Chapter 13 Thirteen
Chapter Summary: [In the Gusu Lan Clan, there is a highly respected elder, Lan Qiren, who is widely recognized among aristocratic families for three main characteristics: pedantry, stubbornness, and the belief that strict teachers produce outstanding students. Although…]
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In the Gusu Lan Clan, there was a highly respected elder named Lan Qiren, who was known among the aristocratic families for three main characteristics: pedantry, stubbornness, and the adage "a strict teacher produces outstanding students." While the first two traits made many people keep their distance or even secretly dislike him, the last one made them desperately want to send their children to him for instruction. He had trained many outstanding Lan Clan disciples. Those who had been educated under him for a year or two, even if they were utterly useless when they entered, would generally emerge looking presentable, at least their appearance and manners were far superior to before. Many parents were moved to tears when they welcomed their sons home.
In response, Wei Wuxian stated, "Am I not already respectable enough as a human being?"
Jiang Cheng, with great foresight, said, "You will definitely become a shameful chapter in his teaching career."
Outdated?! Stubborn?!
Lan Qiren took a deep breath, glanced sideways at the person leaning against his nephew with an unseemly air, and snorted coldly.
Looking all prim and proper? Humph.
Back then, besides the Yunmeng Jiang Clan, there were many other young masters from various families, all sent by their parents seeking their renown. These young masters were all only fifteen or sixteen years old. The families often interacted, and while they weren't exactly close, they were at least familiar faces. Everyone knew that although Wei Wuxian wasn't surnamed Jiang, he was the son of Jiang Fengmian, the head of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan, and its chief disciple. He was treated like their own son, and since young people often didn't care as much about lineage and bloodlines as their elders, they quickly became close friends, calling each other "brother" and "sibling" after only a few words. Someone asked, "Isn't your Jiang Clan's Lotus Pier much more fun than this place?"
Wei Wuxian laughed and said, "Whether it's fun or not depends on how you play. There are definitely fewer rules here, and you don't have to get up so early."
The Lan Clan of Gusu works from 5 AM to 9 PM, without delay. Someone then asked, "When do you get up? What do you do every day?"
Jiang Cheng snorted, "Him? He works from 9 am to 1 pm. When he gets up, instead of practicing swordsmanship or meditating, he goes boating, swimming, picking lotus pods, and hunting pheasants."
Wei Wuxian said, "No matter how many pheasants I kill, I'm still number one."
A young boy declared, "I'm going to study in Yunmeng next year! Nobody can stop me!"
A bucket of cold water was poured on him: "No one will stop you. Your older brother will just break your legs."
The boy immediately wilted. This was Nie Huaisang, the second young master of the Nie family of Qinghe. His elder brother, Nie Mingjue, was known for his decisive and efficient style, and was highly respected among the various families. Although the two brothers were not born of the same mother, they had a very close relationship. Nie Mingjue was extremely strict in educating his younger brother, and was particularly concerned about his studies. Therefore, although Nie Huaisang respected his elder brother, he was most afraid of Nie Mingjue bringing up his studies.
"Nie, Huai, Sang!"
The familiar roar rang out once more. Nie Huaisang instinctively shrank back, wanting to hide behind Lan Xichen, but to his left sat the icy Lan Wangji, and to his right was his elder brother, who was burning with rage. Nie Huaisang looked around, silently hugged himself, and cast a resentful glance at Lan Xichen not far away.
Brother Xichen, why are you sitting so far away...?
And Miss Niangui, at least leave me a way out! Who knows what stupid things I did back then!
Suddenly, Nie Huaisang froze. Since arriving in this space, all his reactions had been subconscious, as if he had returned to the old days when his eldest brother was still alive, Jin Guangyao was still the third brother who helped him solve clan affairs, and Lan Xichen was still the elegant and refined gentleman.
He looked up, his gaze sweeping over Lan Xichen, whose eyes were filled with worry, and Jin Guangyao, who couldn't help but chuckle at the antics of the teenagers in 'Tianying'. His expression relaxed slightly.
