Chapter 80: Loyalty—Part Two

When the cave that had been shaking with noise finally quieted down, Lan WangJi turned to Wei WuXian, “You may continue.”

Anger burned in Su She’s eyes, but his lips were tightly shut. His throat felt dry. Compared to the anxiety of being unable to open his mouth and attack Wei WuXian, what bothered him more was the shame of being subdued by Lan WangJi. He repeatedly scratched his throat with his fingers, trying to break the spell, but to no avail. He could only stare at Lan QiRen. However, with a cold expression on his face, Lan QiRen didn’t move at all. Originally, Lan QiRen was fully capable of breaking the spell, and if it were a senior of the Lan Sect who had broken it, out of respect, Lan WangJi would definitely not break it on him again. Unfortunately, many conflicts had occurred between the MolingSu Sect and the GusuLan Sect, so it seemed like Lan QiRen wouldn’t break the spell for him at all now.

People finally realized what was going on. It seemed like every time someone tried to argue with Wei WuXian, Lan WangJi would silence them. The crowd became as silent as winter cicadas. Even so, at times like these, there would always be a warrior who feared death who would speak out, mocking, “Wei WuXian, you really are the YiLing Patriarch, aren’t you? You’re so assertive. So you’re trying to stop people from speaking?”

Wei WuXian, “How strange.”

Lan SiZhui, “Senior Wei, what’s strange?”

Wei WuXian, “Sect Leader Su, he’s been acting strangely for a while now. Back when the corpses surrounded us, he encouraged those who had lost their spiritual power not to seek shelter and instead rush to their deaths, and now he’s forbidding me from asking him anything. Furthermore, he’s trying to irritate me, as if he’s afraid you’ll live longer. What’s the meaning of this? Is this how a good ally should be?”

After Wei WuXian mentioned it, many people began to suspect something—Sect Leader Su did seem to be talking too much today. However, since no one else was speaking, they remained silent, and everyone chose to remain silent just in case. Some others began to think back to what they had done earlier and when they had climbed the mountain. Wei WuXian looked at the MolingSu Sect disciples, who were standing quite far away from the GusuLan Sect disciples. Moreover, Wei WuXian wouldn’t even spare him a glance. The more he observed, the stranger he found it. 

He whispered to Lan WangJi, “HanGuang-Jun, let me ask you—the GusuLan Sect and the MolingSu Sect both cultivate through music, and both Gusu and Moling are in the Jiangnan region, not far from each other. Generally speaking, shouldn’t you be on friendly terms? Why do I feel like these two sects don’t have a good relationship?”

Lan SiZhui and Lan JingYi squirmed closer. Hearing this, Lan JingYi raised his voice, “Of course they’re not on good terms!”

Lan WangJi, “The MolingSu Sect is a branch of the GusuLan Sect.”

Wei WuXian, “Apa?”

Lan SiZhui covered Lan JingYi’s mouth and whispered, “Senior Wei, you probably don’t know this. The MolingSu Sect was founded by an outside disciple after he broke away from the GusuLan Sect. However, because of where he studied, his sect’s techniques tend to be similar to those of the GusuLan Sect. They also practice through music. Even the sect leader, Su She, has a first-grade spiritual weapon, a seven-string guqin, just like HanGuang-Jun’s.”

Speechless, Wei WuXian turned to look at the grim-faced Su She. Lan JingYi struggled to free himself from Lan SiZhui and grumbled, “Not only that, this is getting weirder! Sect Leader Su… Alright, I knew I should shut up! Not only did Sect Leader Su learn everything, but he was also quite upset that others said he was imitating our HanGuang-Jun—he just flew into a rage. How could such a person exist in this world?!” 

Hearing his voice getting louder, Lan SiZhui could only interrupt, “JingYi!”

However, Su She had heard everything clearly. With an increasingly grim face and two fiery eyes, he spat out a mouthful of blood and finally broke free of the Silence spell by force. However, as soon as he opened his mouth, his voice was so hoarse that it sounded like he had aged ten years. “The GusuLan Sect, renowned for its righteousness, brimming with talent, the pinnacle of the entire cultivation world! So this is how you teach your disciples!”

Sect Leader OuYang, “Sect Leader Su, in the face of such a huge enemy, let’s not quarrel with those who are our brothers.” 

Su She laughed coldly, “Those who are ours? Just look at the GusuLan Sect. They all get along with Wei WuXian. Are they really ours?”

Hearing this, the GusuLan Sect was immediately displeased. Lan QiRen glanced at him but said nothing. One of the older, higher-level guest cultivators looked furious, “Su MinShan, even though you’re no longer a member of the GusuLan Sect, you should still watch your words!”

A disciple immediately left the MolingSu Sect, “Our sect leader left the GusuLan Sect a long time ago. What right do you have to speak to him like this?”

Lan JingYi had long complained about the MolingSu Sect, and said loudly, “The fact that your sect leader is in this position today is because of the teachings of the GusuLan Sect back then. So we can’t say anything, even if he bites the hand that feeds him?”

