Chapter 35 Grass—Part Three

*You don’t want to eat while reading this.

He couldn’t help but pull his hand away, but Wei WuXian caught the oil lamp just as it was about to fall to the ground. Calmly, he rubbed it against the burning fire talisman in the other hand, lit it, and placed it on the table. “Did you make it yourself, Manager? It’s quite good quality.”

The rest eventually realized that the people standing in the room were not real people, but actually paper mannequins.

The heads and bodies of the mannequins were finely crafted, the same size as real people. There were men, women, and even children. All the men were “Nether Brawlers,” crafted with tall, sturdy bodies and angry expressions. All the women were beautiful, fair-faced figures, with their hair pulled back into single or double buns. Even when covered by loose paper garments, one could still see their graceful postures. The patterns on the garments were almost more delicate than those of real brocade robes—some were dyed with rich, vibrant inks; others were undyed, left a pale gray. On each mannequin’s cheeks, two dabs of blush feigned the rosy complexion of a living person. However, their pupils had not been added—their eyes were entirely white. The bolder the blush, the gloomier they appeared.

There was another table in the room. On it were several candlesticks, each of varying lengths. Wei WuXian lit them one by one, and the yellow light illuminated most of the room. Besides the paper mannequins, there were also two bouquets of flowers placed on either side of the room. Paper gold, ghost money, and pagodas were piled up beside the walls.

Jin Ling had already slightly unsheathed his sword. Seeing that it was just a shop selling funeral goods, he breathed a sigh of relief and sheathed his sword again. In the cultivation world, even when a cultivator died, no one used such gruesome and chaotic funeral rites as ordinary people. Since they had never seen such a thing before, after the initial fear, curiosity arose in their hearts. With goosebumps rising, they felt it was even more exciting than hunting wild beasts at night.

No matter how thick the fog was, it couldn’t penetrate the houses. Since they entered Yi City, this was the only time they could easily see each other’s faces, which put their minds at ease. Wei WuXian saw that they had calmed down and asked the old woman again, “Can we borrow your kitchen?”

The old woman almost glared at the lamp, as if she disliked the presence of any light. “The kitchen is in the back. Use it as you please.” After saying that, she retreated into another room as if she were fleeing the plague. She slammed the door so hard that some people even shivered. Jin Ling exclaimed, “There must be something wrong with that witch! You…” Wei WuXian replied, “Okay. Shut up. I need help. Is anyone willing to help?”

Lan SiZhui hurried, “I can come.”

Lan JingYi still stood straight as a stick, “Then what should I do?”

Wei WuXian, “Stay still. Don’t move unless I tell you to.”

Lan SiZhui followed Wei WuXian to the back kitchen. As soon as they entered, they were immediately overwhelmed by a foul stench. Lan SiZhui had never smelled such a horrible smell before. Despite his headache, he managed to restrain himself from rushing out. Jin Ling followed him as well, but immediately jumped out again after entering. He fanned the air as fast as he could, “What the hell?!! What are you doing here, instead of thinking about the medicine?!”

Wei WuXian, “Hmm? Perfect timing. How did you know I was going to call you? Help me.”

Jin Ling, “I’m not here to help! Ouch! Did someone kill someone and forget to bury them?!”

Wei WuXian, “Young Lady Jin, are you coming or not? If you are coming, come in and help; if not, go back and have someone else come.”

Jin Ling raged, “Who are you calling Young Lady Jin? Watch your words!” He pinched his nose for a moment, debating with himself whether to stay or leave, then finally snorted, “Fine, I’ll see what you’re really trying to do.” After saying that, he charged in. However, he didn’t expect that, with a  loud bang  , Wei WuXian opened a chest on the ground, which was where the stench was coming from. Inside the chest, there were ham and chicken. Green spots dotted the red meat, while white maggots coiled around the green. 

Jin Ling had to leave the room again. Wei WuXian took the box and gave it to him, “Just throw it away. It can be anywhere, as long as we don’t smell it.”