He couldn't remember whether, after everything was settled at the Guanyin Temple, he had retained any of the joy of his youth besides the satisfaction of revenge. But if all the grudges could be swept away by the wind after today's events, and everything could return to normal, that would be good too.
Before her thoughts could settle, she heard Nie Mingjue's voice through gritted teeth: "After you leave, I will send you to study at the Yunmeng Jiang Clan."
Nie Huaisang's already hunched body instantly collapsed by half.
Wei Wuxian said, "Actually, Gusu is quite fun."
Nie Huaisang said, "Brother Wei, let me give you my heartfelt advice. Cloud Recesses is not like Lotus Pier. When you come to Suzhou, remember there is one person you should not provoke."
Wei Wuxian asked, "Who? Lan Qiren?"
Nie Huaisang said, "It's not that old man. You need to be careful of his prized student, named Lan Zhan."
Wei Wuxian asked, "Lan Zhan, the one of the Twin Jades of Lan? Lan Wangji?"
The two sons of the current head of the Gusu Lan Clan, Lan Huan and Lan Zhan, were renowned as the "Twin Jades of the Lan Clan." After turning fourteen, they were held up as role models by the elders of each clan, constantly compared to their own children, and shone brightly among the younger generation, making them household names. Nie Huaisang said, "And then there's Lan Zhan, that one. My goodness, he's about the same age as you and me, but he has none of the liveliness of a young man. He's rigid and strict, even more so than his uncle."
Wei Wuxian said "Oh" and asked, "Is he a rather handsome young man?"
Jiang Cheng sneered, "In the Gusu Lan Clan, who is ugly? They even refuse to accept disciples with irregular features. You go ahead and find someone with an average appearance for me to see."
Wei Wuxian emphasized, "Extremely handsome." He gestured with his head, "All in white, with a headband, and carrying a silver sword on his back. He's handsome, but he always has a stern face, like he's wearing mourning clothes."
"..." Nie Huaisang said with certainty, "It's him!" He paused, then said, "But he's been in seclusion recently. You only arrived yesterday. When did you see him?"
"Last night."
“Last night…last night?!” Jiang Cheng exclaimed in astonishment, “There’s a curfew at Cloud Recesses, where did you meet him? How come I didn’t know?”
Wei Wuxian pointed: "There."
He was referring to a high eave.
Everyone was speechless. Jiang Cheng was at his wit's end, and gritted his teeth, saying, "You've only just arrived and you've already caused me trouble! What happened?"
Wei Wuxian chuckled and said, "Nothing much. We passed by that 'Emperor's Smile' tavern on our way here. I couldn't stand it last night, so I went down the mountain to the city and brought back two more jars. You can't get this in Yunmeng."
Jiang Cheng: "What about the wine?"
Wei Wuxian: "I had just climbed over the wall and hadn't even stepped one foot in when he caught me."
A young man said, "Brother Wei, you're really lucky. He probably just came out of the pass and was on night patrol when he caught you red-handed."
Jiang Cheng said, "Those returning at night are not allowed to enter after the end of the Mao hour (5-7 AM), so why would he let you in?"
Wei Wuxian spread his hands and said, "That's why he didn't let me in. He insisted that I take back the leg that had stepped in. How can I take it back? So he lightly leaped up and asked me what I was holding in my hand."
Jiang Cheng felt a headache coming on and had a bad feeling: "What do you say?"
Wei Wuxian said, "'Emperor's Smile! I'll give you a jar, just pretend you didn't see me, okay?'"
Jiang Cheng sighed: "...Drinking is forbidden in Cloud Recesses. This is an even more serious offense."
Wei Wuxian said, "That's what he told me too. I asked, 'Why don't you tell me what your family forbids?' He seemed a little angry and told me to go see the rules stone in front of the mountain. To be honest, there are more than three thousand rules, written in seal script. Who would go to see them? Did you see them? I certainly didn't. What's there to be angry about?"
"That's right!" Everyone agreed, complaining about the Cloud Recesses' bizarre and outdated rules, as if they had known each other for a long time: "What family has more than three thousand rules that don't repeat themselves? Things like 'No killing within the territory, no fighting, no promiscuity, no nighttime outings, no loud noises, no rushing' are one thing. But there are even 'No laughing without reason, no improper posture, no eating more than three bowls of rice'..." Wei Wuxian hurriedly said, "What? Fighting is forbidden too?"
