Chapter_3 ( Part - Two)

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 Then he took a step forward, seized the neck of the person closest to him, and lifted him easily off the ground. Wei Wuxian knew the melody he had played earlier was too urgent, too aggressive, and it had exacerbated Wen Ning’s ferocity. He had to be neutralized, his emotions calmed, and so Wei Wuxian confidently played another tune. -------

This melody was one that came to his mind naturally, gentle and tranquil, a

significant contrast to the strange, sharp sound from before. Wen Ning froze at

the sound, then slowly turned toward where the flute was calling to him.

Wei Wuxian remained still, meeting those pupilless eyes.

A moment later, Wen Ning let go, and the cultivator fell to the ground. He dropped both his arms and walked step by step toward Wei Wuxian.

His head was hung low as he dragged his chains across the ground, appearing somewhat dejected. Wei Wuxian backed away as he played the flute, luring him over, and they walked for a while like this, retreating into the forest.

Suddenly, he smelled the refreshing scent of sandalwood.

He backed into someone and felt a sharp pain around his wrist, the sound of the flute abruptly stopping with it. Oh no, Wei Wuxian thought.

When he turned around and looked, he was met squarely with Lan Wangji’s eyes. Their

color was so light, the man’s gaze appeared frozen.

Not good. Lan Wangji had personally witnessed him play the flute to control

corpses in the past.

Lan Wangji had Wei Wuxian firmly gripped in one hand, and Wen Ning stood woodenly not six meters away from them. He looked around sluggishly, as if searching for the sound of the flute that had vanished so suddenly. In the forest nearby, firelight and voices began to grow.

Wei Wuxian’s mind spun rapidly, and he came to a decision right there: 'So what if he’s seen it before? There are millions out there who know how to play a flute, and the number of people who tried to learn the Yiling Patriarch’s way ofcontrolling corpses with flutes could form an entire sect on their own. I’ll deny everything, even if it kills me!'

He resolutely ignored the hand gripping him, raised his arms, and continued playing the flute. This time, he played even more urgently, as if urging, as if reprimanding, his breath unsteady, the notes cracking, shrieking and sharp.

He suddenly felt Lan Wangji grip harder. His wrist was going to snap from the force.

Unable to withstand the pain, Wei Wuxian’s fingers slackened, and the bamboo flute fell to the ground.

Thankfully, his orders were clear enough, and Wen Ning retreated rapidly, delving soundlessly into the hauntingly dark forest in an instant and vanishing without a trace. Wei Wuxian was afraid Lan Wangji would give chase to kill Wen Ning, so he reversed the hold and seized him back.

Yet unexpectedly, Lan Wangji’s eyes were locked firmly on him, and he’d never spared a single look to Wen Ning’s way.

The two stood there thus, clutching each other, face-to-face as they stared at one another.

It was then that Jiang Cheng arrived.

He had forced himself to wait patiently for the conclusion of the hunt at Fojiao Town, yet he hadn’t even finished a cup of tea before a sect disciple came rushing down the mountain in a panic, telling of the terrible and brutal creature on Mount Dafan. Greatly shaken, he charged back up the mountain, shouting:

“A-LING!”

Jin Ling had almost had his soul sucked away earlier, but he was safe and well

now, and all in one piece. “Jiujiu!”

Seeing that nothing had happened to Jin Ling, Jiang Cheng was greatly relieved. However, that relief soon turned into a furious reprimand: “Do you not have a signal flare on you?! Don’t you know to set one off when you run into those creatures?! What are you pretending to be so strong for? Get the hell over here!”

Jin Ling was angry at not having captured the soul-eating Heavenly Maiden as well, and he yelled back, “Weren’t you the one who said I had to capture it at any cost?! That I couldn’t go back to you until I caught it?!”

Jiang Cheng really wanted to slap this stinking brat back to his mother’s womb. But he had indeed said those things, and he couldn’t possibly eat his own words. He could only turn to the cultivators who had collapsed all over the ground and demand of them mockingly:

“So what was it, exactly, that has pulverized you all into such an honorable

state?”

Among the cultivators dressed in a myriad of colors were a number of disciples from the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng in disguise, secretly assisting Jin Ling under Jiang Cheng’s orders in the event he couldn’t win this challenge. Truly, as the elder, he had gone through great pains regarding this outing.

One of the cultivators was still in a state of shock. “Sect…Sect Leader, it…it was Wen Ning…”

Jiang Cheng thought he might’ve heard wrong. “What did you say?”

“Wen Ning’s back!” that man said.

In that split second, a mixture of shock, hatred, fury, and disbelief all assailed

Jiang Cheng’s face.

It took a while before he replied, coldly: “That creature was already reduced to ashes as a warning to all. How could he come back?”

“It really was Wen Ning!” the sect disciple exclaimed. “There was definitely no mistake! I definitely wasn’t mistaken…”

He suddenly pointed over.

“…He was the one who summoned him!”