With a nauseous stomach and a head full of doubts, Jin Ling threw it away as instructed. He rubbed his fingers roughly with the handkerchief, then threw it away as well. After returning to the kitchen, Wei WuXian and Lan SiZhui had fetched two buckets of water from the well in the backyard and were cleaning up the kitchen. Jin Ling asked, “What are you guys doing?”

Lan SiZhui wiped diligently, “As you can see, we are cleaning the kitchen fireplace.”

Jin Ling, “What’s the point of cleaning the fireplace? We’re not cooking or anything anymore.”

Wei WuXian, “Who said that? We’re  cooking  . You can sweep the dust away. Get rid of all the cobwebs there.”

His words sounded so natural, so convincing that, with the broom in his hand, Jin Ling somehow complied. The more he cleaned, the more he felt something was amiss. Just as he was about to throw the duster at Wei WuXian’s head, Wei WuXian opened another box, scaring him to the point where he ran out again. Fortunately, this time, there was no foul odor.

The three of them worked quickly. Soon, the kitchen looked completely different. The house finally seemed a little more alive, no longer haunted and abandoned. In a corner, there was some chopped firewood. They piled it in the fireplace and lit it using fire talismans. They placed the large pot they had washed on the fire and began to boil water. Wei WuXian poured out the glutinous rice from the second crate, washed it, and put it into the pot.

Jin Ling, “Are you making porridge?”

Wei WuXian, “Heh.”

Jin Ling threw the rag onto the ground. Wei WuXian commented, “See, you can get angry after just a short time? Look at SiZhui. He’s been working his hardest and hasn’t even said a word. What’s wrong with porridge?”

Jin Ling, “What’s wrong with the porridge? It’s watery and bland! Wait… I’m not angry because there’s something wrong with the porridge!”

Wei WuXian, “It’s not for you anyway.”

Jin Ling was getting angrier, “What did you say? I’ve been working for so long, but I don’t even get one?!”

Lan SiZhui, “Young Master Mo, can porridge cure corpse poisoning?”

Wei WuXian smiled, “Yes, but it’s not the porridge that can cure corpse poisoning—it’s the rice. This is a traditional medicine. Usually, glutinous rice is applied to wounds that have been scratched or bitten. In the future, if you encounter a situation like this again, you can try this. Although it will be very painful, it should be effective. However, since they swallowed corpse poison powder, not scratched or bitten, we can only make rice porridge for them to eat.”

Lan SiZhui realized, “So that’s why you intended to enter a house with someone inside. Only a house with someone inside can have a kitchen. Only a kitchen can have sticky rice.”

Jin Ling: “Who knows how long this rice has been here? Can you still eat it? This kitchen hasn’t been used for at least a year. There’s dust everywhere, and the meat is even rotten. Don’t tell me that witch hasn’t eaten for a whole year. There’s no way she’s practicing inedia. How can she survive?”

Wei WuXian, “Either because no one lives here and he isn’t the shop owner, or he just doesn’t need to eat.”

Lan SiZhui lowered his voice, “If she didn’t need to eat, she would have died. But the old woman is clearly breathing.”

Using a spatula, Wei WuXian casually stirred the porridge, mixing the ingredients from various bottles and jars together. “Okay. You haven’t finished explaining yet. Why did you two come to Yi City together? It wasn’t a coincidence that you met and then ran into us, was it?”

The boys’ expressions immediately turned serious. Jin Ling replied, “I, the people of the Lan Sect, and the people from the other sects are all pursuing something. I come from the Qinghe region.” Lan SiZhui also replied, “We come from Langya.”

Wei WuXian, “What is it?”

Lan SiZhui shook his head, “We don’t know. His face never appeared. We don’t even know what or who… or which organization exactly.”

