Chapter 55 Fifty-Five
Chapter Summary: [Upon hearing this, Lan Xichen shook his head, leaned forward to pat his shoulder, and was about to speak when a voice outside the private room called out: "Zewu-jun, Hanguang-jun..."]
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Upon hearing this, Lan Xichen shook his head, leaned over and patted his shoulder. Just as he was about to speak, a voice came from outside the private room: "Zewu-jun, Hanguang-jun has important matters to discuss. Please go to the Underworld Chamber with Sect Leader Nie."
Lan Xichen asked, "Sizhui? You're back? Wangji is back too?"
Lan Sizhui replied respectfully, "Yes. I just returned from a night hunt this morning and didn't have time to announce myself."
Lan Xichen stood up and said, "Going to the Underworld? What's the matter? And why do you need to call Huaisang?"
Lan Sizhui said, "Hanguang-jun didn't tell me anything. He only said that he must invite you and Sect Leader Nie to come together."
Nie Huaisang also stood up, feeling uneasy. He couldn't help but take out a handkerchief from his pocket and wipe his sweat, turning his face pink. He and Lan Xichen headed towards the Underworld Chamber.
The room outside the shrine was empty, and the main door was tightly shut. Before entering, they bowed to the door as was customary, and then pushed open the two wooden doors.
As soon as the door was opened, the two people's expressions changed drastically.
A tall figure stood inside, a figure they were all extremely familiar with.
Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen both exclaimed in unison, "Big Brother?!"
Hearing this instinctive sound, everyone thought to themselves: These two have a good idea. They've already chosen their two closest brothers, how could they be wrong?
Wei Wuxian raised an eyebrow and looked at Nie Huaisang again: "Oh ho, I thought Brother Nie was a good actor, but I didn't expect him to be really flustered."
Nie Huaisang: ...How could I not be nervous when I see my elder brother? I'm nervous when I see him alive, so seeing him dead would be a double blow.
However, after the initial shock, they quickly noticed that there was nothing above the neck of the figure.
He was missing a head. However, when they first entered, the area above the shoulder blades of his body was hidden in the darkness, so it wasn't immediately noticed.
Nie Huaisang stammered, "What's going on? What's going on? How did my brother... get here? Brother Xichen, what exactly happened?"
It took Lan Xichen a while to calm himself down before he said, "Wangji, come out."
In the darkness, Lan Wangji silently stepped forward, with Wei Wuxian following behind him. The two exchanged a glance.
With his biological brother and sworn brother present, their reactions are enough to prove that this headless corpse is none other than Chifeng Zun Nie Mingjue.
Furthermore, both Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen displayed extreme shock, without a trace of fear or guilt. The fact that Nie Mingjue was torn apart by five horses should also be unrelated to them.
Everyone: Tsk, just as expected, two cunning and treacherous people.
Nie Huaisang secretly glanced at Wei Wuxian: Brother Wei still believes in me.
Then I heard the next sentence—
Unless one possesses exceptional acting skills.
Nie Huaisang: ...
It's clear that you shouldn't have any illusions about this person.
Wei Wuxian said, "Sect Leader Nie, are you sure this is really your elder brother? Why didn't you recognize his legs back in the Sword Sacrifice Hall?"
Nie Huaisang was completely bewildered. He said, "This...this must be my older brother. He raised me since I was little. He often carried me on his back. I know his back better than anyone else. How could I mistake him?...You're saying those two legs were my older brother's?! There were only two legs. How could I possibly tell anything? What exactly happened? Who cut off my older brother's legs and buried them in the wall?! And where's his head? Where's his head?!"
Wei Wuxian said, "This is exactly what we've been investigating these past few days."
Lan Xichen murmured, "I only knew you were investigating a case of dismemberment by five horses... but I didn't know... the one who was dismembered... was actually my elder brother..."
Nie Mingjue's limbs and torso had been sewn back together by Wei Wuxian. Having just undergone some treatment, he wouldn't immediately go berserk. At this moment, he simply stood quietly in the center of the chamber, his back to Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen. Lan Xichen's hands trembled slightly as he asked, "...Where's his head? Where's Big Brother's head?"