Inside the Demon-Slaying Cave, the two groups of people began to glare at each other, mocking each other. On the MolingSu Sect side, someone shouted, “There are so many disciples in the GusuLan Sect; don’t tell me one of them can establish his own sect? That’s a bit too understated, isn’t it?”

Instantly, someone from the GusuLan Sect retorted, “Who’s the one being insulting here? I wonder which sect played their exorcism melody wrong, and still didn’t realize it!”

As soon as those words were spoken, Wei WuXian felt everything become clear! He said, “It’s not the food or the environment!”

Everyone fell silent in shock. Wei WuXian continued, “You all forgot that after you climbed the mountain, there was one more thing you had to do.”

Lan SiZhui, “Ada apa?”

Wei WuXian, “Killing corpses.”

OuYang ZiZhen exclaimed, “Oh, maybe it’s the same as in Yi City, where there was something like poisonous powder in the corpses’ mouths?! Father, when you killed those corpses, did a strange colored powder come out of their bodies?”

OuYang Sect Leader, “No gunpowder, none!”

OuYang ZiZhen refused to give up, “Then… Then what about the liquid?”

Jiang Cheng’s voice was cold, “Enough. If strange powders or liquids were extracted from the bodies after they were killed, we wouldn’t be so weak as to not notice anything strange.”

OuYang ZiZhen, who thought he had solved the mystery, blushed and scratched his head. The OuYang Sect Leader finally pulled his overly excited son back to his seat. Wei WuXian, “This is indeed related to the murder of a corpse. However, the problem isn’t the corpse, but the people who killed the corpse.”

He turned to Lan QiRen, “Senior Lan, I have a question for you.”

Lan QiRen glanced at Lan WangJi, his voice indifferent, “If you have a question, why are you asking me, not him?”

Lan QiRen was indeed talkative, but he didn’t ignore him. He also noticed something was strange, which was why he listened for so long despite his anger. His face, however, was still somewhat grim. However, Wei WuXian had been used to his temper since childhood, and after that, he had seen the tempers of countless people. He had long since stopped caring. Thinking that his uncle had raised Lan WangJi alone, he became even more certain that there was nothing to worry about. 

Touching his chin, he grinned, “Well, I was worried you’d get mad if I asked too many questions in front of you, right? But since you told me to ask, I’ll just ask. Lan Zhan?”

Lan WangJi, “Mn.”

Wei WuXian, “The MolingSu Sect is a branch sect of the GusuLan Sect, right?”

Lan WangJi, “Mn.”

Wei WuXian, “Even though it branched out, the MolingSu Sect’s techniques still use the GusuLan Sect’s techniques ‘as a reference’, right?”

Lan WangJi, “Ya.”

Wei WuXian, “One of the GusuLan Sect’s techniques, the Conquering Voice, has the effect of banishing evil. Of all the seven-string guqin, it is the most powerful, so the number of people who practice it is the largest. The MolingSu Sect does the same, and the guqin is also the most common in their sect, isn’t that right?”

Lan WangJi, “That’s right.”

Wei WuXian, “Although the MolingSu Sect leader passed down the GusuLan Sect’s technical knowledge when he founded his own sect, his own guqin skills were nothing special, and the disciples he taught also made many mistakes, right?”

Lan WangJi answered honestly, “Yes.”

Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi continued chatting, as if no one was around. More and more people realized that they weren’t just mocking Su She, but were also criticizing something. Therefore, they began to listen more attentively. 

Next, Wei WuXian slowed down the tempo, “… And that means, even if a portion of the battle melody the MolingSu Sect played while killing corpses at the Burial Mounds was wrong, the GusuLan Sect wouldn’t find it strange, and would only think that they made a mistake due to their poor technique and misremembering the score, without taking the time to consider whether it was an accidental or deliberate mistake. Is that true?”

Hearing the last question, Su She’s pupils constricted. The hand he placed on his sword hilt suddenly became veiny. The blade had already been drawn about half an inch. Lan WangJi, on the other hand, raised his eyes at the same time. Both Wei WuXian and he saw the understanding in each other’s eyes.

He said one word at a time, “That’s what happened.”

Su She drew his sword with a clang. Wei WuXian moved the blade aside with two fingers and smiled, “What are you doing? Don’t forget. You’ve lost all your spiritual power. Is threatening me like this any good?”

Sword drawn in his hand, Su She was unable to attack or block. He gritted his teeth, “Targeting me for so long—what do you mean?”

Wei WuXian, “Did I sound so dismissive that you think I was implying something? Then I’ll explain it more clearly. Everyone here lost their spiritual power because they did the same thing. What was that? Killing corpses. While killing those corpses, Sect Leader Su of the MolingSu Sect appeared with you all. He pretended to use his guqin to fend off the corpses, but unknowingly, he had changed part of the battle song to another melody, which would cause people to temporarily lose their spiritual power. You fought in a bloodbath, but while he fought with you on the surface, behind his back, he…”

Su She, “This is slander!”

Wei WuXian, “Many of the GusuLan Sect’s guqin cultivators are here, right? When you went up the mountain, there was a mistake in the battle melody the MolingSu Sect played, right?”