Since a few days ago, after Jin Ling lied to his uncle and let Wei WuXian go, he had been worried that Jiang Cheng would really break his legs this time, so he decided to sneak out and disappear for a few days, not appearing before Jiang Cheng until his anger had subsided. He immediately fled after handing Zidian to one of Jiang Cheng’s trusted subordinates. After arriving at a town on the border of the Qinghe region, his journey came to a halt. In search of the next night’s hunting ground, he rested for a while in a large inn. That night, while he was memorizing spells in his room, Fairy, who was lying by his side, suddenly started barking at the door. It was already late at night. Jin Ling ordered the dog to stop, but he soon heard someone knocking on the door.

Although the Fairy stopped barking, she remained restless. Her claws dug into the ground as she let out a low growl. Jin Ling, now alert, asked who it was. There was no answer, so he went back to his work. However, after an hour, the knocking sounded again.

Jin Ling jumped out the window with Fairy. He turned and climbed up from the first floor, intending to see who was disturbing him in the middle of the night. Despite his best efforts, no one was there. He waited silently for a while, but still saw no one at his door.

While he watched, he left the Fairy guarding the door. She was ready to attack the man at any moment and stayed awake all night. However, nothing happened. There were only a few strange sounds, like dripping water.

On the second morning, a scream was heard from outside the door. Jin Ling kicked the door open and stepped into a pool of blood. Something fell from above the door. Shoved backward, Jin Ling barely managed to prevent it from hitting him.

It’s a black cat!

Someone recently nailed a dead cat to her door. The strange dripping sound she heard throughout the night was the cat’s blood dripping down.

Jin Ling: “After moving to a few other inns, the situation was the same, so I just went on the offensive. If I heard about dead cats appearing anywhere, I’d go take a look, because I had to find out who was messing around.”

Wei WuXian menoleh ke Lan SiZhui, “Kalian juga?”

Lan SiZhui nodded, “Yes. A few days ago, a few of us were out night hunting in Langya. While eating dinner, we suddenly found an unskinned cat’s head in the soup… At first, we didn’t know it was meant for us, but that night, when we moved to another inn, we found a dead cat on one of the bedsheets. It was the same situation for several days in a row. We chased after it, arrived in Yueyang, and met Young Master Jin. We realized we were looking for the same thing, so we decided to work together, and only arrived in this area today. We asked a hunter in the village in front of a stone stele, and we were shown the way to Yi City.”

Wei WuXian thought to himself,  A hunter?

The juniors were supposed to pass through the village before the fork in the road after Lan WangJi, and they did. However, they didn’t see any hunters at that time. There were only a few village women shyly feeding chickens, who said that the men were out delivering goods and wouldn’t be back for a long time.

The more Wei WuXian thought about it, the more serious his expression became. 

According to the narrative, their resistance consisted only of killing cats and disposing of their bodies. While this sounds and seems frightening, they were not actually harmed. In fact, these events piqued their curiosity to find out the root of the problem.

These juniors also met in Yueyang. Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi also came to Shudong from Yueyang. It seemed someone had deliberately led the dazed juniors to meet them.

To lead some confused juniors to a dangerous place so they could face the vicious limbs of a vicious corpse—wasn’t this the exact same routine as what happened in Mo Village?

And, this wasn’t the most complicated part. Right now, what Wei WuXian feared most was… the Stygian Tiger Seal might be in Yi City right now.

Although Wei WuXian didn’t really want to accept this possibility, it was still the most plausible explanation. After all, someone who could restore half of the Tiger Seal did exist. Despite the rumors that he had been taken care of, who knew where the seal he restored had gone? 

Suddenly, Lan SiZhui, who was squatting on the ground to fan the fire, raised his head, “  Senior  Mo, I think the porridge is ready?”

Calming down, he stopped stirring. He reached for the bowl Lan SiZhui had washed and took a spoonful of the porridge. “It’s ready. Take it out. Give one bowl to each person who has been poisoned.”

However, after doing so, Lan JingYi only swallowed it once before spitting it out, “What is this? Poison?!”

