Chapter 62 (1/2)
Chapter 62
Chapter 62: Evil—Part Two
Translated by K of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
His lips trembled, saying something in silence. Jiang Cheng stood up almost immediately.
It was Wei WuXian!
However, apart from the face, from top to bottom, this person was nowhere like the past Wei WuXian.
Wei WuXian had clearly been a bright, high-spirited boy. The tips of his eyes and eyebrows had always retained the hint of a grin, always refusing to walk properly. Yet, this person was entirely enveloped in a cold, dark energy. He was handsome, yet pale-faced, his smile eerie.
The sight before their eyes was too surprising. The situation was still unclear, and they couldn’t act rashly. Even though the two on the roof were flabbergasted, neither rushed inside. They only forced their heads lower and inched closer to the slit between the roof tiles.
Inside the room, Wei WuXian, clothed in black, turned around slowly. Wen Chao covered his own face. Now, only the raspy breath of his voice could be heard, “Wen ZhuLiu… Wen ZhuLiu!”
Hearing this, Wei WuXian’s eyes and lips curled up, “Even now, you still think that calling him would be of any use?”
He walked a few steps nearer and kicked into a white object by his foot. He looked down. It was the meat bun that Wen Chao had tossed away.
Wei WuXian raised a brow, “What, you’re a picky eater?”
Wen Chao fell from his stool, screeching, “I’m not eating it! I’m not eating it! I’m not eating it!”
As he bawled, he crawled on the ground with his finger-less hands. The long black cape slid down the lower half of his body, revealing his legs. The two legs dangled from his torso as if they were burdensome accessories. Even wrapped within bandages, they were still unusually thin. Due to his violent movements, the bandages stretched out to form gaps. Inside were ghastly white bones, crimson blood and strands of flesh still hanging from them.
All of the flesh on his legs had been sliced off, piece by piece. And, likely… all of the flesh had been eaten by himself!
Wen Chao’s sharp screams echoed within the empty courier station. Wei WuXian looked as though he didn’t hear anything. Lifting up the hem of his robe, he sat down at another table.
The second oil lamp lit up. Before the bright yellow of the flame, half of Wei WuXian’s face was in the light, the other half in the dark. He dropped his hand down. An ashen face appeared out of the darkness under the table. Soon, there came the crunching sounds of chewing.
A white child squatted by his feet. Like a young, carnivorous beast, it was gnawing on something that Wei WuXian fed it.
Wei WuXian took his hand away after patting on the white ghoul child’s spa.r.s.e-haired head. Holding what he had fed it in its mouth, it turned around and sat down. Hugging his leg, it chewed fiercely as it glowered at Wen ZhuLiu with cold, glistening eyes.
What he was chewing were two human fingers.
Needless to say—they must be Wen Chao’s fingers!
Lan w.a.n.gJi stared at the ghastly ghost child along with a ghastly Wei WuXian. His grip tightened around b.i.+.c.hen’s hilt.
Wen ZhuLiu was still in front of Wen Chao. Wei WuXian’s head looked down, his expression unable to be seen, “Wen ZhuLiu, do you really think that you can protect his dog life from my hands?”
Wen ZhuLiu, “Better die trying.”
Wei WuXian laughed coldly, “What a loyal Wen-dog.”
Wen ZhuLiu, “I can’t fail to repay the debt I owe their generosity.”
Wei WuXian’s expression darkened at once. His voice was harsh as well, “What a joke! Why is it that the debt you owe has to be repaid at the expense of others!”
Before he even finished speaking, from behind Wen ZhuLiu came Wen Chao’s piercing wails. Wen Chao had crawled to a corner and was trying as hard as he could to press into the wooden boards as though he could squeeze out from in between them. However, a red shadow suddenly dropped from the ceiling. A long-haired woman in red clothes, her face blue, fell heavily onto him. The dark face, bright red clothes, and black hair created a chilling contrast. Her fingers wrapped around the bandages around Wen Chao’s head and tore!
The bandages were just wrapped again after Wen ZhuLiu had applied ointment to Wen Chao’s face. The ointment, the skin, and the bandages were still stuck together. Burned skin was naturally weak to begin with. With the
violent tear, the scabs that hadn’t peeled off yet tore off along with a thin layer of flesh. Even his lips were torn off. The uneven, bald head immediately became a b.l.o.o.d.y, bald head.
Wen Chao pa.s.sed out at once. As soon as he heard the scream, Wen ZhuLiu turned around to help him. On the roof, Lan w.a.n.gJi and Jiang Cheng clenched their swords as well, prepared to attack. However, they heard another scream. The ghoul child by Wei WuXian’s feet had thrown itself over. Wen ZhuLiu’s right hand struck at the ghoul child’s forehead before he felt a sharp pain on his palm. The ghoul child had opened its two rows of sharp teeth and bit into him.
Wen ZhuLiu couldn’t shake it off, so he ignored it and went straight to Wen Chao. The ghoul child, however, had bit out an entire chunk of the flesh on his hand and spat it out. He continued to devour the palm. Wen ZhuLiu grabbed the child’s head with his left hand, as though to put so much force on the small, cold head that it exploded. The blue-faced woman threw the bloodstained bandages on the ground and, like a four-limbed creature, she crawled to Wen ZhuLiu’s side almost instantly.
A swing of her arm and there were ten lines of blood. The two dark beings, one large and one small, wrangled with him incessantly. Wen ZhuLiu couldn’t attend to both sides at the same time, blundering amid the chaos. As he looked to the side and saw Wei WuXian’s cold smile, he threw himself at him.
