Chapter 9 Jiu

Chapter Summary: [The bushes rustled, and Wei Wuxian's slap was quite forceful; his right cheek felt hot. Suddenly, he glanced up and saw the head of a spotted donkey peeking out, then lowered...]

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The bushes rustled, and Wei Wuxian's slap was quite forceful, his right cheek burning. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a donkey's head popping out and lowered his hand. The donkey nudged over, and Wei Wuxian tugged at its long ears, saying with a wry smile, "You want to be a hero and save the damsel in distress, but you expect me to be the one doing the heroic deed."

The donkey was whining when a group of cultivators approached from the end of the hillside. After Lan Wangji had slashed through the more than four hundred Immortal-Binding Nets with a single sword strike, the cultivators who had been hesitating in Buddha's Foot Town surged forward again. Wei Wuxian considered for a moment whether to push them back down, but after thinking it over, he silently stepped aside.

This group of young men from various families, dressed in a motley collection of colors, walked along complaining:

"This young master Jin, with the Jin and Jiang families spoiling him so much, he's already so domineering and arrogant at such a young age. If he were to take over the Lanling Jin Clan in the future, wouldn't the cultivation world be turned upside down? We might as well all give up on life!"

Wei Wuxian slowed his pace.

A kind-hearted female cultivator said, "How could the Jin family and Jiang Cheng not spoil him? He was so young that his parents died and he almost died. He was lucky to survive."

"So what if both parents are dead? There are plenty of people in the world who have lost both parents. If everyone acted like him, what would become of us!"

"Wei Wuxian really has the heart to do that. Jin Ling's mother is his childhood sweetheart and Jiang Cheng's older sister."

"It's because he couldn't get Jiang Yanli, and she married Jin Zixuan, who had a grudge against him."

"How come Wei Wuxian has a grudge against everyone..."

"Who else?"

"Hanguang-jun! It's common knowledge that they dislike each other. They were classmates when they were young, and it's said that they were already at odds back then."

"In that case, we truly have enemies everywhere, incurring the wrath of both heaven and man. We are so grateful to Lord Hanguang this time, otherwise we would have been left only to sigh in despair at the 'Buddha'..."

After walking for a while, the sound of a babbling brook reached Wei Wuxian's ears.

This was something he hadn't heard when he arrived, and Wei Wuxian then realized that he had taken the wrong path down the mountain and had strayed onto another road.

He led his donkey to the stream. The moon was high in the sky, and the banks were bare of branches and leaves, covered in a frosty white. In the reflection of the stream, he saw a hazy face, its shape shifting with the current. Though he couldn't see it clearly, he could imagine how comical and ridiculous it must be.

He slammed his palm hard into the water, shattering the face.

The person reflected in the water is not him.

Wei Wuxian raised his palm and, using the stream water, slowly wiped away the embellishment that seemed to be mocking someone.

It wasn't that he couldn't bear it. After all, when he made that choice, he was perfectly clear about what path he would face. He only remembered what the Yunmeng Jiang family had taught him, and that family motto—"To do what you know is impossible."

I thought my heart was as hard as stone, but in the end, I am not made of stone.

"Knowing it's impossible, yet still doing it... Ha!"

Jiang Cheng murmured Wei Wuxian's thoughts, but then gave a light, mocking laugh after thinking of something.

You truly did it knowingly, even though it was impossible. You understand the Jiang family precepts better than I do.

Jiang Fengmian sensed Wei Wuxian's helplessness and mockery, and his expression gradually became serious.

What happened to these children after the massacre at Lotus Pier? Why did they turn out this way? Was it their family's strict discipline that ruined them?

Wei Ying, I have never disliked you...

Lan Wangji clenched his right hand tightly, lowering his head to suppress the heartache and bitterness in his heart.

The little donkey seemed to know he was in a bad mood, and unusually, it didn't bray impatiently. After a moment of silence, it flicked its tail and walked away. Wei Wuxian sat by the stream, unresponsive. The donkey looked back, shook its hooves, but Wei Wuxian still ignored it. The donkey had no choice but to return dejectedly, tugging and tugging at Wei Wuxian's clothes with its teeth.

Whether to go or not was up to him; since he'd already been forced to bite, Wei Wuxian went with it. The donkey led him to a few trees and circled a patch of grass. A Qiankun bag lay quietly in the grass. A torn golden net hung above it, surely dropped by some unfortunate cultivator who had tried to escape. Wei Wuxian picked up the bag and opened it. Inside were quite a few miscellaneous items: a gourd of medicinal wine, talismans, a demon-revealing mirror, and so on.

