Chapter 32
Chapter Summary: [The area of eastern Sichuan is characterized by numerous river valleys, towering mountains, rugged terrain, and weak winds, resulting in many places being shrouded in fog year-round.]
The two of them...
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The area in eastern Sichuan has many river valleys, towering mountains, rugged terrain, and weak winds, so many places are shrouded in fog all year round.
The two walked straight in the direction indicated by the left hand, passing through a small village.
A few fences encircled the thatched-roof mud house. A flock of hens and chicks of various colors went in and out of the yard pecking at rice. A large rooster with bright feathers stood on the roof, shaking its comb, standing on one leg, and warily turning its neck to scan all directions.
Fortunately, no one kept dogs. These villagers probably don't even have enough meat to eat all year round, let alone extra bones to feed the dogs.
At the village's edge lies a fork in the road, branching into three different directions. Two of the paths are bare, bearing numerous footprints, indicating frequent use. The last path, however, is overgrown with weeds, a thick layer covering its surface. A square stone slab stands crookedly in the direction of this path. The slab is old and weathered, with a large crack running from top to bottom, from which withered grass sprouts.
Two large characters were carved on the stone slab, seemingly the name of the place this road led to. The lower character was barely legible as the word "city," while the upper character had many strokes and a complex form, and was cut through by the crack, with many small stones chipped away. Wei Wuxian bent down, parted the weeds, and brushed away the dust, but still couldn't make out what the character was.
Unfortunately, the direction that left arm was pointing was precisely this road.
Wei Wuxian said, "Why don't we go ask these villagers?"
Lan Wangji nodded. Wei Wuxian, of course, didn't expect him to ask. He walked with a smile toward the farm girls who were scattering rice to feed the chickens.
The women, some young and some old, tensed up at the sight of a strange young man approaching, seemingly contemplating dropping their winnowing baskets and fleeing into the house. After Wei Wuxian spoke a few words with a smile, they gradually calmed down and responded with slight shyness.
Wei Wuxian pointed at the stone tablet and asked a question. Their expressions changed instantly, and after a long hesitation, they began to speak to him haltingly, pointing and whispering. During this time, they didn't dare glance at Lan Wangji standing beside the tablet. Wei Wuxian listened attentively for a while, a slight smile playing on his lips. Finally, he seemed to change the subject, causing the farm girls to relax and awkwardly smile at him.
Lan Wangji stared intently in that direction from afar, waiting for a long time, but Wei Wuxian showed no sign of returning. He slowly lowered his head and kicked a small pebble beside his feet.
A chilling wind swept through them, and the group couldn't help but shiver. A ghost town, it really was a ghost town. Following these two meant they were destined for nothing but haunted houses and ghost towns.
Then they watched as Wei Wuxian abandoned Lan Wangji to joke around with the farm girl.
Everyone: We have a bad feeling about this...
Then everyone in the space felt their hearts pounding with the pebble under Lan Wangji's feet, rolling left and right, twisting and turning, fearing that he might impulsively rush forward and snatch Wei Wuxian away.
They turned the innocent little pebble over and over again for a while. When they looked up again, Wei Wuxian still hadn't returned. Instead, he took something out of his pocket and handed it to the peasant girl who had been talking the most.
Lan Wangji stood there dumbfounded, unable to hold back any longer. Just as he was about to take a step forward, Wei Wuxian finally strolled back leisurely with his hands behind his back.
He stood back beside Lan Wangji and said, "Hanguang-jun, you should go over there. They keep rabbits!"
Lan Wangji: ...
Everyone: ...
The joke about Lan Wangji loving rabbits is still going strong, isn't it?
Looking at Lan Wangji's dazed expression, Wei Wuxian secretly touched his chin, wondering if he had been a bit too much of a jerk.
Or is Lan Zhan just too jealous?
Lan Wangji didn't react to his teasing, and said indifferently, "What did you find out?"
Wei Wuxian said, "This road leads to Yicheng. The first character on the stone tablet is 'Yi' (义).
Lan Wangji asked, "The meaning of chivalry?"
Wei Wuxian said, "That's what I asked too. It's both right and wrong."
Lan Wangji asked, "What do you mean?"
Wei Wuxian said, "The character is indeed the same, but the meaning is wrong. It is not the meaning of chivalry, but the meaning of righteousness."
