Chapter 4

The first thought that crossed Wei Wuxian's mind was that perhaps the flag formation set up by those few young men had gone wrong.

The things he created could cause great disaster if used improperly, which was why he had deliberately gone to check if the Zhaoyin Flags had been drawn correctly. So, when several large hands grabbed him and dragged him out, Wei Wuxian simply let them drag him, saving himself the trouble of walking. As he was dragged to the east hall, he saw it was quite a scene, with no fewer people than when the townspeople had gathered there during the day. All the servants and relatives had come out, some still in their undergarments, their hair uncombed, each looking terrified. Madam Mo, slumped in her seat, seemed to have just woken from a faint, with tear tracks on her cheeks and still more tears in her eyes. However, the moment Wei Wuxian was dragged in, her tearful gaze instantly turned into a venomous cold glare.

On the floor lay the corpse of Mo Ziyuan, covered with a white cloth, with only the head exposed. Lan Sizhui and the other young men were solemnly examining it, speaking in low voices. Their words drifted into Wei Wuxian's ears:

"...less than one incense stick of time since it was discovered?"

"We just subdued the walking corpse and were heading from the west courtyard to the east courtyard when we found the body in the corridor."

Wei Wuxian glanced at the body, and then couldn't help but look again.

The body looked like Mo Ziyuan, but at the same time, it didn’t. Although the facial features were clearly his younger cousin’s, the cheeks were deeply sunken, the eye sockets and eyeballs protruding, and the skin was wrinkled. Compared to the once youthful Mo Ziyuan, this corpse looked twenty years older. It was as if he had been drained of all life, his skin now a shriveled, papery shell stretched over brittle bones. If the living Mo Ziyuan had been merely unattractive, his corpse was now both aged and grotesque.

As Wei Wuxian was examining the body, Madam Mo suddenly rushed over. She had a glint of cold steel in her hand—a dagger. Lan Sizhui was quick to knock it away, but before he could say anything, Madam Mo screamed at him, "My son was brutally killed! I must avenge him! Why are you stopping me?"

Wei Wuxian, hiding behind Lan Sizhui, crouched and muttered, "Your son's tragic death has nothing to do with me."

Earlier in the day, Lan Sizhui had watched Wei Wuxian make a scene in the east hall and had heard many exaggerated rumors about this illegitimate son from others. Feeling sympathetic, he couldn't help but speak up for him, "Madam Mo, your son's body shows signs of having his blood and vitality drained, which is clearly the work of an evil entity. It probably wasn't him."

Madam Mo's chest heaved as she said, "What do you know! This madman's father was a cultivator, and he must have taught him many evil arts!"

Lan Sizhui glanced back at Wei Wuxian, who was pretending to be dazed, and said, "This... Madam, there is no evidence, and we shouldn't..."

"The evidence is on my son's body!" Madam Mo pointed at the corpse on the floor. "You can all see for yourselves! Mo Ziyuan's body tells me who the killer is!"

Before anyone else could act, Wei Wuxian grabbed the white cloth and pulled it from head to toe. One thing was missing from Mo Ziyuan's corpse.

His left arm, from the shoulder down, was gone!

Madam Mo said, "You see? You all heard him say it yesterday! This madman said that if Mo Ziyuan touched his things again, he would cut off his arm!"

After her outburst, she covered her face and sobbed, "My poor Ziyuan didn't even touch this lunatic's things, yet he was falsely accused and brutally killed..."

"Brutally killed!"

It had been years since he'd heard such an evaluation of himself. It felt oddly familiar. Wei Wuxian pointed at himself, rendered speechless. He couldn't tell whether he was the sick one or Madam Mo was. In his younger years, he had often spoken of exterminating entire clans, causing rivers of blood to flow—but most of the time, it was just talk. If words could truly accomplish such things, he would have dominated the cultivation world long ago. Madam Mo wasn't seeking revenge for her son; she just needed someone to vent her anger on.

Not wanting to engage further with her, Wei Wuxian thought for a moment, then reached into Mo Ziyuan's chest and searched. He pulled out an object. Unfolding it, he found it was a Zhaoyin Flag.

At that moment, everything clicked into place. "He got exactly what he deserved!"

Seeing the item taken from Mo Ziyuan's chest, Lan Sizhui and the others also understood what had happened. Connecting the dots from today's farce, it wasn't hard to guess the sequence of events: Mo Ziyuan, humiliated by Mo Xuanyu's outburst earlier, had harbored a grudge and planned to get back at him. However, Mo Xuanyu had been wandering outside and hadn’t shown up for half the day. Mo Ziyuan decided to wait until nightfall to secretly retaliate.

But that night, as he sneaked out and passed by the west courtyard, he saw the Zhaoyin Flags planted on the eaves. Despite being strictly warned not to go out at night, not to approach the west courtyard, and not to touch these black flags, Mo Ziyuan thought it was just a ploy to scare people off so they wouldn’t steal precious magical artifacts. He had no idea how ominous the Zhaoyin Flags were. Once held in one's arms, they turned the holder into a live target. Mo Ziyuan, who had a habit of stealing, couldn’t resist the temptation. While the flag holders were busy subduing the walking corpse in the west courtyard, he quietly took one.

The formation used six Zhaoyin Flags, five of which were set in the west courtyard, using those few young men from the Gusu Lan Family as bait, but they were protected by numerous cultivation family artifacts. Mo Ziyuan, however, had only stolen one flag and had no protective artifacts on him. The evil entities naturally targeted the easier prey. If it had only been a walking corpse, it might have been fine—even if bitten a few times, he wouldn’t have died immediately and could still be saved. Unfortunately, the flag Mo Ziyuan stole inadvertently summoned something far more terrifying. This unknown evil entity killed Mo Ziyuan and took his arm!

