Chapter 68 (1/2)

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Translated by K of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Wei WuXian left the donkey down at the bottom of the mountain. He stepped over the remains of the wall and walked up the mountain path. Soon later, he saw the stone statue of a headless beast. The statue was thousands of pounds in weight. It had guarded the mountain path for many years. Vines climbed over it and moss gathered at the dents. The head of the beast had been chopped off by an axe and tossed somewhere near. As if to a.s.sert power, it had been smashed into small pieces. The cut was still new, revealing the whiteness inside. Farther along, similarly, the next statue that they saw had been cut into two halves, from head to toe.

Wei WuXian knew at once that these were the stone beasts that the sects had set onto the acupoints of the terrain to guard the mountain after he had died. The stone beasts were capable of exorcism. They required much craft and were quite expensive to produce. Now, it was likely that all of them had been destroyed. It was truly a waste.

Side by side, Wei WuXian and Lan w.a.n.gJi walked a few more steps. Inadvertently looking back, he saw that Wen Ning had already appeared.

He stood beside the stone beast, head lowered and unmoving. Wei WuXian asked, ”Wen Ning? What are you looking at?”

Wen Ning pointed at the base of the stone beast.

The stone beast was on top of a short, thick tree trunk. By the trunk, there were three smaller, shorter trunks. They seemed to have been burnt over by fire. They were entirely black.

Wen Ning kneeled on the ground with both of his knees. His fingers dug deeply into the dirt, grabbing a handful of black dirt, and clenched it within his palm, ”… Sister.”

Wei WuXian didn't know what to say. He walked over and patted his shoulder hard.

Throughout Wei WuXian's life, two periods of time had been extremely hard to endure. Both happened here. He never intended to visit such a place again.

And, to Wen Ning, Burial Mound was even more of an unforgettable place.

A gust of cold breeze swept over. The sea of trees rustled as though tens of thousands of thin voices whispered. Wei WuXian listened carefully. Kneeling on the ground with one knee, he bent down and murmured something toward the earth below him. Suddenly, a b.u.mp formed below the surface.

As though a pale flower had grown out of the black soil, a skeleton arm slowly broke through the dirt.

The portion of the skeleton arm was weakly suspended in the air. Wei WuXian reached out and grabbed it. He bent down even lower. His long hair fell from his shoulder, masking half of his face.

He pressed his lips toward the skeleton hand and whispered something. Then he was quiet, as though he was listening for something. A while later, he nodded slightly. The hand formed a flower bud again and withdrew into the soil.

Wei WuXian stood up and swept away the dirt on him, ”These days they've taken over a hundred people up here. They're all at the top, still alive. The people who took them have already gone down the mountain though. I don't know what they want to do. Anyways, we should be careful.”

The three continued upward. They came along a few run down shacks standing alongside the mountain path.

The houses varied in size. The structure was simple, even crude. Just one glance, it was obvious that they had been built rashly. Some were so burned that only bare frames were left, while some slumped entirely to one side. Even the most complete ones were half-destroyed. After being under over ten years of rain and wind, with n.o.body to care for them, each looked like dying ghosts in tattered clothing, looking down in silence at those who came up the mountain.

Ever since they had gone up the mountain, Wen Ning's footsteps had been especially heavy. Right now, standing before one of the houses, again, he couldn't walk any longer.

This was one of the houses that he had built himself. Before he left, the house had still been fine. Although it was crude, it was a place to seek shelter from the weather, nonetheless holding the people he was familiar with; the people he treasured.

In the saying 'the things remain but the people don't', at least 'the things' still remained. With such a scene in front of him, there wasn't even anything to remind him of the people whom he missed.

Wei WuXian, ”Don't look anymore.”

Wen Ning, ”… I knew that it'd be like this a long time ago. I just wanted to see if there was anything left…”

Before his voice faded off, a shadow suddenly wobbled up within one of the broken down houses.

The shadow stumbled toward outside of the house. The half-rotted face was submerged with the thin daylight. Wei WuXian clapped his hands. The walking corpse didn't seem to notice anything at all, continuing to walk toward them. Wei WuXian calmly walked two steps backward, ”It's controlled by the Tiger Seal.”

Corpse puppets who had already submitted to him wouldn't be controlled by the Tiger Seal. Likewise, corpse puppets who had submitted to the Tiger Seal wouldn't listen to his commands. The rules were simple: first come, first served.

