Chapter 34
Chapter Summary: [The boys immediately stood frozen in place, carried by their companions. One boy, hoisted onto his fellow disciple's back, muttered, "Floating..."]
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The boys immediately stood frozen in place, and their companions carried them on their backs. One boy, carried on his fellow disciple's back, muttered, "That walking corpse that spewed out corpse poison powder just now, it really could breathe."
The boy carrying him complained breathlessly, "I told you, if it can breathe, it's a living person!"
Lan Sizhui asked, "Young Master Mo, we've memorized it, where are we going?"
Lan Sizhui is the most obedient, the most well-behaved, and the least troublesome. Wei Wuxian said, "We definitely can't leave the city for the time being. Go knock on the door."
Jin Ling asked, "Why are you knocking?"
Wei Wuxian asked in surprise, "Besides houses, where else are there doors?"
Jin Ling said, "You want us to go into these houses? The outside is already so dangerous, who knows what else is hiding inside, watching us?"
As soon as he said this, everyone immediately felt that there were indeed many eyes hiding behind the thick fog and houses, watching their every move and word, which made them feel terrified.
Wei Wuxian said, "That's right, it's hard to say whether it's more dangerous outside or inside. But since it's already like this outside, it can't get much worse inside. Let's go, we need to detoxify ourselves."
The group had no choice but to follow Wei Wuxian's instructions. Each person held onto the sword sheath of the person in front of them to prevent them from getting separated in the thick fog, and they went from house to house, banging on doors. Jin Ling knocked hard for a long time but heard no response from inside the house. He said, "It seems like no one is in this house. Let's go in."
Wei Wuxian's voice drifted over from afar: "Who said you could go in if no one was there? Keep knocking. You need to go into a house where someone is."
Jin Ling said, "You still need to find someone?"
Wei Wuxian said, "Yes. Knock properly. You knocked too hard just now, which was very impolite."
Jin Ling was so angry that she almost kicked the wooden door down, but in the end she just... stomped her foot hard on the ground.
Every house along the long street had its doors tightly shut, remaining unmoved no matter how much he knocked. Jin Ling grew increasingly irritated with each knock, but he lessened the force of his knocking. Lan Sizhui, however, remained calm, knocking on the thirteenth shop before repeating the same question he had asked countless times: "Excuse me, is anyone home?"
Jin Zixuan looked at his own son, then at Lan Sizhui.
It wasn't that he disliked his own child, but compared to others, his son seemed a bit... stupid.
Wei Wuxian stroked his chin, watching the two juniors running all over the place because of his antics, and laughed heartily: "As expected, Sizhui is still the most obedient one."
Upon hearing this, Jin Ling raised her eyebrows: "I should have made you knock on the door yourself. All you do is order us around."
Wei Wuxian: "What do you know? This is to increase your night-hunting experience and courage."
courage.
The group of younger members simultaneously recalled how they had trained their courage back then, and glancing at the now pretty and charming Ah-Ching, they all shuddered.
Suddenly, the door panel moved slightly.
A thin black slit was opened.
It was dark inside the room, and I couldn't see what was inside or behind the crack in the door. The person who opened the door didn't say anything.
The boys who were standing nearby involuntarily took a small step back.
Lan Sizhui composed himself and asked, "Excuse me, are you the shop owner?"
After a long pause, a hoarse and strange voice leaked from the crack in the door: "Yes."
Wei Wuxian walked over, patted Lan Sizhui on the shoulder, and told him to step back. He said, "Shopkeeper, we came to this place, but the fog was too thick, and we lost our way. We've been walking for a long time and are a bit tired. I wonder if we could borrow your shop to rest for a while?"
The strange voice said, "This shop is not for people to rest."
Wei Wuxian seemed completely oblivious to anything amiss, and said calmly, "It's rare that there are still people in any other shops. Are the shop owners really unwilling to do us a favor? We will pay them."
After a while, the door was opened slightly. Although the furnishings inside were still not clearly visible, the person behind the door could be seen.
Behind the door stood an old woman with gray hair and an expressionless face.
Although the old lady was hunched over and looked very old at first glance, she actually didn't have many wrinkles and age spots, and could easily be mistaken for an older woman.
She opened the door and stepped aside, seemingly willing to let them in. Jin Ling was greatly surprised and whispered, "She actually agreed to let them in?"
Wei Wuxian also whispered, "Of course, I had one foot stuck in the door crack, so she couldn't close it. If she didn't let me in, I would have just kicked the door down."
Jin Ling: "..."
Everyone: ...