Wei Wuxian raised his wrist, and indeed, the wound on his left hand had healed. It seemed that the soul-binding contract had defaulted Mo Ziyuan's death as his "achievement." After all, the Zhaoyin Flags were originally created and passed down by Wei Wuxian, so this could be considered a case of ironic justice.

Madam Mo, aware of her son's bad habits, refused to admit that Mo Ziyuan's death was self-inflicted. In her anxiety and shame, her anger flared, and she grabbed a teacup and threw it at Wei Wuxian's face. "If you hadn't caused a scene and falsely accused him in front of so many people yesterday, would he have gone out in the middle of the night? It's all your fault, you bastard!"

Wei Wuxian dodged it. Madam Mo then screamed at Lan Sizhui, "And you! You useless bunch, cultivating immortals and exorcising evil, yet you couldn't even protect a child! My Ziyuan was only a teenager!"

These young men, still inexperienced, had only been on a few missions and hadn’t detected the abnormality of the place. Although they felt some guilt for their oversight, being harshly scolded without reason left them with a slightly green complexion. Coming from prestigious families, no one had ever dared to treat them this way. The Gusu Lan Family had strict etiquette, forbidding any rudeness toward ordinary people who couldn’t defend themselves, so although they were unhappy, they suppressed it, their faces turning awkward.

Wei Wuxian couldn't stand it anymore. "After all these years, the Lan family is still obsessed with their rigid sense of propriety. It's stifling. Let me show you how it's done."

He spat loudly and said, "Who do you think you're scolding? Do you really treat others like your servants? They’ve traveled all this way to help rid the place of demons and evil spirits, and they didn’t ask for a single coin. Now you think they owe you something? How old is your son? Seventeen this year, isn't he? And he's still a 'child'? How old is a child who can't even understand simple instructions? Didn't we repeatedly tell him yesterday not to touch anything inside the array and not to go near the west courtyard? Your son sneaked out in the middle of the night to engage in mischief, and you blame me? Or him?"

Lan Jingyi and the others let out a breath, their faces no longer turning green. Overwhelmed with grief and resentment, Madam Mo was fixated on the idea of death. It wasn't about dying to join her son, but about everyone in the world dying, especially the people in front of her. When something happened, she always ordered her husband around, shoving him and saying, "Call people in! Bring everyone in!"

Her husband, however, seemed dazed, perhaps still in shock from losing his only son, and unexpectedly shoved her away. Caught off guard, Madam Mo fell to the ground, stunned.

In the past, she didn't even need to push him; a slightly raised voice from her would have been enough for him to obey. But today, he dared to push back!

The servants were all frightened by her expression. Ah Ding, trembling, helped her to her feet, while Madam Mo clutched her chest, her voice shaking, "You... you... get out too!"

Her husband seemed not to hear, and Ah Ding gave several signals to Ah Tong, who quickly helped the master out. The east hall was in chaos. Seeing that the family had finally quieted down, Wei Wuxian was about to continue examining the body when, before he could get a good look, a shrill scream pierced through the yard and into the hall.

Everyone rushed out of the hall. In the east courtyard, two people were convulsing on the ground. One was Ah Tong, who was still alive, though sitting paralyzed with fear. The other body lay on the ground, its flesh seemingly drained and shriveled, like a desiccated husk, with one left arm missing and the wound not bleeding. The state of the body was exactly the same as Mo Ziyuan's.

Just as Madam Mo shook off Ah Ding's support and saw the corpse on the ground, her eyes glazed over, and she finally lost the strength to act out, fainting. Wei Wuxian, who happened to be nearby, supported her for a moment before handing her over to the rushing Ah Ding. He looked at his right hand again, and the wound was gone.

Before even stepping out of the hall, while still in the east courtyard, Madam Mo's husband died on the spot, in an instant. Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi, and the others all looked a little pale. Lan Sizhui was the quickest to regain his composure and asked the trembling Ah Tong, "Did you see what it was?"

Ah Tong was too scared to even speak, his teeth chattering, unable to answer after repeated attempts. Lan Sizhui, anxious, had his fellow disciple take Ah Tong inside the house. He then turned to Lan Jingyi, "Did you send the signal?"

Lan Jingyi said, "The signal has been sent, but if there are no senior cultivators nearby who can come to our aid, our people will take at least half an hour to arrive. What do we do now? We don't even know what we're dealing with."

Naturally, they couldn't leave. If any of the family's young disciples fled in the face of evil, it would bring shame both to the family and to themselves. The frightened Mo family members couldn't leave either, because the evil presence was most likely among them; leaving would be useless. Lan Sizhui gritted his teeth and said, "Stay and guard. Wait for reinforcements!"

Since the distress signal had been sent, more cultivators would arrive soon to support them. Wei Wuxian knew he should step back to avoid further complications. If the people who came didn't recognize him, it would be fine, but if they were someone he had dealt with or fought before, things could get unpredictable.

But with the curse on him, Wei Wuxian couldn’t leave the Mo family estate just yet. Moreover, the entity summoned had claimed two lives in such a short time, indicating it was extraordinarily vicious. If Wei Wuxian left now, by the time reinforcements arrived, the Mo estate might already be littered with corpses missing their left arms, including some from the Gusu Lan Family.

After a moment of thought, Wei Wuxian resolved to resolve this quickly, before more lives were lost.