Both of the two on the roof frowned. Lan w.a.n.gJi smacked down. The tiles shattered and the roof collapsed. Through the roof, he descended into the second floor of the courier station and blocked Wen ZhuLiu from Wei WuXian. Taking advantage of Wen ZhuLiu’s surprise, a whip flickering with purple light swept over and around his neck, wrapping itself three entire times around his throat before lifting up. Wen ZhuLiu’s large, heavy body had been lifted up by the surging whip and was now dangling in the air.
Immediately, there came the crunching sounds of his neck bones cracked. At the same time, Wei WuXian’s pupils shrunk. He took out a flute from beside his waist and spun around, standing up. The ghoul child and blue-faced woman who had been tearing at Wen ZhuLiu quickly backed off to his side and stared with vigilance at the two strangers.
Behind them, Wen ZhuLiu hadn’t died yet. His face flushed red and his entire body twitched, struggling against his will. His eyes were opened so wide that it seemed as though they were about to burst out of their sockets. The ghoul child snarled at Lan w.a.n.gJi and Jiang Cheng, not at all hiding its enmity. Wei WuXian raised his hand slightly for it to withdraw its fangs. His gaze swept back and forth between Lan w.a.n.gJi and Jiang Cheng. Among the three, n.o.body spoke up.
A few moments later, Jiang Cheng waved his arm and tossed something over. Wei WuXian caught it without a second thought. Jiang Cheng, “Your sword!”
Wei WuXian’s hand slowly dropped.
He looked down at Suibian and only responded after a pause, “… Thank you.”
Again, a short while pa.s.sed before any words were spoken. Suddenly, Jiang Cheng walked over and struck him, “You brat! Where have you run off to in these three months?!”
Although the sentence itself seemed to scold him, his tone was full of joy. Although Lan w.a.n.gJi didn’t step forward, he eyes had always been locked onto Wei WuXian. With the slap, Wei WuXian paused blankly. A few moments later, he struck him as well, “Haha, it’s a long story, it’s a long story!”
The cold air that had been on him was in some ways watered down by the two strikes. There was anger within Jiang Cheng’s joy. He hugged him tightly before shoving him back, yelling, “Didn’t we agree to meet at the lousy town down the mountain? I waited for almost six days and didn’t even see a shadow of you! If you died it wouldn’t even have been in front of my eyes! For the last three months I’ve been so busy that my head’s even gotten bigger!”
Wei WuXian lifted the hem of his robe and sat down again, waving his hand, “I’ve already said that it’s a long story. Back then a bunch of Wen-dogs were searching everywhere for me
me as well. They were waiting for me, caught me right there, and threw me to some h.e.l.l of a place to suffer.”
As he spoke, the blue-faced woman crawled toward him using both her arms and her legs. When she had been fighting, her face was almost hideous, but now, with her dark face against Wei WuXian’s lap, she somehow seemed to be a charming concubine, obediently pleasing her master. Giggling laughter came from her mouth as well. Wei WuXian sat leaning to one side, his right hand stroking her soft, long hair over and over again.
As he watched his movements, Lan w.a.n.gJi’s face grew even colder. Although the scene made Jiang Cheng feel somewhat uncomfortable, at the moment, he was more shocked than anything else, “What h.e.l.l of a place? I’ve carefully asked the people in the town, so how was it that everyone said they hadn’t seen you?!”
Wei WuXian, “You asked the people in the town? They’re all a bunch of naive farmers scared of bringing themselves trouble, so who’d dare tell you the truth? And the Wen-dogs have definitely done something to shut their mouths. Of course all of them said that they hadn’t seen me.”
Jiang Cheng cursed, “Those old idiots!” He quickly added, “What h.e.l.l of a place? Qishan? The Nightless City? Then how did you get out? And you’ve become like this. What are… these two things of yours? They actually listen to your command. A while ago Second Young Master Lan and I took the task of a.s.sa.s.sinating Wen Chao and Wen ZhuLiu at night, but somebody had gone before us. I can’t believe that it was you! You were the one who changed those talismans as well?”
From the corner of his eye, Wei WuXian saw that Lan w.a.n.gJi had always been looking at them. He smiled, “Pretty much. If I say that I found a mysterious cave somewhere and there was a mysterious book that a mysterious expert had left, and then when I came out I was this powerful, would you believe me?”
Jiang Cheng spat, “Wake up. You’ve read too many legends in those picturebooks, haven’t you? How could there be so many experts in the world? With secret caves and books everywhere!”
Wei WuXian turned his palms up, “You see? You don’t believe me even if I say it. I’ll tell you about it if I ever get the chance to.”
Jiang Cheng glanced at Lan w.a.n.gJi. He knew that it was probably something that shouldn’t be said in front of disciples from other sects and wiped the joy from his face, “Alright, then. You can tell me about it later. It’s all good as long as you’re back.”
Wei WuXian, “Yep. As long as I’m back.”
Jiang Cheng murmured the words ‘as long as you’re back’ a couple of times before hitting him again, “You really are…! You live on even after being captured by Wen-dogs!”
Wei WuXian gloated, “Of course. Who am I?”
Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but scold him, “What are you proud of?! You’re alive and you didn’t come back sooner!”
Wei WuXian, “I just got out, hey? I heard that both s.h.i.+jie and you were fine, and you were rebuilding the YunmengJiang Sect and forming an alliance, so I went to kill a few Wen-dogs first to lighten up your burden, and do some contributions. In these three months, you’ve been working hard.”
Hearing the last part, Jiang Cheng remembered the past three months of rus.h.i.+ng about and working day and night. He felt somewhat moved, but quickly put on a harsh face, “Put away your shabby sword! I’ve been waiting for you to take it away. I don’t want to be carrying two swords all the time and get asked that many questions any longer!”