After searching for a while, he casually pulled out a talisman, and suddenly a ball of flame burst forth from his hand.

What caught fire was a Yin-Burning Talisman, which, as the name suggests, uses Yin energy as fuel. It ignites automatically upon encountering Yin energy, and the stronger the Yin energy, the more vigorously it burns. The fact that it caught fire as soon as it was taken out indicates that there was a Yin spirit not far from Wei Wuxian.

Upon seeing the flames, Wei Wuxian became alert and used the firelight to probe the direction. When he turned east, the fire weakened, but when he turned west, the flames suddenly leaped up. He took a few steps in that direction and saw a white, hunched figure appear under a tree.

The talisman burned out, and embers fell from his fingertips. An old man with his back to him was muttering to himself.

As Wei Wuxian slowly approached, the old man's muttered words became clearer.

"It hurts, it hurts!"

Wei Wuxian asked, "Where does it hurt?"

The old man replied, “My head, my head. My head.”

Wei Wuxian said, "Let me see."

He took a few steps to the side, turning to stand beside the old man, and saw a large, blood-red hole in his forehead. This was a dead soul, most likely murdered by someone striking his head with a weapon. He was dressed in a burial shroud, made of excellent materials and craftsmanship, indicating he had been properly buried. It was not the lost soul of a living person.

However, such dead souls should never appear on this Mount Dafan.

Wei Wuxian couldn't understand the illogicality and sensed something was wrong. He jumped onto the donkey's back, slapped it, shouted, and urged it to chase after Jin Ling and the others in the direction they had entered the mountain.

"Dead souls? What's wrong now?"

A younger person present asked out of curiosity, but no one around him could answer him.

To be honest, they had no idea what Wei Wuxian had discovered; his thought process was truly beyond their comprehension...

Several cultivators lingered near the ancient tomb, waiting in ambush. One boldly raised a summoning flag, but only summoned a horde of wailing, mournful spirits. Wei Wuxian tightened the rope, scanned the area, and asked loudly, "Excuse me, could you tell me where the young masters of the Jin and Lan families are?"

After washing his face, someone finally paid attention to him. A cultivator replied, "They left this place and went to the Heavenly Maiden Shrine."

Wei Wuxian asked, "The Shrine of the Heavenly Maiden?"

After hearing that the Binding Immortal Net had been completely broken, the villagers from the countryside quietly slipped up and joined the night patrol. The middle-aged man, seeing the man's clothes and the baring donkey, thought he resembled the madman who had just saved them, and felt quite embarrassed. He pretended nothing was wrong, but the round-faced girl pointed him in the right direction: "Over there. It's a grotto shrine on this mountain."

Wei Wuxian pressed on, "Which deity is enshrined in the shrine?"

The round-faced girl said, "Yes, it looks like a natural stone statue of a celestial maiden."

Wei Wuxian nodded and said, "Thank you."

They immediately rushed towards the direction of the Heavenly Maiden Temple.

A lazy man's wedding was struck by lightning; his coffin was struck by lightning; his fiancé, killed by jackals, and his father and daughter both lost their souls; the magnificent burial clothes... like beads strung together to form a complete thread. No wonder the Wind Evil Compass couldn't point the way, and the Summoning Banner was ineffective. They had all underestimated what was within this Great Brahma Mountain.

It's not what they thought at all!

What... exactly is this?

Three question marks appeared above everyone's heads. At least finish what you were saying. Even if they were empathizing, they couldn't understand the riddle.

Lan Sizhui and the others, who already knew the truth, watched the whole thing again and couldn't help but applaud Wei Wuxian's keen insight. Then they turned around and looked at the group of idiots behind them...

Thank goodness, it was Senior Wei who was there that day, not this bunch of idiots...

Meanwhile, Lan Sizhui and the others, having found nothing while searching the ancient tomb mound, had already moved on to the Heavenly Maiden Shrine to look for clues.

In Dafan Mountain, besides the ancestral graves of generations of Fojiao Town residents, there is also a shrine to the Heavenly Maiden. The deity enshrined in the shrine is neither Buddha nor Guanyin, but a "dancing heavenly maiden".

