Chapter 19 Satisfaction – Part One
Wei WuXian lay on his stomach the entire night. He spent the first half of the night thinking about what had happened to Lan WangJi over the years, and only fell asleep in the second half. When he opened his eyes the next morning, Lan WangJi had already disappeared. He, on the other hand, lay neatly on the bed, with his arms placed at his sides in a posture that made him appear well-behaved.
Wei WuXian immediately removed the blanket covering him. He dug his right hand into his hair. The inexplicable feeling of absurdity and fear still lingered in his mind.
At this moment, two knocks sounded from the wooden door of the jingshi. Lan SiZhui’s voice came from outside, “Young Master Mo? Are you awake?”
Wei WuXian, “Why are you calling me so early in the morning?!”
Lan SiZhui, “Aa …
All the members of the Lan Sect woke up at five and went to bed at nine, with perfect regularity. Wei WuXian, on the other hand, woke up at nine and went to bed at one, just as regularity, exactly four hours later than the Lan Sect members. Because he had been lying face down for half the night, his waist and back were sore. He said honestly, “I can’t get up.”
Lan SiZhui, “Uhm, what is it this time?”
Wei WuXian, “What’s wrong? I was killed by HanGuang-Jun of your sect.”
Lan Jingyi’s angry voice rang out, “If you keep talking nonsense like this, you will suffer the consequences. Get out!”
Wei WuXian spoke as if he had been wronged, “Really! He tortured me all night! I couldn’t go out. I didn’t have the face to see anyone.”
Several juniors stared at each other dumbfoundedly outside the door. People couldn’t enter HanGuang-Jun’s house without permission, so they couldn’t just barge in and drag him out. Lan JingYi raged, “You’re completely shameless! HanGuang-Jun isn’t someone who gets offended easily. Did he do it ?! I’d be very grateful if you said you didn’t do it. Get up! Take that donkey of yours and train him properly. You’re so noisy!”
Hearing the mention of his mode of transportation, Wei WuXian immediately got up, “What are you doing to my Little Apple?! Don’t touch it. It’ll kick you.”
Lan JingYi asked, “What is Lil’Apple?”
Wei WuXian, “My donkey!” Coming out of the jingshi, he waved his juniors to get him onto his mount. He was led to the grassland. The donkey was there, crying incessantly and noisily. The crying was because it wanted to eat grass, but dozens of round white pompons had gathered in the grassland, preventing it from eating.
Wei WuXian was overjoyed, “There are so many rabbits! Come, come, let’s put them on skewers and start grilling them!”
Lan JingYi growled angrily, “Killing is forbidden in the Cloud Recesses! Shut your mouth right now. The disciples who cast the initial spell have already come several times to ask questions! If this continues, we’ll be scolded to death!”
Wei WuXian fed it the apple he had been given for breakfast. As expected, the donkey stopped making noises as it chewed the apple, grinding its teeth. Wei WuXian rubbed the back of his neck, thinking about these juniors’ travel tokens, and pointed at the round rabbits scattered on the ground. “I really can’t roast them? If I roast them, will I be kicked off the mountain?”
Looking like he was facing a threat, Lan JingYi rushed to block Wei WuXian with his arms outstretched, “These belong to HanGuang-Jun. We only occasionally help him take care of them. You mustn’t dare roast them!”
Hearing this, Wei WuXian laughed so hard he nearly fell to the ground. He thought, How interesting is Lan Zhan! Back then, he wouldn’t even accept them when I gave them to him for free, but now, he’s secretly raising a bunch of rabbits. And he says he doesn’t want them. Who is he fooling? Oh my, I bet he likes these fluffy white things. HanGuang-Jun, holding the rabbit with a straight face. Oh my, I want to die…
However, when he thought about the situation of himself lying on top of Lan WangJi last night, his laughter suddenly stopped.
Suddenly, the sound of a bell was heard from the west side of the Cloud Recesses.
