Chapter 27

Chapter 27 - Dark Intentions Part 6

Lan Wangji finally turned his head, though his gaze remained slightly averted. Seeing this, Wei Wuxian blinked, feeling an inexplicable urge to cause some mischief. Just as he was about to tease him, a sound of breaking came from the table.

They both stood up and looked over. A tea cup and pot had shattered on the floor, and a Sealed Evil Bag lay amidst the white porcelain shards and spilled tea. The bag's surface was bulging, as if something inside was desperately trying to get out.

Though the Sealed Evil Bag seemed only palm-sized, it had the magical ability to store items. Both its inner and outer layers were embroidered with intricate incantations, strengthened with multiple layers of seals. Lan Wangji had previously sealed the arm inside the bag, placing it under the tea cup on the table. Seeing its restlessness now, he remembered they needed to play the "Lullaby" again. Without their nightly brief soothing, even this powerful Sealed Evil Bag couldn't contain the ghostly hand.

Wei Wuxian reached for the bamboo flute at his waist, only to find it missing. He turned his head and saw that Lan Wangji was already holding the flute, meticulously carving into it for a while before handing it back. Upon receiving it, Wei Wuxian saw that the rough details around the flute holes had been refined beautifully.

Lan Wangji said, "Play it well."

Recalling their previous disastrous duet in the Underworld Chamber that had enraged Lan Qiren awake from his faint, only to make him vomit blood and faint again, Wei Wuxian almost burst out laughing. "I admire him for putting up with me for so long." Not wanting to cause further trouble, he solemnly brought the flute to his lips. However, after just two notes, the Sealed Evil Bag suddenly swelled several times its size and stood upright!

Wei Wuxian blew a broken note and said, "What, it doesn't like my better playing because it's used to my terrible tunes?"

As if in response, the Sealed Evil Bag flew towards Wei Wuxian. Lan Wangji's fingers abruptly changed the tune, plucking the seven strings forcefully, causing them to vibrate with a thunderous roar. The Sealed Evil Bag was pushed back to its original place by the fierce music. Wei Wuxian continued playing as if nothing had happened, and Lan Wangji gently followed with the "Lullaby," harmonizing quietly and peacefully.

Once the song ended, the Sealed Evil Bag shrank back to its original size and lay still. Wei Wuxian inserted the flute back into his waist and said, "It's never been this agitated before. It's like something stimulated it."

Lan Wangji nodded slightly and turned to him, saying, "And it's something on you."

Wei Wuxian immediately looked down at himself. The only new thing on him today was the cursed mark transferred from Jin Ling.

Since Jin Ling's cursed mark was left in the stone castle on Traveler's Ridge, and the ghost hand reacted strongly to this mark, did it mean...

Wei Wuxian said, "Do you mean that the Nie family's sacrificial blade hall might have other parts of its body in the walls?"

The next morning, the two set out again for Traveler's Ridge.

Having been caught red-handed and revealing everything the previous day, Nie Huaisang had spent the night gathering his trusted disciples to clean up the mess left by the intruders. As Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji approached, Nie Huaisang had just instructed his men to patch up the wall where Wei Wuxian had dug out Jin Ling, placing a new corpse inside. Watching the white bricks being neatly laid, he wiped his sweat repeatedly, looking anxious. However, as soon as he turned around, his feet went weak, and with a forced smile, he said, "Hanguang Jun... and you..."

Wei Wuxian waved and laughed, "Nie Sect Leader, building a wall?"

Nie Huaisang wiped his forehead with his handkerchief, almost rubbing off a layer of skin, saying, "Yes, yes, yes..."

With a mix of sympathy and slight embarrassment, Wei Wuxian said, "Sorry. You might have to rebuild it again in a moment."

Nie Huaisang said, "Yes, yes, yes... Wait, what?!"

Before he could finish, Bichen (Lan Wangji's sword) was unsheathed. Nie Huaisang watched in dismay as the wall he had just repaired began to crack once more.

Destruction was always easier than construction. Wei Wuxian demolished the bricks with incredible speed, far faster than they had been laid. Nie Huaisang, trembling and clutching his folded fan, looked like he was about to cry, but with Hanguang Jun standing there doing nothing, he didn't dare say a word. After Lan Wangji briefly explained the situation to him, Nie Huaisang immediately swore, pointing to the sky, "No! Absolutely not! The corpses used in our sacrificial blade hall are all complete. There are no male corpses missing an arm. If you don’t believe me, I’ll help dismantle the bricks to prove my innocence, but we need to refill them right away. This is our ancestral tomb after all..."