Wen Ning shot forward. With a roar, he tore its head off. Right after, low bellows came from all around them. From amid the black forest slowly walked out almost fifty corpses. No matter gender or age, most of them were still fresh, wearing burial clothes. They were probably the corpses missing from many regions.

Lan w.a.n.gJi flipped out his guqin. With a strum, notes flowed out like ripples. The group of corpses that had just surrounded them immediately kneeled into a circle. With both of his hands, Wen Ning picked up a male corpse with an especially large physique and threw it far away. Its chest had been pierced through by a sharp branch, and it struggled, stuck to the branch.

Wei WuXian shouted, ”Don't bother with them, just go up the mountain!”

He didn't know how many groups of walking corpses Jin GuangYao had madly summoned within these past few days using the Tiger Seal. One attack wave followed another. The three subdued the corpses as they backed up the mountain. The closer they were to the top of Burial Mound, the denser the groups of corpses were. The notes of the zither echoed through the sky above the black forest as crows flew off. Almost two hours later, they finally had some time to rest.

Sitting atop one of the destroyed stone beasts, Wei WuXian sighed as he mocked himself, ”I've always been the one using this to deal with others. Today it's finally my turn to have others use it against me. Now I know just how obnoxious the Tiger Seal is. If I were them, I would've wanted to kill the person who created this d.a.m.n thing as well.”

Lan w.a.n.gJi put his guqin away. He pulled out a sword from within his sleeves and pa.s.sed it to him, ”To protect yourself.”

Wei WuXian took it over. It was Suibian. After the day when it had been used to cut the melon, Wei WuXian tossed it to the side. Lan w.a.n.gJi put it away again. He unsheathed the sword and stared for a while at the snowy blade before sheathing it back inside right away, smiling, ”Thank you.”

He wore it by his waist and didn't seem like he was going to use it. Seeing how Lan w.a.n.gJi looked at him, he fiddled with his hair and explained, ”I haven't used a sword in so many years. I'm not used to it.” As he spoke, he sighed again, ”Alright. The real reason is that my current body is low in spiritual energy. Even if there's a high level sword, it won't be able to make the best use of it. And so, it'll be up to HanGuang-Jun to protect the delicate man that I am.”

Lan w.a.n.gJi, ”…”

After the delicate man sat for a while, he finally stood up, bracing a hand against his knees. The three walked farther up and finally, at the end of the path, they saw a cave with a dark opening.

The mouth of the cave was around fifty feet in both height and width. Before they were even near, they could feel a cold breeze in front of them. They could almost hear the blurry sounds of human moans.

This was the legendary den where the YiLing Patriarch made humans into his corpses and did the deeds that even the Heavens couldn't tolerate—the Demon-Slaughtering Cave.

The ceiling of the cave was broad. The three held their breaths and snuck inside. n.o.body made a noise, but the human voices coming from the depths of the cave grew louder.

Wei WuXian knew the terrain of the cave like the back of his palm. He walked in the front. At some point, he gestured for them to stop.

The main area of the cave was just a wall away from them. Through the holes on the wall, they could see a large enough area that could contain a thousand people. In the center sat around a hundred. Both their hands and their feet were tightly bound by deity-binding ropes. The one hundred people were quite young as well. Judging from the color of their robes and their swords, they were either high level disciples or direct disciples from clans.

Wei WuXian exchanged a look with Lan w.a.n.gJi. Before they began to discuss, a boy sitting on the ground suddenly spoke up, ”In my opinion, I don't think you should've stabbed him only once. Why didn't you just slash his throat out?”

His voice wasn't big, but the cave was rather empty. Echoes vibrated as soon he spoke. And so, even if they didn't listen in, they could hear his words with clarity. As soon as the boy spoke, Wei WuXian thought that he both looked and sounded familiar. He only remembered after a while. Wasn't this the one who fought with Jin Ling the other day, Jin Chan?

And he looked again—who was the cold-faced boy sitting beside this disciple, if not Jin Ling?

Jin Ling didn't even look at him, remaining quiet. Loud rumbles came from the stomach of a boy beside him, ”They have left for so many days already. Just what do they want? If they want to kill us, then let us off easy. I would rather be eaten by a monster on a night-hunt than starve to death here!”

