Chapter 4 : Aggression
Part 2
Wei WuXian’s first thought was that there was something wrong with the flag formation the boy had made.
His invention needed to be used with extreme caution, or disaster could ensue. This is why he checked for any errors in the drawn motif.
As several pairs of large hands came to drag him outside, Wei WuXian straightened his body and let them do so without difficulty, so he wouldn’t have to walk alone. The East Hall was bustling with people, almost more crowded than when the villagers of Mo Village gathered here. All the servants and relatives were present. Some were still in their underwear and hadn’t had time to comb their hair, but everyone looked terrified. Madam Mo collapsed in her chair, as if she had just woken up from a faint. Tear streaks could be seen on her cheeks, and tears still lingered in her eyes. But, as Wei WuXian was dragged inside, her sorrowful gaze turned into one of hatred.
A human-shaped object lay on the ground, its body covered by a white cloth, with only its head visible. Lan SiZhui and the other boys wore heavy expressions, bending down to inspect the situation and speaking softly. Their conversation reached Wei WuXian’s ears.
“… Less than three minutes have passed since the body was found?”
“After subduing the walking corpse, we rushed out of the West Courtyard to the East Courtyard, and found the corpse in the hallway.”
The human-shaped thing was Mo ZiYuan. Wei WuXian glanced at it briefly, and couldn’t help but look again.
The corpse looked like Mo ZiYuan in some ways, but unlike him in others. Although the features were clearly those of his petty cousin, he had deeply sunken cheekbones, bulging eyes, and wrinkled skin. Compared to the young Mo ZiYuan before this, it felt like he had aged twenty years. It was as if his flesh and blood had been sucked out of his body, turning him into a skeleton with only a thin layer of skin on the outside. If, before this, Mo ZiYuan had been merely ugly, now, his corpse was old and ugly.
As Wei WuXian was observing the corpse, Madam Mo suddenly rushed towards him, a gleaming dagger in her hand. Light on his feet, Lan SiZhui swiftly knocked the dagger away. Before he could speak, Madam Mo screamed at him, “My son died tragically, so I was just seeking revenge! What made you stop me?”
Wei WuXian hid behind Lan SiZhui’s back again, and spoke while crouching, “How is the tragedy of your child’s death any of my business?”
During the day, Lan SiZhui saw Wei WuXian chatting in the East Hall, and afterwards, he also heard exaggerated rumors from others. He felt very sympathetic to the untrue, and couldn’t help but be impartial, “Madam Mo, judging from your son’s condition, his flesh and essence have been pulled out of him, which means that he was killed by the evil being, not him.”
Madam Mo’s head shot up, “You don’t know anything! That madman’s father is a cultivator. He must have learned many demonic spells from him!”
Lan SiZhui turned to look at the disheveled Wei WuXian, and spoke again, “Uhm, Madam, there is no evidence, so…”
“The evidence is with my son!” Madam Mo pointed to the corpse on the ground, “Look for yourself! A-Yuan’s corpse already told me who killed him!”
Since there was no need for anyone else to do it, Wei WuXian lifted the white cloth from his head, from top to toe. There was something missing from Mo ZiYuan’s corpse.
His left arm, which had been severed below the shoulder, was gone!
Madam Mo spoke, “Did you see this? Everyone here heard what that madman said, right? He said that, if A-Yuan touches his things again, he will cut off his hand!”
After an emotional outburst, she covered her face and sobbed, “… My pitiful A-Yuan… Even though he didn’t do anything to her at all, he was not only framed, but also killed as well… That madman has lost his mind…”
Lost his mind!
It had been years since he last heard that expression used to describe him, so it was very friendly. Wei WuXian pointed at himself, but no words came to him. He didn’t know if he was sick or if it was Madam Mo.