Wei WuXian, “How could this be poison? This is the medicine! Sticky rice porridge.”

Lan JingYi, “First of all, I don’t know why glutinous rice can be a cure, but I’ve never had a bowl of porridge this spicy before!”

The other boys who had tasted their dishes nodded in unison, all of their eyes wet with tears. Wei WuXian stroked his chin. He had grown up in Yunmeng. The people of Yunmeng were all quite tolerant of spicy food, but Wei WuXian’s penchant for it was beyond hardcore. Every time he started cooking, the food would be so spicy that even Jiang Cheng could only smash his bowl and curse. Yet, for some reason, he couldn’t help but add spoonful after spoonful of seasoning. It seemed, this time, he couldn’t control his hands either. Curious, Lan SiZhui took the bowl and tried a mouthful. Even as his face flushed and his eyes welled up with tears, he pursed his lips and restrained himself from spitting it out, thinking to himself,  The taste… is so terrifying it almost evokes a sense of déjà vu.

Wei WuXian, “All medicine contains poison to some degree. The herbs will make you sweat, so you’ll get better quickly.”

 The boys’ “eww -s” s  betrayed their disbelief. Nevertheless, with bitter faces, they devoured the porridge. Within seconds, their faces were all red and their foreheads glistened with pain. Wei WuXian couldn’t help but remark, “It’s not that serious, is it? HanGuang-Jun is from Gusu too. He can handle spicy food quite well, so why are you all like this?”

Lan SiZhui replied while covering his mouth with his hand, “No, Senior. HanGuang-Jun’s appetite is very mild. He never eats spicy food…”

Wei WuXian paused for a moment, “Really.”

However, he remembered that in his past, before betraying the YunmengJiang Sect, he had met Lan WangJi in Yiling. Back then, although Wei WuXian was hated by many, he hadn’t gone so far as to beat him up. So, with a sour face, he invited Lan WangJi to dinner so they could reminisce about the past together. All the dishes Lan WangJi ordered were full of Sichuan chili peppers, so he always thought Lan WangJi had a similar taste for spiciness.

Thinking about it, he couldn’t remember if Lan WangJi actually picked up his chopsticks. Furthermore, he hadn’t even forgotten how he’d said the meal was his treat, so Lan WangJi had paid for it anyway. It was only natural that he’d forgotten such a detail.

He didn’t know why, but suddenly, he really wanted to see Lan WangJi’s face.

“… Grandpa, Grandpa Mo!”

“Hmm?” Wei WuXian finally managed to control himself. Lan SiZhui whispered, “The old woman’s door… has opened.”

Out of nowhere, a terrifying gust of wind came, faintly opening the door to the room. The door opened and then closed, revealing a dim figure hunched over a table in the eerie darkness. Wei WuXian gestured for them to stay where they were and walked into the room alone.

The dim light of the oil lamp and candlestick in the living room filtered in. The old woman sat with her head bowed, as if unaware of the influx. A cloth lay on her lap, stretched tightly against the embroidery hoop, suggesting she was sewing. Her hands were stiffly clasped together as she tried to thread the needle.

Wei WuXian also sat down by the table, “Manager, why don’t you turn on the light while you’re threading the needle? Let me help you.”

He took the needle and thread—the thread went straight in. After returning it to the old woman, he left the room as if nothing had happened and closed the door behind him, “There’s no need to come in.”

Jin Ling, “When you were inside, did you see whether the witch was really alive or not?”

Wei WuXian, “Don’t call her a witch. That’s rude. The old woman is  a living corpse  .”

The boys looked at each other. Lan SiZhui asked, “What is a living corpse?”

Wei WuXian, “From head to toe, everything looks like a corpse, even though the person is actually alive. That’s what a living corpse is.”

Jin Ling was shocked, “You said he was still alive?!”

Wei WuXian, “Have you looked inside?”

“Yes.”

“What did you see? What did he do?”

“Threading the thread into the needle.”

“Is that in?”