These bells were completely different from the timekeeping bells. They were ringing fast and loudly, as if a madman was striking them. With a sudden change in their expressions, Lan JingYi and Lan SiZhui stopped joking around with him and ran towards the bells. Wei WuXian knew something was wrong and immediately followed.
The voice came from the watchtower.
The watchtower is called a “ mingshi .” It is used by the Lan Sect to summon spirits, with walls made of special materials and incantations carved into them. When the watchtower’s bell begins to chime on its own, it means only one thing—that an accident has occurred to those performing the summoning ritual within.
Outside the watchtower, more and more Lan Sect disciples were gathering, but no one dared to enter without careful consideration. The door to the mingshi was black and made of wood. It was tightly locked, and could only be opened from the inside. It was not only difficult to break it with brute force from the outside, but also forbidden. It was extremely frightening if an accident occurred during the spirit summoning ritual, as no one knew what creature would be summoned or what would happen if someone broke in. Furthermore, since the mingshi was built, there had been almost no cases of a spirit summoning failing. This made everyone even more anxious.
Seeing that Lan Wangji hadn’t appeared, Wei Wuxian had a bad feeling. If Lan Wangji were still in the Cloud Recesses, he would have rushed there, having heard the alarming chime of the bell, except… Suddenly, the black door swung open with a bang . A disciple in white rushed out, staggering and stumbling.
Unsteady on her feet, she rolled down the stairs as soon as she exited. The mingshi door slammed shut again, as if someone had slammed it shut in anger.
In confusion, the onlookers immediately helped the student up. After standing, he immediately fell back down, his face streaming with uncontrollable tears. He clung to the people around him, “We should… we shouldn’t have called…”
Wei WuXian immediately grabbed her hand, whispering, “Which spirit creature did you summon? Who else is inside? Where’s HanGuang-Jun?!”
It seemed like the student was having trouble breathing, “HanGuang-Jun told me to run…”
Before he could finish his sentence, dark red blood spurted out of his nose and mouth. Wei WuXian pushed him into Lan SiZhui’s arms. With the bamboo flute he had hastily made still clutched at his waist, he climbed the stairs in just a few steps. He kicked the mingshi door and ordered, “Open!”
The Mingshi door opened abruptly, as if it were laughing out loud with its mouth agape. Wei WuXian entered quickly, and the door closed behind him. Several disciples followed in shock, but the door wouldn’t open again no matter what. A visiting disciple rushed to the door, his face both shocked and furious, and he exclaimed, “Who is that person?!”
Lan SiZhui lifted the disciple from earlier and said through gritted teeth, “… Come help me first. His Qiqiao is bleeding!”
As soon as he entered the mingshi, Wei WuXian felt a dark energy coming at him.
The dark energy seemed like a mixture of hatred, anger, and arrogance, almost invisible to the human eye. Surrounded by it, one’s chest would feel tight and painful. The interior of the mingshi was about ten meters long and wide. In the corners, several people lay motionless on the ground. This summoning object was placed in the center of the array on the ground.
It was nothing but an arm—taken back from Mo Village!
He stood upright on the ground, as straight as a stick, with the cut side facing downwards. His four fingers were clenched into a fist, but his index finger pointed skyward, as if angrily accusing someone. A steady stream of dark energy was emanating from him, constantly filling the mingshi.
Everyone who had participated in the spirit summoning ritual had either fled or fainted. Lan WangJi was the only one still sitting properly, in the prime position on the east side.
A guqin lay on its side. Although its hands weren’t holding the strings, they continued to vibrate on their own. It seemed lost in thought or listening to something, only lifting its head when it sensed someone entering.
Because Lan WangJi’s face was always calm, Wei WuXian couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Lan QiRen, who had originally been in charge of one section of the mingshi, now lay unconscious on the side, his qiqiao bleeding like a student who had escaped from the mingshi. Wei WuXian returned to his position, turned, and strode toward the far west, directly across from Lan WangJi. He drew the bamboo flute from his waist and raised it to his lips.
