Chapter 54

Chapter 54: Ultimate Bravery Part 4

Figuring they had run far enough and this spot was safe enough, he quickly turned around and gently placed Lan Wangji on the ground.

Originally, his leg injury hadn't fully recovered, and on top of that, he had been bitten by the beast's sharp teeth and soaked in water. Under Lan Wangji's white robe, his body was already stained a deep crimson, with visible puncture wounds from the fangs. He couldn't even stand properly and fell down as soon as he was let go.

Wei Wuxian leaned down to check for a moment, then straightened up and walked around the nearby cave. There were some shrubs growing underground. After much effort, he found a few thicker and straighter branches. He used the hem of his clothes to wipe off the surface dirt and crouched in front of Lan Wangji. "Got any rope or belts? Hey, your forehead ribbon will do. Come on, take it off."

Without waiting for Lan Wangji to respond, he suddenly reached out and removed the forehead ribbon, swinging it to use as a bandage. He stretched out Lan Wangji's much-suffering leg and secured it firmly to the branch.

Lan Wangji's eyes widened in shock as Wei Wuxian suddenly removed his forehead ribbon. "You...!"

Wei Wuxian worked swiftly, tying the knot and patting his shoulder reassuringly. "What's with the 'you'? Let's not worry about the ribbon right now. Even if you like it, your leg is more important, right?"

Lan Wangji fell backward, too weak to sit or too stunned by anger. Wei Wuxian suddenly caught a whiff of herbal fragrance and reached into his chest, pulling out a small sachet.

The wet tassel of the pouch hung limply, looking delicate and pitiful. Recalling Mianmian’s words about it containing medicinal herbs, he quickly opened it to find semi-dry, semi-crushed herbs and a few small flowers. He said, "Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, don't sleep. Get up for a moment and see if there are any usable herbs in here."

With much effort, he managed to coax Lan Wangji into sitting up again. To his surprise, they found a few herbs that could stop bleeding and neutralize toxins. Wei Wuxian picked them out, remarking, "Didn’t expect this little girl’s pouch to be so useful."

Lan Wangji said indifferently, "Are you sure it's not to harass her?"

Wei Wuxian replied, "What kind of talk is that? When I do it, it's not harassment. Only someone as sleazy as Wen Chao would call it harassment." He then added, "Strip."

Lan Wangji frowned slightly. "What?"

Wei Wuxian said, "What else? Take off your clothes."

As he spoke, he acted, pulling Lan Wangji’s collar apart, revealing a snow-white chest and shoulders.

Lan Wangji's face turned green when he was suddenly pressed down and stripped of his clothes. "Wei Ying! What do you think you're doing!"

Wei Wuxian tore his clothes into several strips, saying, "What do you think I'm doing? It's just the two of us here. What else could I possibly be planning?"

Standing up, he untied his own clothes, reciprocating by exposing his own chest.

His collarbone was sunken, with smooth lines, youthful vitality, and strength evident.

Watching him, Lan Wangji’s face flushed with a mix of green, white, purple, black, and red, as if he were about to vomit blood. Wei Wuxian smiled, stepping closer. In front of Lan Wangji, he removed his wet outer robe and let it drop to the ground.

Wei Wuxian said, "Shirt’s off. Now for the pants."

Lan Wangji tried to stand but, with his injured leg, post-battle fatigue, and anger, he couldn't manage it. Overwhelmed, he actually coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Seeing this, Wei Wuxian quickly knelt down and patted several acupuncture points on his chest. "There, the congested blood is out. No need to thank me!"

After spitting out the dark purple blood, Lan Wangji felt a great reduction in the oppressive pain in his chest. He finally understood Wei Wuxian's intentions.

Ever since they entered Moxi Mountain, Wei Wuxian had noticed that Lan Wangji's complexion was poor, indicating stagnant qi in his chest. He deliberately frightened him to stimulate him into expelling the blood.

Though he understood it was for his benefit, Lan Wangji still couldn’t hide his annoyance. "...Can you stop making these kinds of jokes!"

Wei Wuxian defended himself, "That stagnant blood is harmful to your body. A scare is all it takes to get it out. Don't worry, I'm not into men. I won't take advantage of you."

Lan Wangji said, "Boring!"

Wei Wuxian had already noticed that Lan Wangji was unusually irritable today and didn't argue further. He waved his hand. "Alright, alright, boring it is. I'm boring. I'm the most boring."