When he was young, he talked a lot about exterminating entire families and clans, killing millions, creating rivers of blood, and other cruel acts. But, most of the time, those words were empty. If he could actually do the things he said, he would have long since dominated the cultivation world. Madam Mo’s true intention wasn’t to take revenge on him, but to find someone to vent her hatred on.
Wu WuXian didn’t want to be bothered by it. He thought for a moment, then reached into Mo ZiYuan’s hand. He rummaged around for a moment and pulled something out, opening it in front of him. Surprisingly, it was the Phantom Attraction Flag.
Instantly, he realized what was happening, and uttered breathlessly, he had it coming!
When Lan SiZhui and the others saw what had been taken from Mo ZiYuan’s arms, they also understood the situation. Linking this to the farce that had happened today, the cause was easy to guess. During the day, Mo ZiYuan had lost face because of Mo XuanYu’s crazy behavior and hated him, still wanting to see him. However, Mo XuanYu had been wandering outside for a long time, so Mo ZiYuan planned to sneak up on him at night, when he was about to return.
When night fell, he quietly went outside, and passing by the West Courtyard, he saw the Phantom Attraction Flag on the wall. Although he was repeatedly told not to go outside or near the West Courtyard at night, and especially to stay away from this black flag, Mo ZiYuan thought that he was told to do so because they were afraid of people stealing the precious weapon.
He didn’t know the dangerous effects of this Phantom Attraction Flag, or that if he held it, he would become a living target. He was addicted to stealing his cousin’s talismans and magic tools, and he would always be itching to get his hands on strange items like this, not giving up until he got his hands on them. Therefore, when the flag’s owner subdued a walking corpse in the West Courtyard, he secretly took it.
The flag formation used six flags, five of which were set in the West Courtyard, with the Lan family’s young man as bait. However, they all carried countless magical tools, and although Mo ZiYuan only took one flag, he had no means of self-protection. It was common sense to pick on the weak, so evil beings would naturally be attracted to him. If there were only walking corpses, then it wouldn’t matter. Even if he were bitten, he wouldn’t die immediately and could still be saved. Unfortunately, the Phantom Attraction Flag had accidentally attracted something even worse than walking corpses. What was unknown was what killed Mo ZiYuan and grabbed his arm!
Wei WuXian raised his wrist. Sure enough, one of the wounds on his right hand had healed. It seemed he’d struck lucky—the sacrificial contract had been deemed to be his act, with Mo ZiYuan’s death being his.
Madam Mo was well aware of her son’s weakness, but she refused to admit that Mo ZiYuan had caused his own death. In a fit of impatience and anger, she grabbed a teacup and threw it at Wei WuXian’s head, “If you hadn’t silenced him in front of so many people yesterday, would he have come out in the middle of the night? It’s all your fault, you bitch!”
Wei WuXian saw him coming and dodged to the side. Madam Mo turned to Lan SiZhui and screeched, “And you! You’re a bunch of idiots! You cultivate and ward off evil spirits, but you can’t even protect him! A-Yuan is still just a child*!”
*The actual word used here means “from the age of ten to nineteen”, however, even though they say “in their twenties”, people don’t say “in their teens”, so it is replaced by “Children” instead.
The boys were still young. They hadn’t been out much and were too inexperienced to detect anything amiss in the area, so they felt a sense of shame for not detecting such a formidable evil creature. However, after Madam Mo’s unreasonable scolding, they all looked blue in the face. After all, they had grown up in prominent families, so no one would dare treat them like this. The GusuLan Clan was extremely strict with its disciples, forbidding violence against the defenseless, and even disrespect was unacceptable. Therefore, even if they felt displeased, they had to keep it all under a dark expression.
However, Wei WuXian couldn’t stand it any longer, and thought, It’s been so many years, but the Lan clan’s values remain the same. What’s the point of their so-called “restraint”? Watch me do this the right way!