Hundreds of years ago, a hunter from Fojiao Town ventured deep into the mountains and discovered a peculiar rock in a grotto. Nearly ten feet tall, it was naturally formed and strikingly resembled a human figure, complete with limbs, in a dancing pose. Even more remarkably, the facial features of the stone statue were still faintly discernible, revealing a smiling woman.

The townspeople of Fojiao Town were greatly astonished, believing it to be a divine stone imbued with the spirit of heaven and earth. They spontaneously created numerous legends. One tale tells of a celestial being who secretly loved the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden and carved a stone statue in her likeness to console his longing. The Mystic Maiden discovered this and was enraged, leaving the unfinished statue abandoned. Another tale claims that the Jade Emperor had a beloved daughter who died young, and that his longing for her solidified into this stone statue. The stories were varied and astonishing. These tales, flowing from their mouths, convinced even themselves, led some to convert the grotto into a shrine, the stone platform into a throne, and the statue into the "Dancing Celestial Maiden," offering incense year-round.

The interior of the grotto is spacious, resembling a two-courtyard temple, with the celestial maiden statue standing in the center. At first glance, it does indeed look remarkably like a human, even its waistline is quite graceful. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes rougher, but the fact that nature could create something so human-like is truly astonishing.

Lan Jingyi raised and lowered the wind-evil compass, but the pointer remained unmoved. On the offering table lay scattered, flickering candles and a thick layer of incense ash, the fruit dishes emitting a rotten, sweet smell. The Lan clan of Gusu were all somewhat fastidious about cleanliness. He fanned the air in front of his nose and said, "The locals say that wishes made at this Heavenly Maiden Shrine are very effective, how come it's in such a dilapidated state? Why didn't they send someone to clean it up?"

Lan Sizhui said, "Seven people have lost their souls in succession. It is said that the evil spirit in the ancestral grave in Fojiao Town was struck by heavenly lightning. No one dares to come up the mountain anymore. The incense has been cut off, so naturally no one is cleaning it up."

A disdainful voice rang out from outside the grotto: "A broken stone, who knows who has bestowed a god upon it, dares to be placed here to receive incense and worship!"

Jin Ling entered with his hands behind his back. The silencing spell's effect was short-lived, and his mouth was already open again. However, once he opened it, it was never a pleasant word. He glared at the celestial maiden statue and sneered, "These country bumpkins, instead of working hard when faced with problems, spend all day burning incense, praying to Buddha, and asking ghosts for help. There are millions of people in the world, and even gods and Buddhas are too busy taking care of themselves to deal with them! Besides, this is just a nameless, wild god. If it's really that effective, then I'll make a wish now, that the thing in this Great Brahma Mountain that eats human souls will appear before me immediately. Can it do that?"

A group of cultivators from smaller families followed him in, and upon hearing this, they immediately echoed his words, laughing and agreeing. The once quiet shrine suddenly became noisy and cramped due to the influx of people. Lan Sizhui secretly shook his head, and as he turned around, he glanced at the face of the celestial maiden statue. The features were vaguely visible, and it seemed to be a compassionate smiling face.

However, he felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity with that smiling face, as if he had seen it somewhere before.

Where exactly have I seen this before?

Lan Sizhui sensed that this must be something very important, and unconsciously moved closer to the altar, wanting to get a closer look at the celestial maiden's face. Just then, someone bumped into him.

A cultivator who had been standing behind him suddenly collapsed silently. The others were all startled and immediately went on alert. Jin Ling asked warily, "What happened to him?"

Lan Sizhui gripped his sword and leaned over to examine the cultivator. His breathing was normal; he seemed to have simply fallen asleep, but no matter how he patted or called to him, he wouldn't wake up. He stood up and said, "He seems to be..."

Before he could finish speaking, the previously dark cave suddenly lit up, filled with a red glow, as if a waterfall of blood had cascaded down the walls. The incense and candles on the altar and in the corners of the cave all spontaneously combusted.

The eerie atmosphere of the Heavenly Maiden Shrine sent chills down the spines of the group. What on earth was this thing?!

Seeing their own foolish appearance in the Heavenly Shadow, Lan Jingyi and Jin Ling secretly shrank further behind Lan Sizhui.

Lan Sizhui: ...

Lan Qiren: ...