As they spoke, the cold, eerie chill from the underground began to creep up Wei Wuxian's spine, making him shiver. He quickly got up and gathered another pile of dead branches and leaves, redrawing the fire-starting talisman in his palm.

The dead branches crackled and occasionally sent out a spark or two. Wei Wuxian crushed the medicinal herbs he had picked out earlier, then tore open Lan Wangji's pant leg and carefully sprinkled the crushed herbs over the three gruesome wounds where the bleeding had barely been stopped.

Suddenly, Lan Wangji raised his hand to stop him. Wei Wuxian said, "What's wrong?"

Without a word, Lan Wangji took some of the crushed herbs from Wei Wuxian's palm and pressed them onto his own chest.

Wei Wuxian yelped in pain as Lan Wangji pressed the herbs to his chest, "Ah!"

He had forgotten about the fresh wound on his body, which was also bleeding and soaked in water.

Lan Wangji withdrew his hand, and Wei Wuxian hissed a couple of breaths before pulling off the herbs pressed against his own chest and throwing them back onto Lan Wangji's leg. He said with a grin, "Don't be polite. I get injured all the time and still play in the Lotus Lake afterward; I'm used to it. A small sachet can only hold so much medicine. It wasn't enough anyway, and I think these three holes of yours need it more... Ah!"

Lan Wangji's expression darkened, and after a long silence, he said sternly, "If you know it hurts, don't be so reckless next time."

Wei Wuxian said, "What could I have done? Do you think I wanted to get branded like that? Who knew that Wang Lingjiao would be so vicious, almost branding someone's eye. Mianmian is a girl, and a very pretty one at that. If she had lost an eye or had such a mark on her face for the rest of her life, it would have been terrible."

Lan Wangji said coolly, "The mark on your body will also be there for the rest of your life."

Wei Wuxian said, "That's different. It's not on my face. And I'm a man; what do I have to fear? A man will get injured and scarred over a lifetime."

Shirtless, he crouched down and poked the fire with a stick, making it burn more fiercely. He said, "On the other hand, although this mark won't go away, it represents that I once protected a girl. And this girl will remember me for the rest of her life—she’ll never forget me. When you think about it, it's actually quite..."

Suddenly, Lan Wangji shoved him hard and snapped, "You know she'll remember you for the rest of her life!!!"

The shove landed right on Wei Wuxian's chest wound. He fell back, clutching his chest, and shouted, "...Lan Zhan!"

Lying on the ground, drenched in cold sweat, he groaned, "Lan Zhan, do we have some kind of grudge? This feels like a blood feud!"

Hearing this, Lan Wangji clenched his fist.

After a moment, he released his grip and seemed about to get up to help Wei Wuxian. But Wei Wuxian sat up on his own, backing away continuously. He said, "Okay, okay! I get it—you don’t like me. I’ll move back. Just don’t push me again—it really hurts!"

The wound was on his left side, and every time he lifted his left arm, it sent a sharp pain through him. Wei Wuxian hid to the side and picked up the white robe he had torn into strips earlier. He threw it far to Lan Wangji's side with his right hand. "You bandage yourself. I'm not coming over." He then hung the outer robe he had taken off earlier by the fire to dry.

After a while of silence, Wei Wuxian said again, "Lan Zhan, you're really strange today, so rough. The things you're saying don't sound like you."

Lan Wangji said, "If you don't have that intention, then don't provoke her. You do what you want, but it causes others distress."

Wei Wuxian said, "I'm not provoking you, so the distress isn’t yours. Unless..."

Lan Wangji said sharply, "Unless what?"

Wei Wuxian said, "Unless Lan Zhan, you like Mianmian!"

After a pause, Lan Wangji said coldly, "Please don't talk nonsense."

Wei Wuxian said, "Alright. I'll talk nonsense nine times then."

Lan Wangji said, "Is it fun to indulge in verbal sparring?"

Wei Wuxian said, "It is. And not only am I quick with words, but I'm also quick with my hands."

"Why am I even wasting time talking to you?" Lan Wangji muttered to himself.

Before he knew it, Wei Wuxian had scooted back to sit next to him and said obliviously, "Because, well, we're the two unlucky ones left here. If you don't talk nonsense with me, then who else can you talk to?"