“… NO.”

That’s right. He couldn’t thread a needle. A dead person’s muscles were too stiff to perform such a delicate task. The scars on his face weren’t age spots, but  livor mortis  . And he didn’t need to eat, either. The mere fact that he could breathe was what kept him alive.

Lan SiZhui, “B-but, that grandma is quite old. Many grandmas have poor eyesight and can’t thread a needle themselves.”

Wei WuXian, “So I helped her. Did you notice anything else? From the moment I opened the door until now, she hasn’t blinked an eye.”

The children blinked a few times. Wei WuXian continued, “Living people blink to prevent their eyes from stinging. Dead people, on the other hand, don’t need to. And, when I took the needle and thread, did anyone notice how she looked at me?”

Jin Ling, “His eyeballs aren’t moving… but his head is moving!”

Wei WuXian, “Exactly. When most people look at something, their eyeballs usually move, no matter how slight. However, the eyes of the dead don’t. This is because the dead can’t perform such subtle actions as moving their eyeballs. They can only rotate their heads and necks.”

Lan JingYi was confused, “Should we take notes?”

Wei WuXian, “It’s a good habit, but do you think you have time to flip through your notes while night hunting? Just remember.”

Jin Ling gritted his teeth and said, “Walking corpses are already strange. Why are there creatures like the living dead?!”

Wei WuXian, “Dead people have many shortcomings: stiff muscles, slow movements, and so on. However, they also have some advantages: they are unafraid of pain, unable to think, and easy to control. Some think they can make up for the shortcomings of corpses and create the perfect corpse puppet. This is how the living dead came to be.”

Even though the boys didn’t say anything, one sentence was etched on their faces—“This person must be Wei! Wu! Xian!”

Wei WuXian didn’t know whether to laugh or frown, thinking to himself,  But I really didn’t do anything like that!

That does sound like the way he would do things though!

He continued, “Ahem. Okay. Wei WuXian started it. But he managed to create Wen Ning, or the Ghost General. Honestly, I’ve always wanted to ask—who exactly created this title? What a fool. Besides, there were others who wanted to imitate this but weren’t good enough, so they used inappropriate methods. Instead of targeting the living, they created the living dead.” He concluded, “A kind of failed imitation.”

Hearing Wei WuXian’s name, Jin Ling’s face froze. He snorted, “Wei Ying himself used improper methods.”

Wei WuXian, “Yes. In that case, those who cultivate undead use the most inappropriate of all inappropriate methods.”

Lan SiZhui, “Senior Mo, what should we do now?”

Wei WuXian, “Some living corpses might not know they’re dead. I think this old woman is one of those confused corpses. We’d better not disturb her for now.”

Suddenly, a series of crisp knocks from bamboo poles tapping on the ground were heard.

The sound came from near the window, which was tightly sealed by pieces of black wooden planks. All the students in the living room paled. Since entering the city, they had been constantly disturbed by the sound. They now panicked every time they heard it. Wei WuXian motioned for them to be quiet. They all held their breath as they watched Wei WuXian walk to the window and look out through the narrow gap between the wooden planks.

As soon as Wei WuXian approached the crack, he saw a vast expanse of white. He thought the fog outside was too thick to see anything. But suddenly, the vast expanse of white shrank rapidly.

He saw a pair of terrifying white eyes, glaring through the gap between the planks. The white field he saw wasn’t fog, but a pair of pupil-less eyes.

Translator’s Notes

Senior  : This is another honorific term, derived from the  Japanese honorific term senpai.

Living corpse  : This term was previously used for a “moving corpse.” Now, it will refer to this type of corpse. Sorry for having to memorize yet another phrase, but here’s a spreadsheet that summarizes most of the important terminology.

Livor mortis  : Livor mortis is the accumulation of blood in the dependent parts of the body after death, which causes a purplish red discoloration of the skin (which means the old woman died with her face down/being the dependent part of the body) (Wikipedia).