense of beauty to it.Lan JingYi widened his eyes, as if he was about to blurt something out. Even though Wei WuXian didn’t know what he wanted to say, since the man covered his sword with black cloth, he clearly didn’t want it to be seen. Instinctively not wanting to alert the stranger, he covered Lan JingYi’s mouth with one hand and put the index finger of his other hand to his lips, signalling for the similarly astonished boys to make no sounds.Jin Ling mouthed two characters at him, then used his hand to write the two characters on the dust-covered table:"Shuanghua"… The Shuanghua sword?Wei WuXian mouthed his question, Xiao XingChen’s sword—Shuanghua?Jin Ling and the rest nodded in confirmation.The boys had never seen Xiao XingChen himself, but "Shuanghua" was both rare and well-known. It was not only strong in spiritual power, but also looked stunningly intricate. It had been illustrated as part of countless versions of sword catalogues, which was why everyone knew of it. Wei WuXian pondered, If the sword is Shuanghua, and the person is blind…One of the boys thought of this as well. He couldn’t help but reach out toward the bandages wrapped around person’s eyes, in hope of taking them off so that he could see if his eyes were still there or not. Yet, just as his hand touched the bandages, a pained expression appeared on the person’s face. He inched backward slightly, as though he was scared of his eyes being touched.Noticing his own rudeness, the boy immediately took his hand away, "Sorry, sorry… It wasn’t on purpose.The person raised his left hand, which wore a thin, black glove. He wanted to cover his eyes, but was afraid to do so. It was probably that even a light touch brought about unbearable pain—a thin layer of sweat had already appeared on his forehead. He managed with difficulty, "It’s fine…"His voice, though, trembled faintly.With such behavior, one could almost ascertain that this person was Xiao XingChen, who had disappeared after the case of the YueyangChang Clan.Xiao XingChen didn’t know that his identity had been exposed yet. After the pain had passed, he felt around for Shuanghua. Wei WuXian quickly pulled the black cloth that had fallen off back on. With Shuanghua in his hand, Xiao XingChen nodded, "Thanks for the help. I’ll take my leave."Wei WuXian, "Stay here for now. You’re under corpse poisoning."Xiao XingChen, "Is it severe?"Wei WuXian, "Quite so."Xiao XingChen, "If it’s severe, then what is the point of staying? It’s long past hope, anyways. Why not kill a few more corpses before I become one as well?"Hearing how he didn’t care for his own life, the boys felt their blood burn with indignation. Lan JingYi bursted out, "Who said that you are long past hope? Stay here! He will cure you!"Wei WuXian, "Me? Sorry, but were you talking about me?" He really couldn’t speak the truth—Xiao XingChen had already breathed in too much of the corpse-poisoning powder. With a dark red hue to his complexion, he was most likely too ill for rice congee to work.Xiao XingChen, "I have already killed a number of corpses in this city. They kept on following me and new ones would join shortly after old ones died. If I stay, you’ll be drowned in an ocean of corpses, either sooner or later."Wei WuXian, "Do you know why Yi City became this way?"Xiao XingChen shook his head, "No. I’m only a roaming cul… roaming around the area. I heard about the strange events here and decided to night-hunt in the city. You haven’t seen how many, how powerful the living and walking corpses here are. Some move too quickly to take precautions against. Others, when killed, release corpse-poisoning powder that poisons people upon touch. However, if you don’t kill them, they would pounce on you and attack. Both result in poisoning, which makes it truly difficult to deal with. Judging from your voices, there are quite a few young masters in your group, right? It’s best if you leave as soon as possible."Just as he finished his sentence, the sinister giggles of the mannequin sisters came from outside the door. This time, the laughter was sharper than ever.<h3>Translator’s Notes