Wei Wuxian said, "We haven't found it yet. Originally, Chifeng-zun's left hand had been guiding us in the direction of the other limbs, but after we fought to this point, with only the head missing, the clue suddenly broke, and the arm stopped pointing the way."
"We now speculate that the person who dismembered the Crimson Blade Venerable must be connected to his death. This person may have been afraid that the Crimson Blade Venerable would haunt him and seek revenge after his death, so he tore his body and soul apart and scattered them in various places. The head is very likely hidden very close to this person, so that the most dangerous thing is kept under his control."
"Please consider, both sect leaders, who is most likely to be such a person?"
Lan Xichen said, "My elder brother died from a qi deviation at a grand discussion event held in Qinghe. Thousands of people witnessed it. Who else could his death be related to?"
Upon hearing this, Lan Wangji remained silent.
Wei Wuxian said, "Sect Leader Lan, you know in your heart who the most suspicious person is, but you refuse to admit it. The corpse's legs were hidden inside the wall of the Nie family's Sacrifice Hall. I believe others may not know, but Chifeng-zun's sworn brother must know what the Sacrifice Hall is."
"When we traced the tomb of the Chang family of Liyang, a person shrouded in black mist tried to snatch the torso of the Chifeng Zun from us. This person was very knowledgeable about the Lan family's swordsmanship. There are only two possibilities: one, he is a member of the Lan family and has been practicing the Gusu Lan family's swordsmanship since childhood; two, he is not a member of the Lan family, but he is very familiar with your family's swordsmanship, either because he often sparred with members of the Lan family, or because he is extremely intelligent and can remember all the moves and sword paths after seeing them."
The chamber was deathly silent.
The space was deathly silent at this moment.
As everyone watched Wei Wuxian and Lan Xichen's back-and-forth questioning and answering, they finally understood the clues and the reasons why they had suspected Jin Guangyao in the first place.
Ironically, a group of people were completely fooled by this person, and he even managed to get the position of Immortal Supervisor.
Lan Xichen looked at that passage from back then, lowered his head and smiled self-deprecatingly. He may appear gentle and refined, calm and composed in the eyes of the world, but in reality, he may not be rational enough. Faced with Wei Wuxian's logical analysis, he still couldn't believe it was true. Looking back now, he was really acting on emotion.
Jin Guangyao smiled faintly. The only person in the world he could entrust with such trust was his second brother.
Wei Wuxian said, "During the Sunshot Campaign, Lianfang-zun Jin Guangyao sneaked into the secret chamber of the Wen Clan in Qishan alone, memorized all the maps and documents, and copied the intelligence from memory and sent it back to Jinlintai. He can definitely be considered... a very smart person."
Lan Xichen immediately said, "A-Yao wouldn't do that!"
He said, “Your investigation into the dismemberment case and your encounter with the gravedigger should have all happened this month. And this month, he has been with me, talking late into the night, planning the Lanling Jin Clan’s grand forum next month. He couldn’t be in two places at once, so the gravedigger couldn’t be him.”
Lan Wangji said, "Even if we use a teleportation talisman, we still won't be able to be in two places at once?"
Lan Xichen said decisively, "This month, besides planning the meeting, we also went on several night hunts. Using teleportation talismans consumes a lot of spiritual energy and cannot be used for a period of time. However, he still performed exceptionally well during the night hunts. I can confirm that he did not use any teleportation talismans."
He doesn't need to go himself, but he can assign someone else to fight for the body, while simultaneously dragging Lan Xichen into it to create an alibi for himself. Or perhaps Lan Xichen is lying, protecting Jin Guangyao. Or even more terrifyingly, he's protecting both of them.
Nie Huaisang tucked the handkerchief into his pocket and said, "Um...the one you've been talking about just now, is it Third Brother?"
Jin Guangyao was Nie Mingjue's sworn brother, the third brother, hence Nie Huaisang called him Third Brother. He said, "Are you doubting Third Brother? Doubting that Third Brother dismembered my eldest brother? And even suspecting that he killed my eldest brother? That... is unlikely. Third Brother respected my eldest brother the most. Back when he was still under the Nie family's command, my brother greatly admired him. When my eldest brother was buried, he cried so bitterly..."