[With a series of clanging sounds, the people in the grotto drew their swords and held up their talismans. Just then, a man rushed in from outside the shrine, carrying a gourd of medicinal wine, and splashed it all over the statue of the celestial maiden. The grotto was immediately filled with a strong, pungent smell of alcohol. He then drew a talisman in the air and threw it at the statue. Instantly, a raging fire broke out on the altar, illuminating the grotto as if it were daytime.]

Wei Wuxian used up everything in the Qiankun bag he had picked up, then threw the bag away and shouted, "Everyone, get out of here! Watch out for that Soul-Eating Goddess inside!"

Someone exclaimed, "The celestial maiden's posture has changed!"

Just moments ago, the statue clearly had both arms raised, one pointing straight to the sky, and one leg lifted, its posture graceful. Now, amidst the blazing, crimson flames, it has lowered both arms and legs. It is absolutely true, not an illusion!

The next moment, the statue raised another foot—and stepped out of the flames!

Wei Wuxian shouted, "Run! Run! Stop cutting! It's useless!"

Most cultivators ignored him; the soul-devouring monster they had searched for so long had finally appeared, and they were not about to let it go! However, despite the use of so many immortal swords to slash and thrust, along with the throwing of talismans and various magical treasures, they couldn't stop the stone statue from moving an inch. It was nearly ten feet tall, and when it moved, it was like a giant, exuding an overwhelming sense of oppression. It lifted two cultivators up to its face, and its stone mouth seemed to open and close slightly. The swords in the hands of the two cultivators clattered to the ground, and their heads drooped, clearly their souls had also been sucked away.

All attacks proved ineffective, and finally, the others listened to Wei Wuxian, swarming out and scattering frantically in all directions. With so many people, the more anxious Wei Wuxian became, the less he could find Jin Ling. He rode his donkey, searching frantically, until he entered a bamboo forest. Turning back, he bumped into the Lan Clan juniors who had caught up with him. Wei Wuxian called out to them, "Children!"

Uh... kids...

Everyone: ...

You have quite the nerve. You're the first person to dare call a junior member of the Lan family "child."

The "children" that Wei Wuxian spoke of: ...

Even if you listen to it a hundred times, let alone once more, Lan Jingyi will still want to hit someone.

Sure enough, the one inside 'Sky Shadow' couldn't hold back any longer.

Lan Jingyi said, "Who are you calling 'children'! Do you even know whose family we are? Do you think you can act like elders just because you washed your face?!"

Wei Wuxian said, "Alright, alright. Brothers, give a signal to call your... that Hanguang-jun to come up here!"

The younger generation nodded repeatedly, running and tumbling onto their backs. After a moment, Lan Sizhui said, "The signal fireworks... they were all set off at Mo Family Village that night."

Wei Wuxian exclaimed in surprise: "You guys didn't make up for it later?!"

This signal firework is only used once every eight hundred years, Lan Sizhui said with shame, "I forgot."

Wei Wuxian threatened, "You can forget this? If your Hanguang-jun finds out, you'll be sorry!"

Lan Jingyi's face turned ashen: "It's over, I'm going to be punished to death by Hanguang-jun this time..."

Wei Wuxian: "Punish him. He should be punished! He won't learn his lesson if he's not punished."

Upon seeing this, before Lan Qiren could even speak, Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi hurriedly got up.

Lan Sizhui bowed and said, "We accepted our punishment when we returned that day and dare not forget it."

The people behind them: ...

Have we spent the whole day watching you Lan Clan juniors being punished by copying the clan rules?

Lan Sizhui: "Young Master Mo! How do you know that it's not the Soul-Eating Fiend or the Soul-Eating Beast that's absorbing souls, but that Celestial Maiden statue?"

Wei Wuxian ran while searching for Jin Ling's figure: "How did I know? I saw him."

Lan Jingyi caught up, flanking him on either side as they ran: "What did you see? We've seen quite a lot too."

Everyone: You saw? You saw what?

At this moment, no one present realized that their thoughts were already following Wei Wuxian.

They inexplicably turned into a bunch of idiots...

"I saw it, so what? What's around the ancient tomb?"

"What could it be? Dead souls." (From the Three-Body Problem novel)

"Yes, there are dead souls. So it's definitely not a soul-eating beast or a soul-eating demon. It's obvious, isn't it? If it were either of those, with so many dead souls floating there, wouldn't it eat them? No way."

This time, more than one person asked the question: "Why?"