Chapter 37 Grasses—Part Five</h3>Lan JingYi looked out through the door slit, then immediately blocked it with his body, "Th-th-there are so many of them!"Wei WuXian, "Walking corpses? How many is so many?"Lan JingYi, "I do not know! They fill the entire street—possibly hundreds! And more are coming! I do not think the mannequins can hold them off any longer!"If the mannequins outside failed to guard the doors, all of the corpses on the street would rush into the shop. If they were killed, one would be under corpse poisoning and, when struggling to fight, the poison would circulate quickly; if they were not killed, one would be ripped and bitten to death. Holding his sword, Xiao XingChen got ready to leave, most likely in the hopes of doing as best as he could with all that was left of his strength. However, his face suddenly flushed purple, and he stumbled to the ground.Wei WuXian spoke, "You can just sit back and relax. It’s going to be over soon."Again, he cut the index finger of his right hand on Lan JingYi’s sword. Droplets of blood trickled down.Lan JingYi volunteered, "Are you going to use the Summoning again? If you dot twice in each mannequin’s eyes, how much blood are you going to use? Do you need me to give you some?"Immediately, a few other boys rolled up their sleeves, "I can also spare some…"Wei WuXian couldn’t decide whether to laugh or sigh, "It’s okay. Are there any blank talismans?"The disciples were still fairly young, not yet at a level of cultivation that allowed them to write runes on-spot. Thus, all of the talismans that they carried with them had already been written with runes.Lan SiZhui shook his head, "No."Wei WuXian wasn’t too concerned, "Already-written ones are fine as well."Lan SiZhui took out a stack of yellow talismans from a Qiankun Pouch, yet Wei WuXian only grabbed one of them. After taking a rough look at it, with the middle and forefinger of his right hand put together, he scrawled from top to bottom, above the cinnabar runes that were already there. The crimson blood and the vermilion cinnabar formed a new set of runes. With a flick of Wei WuXian’s wrist, the yellow talisman and the red runes hovered in the air and ignited on their own. Wei WuXian reached out his left hand to catch the sprinkling ashes. Then, he closed his fingers into a fist and lowered his head slightly. As he opened his hand again, he softly blew the black ashes toward the row of paper mannequins. He breathed, "With prairie fires it fails to die, when spring winds blow it regains life."The ashes whirled around the room.The Nether Brawler who stood in front of all others suddenly picked up the hacking saber by his feet and carried it over his shoulder.A lady, wearing a tall bun and fine robes, slowly raised her right hand. Her slender fingers twirled nimbly, as though she was a languid noblewoman, insouciantly appreciating her long, blood-red nails. By the lady’s side, there stood a golden boy and a jade girl—a pair of child servants. The boy playfully tugged at the girl’s braid, while the girl stuck out her tongue at him. A tongue almost nine inches long rapidly stretched out from within her mouth, stabbing a large hole in the boy’s chest as if it were a snake. After the violent attack, it shrunk back at once. The boy opened his mouth wide, revealing two rows of ghastly, white teeth, and bit into her arm. With this, the two paper children started a fight of their own.One by one, the dozens of paper mannequins started to teeter. As if they were stretching their limbs, they jolted as they whispered to one another. The rustling noises rose and fell all around them. They were not human, but better than humans.Wei WuXian, "Hold your breaths."After his words, he moved away, leaving the path to the door open. With a slight bow, he made a gesture of invitation.The wooden doors sprang open again. The sickeningly sweet stench of the corpse-poisoning powder poured into the room, and the disciples immediately covered their faces with their sleeves. With a booming shout, the Nether Brawler charged outside. The rest of the mannequins followed.The doors shut itself behind the last paper mannequin. Wei WuXian asked, "Nobody breathed it in, right?"Everyone replied negative. Wei WuXian helped Xiao XingChen up, intending to find a place for him to lie down. However, since there wasn’t any, he could only sit on the cold, dust-covered ground. Xiao XingChen was still gripping Shuanghua tightly. Finally waking up from the semicoma, he coughed a few times, then spoke in a weak manner, "Was that… the Summoning of Painted Eyes?"Wei WuXian, "I know a thing or two."After some thought, Xiao XingChen smiled, "Yes… To eliminate these walking corpses, it was indeed the best method."With a pause, he continued, "However, this path of cultivation can easily lead to the backfiring of one’s ghosts and spirits. Even the founder of the path, the YiLing Patriarch, couldn’t avoid such an end. I suggest for you to be more careful and refrain from using this unless you’re in dire situations. You can cultivate some other paths…"Wei WuXian sighed silently, "Thank you for your advice."Most famous cultivators would take clear-cut stands on the matter, drawing distinct lines that showed their absolute hatred toward the certain someone. Yet, his youngest shishu still tried to persuade him, even when he himself was only half-alive, and warned him of the backfire. He truly was a tender-hearted person, both gentle and kind. Seeing the thick layer of bandages wrapped around Xiao XingChen’s eyes and thinking of the things he had been through, Wei WuXian couldn’t help but sympathize with him.Usually, only young, relatively inexperienced disciples would feel a greater sense of curiosity than loathing toward these sorts of improper paths. Aside from Jin Ling, who kept up an expression of contempt, all others were crammed in front of the door slit as they watched the fight, "Oh my… The mannequin woman’s nails are so scary! One scratch and there are five lines.""Why is the little girl’s tongue so long and so hard? Is she a hanged ghost?""The man is so strong! How can he lift up so many corpses at once? He’s gonna drop them on the ground! Look, look! He dropped them! They broke!"After he finished listening to Xiao XingChen’s good-natured words, Wei WuXian picked up the last bowl of leftover rice congee, "The poison has already worked its way around. The things in this bowl may slow it down, but may also not work at all, not to mention that it tastes really bad. Do you want to try? If you don’t want to live, then nevermind what I said."Xiao XingChen took over the bowl with both hands, "Of course I do. If I can live, there’s no reason not to."Yet, after he had just one mouthful, the corners of his mouth started to twitch. He only stopped himself from spitting it out by tightly pursing his lips together. A moment later, he replied with respect, "Thank you."Wei WuXian turned around, "Did you see that? Did you see that? What did he say? You guys are the only ones who have such high standards, so full of complaints even after eating my congee."Jin Ling, "Your congee? What else did you do, apart from adding a bunch of weird things into the pot?"Xiao XingChen, "But, now that I think about it, if I had to eat this every single day, I’d rather die."Jin Ling laughed at him without holding back at all. Even Lan SiZhui couldn’t stop himself from bursting with a "pfft". Speechless, Wei WuXian turned to look at them, and Lan SiZhui put on a straight face at once. Lan JingYi spoke up, his voice full of delight, "Finished. All of them have been killed. We won!"Xiao XingChen put his bowl down right away, "Don’t open the door just yet. Be careful. More might still come…"Wei WuXian, "Don’t put down the bowl. Pick it up and drink everything." With that, he approached the wooden doors and peeked through the slit. After the inhuman battle, thin fog and powder in the color of a purplish red pervaded the entire street. The corpse-poisoning powder was beginning to dissipate and the group of paper mannequins calmly inspected the path. Among the corpse pieces that covered the ground, when there was any that could still move, they would step on it mercilessly, until pools of muddied flesh were all that was left.Aside from this, all was silent. At the moment, no new corpses came.Just as Wei WuXian was about to relax, a series of almost imperceptible noises came from above him.The noises were extremely difficult to pick up. It was as if somebody was walking rapidly above the roof. However, since the person’s movements were abnormally light, the sound of their footsteps was close to unnoticeable. Wei WuXian only caught the slight noises of collision between the roof tiles due to his keen senses. Of course, since he was blind, Xiao XingChen noticed the noises as well. He cautioned them, "From the above!"Wei WuXian shouted, "Disperse!"As soon as he said it, a large hole was smashed through the ceiling of the central chamber. Dust, grasses, and broken roof tiles rained down from the top. It was fortunate that most of the disciples had already scattered around, thus nobody was hurt. A black figure leaped down from the opening in the roof.The man wore black cultivational robes. With a tall stance and a straight back, he had the air of a firm pinetree. A horsetail whisk was strapped to his back and a long sword was held in his hand. His face, although handsome, tilted upward slightly, suggesting a haughty, aloof personality.Yet, there were no pupils within his eyes, only deathly fields of white.It was a fierce corpse!As soon as everyone determined this fact, he launched an attack with his sword in his hand.He aimed his attack at Jin Ling, who was the closest to him. Jin Ling defended with his sword. The power that came with the attack was so strong that his arm almost numbed. If it wasn’t for the immense spiritual powers of his own sword, Suihua, it might have broken and he might have died on the spot. With a failed first attack, the black-clothed corpse attacked again. His movements were smooth and natural, while his attacks were sharp and ruthless. This time, he lunged at Jin Ling’s arm. Under desperation, using his sword, Xiao XingChen defended the attack for Jin Ling. Possibly because the corpse poisoning broke out again, he finally collapsed.Lan JingYi panicked, "Just what exactly is he, dead or alive?! I have never seen a…"A corpse with such high speed and fine swordsmanship!He didn’t finish his sentence, because he remembered that he had seen one before.The Ghost General was also like this!Wei WuXian watched the cultivator with utmost attention. Thinking quickly, he pulled out the bamboo flute by his waist and played a shrill, ear-piercing long tone. It was so painful to listen to that everyone who was present covered his ears. As the cultivator heard the sound, despite how his figure reeled and his hands trembled, he still attacked at Wei WuXian!He couldn’t be controlled. This corpse had a master!The sword was as fast as thunder, yet Wei WuXian dodged it. As they brushed past, he calmly played another tune. A split second later, the mannequins patrolling outside also hopped onto the roof and jumped down through the hole. Sensing that something was wrong, the corpse stabbed twice with his right arm, vertically slicing two of the mannequins into four halves. With his left hand, he pulled out his whisk. It was as if the thousands of soft, white strands turned into the poisonous spikes on a mace, slashing and piercing with each whip. If it accidentally touched someone, they would sure be turned into a bloodied sieve.In the midst of multitasking, Wei WuXian managed, "Nobody come here. Be good and stay in the corners!"After his words, he immediately returned to commanding the corpses. The flute sounded vivacious at times, while vehement at other times. Though the cultivator used both hands and attacked with strong hostility, paper mannequins ceaselessly dropped from the roof, encircling Immediately afterward, three more Nether Brawlers jumped down from the opening and slammed onto his body one by one.In legends, Nether Brawlers had incredible strength. When craftspeople made them, some things were usually added onto their bodies to increase their weight. After being possessed by roaming spirits, each was heavier than the next. Simply one of them would be as heavy as a mountain. With four on him at once, he’d be doing well if his guts didn’t gush out. Thus, the robed corpse was securely held down onto the ground by the four Nether Brawlers.Wei WuXian walked over and found that an area on the back of his clothes had been torn. Soothing it out, he noticed that there was a wound, both thin and narrow, near his left shoulder blade. He commanded, "Turn him over."The four Nether Brawlers proceeded to turn the cultivator over. With his front on the upside, it was easier to inspect. Wei WuXian brushed the finger with the cut near each of their lips as awards. With crimson tongues made of paper, the Nether Brawlers slowly licked the blood beside their lips, as if they truly cherished the delicacy. Only then did Wei WuXian look down again and continue his inspection. On the cultivator’s left chest, near his heart, there was a similar tearing, a similar thin, narrow wound. It seemed as if he died with a stab through the heart.The corpse had been struggling as hard as he could. Low growls came out of his throat and ink-colored blood trickled from the corners of his lips. Wei WuXian pinched his cheeks and forced him to open his mouth. Inside, his tongue had also been pulled out from the root.Blind eyes, detached tongue. Blind eyes, detached tongue.Why did these two traits appear so often?After a while of observation, Wei WuXian began to feel that the corpse was similar to Wen Ning when he had been controlled by the black nails. With the thought, he felt around the corpse’s temples and, as he had expected, he really found two metal points!This type of long nails were used to control high-level fierce corpses so that they’d lose consciousness and the ability to think for themselves. Without knowing the corpse’s identity and character, Wei WuXian decided that he shouldn’t rashly pull the nails out, but instead interrogate him first. However, since his tongue was no longer there, even if the corpse regained consciousness, he wouldn’t be able to talk.Wei WuXian asked the disciples from the Lan Sect, "Have any of you studied Inquiry?"Lan SiZhui raised a hand, "Me. I have."Wei WuXian, "Have you brought your guqin?"Lan SiZhui, "Yes." At once, he took out a simplistic guqin, the wood of which still looked bright, from his Qiankun Pouch.Seeing that the guqin was fairly new, Wei WuXian asked, "How is your qin language? Have you had actual experience? Will the spirit that you summon be able to lie?"Lan JingYi interjected, "HanGuang-Jun said that SiZhui’s qin language is fine."If Lan WangJi said that it was "fine", then it must be fine. He wouldn’t exaggerate or understate the matter, and so Wei WuXian ceased to worry. Lan SiZhui added, "HanGuang-Jun told me to focus on quality instead of quantity. The spirit that I summon will be able to avoid answering, but will not be able to lie. So, if it is willing to answer, then it will definitely speak the truth."Wei WuXian, "Then, let’s start."The guqin was laid horizontally before the cultivator’s head. Lan SiZhui sat on the ground, his robes spreading neatly around him. Having tried a few notes, he nodded. Wei WuXian began, "The first question: who is he?"After some thought, Lan SiZhui silently chanted the incantations, and was finally ready to play the first sentence.A moment later, the strings of the guqin vibrated. Two notes rumbled out, sounding as if a rock had exploded.Lan SiZhui widened his eyes. Lan JingYi urged him, "What did he say?"Lan SiZhui, "Song Lan!"