After Nie Mingjue's death, if it weren't for the support of his two sworn brothers, the Qinghe Nie Clan would likely be even more hopeless than it is now. Jin Guangyao had always taken good care of Nie Huaisang, so it's not hard to understand why Nie Huaisang spoke up for him. To be honest, even Wei Wuxian himself didn't have a bad impression of Jin Guangyao. Perhaps because of his background, Jin Guangyao was very humble and approachable, the kind of person who wouldn't offend anyone and whose company made everyone feel comfortable and at ease.
Lan Xichen sighed, "I understand. For various reasons, many people have misunderstood him... but A-Yao is not that kind of person."
Inside the shrine chamber, everyone fell silent for a moment.
Upon hearing the word "reason," Lan Xichen subconsciously looked at Jin Guangyao.
"Ah Yao, you..."
Jin Guangyao shook his head slightly: "It's alright. Having gone through life and death once, I no longer care about these things."
Then he looked up and stared directly at Tianying, at the thorn in his heart that had been there for so many years.
"There are some reasons," everyone knows, but no one will say them out loud.
The son of a prostitute, a thief of martial arts skills.
Nie Mingjue was very familiar with these two words; he had once used them to describe Jin Guangyao when he spoke without thinking.
Although he was easily angered, impulsive, and extreme, he was by no means a person who did not understand reason. If he calmed down and thought about it carefully, he would realize that this prejudice had always existed from the beginning and could not be completely erased no matter how much Jin Guangyao paid.
During Nie Mingjue's lifetime, the Qinghe Nie Clan, under his leadership, was at its zenith, its power rivaling that of the Lanling Jin Clan. Nie Mingjue's death greatly contributed to the Lanling Jin Clan's rise to power among the Hundred Families and Jin Guangyao's ascension to the position of Immortal Supervisor.
He died in public, having gone mad and gone insane.
It seems like an unfortunate and irreparable tragedy, but how could the truth really be so simple?
Wei Wuxian said, "Guessing is just guessing. So I think, how about this?"
"Isn't the Lanling Jin Clan going to hold another intellectual discussion next month? I have a plan."
After leaving the chamber, Wei Wuxian said to Lan Wangji, "Your brother and Jin Guangyao are really close. He won't tell Jin Guangyao what we were saying in the chamber, will he?"
Lan Wangji shook his head: "He wouldn't."
No matter how good their relationship, he is still a member of the Gusu Lan Clan and has his own principles.
Lan Xichen was still lost in his own thoughts when he heard Wei Wuxian's words, and three black lines immediately appeared on his forehead.
...So, that's all I am in Wuxian's heart?
The corpse's limbs were recovered, the resentment was temporarily suppressed, and most of the curse marks on Wei Wuxian's legs had faded. Lan Qiren and the other cultivators who suffered backlash during the initial soul-summoning in the Underworld should also be waking up soon. Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji went to visit him. Wei Wuxian was determined not to visit this old fogey, and he wandered around Cloud Recesses again.
After killing half a day, Wei Wuxian went to the lawn to find his flowery donkey. Little Apple was surrounded by dozens of fluffy white tufts of fur. This time, it coexisted peacefully with them, not barking or making a fuss, but simply burying its head in eating grass, diligently chewing its cheeks.
Wei Wuxian thought to himself, "With so many rabbits, I wonder if the two male rabbits I gave to Lan Zhan back then are still around? They're definitely gone. If they're still alive, they're probably about to become spirits."
Thinking this to himself, he buried his head in the rabbits, searching for someone he recognized. However, the rabbits seemed to dislike him intensely; as soon as he approached, they scattered, turning their backs towards him and hopping forward. The more they ran, the more Wei Wuxian wanted to catch them. He chased after two rabbits, and the Lan family members passing by gave him reproachful looks, some clearly displeased. Wei Wuxian had no choice but to slow down and chase after them at a leisurely pace.
As he chased after them, he came to a patch of orchids and saw a blue stone. He thought to himself, "Here we go again!"
Everyone: ...
This guy is really incapable of doing anything productive. Right now, he's teasing the rabbits again. I'm speechless.
Lan Jingyi was very familiar with this lawn. Although he had never seen what would happen next, he had a premonition.
Next up is the part about eating dog food (a Chinese slang term for witnessing or being fed dog food).
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