"I'm telling you, the Gusu Lan Clan..." Wei Wuxian finally couldn't hold back any longer: "Why don't you teach less of that long, tedious nonsense about sect etiquette and the history and lineage of cultivation families? Can't you teach us something more practical?"

Well said, well said! As the first victim whose nature was bound by these thousands of family rules, Comrade Lan Jingyi immediately wanted to jump up and applaud. Alas, the Lan family rules had already poisoned him deeply...

"What's so hard to understand? Dead souls are much easier to absorb than living souls. A living person's body is a barrier; to devour a living soul, you have to break through that barrier. It's like..." He glanced at the panting, running donkey, its eyes rolling back, "...like having an apple in front of you and another apple in a locked box. Which one would you choose? Of course, the one in front of you. This thing only eats living souls, and it has ways of getting them. It's very picky, and very powerful."

Lan Jingyi exclaimed in surprise, "So that's how it is? That makes a lot of sense! Wait, so you really aren't crazy after all!"

As Lan Sizhui ran, he explained, "We all thought that the collapse of the mountain and the lightning striking the coffin caused the loss of the soul, so we naturally assumed it was the Soul-Eating Demon."

Wei Wuxian said, "Wrong."

"What's wrong?"

"The order is wrong, the cause and effect are wrong. I ask you, which came first, the landslide or the Soul-Eating incident? Which was the cause and which was the effect?"

Lan Sizhui replied without hesitation: "The mountain collapse comes first, the Soul Eater comes later. The former is the cause, the latter is the effect."

Wei Wuxian said, “Completely wrong. It was the Soul Eater first, followed by the Mountain Collapse. The Soul Eater is the cause, and the Mountain Collapse is the effect! On the night of the Mountain Collapse, there was a sudden downpour and lightning. A coffin was struck by lightning. Remember this. The first person to lose his soul, that lazy man, was trapped in the mountains for one night, and a few days later he got married.”

Lan Jingyi asked, "What's wrong?"

Wei Wuxian said, "Nothing is right! Where would a penniless idler like him get the money for a lavish wedding?"

The teenagers were speechless. No wonder, the Gusu Lan Clan was a family that never had to worry about wealth or poverty. Wei Wuxian continued, “Have you all seen all the dead souls wandering on Mount Dafan? There was an old man who was killed by a head injury; his burial clothes were of excellent workmanship and material. Wearing such magnificent clothes, his coffin couldn't have been empty; there must have been several burial items. The coffin that was struck open by lightning was most likely his. And the people who collected the remains later didn't find any burial items, meaning that lazybones must have taken them all. That explains his sudden wealth. That lazybones suddenly became rich and got married after the mountain collapsed that night; something extraordinary must have happened that night. It was pouring rain that night, and he was taking shelter in the mountains. What places on Mount Dafan could he take shelter from the rain? The Heavenly Maiden Shrine. And if an ordinary person went to a shrine, they would inevitably have to do one thing.”

Lan Sizhui asked, "Make a wish?"

"That's right. For example, she wished him great fortune, wealth, and a rich marriage. The celestial maiden granted his wish, sending down heavenly lightning to split open his tomb and let him see the treasure inside. And as the price for his wish being fulfilled, the celestial maiden descended upon him on his wedding night and stole his soul!"

Lan Jingyi: "You're just guessing, aren't you?"

Wei Wuxian: "It's a guess. But if we keep guessing like this, everything can be explained."

Lan Sizhui: "How do you explain this, Miss Ayan?"

Wei Wuxian: "Good question. You should have asked before you came up the mountain. A-Yan had just gotten engaged around that time. For all newly engaged girls, they must all have the same wish."

Lan Jingyi asked, bewildered, "What wish?"

Wei Wuxian said, "It's nothing more than, 'I hope my husband will love and cherish me for the rest of his life, and only like me,' and things like that."

The young people were stunned: "Can such a wish really be fulfilled...?"

Wei Wuxian spread his hands and said, "It's very simple. As long as her husband's 'life' ends immediately, wouldn't that mean he 'loved only one person in his entire life'?"

Lan Jingyi suddenly realized and exclaimed excitedly, "Oh, oh! So, so, so after Miss Ayan got engaged, her husband was killed by jackals in the mountains the next day, because it's very likely that Miss Ayan went to the Heavenly Maiden Temple to make a wish the day before!"