Wei Wuxian was still at a standstill with Lan Wangji, but in an instant, he became the focus of attention of everyone present. Jiang Cheng’s lightning-cold eyes also slowly gazed in his direction.

A moment later, Jiang Cheng’s lips pulled into a twisted smile. His left hand subconsciously began stroking that ring once more.

He said softly, “Excellent. Back, are you?”

He let go of his left hand, and a long whip dangled from it.The whip was extremely thin. Just as the name Zidian implied, it was a long purple current of lightning, crackling like the dark thunder that crawled through stormy skies. He firmly gripped one end in his hand. When he brandished it, it

was as if he had struck out with an incomparably swift thunderbolt!

Wei Wuxian hadn’t yet made a move, but Lan Wangji had already taken out his guqin. Steadfast as he plucked the string, like a rock in a river rousing ripples, the sound undulated in the air. It clashed against the purple lightning, canceling the attack.

All previous considerations Jiang Cheng had had of “not recklessly engaging in a fight” and “not making enemies of the Lan” went out the window.

That night, in the skies above Mount Dafan’s forests, there were at times bursts of purple light. At other times, it was as bright as day. There were at times the crashes of thunder, and at times the long wails of the guqin. The rest of the cultivators quickly retreated to a safe distance to watch from afar, scared

witless but unable to move their eyes away. After all, it was rare to have the

chance to see two distinguished cultivation leaders from prominent clans clash in combat, and they couldn’t help but hope the fight turned even more aggressive, more intense. There was a certain current of unspeakable anticipation as they hoped the Lan and Jiang clans really would fall out.

Things would be more interesting then. And, over on the other side, Wei Wuxian found

his chance and bolted.

Everyone was astonished. Hadn’t the whip been missing him because Lan Wangji had been blocking it for him? Was he not seeking his own death by running off now?!

Sure enough, it was as if Jiang Cheng had grown eyes on his back the moment

he saw Wei Wuxian break out of Lan Wangji’s area of protection. There was no

way he’d miss such a good opportunity. He raised the whip and swung, and the purple lightning swam forth like a vicious dragon, striking him right in the heart of his back!

Wei Wuxian was almost sent flying by the whip’s impact, but fortunately, the spotted donkey blocked him before he crashed directly into a tree. However,

when the strike hit, both Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng stopped in their tracks

dumbfounded.

Wei Wuxian rubbed at the small of his back and crawled to his feet with the support of the donkey, then hid behind it while he yelled.

“Wow! Must be nice, coming from such a powerful clan, eh? Beating whoever you want! Tsk, tsk, tsk!”

Lan Wangji commented, “…”

Jiang Cheng also commented, “…”

Shocked and outraged, Jiang Cheng commented further: “What’s going on?!”

Zidian held a strange power: if used against an individual who was possessed, the body and the interloping soul would be separated, and said soul would be cast out of the flesh by the purple lightning without exception. However, this man still behaved and moved as normal after being whipped, lively and well.

There was no other explanation aside from the conclusion that he was not possessed.

Wei Wuxian, however, thought: Duh. Of course Zidian can’t whip my soul out.

I’m not possessed; I was offered a body. Forcibly offered a body!

Jiang Cheng appeared shocked and confused, and was about to whip him again when Lan Jingyi protested-

“Sect Leader Jiang, isn’t that enough? That’s Zidian you’re using!”

There was no such thing as an initial blunder that required a second attempt

for a spiritual device on the level of Zidian. If a soul wasn’t whipped out, then it was not whipped out. If the man wasn’t possessed, then he was not possessed.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t live up to its name. That shout forced Jiang Cheng, who

cherished his reputation, to cease his assault.

But if that wasn’t Wei Wuxian, who else could summon Wen Ning?

Jiang Cheng couldn’t accept it, no matter how he thought about it, and he pointed at Wei Wuxian with a dark face.

“Who exactly are you?!”

Just then, a nosy onlooker finally interrupted. He cleared his throat.

“Sect Leader Jiang, you might not be aware of this because you don’t pay attention to such matters, but this Mo Xuanyu is that Jin Clan of Lanling’s…ahem, he is a former sect disciple of the Jin Clan. But because his spiritual power was weak and he wasn’t serious in his training, in addition to that…harassment of his peers, he was kicked out of the Jin Clan of Lanling. There was also talk that he’d gone crazy? In my opinion, he was probably indignant at having failed in

cultivating the orthodox path, and so he deviated. He might not be…possessed by the Yiling Patriarch.”

“‘That harassment’? What harassment?” Jiang Cheng demanded.

“That…that kind of harassment, you know…”

Someone couldn’t hold back and said, “A cut-sleeve!”

Jiang Cheng’s brows twitched. The look he gave Wei Wuxian was even more disgusted now. There was more to it, but no one dared say so in front of Jiang Cheng’s face.