Just moments ago, the shop's eerie atmosphere was a bit creepy, but in the blink of an eye, Wei Wuxian completely ruined it.
Jiang Yanli chuckled. In such a tense moment, only Wei Wuxian would dare to act like this.
Nie Huaisang gripped his fan tightly and asked softly, "Is this old woman human?"
Nie Mingjue: ...
Lan Wangji: ...
Wei Wuxian adjusted his expression and gave Nie Huaisang a sinister smile: "Of course not..."
Nie Huaisang: !!!
Everyone: ...
You knew he was timid, yet you still teased him?
This city of Yi was already eerie and sinister, and the people living here were definitely not law-abiding citizens. The old woman's behavior was so suspicious that the group of teenagers were filled with unease. Although they were extremely reluctant to go in, they had no choice but to pick up their poisoned companions who were standing stiffly and unable to move, and enter the city one by one.
The old woman stood guard coldly to the side, and as soon as they entered, she immediately closed the door. The room was instantly plunged into complete darkness once more.
Wei Wuxian asked, "Why doesn't the shopkeeper light the lamps?"
The old lady muttered, "The lamp is on the table, light it yourself."
Lan Sizhui happened to be standing next to a table, slowly groping around until he found an oil lamp, his hand covered in old ash. He pulled out a fire talisman, lit it, and just as he brought it close to the wick, he glanced up unintentionally and was instantly struck by a chill that shot from his feet to the top of his head, making his scalp tingle.
The shop's main room was packed with people, shoulder to shoulder, all staring intently at them with wide eyes!
"My God!!"
Nie Huaisang immediately jumped onto his older brother.
Nie Mingjue: ...
Wei Wuxian: ...
The younger generation: ...
Jin Zixuan instinctively reached out to block Jiang Yanli's eyes, but Jiang Yanli shook her head.
Upon closer inspection, Jin Zixuan realized that it was just a room full of paper figures, and he was immediately speechless.
It's all Nie Huaisang's fault. Why did he shout for no reason? I thought it was something eerie and terrifying.
He involuntarily let go of the oil lamp, which nearly fell to the ground. Wei Wuxian rescued it, calmly caught it on the still-burning fire talisman in his other hand, lit it, and placed it on the table, saying, "Did you make all of these, old man? Excellent craftsmanship."
Only then did everyone realize that the people standing in the room were not real people, but a large group of paper figures.
These paper figures, with heads and bodies the same size as real people, are exquisitely crafted. There are men, women, and even children. The men are all "yin warriors," tall and robust, with hair standing on end in anger. The women are all beautiful women, some with pigtails, others with cloud-like buns; even shrouded in large paper garments, their graceful figures are still visible, and the patterns on their clothes are even more exquisite than real clothing. Some are colored, with rich, vibrant colors of red and green; others are uncolored, entirely white. Each paper figure has two large patches of rouge on its cheeks, mimicking the complexion of a living person, but their eyes seem to have been left unpainted, their eye sockets white; the more intense the rouge, the more sinister and grim their appearance.
There was a table in the main room with several candles of varying lengths on it. Wei Wuxian lit one of them, and the yellow light illuminated most of the room. In addition to these paper figures, there were two large wreaths on the left and right sides of the main room, and in the corner, paper gold ingots, ghost money, and pagodas were piled up like a small mountain.
Jin Ling had already drawn his sword three feet from its sheath, but seeing it was just a shop selling funeral supplies, he subtly breathed a sigh of relief and sheathed his sword. Even when a cultivator from a powerful immortal sect passed away, they never engaged in such chaotic and eerie ceremonies. Having seen so little of this, the initial shock quickly turned into curiosity. They got goosebumps all over, finding it even more thrilling than hunting gods, demons, and monsters at night.
Even the thickest fog couldn't penetrate the house. Only now, after entering Yicheng, could they easily see each other's faces, which brought them a great sense of relief. Seeing that they were relaxed, Wei Wuxian asked the old woman, "Excuse me, may I use the kitchen?"
Nie Huaisang stood up shakily and asked in a trembling voice, "I... Brother Wei, why did you borrow the kitchen in such a gloomy and terrifying place? You're planning to eat the food here? Is it even edible?!"
The younger generation who had eaten the rice from that kitchen: ...
Wei Wuxian sighed and facepalmed: If you hadn't brought them there, would I have made them eat this food? I almost lost my image.
cough!
Jiang Cheng couldn't help but cough, his finger trembling as he pointed at Tianying: "Wei Wuxian, you actually dare to let them eat what you cooked?!"
Wei Wuxian shrugged: "What's the problem? It's just a little spicy."
