Chapter 89: Loyalty—Part Eleven

After a long silence, Jiang Cheng finally shouted, “What nonsense are you talking about?!”

Wen Ning looked calm, “This is not nonsense.”

Jiang Cheng, “Shut up! My core… My core…”

Wen Ning, “Diperbaiki oleh BaoShan SanRen.”

Jiang Cheng, “How did you know? Did he even tell you about this?”

Wen Ning, “He didn’t do it. Young Master Wei never told anyone about it. I saw it with my own eyes.”

Jiang Cheng’s eyes were red as he laughed, “Liar! You were there? How could you be there?! I was the only one climbing the mountain; you couldn’t have followed me!”

Wen Ning, “I didn’t follow you. I’ve been on the mountain since the beginning.”

The veins on Jiang Cheng’s forehead, “… Liar!”

Wen Ning, “Just listen and see if I’m lying! You covered your eyes with a black cloth while climbing the mountain. You held a long branch in your hand. You passed through a stone forest on your way to the summit, and you only made it through after almost an hour.”

The muscles on Jiang Cheng’s face twitched slightly. Wen Ning continued, “Then you heard the sound of a bell. The sound of the bell caused a flock of birds to fly away. You gripped a tree branch tightly, as if holding a sword. When the bell stopped, a sword was pressed against the center of your chest. You heard a woman’s voice, ordering you to stop moving forward.”

Jiang Cheng’s entire body began to tremble as Wen Ning raised his voice, “You stopped abruptly, looking very nervous, almost a little excited. The woman’s voice was very low. She asked who you were and how you found this place. You answered…”

Jiang Cheng roared, “Shut up!”

Wen Ning roared, “… You answered, you are Wei Ying, son of CangSe SanRen*! You talked about the destruction of your sect, the chaos at Lotus Pier, and your golden core being dissolved by Wen ZhuLiu, the Core-Melting Hand. That woman kept asking about your parents, and when you answered the last question, you suddenly smelled something fragrant before you lost consciousness…”

*the pronunciation change is due to the audio drama which pronounces it cang instead of zang.

Jiang Cheng almost covered his ears with his hands, “How did you know? How did you know?!”

Wen Ning, “Didn’t I tell you? I’m there, but not only that, Young Master Wei is there too. Besides us, there’s also my sister, Wen Qing. In other words, on this entire mountain, there are only the three of us waiting for you.”

“Sect Leader Jiang, do you really think that’s the secluded residence of a… a BaoShan SanRen? Young Master Wei himself doesn’t even know where to find such a place. His mother, CangSe SanRen, never revealed anything about her master’s whereabouts to such a young child! That mountain is just one of the barren peaks in Yiling!”

Screaming hoarsely, Jiang Cheng repeated the same thing over and over again, as if using his evil expression to cover up his sudden silence, “Nonsense! That’s enough dammit! Then why did my core get repaired?!”

Wen Ning, “Your core never recovered in the first place. It was completely melted away by Wen ZhuLiu long ago! You think it recovered because my sister Wen Qing, the best physician of the QishanWen Sect, cut out Young Master Wei’s golden core and replaced it with yours!”

Jiang Cheng’s face was completely blank for a moment, “Replace mine with it?”

Wen Ning, “That’s right! Why do you think he never used the Suibian again and never brought it with him when he went out? Was it really because of his youthful arrogance? Could it be that he actually enjoyed it when others called him rude and undisciplined, whether behind his back or not? That’s because even if he brought it with him, it wouldn’t be of any use! It’s simply because… if he brought his sword to the feast and the hunt that night, there would definitely be people who would challenge him to a duel, for whatever reason. And he, without his golden core, was depleted of spiritual energy. If he used his sword, he wouldn’t be able to last long…”

Jiang Cheng stood there, his eyes glowing green. His lips trembled. He even forgot to use Zidian. Suddenly, he threw Suibian and punched Wen Ning hard in the chest, shouting, “Liar!”

Wen Ning staggered back a few steps from the group. He picked up the Suibian, put it back in its sheath, and thrust it into Jiang Cheng’s arms. “Take it!”

Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but grab the sword. He didn’t move. At a loss for what to do, he stared at Wei WuXian across from him. It wouldn’t have mattered if he hadn’t seen, but now that he did, Wei WuXian’s frail appearance—face pale, blood still trickling down the corner of his lips—struck his heart like a hammer. Lan WangJi’s gaze chilled the air around him, making it feel like an ice cave.

Wen Ning, “Take this sword and go to the banquet hall, to the training grounds, wherever you want, and ask everyone you see to pull it out. See if any of them can pull it out! Then you’ll know whether I’m lying or not! Sect Leader Jiang—you, such a passionate person, have been comparing yourself to others your entire life, but you should know that you should never be able to match him!”

Jiang Cheng kicked Wen Ning before he staggered towards the banquet hall, holding Suibian in his hand.

He roared as he ran, almost madly. Wen Ning was kicked into a tree in the courtyard. He slowly stood up and turned to look at the other two. Lan WangJi’s originally clean face was now even paler than usual. His expression was also frosty. After taking one last look at the YunmengJiang Sect’s ancestral hall, he held Wei WuXian upright and finally walked in the opposite direction without looking back.

Wen Ning, “Y-Young Master Lan, where are you going?”

Lan WangJi’s figure stopped in front of the stairs, “Just now, he told me to take him away.”

Wen Ning immediately followed him, walking out of the gates of Lotus Pier with him.