… Xiao XingChen’s most intimate friend of cultivation, Song Lan?!In unison, everyone turned their heads toward Xiao XingChen, who lay unconscious on the ground. Lan SiZhui whispered, "Does he know that the one who came is Song Lan…?"Jin Ling also lowered his voice, "Probably not. He’s blind, while Song Lan is mute, and even became a fierce corpse who lost his senses… It’s best if he doesn’t know."Wei WuXian, "The second question: who killed him?"In all earnesty, Lan SiZhui played another sentence.This time, the silence was three times longer than the one before.Just as they were about to conclude that Song Lan’s soul wasn’t willing to answer this question, the strings of the guqin vibrated three times, their tones echoing grief.Lan SiZhui blurted out, "That is impossible!"Wei WuXian, "What did he say?"Lan SiZhui replied as though he couldn’t believe what he had just heard, "He said… Xiao XingChen."The one who killed Song Lan was Xiao XingChen?!They asked a mere number of two questions, yet the answers to those questions were more than shocking. Jin Ling was skeptical, "You played it wrong, right?"Lan SiZhui, "But ‘who are you’ and ‘who killed you’ are the two easiest and most common questions of Inquiry. When someone first starts to learn Inquiry, these are the first and second sentences that they learn. One would practice them no less than a thousand times. I checked them before I played. I definitely did not play them wrong."Jin Ling, "Either you played Inquiry wrong, or you interpreted the qin language wrong."Lan SiZhui shook his head, "If playing them wrong is impossible, then interpreting them wrong is even more impossible. The name and the three characters of ‘Xiao XingChen’ are not at all common in the spirits’ answers. If he answered a different name and I interpreted it wrong, it would not have just happened to be this name."Lan JingYi murmured, "… Song Lan went to find the missing Xiao XingChen, yet Xiao XingChen killed him. Why would he kill a good friend? He does not seem like this sort of person."Wei WuXian, "Let’s not worry about this for now. SiZhui, ask the third question: who is controlling him?"With a stern face, Lan SiZhui didn’t even dare to breathe as he played the third sentence. All pairs of eyes stared at the strings of the guqin, waiting for Song Lan’s answer.Lan SiZhui interpreted the reply word by word, "The. One. Behind. You."Everyone spun around as fast as they could. Xiao XingChen, who lay collapsed on the ground a few moments ago, had already sat up, with one hand holding his chin. Giving them a smile, he raised the left hand that was covered by a black glove and snapped.When the crisp sound travelled to Song Lan’s ears, it was as though it exploded right beside him. Song Lan suddenly threw off all of the four Nether Brawlers who had been holding him down!He leaped up at once. Wielding his sword and whisk again, with both of his hands, he slashed twisted the paper mannequins into colorful pieces of confetti, which drifted toward the ground. His sword pressed against Wei WuXian’s neck, while his whisk threateningly pointed to the disciples.Within the mere area of the shop, the situation had changed drastically.Jin Ling put his hand onto his sword. Catching the movement with a sideway glance, Wei WuXian immediately stopped him, "Don’t move. Don’t add to the trouble. In terms of swordsmanship, even everybody together wouldn’t be a worthy opponent to this… Song Lan."His body was low in spiritual power and his sword wasn’t by his side. Moreover, there was also Xiao XingChen—it remained undetermined what he intended on doing or whether he was friend or foe.Xiao XingChen, "Adults are going to talk to adults. The children can wait outside."He gestured to Song Lan, who obeyed at once and drove the disciples outside. Wei WuXian comforted them, "Go outside for now. You won’t be much help here, anyways. The corpse-poisoning powder should’ve settled already. When you go outside, don’t run around and stir up the dust again. Breathe slowly."Hearing "you won’t be much help here", Jin Ling was both unconvinced and upset. He didn’t want to accept the defeat, yet he knew that he couldn’t do anything, so he stormed outside. Before Lan SiZhui left, he looked as if he wanted to say something. Wei WuXian turned to him, "SiZhui, you’re the most sensible one here. Guide them a bit, won’t you? Can you do that?"Lan SiZhui nodded. Wei WuXian added, "Don’t be scared."Lan SiZhui, "I am not.""Really?""Really." Lan SiZhui smiled, "Senior, you are so much like HanGuang-Jun."Wei WuXian was puzzled, "Us? How are we alike?" They were obviously like fire and ice. However, Lan SiZhui only grinned in reply, and led the rest of the group out.He continued his thought silently, I do not know, either, but they just feel similar. It is as though if either one of the two seniors are present, I will not need to be scared or worry about anything.Xiao XingChen took out a red elixir from somewhere and put it into his mouth, "How touching."After he ate it, the purplish-red hue of his face faded immediately. Wei WuXian asked, "Cure of the corpse-poisoning powder?"Xiao XingChen, "Correct. A lot more effective than your scary bowl of congee, right? And it tastes sweet."Wei WuXian, "Your performance was wonderful. From courageously killing corpses, tiring out, to blocking the sword for Jin Ling, losing consciousness. They were all for our entertainment?"Xiao XingChen raised a finger and wagged it in front of his face, "Not for ‘your’ general entertainment, but ‘your’ singular entertainment. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, the YiLing Patriarch, that is. It’s better to see for oneself rather than listening to mere tales."Wei WuXian didn’t react to his words and his expression remained unchanged. Xiao XingChen continued, "I’m guessing that you haven’t yet told anyone who you really are, have you? So, I didn’t expose your secret either and told them to go outside for us to shut the doors and converse in privacy. How’s that? Aren’t I thoughtful?"Wei WuXian, "All of the walking corpses in Yi City are under your control?"Xiao XingChen, "Of course. Just as you guys came in and your whistles started, I began to think that you were a bit weird, which was why I decided to attend to the matter personally and sound you out. As I expected, someone who could give way to such strong powers with the low-level sorcery of the Summoning of Painted Eyes could only be the founder."Xue Yang walked his old path. Since it was the same practice, both using improper means, Wei WuXian couldn’t fool him. Wei WuXian asked, "So, taking the group of children as hostage, what do you want me to do?"Xiao XingChen laughed, "Senior, I want you to do me a favor. A tiny favor."His mother’s shidi was calling him a senior. The generations really didn’t match up. Just as Wei WuXian was chuckling in secret, Xiao XingChen took out a Spirit-Trapping Pouch and put it onto the table, "Please."Wei WuXian put his hand over the the pouch and felt it for a while, as if he was feeling someone’s pulse, "Whose soul is this? It’s already in shambles. Even glue won’t be able to stick it together. There’s only one breath of life left."Xiao XingChen, "If this person’s soul was that easy to stick together, why would I need your help?"Wei WuXian took his hand away, "You want me to fix this soul? No offense, but there really isn’t much left of it in here. When they were still alive, the person probably suffered from a lot of torture. It should’ve been rather painful. They probably committed suicide, so they probably don’t want to come back to this world. If a soul itself doesn’t have any desire to live, then it’ll most likely be impossible to save. If I’m not wrong, the soul was probably patched up by force. As soon as it leaves the Spirit-Trapping Pouch, it’ll dissipate at any moment. You understand this more than anyone."Xiao XingChen, "I don’t understand and I don’t care. Even if you don’t want to, you’ll have to do me the favor. Senior, don’t forget that your children are still staring at you from outside, waiting for you to help them out of the danger."The tone that he spoke in sounded quite odd. It was affectionate, almost sweet, but had a vicinity that arose from nowhere. It was as though one moment he could call you brother and senior, and the next he could turn hostile and kill you instead. Wei WuXian laughed, "I, too, would rather meet you in person instead of listening to the tales. Xue Yang, why are you pretending to be a cultivator instead of being the delinquent you truly are?"With a pause, "Xiao XingChen" raised his hand and took off the bandages around his eyes.The bandages fell layer by layer, revealing a pair of bright, shining eyes.A pair of unscathed eyes.He had young, likeable features, almost handsome. However, the canine teeth that appeared when he smiled were cute to a point of childish, stealthily concealing the untamed cruelty within his eyes.Xue Yang tossed the bandages to the side, "Uh-oh. You found out."Wei WuXian, "Purposely pretending that the pain is unbearable so that our consciences won’t allow us to take off your bandages and see; purposely showing us some of Shuanghua; purposely blurting out that you’re a roaming cultivator by accident. You knew of not only how to make yourself appear injured and defenseless, but moreover how to gain the sympathy of others. You truly brought out a genuine, virtuous Xiao XingChen. If not for how you were aware of more things than you should, I really would’ve believed that you were him."And, during Inquiry, the answer that Song Lan gave for the second question was "Xiao XingChen", while the answer for the third one was "the one behind you".If "the one behind you" was also Xiao XingChen, Song Lan wouldn’t have needed to express it in another way.Unless, Xiao XingChen and "the one behind you" wasn’t the same person at all. Song Lan wanted to warn them of how dangerous the person behind them was, but if he simply answered Xue Yang, it was possible that they didn’t know who he was. He could only answer as such.Xue Yang grinned, "Well, it’s true that his reputation is better than mine. Of course I pretended to be him. It’s easier to gain the trust of others this way."Wei WuXian, "That was some excellent acting right there."Xue Yang, "Now you’re just flattering me. I have a very famous friend. His acting is what I’d call excellent. I still have a long way to go. Anyways, enough with the chit-chat. Senior Wei, you really have to do me the favor."Wei WuXian, "You’re the one who made the long nails that controlled Song Lan and Wen Ning, aren’t you? You can even restore half of the Stygian Tiger Seal, so why would you need my help to restore a soul?"Xue Yang, "They’re not the same. You’re the founder. If you never made the first half of the seal, I wouldn’t have been able to make the second half all on my own. There’s no doubt that you’re better than me. So if there’s something I can’t do, you must be able to do it."Wei WuXian really couldn’t understand why strangers always had an inexplicable sense of confidence in place of him. He touched his chin, unsure of whether or not they should pass a few compliments between each other out of respect, "You’re being too humble."Xue Yang, "It’s not being humble. It’s the truth. I never like to exaggerate when I’m talking. If I say I’m gonna kill someone’s entire clan, I’ll actually kill their entire clan. I won’t even leave a dog behind."Wei WuXian, "For example, the YueyangChang Clan?"Before Xue Yang had the opportunity to answer, a black-robed shadow swept inside.Wei WuXian and Xue Yang stepped back in unison and left the table. Xue Yang quickly snatched the Spirit-Trapping Pouch. Lightly pressing his hand against the table, Song Lan flipped as he was midair and landed on top of it. After he steadied, he quickly turned to look at the door. Black streaks of blood climbed over his cheeks.With iron chains following behind him, Wen Ning broke through the door from amid the white fog and chilly winds.While he was playing the the first tunes on the flute, Wei WuXian had already given the commands for summoning Wen Ning. He ordered, "Fight outside. Be careful not to beat him up too badly. Watch the living people and don’t let any other corpses approach them."Wen Ning raised his left hand, and one of the chains swung over. As Song Lan faced the attack with his whisk, it collided with the chain and the two twisted together. Wen Ning pulled on the chain and backed away. Song Lan didn’t let go either, and was dragged outside the door. The disciples had already hid inside another shop near this one, every one of them stretching his neck and staring fixedly at the scene. With the horsetail whisk, the iron chains, and the long sword, it was a frenzy of clanks and clashes. They could see that a battle between two fierce corpses was intense indeed. Each move was ruthless, each attack was fatal—only two corpses could fight in such a brutish way. If two living humans fought like this, they would’ve already been nothing more than severed limbs and battered flesh!Xue Yang, "Guess who’s gonna win?"Wei WuXian, "Would I need to guess? Wen Ning, of course."Xue Yang, "It’s such a shame that even though I gave him so many nails in his head, he was still unwilling to obey. Things that are too loyal are also quite troublesome."Wei WuXian replied in an indifferent tone, "Wen Ning is not a thing."Xue Yang laughed, "Don’t you see that what you said could be interpreted in a different way?" As the "be" came out of his mouth, he suddenly unsheathed his sword and attacked.Wei WuXian darted to the side, "Do you often sneak up on people when you’re in the middle of a sentence?"Xue Yang’s voice was filled with surprise, "Of course. I’m a delinquent, aren’t I? I’m sure you know already. Anyways, it’s not that I want to kill you. I just want to make it so that you can’t move. Then I can take you back and you can take your time repairing the soul for me."Wei WuXian, "I’ve already said that I can’t do anything about it."Xue Yang, "Don’t be so eager to refuse me. If you don’t know what to do about it, the both of us can discuss the matter together." Before he finished his sentence, he lunged once more. Wei WuXian dodged and dodged again, surrounded by ragged strips of paper that covered the ground. He thought to himself, The little delinquent has some good moves. Watching Xue Yang’s attacks become greater in both speed and lethality, Wei WuXian couldn’t help but exclaim, "Are you really taking advantage of my body’s low spiritual power?"Xue Yang, "That’s right!"Wei WuXian had finally met someone more shameless than him. He returned the smile, "It’d be better for one to upset a hero than to upset a rogue, which is you, in this case. I’m not dealing with you any longer. Let’s have someone else."Xue Yang grinned, "Who else? That HanGuang-Jun? I got more than three hundred walking corpses to gang up on him. He…"Before he finished his sentence, a white-robed figure descended from the sky. Bichen’s icy blue glare swept at him.<h3>Translator’s Notes