The boy rambled on and on. It was Lan JingYi. Jin Chan spoke, ”What could he do? He'd definitely do what he did with those Wen-dogs during the Sunshot Campaign, make us into his corpse puppets and then use us against our family, so that they can't attack and his enemies can fight amongst themselves.” He clenched his teeth, ”That dirty, inhuman Wei-dog!”

Suddenly, Jin Ling spoke, his voice icy, ”Shut up.”

Jin Chan was shocked, ”You want me to shut up? What do you mean?”

Jin Ling, ”What do I mean? Are you deaf or are you dumb? You can't understand human speech? Shut up, means for you to stop making so much noise!”

Having been tied-up for so long, Jin Chan had been grumpy for a long time. He fumed, ”Why should you tell me to shut up?!”

Jin Ling, ”What's the use of talking so much garbage? If you go on would the ropes break because of you? It's annoying.”

”You!!!”

Another young voice interjected, ”Now, we are stuck here and none of us know when the walking corpses on the mountain will rush inside. Even in such circ.u.mstances, you two have to argue?”

The calmest voice was Lan SiZhui's. Jin Chan protested, ”He flipped out first! What, you can call him names but other people can't?! Jin Ling, hah, who do you think you are? You think that because LianFang-Zun is the chief cultivator that you'll also be? I'm not gonna shut up. I think you…”

With a thump, Jin Ling's head was suddenly smacked. Jin Chan exclaimed in pain. He cursed, ”You wanna fight? I'll take you on! I'm in the mood for it anyways. You son of a n.o.body!”

Hearing this, Jin Ling was even more unstoppable. He was tied up and couldn't move his arms, so he used his elbows and his knees, slamming them so hard that the other yelped in pain. Yet, he was alone, and Jin Chan had always had groups of people around him.

As the boys saw that he was at a disadvantage, they all shouted, ”Let me help you!” All of them crowded over.

Lan SiZhui was sitting nearby. He couldn't help but let himself be dragged into their fight. At first, he could manage to persuade 'everyone calm down, calm down', but after he had received a few elbows, he scrunched his eyebrows in pain, his face darkening. In the end, after a cry, he entered the brawl as well.

The three outside couldn't watch this any longer. Wei WuXian leapt onto the stairs leading to the cave first, ”Hey! Everybody look here!”

His shout echoed within the empty cave, almost thunderous. The tangled boys looked up. Lan SiZhui saw a familiar figure beside him and beamed, ”HanGuang-Jun!”

Lan JingYi's yelled even louder, ”HanGuang-Jun ahhhhhhhh!”

Jin Chan was terrified, ”What are you happy about? They're… They're on the same side!”

Wei WuXian stepped into the cave. He unsheathed Suibian and casually tossed it back. A shadow flashed out and caught the sword. It was Wen Ning. The disciples began to shriek again, ”The G-G-G-Ghost General!”

Wen Ning raised Suibian and swung down in the direction of Jin Ling. Jin Ling clenched his teeth and shut his eyes. However, he felt himself loosened. The deity-binding ropes had been cut apart by Suibian's sword glare. Following this, Wen Ning walked around the cave, cutting away at deity-binding ropes. The disciples that he had let free could neither run nor stay. On the inside there were the YiLing Patriarch, the Ghost General, and the traitor of the righteous side HanGuang-Jun, while on the outside there were countless walking corpses waiting to be fed. Yet, everything was bright on Lan SiZhui's side, ”Senior Mo… Senior Wei. Are you here to save us? You were not the one who got people to take us here, were you?”

Although it was a question, his face was full of complete trust and delight. Wei WuXian felt his heart warm up. He squatted down and rubbed Lan SiZhui's head, messing up the hair that had somehow stayed neat throughout the past few days, ”Me? It's not like you don't know how broke I am. How could I have gotten enough money to hire people?”

Lan SiZhui nodded in hurry, ”Yes. I knew it! I knew that, Senior, you really are very broke!”

”…”

Wei WuXian, ”Good boy. How many people do they have? Is there an ambush around here?”

Lan JingYi shook off the ropes on him and fought to answer, ”They have quite a bunch of people! All of them had black mist on their faces so we could not see who they were. They did not do anything after they threw us here, like they did not care if we were dead or alive. Oh, oh, oh, and there are many walking corpses outside of here! They kept on howling!”