Chapter 29 Twenty Nine
Chapter Summary: When Xiao Xingchen emerged from the mountain, he was only seventeen years old. Although Lan Wangji had never met him, he had heard about his charisma from others.
Shoot at that time...
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When Xiao Xingchen emerged from the mountain, he was only seventeen years old. Although Lan Wangji had never met him, he had heard about his charisma from others.
At that time, the Sunshot Campaign had only ended a few years prior, and the great siege of the Burial Mound in Yiling had just subsided. Various powerful families were rampant, recruiting talent everywhere to serve their own purposes. Xiao Xingchen, with a heart set on saving the world, emerged from seclusion. Possessing exceptional talent and trained by a master, he naturally achieved instant fame on his first night hunt. Armed with a whisk and a longsword, he ventured alone into the mountains and emerged victorious.
Seeing this young Daoist's refined appearance and accomplished cultivation, everyone was deeply impressed and extended invitations. Xiao Xingchen, however, politely declined, stating that he did not wish to be affiliated with any aristocratic family. Instead, he and a close friend were determined to establish a sect different from those of the aristocratic families, one that did not prioritize blood ties. This man was gentle on the outside but firm on the inside, and he was also extremely virtuous. Whenever faced with a difficult or unsolvable problem, people would first think of seeking his help, and he never refused. At the time, he had an excellent reputation.
The Chang family massacre occurred around that time.
Chang Ping and several family members went out night hunting for over half a month when they suddenly received devastating news from home and rushed back. After their initial grief, they discovered that someone had maliciously broken their family's protective array and released a group of ferocious evil spirits. Beyond that, they were completely baffled and had no way to catch the culprit.
The tragic loss of a renowned cultivation family caused a great stir in the cultivation world, and Xiao Xingchen certainly wouldn't stand idly by. He volunteered to investigate and uncover the truth for Chang Ping. A month later, the culprit behind the massacre was finally found.
The murderer's name is Xue Yang.
Most of the people present knew about the massacre of the Chang family back then, so when they saw Xue Yang looking at Tianying with an indifferent expression, they could only think to themselves that it was inhumane and unacceptable to the world, but they did not show any other reaction.
But there are also those who don't know.
For example, the Jiang family members, Qinghengjun and his wife, etc.
Jiang Yanli turned her head and glanced at Xue Yang, who was leaning against the ground. The boy impatiently tapped his knuckles and occasionally licked his sharp canine teeth, looking like a hooligan.
But for some reason, looking at this young man who was only in his twenties and still acted like a child, she sensed a kind of loneliness and desolation, just like... Wei Wuxian after he cultivated the demonic path.
This Xue Yang is younger than Xiao Xingchen, a mere teenager. However, his wickedness will not be tempered by his young age.
Xue Yang had been a notorious gangster in the Kuizhou area since he was fifteen. He was all smiles, but his methods were vicious and his personality cruel; everyone in Kuizhou feared him. In his youth, he was a homeless man and seemed to have had a grudge against Chang Ping's father, a grudge that he held onto for years. This tragedy was partly caused by his revenge.
After Xiao Xingchen uncovered the truth, he traveled across three provinces and captured Xue Yang, who was still living a carefree life. Taking advantage of the Lanling Jin Clan's grand discussion at their immortal abode, Jinlintai, where various families were debating and asking questions, he dragged Xue Yang to the public, explained the whole story, and demanded severe punishment.
He presented the evidence clearly, and the vast majority of families had no objections, except for one family that vehemently opposed it. That family was the Lanling Jin clan.
Wei Wuxian said, "To oppose this situation is to defy the world. Could it be that Xue Yang is a favorite of Jin Guangshan?"
Lan Wangji nodded: "Guest Elder."
Wei Wuxian said, "He's a guest elder? The Lanling Jin Clan was already one of the four great clans back then, so why would they hire a young rogue as a guest elder?"
Lan Wangji said, "This is the second connection."
He gazed into Wei Wuxian's eyes and slowly said, "Because of the Yin Tiger Seal."
Wei Wuxian's heart leaped into the air.
He was absolutely familiar with the three characters "Yin Hu Fu" (陰虎符). On the contrary, no one was more familiar with them than him.
Of all the magical artifacts he forged during his lifetime, this was the most terrifying, and also the one that everyone most desired.