Several Nie family disciples joined in. With helpers at work, Wei Wuxian stepped aside to wait for the results. Half an hour later, most of the bricks from the wall where Jin Ling had been buried had been removed. Some disciples pulled up their masks, while others took secret red pills to prevent any corpse transformations caused by human breath or presence. In the black soil, a pale hand, a vein-covered foot, and matted, dirty black hair occasionally emerged. The corpses were in various stages of decomposition—some were skeletons, some were partially decayed, and some were still relatively fresh. However, all of them were complete with all four limbs. No corpse of a man missing his left arm was found.

Nie Huaisang cautiously said, "Is dismantling this wall enough? Should we continue? Probably not, right?"

Indeed, it was enough. The cursed mark on Jin Ling was very dark, indicating that the object that left it was buried very close to him and would not be beyond this wall. Wei Wuxian crouched beside the row of corpses, deep in thought. Lan Wangji said, "Use the Sealed Evil Bag?"

Taking out the left arm from the Sealed Evil Bag to let it identify itself might be a good method. However, if it got too close to the other parts of its body, it might become excited and cause a more dangerous situation. Given the eerie atmosphere of this place, the risk was doubled, which was why they had cautiously chosen to come during the day. Wei Wuxian shook his head, pondering, "Could it be that this arm doesn't belong to a man? No, I can tell at a glance whether it's a man's or a woman's hand... Could it be that its owner had three arms?!"

Just as he found this thought amusing, Lan Wangji said, "Leg."

Hearing this, Wei Wuxian realized he had overlooked something—the cursed mark only affected the leg. He quickly said, "Take off the pants! Take off the pants!"

Nie Huaisang, horrified, said, "Why are you saying such embarrassing things in front of Hanguang Jun?!"

Wei Wuxian said, "What's there to be ashamed of? We're all men here. Help me out and strip the pants off these corpses. We're only dealing with male corpses here!" Saying this, he reached out his hand toward the waistband of the corpse's pants. Nie Huaisang hadn’t expected that after confessing everything yesterday, he’d now be in the Nie family’s ancestral hall, tasked with removing the pants from male corpses. He imagined the Nie family’s ancestors would each give him a good slap, leaving him crippled in both this life and the next. Tears streamed down his face, unable to stop. Fortunately, Wei Wuxian's action was intercepted by Lan Wangji. Just as Nie Huaisang was about to praise Hanguang Jun for his timely intervention, he heard Lan Wangji say, "I'll do it."

Wei Wuxian said, "You will? Are you really going to do this?"

Lan Wangji's brow twitched slightly, as if enduring something, and he repeated, "Don't move. I'll handle it."

This was the most shocking moment for Nie Huaisang today.

Of course, Lan Wangji wasn't really going to pull down the pants of the corpse. He simply used Bichen’s sword qi to gently slice through the corpses' clothing, exposing the skin underneath. Some of the clothes were already tattered and didn't need to be cut. In no time, he said, "I've found it."

Everyone hurriedly looked at the ground. The corpse next to Lan Wangji's white boots had two faint circular lines on its thighs. The fine threads were densely stitched. The color of the skin above and below the lines was slightly different. Clearly, the legs of this corpse did not belong to the same person as the upper body.

These legs had been sewn onto the body!

Nie Huaisang was dumbfounded. Wei Wuxian asked, "Who in the Nie family is responsible for selecting the corpses for the Hall of Sacrificial Blades?"

Nie Huaisang, in a daze, replied, "Generally, it’s selected and stockpiled by the family heads during their lifetimes. My elder brother passed away early and hadn't collected enough, so I helped select some... If the corpses had all their limbs and features intact, I kept them. Beyond that, I don’t know much else."

There was no way to know who had smuggled this corpse in. The list of suspects—from suppliers to Nie family insiders—was endless. It seemed that only by finding all the body parts, assembling the corpse and its soul, could they discover what had really happened.

With some effort, they separated the legs from the mutilated body. Wei Wuxian, as he placed the legs into a new Sealed Evil Bag, remarked to Lan Wangji, "Looks like this guy was torn apart and his pieces scattered all over. Let’s just hope he wasn’t cut up too finely."

Although Nie Huaisang had bid them farewell with "See you again," the look of terror on his face suggested he never wanted to see them again in this lifetime. They left Traveler's Ridge and returned to the inn, where they examined the three body parts more closely once they were in a safe place. Sure enough, the legs and the severed left arm had the same skin tone, and when placed near each other, they reacted strongly, trembling as if trying to reconnect. However, because a part of the body was missing in between, they couldn’t join. They must have belonged to the same person.

Apart from the fact that this person was tall, with long limbs, a strong physique, and formidable cultivation, everything else remained a mystery. Fortunately, the ghost hand soon pointed them in the direction of southwest.

Following its guidance, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji made their way to Liyang.