Jiang Cheng: "...It's forbidden. Don't tell me you fought with him."
Wei Wuxian: "I hit it. I even knocked over a jar of Emperor's Smile wine."
Everyone slapped their thighs and exclaimed in unison, "What a pity!"
Since the situation couldn't get any worse, Jiang Cheng shifted his focus: "Didn't you bring two jars? Where's the other one?"
"I drank it."
Jiang Cheng: "Where did you drink it?"
“I drank it in front of him. I said, ‘Okay, drinking is forbidden in Cloud Recesses, so I won’t go in. I’ll just drink it standing on the wall. That won’t be breaking the rule, right?’ So I drank it all in one gulp right in front of him.”
"……Then?"
"Then a fight broke out."
"Wei Wuxian!"
Two completely different but equally angry voices rang out at the same time. Wei Wuxian trembled and hurriedly shrank into Lan Wangji's arms.
On one side was Yu Ziyuan, her eyes blazing with fury—
"Wei Wuxian, this is how you listen to the lectures I sent you to?!"
Wei Wuxian jumped, quickly poked his head out, and raised his hand, saying:
"I...I...I was punished! Lan Zhan, wasn't I?"
Lan Wangji nodded in agreement.
Yu Ziyuan was so angry that she couldn't catch her breath. Jiang Fengmian quickly pulled her down and patted her back reassuringly.
On the other side is Lan Qiren, whose face has been dark ever since he arrived in this space, and now he can finally challenge the darkness of an inkstone—
He now knows exactly when his own cabbage started to be taken advantage of.
"Brother Wei," Nie Huaisang said in shock, "you're really arrogant."
Wei Wuxian raised an eyebrow and said, "Lan Zhan is quite skilled."
"You're going to die, Brother Wei! Lan Zhan has never suffered such a loss before, he's probably going to target you. You'd better watch out, even though Lan Zhan doesn't attend classes with us, he's in charge of punishments in the Lan Clan!"
Wei Wuxian, undaunted, waved his hand and said, "What's there to be afraid of! Wasn't Lan Zhan said to have been a child prodigy since childhood? So precocious, he must have already mastered everything his uncle taught him. He's in seclusion cultivating all day, how could he have time to keep an eye on me? I..."
Before the words were finished, the group walked around a wall with latticed windows and saw a young man in white sitting upright in the orchid room. He had long hair tied up and wore a headband, and his aura was as cold as ice. He glanced at them with a chilling look.
The dozen or so mouths seemed to be silenced instantly, and they silently entered the Orchid Room, silently chose their seats, and silently left the desk around Lan Wangji empty.
Jiang Cheng patted Wei Wuxian on the shoulder and whispered, "They've got their eyes on you. Good luck."
Everyone: This is the Lan Wangji we know!
"Brother Lan, are you still being so mean to me?"
Wei Wuxian leaned close to Lan Wangji's ear, looking at the face of the young Lan Wangji in the shadow of the sky, cold and aloof as if he had really returned to that time, and his voice became even softer.
Lan Wangji's ears turned slightly red, his expression softened, and he said, "No."
Wei Wuxian turned his head and could just see Lan Wangji's profile. His eyelashes were long and delicate, and he was extremely handsome and elegant. He was sitting very upright, looking straight ahead. He wanted to start a conversation, but Lan Qiren walked into the Orchid Room at that moment.
Lan Qiren was tall and thin, with a ramrod-straight back. Although he sported a long black goatee, he was by no means old; and considering the Lan Clan's tradition of producing handsome men generation after generation, he was certainly not ugly. It was just a pity that he exuded an air of pedantry and rigidity, making it perfectly fitting to call him an old man. He entered carrying a scroll, which rolled onto the floor after he opened it, and then began reciting the Lan Clan's rules. The young men present all turned pale. Wei Wuxian, bored, glanced around, his eyes landing on Lan Wangji's profile. Seeing Lan Wangji's genuinely focused and serious expression, he was astonished: "He can listen so attentively to something so boring!"