At the pier, most of the boat groups they usually used to come to had already returned after arriving at their destinations. Only two old, abandoned ferries remained in front of the pier. They were long and narrow, shaped like willow leaves, capable of holding seven or eight people. Both ends of the ferries curved upwards, with two oars at one end. Carrying Wei WuXian on his back, Lan WangJi stepped onto the ferry without hesitation. Hastily, Wen Ning jumped onto the tail of the boat, taking up the oars willingly. With just two rows, the ferry drifted a few feet away. Soon, the ferry followed the current away from the pier, approaching the center of the river.

Lan WangJi let Wei WuXian lean against his body. He gave him two pills first. After making sure Wei WuXian swallowed them properly, he took out his handkerchief and slowly wiped the blood on his face.

Suddenly, Wen Ning’s nervous voice was heard, “Y-Young Master Lan.”

Lan WangJi, “What’s wrong?”

Wen Ning’s words in front of Jiang Cheng had vanished without a trace. She summoned all her courage before saying, “Please… Please don’t tell Young Master Wei that I’ve revealed his innermost secret. He’s already warned me very seriously not to tell anyone, no matter what. Although I probably won’t be able to hide it for long, I…”

After a moment of silence, Lan WangJi replied, “Don’t worry.”

Wen Ning seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, even though a dead person has no breath to breathe. He said earnestly, “Young Master Lan, thank you.”

Lan WangJi shook his head. Wen Ning, “Thank you for standing up for my sister and me back then, at Koi Tower. I’ll always remember that. For how I lost control afterward, I’m… truly sorry.”

Lan WangJi didn’t answer. Wen Ning continued, “Thank you so much for taking care of A-Yuan all this time.”

Hearing this, Lan WangJi looked up slightly. Wen Ning, “I thought everyone in our sect was dead. I really didn’t expect A-Yuan to still be alive. He looks so much like my cousin when he was around twenty.”

Lan WangJi, “He hid inside the tree trunk for too long and caught a bad fever.”

Wen Ning nodded, “I know he must be sick. He doesn’t remember anything about his childhood. I chatted with him for quite a while. He kept talking about you.” He said somewhat disappointedly, “Back then, it was all about Young Master Wei… And it was never about me.”

Lan WangJi, “You didn’t tell him.”

Wen Ning, “You mean the background? No, I don’t.”

He turned his back to the two of them, speaking as he diligently rowed the ferry, “He’s fine now. If he knew too much or remembered too many things… he wouldn’t be as good as he is now.”

Lan WangJi, “It’s only a matter of time.”

Wen Ning hesitated for a moment, “Yes. It’s only a matter of time.” He looked up at the sky, “Just like Young Master Wei and Sect Leader Jiang. It’s only a matter of time before Sect Leader Jiang finds out about the core. He can’t possibly hide it from Sect Leader Jiang his entire life, right?”

The night was silent, and the river flowed swiftly.

Suddenly Lan WangJi spoke, “Does it hurt?”

Wen Ning, “What?”

Lan WangJi, “Cutting the core of the body. Does it hurt?”

Wen Ning, “If I said no, Young Master Lan, you wouldn’t believe me either, right?”

Lan WangJi, “I think Wen Qing will find her way.”

Wen Ning, “Before we climbed the mountain, my sister did make a lot of anesthetics, hoping to lessen the pain of having her core cut. But she later discovered that the anesthetics were completely useless. Because if a person is under anesthesia when their core is cut, separated from their body, their core will also be affected. It’s hard to say whether the drug will dissolve, and when it will.”

Lan WangJi, “… Lalu?”

Wen Ning’s paddling paused for a moment, “So, the person whose core is cut off should be conscious.”

He had to stay awake. He had to watch the golden core connected to his spiritual path peel away from his body. He had to experience the suppression, calming, and gradual settling of his initially surging spiritual power, until it all became a pool of dead water, unable to rise again.

It was only after a long time that Lan WangJi’s voice came again, somewhat hoarse. The first word was trembling, “Constantly awake?”

Wen Ning, “Two nights and one day. Stay awake.”

Lan WangJi, “What are the possibilities?”

Wen Ning, “About half.”

“Half.” Lan WangJi took a deep, silent breath. Then he shook his head, repeating, “…Half.”

He tightened his arms around Wei WuXian’s shoulders. His knuckles were already white. 

Wen Ning, “Moreover, in the past, no one had actually tried transferring a golden core. Although my brother had written an essay on core transfer, he had only made some conjectures. No one had allowed him to experiment, so it was still just conjecture. All the seniors said that he was letting his imagination run wild. Besides, it was unrealistic. Everyone knows that no one would willingly give their golden core to another, because if this really happened, they themselves would become completely useless, never able to reach the top or go anywhere in life. So, when Young Master Wei first came back to pick us up, my brother refused to do it. He warned him that the article and doing the experiment itself were two different things. He wasn’t even half convinced.

“But Young Master Wei kept pestering him. He said that half the effort was fine. There was an equal chance of success and failure. If his core was destroyed, he would still live, but Sect Leader Jiang was different. He was too ambitious. He placed too much emphasis on such things. Cultivation was his life. If Sect Leader Jiang could only remain an ordinary person, unable to go anywhere in life, his entire life would be over.”

Lan WangJi lowered his head. His glassy eyes stared at Wei WuXian’s face as he reached out his hand. Finally, he only brushed his fingertips across Wei WuXian’s cheek, barely visible.

Wen Ning turned around. He couldn’t help but ask, “Young Master Lan, you don’t seem too surprised by this. Did you… Did you know about this too?”

“…” Lan WangJi replied, “I only know that his spiritual power was somehow disturbed.”

However, if you think about it, this is the truth.

Wen Ning, “If it weren’t for this…”

If not, it’s because there really is no second path to take.

At this point, the head resting on Lan WangJi’s shoulder shifted slightly. Wei WuXian’s eyelashes fluttered as he slowly woke up.