As its name suggests, the Tiger Tally is used for command. Whoever possesses this Tiger Tally can command evil spirits and demons, making them obey his orders.
When Wei Wuxian created it, he didn't think too much about it. Controlling the corpse puppet and the evil spirit with his own primordial spirit would eventually become tiring. He remembered that he had once obtained a rare piece of iron essence from the belly of a demon beast, so he used it to forge a tiger tally.
However, after the tiger tally was forged, it was only used once before Wei Wuxian realized that something terrible was about to happen.
The power of the Yin Tiger Seal was far greater and more terrifying than he had originally anticipated. He had intended to use it as an auxiliary tool, but its power completely overwhelmed him, its creator. Moreover, this item could not recognize a master. In other words, whoever obtained it, regardless of who that person was, whether good or evil, friend or foe, would use it for them.
"Guest Elder?! So, back then, those beasts like Jin Guangshan and Jin Guangyao were already plotting some despicable things!"
"Exactly! Only the Lanling Jin Clan would do something like hiring a rogue as a guest advisor!"
"If you ask me, everyone here knows the power of the Yin Tiger Seal. The Lanling Jin Clan is trying to dominate the world and recreate the glory of the Qishan Wen Clan!"
"The person who made the Yin Tiger Seal is no good either!"
...
Indignant voices rose and fell, but Jin Guangyao merely smiled calmly, his gaze never leaving Tianying.
Xue Yang clicked his tongue again: "A bunch of idiots."
Words cannot express the unspoken feelings in my heart.
The disaster had already been done. Wei Wuxian originally wanted to destroy it, but at that time he was in a situation where everyone could kill him. The Yin Tiger Seal had great deterrent power. With this magic weapon, others dared not touch him easily. So Wei Wuxian kept it for the time being, but divided the Tiger Seal into two, so that it could only play a role when they were combined, and he would never use it lightly.
He only used it twice, and each time it resulted in rivers of blood. After using it the second time, he destroyed half of the tiger tally.
The tiger tally was difficult to forge, and equally difficult to destroy. He was still in the process of destroying the other half when the massive siege of the mass grave began.
He couldn't care less about what happened after that. But even if the noble families who had seized it worshipped it and burned incense and knelt in reverence every day, the Yin Tiger Seal, now only half intact, was nothing more than a piece of scrap iron.
Lan Wangji told him that this Xue Yang seemed to be able to piece together the other half of the Yin Tiger Seal.
Xue Yang was extremely young, yet exceptionally intelligent, and also a rather eccentric and unorthodox individual. The Lanling Jin Clan discovered that he could roughly piece together the other half of the tiger tally based on the remaining half. Although it couldn't be used for long and its power wasn't as astonishing as the original, it was still beyond the reach of ordinary people.
Wei Wuxian understood: "Jin Guangshan wants Xue Yang to restore a complete Yin Tiger Seal for them, so he will definitely protect him."
What's more, Xue Yang destroyed the Chang family partly to avenge the bullying of the young and poor, and partly because he was using the lives of several living people in this family to test the power of the Yin Tiger Seal he was restoring!
No wonder all the rumors are about him. Wei Wuxian could almost imagine how those cultivators gritted their teeth: "That Wei Wuxian! If he hadn't made this thing, the mortal world wouldn't have suffered so much!!!"
Everyone: ...
It's one thing to just say it yourself, but to be called out by name by the person involved makes one feel a little embarrassed.
However, those present did not expect that Wei Wuxian would destroy the Yin Tiger Seal before the siege of Burial Mound.
"This boy is resolute and decisive; he is truly remarkable."
Qingheng-jun nodded.
To remain calm and make the decision to destroy the talisman under the temptation of such a treasure is truly remarkable.
The magic weapon he forged was too powerful, so it's his fault. He didn't destroy the other half before he died, so it's his fault. The Lanling Jin Clan wanting to restore the Yin Tiger Seal is also his fault.
Getting back to the point. Although the Lanling Jin Clan was determined to protect Xue Yang, Xiao Xingchen remained unmoved by either soft or hard tactics. The stalemate eventually alerted Nie Mingjue, the Chifeng Venerable, who had not participated in the grand discussion, prompting him to fly from elsewhere to Jinlintai to intervene.
Although Nie Mingjue was Jin Guangshan's junior, he was strict and intolerant, leaving Jin Guangshan humiliated and speechless. He had a violent temper and drew his sword on the spot, intending to kill Xue Yang. Even his sworn brother, Lianfangzun Jin Guangyao, who tried to smooth things over, was ordered to get out of the way.