Jiang Cheng, Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi, and the others all turned around in unison: Was it a little spicy?!
The old woman seemed to dislike the firelight, glaring almost fiercely at the oil lamp, and said, "The kitchen is in the back, use it yourself." With that, she silently retreated from the main room and hid in another room. The sound of her closing the door was so loud it made the group shudder. Jin Ling said, "That old hag is definitely strange! You…" Wei Wuxian said, "Alright, stop talking. I need help, who's coming with me?"
Lan Sizhui quickly said, "I'll do it."
Lan Jingyi remained standing ramrod straight and said, "Then what should I do?"
Wei Wuxian said, "Keep standing there. Don't move unless I tell you to."
Lan Sizhui followed Wei Wuxian to the back kitchen. As soon as they entered, a stench of mildew assaulted their nostrils. Lan Sizhui had never smelled such a terrible odor in his life; a wave of dizziness washed over him, but he resisted the urge to rush out. Jin Ling followed them in, and as soon as he entered, he jumped out, frantically fanning himself, shouting, "What the hell is this smell?! Why aren't you trying to find a cure?! What are you doing here?!"
Wei Wuxian said, "Hey? You've come at the right time. How did you know I was going to call you over? To help out."
Jin Ling said, "I'm not here to help! Ugh... Did someone kill someone here and forget to bury them?!"
Wei Wuxian said, "Young Miss, are you coming or not? If you are, come in and help out. If not, go back and sit down, and call someone else over."
Jin Ling snapped, "Who's the young lady? Watch your mouth!" He stormed back in, pulling up his robes. Wei Wuxian opened a box nearby, and a stench emanated from it. Inside, a pig's leg and a chicken were stale; the red meat was filled with green, and tiny white maggots were wriggling within the green flesh. Jin Ling was forced back out again. Wei Wuxian closed the box, picked it up, and handed it to him: "Throw it away. Throw it anywhere, just don't let us smell it."
Jin Ling, filled with nausea and suspicion, did as instructed, threw it away, frantically wiped his fingers with a handkerchief, and then threw the handkerchief away as well. When he returned to the kitchen, Wei Wuxian and Lan Sizhui were actually washing the kitchen with two buckets of water drawn from the well in the backyard. Jin Ling asked, "What are you doing?"
Lan Sizhui diligently wiped the stove while saying, "As you can see, wash the stove."
Jin Ling said, "Why wash the stove? It's not like we're going to cook anything."
Wei Wuxian said, "Who says otherwise? It's all about making food. You sweep away the dust and remove all those spider webs."
He spoke so naturally, so matter-of-factly, that Jin Ling, bewildered, had a duster shoved into his hand and began to do as he was told. The more he dusted, the more uneasy he felt, and he wanted to beat Wei Wuxian up. Just then, Wei Wuxian opened another box, and this time there was no stench.
The three of them worked quickly, and the kitchen was soon transformed, finally looking somewhat lively and no longer like a haunted house abandoned for many years. There was chopped firewood in the corner; they piled it under the stove, lit it with a fire talisman, and placed a large, cleaned pot on top to boil water. Wei Wuxian opened the box, poured out a pile of glutinous rice, rinsed it clean, and put it into the pot.
Jin Ling asked, "Cook porridge?"
Wei Wuxian: "Mm."
Jin Ling threw the rag. Wei Wuxian said, "Look at you, you get angry after doing some work. Look at Sizhui, he works the hardest and hasn't said a word. What's wrong with porridge?"
Jin Ling said, "Did I get angry because the porridge was bad? The porridge wasn't tasty to begin with; it was just bland and watery."
Wei Wuxian said, "Anyway, it's not for you to eat."
Jin Ling: "I've been working for so long and I still haven't gotten my share?!"
Lan Sizhui asked, "Young Master Mo, is it true that porridge can cure corpse poison?"
Wei Wuxian laughed, "It is possible, but the antidote for corpse poison isn't porridge, it's glutinous rice, a folk remedy. Usually, you apply glutinous rice to the wounds caused by scratches or bites. If you encounter this situation in the future, you can try it. Although it will hurt a lot, it's absolutely effective and works immediately. However, they weren't scratched or bitten, but rather inhaled corpse poison powder, so they can only drink a bowl of glutinous rice porridge."
After seeing Jiang Cheng and the others' reactions, everyone in the space was curious about what the porridge tasted like.
Jiang Cheng, Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi: No, you don't want to know.
Xiao Niangui, who was hiding in the shadows, saw this scene and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.
Since everyone is so eager to try it, things will be much easier later.
