Chapter 8 Arrogance—Part Three
However, after petting him for a while, Jiang Cheng forced himself to suppress his hostility.
Although he felt displeased, as the sect leader, he needed to consider more things, which meant he couldn’t be as impulsive as Jin Ling. After the collapse of the QingheNie Sect, among the Three Great Sects, the LanlingJin Sect and the GusuLan Sect were quite close due to the personal relationship between the two leaders. By leading the YunmengJiang Sect alone, he was already isolated among the three. HanGuang-Jun, or Lan WangJi, was a fairly prestigious cultivator, while his older brother, ZeWu-Jun, or Lan XiChen, was the leader of the GusuLan Sect. The two brothers had always been on good terms. It was best for them not to argue openly with Lan WangJi.
Furthermore, Jiang Cheng’s sword, ” Sandu “, had never directly met Lan Wangji’s sword, “Bichen”, and it was uncertain at whose hands the deer would die . Although he possessed the magical ring ” Zidian “, his family heirloom, Lan Wangji’s zither, ” Wangji “, was also renowned for its prowess. What Jiang Cheng hated most was being at a disadvantage in battle. Without complete confidence in his success, he would not consider fighting Lan Wangji.
Jiang Cheng slowly withdrew his left hand, stopping stroking his ring. It seemed Lan WangJi was determined to interfere in this matter, so there was no point in continuing to play the antagonist. Jiang Cheng decided to temporarily owe him a favor, and turned to see Jin Ling still covering his mouth angrily, “HanGuang-Jun wants to punish you, so let him do it this time. It’s not easy for him to discipline a junior from another clan, either.”
His tone was sarcastic, but it was unclear who he was mocking. Lan WangJi had never struggled to win his favor with words, and appeared as if he hadn’t heard anything. Jiang Cheng turned around again, his words full of thorns, “Why are you still standing there? Waiting for prey to come and pounce on your sword? If you don’t catch the creature that hunted Dafan Mountain today, don’t come to me again!”
Jin Ling glared at Wei WuXian, but was too afraid to look at Lan WangJi, the one who had silenced him. He sheathed his sword, saluted the two seniors, and retreated with a bow in his hand. Lan SiZhui said, “Sect Leader Jiang, the GusuLan Sect will return the number of spirit binding nets that were destroyed.”
Jiang Cheng sneered, “No need.” He chose the opposite direction and walked quietly. The man who had come from the forest followed closely behind, his face grim, as he knew he would be unable to escape a scolding upon his return.
After their figures disappeared, Lan JingYi said, “How could Sect Leader Jiang act like this?” Only then did he remember the Lan Clan’s rule of not talking behind others’ backs. He gave HanGuang-Jun a meek glance and shut his mouth. Lan SiZhui smiled gently at Wei WuXian, “Young Master Mo, we meet again.”
As Wei WuXian pulled back the corners of his mouth, Lan WangJi spoke again, “Do your job.” His order was simple and clear, without any complicated vocabulary for decoration.
The juniors finally remembered why they had come to Dafan Mountain. They focused their minds and respectfully awaited further instructions. After a while, Lan WangJi spoke again, “Do what you can. Don’t force anything.”
His voice was deep and alluring. If one got too close, the edges of their hearts would tremble. The juniors replied politely, afraid to linger, and walked deeper into the forest. Wei WuXian thought that, undeniably, Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan were very different from each other. Even their advice to juniors was contradictory. While he was thinking, he suddenly saw Lan WangJi nod almost imperceptibly at him. He was quite surprised.
Since childhood, Lan WangJi had been so neat and proper that it was painful to look at. He was always serious and stern, as if he had never been this bright before. He never allowed even a grain of sand to get in his eyes, which was why he never approved of Wei WuXian pursuing a dark path. Lan SiZhui had probably told Lan WangJi about his suspicious behavior in Mo Village. Even so, he nodded, probably thanking him for helping the juniors of the Lan Sect. Without thinking, Wei WuXian immediately saluted. When he looked up again, Lan WangJi had already disappeared.
After pausing for a moment, he turned to descend the mountain.
Whatever prey haunted Dafan Mountain, he couldn’t take it. Wei WuXian could fight anyone, except Jin Ling, for it.
Why did it end up being Jin Ling?
With so many disciples in the Jin Sect, he truly hadn’t expected the person he met to be Jin Ling. If he had known, he definitely wouldn’t have mocked Jin Ling for “not having a mother to teach him.” If someone else had said the same thing to Jin Ling, he would have taught them what it meant to bring disaster upon oneself with careless words. However, the person who said it turned out to be himself.