After Nie Mingjue exerted pressure, the Lanling Jin Clan had no choice but to back down. Xue Yang escaped with his life; instead of being killed, he was sentenced to be imprisoned in a dungeon for the rest of his life.
After being captured by Xiao Xingchen and taken to Jinlintai, Xue Yang remained fearless. Even with Nie Mingjue's knife pressed against his neck, he still grinned. Before being taken to the dungeon, he said to Xiao Xingchen very affectionately, "Daozhang, don't forget me. We'll see about that."
Upon hearing this, Wei Wuxian knew that Xiao Xingchen would pay an incredibly heavy price for those words, "We'll see."
Just a year later, Nie Mingjue, the Crimson Peak Master, suffered a qi deviation. Perhaps because he cultivated faster than any previous head of the Qinghe Nie Clan, he also died earlier than any previous head of the clan. With the most difficult person to deal with gone, the Lanling Jin Clan began to plot wickedly again. Jin Guangshan tried every means to get Xue Yang out of prison to continue restoring the other half of the Yin Tiger Seal.
But this kind of thing is not honorable. You can't just pull a murderer who wiped out an entire family out of the dungeon without a proper reason.
So they turned their attention to Chang Ping.
After much coercion, enticement, and harassment, the Lanling Jin family finally succeeded in making Chang Ping retract her previous statements, overturning all her previous accusations of injustice, and declaring that the extermination of the Chang family had nothing to do with Xue Yang.
Xiao Xingchen came to inquire, and Chang Ping helplessly told him: "What else can I do? If we don't endure this, our family will have no way to survive. Thank you, Daoist Master, but... please don't help me anymore. If you help me now, you're only harming me."
And so, the story of "releasing the tiger back to the mountain" came to an end.
Wei Wuxian remained silent.
Everyone fell silent, having nothing to say.
"How can there be such a person in the world?!"
Lan Jingyi jumped up first.
Ungrateful, bullying the weak and fearing the strong, a coward... these words are not enough to express his contempt for Chang Ping.
If this happened to him, no matter how powerful the Lanling Jin Clan was, or how much of a bright future and glory anyone promised him, he wouldn't utter a single word. Instead, he would personally raid the dungeon at night, slice Xue Yang to pieces, and then summon him back to be sliced again and again until he regretted being born.
Xue Yang felt a chill run down his spine for no apparent reason.
"Senior Wei, is it really necessary to be so ruthless?"
Wei Wuxian glanced at him indifferently:
"You call this ruthless? Didn't you just see my 'Thousand Methods of Tragic Death'?"
Xue Yang: ...
I'm sorry, I was wrong.
However, not everyone is as willing to perish as he is. Several members of the Chang family are still alive, and Chang Ping is still young, without a wife or children, and has just embarked on the path of immortality. Whether it's threatening him with the lives of his surviving family members, or with his future and cultivation, he must carefully consider the situation.
After all, he was not Chang Ping himself, and could not take his place in feeling righteous indignation, nor could he take his place in feeling fear and suffering these physical and mental torments.
After Xue Yang was released, he indeed launched his revenge once again. However, this time, he did not take his revenge on Xiao Xingchen himself.
Xiao Xingchen left the mountain alone, without any relatives, except for a friend he met after descending the mountain named Song Lan. Song Lan was also a renowned figure in the Daoist sect at the time, known for his aloofness and excellent reputation. Both of them wanted to establish their own sects, valuing shared ideals over blood ties, and could be considered close friends with similar interests.
Xue Yang then targeted him, using the same trick as before, and wiped out the Taoist temple where Song Lan had grown up. He also secretly blinded Song Lan.
This time, he had learned from his experience in wiping out the entire family, and he did it swiftly, leaving no clues behind. Although everyone knew it was him, what could they do? There was no evidence. In addition, Jin Guangshan deliberately protected him, and the powerful Chifeng Zun, whose wrath was like thunder, was already dead. Surprisingly, no one could do anything about him.
Hearing this, Wei Wuxian felt a little strange.
