Chapter 22

Chapter 22 - Yangyang Part 5

The noise came from every direction.

Front, back, left, right, above, and below—whispers and chuckles surrounded them. Men and women, old and young, their voices formed a murmuring ocean. Wei Wuxian could even make out certain stray words, but they vanished in an instant, leaving him unable to catch the exact terms.

It was too noisy.

Wei Wuxian pressed one hand to his temple and used the other to pull a small wind-evil disk from his Qiankun Bag. The needle of the wind-evil disk wobbled, then began to spin faster and faster, eventually going wild!

Last time, at Dafan Mountain, the wind-evil disk failed to point in any direction, which was already strange. But this time, it started spinning on its own, not stopping for a moment, which was even more bizarre.

A growing sense of foreboding shadowed Wei Wuxian's heart, and he called out, "Jin Ling!"

The two had been walking inside the stone castle for a while and had not seen any sign of life. Wei Wuxian called out a few times but received no response. The previous stone chambers had all been empty. However, upon reaching the deeper chambers, they suddenly came across a black coffin placed in the center of one room.

The coffin looked out of place, yet its deep black wood was strikingly beautiful. Wei Wuxian found it oddly appealing and couldn't resist giving it a pat. The wood was firm, and the sound was solid and satisfying. He praised, "Good coffin."

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian exchanged a glance, then both reached out to lift the coffin lid.

The noise intensified, flooding Wei Wuxian's ears as if they had been under constant surveillance. These unseen watchers had been quietly observing, discussing their every move. Upon seeing them open the coffin, they seemed to grow excited. Wei Wuxian braced himself for any number of horrors—rotten stench, clawed hands, poisonous water, toxic smoke, or vengeful spirits. Above all, he hoped to find Jin Ling. But nothing happened. The coffin was empty.

Wei Wuxian was slightly surprised and somewhat disappointed that Jin Ling wasn't trapped inside. Lan Wangji moved closer, and Bichen automatically slid out of its sheath, its cold light illuminating the bottom of the coffin. He then realized there was something inside, but it was much smaller than the corpse he had expected. It was hidden deepest at the bottom of the coffin.

A long blade lay inside the coffin.

The blade was unsheathed, with a hilt that appeared to be crafted from solid gold, giving it a substantial weight. The blade itself was slender and sharp, lying on a layer of red cloth at the bottom of the coffin, reflecting a blood-like color, emanating a chilling aura of slaughter.

Instead of a body, the coffin contained a blade. This was just one of many strange discoveries in the stone castle on Traveler's Ridge, each step revealing something more unsettling.

The two closed the coffin lid and continued walking inside. They found more coffins in other chambers, each with different wood textures and ages. Every coffin contained a long blade. Until the last chamber, there was still no sign of Jin Ling. Wei Wuxian closed the lid, feeling slightly uneasy.

Noticing Wei Wuxian's unease, Lan Wangji placed the guqin on the coffin and played a few notes, letting the music flow from his fingers.

He only played a short segment before withdrawing his hand, gazing at the still-vibrating strings.

Suddenly, the string trembled and automatically plucked a note.

Wei Wuxian said, "Wenling?"

Wenling was a famous piece composed by an ancestor of the Gusu Lan Family. Unlike Zhaohun, it was used when the identity of the deceased was unclear, and there was no medium. The player would ask questions through the guqin, and the responses from the deceased would be transformed into melodies by Wenling, reflected on the strings.

The automatic vibration of the string meant that a soul in the stone castle had been summoned by Lan Wangji. They would now converse through the guqin's language.

Guqin language was a unique secret skill of the Gusu Lan Family. Although Wei Wuxian had broad knowledge, there were still areas he couldn't grasp, and he couldn't understand the guqin language. He whispered, "Hanguang Jun, ask it what place this is, what it's used for, and who built it."

Lan Wangji, proficient in Wenling, played a couple of clear notes without hesitation. After a moment, the string vibrated twice again. Wei Wuxian hurriedly asked, "What did it say?"

Lan Wangji calmly replied, "It said, 'I don't know.'"

"..." Wei Wuxian looked at him and suddenly remembered a conversation from many years ago related to "Suibian." Feeling a bit embarrassed, he thought, "Lan Zhan has become quite something, even learned to tease me."

When the first question failed, Lan Wangji played another note. The string responded again with the same two notes. Wei Wuxian, recognizing the answer was "I don't know" again, asked, "What did you ask it this time?"

Lan Wangji said, "How did you die?"

Wei Wuxian said, "If someone were unintentionally harmed by another, it's possible they wouldn't know how they died. Why not ask who killed them?"