The GusuLan Sect guqin practitioners had the greatest authority to answer this question. They answered in unison, “Yes, there is!”

Wei WuXian continued, “Sect Leader Su, you know that many people in the GusuLan Sect hate you and the MolingSu Sect, so you use this humiliation to your advantage. Dark songs can be used to harm others, but they have requirements on the spiritual power of the person playing them. If you were alone, you naturally wouldn’t be able to play until nearly a thousand people lose their spiritual power. Therefore, you brought along all the guqin cultivators of the MolingSu Sect so they could play with you! Among the sects present here, only the GusuLan Sect can see your mistakes, but they still hate you. Even if they realize that you’re playing the battle songs incorrectly, they’ll only think you’re so unskilled that you even teach your disciples incorrectly!”

Nie HuaiSang’s mouth gaped open, “Is there really a dark song in the world that can make anyone who hears it lose their spiritual power?”

Wei WuXian, “Why not? The sound of the guqin can ward off evil, so why can’t they just summon evil? There’s a collection of songs from Dongying called  the Chaos Collection  . The songs collected within are all dark songs from around the Dongying region. There are even songs that can be used to kill someone, so why not a song that makes someone temporarily lose their spiritual power? Senior Lan QiRen is here with us. Ask him—is there such a book in the Forbidden Books Room of the GusuLan Sect’s Library Pavilion?”

Calming himself down, Su She sneered, “Even if such a song existed, when I was studying in Gusu, I couldn’t enter the Forbidden Books Room at all, so I couldn’t have seen it. After that, I’ve never set foot inside the Cloud Recesses either, and I’ve never even heard of such a book! On the other hand, you’re very familiar with  the Collection of Chaos  , and you’re also very close to HanGuang-Jun. Compared to me, you have a greater chance of getting this book, right?”

Wei WuXian laughed, “Who said you have to go into the Forbidden Books Room? Isn’t it fine as long as your teacher can go in as he pleases? The way to fiddle with sheet music—he probably taught you that too, right?”

A person in power is free to enter and exit the Cloud Recess at will. It goes without saying who Su She’s teacher is. Everyone knows—it must be LianFang-Zun!

Wei WuXian, “You two came up with the idea of ​​capturing disciples from all the sects and drawing a large crowd to Burial Mound. The praying mantis preys on the cicada, while the oriole preys on the praying mantis—he used his injuries as an excuse to avoid suspicion and collude with you from the outside. One of you played a dark tune to weaken people’s spiritual power, while the other used the Tiger Seal to control the corpses on the mountain. In the end, thousands of people were slaughtered in my place. No one would believe me if I said I wasn’t the culprit, right? You’re not afraid to meet me, either. Besides, Wei WuXian’s infamous name is already known to everyone. With hatreds both new and old, the excited crowd wouldn’t listen to my protests at all. Perhaps that would even arouse my murderous intent, and I would slaughter everyone, saving you all the trouble.”

Su She: “How ridiculous. LianFang-Zun is already the head cultivator who presides over the entire cultivation world. He doesn’t need power or fame. What good would it do him to cause so many people to die? Not only do you slander me, you also dare to slander LianFang-Zun!”

Wei WuXian, “If you say that I slander you with such beliefs, then do you dare play the battle song that the MolingSu Sect plays to fend off the corpses on your way up the mountain, here, in front of everyone?”

All the GusuLan Sect guqin cultivators were here. If Su She played differently than before, he would definitely be discovered immediately!

Inside the Demon-Slaying Cave, the crowd slowly parted from the MolingSu Sect members, leaving a large, empty area, isolating them in the middle. Wei WuXian seized the opportunity, “No? Sure, no problem. How about you check what this is?”

He took out two yellowed pieces of paper from under his collar and waved them around, making it almost impossible for everyone to see that they were two pieces of music, “Did you really think we returned empty-handed during our trip to Koi Tower? In the secret chamber behind the bronze mirror in the Fragrance Palace, Jin GuangYao hid two torn pages of  the Collection of Chaos  . We’ve already found them. As soon as I bring them to Senior Lan QiRen to see if the melody you just played is in it, the truth will be revealed!”

Su She sneered, “You’re lying. How do I know this isn’t some random piece of music you made up to slander me?”

Wei WuXian, “I can’t possibly carry two pieces of music with me at all times, ready to take them out at any time, right? Besides, whether I’m lying or not, Senior Lan QiRen will know as soon as he sees them.”

Su She initially suspected it was a bluff. However, seeing Wei WuXian’s sly smile and his confident tone, plus Lan QiRen’s furrowed brows after he took over, he felt his chest tighten. “Senior Lan, watch out!” As he spoke, he reached out to take the two pieces of paper.

At this moment, Bichen’s icy blue gaze shot towards him. The sword at Su She’s waist was drawn to block the attack. However, only after blocking did he realize—he had been tricked!

Su She’s sword was called ‘Nanping’. As it slashed towards Bichen, its light swirled brightly—he was clearly full of spiritual energy!