That night in Mo Village, Wei WuXian first used whistling to distract him, then Lan WangJi attacked him from afar with zither notes. They were merely suppressing his arm, unintentionally working together like this. Lan WangJi looked at him, his expression full of understanding. As he raised his right hand, a melody flowed from the guqin. Wei WuXian immediately joined in with his flute.
The song they played was called “Evocation.” It uses a corpse, a part of a corpse, or a beloved object of the deceased as a medium for the spirit to follow the melody. Typically, only one part is needed for the spirit to appear in the song’s composition. However, as the song neared its end, no spirit had been summoned.
The arm looked like it was in a rage, its veins bulging. The oppressive feeling in the air grew heavier. If anyone else had been guarding the west side, they would have long since fallen and ended up like Lan QiRen with their qiqiao bleeding. Wei WuXian was secretly shocked. It was almost impossible for the spirit to not be summoned when Lan WangJi and he were playing “Evocation” together, unless… Unless the deceased’s soul had been severed along with the corpse!
It seems this good man’s death was a little worse than his own. Although his body was eaten away even more, at least his soul remained intact.
Since “Evocation” didn’t work, Lan WangJi’s fingers shifted, and started playing another song.
This song had a calm melody, different from the previous one, which had a cynical and questioning feel. It was titled “Rest.” Since both songs were quite well-known in the cultivation world, it was natural that someone knew how to play them, and Wei WuXian followed suit.
The YiLing Ancestor’s ghost flute, “Chenqing,” was already widely known. However, right now, with his bamboo flute, he was deliberately playing it with so many mistakes and shallow breaths, it was heartbreaking. Lan WangJi had probably never played with someone with such poor skills before. After a while, he finally couldn’t continue as if nothing was wrong, and looked up at Wei WuXian with an expressionless face.
Wei WuXian grimaced, pretending not to see anything, his voice growing more melodious. As he turned to continue playing, something strange happened behind him. He turned around to look, and was shocked to see it. Lan QiRen, who had lost consciousness, had actually sat up straight again. He pointed at Wei WuXian with trembling hands, his face covered in blood and anger, and shouted hoarsely, “Stop playing! Get out! Get out now! Stop…”
Before he could even finish saying what he had to stop, he spat blood from his mouth, then fell in the same place, sinking into a deep coma again.
Lan WangJi, “…”
Wei WuXian ternganga.
He knew what would happen after Lan QiRen said “stop”— Stop playing! Stop duetting! Stop sullying the guqin tune of his beloved disciple, WangJi!
Their guqin and flute duet actually angered Lan QiRen so much that he woke up and fainted again. This shows just how terrifying that sound is…
But even so, his hands still slowly drooped under the combined force of the guqin and flute. Wei WuXian thought shamelessly, Even if it sounds bad, it’s fine as long as it works.
Immediately, after the last echo of the guqin, the doors of the mingshi opened, bursting with sunlight. It was possible that the watchtower alarm had stopped ringing. All the students surrounding the mingshi rushed in, simultaneously shouting “HanGuang-Jun”.
Lan WangJi pressed his guqin, dampening the remaining vibrations of the strings, then walked over to Lan QiRen to check his pulse. With Lan QiRen’s lead, the others quickly calmed down. The seniors laid the bleeding bodies of several people on the ground and began to tend to them. While using needles and medicine, another group of disciples carried a large bell, intending to imprison an arm within it. Despite the bustle, everything proceeded in an orderly manner. Everyone whispered softly, without anyone raising their voices.
Some people worried, “HanGuang-Jun, neither herbs nor acupuncture are of any use. What should we do?”