While his reputation wasn’t great, it had to be admitted that before the Yiling Patriarch Wei Wuxian had defected from the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng, he had been well known to be a handsome man and a sophisticated gentleman well versed in the Six Arts. He had been ranked fourth in looks and character among the young masters of the prominent clans. “Charming and cheerfully

handsome,” the people had called him—and this hot-tempered Sect Leader

Jiang had happened to be ranked fifth, defeated by one rank, so no one dared

raise the subject with him. Wei Ying was frivolous and a flirt, and he’d loved

ambiguously gallivanting about with beautiful women. Who knew how many lady cultivators had fallen victim to his rotten charms? And yet there was never any word of him liking men. Even if he were to possess another in order to avenge himself…based on Wei Ying’s taste, he would never pick a gay, donkey-riding lunatic with his face painted like a hanged ghost!

Someone else grumbled, “They’re not alike, no matter how you look at them…and that flute was played so awfully…he can’t even learn that right; it’s nothing but crude imitation.”

Upon the battlefield back during the Sunshot Campaign, the sound of Yiling

Patriarch’s flute had pierced through the lasting night, and his ghost soldiers and ghost generals had been like an invincible army of millions, cutting down all who stood in their way. That flute was said to be like divine music, so how could it be compared to the sad moan horribly played by the abandoned son of the Jin Clan? Even if Wei Wuxian was an awful character, that wasn’t how comparisons should be drawn. It was simply too insulting.

Wei Wuxian felt a little woeful. …Why don’t you try not practicing for a dozen

years, then make a crappy flute from some chopped sticks and play me a tune?

I’ll kneel if you can play it well!

Jiang Cheng had determined this man to be Wei Wuxian earlier, and the cold blood in his veins boiled. But now, the Zidian in his hand was clearly telling him that no, it wasn’t him. Zidian would never lie to him, nor would it ever make mistakes. He quickly calmed down to contemplate. This wasn’t a big deal. He would find an excuse to take the man back with him, then use every means possible to beat a confession out of him. Something would be spilled—there was no fear regarding that. He refused to believe the man would give nothing away. In any event, it wasn’t like he hadn’t done similar things before.

Having come to this conclusion, he gave a hand signal. The disciples understood and approached in a circle. Wei Wuxian quickly led his donkey and hopped behind Lan Wangji’s back, clutching his heart and gasping.

“Ah, what are they gonna do to me?!”

Lan Wangji cast him a glance, tolerant of his incredibly rude, noisy, and exaggerated antics.

Jiang Cheng saw he had no intention of moving aside and said, “Lan-er-gongzi,

are you trying to make things difficult for me on purpose?”

Everyone in the cultivation world knew that this young clan leader of the Jiang

family had developed a near-crazy obsession with taking precautions against Wei Wuxian—and that he would rather catch the wrong person than let anyone go. Anyone that was even remotely suspected of being possessed by Wei Wuxian would be taken back to the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng to undergo brutal torture. If he elected to apprehend someone and bring them back, they would be certain to lose half their life.

Lan Sizhui spoke up. “Sect Leader Jiang, the truth is before us. Mo-gongzi isnot possessed, so why must you trouble an insignificant individual?”

Jiang Cheng said coldly, “Then I wonder why Lan-er-gongzi has been so determined to shield this insignificant individual since earlier?”

Wei Wuxian suddenly snorted and chuckled.

“Hey, Sect Leader Jiang,” he said. “Um, it’s troublesome that you keep clinging

to me like this.”

Jiang Cheng’s brow twitched, instinctively sensing this person wasn’t about to

say anything pleasant.

Wei Wuxian continued, “Your kindness is too much, thank you. But you’re also overthinking things. Even if I like men, I don’t like all men, and I definitely don’t just go home with any man who waves at me. I’m not interested in your type.”

Wei Wuxian was trying to disgust him on purpose. Jiang Cheng hated losing.

No matter how nonsensical the competition, if someone were to say he wasn’t as good as so-and-so, he’d be so angry that he’d stop eating and drinking until he’d thought of a way to win against them. Sure enough, Jiang Cheng’s face

darkened.

“Oh? Then please enlighten me, what is your type?”

“What’s my type?” Wei Wuxian replied. “Mmm, I quite like Hanguang-jun’s type.”

Lan Wangji, on the other hand, could never tolerate such frivolous and senseless jokes. Once he grew disgusted, he would definitely draw the line and keep his distance on his own. Disgusting both of them would be like killing two birds with one stone!

Yet unexpectedly, when Lan Wangji heard him, he turned around.

“As you say,” he said expressionlessly.

“Hmm?” Wei Wuxian said.

Lan Wangji looked back. Without breaching etiquette, but allowing no room for discussion, he stated:

“I am taking this person back to the Lan Clan.”

Wei Wuxian was briefly speechless.

“…Huh?”.

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.Alright End of Chapter third's Part 2~

Now From next chapter, You all are gonna served well,

Thanks for your patience Till here~>

To be continued~

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