Lan Wangji looked at this person who had recovered from their wounds but forgotten the pain. Just as Wei Wuxian was about to grin at him, Lan Wangji suddenly lowered his head.

Wei Wuxian screamed, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh stop!!! Stop stop stop!!!"

Lan Wangji buried his face in the crook of his arm, biting down hard on his own arm.

Wei Wuxian said, "Are you gonna let go?! If not, I’m kicking you!"

Wei Wuxian said, "Stop biting already! I’ll leave, okay? Just let go!"

Wei Wuxian: "Lan Zhan, you’ve lost it today! You’re acting like a rabid dog! Stop biting!"

Once Lan Wangji finally calmed down from his biting spree, Wei Wuxian jumped up and scrambled to the other side of the cave, saying, "Don't come over!"

Lan Wangji slowly straightened his upper body, adjusted his clothes and hair, and looked down without saying a word, calm as if the person who had just yelled, pushed, and bitten was completely unrelated to him. Still shaken, Wei Wuxian crouched down and resumed poking at the firewood, puzzled in his heart: "Why is Lan Zhan acting like this? Sure, he saved me, but I saved him too, didn’t I? Not that I want him to thank me, but why, after all this, can't we even be friends? Could it be... I'm really as annoying as Jiang Cheng said?!"

Just as he was doubting, Lan Wangji suddenly said, "Thank you."

Wei Wuxian thought he had misheard, but when he looked at Lan Wangji, he was also looking at him, solemnly repeating, "Thank you."

Seeing him bow his head slightly, Wei Wuxian quickly dodged, "No need, really. I just can’t stand people thanking me, especially when they do it as seriously as you just did. It’s creepy; it gives me goosebumps. No need to bow."

Lan Wangji said calmly, "You think too much. Even if I wanted to bow, I can’t move."

Seeing that he seemed to have returned to normal and even thanked him twice, Wei Wuxian, in his joy, couldn’t help but want to move closer. He liked to be close and cozy, but the tooth marks on his arm reminded him of Lan Zhan’s recent fit of madness. Fearing he might lose control again, Wei Wuxian restrained himself, looked at the dark cave ceiling, and said seriously, "Jiang Cheng and the others have escaped. It’ll take a day or two to get down the mountain. After that, they’ll definitely go their separate ways and won’t report back to the Wen family. But our swords were confiscated, and who knows how long it’ll take to find help. I think we’ll have to stay down here for a while. We need to figure out some solutions."

After a pause, he continued, "Luckily, this thing’s been staying put in the black pond and hasn’t come after us. But the bad thing is, because it doesn’t come out, it’s blocking the cave entrance under the pond, and we can’t get out either."

Lan Wangji said, "Maybe it’s not a monster. What do you think it looks like?"

Wei Wuxian exclaimed, "It’s a turtle!"

Lan Wangji: "There is a divine creature that has this form."

Wei Wuxian said, "The Black Tortoise?"

Xuanwu, or the Black Tortoise, is a divine creature combining a turtle and a snake, revered as the water god of the Northern Sea.

Lan Wangji nodded. Wei Wuxian showed his teeth and said, "A divine creature looks like this—a mouth full of fangs, and it eats human flesh; it’s quite different from the legends, isn’t it?"

Lan Wangji said, "This isn’t a proper Black Tortoise—it’s a failed divine beast that’s been corrupted into something demonic. Or rather, it’s a deformed Black Tortoise."

Wei Wuxian said, "Deformed?"

Lan Wangji said, "I’ve read about this in ancient texts. About four hundred years ago, a ‘false Black Tortoise’ wreaked havoc in Qishan. It was enormous and fed on living humans. Cultivators named it the ‘Tortoise of Slaughter.’"

Wei Wuxian said, "Is the Tortoise of Slaughter the 400-year-old beast Wen Chao led us to hunt?"

Lan Wangji said, "Its size is larger than the records in the texts, but it should be the same."

Wei Wuxian said, "It’s been four hundred years; it should have grown a bit. Wasn’t the Tortoise of Slaughter supposed to have been slain back then?"

Lan Wangji said, "No. Cultivators once formed an alliance to slay it, but that winter, a heavy snow fell, and the extreme cold caused the Tortoise of Slaughter to disappear, never to appear again."

Wei Wuxian said, "Hibernating."