They stepped through the tangled weeds and onto the side path, leaving the stone tablet behind. Wei Wuxian continued, "These young ladies said that since ancient times, five or six out of ten people living in that city have died young, either prematurely or violently. There are many mortuaries in the city for placing corpses, and the local specialties are coffins, paper money, and other funeral offerings. Whether it's making coffins or paper figures, the craftsmanship is superb, so it got its name."
Lan Wangji didn't ask why the city's residents didn't abandon the city and leave. They all understood that if people had been rooted in a place for generations, it was very difficult to get them to leave. Only five or six out of ten people died young, which seemed bearable, and perhaps they themselves were among the other four or five out of ten. Moreover, born in such a remote and impoverished place, most of them wouldn't know where to go if they left their hometown.
Besides withered grass and scattered rocks, the road also contained barely noticeable gullies. Lan Wangji kept a close eye on Wei Wuxian's footing. Wei Wuxian said as they walked, "They said that people from this area rarely go to Yicheng, and those who are there rarely leave except to deliver goods. We've hardly seen anyone in the past few years. This road has been abandoned for years. It's indeed difficult to walk."
Looking at Lan Wangji's actions, Wei Wuxian said with a mixture of emotion and surprise, "Lan Zhan, you were actually thinking of protecting me back then, I love you so much!"
Lan Wangji: "Mm."
Nie Huaisang: ...
Lan Xichen: ...
Jiang Cheng: ...vomit
Wei Wuxian, could you be any more disgusting?!
Lan Wangji: "Anything else?"
Wei Wuxian: "Anything else?"
Lan Wangji asked, "What did you give them?"
Wei Wuxian said, "Oh. You mean that? It's rouge."
When he was in Qinghe, he bought a small box of rouge from the quack doctor who was pretending to be a Taoist priest and asked about Xinglu Ridge. He had been carrying it with him ever since. Wei Wuxian said, "You should always give someone something in return when you ask them for help. I was going to give them money, but I scared them and they didn't dare to accept it. They seemed to really like the scent of the rouge, as if they had never used such a thing before, so I gave it to them."
He paused, then said, "Hanguang-jun, why are you looking at me like that? That box of rouge isn't very good. But I'm not like I used to be, carrying around a bunch of flowers, hairpins, and jewels to give to girls all the time. I really don't have anything else to give, but something is better than nothing."
As if some unpleasant memory had been awakened, Lan Wangji's brow twitched, and he slowly turned his head away.
Everyone: ...
Wei Wuxian: ...
He quickly scratched his head, then turned and launched into a long explanation:
"Lan Zhan, that rouge is absolutely terrible. It's worlds apart from your family's sandalwood incense. Those flowers and plants back then were just picked casually. If you want some, I'll personally blend some perfume for you next time, how about that?"
Jiang Cheng almost lashed out with his whip: "You think you can mix perfumes? When I was a kid, if I lit a little perfume in the house, people would think our house was on fire. It was lucky if a few people didn't die from the smoke!"
Lan Wangji: "Mm."
Jiang Cheng: ...
Lan Er, are you really determined to go against me? You're asking for trouble.
As we continued along this difficult road, the weeds gradually thinned out, curling up and creeping back to the sides, and the road surface gradually widened. However, the fog grew thicker and thicker.
As his left arm clenched into a fist, a dilapidated city gate appeared at the end of the long road.
The corner towers on the city wall were missing tiles and paint, with one corner chipped off, making them exceptionally dilapidated and unsightly. The city walls were covered with graffiti drawn by unknown individuals. The red of the city gate had almost faded to white, and the door studs were rusted black. The two doors were ajar, as if someone had just pushed them open a crack and slipped inside.
Even before entering, one gets the feeling that this must be a haunted place where demons run rampant.
As Wei Wuxian walked along the road, he kept looking around. When he arrived at the city gate, he commented, "The feng shui is really bad."
Lan Wangji nodded slowly: "The mountains and rivers are desolate and the land is barren."
This city of righteousness is surrounded by towering mountains and cliffs on all sides. The mountains lean heavily towards the center, creating an overwhelming and threatening atmosphere, as if they might collapse at any moment. Encircled by these massive, dark, and menacing rocks in the gloomy white mist, they appear more monstrous than demons and monsters.
Just standing here makes one feel suffocated, anxious, and breathless, and gives off a strong sense of threat.