After a moment of silence, Wei WuXian raised his hand and slapped his own face.
The slap was hard and harsh, making his right cheek sting. Suddenly, footsteps came from the bushes beside him, and Wei WuXian saw a donkey emerge from within. When he lowered his hand, the donkey actually approached on its own, unlike before. Wei WuXian tugged on the donkey’s long ears and forced a smile, “You want to save a damsel in distress, yet you want me to be the savior.”
The donkey whinnied, just as a wave of cultivators approached from the foot of the hill. After the four hundred or so spirit-binding nets were destroyed by Lan WangJi’s sword, the cultivators who had hesitated at Buddha’s Feet hurried back. Everyone here was likely Jin Ling’s opponent. Wei WuXian considered for a moment whether or not to force them back again. However, after thinking it over, he finally quietly stepped aside, allowing them to pass.
Disciples from various sects, dressed in different colored uniforms, complained as they walked, “The Jin Sect and the Jiang Sect spoil Young Master Jin too much. He’s so young, yet he’s already so arrogant and rude. If they let the LanlingJin Sect have him, who knows what kind of chaos will ensue? I don’t think we’ll even survive.”
Wei WuXian slowed his steps.
A gentle peasant woman sighed, “How could they not spoil him? He lost both his parents at such a young age.”
“Shimei, that’s not how it works. So what if both of her parents died? So many people have lost both of their parents. If everyone acted like her, what would happen?”
“I’m surprised Wei WuXian was so cruel as to hurt him. Jin Ling’s mother was Jiang Cheng’s older sister by birth—the one who raised him.”
“Jiang YanLi was truly unfortunate, raising a wolf that bit its owner’s hand. Jin ZiXuan was even worse. Just because he had something to do with Wei WuXian, he ended up like this.”
“Why does Wei WuXian have anything to do with everyone…”
“Indeed. Have you ever heard of him being close to anyone other than the mad dogs he raised? His enemies are everywhere, and he does evil to everyone. Even with HanGuang-Jun, they are like fire and water, hating each other.”
“Speaking of which, today, if it weren’t for HanGuang-Jun…”
After walking for a while, the sound of a trickling stream reached Wei WuXian’s ears.
He hadn’t heard this when he was climbing up. Wei WuXian finally realized that he had taken the wrong path down the mountain, and had instead taken another branching path.
Holding the donkey’s reins, he stood beside the flowing water. The moon loomed high in the sky. Barely any branches or leaves stood on the riverbank, white flakes reflected on the surface. In that reflection, Wei WuXian saw a face, constantly changing with the flow of the water.
She slammed her palms into the water, dissolving the silly faces. She lifted her drenched palms and wiped the powder off her face.
A handsome and graceful young man appeared in the reflection of the water. He looked pure, as if cleansed by the moonlight, with delicate eyebrows, bright eyes, and a slight upturn in his lips. However, when he lowered his head to look at himself, the water droplets hanging from his eyelashes flowed down, as if they were tears.
His face was young and unfamiliar, not the YiLing Patriarch who had turned the world upside down and killed thousands—Wei WuXian.
After observing this face a few more times, Wei WuXian wiped his face again and rubbed his eyes. He sat down on the bank of the river with a thumping sound .
It wasn’t that he couldn’t bear the harsh words. After all, when he made that decision, he fully understood the situation he was facing. From then on, he always reminded himself of the YunmengJiang Sect’s motto—do it even if it’s impossible.
However, even though he thinks his heart is like a stone, in the end he is still human, not grass or a plant that has no emotions.
The donkey seemed to know he was in a bad mood, and for the first time, it didn’t make a loud noise out of impatience. It was silent for a moment, then it turned to leave. Wei WuXian sat by the riverbank, unresponsive. He turned to look, stomping his hooves on the ground, but Wei WuXian remained unmoved. The donkey was forced to return sullenly, biting and tugging at the corner of Wei WuXian’s collar.
He could choose to leave, or he could choose not to. Seeing that the donkey had already reached the point of using its mouth, Wei WuXian decided to follow it. The donkey led him to some trees and circled around the grass. In the grass, there was a qiankun bag , with a tattered golden net hanging from it. The bag had probably fallen while a hapless cultivator was struggling to get out. Wei WuXian took the bag and opened it. There were several items inside, such as a gourd containing medicinal liquor, talismans, a miniature demon-warding mirror, and so on.