Suddenly, Lan Qiren slammed the scroll down and sneered, "It's carved on the stone wall, so no one reads it. That's why I'm repeating it line by line to see who else will use the excuse of not knowing to break the rules. Since even that's the case, some people are still not paying attention. Very well, I'll talk about something else."
Although this statement could be applied to everyone in the Orchid Room, Wei Wuxian instinctively felt it was a warning directed at him. Sure enough, Lan Qiren said, "Wei Ying."
Wei Wuxian replied, "Yes."
"I ask you, are demons and monsters the same thing?"
Wei Wuxian laughed and said, "No."
Why not? How can we distinguish them?
"Demons are transformed from non-human living beings; evil spirits are transformed from living people; ghosts are transformed from the dead; and monsters are transformed from non-human dead things."
“‘Demon’ and ‘monster’ are easily confused. Can you give some examples to distinguish them?”
“Easy to explain.” Wei Wuxian pointed to the lush green trees outside the Orchid Pavilion and said, “If an arm is a living tree that has been imbued with the fragrance of books for a hundred years, it will cultivate into a spirit, develop consciousness, and cause trouble and disturb people. This is a ‘demon’. If I take a broad axe and cut it in half, leaving only a dead stump, it will cultivate into a spirit. This is a ‘monster’.”
What occupation did the ancestors of the Nie family of Qinghe engage in?
"Butcher."
"The emblem of the Lanling Jin family is a white peony. Which grade of white peony is it?"
"Venus Snow Waves".
Who was the first person in the cultivation world to cause a family's rise and a sect's decline?
"Wen Mao, the ancestor of the Wen clan of Qishan."
As they listened to Wei Wuxian and Lan Qiren's back-and-forth dialogue in the sky, the smiles on the faces of the younger generation became increasingly stiff, and they wished they could immediately take out paper and pen to write it down in case they were randomly selected to study this kind of thing later.
Lan Qiren, who could clearly see the expressions on the faces of these juniors, stroked his beard and sneered inwardly: Hmph, do you think I'll let you guess the question?
He answered fluently, while the others listened with bated breath, hoping he wouldn't stumble and would keep answering, lest Lan Qiren have a chance to challenge them. Lan Qiren, however, said, "As a member of the Yunmeng Jiang clan, you should already know these questions by heart. There's nothing to be proud of if you answer correctly. Let me ask you again: Imagine an executioner, with parents, wife, and children all alive, who beheaded over a hundred people in his lifetime. He died a violent death in the marketplace, his body left exposed for seven days, his resentment accumulating, causing him to haunt and commit further crimes. What do you think?"
This time, Wei Wuxian didn't answer immediately. The others assumed he was struggling and became somewhat restless. Lan Qiren scolded, "What are you looking at him for? You all need to think of something too. No flipping through the book!"
Everyone quickly removed their hands from the books they were about to hastily search for, also facing a dilemma: a violent death in the marketplace, exposed for seven days—definitely a vengeful ghost or a fierce corpse. This was a difficult situation; they hoped Old Man Lan wouldn't ask them to answer. Seeing Wei Wuxian remain silent for a long time, seemingly lost in thought, Lan Qiren said, "Wangji, tell him what you think."
The space was completely silent...
What do you think? What do you think?
If the previous questions were still within the scope of the knowledge base, this one felt like it was beyond the syllabus. The juniors in the space and the 'others present' in the Heavenly Shadow all had the same thought flash through their minds: I need to look it up in a book!!
However, the people in the Heavenly Shadow were stopped by Lan Qiren, while those in the Space... well, they couldn't even flip through the pages.