With three fingers still attached to Lan QiRen’s wrist, Lan WangJi remained silent. Lan QiRen had presided over at least eight hundred, perhaps even a thousand, spirit summoning ceremonies before. Of those, many involved ferocious spirits. Seeing that even he himself had been injured by the resentful energy, it was clear that the resentful energy in this ghost’s hand was incredibly powerful.
Wei WuXian tucked the bamboo flute back into his waistband. He crouched beside the bronze bell and gently stroked the inscriptions on it. While he was thinking, he suddenly saw the sad expression on Lan SiZhui’s face. “What’s wrong?”
Lan SiZhui already knew that he wasn’t an ordinary person. After hesitating, he said in a low voice, “It’s just that I feel a little guilty.”
Wei WuXian asked, “Guilty of what?”
Lan SiZhui, “This hand came for us.”
Wei WuXian smiled, “How did you know?”
Lan SiZhui, “Spirit-attracting flags of different levels are drawn in different ways and possess varying amounts of power. The spirit-attracting flags we drew in Mo Village only had a radius of two thousand five hundred meters. However, this ghost hand possesses a strong killing intent, devouring human flesh and bones. If it were originally within that range, with its level of malevolence, Mo Village would have long since become a river of blood. However, it appeared after we arrived… This means it must have been placed there intentionally at that time, by someone with malicious intentions.”
Wei WuXian replied, “Your academics are quite strong. Your analysis is excellent.”
Lan SiZhui lowered his head, “Then, for the lives lost in Mo Village, we must… we must also take responsibility. And, now, we have also implicated Lan QiRen and the others in this matter…”
After a moment of silence, Wei WuXian patted his shoulder, “The ones responsible shouldn’t be you, but the one who sent the ghost hand. In this world, there are some things that are impossible to control.”
On the other side, Lan WangJi pulled his hand away. The people of the Lan Sect rushed to ask, “HanGuang-Jun, how is he?”
Lan WangJi replied, “Trace the source.”
Wei WuXian, “That’s right. If we trace the source, find the corpse of this ghost hand, and understand who he really is, there will definitely be a way to save them.”
Even though Lan JingYi already knew that he was definitely not a madman, he still couldn’t help but say in a critical tone, “You make it sound so simple. The spirit summoning didn’t work, and everything went haywire. How are we supposed to find him?”
Lan WangJi said, “Northwest.”
Lan SiZhui wondered, “Northwest? HanGuang-Jun, why northwest?”
Wei WuXian, “Wasn’t it already shown to you?”
Lan JingYi was confused, “Showed it to me? Who? Who showed it to me? HanGuang-Jun didn’t.”
Wei WuXian said, “That.”
People suddenly realized that what he was pointing at was a ghost’s hand!
The arm kept pointing in one direction. When someone changed its position, it stubbornly turned back to where it was originally facing. No one had ever seen a situation like this before, and everyone was shocked. Lan JingYi stammered, “That? What… What is it pointing at?!”
Wei WuXian replied, “What else could he be pointing at? Either another part of the corpse, or the murderer who made it like this.”
Hearing this, several boys standing in the northwest immediately moved aside. Staring at them, Lan WangJi slowly rose and said to the disciples, “Take good care of Uncle.”
Several people nodded, “Okay! Are you guys going down the mountain?”
Lan WangJi nodded slightly. Wei WuXian had already quietly shifted behind him, talking to himself in a loud and cheerful voice, “Yes, yes, yes, we can finally get off this mountain and elope together!”
Everyone seemed to be unable to bear the sight any longer. The older students’ expressions were indeed frightening, but some of the boys were already used to it. Lan QiRen’s face twitched again as he lay unconscious on the ground. The students thought, If he said a few more words, perhaps Master Lan would wake up again in a rage…
Translator’s Notes
Mingshi : Literally means “room of darkness/evil”.
Qiqiao : Qiqiao refers to the seven openings of a person’s head, basically the eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.
Needles : In traditional Chinese medicine, needles and acupuncture are often used to treat diseases.