Chapter 38 Grasses—Part Six</h3>Surrounded by an ambience of frost and ice, Lan WangJi stood in front of Wei WuXian. Xue Yang fended the attack by casting out Shuanghua. The two swords collided, then flew back to their respective owners. Wei WuXian commented, "Isn’t this called ‘to come in time is better than to come early’?"Lan WangJi, "Yes."As their exchange finished, they turned back to fighting with Xue Yang. A few moments ago, Wei WuXian was chased around by Xue Yang, but now, Xue Yang was driven around by Lan WangJi. In reaction to the adverse situation, with a roll of his eyes and a grin on his face, he tossed Shuanghua to his left hand. His right hand shifted inside his sleeve. Wei WuXian was concerned that he might hurl poisonous powder or hidden knives from the qiankun sleeves. However, he simply pulled out another sword, and seamlessly adjusted to a double-sworded style of attack.The glare of the sword that he pulled from his sleeve was grim and dark. As it was wielded, it almost seemed to emit a black aura, creating a stark contrast with Shuanghua’s silver radiance. Using both swords equally well, Xue Yang’s hands kept in perfect time with each other. He gained the upper hand at once. Lan WangJi questioned, "Jiangzai?"Xue Yang, "Hmm? HanGuang-Jun, you know of this sword? What an honor.""Jiangzai" was Xue Yang’s own sword. As its name and as its owner, it was a foreboding sword that brought with it bloodshed. Wei WuXian interrupted, "The name matches you perfectly."Lan WangJi, "Step back. You are not needed here."Thus, Wei WuXian humbly listened to the suggestion and stepped back. When he got to the door, he looked outside. Expressionless, Wen Ning was gripping Song Lan by the neck. He lifted him into the air and slammed him onto the wall, creating a large man-shaped dent. Similarly expressionless, Song Lan grabbed Wen Ning’s wrists. With a backflip, he threw him onto the ground. Both corpses fought expressionlessly, ceaselessly smashing and banging. Since neither of them felt pain or feared injury, unless they were cut into pieces, they would continue to fight even if they lost a limb or two. Wei WuXian muttered under his breath, "I don’t think I’m needed here, either."Suddenly, he saw that Lan JingYi, inside a dimly-lit shop, was frantically waving to him. He beamed, Aha. I’ll definitely be needed there.Just as he left, Bichen’s sword glare brightened tenfold. With a brief slip of the hand, Shuanghua flew out of Xue Yang’s grip. Lan WangJi conveniently caught the sword. Seeing that Shuanghua was in someone else’s hands, Xue Yang had Jiangzai slash directly at the left arm that Lan WangJi used to grab the sword. As the attack was dodged, a chilling rage flashed within Xue Yang’s eyes. He demanded coldly, "Give me the sword back."Lan WangJi, "You do not deserve this sword."Xue Yang made a bitter sound of laughter.On the other hand, Wei WuXian walked over to the disciples. Surrounded by the boys, he inquired, "Everyone alright?""Yes!""We all listened to you and held our breaths."Wei WuXian, "Good. If anyone doesn’t listen to me, I’ll feed him congee again."The few boys who had encountered the taste pretended as if they were vomiting. Suddenly, the sounds of footsteps came from all around them. Shadows had already begun to emerge from the end of the street. Lan WangJi heard the sound as well. With a wave of his sleeve, he took out his guqin, Wangji.The body of the guqin was horizontally slammed onto the table. Lan WangJi tossed Bichen to his left hand and continued to fight with Xue Yang, his attacks remaining strong. At the same time, without even turning his head, he raised his right hand and strummed across the strings.The chord was loud and clear. It resonated all the way to the end of the street. What came back was the strange yet familiar noises of the corpses’ heads bursting. Lan WangJi continued to fight Xue Yang with one hand and play the guqin with the other. He’d glance across the scene as if it was only a simple matter, then nonchalantly curve his fingers to strum again. Working with both of his hands, he somehow still seemed calm and unhurried.Jin Ling blurted out in spite of himself, "He’s so good!"He had seen Jiang Cheng and Jin GuangYao go on night-hunts and kill beasts, which made him think that his two uncles were the two most powerful cultivators in the entire world. Toward Lan WangJi, though, he had always felt more fear than respect, especially toward his technique of silencing others and his cold temper. However, at the present moment, he couldn’t help but admire Lan WangJi’s abilities. Lan JingYi approved, "Well, obviously. Of course HanGuang-Jun is good. He just never likes to show it off. He is very low-key, right?"The "right?" was directed at Wei WuXian, who replied in confusion, "Are you asking me? Why are you asking me?"Lan JingYi was on the verge of being angered, "So you think that HanGuang-Jun is not good?!"Wei WuXian touched his chin, "Hmm. He’s good. Of course. He’s really good. He’s the best." As he talked, he couldn’t help but break into a smile.The dangerously terrifying night was finally about to pass—dawn was almost here. However, this wasn’t the best of news. If daylight came, the fog would also become thicker. Then, they’d again be unable to do a thing!If there were only Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi, it wouldn’t be as difficult. But with so many living humans around, if they end up surrounded by a large group of walking corpses, escape would be close to impossible. As Wei WuXian urgently tried to think of a solution, the crisp tip-taps of the bamboo pole sounded once more.The ghost of the blind-eyed, tongue-less girl came again!Without any hesitation, Wei WuXian ordered, "Go!"Lan JingYi, "Where to?"Wei WuXian, "Follow the sounds of the bamboo pole."Jin Ling was somewhat surprised, "You want us to follow a ghost? Who knows where she’ll take us to!"Wei WuXian, "That’s precisely what you’re going to do. The sound has been following you guys ever since you came, correct? You were trying to go into the city, but she was leading you toward the city gates, where you ran into us. She was chasing you out—she was trying to save you!"The strange, sporadic sounds of the bamboo pole were a technique that she used to scare people who entered the city. The Nether Brawler’s head that Wei WuXian stepped on was possibly also placed there by her to startle and alert them. Wei WuXian continued, "And, last night, she clearly wanted to tell us something really important, but couldn’t explain it. However, she disappeared as soon as Xue Yang came. She was most likely trying to avoid Xue Yang. Anyways, she definitely isn’t on the same side as him.""Xue Yang?! Why is Xue Yang here as well? Wasn’t it Xiao XingChen and Song Lan?""Uhh, I’ll explain that later. Anyways, the one fighting with HanGuang-Jun inside isn’t Xiao XingChen, but Xue Yang, who pretended to be him."The bamboo pole’s noises continued, as if the girl was waiting or urging them. If they followed her, they could fall into a trap; if they didn’t follow her, they’d be surrounded by corpses who release corpse-poisoning powder. It wouldn’t be much safer. The boys decisively chose to follow the knocking sounds along with Wei WuXian. Sure enough, as they moved, the sounds also moved. At times, they could see a small, vague shadow amid the thin fog in the distance, but sometimes there was nothing at all.After running for a while, Lan JingYi spoke up, "So we are just going to run off like this?"Wei WuXian turned around and shouted, "HanGuang-Jun, it’s up to you now. We’re gonna go ahead!"The strings of the guqin vibrated, as if someone was saying "mnn". Wei WuXian cracked up with a pfft. Lan JingYi hesitated, "That was it? You are not going to say anything else?"Wei WuXian, "What else do you want me to do? What else should I say?"Lan JingYi, "Why did you two not say ‘I’m worried about you. I’m staying!’, ‘Go!’, ‘No! I’m not going! If I’m going, you’re going with me!’? Is it not a must?"Wei WuXian was left open-mouthed, "Who taught you this? Who told you that this sort of conversation must happen? It’d sound fine out of my mouth, but can you even imagine your HanGuang-Jun say such things?"The Lan Sect’s juniors chorused, "No…"Wei WuXian, "Right? It’s a waste of time. I believe that someone as reliable as HanGuang-Jun will definitely be able to deal with it. I can just focus on my own things and either wait for him to find me or go find him myself."They followed the bamboo pole’s noises for less than fifteen minutes. After a few twists and turns, in front of them, the noises abruptly came to a halt. Wei WuXian extended his arm, stopping the boys behind him, and walked a few steps forward. A house stood alone in the fog that grew thicker and thicker."Squeak…"Somebody pushed open the door to the house, which silently awaited the entrance of the strangers. Wei WuXian felt that something must be inside. It wouldn’t be anything dangerous or that could kill them, but something that would tell him things and show them the answers.He turned to the disciples, "We’ve already come this far. Let’s go in."He raised his foot and stepped into the house. Adjusting to the dark, he cautioned without looking back, "Watch for the threshold. Don’t trip."As he had expected, one of the boys almost tripped over the tall threshold. He complained, "Why is the threshold so high? It is not a temple or anything like that."Wei WuXian, "It’s not a temple, but it’s somewhere that also needs a high threshold."Hustling about, they lit up around a dozen fire talismans. The orange light of the wavering flames illuminated the entire house.Straws were scattered on the ground, serving as a carpet. In the frontmost area, there was an altar and a few fallen stools of different heights. A small, unlit room was on the right side. Other than these, there were also seven or eight black, wooden coffins.Jin Ling, "This is the so-called coffin home? Where dead people are temporarily put?"Wei WuXian, "That’s right. Corpses that aren’t claimed by anyone, that would make a house ominous, or that are waiting to be buried are often put into coffin homes. It could be described as a courier station for Lan SiZhui asked, "Senior Mo, why is the threshold to the coffin home so high?"Wei WuXian, "In case any corpses transform."Lan JingYi puzzled, "Would making a high threshold be able to prevent corpse transformation?"Wei WuXian, "It can’t prevent corpse transformation, but it can sometimes prevent low-level corpses that have already transformed from going outside." He went to stand in front of the threshold, "Say, for example, I’m dead and I just transformed."The boys nodded. He continued, "Since I just transformed, my limbs are really stiff, right? And I can’t perform certain actions?"Jin Ling, "That goes without saying. You can’t even walk. You can’t step forward, so you can only jump…" At this point, he immediately understood.Wei WuXian affirmed, "Correct. I can only jump." With both of his feet together, he tried to jump outside. However, since the threshold was too high, he failed every attempt. Seeing how his toes bumped into the threshold, all of the disciples found the scene funny. They started laughing as they imagined a a corpse who had just transformed desperately try to jump outside like this, but get blocked by the high threshold every time. Wei WuXian spoke again, "Do you see now? Don’t laugh. This is the intelligence of common folk. Although it’s lame and seems too simple, it’s indeed effective against low-level corpses. If a corpse who has transformed is tripped by the threshold, after they fall on the ground, with their stiff body, they won’t be able to get back up in a short time. When they’re finally able get up, either the sun will rise soon afterwards and the rooster will call, or the person guarding the coffin home will’ve discovered them. It’s actually quite impressive how ordinary people who didn’t cultivate could think of such a solution."Although Jin Ling had laughed at the scene as well, now that he heard the explanation, he stifled his laughter at once, "Why did she bring us to a coffin home? Don’t tell me that it was because we won’t be surrounded by walking corpses if we’re here. Where did she go herself?"Wei WuXian, "It’s likely that we really won’t be. We’ve been standing still for so long already. Has anyone heard any walking corpses?"Just as he finished speaking, the ghost of the young girl appeared on top of a coffin.Due to Wei WuXian’s persuasion, all of them had already seen what the girl looked like. They had even seen how she looked with bleeding eyes and a mouth without a tongue. So, now that they saw her again, nobody felt scared or uneasy. It could be seen that, precisely as what Wei WuXian had said, one would become braver and face situations with better composure after being frightened a couple of times.The girl didn’t have physical form, only a spiritual body surrounded by a soft, dim aura. Both her figure and her face were small. After some grooming, she’d become just the charming girl-next-door. However, from how she sat with her legs apart, she didn’t look delicate at all. The bamboo pole that she used as a white cane leaned on the coffin. Her two legs hung down, anxiously swinging to and fro.As she sat on the coffin, she used her hand to tap on the lid. She then hopped down and circled around the coffin a few times, making hand gestures at them. This time, the gesture was rather easy to understand. It was the action of "opening" something. Jin Ling guessed, "She wants us to open this coffin for her?"Lan SiZhui suggested, "Would it be that her body is inside of here? She may want us bury her and bring her peace." This was the most logical inference, since one of the most common reasons why plenty of ghosts haunted the Earth was that their corpses weren’t buried. Wei WuXian stood on one side of the coffin, while a few boys stood on the other, intending to help him open it.He reassured them, "You don’t have to help me. Stand further back. What if it’s not a corpse and spurts out some more corpse-poisoning powder at you?"He opened the coffin alone and lay the lid onto the ground. Looking down, he saw a corpse.However, it wasn’t the corpse of the girl, but somebody else instead.It was a young man. He had been put into a peaceful position with his hands folding crisscrossed together, beneath of which rested a horsetail whisk. On his body was a cultivational robe as white as snow. The silhouette of the lower half of his face, along with a pale countenance and soft-colored lips, was handsome and refined. The upper half of his face, though, was enfolded in layers and layers of bandages that totalled a width of four fingers. Under the bandages, nothing protruded from where his eyes should’ve been. The bandages sunk in instead. There weren’t eyes, only two empty hollows.Having heard them open the coffin, the girl stumbled over. She stuck her hands into the coffin and, after some searching around, she finally felt the corpse’s face. Stomping her feet, tears of blood trickled down from her blind eyes again.Everyone understood, without the need of any words or gestures. Placed all alone inside of a coffin home that stood all alone, this corpse was the real Xiao XingChen.Ghost tears were incapable of dripping down. After the girl cried for a while, she suddenly stood up and ahh-ed at them through her clenched teeth. Appearing both angered and irritated, it was as though she really wanted to express her thoughts. Lan SiZhui asked, "Should I play Inquiry again?"Wei WuXian, "There’s no need. It’s possible for us to ask the wrong questions, instead of the questions that she wants us to ask. And, I think that her reply will be quite complex, quite difficult to interpret."Although he didn’t say "you might not be able to do it", Lan SiZhui still felt rather ashamed. He silently promised to himself, After I get back, I will studyInquiry with greater diligence. I will have to be as fluent, as quick, and as accurate as HanGuang-Jun. Lan JingYi asked, "Then what should we do?"Wei WuXian, "How about Empathy?"All of the major sects specialized in various methods of gaining information and searching for material on ghosts. Empathy was the one that Wei WuXian was the best at. His method wasn’t as profound as those of the other sects. Everyone could use it. It was simply to ask the ghost to possess his own body. Using his own body as medium, he could invade the spirit’s soul and memory, hear what they heard, see what they saw, feel what they felt. If the spirit’s emotions were abnormally strong, then he’d be affected by their sorrow, their rage, their ecstasy. Thus, it was called "Empathy".One could say that this was the most straightforward, most convenient, and most effective method. Of course, it was even more so the most dangerous method. Everyone feared and avoided chances for ghosts to possess their body. On another level, Empathy, though, was playing with fire. The slightest mistake happened, and it would backfire. If the ghost went back on their word and used the opportunity to counter-attack, even the best result would be the seizure the Empathizer’s body.Jin Ling protested, "That’s too dangerous! Using such a dark technique without someone…"Wei WuXian broke him off, "Okay, okay. We’re running out of time. Stand up properly. Quick. We still have to go back and find HanGuang-Jun after we’re finished. Jin Ling, you’ll be the supervisor."A supervisor was an indispensable part of the Empathy ritual. In case the Empathizer lost themselves in the ghost’s emotions, they needed to settle on a code with the supervisor. It was best if the code was a sentence or a voice that the Empathizer was familiar with. The supervisor must preside over the scene at all times. If they saw that the situation had changed, they’d need to act at once and pull the Empathizer out of the trance. Jin Ling pointed to himself, "Me? You want a young mast-… You want me to supervise you while you do something like this?"Lan SiZhui, "If Young Master Jin does not want to do it, I can do it as well."Wei WuXian, "Jin Ling, did you bring the Jiang Sect’s silver bell?"The silver bell was a signature accessory of the YunmengJiang Sect. When Jin Ling was young, he was brought up by two sects. He lived at the LanlingJin Sect’s Jinlin Tower half the time, and the YunmengJiang Sect’s Lotus Pier the other half, so he should be carrying belongings from both sects. As Wei WuXian had expected, with a complicated expression on his face, he pulled out a small, simplistic bell. The Jiang Sect’s clan motif, the nine-petaled lotus, was carved onto the silver body of the bell. Wei WuXian stared at the bell for a few moments. Sensing that he looked a bit off, Jin Ling asked, "What?"Wei WuXian replied, "Nothing." He passed the bell to Lan SiZhui, "The silver bell of the Jiang Sect can steady one’s focus and calm one’s mind. Use this as the code."Jin Ling grabbed the bell back, "Actually, I’ll do it!"Lan JingYi grumbled, "You did not want to do it, and now you do want to do it. With such a hot-and-cold temper, are you a young mistress?"Wei WuXian turned to the girl, "Come in."The girl wiped her eyes and her face, and crashed into his body. Her entire soul was slammed inside. Leaning against the coffin, Wei WuXian slowly slid to the ground. The boys hurried to drag over a pile of straw for him to sit on. Jin Ling clutched the bell tightly, his thoughts unknown.When the girl had just slammed into him, Wei WuXian suddenly thought of a problem, The maiden is blind. If I Empathize with her, wouldn’t I be blind as well and I won’t unable to see a thing? The effects would plummet. Oh well, only the ears should work as well.After a few dizzying moments, the soul that had been light felt as though it landed on firm ground. As the girl opened her eyes, Wei WuXian opened his eyes as well. However, the scene before his eyes wasn’t a field of pitch-black, but instead a clear landscape with bright colors.He could see!Seemingly, at the time of this piece of memory, she wasn’t blind yet.During Empathy, the scenes shown to Wei WuXian would be segments of her memory with the strongest emotions and that she most wanted to express to other people. He could simply watch quietly and feel what she felt. At the moment, the two of them shared the same senses. The girl’s eyes were his eyes; the girl’s mouth was his mouth.Sitting by a brook, the girl groomed herself in front of the water. Although her clothes were tattered, she still needed the most basic level of cleanliness. Tapping a tempo with the tip of her foot, she hummed as she fixed her hair, as though she wasn’t satisfied no matter how she fixed it. Wei WuXian could feel a thin, wooden hairpin poking around in her hair. Suddenly, she looked down at her reflection in the water. Wei WuXian’s viewpoint lowered as well. A young maiden with an oval face and a sharp chin was mirrored against the water of the brook.There were no pupils within the maiden’s eyes, only a field of white.Wei WuXian wondered, This is clearly the look of someone who’s blind, but right now I can see, can’t I?After the girl fastened her hair, she dusted her clothes and leaped up. Grabbing the bamboo pole by her feet, she skipped along the road. She swung her pole as she walked, ceaselessly swatting at the branches above her head, knocking at the rocks that she passed, scaring the grasshoppers within the bushes. As soon as somebody approached from afar, she immediately stopped skipping. Properly holding onto her pole, she knocked on the ground as she slowly wandered forward, appearing quite wary. The group that came was a few villager women. Seeing her situation, they all moved out of her way and whispered to one another. The girl nodded with hurry, "Thank you, thank you."One of the women seemed as though she felt sorry for her. Lifting the white cloth that covered her basket, she took out a steamed bun and gave it to her, "Sister, be careful. Are you hungry? Take this and eat it."The girl ah-ed and replied thankfully, "How can I take it? I-I…"The woman shoved the bun into her hand, "Take it!"She finally took it, "Sister, A-Qing is very thankful of you!"So the girl’s name was A-Qing.Bidding the villager women farewell, A-Qing finished the bun in just a few bites, and continued to skip along, hopping three inches high each time. Skipping with her inside of her body, Wei WuXian’s head spun from dizziness. He thought to himself, The maiden is so full of energy. Now I understand. She’s pretending to be blind. She was probably born with those white eyes. Although she looks blind, she can actually see, so she’s pretending to be blind with her eyes, tricking people into feeling sorry for her. Being a girl who roamed the streets alone, if she pretended to be blind, people would naturally think that she really couldn’t see and lower their guard. However, in reality, she could see everything. This allowed her to adjust according to the circumstances and was indeed a clever method of self-protection.Despite this, A-Qing’s soul was truly blind, which meant that she did lose her sight before she died. Then, how did she go from pretending to be blind to being actually blind?Was it that she saw things she shouldn’t have seen?When nobody was around, A-Qing skipped along; when people were around, A-Qing shrunk down and pretended to be blind. Pausing now and then, she arrived at a marketplace.Since it was bustling with people, of course she’d show off her skills. Performing to the fullest, she knocked on the ground with her bamboo pole, her act as believable as ever. Slowly walking through the crowd, she suddenly ran into a middle-aged man dressed in bright, expensive-looking clothes. She pretended as though she was frightened, "I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I can’t see. I’m sorry!"She couldn’t see? She clearly rushed right into the man!Having collided with someone, the man turned angrily around, as if he wanted to curse at whoever was in front of him. However, seeing that it was not only a blind person, but also a young maiden who looked rather pretty, if he slapped her face in the streets, he’d definitely be criticized by the passerby. He could only scold, "Watch where you’re going!"A-Qing continued to apologize. As he was about to leave, he still wasn’t satisfied, and squeezed A-Qing’s buttocks with his right hand. Since they felt the same things, it was as though the squeeze landed on Wei WuXian’s body. Instantaneously, Wei WuXian felt as if a blanket of goosebumps climbed over his heart. He wanted no less than to slam the man into the ground.A-Qing shrunk herself into a ball as if she was deeply frightened. However, after the man was some distance away, she tapped her way into an obscure alleyway, and immediately spat on the ground. Fishing out a money pouch, she poured the contents out, counted them, then spat again, "Those lousy men, all of them are like this. Dressed as if they really are something, but they don’t have any coins. You can’t even shake a penny out of them."Wei WuXian was halfway between frowning and bursting into laughter. A-Qing was still young, possibly younger than fifteen-years-old, but she was already quite adept at cursing, and even more adept at snatching people’s money. He reminisced, If you stole my money, you wouldn’t have cursed in such a way. Back then, I used to be wealthy as well…Just as he was sighing about how he became so poor, A-Qing had already found her next target. Acting as a blind person, she walked out of the alleyway, wandered on the streets for a while, and did the same thing. With an "ah", she drove herself into a white-robed cultivator, then apologized, "I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I can’t see. I’m sorry!"Wei WuXian silently shook his head. This young beauty didn’t even change her lines!Having been jolted by her, the person turned around. He helped her steady herself first, "I’m fine. Maiden, you can’t see either?"The person was fairly young. His cultivation robes were simple yet clean, and he carried a sword wrapped in white cloth on his back. The lower half of his face was quite handsome, although somewhat emaciated. On the other hand, the upper half of his face was covered with bandages about four fingers wide. A soft tinge of blood vaguely seeped from beneath the bandages.<h3>Translator’s Notes