Lan Wangji did not look at Wei Wuxian, but nodded in greeting and said calmly, "The first step is to convert them, the second is to suppress them, and the third is to exterminate them. First, we should try to move them with gratitude and remembrance of their parents, wife, and children, fulfill their wishes in life, and dispel their obsessions; if that doesn't work, then we should suppress them; if their crimes are heinous and their resentment is still strong, then we should eradicate them completely and not allow them to exist. All actions of the Xuanmen sect must strictly follow this order and must not be made incorrectly."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, thanking their lucky stars that the old man had chosen Lan Wangji; otherwise, they might have missed one or two or been in the wrong order. Lan Qiren nodded in satisfaction and said, "Not a single word is wrong." After a pause, he added, "Whether it's cultivation or being a person, one must be this down-to-earth. If one becomes complacent, arrogant, unruly, and unruly just because one has subdued a few insignificant mountain spirits and monsters in one's own home and has some empty fame, one will eventually bring shame upon oneself."
Wei Wuxian raised an eyebrow, glanced at Lan Wangji's profile, and thought to himself, "So this old man came for me. He's calling his good student to listen to the lesson so that I'll look good."
He said, "I have doubts."
Lan Qiren said, "Speak."
Wei Wuxian said, "Although 'conversion' is the first priority, 'conversion' is often impossible. 'Fulfilling their wishes in life and eliminating their obsessions' sounds easy. If the obsession is to get a new piece of clothing, that's fine, but what if it's to kill an entire family to avenge a grudge?"
Lan Wangji said, "Therefore, the primary approach is to convert and guide, with suppression as a secondary measure, and extermination if necessary."
Wei Wuxian smiled slightly and said, "What a waste." He paused for a moment before saying, "It's not that I didn't know the answer just now, but I was considering the fourth path."
Lan Qiren said, "I have never heard of any fourth rule."
Wei Wuxian said, "It's inevitable that this executioner, who died a violent death, would become a fierce corpse. Since he beheaded over a hundred people in his lifetime, why not dig up the graves of those hundred people, stir up their resentment, and gather a hundred heads to fight against this fierce corpse..."
Lan Wangji finally turned to look at him, but his brows furrowed and his expression was quite cold. Lan Qiren's beard trembled, and he shouted, "You don't know your place!"
Everyone in the room was shocked. Lan Qiren suddenly stood up: "Subduing demons and monsters, eliminating ghosts and evil spirits, is all for the purpose of salvation! Not only do you not think about the way to salvation, but you also want to incite their resentment? You have put the cart before the horse and disregarded human ethics!"
Wei Wuxian said, "Since some things are useless to convert anyway, why not make use of them? Even Yu the Great knew that blocking is the worst strategy, while dredging is the best. Suppression is blocking, isn't it a worst strategy..." Lan Qiren threw a book at him, but he dodged it with a swift movement, his expression unchanged, and continued to spout nonsense: "Spiritual energy is energy, and resentment energy is also energy. Spiritual energy stored in the dantian can be used to split mountains and fill seas for people's benefit. Why can't resentment energy be used for people's benefit?"
Lan Qiren threw another book at him and said sternly, "Then let me ask you again! How can you guarantee that this resentment will be used for your own benefit and not to harm others?"
Wei Wuxian said while dodging, "I haven't thought of that yet!"
Lan Qiren roared in fury: "If you've figured it out, the various sects of the immortal realm won't be able to keep you here. Get out!"
Well, we couldn't find any flaws in Wei Wuxian's defenses before, but now...
"He's truly wicked; how could someone so young have such depraved thoughts!"
"Mr. Lan is absolutely right, it is putting the cart before the horse and disregarding human ethics!"
"That's what he thought back then, but he still did it anyway. He deserves to be kicked out of the Jiang family and be devoured by ten thousand ghosts."
...
Xue Yang clicked his tongue, half-lying on the ground, and looked at Wei Wuxian, saying, "Senior Wei, you truly deserve to be called the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. You already had ideas about the Demonic Path back then?"
Wei Wuxian rolled his eyes. This little rascal really hadn't changed his nature: "Why would I choose the path of the underworld over the main road? Besides..."
His voice suddenly softened: "I did that to annoy old man Lan."
Xue Yang: ...
Although he just made that casual remark, his answer was infuriating no matter how you listened to it!
As for Jiang Cheng, Wen Qing, and the others who overheard the people behind them cursing Wei Wuxian, they all sat down and meditated: I can't hear it, I can't hear it...
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