There's an age-old saying, "A place where outstanding people are found is blessed with good fortune," but the reverse is also true. Some places, due to their terrain and location, have poor feng shui, naturally shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere, making their inhabitants prone to premature death and misfortune. If generations have lived there, the misfortune is ingrained. Moreover, strange phenomena frequently occur, with events like corpses turning into ghosts or vengeful spirits appearing several times more often than in other places. Clearly, Yicheng is such a place.
These places are usually in remote locations, beyond the reach of the powerful sects and aristocratic families, who, of course, don't want to—it's too much trouble. They're even more troublesome than the Water Abyss. The Water Abyss can be driven away, but feng shui is difficult to change. Unless someone comes begging for help, the families usually turn a blind eye and pretend they don't know anything.
The two walked to the city gate, exchanged a glance, and each opened a gate.
With a creak, the overburdened bearings slowly opened the two misaligned city gates.
Before my eyes, there were no bustling cars or ferocious corpses.
There was only an overwhelming expanse of white.
A thick fog blanketed the area, several times denser than the fog outside the city. Only a straight, long street could be barely discerned ahead, devoid of any human figures. Houses stood on either side.
The two naturally took a few steps closer to each other and walked inside together.
It was still daytime, but the city was eerily silent. Not only was there no human voice, but not even the crowing of roosters or the barking of dogs could be heard.
However, since it was a location designated by that left arm, it would be strange if it weren't eerie.
They walked along the long street for a while, and the deeper they went into the city, the thicker the white fog became, as if demonic energy was spreading everywhere. At first, they could barely see ten steps ahead, but later they couldn't make out the outlines five steps away, and then it was almost pitch black. The further Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji walked, the closer they got, until they could see each other's faces only when their shoulders were touching.
A thought suddenly occurred to Wei Wuxian: "If someone takes advantage of this thick fog to sneak between us, turning two people into three, I'm afraid we might not be discovered."
Just then, he kicked something. He looked down but couldn't make out what it was. Wei Wuxian grabbed Lan Wangji's hand, urging him not to walk away alone, and bent down to examine it closely. A head with wide, angry eyes pierced through the mist and came into his view.
As soon as they entered Yicheng, Jin Zixuan placed his hand next to Jiang Yanli's head, as if afraid there might be a problem.
Sure enough, as soon as the head appeared, Jin Zixuan quickly covered Jiang Yanli's eyes.
On the other hand, the timid Nie Huaisang wasn't so lucky.
"Mommy! What is this?!"
Jiang Yanli: ...
Jin Zixuan: ...Thank goodness, my Ali wasn't scared.
Nie Mingjue: ...Can I not have this younger brother?
The head has a male face with thick eyebrows, large eyes, and two unusually prominent red patches on the cheeks.
Wei Wuxian had just kicked this head, nearly sending it flying, so he knew its weight. Something so light definitely wasn't a real head. He picked it up and squeezed it; a large patch of the man's cheek had sunk, and his blush had been smeared off.
It turned out to be a human head made of paper.
The paper head was incredibly lifelike, with exaggerated makeup but relatively delicate features. A specialty of Yicheng, these paper figures are funerary items, so the craftsmanship is naturally quite good. Among the paper figures are substitute figures, which people believe, when burned for the deceased, will allow them to suffer in hell in place of their ancestors; and there are also maidservants or beautiful women who serve their ancestors in the underworld. Of course, these are merely ways for the living to seek solace.
This paper head must have been a "yin warrior," said to protect the ancestors' spirits from having their paper money stolen or being bullied by other evil spirits. Originally, it must have had a tall, sturdy paper body, but someone pulled it off and threw it into the street.
The paper doll's hair was jet black, glossy and clinging tightly to the scalp, as if it were real hair. Wei Wuxian said, "The craftsmanship is truly excellent. Was it made from real human hair?"
Nie Huaisang breathed a sigh of relief, put down the fan covering his face, and stared blankly at his surroundings:
Aren't you all afraid?
Wei Wuxian: ...
Lan Wangji: ...
The younger generation: ...
Nie Mingjue: ...His face darkened even more.
This younger brother is for whoever wants him.
Then Lan Jingyi sneakily approached Lan Sizhui and Jin Ling and whispered:
"I've done some calculations, and I think it's almost time for us to make our appearance?"
Lan Sizhui: ...
Jin Ling: ...