Chapter 39 Grasses—Part Seven

Chapter 40 Grasses—Part Eight</h3>If she were another girl of the same age, she would’ve started screaming immediately. However, since A-Qing had feigned being blind for so many years, a lot of people had put down their guard in front of her, believing that she couldn’t see. She was used to seeing the more sickening sides of people, which had hardened her heart. She somehow managed to not make a sound.Even so, Wei WuXian could feel the numbing stiffness that travelled upward from the bottom of her legs.Standing amid numerous villagers’ corpses that lay scattered on the ground, Xiao XingChen sheathed his sword and spoke in a solemn voice, "How can it be that there isn’t a single living person inside this village? That all of them are walking corpses?"Xue Yang smiled, but the voice that came out of his mouth sounded extremely confused, even somewhat pained, "Yeah. Good thing that your sword points at corpse energy on its own. Or else, with just the two of us, it would’ve been very difficult to break through."Xiao XingChen, "Let’s examine the village again. If there really isn’t anyone left, then let’s burn these corpses as soon as possible."After they walked side-by-side into the distance, some strength finally returned to A-Qing’s legs. She sneaked out from behind the house to where the piles of corpses were and glanced around on the ground. Wei WuXian’s viewpoint oscillated as well.All of these villagers were killed by sharp, clean pierces through the heart, done by Xiao XingChen’s sword. Suddenly, Wei WuXian saw a few familiar faces.A few pieces of memory ago, the three of them went outside one day and came upon a few men who had too much free time on their hands, playing dice at a the crossroad of a village. As the three passed the village, the men glanced up and saw a blind man, a blind girl, and a boy who limped, they all laughed and pointed. A-Qing spat at them and brandished her bamboo pole; Xiao XingChen walked passed calmly, as if he didn’t hear anything; Xue Yang even smiled, although his eyes held no trace of any amusement.A-Qing flipped over quite a few corpses. Opening their eyelids, she saw that all of them had white eyes. Livor mortis had already climbed over some of their faces. She let out a sigh of relief, but Wei WuXian’s heart sunk even lower.Although they looked a lot like walking corpses, these people were indeed living.Except that they were under corpse poisoning.Near the mouths and noses of a few corpses, Wei WuXian could also see leftover traces of a reddish-purple powder. Of course, the ones who’d been under poisoning for a long time were beyond hope since they had already become walking corpses. However, among them, there were still a few who hadn’t been poisoned for long. They’d start to develop traits of corpses that had transformed, such as emitting corpse energy, but they would still be conscious and be able to speak, which meant that they would still be living. If they were helped, they could still be saved like Lan JingYi and the others. One should truly be careful not to accidentally kill them, since it’d be the same as killing a live human.They should’ve been able to talk, to say who they were, to shout for help. However, the awful thing was that somebody had cut all of their tongues off before this. The corners of all of the corpse’s lips seeped blood, either still warm or already dried.Although Xiao XingChen couldn’t see, Shuanghua could point out the directions of corpse energy. Because these villagers lost their tongues, they could only make strange howls that was extremely similar to those of walking corpses. Thus, he didn’t doubt at all that the villagers he killed had already died.It was a maniatic way to kill others without dirtying his own hand, a merciless way to instead dirty the hand that fed him.A-Qing, however, didn’t understand how this worked. She only knew of the rough process, having heard them sometimes being mentioned by Xiao XingChen. She murmured, "Is the bastard really helping Daozhang?"Wei WuXian cautioned in silence, Please don’t believe Xue Yang just like this!Luckily, A-Qing’s intuition was rather sharp. Although her knowledge didn’t allow her to find anything suspicious, her vigilance toward Xue Yang was already deeply rooted in her intuition. She instinctively hated him and refused to settle. And so, whenever Xue Yang went out night-hunting with Xiao XingChen, she’d secretly follow them. Even when they were in the same house, she didn’t lower her guard.During one night, the winter winds howled outside. The three of them were crammed inside the smaller room, warming up by the old furnace. Xiao XingChen was mending a basket that had a broken strip of bamboo. A-Qing was draped in the only cotton quilt. Wrapping herself as though she was a zongzi, she sat by his shoulder. Xue Yang held his chin with one hand and had nothing to do. Listening to A-Qing pester Xiao XingChen about telling her a story, he was rather annoyed, "Stop being so noisy. I’ll tie your tongue into a knot if you keep on yapping."A-Qing didn’t listen to him at all and demanded, "Daozhang, I wanna hear a story!"Xiao XingChen, "When I was young, nobody told me stories. How would I know how to tell one?"A-Qing continued the tantrum, and was about to start rolling on the ground when Xiao XingChen finally agreed, "Alright. I’ll tell you a story that happened on a mountain."A-Qing, "Once upon a time there was a mountain and on the mountain there was a temple?"Xiao XingChen, "No. Once upon a time, there was a celestial mountain that nobody knew of. On the mountain, there was an Immortal who reached enlightenment. The Immortal accepted a lot of disciples, but she didn’t let them leave the mountain."After hearing the beginning, Wei WuXian understood at once, She’s BaoShan SanRen.A-Qing, "Why not?"Xiao XingChen, "The Immortal only hid in the mountain because she couldn’t understand the world outside it. She told her disciples, ‘If you are going to leave the mountain, then there’s no need for you to come back. Don’t bring the disputes of the outside world into the mountain.’"A-Qing, "Then how can you withstand the boredom? There’d definitely be disciples who want to go outside and play."Xiao XingChen, "You’re right. The first disciple who left was very outstanding. When he first left the mountain, due to his mastery over his skills, everyone praised and admired him, and he became a famous cultivator of the righteous path. But afterwards, people don’t know what he went through, but his personality changed drastically, and he suddenly became a villain who killed people without blinking twice. In the end, he died under thousands of swords."This was the first disciple of BaoShan SanRen who "didn’t die a peaceful death"—YanLing DaoRen.What this shibo of Wei WuXian’s went through after leaving the mountain that caused his personality to change so much remained a mystery. It was likely that nobody would ever find out. After Xiao XingChen finished mending the basket, he felt it a few times. He made sure that it wouldn’t hurt the hand, put it down, and continued, "The second disciple was a girl and also very outstanding."Wei WuXian’s chest felt warm.She was ZangSe SanRen.A-Qing, "Is she pretty?"Xiao XingChen, "I don’t know. She was said to be really pretty."A-Qing, "Then, I know! There must’ve been a lot of people who liked her and wanted to marry her after she left the mountain. And then, she must’ve married a high-ranking official or the leader of a big sect! Heehee."Xiao XingChen laughed, "You guessed wrong. She married the servant of the leader of a big sect, and the two lived happily ever after."A-Qing, "I don’t like this. How would an outstanding and beautiful cultivator settle on a servant. This story’s so cliche. It’s probably made up by some poor scholar. And then what happened? How was their life like after they lived happily ever after?"Xiao XingChen, "And then the two of them accidentally lost their lives during a night-hunt."A-Qing spat, "What sort of story is this?! She not only married a servant, but they died together! I’m not listening anymore!"Wei WuXian thought to himself, Good thing that Xiao XingChen didn’t go on and tell her that the two of them gave birth to another big villain that everyone wanted to beat up. Or else, she might be spitting about me.Xiao XingChen sighed, "This was why I said in the beginning that I don’t know how to tell stories."A-Qing, "Then, Daozhang, you must remember the night-hunts you’ve been on, right? I like to hear those! Tell me, what sort of monsters have you fought?"Xue Yang had been unfocused on the story, listening with his eyes shut. Now, though, his expression grew a bit more serious. His pupils shrunk, and he glanced at Xiao XingChen.Xiao XingChen, "There really are too many."Xue Yang suddenly asked, "Really? Then, Daozhang, did you used to night-hunt alone as well?"The corners of his lips curled up, indicating that he was up to no good, yet his voice was filled with simple curiosity. After a pause, Xiao XingChen smiled slightly, "No."This got A-Qing interested, "Then who else were with you?"This time, Xiao XingChen’s pause was longer. After a few moments, he answered, "A very good friend of mine."An eerie light flashed inside Xue Yang’s eyes and his smile grew larger. It seemed that peeling off Xiao XingChen’s scabs gave him quite a lot of pleasure. A-Qing, on the other hand, was actually curious, "Daozhang, who’s this friend of yours? What sort of person are they?"Xiao XingChen replied calmly, "A sincere man of noble nature."Hearing this, Xue Yang rolled his eyes in contempt. His lips moved faintly, as though he cursed at him. However, he purposely pretended that he was confused, "Then, Daozhang, where’s this friend of yours right now? Why hasn’t he come to find you when you’re already like this?Wei WuXian, What an insidious knife.This time, Xiao XingChen didn’t reply. Although A-Qing didn’t know what was going on, she looked as if she also sensed something. Holding her breath, she glared at Xue Yang. She clenched her teeth, as though she wanted to take a bite out of him. After a while of spacing out, Xiao XingChen broke the silence, "Where he is right now, I don’t know either. But, I hope that…"Before he finished his sentence, he patted A-Qing’s head, "Alright. That’s it for tonight. I really don’t know how to tell stories. It’s quite embarrassing."A-Qing replied obediently, "Oh. Okay!"Yet, Xue Yang suddenly spoke up, "Then how about I tell one?"A-Qing was just about to feel disappointed. She immediately agreed, "Yes, yes. You tell one."Unhurried, Xue Yang began, "Once upon a time, there was a child.""The child really liked eating sweet things. But because he had no parents or money, he could rarely eat them. One day, the same as any other day, he was sitting zoned-out on a flight of stairs. Opposite to the stairs, there was a liquor shop. A man sat on a table inside of the shop. As he saw the child, he gestured for him to go over."Although this story’s beginning wasn’t that great either, it was definitely a lot better than Xiao XingChen’s cliche one. If A-Qing had a pair of rabbit ears, they must’ve perked up already.Xue Yang continued, "Being naive and puzzled, the child had nothing to do anyways. He saw someone wave at him, and immediately ran over. The man pointed at a plate of pastries on the table and asked him, ‘Do you want this?’""Of course he wanted it. He nodded as fast as he could. So, the man gave the child a piece of paper and said, ‘If you want it, take this to a certain room in a certain place. I’ll give it to you after you take the paper."The child was really happy. He could have a plate of pastries if he ran the errand, and he earned the plate of pastries himself."He didn’t know how to read, so he just took the paper and went to the place. After he opened the door, a huge, brawny man came out. He took over the paper and looked at it, and he gave the child a slap so hard that his nose started bleeding. The man pulled the child’s hair and asked, ‘Who told you to take such a thing over?’"The child must’ve been Xue Yang himself.Wei WuXian could never have imagined that a crafty person like Xue Yang was so honest, so dim-witted when he was young, doing whatever a stranger asked him to do. The things written on the piece of paper definitely wasn’t nice. Most likely, the person at the liquor shop and the brawny man had some conflicts. The former didn’t dare curse at the latter in front of his face, so he told a child on the streets to bring over a humiliating letter instead. Such an act could even be described as perverse.Xue Yang, "He felt scared and pointed the direction. The man went to the liquor shop, carrying the child by pulling his hair. The other man had long been gone. The leftover pastries on the table had been taken away by the waiters as well. The man was so angry that he threw over quite a few tables before storming out.""The child was really frustrated. He ran an errand for someone, got beaten up, and was held by his hair on the way back. His scalp was almost pulled off. Of course he wouldn’t settle without the pastries. So, he asked a waiter with tears in his eyes, ‘Where are my pastries? Where are the pastries that he said will be mine?"Xue Yang continued as he grinned, "The store was in a mess and the waiter was feeling quite cross. He slapped the child a few times, so hard that his ears were even buzzing, and chased him out the door. He crawled up and walked for a while. Guess what? Coincidentally, he ran into the man that made him take the letter again."He stopped at this point. A-Qing was just getting engrossed in the story. She hurried him, "And then? What happened?"Xue Yang, "What do you think happened? Just a few more slaps and a few more kicks."A-Qing, "This was you, right? He liked sweets—it definitely was you! Why were you like this when you were young? If I were you, I would’ve been like ptew, ptew, ptew and spat in his food, and then I’d hit him, and I’d hit him, and I’d hit him…" She danced around, almost hitting Xiao XingChen, who sat by her side.Xiao XingChen quickly spoke, "Alright, alright. You finished listening to the story. It’s time to sleep."Even as A-Qing was carried by him to the coffin, she was still angrily complaining, "Ugh! Your stories make me so mad! One is so boring that it makes me mad, and the other is so annoying that it makes me mad! Jeez, that guy who made him take the letter was so annoying! I’m so frustrated!"After Xiao XingChen tucked her, he walked a few steps, then asked, "What happened afterward?"Xue Yang, "Guess. There was no afterward. You didn’t continue telling your story either, did you?"Xiao XingChen, "No matter what happened afterward, since right now your life is fairly adequate, there’s no need for you to dwell too much on the past."Xue Yang, "I’m not dwelling on the past. It’s just that the Little Blind keeps on stealing my candy and even finished them, so now I can’t help but remember the days when I couldn’t have any."A-Qing kicked the coffin hard and protested, "Daozhang, don’t listen to him! I didn’t really eat that much!"Xiao XingChen laughed softly, "Let’s all rest."That night, Xue Yang didn’t follow him. Xiao XingChen went out to night-hunt alone. A-Qing lay motionless inside the coffin, but she couldn’t fall asleep.When the sky began to brighten, Xiao XingChen came back, not making a sound as he entered.As he passed the coffin, he put his hand inside. A-Qing pretended as if she were asleep, and only opened her eyes again after Xiao XingChen left the coffin home. She saw a small piece of candy beside her straw pillow.She stuck her head out and looked into the bedroom. Xue Yang wasn’t asleep either. He sat at the table, appearing as if he was thinking about something.A piece of candy lay silently on the edge of the table.After the night when they talked at the furnace, Xiao XingChen would give both of them a piece of candy everyday. Of course, A-Qing was quite pleased. Xue Yang expressed neither gratitude nor rejection toward this act, which made A-Qing angry Xiao XingChen had always been responsible for the three’s meals. Since he was blind, he didn’t know how to select vegetables and was too embarrassed to bargain with others. When he went out alone, it was fine if the vendors were nice, but he sometimes met vendors who purposely took advantage of his blindness. The vegetables that he brought back would be lacking in either quality or quantity. Xiao XingChen didn’t care much himself, or one could say that he didn’t really pay attention to the matter, but A-Qing was often infuriated. In a seething manner, she’d demand to shop for ingredients alongside Xiao XingChen. Unfortunately, even though she could see, she couldn’t express anything. She didn’t dare throw tantrums and knock down the stalls in front of Xiao XingChen either. This was when Xue Yang became useful. With keen eyes and a sharp tongue that came with his delinquent self, if he went outside with them, whenever they wanted to buy something, the first thing he’d do was to shamelessly bargain the price down to a half. If the vendor agreed, he’d bargain even further; if the vendor didn’t, he’d put on a menacing look, and the vendors would start thinking that they were lucky somebody like him would decide to pay at all, hoping for him to leave as soon as possible. Presumably, when he was roaming freely in Kuizhou and Lanling, he probably didn’t have to pay anything for the things he wanted. Now that A-Qing had her anger vented out, out of happiness, she even praised him a few times. And, thanks to the delightful candy everyday, since then, for a short length of time, a delicate peace was maintained between A-Qing and Xue Yang.However, she could never let down her guard for Xue Yang. The short periods of peace were also often immediately suppressed by multiple doubts and suspicions.One day, A-Qing was playing on the streets again, pretending to be blind. She had been playing the game for her whole life, and hadn’t grown tired of it even once. As she was knocking her bamboo pole while walking around, suddenly, a voice came from behind her, "Young Maiden, if your eyes can’t see, it’s best if you don’t run so fast."It was the voice of a young man, which sounded rather cold. A-Qing turned around to see a tall cultivator who wore black robes, standing a few meters away from her. A sword was carried behind his back while a horsetail whisk was in his arm. With an upright posture and drifting sleeves, he had a proud, aloof air to him.This man just happened to be Song Lan.A-Qing tilted her head. Song Lan had already walked over. Putting his whisk over A-Qing’s shoulder, he led her to the side, "There are less people on the side of the road."Wei WuXian commented, They really are good friends, aren’t they? Good friends would have to be similar in character.A-Qing tittered, "A-Qing is very thankful of Daozhang!"Song Lan took his whisk back and held it in his arms again. He glanced at her, "Don’t play around too much. The dark energy here is quite strong. In the future, be careful not to linger outside."A-Qing, "Okay!"Song Lan nodded and continued walking, but A-Qing couldn’t help but turn around to watch him. After he walked for a while, he stopped a passerby, "Excuse me. Has anyone seen a blind cultivator who carries a sword in the area?"At once, A-Qing started to listen carefully. The passerby replied, "I’m not too sure. Daozhang, you can try asking the people over there."Song Lan, "Thank you."A-Qing tapped her way over, "Daozhang, why are you searching for the other daozhang?"Song Lan immediately turned around, "Have you seen him?"A-Qing, "Maybe I have, but maybe I haven’t."Song Lan, "How can I make it so that you’ve seen him?"A-Qing, "If you answer a few questions for me, then maybe I’ll remember that I have. Are you a friend of the daozhang?"Song Lan hesitated. He only replied after a few moments, "… Yes."Wei WuXian wondered, Why did he hesitate?A-Qing also felt that his answer was somewhat reluctant. Her suspicion grew again, "Do you really know him? How tall is he? Is he pretty or ugly? What is his sword like?"Song Lan answered straight away, "His height is similar to mine. His appearance is rather fine. His sword is carved with patterns of frost."Seeing that he answered everything correctly and didn’t look like a bad guy, A-Qing responded, "I know where he is. Daozhang, follow me!"Song Lan had already been travelling in search for his close friend for a few years, and had been disappointed countless times. Now that he finally heard news of him, he couldn’t even believe his ears. He managed with effort, "… Thank… Thank you…"A-Qing led him until they were near the coffin home, yet Song