He fumbled for a moment and happened to pull out an amulet. Instantly, a ball of fire appeared in his hand.
The burning object was a darkness burning amulet, which, as the name suggests, used dark energy as fuel. The amulet would automatically burn when it came into contact with dark energy. The more energy there was, the stronger the fire. The amulet immediately ignited as soon as it was taken out, meaning that there was a spirit not far from Wei WuXian.
Seeing the light of the fire, Wei WuXian held it to detect the direction of the spirit, observing carefully. When he looked east, the fire weakened; when he looked west, it suddenly grew stronger. He took a few steps in that direction, and saw a hunched white figure appear beneath a tree.
The talisman had burned to a crisp, and ashes were falling from her fingertips. An old man sat with his back to her, muttering softly.
Wei WuXian slowly approached. The words the old man muttered became clear.
“It hurts, it hurts.”
Wei WuXian asked, “Where does it hurt?”
The old man replied, “Head. My head.”
Wei WuXian replied, “Let me see.”
He walked a few steps to the old man’s side and saw a large, blood-soaked hole in his forehead. This was a ghost, likely killed by a weapon struck to the head. He was wearing funeral robes made of fine materials and workmanship, indicating that he had been properly laid to rest and buried. This was not a soul that had disappeared from a living person.
However, ghosts like this should not appear on Dafan Mountain.
Wei WuXian couldn’t find an explanation for this absurd scenario. Feeling quite worried, he jumped onto the donkey’s back, patted it and shouted, and rode towards Jin Ling up the mountain.
Around the ancient tomb area, many cultivators wandered about, hoping for a rabbit to crash into a tree trunk . Some dared to hold a spirit-attracting flag, but only attracted a group of evil spirits crying in despair. Wei WuXian pulled on the reins, surveyed the surroundings, and asked loudly and clearly, “Excuse me, and I apologize for the disturbance, but where have the young masters of the Jin Clan and the Lan Clan gone?”
Sure enough, after washing his face, people recognized him. A cultivator replied, “They left here, to the Goddess Temple.”
Wei WuXian spoke, “Goddess Temple?”
The village clan from the past had sneaked back up the mountain and joined the group of night hunters, having heard that all the god-binding nets had been destroyed. The middle-aged man recognized his attire and the grimacing donkey, realizing that he was the madman who had saved them earlier. He felt a little awkward, and pretended nothing had happened. Nevertheless, the round-faced girl showed him the way, “Over there. That’s the sacred temple in a cave in the mountain.”
Wei WuXian asked again, “Which god was this temple built for?”
The round-faced girl said, “I, I thought it was a natural stone statue of a goddess.”
Wei WuXian nodded, “Thank you.”
After chatting, he immediately ran towards the Dewi Temple.
The lazy man’s wedding, the lightning that shattered the coffin, the fiancé eaten by wolves, the father and daughter who lost their souls, the luxurious burial attire… It felt like a string was pulled through all the beads, tying them all together into one perfect strand. No wonder the evil compass couldn’t find anything, and the spirit-attracting flag didn’t work. Everyone had underestimated the creatures of Dafan Mountain.
It’s not what they thought at all!
Translator’s Notes
Sandu : Literally this means “three kinds of poison”.
In whose hands the deer will die : This proverb means that it is impossible to determine who is stronger and who will win, if a match occurs between the two.
Zidian : Literally means “purple lightning”.
Wangji : The two Chinese characters in this zither’s name are exactly the same as those in Lan Wangji’s name. This term is a Taoist phrase meaning “to cast aside a deceitful heart.” It usually refers to finding joy in tranquility, forgetting material things, and being at peace with the world. This name certainly reflects Wangji’s personality (until his uke starts teasing him).
Lan Zhan : This is Lan WangJi’s birth name. The surname “Lan” means blue, and “Zhan” is an adjective often used to describe the blue sky. This also implies that, by calling him by his birth name, Wei WuXian used to be very close to him.
Qiankun Bag : Qiankun means “Heaven and Earth.” A Qiankun bag is essentially a dimensional bag that can hold a lot of items despite its small appearance.
Gourd : The ancient Chinese loved to carry everything in gourds, from ordinary liquor to level-enhancing elixirs that aided cultivation.
Rabbit crashing into a tree trunk : This proverb comes from the story of a farmer who refused to work hard and waited for the rabbit to commit suicide by crashing into a tree. This proverb describes the act of waiting.