Suddenly, a thin, dark figure rushed past him.
The shadow appeared extremely suddenly, brushing past him and disappearing into the thick fog in an instant. Bichen automatically unsheathed itself, chasing after the figure, then swiftly retracted and sheathed itself again.
That thing that just slid past him was moving way too fast; it was definitely not a speed a human could achieve!
Lan Wangji said, "Be careful and on guard."
Although we just brushed past each other, there's no guarantee it won't do something else next time.
Wei Wuxian asked, "Did you hear that just now?"
Lan Wangji said, "Footsteps, the sound of bamboo poles."
Indeed, in that brief moment, besides the hurried footsteps, they also heard another strange sound. A crisp, clear tapping sound, like bamboo sticks rapidly striking the ground. They didn't know why this sound was there.
Just then, footsteps sounded again from the mist ahead.
The footsteps were light, numerous, varied, and slow. It was as if many people were cautiously approaching, yet remained silent. Wei Wuxian flipped his hand, producing a talisman, and tossed it lightly forward. If anything ahead was radiating resentment, it would ignite, illuminating a patch of ground.
The visitors on the other side also noticed that someone had thrown something out and immediately retaliated, launching a sudden attack!
Several sword beams of varying colors, brimming with murderous intent, rushed towards Wei Wuxian. Bichen flew out of its sheath and circled before Wei Wuxian, repelling all the sword beams. A commotion erupted, with people falling and shouting. Lan Wangji sheathed Bichen, and Wei Wuxian exclaimed, "Jin Ling?! Sizhui?!"
Everyone: ...
Why are there these little ones everywhere?
Jin Ling's voice rang out through the white mist: "It's you again?!"
Wei Wuxian said, "I was about to ask you, 'Why is it you again?'"
Lan Sizhui tried his best to restrain himself, but his voice was full of joy: "Young Master Mo, you're here too? Does that mean Hanguang-jun is here as well?"
Upon hearing that Lan Wangji might have arrived, Jin Ling immediately fell silent, as if he had been suddenly silenced again. Lan Jingyi said, "He must be here! Was that Bichen just now?"
Wei Wuxian said, "Yes, they're here. They're right beside me. You all come here quickly."
Upon learning that the other side was a friend, not an enemy, the group of teenagers were overjoyed and swarmed over. Besides Jin Ling and a group of juniors from the Lan family, there were seven or eight other teenagers dressed in the attire of other clans, their wariness still evident; they were likely also scions of prominent cultivation sects. Wei Wuxian said, "Why are you all here? And you attacked so ruthlessly right away. Luckily, it's Hanguang-jun on my side, otherwise what if you hurt ordinary people?"
Jin Ling retorted, "There are no ordinary people here at all. There's no one in this city!"
Lan Sizhui nodded and said, "In broad daylight, the demonic fog is everywhere, and not a single shop is open."
Wei Wuxian asked, "How did you all get together? Did you come out night-hunting together?" Jin Ling, with his volatile temper and tendency to pick fights with everyone, and his past conflicts with these younger members of the Lan clan, how could they possibly have agreed to go night-hunting together? Lan Sizhui answered every question, explaining, "We were originally..."
Just then, a series of sharp, grating sounds came from the mist as bamboo poles struck the ground.
The younger generation all paled in shock: "They're here again!"
Jin Ling looked displeased: "What do you mean I don't like anyone and want to fight with everyone? You have to be capable to fight me, okay?"
Wei Wuxian: "Yes, yes, you're the best. Even when you can't beat someone, you still remember to call them a dog."
Pfft
Lan Jingyi couldn't hold back and burst out laughing.
However, the sound of the bamboo pole was indeed eerie. Although I had heard it before, it still made me feel uncomfortable, and I stopped laughing after a while.
A-Qing: ...
Xiao Xingchen glanced at A-Qing and nodded to her.
A-Qing stood up somewhat awkwardly and said to Lan Sizhui and the others, "If the sound of the bamboo poles startled you, then... well, I'm sorry anyway."
The young girl was shy. Even though she had been living in the streets for so many years, she could still joke around, but she was still a little shy about a serious apology.
The younger generation was taken aback by her apology, and were somewhat at a loss, especially Ouyang Zizhen, who had once praised A-Qing for her romantic nature. In the end, Lan Sizhui smiled slightly and indicated that it was nothing.
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