Lan stopped in his tracks. A-Qing asked, "What’s wrong? Aren’t you gonna go over?"For some reason, Song Lan’s face was extremely pale. He stared at the door of the coffin home, as if he would rush inside if he could, but was too scared to do so. The aloof look that he had was completely gone. Wei WuXian guessed, Maybe he’s nervous since they haven’t seen each other for so long?Just as he made up his mind and was about to go in, a lackadaisical figure strolled inside before he could.As he saw who the figure was, Song Lan’s face instantly went from pale to ashen!A series of laughter came from the coffin home. A-Qing snorted, "The annoying one is back."Song Lan, "Who is he? Why is he here?"A-Qing whined, "He’s a bastard. He never told us his name, so who knows who he is? He was saved by Daozhang. Now he sticks to Daozhang all the time. He’s such a pain!"Song Lan’s face switched between being surprised and exasperated. After a moment, he spoke, "Be quiet!"A-Qing was scared by his expression and obeyed. The two of them silently approached the coffin home, one standing beside the window and the other hiding beneath it. In the coffin home, Xiao XingChen asked, "Whose turn is it today?"The instant he heard the voice, Song Lan’s hands trembled so much that A-Qing could clearly see it.Xue Yang, "What if, from now on, we don’t take turns anymore? Let’s change it up."Xiao XingChen, "You only spoke up because it’s your turn today, didn’t you? How do you want to change it?"Xue Yang, "Here. There are two sticks. If you pick the longer one, you don’t have to go; if you pick the shorter one, then you’ll have to go. What do you think?"After a moment of silence, Xue Yang laughed, "Yours is short. I win. You’re going!"Xiao XingChen said with reluctance, "Alright. I’ll go."He sounded as though he finally stood up and started walking toward the door. Wei WuXian cheered, Great. Come outside, quick. It’s best if Song Lan grabs him and runs as soon as he’s out.However, before he walked very far, Xue Yang spoke up, "Come back. I’ll go."Xiao XingChen, "Why are you willing to go, now?"Xue Yang stood up as well, "Are you an idiot? I tricked you. I picked the shorter one. It’s just that I’ve been hiding the longest stick behind me, so whichever one you pick, I can take out a longer one. I’m just exploiting the fact that you can’t see."He laughed at Xiao XingChen some more and sauntered out, holding a basket in his hand. A-Qing looked up at Song Lan, whose entire body was shaking. She didn’t understand why he was so angry. Song Lan gestured for her to be quiet. Only after the two walked some distance away did Song Lan start asking A-Qing about the details, "This man, when did Xing… when did the daozhang save him?"His tone was solemn. A-Qing understood that the situation was no joke, and she answered him seriously as well, "It’s been a long time, a couple of years."Song Lan, "The daozhang never found out who he is?"A-Qing, "No."Song Lan, "What has he done during his stay with the daozhang?"A-Qing, "Joke around, bully me, scare me, and… Oh, he also night-hunts with Daozhang!"Song Lan frowned, thinking that Xue Yang probably wouldn’t be so nice, "Night-hunt? Night-hunt what things? Do you know?"A-Qing didn’t dare to be careless. After some thought, she replied, "They used to often night-hunt walking corpses, sometime in the past. Now it’s usually ghosts, animals that behave weirdly, and so on."As he inquired into the matter, Song Lan also felt that something was strange, but he couldn’t find any clues. He continued, "Is the daozhang close with him?"Although she didn’t want to admit it, A-Qing still confessed, "I think that Daozhang is really unhappy when he’s alone… He’s finally got someone who cultivates as well… So, I think he sorta likes listening to the bastard tell jokes."Song Lan’s face was clouded with both rage and devastation. Amid the confusion, only one thing was for certain:He definitely couldn’t tell Xiao XingChen about this!He cautioned, "Don’t tell the daozhang anything unnecessary."As soon as he finished, he went toward the direction that Xue Yang left in. A-Qing asked, "Daozhang, are you going to beat up that bastard?"Song Lan was already far away from her. Wei WuXian thought, Way more than beat him up. He’s going chop Xue Yang into pieces!Xue Yang went outside holding the vegetable basket. A-Qing knew which path he’d use if he was going to buy vegetables. Taking a shortcut, she sprinted through a part of a forest, her heart beating faster than ever. After chasing for a while, she finally saw Xue Yang’s figure forward of her. He held a basket in one hand, which was filled with cabbages, carrots, steamed buns, and other food. He walked as he yawned lazily. He had probably finished shopping.A-Qing had always been good at hiding and eavesdropping. She snuck into a bush beside the forest, moving along with him. Suddenly, Song Lan’s cold voice came from in front of her, "Xue Yang."As if someone had poured a bucket of freezing water over his face, or if someone had slapped him awake from a deep sleep, Xue Yang’s expression became scary at once.Song Lan came out from behind a tree. His sword had already been unsheathed. He held it in his hand, with the tip pointing to the ground.Xue Yang pretended to be surprised, "Oh, isn’t this Daozhang Song? What a rare guest. You here to get a free meal?"Song Lan lunged with his sword. Xue Yang immediately shook Jiangzai out of his sleeves, blocked the attack, and backed a few steps. He put the basket under a tree, "You damn cultivator. For once I actually wanted to shop for food, and here you fucking are, spoiling my mood!"In a fury, Song Lan’s attacks were aiming for fatality. He shouted in a low voice, "Just what in the world are you scheming?! Why have you spent so long near Xiao XingChen?!"Xue Yang laughed, "And I was wondering why Daozhang Song still had business with me. So you want to ask me about this."Song Lan raged, "Tell me! Why would a scum like you be so nice as to help him night-hunt?!"The wind of the sword brushed against his face. A cut appeared on Xue Yang’s cheek, but he wasn’t surprised at all, "How does Daozhang Song understand me so much?"One of the two fought with skills learned from a proper sect, while the other fought with experience from committing crimes. It was obvious that Song Lan was more skilled than Xue Yang. His pierced through Xue Yang’s arm, "Tell me!"If not for how the matter was so alarming that Song Lan must know what was going on, the sword might have pierced through the neck instead of the arm. Although Xue Yang was injured, his expression didn’t change at all, "You really wanna hear it? I’m afraid that you might go mad. Some things shouldn’t be made known."Song Lan’s voice was colder than ever, "Xue Yang, my patience is running out!"With a clang, Xue Yang blocked an attack that was aimed at his eyes. He replied, "Fine, if you’re so keen on hearing it. Do you know what that bestest friend of yours did? He killed a lot of walking corpses. He exercised for the greater good, without asking for anything in return. It’s quite touching, really. Although he dug his eyes out for you and became blind, the good thing was that Shuanghua can point out corpse energy for him. What’s even better? I discovered that if you cut off the tongues of people under corpse poisoning and made it so that they couldn’t speak, Shuanghua couldn’t tell apart living and dead corpses either, so…"He explained it in an extremely detailed way. Both SongLan’s arm and sword were trembling, "You monster… You vile monster…"Xue Yang, "Daozhang Song, sometimes I feel like that polite people like you are really at a disadvantage when they’re cursing others, because it’s always those few words being repeated over and over again. There’s absolutely no power or creativity at all. I haven’t used these two words to call others ever since I was seven."Song Lan was in a towering rage. He attacked again, this time aiming at his throat, "You imposed upon his blindness and fooled him so terribly!"The attack was both fast and fatal. Xue Yang managed to dodge it, but it pierced his shoulder nonetheless. As if he couldn’t feel anything, he didn’t even flinch, "His blindness? Daozhang Song, have you forgotten who he dug out his own eyes and became blind for?"Hearing this, both Song Lan’s face and movements stiffened.Xue Yang continued, "What position are you in to blame me? A friend of his? Are you shameless enough to say that you’re his friend? Hahahaha, Daozhang Song, do I need to remind you of what you said to Xiao XingChen after I wiped out the Baixue Temple? When he worried about you and wanted to help you, what sort of expression did you face him with? What sort of things did you say?"Song Lan was in a terrible state of mind, "I! At the time, I…"Xue Yang cut him short, "At the time, you were upset? You were pained? You were grieving? You didn’t know where to vent your anger? And that was why you took it out on him? To be fair, the reason why I wiped out your temple was precisely because of him. It’s quite understandable why you took it out on him. In fact, it was exactly what I wanted."Every sentence was a critical strike!Both Xue Yang’s speech and attacks quickened. His movements becoming calmer and more difficult to defend, he gradually gained the upper hand, yet Song Lan didn’t notice this at all. Xue Yang added, "Well! Who was the one who said ‘from now on, we won’t need to meet again"? Wasn’t it you, Daozhang Song? He listened to your request and disappeared after he dug out his eyes for you, but why have you come to him now? Isn’t this making it a bit too difficult? Daozhang Xiao XingChen, don’t you agree?"Hearing this, Song Lan wavered. His attacks hesitated as well!Being fooled by such a simple trick, it could be seen that Song Lan’s mind and movements were really disrupted by Xue Yang. Taking advantage of such a perfect chance, with a wave of his hand, corpse-poisoning powder rained from above.Nobody had seen this sort of carefully refined corpse-poisoning powder before, including Song Lan. He accidentally breathed in quite a large amount. Immediately knowing that he was in a bad situation, Song Lan started to cough. However, Xue Yang’s Jiangzai had long been waiting. With a cold flash of the sword’s tip, it shot straight into his mouth!Instantly, Wei WuXian’s field of vision turned into complete darkness. A-Qing was so scared that she closed her eyes.But, he knew already. This was when Song Lan’s tongue had been cut off by Jiangzai.The sounds were terrifying.A-Qing’s eyes felt warm, but she clenched her teeth tightly, not making a single sound. Her eyes blinked open again. Song Lan managed to keep standing, leaning on his sword. With his other hand, he covered his mouth. Blood seeped incessantly from between his fingers.With his tongue cut off by Xue Yang’s sudden attack, Song Lan was under so much agony that he couldn’t even walk. Yet, he still pulled his sword from the ground and staggered toward Xue Yang. Xue Yang dodged the attack easily. A bizarre smile was on his face.The next moment, Wei WuXian saw why he smiled in such a way.Shuanghua’s silver glare pierced into Song Lan’s chest, then came out from his back.Song Lan looked down at Shuanghua’s blade, which penetrated his heart, then slowly looked up again. He saw Xiao XingChen, who calmly held the sword.Xiao XingChen wasn’t at all aware of the situation, "Are you there?"Song Lan moved his lips soundlessly.Xue Yang grinned, "I am. Why are you here?"Xiao XingChen pulled out Shuanghua and returned it to its sheath, "Shuanghua behaved strangely. I followed its guidance and came to see." He wondered, "We haven’t seen any walking corpses in this area for quite a while, not to mention one that roamed alone. Did it come here from somewhere else?"Slowly, Song Lan fell to his knees before Xiao XingChen.Xue Yang glanced down at him, "Probably. It’s making awful noises."At such a time, if Song Lan passed his sword to Xiao XingChen’s hands, Xiao XingChen would’ve immediately known who he was. He’d be able to recognize the sword of his closest friend with just a touch.Yet, Song Lan could no longer do so. Would he pass the sword to Xiao XingChen, tell him who he had just killed with his own hands?This was precisely what Xue Yang was aiming for, thus he had nothing to fear. He turned to Xiao XingChen, "Let’s go. It’s time to cook dinner. I’m hungry already."Xiao XingChen, "Have you bought the vegetables?"Xue Yang, "Yep. I ran into this thing on my way back. What a bad day."Xiao XingChen left first. Xue Yang patted the wounds on his shoulder and arm. He picked up the basket again and, as he passed Song Lan, he smiled and looked down, "No food for you."After Xue Yang was long gone and had probably reached the coffin home with Xiao XingChen already, A-Qing finally stood up from behind the bush.Her legs had both numbed after squatting for so long. Holding her pole, she limped and wobbled to Song Lan, whose kneeling corpse had already stiffened.Song Lan’s death was far from being peaceful. A-Qing jumped from his widely opened eyes. Then, as she saw the blood that spilled out of his mouth, streaming down his chin, staining the front of his shirt, pooling over the ground, large drops of tears rolled from her eyes.Although she was scared, A-Qing reached out to close Song Lan’s eyes. She then kneeled in front of him and put her palms together, "Daozhang, please don’t blame me or the other daozhang. If I came out, I’d die anyways, so I had to hide and couldn’t help you. The other daozhang was fooled by that bastard as well. He didn’t do it on purpose. He didn’t know that you were the one he killed!"She sobbed on, "I’m going back. Please, let your deceased spirit bless me so that I can get Daozhang Xiao XingChen out of there, bless us so that we can escape the demon’s control. I must not let that monster Xue Yang die in peace. I must cut him into pieces so that he never enters reincarnation again!"After her speech, she kowtowed on the ground three loud times. She wiped her face harshly, stood up, encouraged herself, and walked in the direction of Yi City.The sky had already darkened when she returned to the coffin home. Xue Yang was peeling apples at the table. Cutting all of the slices into rabbits, he seemed to be a wonderful mood. Anyone who saw him would think that this must be a lively youth. Nobody would be able to imagine what he had just done. Hearing her entrance, Xiao XingChen came out with a plate of cabbage in his hand, "A-Qing, where did you go today? It’s already so late."Glancing at her, something suddenly flashed in Xue Yang’s eyes, "What’s wrong? Her eyes are so swollen."Xiao XingChen hurried over, "What happened? Did someone bully you?"Xue Yang, "Bully her? Who’d be able to bully her?"Although he wore a broad smile, he was clearly growing suspicious. Suddenly, A-Qing threw the bamboo pole onto the ground, and started wailing.She cried with both tears and a runny nose. Almost hiccuping, she flew into Xiao XingChen’s arms, "Am I ugly? Am I ugly? Daozhang, you have to tell me. Am I really that ugly?"Xiao XingChen stroked her head, "Of course not. A-Qing is such a pretty girl. Who said that you’re ugly?"Xue Yang commented with disdain, "You’re so ugly. You’re even uglier when you cry."Xiao XingChen chided, "Don’t say that."A-Qing cried harder. She stomped her feet, "Well, Daozhang, it’s not like you can see! What’s the use if you say I’m pretty? You’re definitely lying to me! He can see. He said I’m ugly, so I must really be that ugly! Both ugly and blind!"From all the fuss, both of them naturally believed that some children called her "ugly-pants" or "white-eyed blind girl" when she was outside today, and was feeling frustrated. Xue Yang dismissed, "You came back crying just because they said you’re ugly? Where did your usual unreasonable rudeness go?"A-Qing, "I’m not rude! Daozhang, do you have any money left?"With a pause, Xiao XingChen replied in embarrassment, "Uh… I think so."Xue Yang interrupted, "I can lend you some."A-Qing spat, "You’ve been living and eating with us for so long, and you still call it ‘lending’ if we use some of your money! What a miser! You have no shame! Daozhang, I wanna buy pretty clothes and pretty jewelry. Can you come with me?"Wei WuXian thought to himself, So she wants to lead Xiao XingChen out of here. But if Xue Yang wants to follow, what should she do?Xiao XingChen, "Of course I can, but I won’t be able to help you see if they suit you or not."Xue Yang interrupted again, "I can help her."A-Qing jumped so high that she almost hit Xiao XingChen’s chin, "I don’t care, I don’t care! I only want you! I don’t want him beside me at all. All he’ll say is that I’m ugly! And he’ll call me Little Blind!"It wasn’t the first time that she acted in such an unreasonable way. The two of them were already used to it. Xue Yang pulled a face at her, while Xiao XingChen agreed, "Alright. How about tomorrow?"A-Qing, "Tonight!"Xue Yang, "If you go tonight, all of the markets will have closed. Where else could you possibly go?"Having no other choice, A-Qing gave in, "Fine! Then tomorrow it is! It’s a promise!"Having failed a first attempt, if she still begged to go outside, Xue Yang would definitely be suspicious again. A-Qing could only drop the matter for now and go to the table for dinner. During the previous ruckus, although her performance was the same as before, appearing more than natural, her stomach had been stretched taut throughout. She had been so nervous that, even now, the hand that she held her bowl with was still trembling. Xue Yang was sitting right at her left. As he glanced sideways at her, her legs stiffened again. Since she was too frightened to eat anything, she conveniently pretended that she was too furious to have an appetite. She spat the food out every time she had a bite. Stabbing her bowl, she muttered and cursed, "You damned bitch. You filthy maid. Well I don’t think you’re any better, slut!"Listening to her curse at the nonexistent "filthy maid", Xue Yang couldn’t hold himself from rolling his eyes, while Xiao XingChen spoke, "Don’t waste food."Xue Yang’s eyes left A-Qing and turned to Xiao XingChen’s face instead. Wei WuXian thought, It could indeed be justified how the little delinquent could imitate Xiao XingChen in such an accurate way. After all, they sat in front of each other every single day. He’d have lots of time to figure it out.However, Xiao XingChen was not at all aware of the two pairs of eyes that pointed at him. After all, he was the only one in the room who was truly blind.After they finished, Xiao XingChen cleaned up the bowls and chopsticks, and went in the central chamber again. Unable to sit or stand still, A-Qing wanted to follow him inside, but Xue Yang suddenly called her, "A-Qing."A-Qing’s heart immediately skipped a beat. Even Wei WuXian felt the chills that ran from her head down her back.She responded, "Why did you suddenly call my name?!"Xue Yang, "Didn’t you say yourself that you didn’t wanna be called Little Blind?"A-Qing humphed, "People don’t just suddenly act nice to others, unless they’re hiding other intentions! Just what do you want?"Xue Yang smiled, "Nothing, really. I just want to teach you what you should do the next time others curse at you."A-Qing, "Huh. Tell me, then. What should I do?"Xue Yang, "If someone calls you ugly, then make her even uglier. Cut a few dozens of times on her face so that she’ll never have the guts to go outside again. If someone calls you blind, then carve one end of your pole sharp, and stab once in both of her eyes so that she’ll also be blind. Then, see if she dares to bad mouth you again."A-Qing’s blood ran cold. She pretended as if she thought he was frightening her, "You’re scaring me again!"Xue Yang snorted, "Well, think what you want."As he finished, he pushed the plate that held the rabbit-shaped apple slices in front of her, "Eat up."Looking at the plate of cute, delicate slices, disgust filled both A-Qing’s and Wei WuXian’s hearts.The next day, just as they got up, A-Qing pleaded Xiao XingChen to shop for pretty clothes and makeup alongside her. Xue Yang was annoyed, "If you two are gone, then I’d have to buy today’s food again?"A-Qing, "Why can’t you buy it? Think about how many times Daozhang bought them! You’re the only one who bullies and plays tricks on Daozhang all the time!"Xue Yang, "Okay, okay. I’ll go buy it. I’ll go right now."After he was gone, Xiao XingChen asked, "A-Qing, are you still not ready yet? Can we go now?"A-Qing only came inside after she made sure that Xue Yang was long gone. She closed the door and asked in a trembling voice, "Daozhang, do you happen to know someone called Xue Yang?"<h3>Translator’s Notes