Although Lan Wangji appears aloof and extremely particular about etiquette, based on Wei Wuxian's past understanding, his hatred of evil is no less than that of his elder brother, Nie Huaisang. Even now, while Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen are deeply involved, Lan Wangji has consistently shown no kindness towards the Lanling Jin Clan and never attends their meetings. If such a thing had happened back then, it would have been the talk of the town, and Lan Wangji would never have stood idly by. Why didn't he go and teach Xue Yang a lesson?
Just as he was about to ask, he suddenly remembered the whip marks on Lan Wangji's body.
A single lash of the discipline whip is enough to kill a person. If Lan Wangji had committed a serious offense and received so many lashes, he would likely have been confined to his quarters for several years. It's likely that those years were precisely when he was being punished.
No wonder he said he had "heard of it." If he left Suzhou after his punishment was over, he could only hear about it, not participate.
Jiang Cheng glanced at the two people cuddling together beside him with a look of utter dismay, inwardly complaining: Didn't you say you couldn't understand his feelings? Why are you suddenly thinking about Lan Zhan again?!
Wei Wuxian, completely oblivious to his junior brother's outburst, instead tenderly patted Lan Wangji's back.
Those weren't shallow scars.
Meanwhile—
"Zichen, I'm sorry, I've dragged you into this."
Xiao Xingchen pursed his lips and said.
Song Lan was slightly taken aback. His eyes, which had been clouded with gloom when he looked at Xue Yang, suddenly became helpless. He looked at Xiao Xingchen's eyes, which had now been restored by Xiao Niangui, and said in a low voice:
"No, the fault is not yours..."
He paused for a moment.
"Also, I'm sorry."
Wei Wuxian was inexplicably concerned about those scars, but he couldn't ask directly, so he held back and asked, "What happened to Daoist Xiao Xingchen afterward?"
When Xiao Xingchen left his master and the mountain, he swore never to return. He valued his promises very much, but Song Lan had gone blind and was seriously injured, so he broke his vow and carried Song Lan back to Baoshan Sanren's place to beg his master to heal his friend.
Out of consideration for their master-disciple relationship, Baoshan Sanren granted his request. Xiao Xingchen then descended the mountain and left, disappearing without a trace.
A year later, Song Lan also emerged from seclusion.
To the astonishment of the world, he even regained his sight in the eyes that had been completely blind.
In reality, it wasn't that Baoshan Sanren's medical skills were superb, but rather that Xiao Xingchen gouged out his own eyes... and returned them to Song Lan, who had suffered because of him.
Originally intending to avenge himself on Xue Yang, Jin Guangyao found himself in a period of great upheaval in the immortal sects. Jin Guangshan had passed away, and Jin Guangyao had taken over the Lanling Jin Clan, being appointed as the Immortal Supervisor. To demonstrate the new leadership, he immediately purged Xue Yang upon assuming power, and the matter of restoring the Yin Tiger Seal was never mentioned again. Song Lan, searching for his former friend, initially heard rumors of his whereabouts, but later lost all contact with him.
The previous leader of the Lanling Jin clan had committed such a scandal, and Jin Guangyao, in order to restore his reputation, naturally tried his best to cover it up. Therefore, he forbade any family to spread or mention it again. In addition, the Liyang Chang clan was an obscure little family, so it gradually disappeared into obscurity.
Wei Wuxian let out a soft breath, a wave of regret washing over him: "To end up like this because of something that had nothing to do with me... If Xiao Xingchen had been born a few years earlier, or if I had died a few years later, things wouldn't have turned out this way. If I were alive, how could I have ignored such a thing? How could I not have befriended such a person!"
Then he found it both funny and absurd, secretly mocking himself: "Me, care? How could I care? If I were still alive then, the massacre of the Chang family in Liyang might have been pinned on me. If this Daoist Xiao Xingchen had seen me on the road, and I had tried to strike up a conversation with him, offered him a drink, he might have given me a good beating with his whisk, haha!"
Upon hearing the last sentence, Xiao Xingchen's previously stunned expression suddenly turned helpless. He curved his lips into a smile and said:
“Nephew, I am not so… incapable of distinguishing right from wrong.”
Wei Wuxian scratched his head and chuckled sheepishly, "I was just saying it offhand, just saying it offhand, hehe..."
Good heavens, it's so embarrassing to talk badly about someone behind their back and then have it made public.
Jiang Cheng, Nie Huaisang, and the rest of the group: ...
You're only talking about people behind their backs. Don't you even know how much of our dark history has been exposed?
The key issue is that we still don't know how many more will be released.
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