Lan Sizhui suddenly realized, "No wonder you insisted on going into a house, and specifically a house where people live. Only places where people live are likely to have a kitchen, and only kitchens are likely to have glutinous rice."
Jin Ling said, "Who knows how long this rice has been sitting there and if it's still edible? Besides, this kitchen hasn't been used for at least a year; it's covered in dust, and the meat is rotten. Did that old woman not need to eat for a year? She couldn't possibly be fasting; how did she survive?"
Wei Wuxian said, "Either this room has never been lived in, and she is not the owner of this shop at all. Or, she doesn't need to eat."
Lan Sizhui said in a low voice, "If someone doesn't need to eat, they're dead. But this old man is clearly breathing."
Wei Wuxian said, "By the way, I haven't asked yet, how did you all end up in Yicheng together? It's impossible for it to be such a coincidence that you just happened to run into us again, right?"
The two boys' expressions immediately turned serious. Jin Ling said, "I, the Lan family, and several others from other families, all came here chasing something. I came from Qinghe." Lan Sizhui said, "We came from Langya."
Wei Wuxian asked, "What is that?"
Jin Ling said, "I don't know. It hasn't shown itself, and I don't know what it is, what kind of person it is, or many people."
It turned out that a few days earlier, Jin Ling had tricked his uncle and let Wei Wuxian escape. He was constantly worried that Jiang Cheng would really beat him this time, so he decided to sneak away, disappear for ten days or half a day, and then reappear before Jiang Cheng after his anger subsided. He would then hand Zidian over to Jiang Cheng's trusted subordinate and leave. He traveled to a small town near Qinghe, searching for his next night-hunting location. He rested temporarily at an inn in the town, and one night, he suddenly heard a knock on the door.
He was reciting incantations and hadn't rested yet when he heard a knock on the door, so he became alert. There was no one outside, and when he asked who it was, there was no answer. He ignored it, and after a while, someone knocked on the door again.
Jin Ling climbed out of the window, circled around, and came back up from downstairs, intending to launch a surprise attack from behind to see who was causing trouble in the middle of the night. However, after quietly keeping watch for a while, he still didn't see anyone in front of his door.
He was on guard and didn't rest all night, but nothing happened. He only heard the sound of dripping water. The next morning, however, he was startled by a scream at the door. Jin Ling kicked the door open and stepped into a pool of blood. Something fell from above the door, and Jin Ling dodged backward to avoid being hit.
A black cat!
Someone had nailed a dead cat's body above his door at some point, and the dripping sound he heard in the middle of the night was the cat's blood dripping down.
Jin Ling said, "I tried several inns and several places, and it was the same everywhere. So I took the initiative to pursue them. Whenever I heard that a dead cat's corpse had mysteriously appeared somewhere, I would chase after it and make sure to find out who was behind it."
Lan Sizhui said, “We did too. Every night at midnight, a cat’s corpse would appear in all sorts of unexpected places. Sometimes it would be in the blankets, sometimes in the soup. We chased it all the way to Liyang and met Young Master Jin. We found out that we were investigating the same thing, so we worked together. Today we finally arrived in this area and asked a farmer in a village in front of a stone tablet. He pointed us to the road to Yicheng.”
Wei Wuxian asked, "A farmer?"
The younger generation passed through the village near the stone tablet later than he and Lan Wangji, and they clearly didn't see any farmers then, only a few shy farm girls feeding chickens and watching over their homes, saying their men had gone to chop wood. Was it just that the farmers returned from chopping wood when the younger generation passed by?
The more Wei Wuxian thought about it, the more solemn his expression became.
According to the account, regardless of whether the perpetrator was human or not, they did nothing else besides killing the cat. While killing the cat and disposing of its body sounds and looks horrific, it did not cause any serious actual harm.
Such things are most likely to arouse people's curiosity and desire to get to the bottom of things. Jin Ling, Lan Sizhui, and the others indeed chased after the cat's corpse.
It's almost as if they were lured here.
Moreover, they met in Liyang. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji were also traveling south to eastern Shu from Liyang.
It seemed as if they were being deliberately led to meet up with the two people on this side.
Wei Wuxian carefully organized the loose threads of his thoughts.
Everyone: !!!
What is all this nonsense? It's so complicated. Who is behind this?
Wei Wuxian raised an eyebrow at Nie Huaisang: You're not even afraid of a dead cat, so why are you afraid of a paper doll?
Nie Huaisang: ...
Even if I had someone else release the cat, I didn't release it myself.
So what if I'm scared? Is it wrong to be timid?
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