Wei Wuxian pressed his advantage: "It's hard to say whether it was a jackal or something else that killed him. A-Yan has another special characteristic: why is it that only her soul returned among everyone? What makes her different from the others? The difference is that she has a relative whose soul has been lost. Or to put it another way, a relative has taken her place! Zheng the blacksmith is A-Yan's father, a father who loves his daughter dearly. What could he do when he saw his daughter lose her soul, medicine was useless, and he was helpless?"

Lan Sizhui quickly replied, "—He could only place his last hope in Heaven. So he went to the Temple of the Heavenly Maiden and made a wish: 'I hope my daughter A-Yan's soul will be found!'"

Wei Wuxian praised, "That's why only A-Yan's soul returned, and it's also the reason why the third person to lose his soul, Zheng the blacksmith, lost his soul. Although A-Yan's soul was expelled, it was inevitably damaged. After her soul returned to its place, she began to unconsciously imitate the dance moves and even the smile of the celestial maiden statue."

What these people who had lost their souls had in common was that they had most likely made a wish before the statue of the celestial maiden. The price for their wishes to come true was their souls.

This celestial maiden statue was originally just an ordinary stone, which happened to resemble a human. Inexplicably, it received hundreds of years of worship, thus acquiring magical powers. However, its greed was insatiable, and in a moment of error, it attempted to accelerate its magical power by absorbing souls. Souls absorbed through wish exchanges are equivalent to the souls voluntarily offered by the wishers; a fair trade, seemingly reasonable and just, so the Wind Demon Compass needles didn't move, the Summoning Banner couldn't summon anything, and all the precious swords and talismans were ineffective. This was because the thing in Mount Dafan wasn't a demon or monster at all, but a god! This was a wild god nurtured by hundreds of years of incense and offerings; using things meant for evil spirits and monsters against it was like trying to put out a fire with fire!

Seeing Wei Wuxian and Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi answer each other's questions and figure out the matter pretty much, the entire space fell silent for a moment.

Lan Xichen laughed and said, "It seems that Wuxian really has the potential to be a night-hunting mentor."

Lan Qiren stroked his beard, but this time he didn't refute.

Lan Jingyi shouted, "Wait! But just now in the shrine, someone else had their soul sucked away, and we didn't hear them make a wish!"

Wei Wuxian's heart skipped a beat, and he stopped in his tracks: "Someone had their soul sucked in the shrine? Tell me everything that just happened, word for word."

Lan Sizhui then quickly and clearly repeated the story. When Jin Ling asked, "If it's really that effective, then I'll make a wish now: that the thing in Dafan Mountain that eats human souls will appear in front of me right now. Can it do that?" Wei Wuxian replied, "Isn't this making a wish? This is making a wish!"

The others echoed Jin Ling's words, and it was assumed that they had all made the same wish. Since the Soul-Eating Goddess was right in front of them, their wish had already been granted; now, it was time to collect the price!

Suddenly, the donkey stopped and ran off in the opposite direction. Wei Wuxian was caught off guard and was thrown off again. He clung to the rope desperately, but then heard a series of crunching and slurping sounds coming from the bushes ahead. A huge figure was lying in the bushes, its massive head moving back and forth on the ground like a human's abdomen. Hearing the noise, it suddenly looked up and met their gaze.

This Soul-Eating Celestial Maiden originally had a blurry face, with only vague eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. After consuming the souls of several cultivators in one go, she developed clear facial features. She was a smiling woman with blood dripping from the corner of her mouth, chewing on a torn-off arm.

Everyone immediately followed the donkey and started to retreat in the opposite direction.

Lan Sizhui exclaimed in disbelief, "This isn't right! The Yiling Patriarch said that high-level creatures eat souls, while low-level creatures eat flesh!"

Wei Wuxian said helplessly, "Why do you believe in him? He himself makes a complete mess of everything! No rule is immutable. Just think of him as a baby who can only drink porridge and soup when he has no teeth. Once he grows up, of course he wants to eat meat with his teeth. Now that her magical power has greatly increased, she naturally wants to try something new!"

Uh... I've seen self-deprecating humor before, but I've never seen it this self-deprecating.

Upon hearing Wei Wuxian's theory, the various clans found it absurd, but they had to admit that he was right. So far, they had not found anything about Wei Wuxian that could be... well... criticized.

Moreover, Wei Wuxian was right; nothing in the world is static, whether it is the changing times or the shifting of people's hearts.