Lan Wangji raised his hand to pluck the strings. However, the response was still two sharp, metallic sounds—"Don't know."

A soul trapped here didn't know where it was, how it died, or who killed it. Wei Wuxian had never encountered such a clueless soul before. His thoughts turned, and he said, "Let's try a different question. Ask if it's male or female. It should know that."

Lan Wangji played accordingly. After withdrawing his hand, another string vigorously plucked, and Lan Wangji translated, "Male."

Wei Wuxian said, "At least we know one thing now. Ask if a teenager entered this place."

The response was, "Yes."

Wei Wuxian asked, "Where is he now?"

The strings paused before giving a response. Wei Wuxian hurriedly asked, "What did it say?"

Lan Wangji, with a solemn expression, said, "It said, 'Here.'"

Wei Wuxian was speechless.

"Here" likely referred to this stone castle, but they had just searched it thoroughly and hadn't seen Jin Ling. Wei Wuxian said, "It can't lie, right?"

Lan Wangji said, "With me here, it cannot."

Indeed, with Hanguang-Jun as the Spirit Inquiry player, the soul under his suppression couldn't lie and could only answer truthfully. Wei Wuxian began searching the stone room again, looking for any missed mechanisms or secret passages. Lan Wangji pondered for a moment and then asked two more questions. After receiving the responses, his expression shifted. Wei Wuxian, noticing this, hurriedly asked, "What did you ask?"

Lan Wangji said, "Age and hometown."

These questions were aimed at uncovering the soul's identity, and Wei Wuxian knew Lan Wangji must have received an unusual answer. "What happened?"

Lan Wangji said, "Fifteen years old, from Lanling."

Wei Wuxian's expression changed drastically.

The soul summoned by the Spirit Inquiry ritual was actually Jin Ling?!

He concentrated, listening carefully. Through the cacophony, he thought he could faintly hear Jin Ling's weak cries, but they were hard to make out.

Lan Wangji continued to play, and Wei Wuxian knew he must be asking about the exact location, staring at the strings, waiting for Jin Ling's answer.

This response was longer. After listening, Lan Wangji said to Wei Wuxian, "'Stand in place, face southwest, and listen to the string. One sound, one step forward. When the music stops, he will be in front of you.'"

Wei Wuxian turned to the southwest without a word. He heard seven string sounds and took seven steps forward. However, there was nothing in front of him.

The music continued, with increasing intervals, and he walked slower. One more step, two more steps, three more steps…

On the sixth step, the music finally stopped.

In front of him was only a wall.

The walls of the stone castle were double-layered, with solid bricks on the outside and soil packed in between. Wei Wuxian dug through the soil with his bare hands and uncovered a face with tightly shut eyes.

It was Jin Ling, who had been missing.

Jin Ling's face had been buried in the soil, and as soon as it was exposed, air flooded into his lungs, causing him to cough violently in a desperate attempt to breathe. Wei Wuxian’s heart finally settled when he saw Jin Ling was still breathing. Jin Ling had truly been on the brink of death just moments ago; otherwise, the ritual *Ask the Spirit* wouldn’t have detected his soul. Fortunately, he hadn’t been trapped in the wall for too long, or else he would have suffocated if it had gone on any longer.

The two of them busied themselves digging him out of the wall, but one thing led to another. The moment Jin Ling's upper body emerged, the sword on his back dislodged something else.

A pale, skeletal arm!

Lan Wangji gently laid Jin Ling on the ground, checked his pulse, and began administering treatment. Wei Wuxian, meanwhile, grabbed the sword sheath and started digging around the skeletal arm with practiced ease. Soon, a full skeleton emerged from the dirt.

This skeleton, like Jin Ling just moments ago, had been buried in the wall in a standing position. The stark white bones stood out sharply against the dark, muddy earth. Wei Wuxian dug through the soil and pulled away a few more bricks. After some searching, he indeed found a second skeleton nearby.

This one hadn’t completely decayed yet; there was still flesh clinging to the bones. The skull had disheveled black hair, and the tattered clothes were a pale red, indicating that it was a woman. She wasn’t standing but bending at the waist. The reason for her bent posture was because there was a third set of bones by her legs, crouching.

Wei Wuxian stopped digging.

He stepped back a few paces, and the overwhelming, unrestrained noise in his ears surged like a tide.

He was almost certain now. The thick walls of this entire stone castle were filled with human bones.

Above his head, beneath his feet, southeast, northwest; standing, sitting, lying down, crouching...

What kind of place is this?!