He spat loudly and said, “Who do you think you are? Do you really see them as your servants? They traveled far and wide to come here and exorcise evil spirits for you without taking a single cent. Do they owe you anything? How old is your son? He’s at least seventeen, and how is he still a ‘child’? How young does a child have to be that he doesn’t understand basic human language? Did they or didn’t they repeatedly instruct him not to touch anything in the formation and not to approach the West Courtyard? Your son sneaked out at night alone. Is this my fault? Or is it his fault?”
Lan JingYi and the others let out a breath, their faces no longer dark. Madam Mo was so sad and angry, and all she could think about was the word “die.” Not her own death so she could be with her child, but the death of everyone in this world, especially the one in front of her now.
She had a habit of ordering her husband to do everything, so she knocked on his door, “Call everyone! Call everyone inside!”
However, her husband was unconscious. Perhaps traumatized by the death of their only child, he pushed her away. This startled Madam Mo, and she fell to the ground.
In the past, Madam Mo didn’t even need to push him. If she just raised her voice, he would immediately obey her. How could she dare to fight back today?
The maids were all terrified by her expression. A-Ding helped her up while trembling. Madam Mo clutched her chest and spoke in a trembling voice, “You… You… You, get out of here too!”
Her husband didn’t seem to hear anything. A-Ding paid little attention to A-Tong, and A-Tong hurriedly helped her master out. The East Hall was in chaos. When Wei WuXian saw that the family had finally quieted down, he intended to examine the corpse again. However, before he could take another look, a high-pitched scream pierced the air. It was from the courtyard.
The people in the hall all rushed out. In the East Courtyard, there were two twitching bodies. The first belonged to A-Tong, still alive, collapsed on the ground. The other fallen corpse was wrinkled and withered, as if its flesh and blood had been drained dry. Its left arm was missing, but no blood came from the wound. The condition of its corpse was the same as Mo ZiYuan’s.
Madam Mo threw away A-Ding’s hand that had been holding her a second ago, but when she saw the corpse on the ground, her eyes widened, and she finally lost the energy to make a fuss anymore. As she fainted, Wei WuXian happened to be beside her, and gave her a hand, leading her to A-Ding, who came running over. She looked to her right to see that another cut was missing as well.
It was only a few seconds before they had crossed the threshold of the hall, not even past the East Courtyard, when they saw Madam Mo’s husband die in a disturbing manner. Lan SiZhui, Lan JingYi, and the others also turned pale in the face. Lan SiZhui was the first to calm down and asked A-Tong, who was lying on the ground, “Did you see what that was?”
A-Tong was nearly scared to death, unable to open his mouth. Even after a few moments of questioning, A-Tong still couldn’t answer, and only shook his head repeatedly. Lan SiZhui was burning with anxiety. He asked another disciple to carry him back inside, and turned to Lan JingYi, “Did you send a signal?”
Lan JingYi replied, “I did, but if there are no seniors in this area to help us, it will take at least an hour for our people to get here. What should we do now? We don’t even know what it is.”
Of course, there was no way they could leave. If a clan’s disciples only cared about their own safety when facing an evil spirit, then not only would they bring shame upon the clan, they would also be ashamed to face others. The terrified people of the Mo family also couldn’t leave, as the evil spirit was likely among them, so there was nothing to be gained from leaving. Lan SiZhui gritted his teeth, “Wait here for reinforcements!”
Now that the signal for help had been sent, other cultivators would arrive to assist them shortly. To prevent things from getting out of hand, Wei WuXian had to withdraw and distance himself from the situation. If the people who arrived were familiar with him or had previously fought with him, it would be hard to say what would happen next.
However, with the curse, he couldn’t leave Mo Village anytime soon. Furthermore, the creature attracted here had already taken the lives of two people in a short time, which meant it must be extremely cruel. If Wei WuXian left now, when the servants arrived, the streets of Mo Village would be littered with corpses of those with missing left arms, including those of several disciples related to the GusuLan Clan.
After pondering for a moment, Wei WuXian told himself, finish it quickly.