Chapter 41 Grasses—Part Nine</h3>Xiao XingChen’s smile froze.The words "Xue Yang" were too big of a shock to him. His complexion was quite pale to start with. After he heard the name, all of the blood drained from his face. His lips were almost a shade of pink-tinted white.As if he wasn’t sure, Xiao XingChen asked in a low voice, "… Xue Yang?" He was suddenly startled, "A-Qing, how did you learn of this name?"A-Qing, "Xue Yang is the person with us! He’s that bastard!"Xiao XingChen stammered in confusion, "The person with us? … The person with us…" He shook his head, as though he was feeling somewhat dizzy, "How did you know?"A-Qing, "I heard him kill someone!"Xiao XingChen, "He killed someone? Who did he kill?"A-Qing, "A woman! She’s very young. I think she had a sword with her. Xue Yang was hiding a sword on him as well. It was because I heard them fighting. They were really loud. The woman kept on calling him ‘Xue Yang’, and said that he ‘wiped out the temple’, that he ‘killed countless people’, and that he should be ‘rightfully punished’. Oh heaven, he’s out of his mind! He’s been hiding beside us all along, and I don’t even know what he’s trying to do!"A-Qing stayed awake the whole night, making up lies in her mind. First, she definitely couldn’t let Daozhang know that he killed living humans thinking that they were walking corpses. She couldn’t let him know that he killed Song Lan with his own hands either. So, although it’d be unfair to Daozhang, she couldn’t tell him about Daozhang Song’s death no matter what. The best would be for Xiao XingChen to run away as far as he could after he discovered who Xue Yang was!Yet, the news was too hard for him to accept. And, it also sounded rather absurd. Xiao XingChen couldn’t believe it at all, "But his voice is different. And…"A-Qing was so frustrated that she kept on knocking her pole on the ground, "He purposely made it so that his voice is different! He’s afraid that you’ll recognize him!" Suddenly, an idea popped up, "Oh right! Right, right! He has nine fingers. Daozhang, do you know? Did Xue Yang also have nine fingers? You’ve definitely seen him before, right?"Xiao XingChen staggered, almost falling to the ground.A-Qing immediately helped him to the table, where they both sat down slowly. After a while, Xiao XingChen spoke again, "But, A-Qing, how did you find out that he has nine fingers? Have you touched his hand before? If he really is Xue Yang, though, how would he have let you touch his left hand for you to discover it?"A-Qing clenched her teeth, "… Daozhang! Let me tell you the truth! I’m not blind. I can see! I didn’t touch his hands, but saw them instead!"Each shock was greater than the previous. Xiao XingChen was almost at a loss for words, "What did you say? You can see?"Although A-Qing was afraid, she couldn’t hide the truth any longer. She apologized and apologized, "I’m sorry, Daozhang! I didn’t lie to you on purpose! I was scared that if you knew that I’m not blind, you’d chase me away! But please don’t blame me for now. Let’s run away together. He’ll be back after he finishes shopping for food!"Suddenly, she closed her mouth.The bandages that wrapped around Xiao XingChen’s eyes were initially white. Now, though, two smudges of red seeped from within. The blood grew more and more and eventually leaked through the bandages, trickling down from where his eyes once were.A-Qing cried out, "Daozhang, you’re bleeding!"Xiao XingChen seemed as if he had just noticed. With a faint exclamation, he reached his hand to his face. When he took it away, it was covered in blood. With quivering hands, A-Qing helped him wipe some off. Yet, the harder she tried, the more blood there was. Xiao XingChen raised a hand, "I’m fine… I’m fine."Originally, the injury of his eyes would bleed whenever he had excessive thoughts or emotions, but it hadn’t recurred in quite a long while. Wei WuXian even thought that it had healed already. Today, though, it started to bleed again.Xiao XingChen murmured, "But… But if he really is Xue Yang, why would it be like this? Why didn’t he kill me in the beginning, and even stayed by my side for so many years? Why would this be Xue Yang?"A-Qing, "Of course he wanted to kill you in the beginning! I’ve seen his eyes before. They were meaner than mean and scarier than scary! But since he was injured and couldn’t move, he needed someone to care for him! I didn’t know him. If I did and knew that he was a killing machine, I would’ve stabbed him to death when he was in the bush! Daozhang, let’s run! Alright?"Yet, in his heart, Wei WuXian sighed, That’d be impossible. If she didn’t tell Xiao XingChen, he would’ve continued living like this with Xue Yang. Now that she told Xiao XingChen, he wouldn’t simply run away either. He’d definitely ask Xue Yang directly. There’s no solution to this.As he had expected, after Xiao XingChen managed to calm down, he told A-Qing, "A-Qing, run away."His voice was slightly hoarse. A-Qing sounded somewhat scared, "Me? Daozhang, let’s run away together!"Xiao XingChen shook his head, "I can’t go. I need to find out what exactly he’s trying to do. He definitely has a goal, and tried to reach this goal in the past few years by pretending to somebody else and staying by my side. If I left him here alone, I’m afraid that the people of Yi City would sink into his hands. Xue Yang has always been this way."This time, A-Qing’s sobs weren’t faked anymore. She tossed the bamboo pole to the side and clung to Xiao XingChen’s leg, "Me? Daozhang, how can I go by myself? I wanna stay with you. If you’re not leaving, then I’m not leaving either. If worst comes to worst we’ll just be murdered by him. I’ll be so lonely that I die if I’m roaming outside by myself anyways. I know you don’t want this to happen so me, so let’s run away together!"Unfortunately, after the secret that she wasn’t blind was revealed, her tactic of using this to gain sympathy no longer worked. Xiao XingChen replied, "A-Qing, you can see and you’re very clever. I trust that you’ll be able to live a good life. You don’t know how scary Xue Yang is. You can’t stay. You mustn’t go near him again, either."Wei WuXian could even hear A-Qing silent screaming, I do know! I know how scary he is!But she couldn’t open her mouth and speak the truth.Suddenly, a series of brisk footsteps came from outside.Xue Yang was back!Xiao XingChen looked up in alarm, returning to the level of keenness he had when he night-hunted. He quickly pulled A-Qing over and whispered, "When he comes in, I’ll handle him while you use the chance to escape. Listen to me!"A-Qing was so scared that she could only nod, tears still brimming in her eyes. Xue Yang kicked the door, "What are you guys doing? I’m already back, and you haven’t left yet? If you’re still in there then open the hatch and let me inside. I’m so tired."Simply from the tone and the voice, one would think that he was only a boy-next-door, a cheerful shidi. However, who’d ever imagine that the person who stood outside was a villain who had no sense of morality, a demon who wore the facade of a human!Although the door wasn’t locked, it had been bolted from the inside. If they didn’t open the door anytime soon, Xue Yang would definitely be suspicious. Then, when he entered, he’d definitely be somewhat vigilant. A-Qing wiped her face, "How are you tired?! It’s only such a small distance from here to the market, and you’re already tired?! I’m just a bit slow since I’m seeing which outfit is better. How does it concern you?!"Xue Yang mocked, "How many outfits do you even have? No matter how much you change, you’ll look the same. Come, come, open the door."Even when A-Qing’s legs wobbled, she still spat in a strong voice, "Hmph! I’m not gonna open it for you. Kick however you please."Xue Yang laughed, "Mark your words. Daozhang, fix the door afterwards. Don’t blame it on me."After he spoke, he immediately kicked the wooden door open. He stepped over the high threshold and walked inside. He held the basket filled with vegetables on one hand, and a crimson apple on the other. Just as he took a bite out of it, he looked down only to see Shuanghua, which sunk into his stomach.The basket dropped to the ground. The cabbage, carrots, apples, and steam buns rolled onto the floor.Xiao XingChen shouted in a low voice, "A-Qing, run!"Moving as fast as she could, A-Qing barged through the door of the coffin home. Immediately afterward, she went on another path and crept back again. She climbed to her usual hiding spot, the one she used most often and was most familiar with, and even popped her head out to watch what was going on inside.Xiao XingChen asked coldly, "Was it fun?"Xue Yang took another bite into the apple that was still in his hand. He only replied after calmly chewing for a while and swallowing the fruit, "Yes. Of course it was fun."He used his original voice again.Xiao XingChen, "Just what do you want to do, having stayed with me for all these years?"Xue Yang, "Who knows? Maybe I’m bored."Xiao XingChen pulled out Shuanghua and got ready to attack again. Xue Yang added, "Daozhang Xiao XingChen, do you still want to hear the second half of the story that I didn’t finish?"Xiao XingChen, "No."Although he refused, his head tilted slightly forward and his sword paused as well. Xue Yang replied, "Well, I’m gonna tell it anyways. After you hear it, if you still think it’s my fault, you can do whatever you want."He casually wiped the wound on his stomach, suppressing it so that it didn’t bleed excessively, "The child saw the man who fooled him to take the letter. He felt both frustrated and happy. He threw himself to the man as he cried, and said to him, ‘I brought the letter there, but the pastries are gone and I was beaten up. Can you give me another plate?"The man seemed like he had been caught by the brawnier one and had been beaten as well. His face was injured. Seeing the dirty little child clinging onto his leg, he couldn’t help but felt annoyed and kicked him away at once."He climbed up the ox cart and told the cart driver to leave at once. The child climbed up from the ground and kept on chasing the cart. He really wanted to eat the plate of sugary pastries. Having finally chased up to it, he waved his arms in front of the cart for them to stop. The man was too irritated by his crying. Snatching the driver’s whip, he lashed at his head and threw him onto the ground."He spoke one word at a time, "And then, the wheels of the cart ground over the child’s hand, one finger at a time."Xiao XingChen couldn’t see, but Xue Yang raised his left hand at him anyway, "He was seven! The bones of his left hand were crushed, while one finger was ground into battered flesh on the spot! This man was Chang Ping’s father."Daozhang Xiao XingChen, you were so just, so stern when you brought me to Koi Tower! You condemned me and asked me why I wiped out an entire sect simply because of some suspicion. Is it that, since the fingers weren’t yours, you guys were incapable of feeling the pain?! You guys didn’t know how horrifying screams sounded like out of your own mouths? Why didn’t you ask him why he decided to amuse himself with me without a single reason?! The current Xue Yang was bestowed upon you by the past Chang CiAn! The YueyangChang CLAN was only reaping what it had sown!"Xiao XingChen spoke as though he couldn’t believe Xue Yang’s words, "Chang CiAn broke one of your fingers in the past. If you sought revenge, you could’ve simply broken one of his fingers as well. If you really took the matter to heart, you could’ve broken two, or even all ten! Even if you had cut off an entire arm of his, things wouldn’t have been like this. Why did you have to kill his entire clan? Don’t tell me that a single finger of yours was equal to more than fifty human lives!"Xue Yang actually pondered upon the matter, as if he found Xiao XingChen’s questions strange, "Of course. My finger was my own, while those lives were other peoples’. They wouldn’t be equal no matter how many lives I killed. It was only around fifty. How could it have possibly been equal to one of my fingers?"Xiao XingChen’s face grew paler and paler from Xue Yang’s confident tone. He shouted, "Then what about others?! Then why did you wipe out Baixue Temple? Why did you blind Daozhang Song ZiChen’s eyes?!"Xue Yang asked in reply, "Then why did you stop me? Why did you hinder what I wanted to do? Why did you stand up for those dregs of the Chang Clan? You wanted to help Chang CiAn? Or Chang Ping? Hahahaha, how did Chang Ping first cry tears of gratitude? And how did he later beg you not to help him? Daozhang Xiao XingChen, this matter had been your fault, ever since the beginning. You shouldn’t have meddled with the rights and wrongs of other people. Who was right, who was It was more than Xiao XingChen could bear, "… Xue Yang, you really are… too disgusting…"Hearing this, the killing intent that hadn’t flashed through Xue Yang’s eyes for quite a long while had appeared again.He laughed bitterly, "Xiao XingChen, this is why I hate you. The people that I hate the most are ones like you who say they’re righteous, who think they’re virtuous, precisely stupid, naive, dumb idiots like you who think the world’s better just because you did something good! You think I’m disgusting? Very well. Would I care if anybody thinks I’m disgusting? But, on the other hand, are you in a position to be disgusted by me?"Xiao XingChen paused slightly, "What do you mean?"A-Qing’s and Wei WuXian’s hearts were about to jump out of their chests!Xue Yang spoke in an affectionate manner, "Recently, we haven’t went out at night to kill walking corpses, have we? But, a few years ago, didn’t we go outside and kill a bunch every couple of days?"Xiao XingChen’s lips moved, as though he was feeling somewhat uneasy, "Why are you bringing this up now?"Xue Yang, "Nothing, really. It’s just really unfortunate that you’re blind. You dug out both of your eyes, so you couldn’t see those ‘walking corpses’ that you killed. They were so scared, so pained when you pierced them through the heart. Some even kneeled down and cried and kowtowed for you to let off the young and elderly of their families. If not for how I cut off all of their tongues, I bet they would’ve been wailing and shouting ‘Daozhang, spare us’."Xiao XingChen’s entire body started to tremble.After a long while, he managed, "You deceived me. You wanted to deceive me."Xue Yang, "Yes, I deceived you. I’ve been deceiving you all along. Who would’ve known that you believed me when I was deceiving you, but now you don’t believe me when I’m speaking the truth?"Xiao XingChen staggered and swung his word toward Xue Yang, shouting, "Be quiet! Be quiet!"Xue Yang pressed his abdominal area. Snapping with his left hand, he calmly backed away. The expression on his face wasn’t that of a human anymore. Green light shone from his eyes. Along with the canine teeth that showed when he smiled, he looked as though he was a living monster. He shouted, "Alright! I’ll be quiet! If you still don’t believe me, then pass a few moves with the one standing behind you. Make him tell you that if I’m deceiving you or not!"A sword brought a gust of wind toward him. Xiao XingChen naturally blocked it with Shuanghua. As the two swords clashed, his face immediately grew blank.Or, one could say that his entire body instantly became a stone statue depicting a withered human.Xiao XingChen asked with utmost cautiousness, "… Is that you, ZiChen?"There was no answer.Song Lan’s corpse stood behind him. He appeared as if he was gazing at Xiao XingChen, but there were no pupils within his eyes. He held the sword that clashed with Shuanghua.The two of them had definitely often learnt from each other by exchanging blows. Even if the two swords had just clashed, Xiao XingChen should be able to tell who the other was from only the strength of the attack. Yet, Xiao XingChen seemed as though he wasn’t sure. He turned around slowly and reached out a quivering hand, feeling for the blade of Song Lan’s sword.Song Lan didn’t move. Xiao XingChen moved his hand upward from the tip. Finally, one stroke after another, he traced over the characters "Fuxue" that had been carved on the sword.Xiao XingChen’s face grew even paler.Almost stupefied, he touched the blade of Fuxue, not even noticing that his palm had been grazed. He was trembling so much that even his voice sounded as though it was scattered on the ground, "… ZiChen… Daozhang Song… Daozhang Song… Is that you…?"Song Lan looked at him without making a sound.Two frightening holes had already been soaked through the bandages that was wrapped around Xiao XingChen’s eyes by blood that never seemed to stop seeping. He wanted to reach out and touch the person who held the sword, but he was too afraid, reaching out, then putting his arms back again. Waves of tearing pain rippled through A-Qing’s chest. Both Wei WuXian and she had difficulties breathing. Unable to breathe, tears poured out of her eyes.Xiao XingChen stood where he was, at a loss of what to do, "… What happened…? Say something…"He had completely fallen apart, "Can anybody say something?!"As he had wished, Xue Yang spoke, "Would I still need to tell you who exactly was the walking corpse that you had killed yesterday?"A clang.Shuanghua fell onto the ground.Xue Yang burst out in laughter.Xiao XingChen stood blankly in front of Song Lan. Putting his hands on his head, he wailed as though he was ripping his chest apart.Xue Yang laughed so hard that tears formed in the corners of his eyes. He scowled, "What’s wrong?! You’re so touched to see your old friend again that you’re even crying! Do you want to give him a hug?!"A-Qing covered her mouth as firm as she could, refusing to let out any trace of her whimpered crying. Inside of the coffin home, Xue Yang paced from one side to the other as he cursed with a terrifying tone of both wrath and ecstasy, "Saving the world! What a joke. You can’t even save yourself!"Series of sharp pains stabbed at Wei WuXian’s head. This time, the pain wasn’t from A-Qing’s soul.Crestfallen, Xiao XingChen kneeled on the ground, beside Song Lan’s feet. He squeezed himself close, as though he had shrunk into a small, weak lump of something, almost hoping that he’d disappear from this world. His snowy white robes had already been covered in dust and blood. Xue Yang shouted at him, "You couldn’t do anything, you’ve failed miserably, you’re the only one to blame—you asked for all of this!"At this moment, Wei WuXian saw himself in Xiao XingChen.Him, who failed miserably as he stood drenched in blood, who couldn’t do anything except silently acknowledge the critiques and accusations, who was wholly beyond hope, who could only cry in despair!The white bandages had been stained entirely red. Xiao XingChen’s face was covered in blood. Without eyes to cry with, he could only bleed tears. Having been deceived for years, he took his enemy as a friend, and all of his kindness was stepped over. He thought that he was exorcising ghosts, but his hands were bathed in the blood of the innocent. He even killed his closest friend!He could only whimper in pain, "Please. Let me go."Xue Yang, "Didn’t you want to stab me to death with your sword just a moment ago? Why are you begging me to let you go, now?"He clearly knew that, with Song Lan’s corpse protecting him, Xiao XingChen wouldn’t be able to pick up his sword again.He won again. It was an overwhelming victory.Suddenly, Xiao XingChen snatched up Shuanghua, which had been lying on the ground. Turning the body of the sword, he placed the sharp edge by his neck. The clear radiance of a silver sword glare flashed across Xue Yang’s dark, lightless eyes. Xiao XingChen loosened his hands. Crimson blood trickled down Shuanghua’s blade.Following the limpid echo of the sword tumbling to the ground, both Xue Yang’s movement and laughter halted.After a while of silence, he walked to Xiao XingChen’s motionless corpse. He looked down with bloodshot eyes, the twisted curvature of his lips gradually sinking. Wei WuXian didn’t know if he had accidentally saw wrong, but it seemed that the rim of Xue Yang’s eyes were brimming a reddish tint.Immediately afterward, he glowered through clenched teeth, "You forced me to do this!"He then laughed grimly, and spoke to himself, "A dead one is better! Only dead people listen."Xue Yang felt for Xiao XingChen’s breathing and squeezed his wrist, as though he thought that he wasn’t dead enough, that he wasn’t rigid enough. He stood up, went into the bedroom on the side, and carried out a basin of water. Using a clean towel, he wiped away all of the blood on Xiao XingChen’s face. He even exchanged the old bandages with new ones, carefully wrapping them around him.He painted an array on the ground, prepared the materials needed, and properly placed Xiao XingChen inside. He only remembered to look after his own abdominal wound after he had done so many things.Probably thinking that the two of them would be able to meet after just a short while, his mood grew better and better. He picked up all of the fruits and vegetables that had been scattered on the ground and organized them into the basket again. Out of a rare surge of diligence, he even cleaned the house and placed a new layer of straws into A-Qing’s coffin. At last, he took out the piece of candy that Xiao XingChen gave him last night.Just as he was about to put it in his mouth, he thought for a bit. Holding the urge back, he put it back again. With one hand holding his chin out of boredom, he waited for Xiao XingChen to sit up.But it never happened.The sky had been darkening, and so had Xue Yang’s expression. He tapped his fingers irritatedly on the table.When dusk fell completely, he kicked the table and cursed. Standing up, he half-kneeled in front of Xiao XingChen’s corpse, checking over the array and incantations that he had painted. After repeated examinations, he felt that there was nothing wrong. However, after frowning for a moment, he still wiped away all of them and redrew the entire thing.This time, Xue Yang directly sat on the ground, staring patiently at Xiao XingChen. He waited for another while. A-Qing’s legs had already went through three stages of numbness. Now, they both itched and hurt, as though thousands of ants were nibbling on them. Her eyes had been swollen as well from crying. Her sight was a bit blurry.After another two hours, Xue Yang finally discovered that the situation had gotten out of control.He put his hand onto Xiao XingChen’s forehead, closing his eyes for detection. A moment later, his eyes flew open.Wei WuXian knew. What he could still detect was probably just a few strands of a fragmented soul.And, a soul that was broken in such a way that it could never be used to create a fierce corpse.It seemed that Xue Yang had never expected something like this to happen. On his face, which constantly grinned, an emptiness appeared for the first time.Without thinking, although it was too late, he pressed his hands against the wound on Xiao XingChen’s neck. However, all of the blood had already drained away. Xiao XingChen’s face was whiter than paper. Large areas of dark-red blood dried up on his neck. Covering the wound now would do nothing.Xiao XingChen had died. He had died completely.Even his soul had shattered.The child in Xue Yang’s story who cried because he couldn’t eat pastries was too different from the present him. It was almost impossible to link the two together. Yet, in the current moment, Wei WuXian could finally catch a few traces of that ignorant, confused child on Xue Yang’s face.In an instant, red veins climbed over Xue Yang’s eyes. He stood up suddenly. Squeezing both of his hands into fists, he rampaged around the coffin home. He kicked and thrashed, noisily destroying the house that he had just cleaned a few seconds ago.At this point, his expression, the sounds that he made were closer to the word "insane" than all of his past attitudes added together.After he smashed everything the house, he calmed down again. He squatted where he had been and called out in a small voice, "Xiao XingChen."He continued, "If you don’t get up, I’ll make your dear friend Song Lan murder people."I’ll kill off everyone in the entire Yi City and make them into living corpses. You’ve been living here for such a long time. Is it really okay for you not to care?"I’ll strangle that little blind A-Qing and leave her corpse in the fields for wild dogs to gobble her up."A-Qing shivered soundlessly.Having received no reply, Xue Yang suddenly shouted out of rage, "Xiao XingChen!"He yanked at Xiao XingChen’s collars, even though it did nothing, and shook it a couple of times as he stared at the lifeless face in his hands.Suddenly, pulling Xiao XingChen’s arm, he lifted him onto his back.Xue Yang carried the corpse toward the door. As if he had lost his mind, he ranted in a whisper, "Spirit-trapping Pouch, Spirit-trapping Pouch. Right, a Spirit-trapping Pouch. I need a Spirit-trapping Pouch, a Spirit-trapping Pouch, a Spirit-trapping Pouch…"Only after he was far away did A-Qing dare to move slightly.Unable to balance herself, she tumbled to the ground, and only crawled up again after writhing for a while. She managed to walk a few more steps forward. As her muscles stretched, she walked faster and faster and faster, and started to run.After she ran so far that Yi City was far behind her, she finally let out the cries that she buried within herself, "Daozhang! Daozhang! Aaah, Daozhang!…"The scenario suddenly changed and turned to somewhere else.At this point, A-Qing had probably already been on the run for a couple of days. She was walking in an unfamiliar town, holding a bamboo pole and pretending to be blind again. She asked whoever came toward her, "Excuse me, are there any big sects around here?""Excuse me, are there any really powerful people around the area? Powerful people who cultivate."Wei WuXian thought to himself, She’s searching for people who can help her seek revenge for Xiao XingChen.Unfortunately, nobody took her questions seriously. They’d often walk away after just a few half-hearted sentences. A-Qing wasn’t discouraged, either. She tirelessly asked, even if she had been shooed away all those times. Seeing that she couldn’t get any answers here, she left and went on a smaller path.She had been walking and asking for an entire day. Exhausted, she dragged her heavy legs toward a brook. She cupped her hands and drank a few sips of the water, soothing her dry throat. Through the water, she saw a wooden hairpin in her hair, and reached for it.Looking at the hairpin, A-Qing puckered her lips, wanting to cry again. Her stomach growled, and she took a small, white money pouch out of her lapel. This was the one she stole from Xiao XingChen. She then dug out a small candy from within it, and licked it carefully. After the tip of her tongue tasted the sweetness, she put the candy back again.This was the last piece of candy Xiao XingChen gave her.A-Qing looked down and packed the pouch away again. With a glance, she suddenly found that another person’s shadow appeared within the reflection of the water.Standing in the reflection, Xue Yang was smiling at her.With a startled scream, A-Qing immediately scrambled away.Ever since sometime, Xue Yang had been standing behind her. With Shuanghua in his hand, he opened his arms and made the gesture of a hug. He spoke happily, "A-Qing, why are you running away? We haven’t seen each other in such a long time. Don’t you miss me?"A-Qing shrieked, "Help me!"Yet, this was already an obscure mountain path. Nobody would come to help her.Xue Yang raised a brow, "I just happened to have ran into you when you were asking around in the city after I finished my business in Yueyang. What a wonderful turn of fate. Speaking of it, your acting is superb. You even fooled me for such a long time. Well done."A-Qing knew that there was no chance of escaping death this time. After the shock, thinking to herself that she’d die anyway, why couldn’t die after cursing all she wanted? Becoming bolder again, she jumped up and spat, "You animal! Thankless wretch! Lower than low bastard! Your parents must’ve made love in a pigpen for a son of a bitch like you to happen! You’re just a germ who grew up eating shit!"Having used to roam the marketplaces, she had heard more than a great deal of curses and arguments. She spat out whatever profanities that came to her mind. Xue Yang only grinned and listened, "You’re quite good at this, aren’t you? Why haven’t I heard you act so rude in front of Xiao XingChen? You got more coming?"A-Qing continued, "Fuck you shameless filth! And you still dare to mention Daozhang and hold Daozhang’s sword! Do you deserve to hold it? You’re dirtying his belonging!"Xue Yang held up Shuanghua with his left hand, "Oh, you mean this? It’s mine now. Did you think your daozhang is any cleaner? After this, he’ll also be my…"A-Qing, "You piece of shit! Dream on! You don’t deserve to call Daozhang unclean. You’re just a pool of spittle! Daozhang must be the unluckiest man in the world to have met you! You’re the only one who’s dirty! It’s only a disgusting pool of spittle like you!"Xue Yang’s expression finally darkened.Having been on the edge for such a long time, now that the moment had finally arrived, A-Qing felt strangely relieved.Xue Yang spoke in a cold tone, "Since you like pretending to be blind so much, why don’t you become truly blind?"With a wave of his hand, some sort of powder came at her face and went into her eyes. Immediately, everything she could see became a bloody red, then turned into darkness.Stung by the scorching pain on her eyes, A-Qing let out a blood-curdling screech. Xue Yang’s voice came again, "You’re too talkative. You won’t need your tongue anymore, either."The crisp rings of the silver bell sounded as though they were right beside Wei WuXian, yet he was still immersed in A-Qing’s emotions, unable to come back to his senses. His head spun as well.Lan JingYi waved a hand in front of him, "There is not reaction? What if he lost his marbles?!"Jin Ling, "I said already that Empathy is very dangerous!"Lan JingYi, "Well it was because your head was up in the clouds and did not ring the bell in time."Jin Ling’s face froze, "I…"Luckily, Wei WuXian had finally came to. He stood up against the coffin. A-Qing, having already left his body, leaned on the coffin as well. The boys swarmed around him as though they were a litter of piglets and all talk at the same time, "He’s up, he’s up!""Whew, he hasn’t lost his marbles.""Hasn’t he lost his marbles to begin with?""Don’t talk nonsense!"With loud chatters surrounding his ears, Wei WuXian spoke up, "Don’t be so loud. My head feels awful."They quieted at once. Wei WuXian looked down, reached into the coffin, and slightly opened Xiao XingChen’s collars. As he had expected, at his neck, there was a thin yet fatal wound.Wei WuXian sighed in silence and turned to A-Qing, "Thanks for all the trouble."The reason why A-Qing’s ghost was blind but she wasn’t as slow or careful as other blind people was that she only became truly blind the moment before she died. Before, she had always been such a fast, lively maiden.In these years, she hid alone within the fog of Yi City, stealthily going against Xue Yang by scaring away the humans who had entered the city and warning them, directing them outside. Just how much courage and dedication did she have to be able to do this?Beside the edge of the coffin, A-Qing put her palms together and saluted Wei WuXian for a couple of times. Then, using her bamboo pole as a sword, she made the "kill, kill, kill" gestures that she had always played around with.Wei WuXian replied, "Don’t worry." He turned to the disciples, "Stay here, all of you. The walking corpses in the city won’t be able to come here. I’ll be back soon."Lan JingYi couldn’t help but asked, "Just what did you see during Empathy?"Wei WuXian, "It’s too long of a story. I’ll tell you later."Jin Ling, "Can’t you sum it up? Don’t leave us at a cliffhanger!"Wei WuXian, "In summary: Xue Yang must die."Amid the dense fog that stretched as far as the eye could see, the knocks of A-Qing’s pole led the way for him. The two moved rapidly and immediately returned to where the fight happened.Lan WangJi and Xue Yang had already went outside. The sword glares of Bichen and Jiangzai clashed—the fight was at a critical moment. Bichen was calm and unhurried, gaining the upper hand, while Jiangzai lashed out as though it was a rabid dog, somehow managing to keep up. However, within the dreadful white fog, Lan WangJi had difficulties with vision, yet since Xue Yang had lived so many years in the city like A-Qing, he was able to know where he was even if he closed his eyes. Thus, the fight was in a deadlock. Notes of the guqin sometimes thundered through the fog, preventing the groups of walking corpses that wanted to approach. Just as Wei WuXian was about to take out his flute, two black figures slammed in front of him as if they were two iron pagodas. Wen Ning was pressing Song Lan onto the ground. Both corpses held each other’s necks with their hands, their knuckles cracking loudly.Wei WuXian commanded, "Hold him down!"He bent down and quickly found the ends of the two nails that went through Song Lan’s head. He felt relieved at once. The nails were a lot thinner than the ones inside Wen Ning’s head and the material used was different as well. It shouldn’t be too difficult to bring Song Lan back to consciousness. He immediately pinched the two ends and started to slowly pull the nails out. Feeling strange objects stirring within his head, Song Lan widened his eyes and growled in a low voice. Wen Ning only prevented him from breaking loose after he exerted more strength on him. When the nails had been pulled out, at once, as though he was a puppet whose strings had been cut off, he collapsed on the ground and ceased to move.Suddenly, a furious roar came from where the other two fought, "Give it back!"<h3>Translator’s Notes

Chapter 42 Grasses—Part Ten

The Founder of Diabolism

Chapter 32 Dew—Part Five

Translator’s Notes

Next chapters

Theme Customizer

Menu Color Options

Layout Options

Navigation Color Options

Solid

Gradient

Solid

Gradient