Chapter 67

Chapter 67: Indecision Chapter 14 Part 5

The wife continued, "I just hope he knows who's responsible for his grievances. If he wants to take revenge, he should go after those cultivators. Please, don't bring disaster to ordinary families like ours."

Her husband said, "Who can say for sure? When he killed over three thousand people in Qishan, I was still very young, but I remember. Back then, not only the immortals who cultivated were afraid of him, but even ordinary families were terrified. He’s a heartless, bloodthirsty monster who doesn’t spare anyone."

Wei Wuxian’s smile slowly disappeared.

Initially, when he listened to the couple's casual chatter, he was quite interested. But suddenly, his head suddenly felt unbearably heavy. He couldn’t lift it to look at Lan Wangji’s expression. He couldn’t hear anything the couple said after that.

Just then, a terrifying roar suddenly came from outside the farmhouse. The family of three in the yard, who had been laughing and picking dishes, were so frightened by the inhuman roar that they dropped their bowls, causing the child to cry. The young man grabbed a hoe and said, "Don't worry! It's okay!"

Not only were they startled, but Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian were also slightly shaken. Lan Wangji was about to stand up, but Wei Wuxian, with a sudden thought, grabbed his clothes and said, "Don't move."

Lan Wangji’s eyes widened slightly. The roar was from an extremely vicious evil creature. If the farmer had to deal with it alone, he would surely lose his life. Wei Wuxian repeated, "Don't move."

A scream came from the yard, followed by an even more frenzied non-human roar, very close. The thing had already entered the door. Lan Wangji could no longer stay lying down. Bichen was drawn like lightning, but the family of three had already fled, screaming all the way out. Bichen sliced through the hay bales, sending straw flying everywhere, and in the swirling hay, a dark figure stood in the yard, with disheveled hair and bared teeth. Weird horns sprouted from its body, making it look both terrifying and absurd. Lan Wangji had never seen such a monster before and was slightly stunned. Wei Wuxian had already spoken, "Wen Ning, after not using your voice for many years, you've become even scarier."

The dark figure emitted a human voice and said helplessly, "Young master... I am, after all, a fierce corpse. The cry of a fierce corpse... is always like this."

Wei Wuxian patted his shoulder and said, "You’ve got quite the presence."

Wen Ning glanced at Lan Wangji, probably remembering that the Gusu Lan Family disliked untidy appearances. He nervously smoothed his hair. Wei Wuxian, seeing the branches stuck in his hair and body, looked at him with a face full of dismay, and pulled out a branch, saying, "Why did you suddenly pop up like that? And what happened to you? Did someone rob you? What's on your face?"

Wen Ning said, "Oh, it's just dirt and mud from the ground... I saw that you hadn't come out after entering..."

Wei Wuxian said, "You were following us the whole time?"

Wen Ning nodded, and Wei Wuxian understood. Wen Ning didn’t dare to show himself to anyone other than Wei Wuxian, so after they descended from Cloud Recesses, he secretly followed them. Seeing that they had entered the farmhouse and hadn’t come out for a long time, he went to eavesdrop. Hearing the couple discussing Wei Wuxian, he felt embarrassed and wanted to scare them away so that he and Lan Wangji could come out. Feeling that his usual look wasn’t scary enough, he covered himself in all sorts of junk.

Wei Wuxian almost laughed to death, while Wen Ning, with a look of shame, wiped the mud frantically. Suddenly, Wei Wuxian saw blood on Wen Ning’s hands and asked, "What happened?"

Wen Ning said, "Oh, it's nothing... It's not human blood."

Wei Wuxian then noticed the smell of blood coming from Wen Ning and felt a slight shock in his heart. Wen Ning quickly waved his hands and said, "It's not human blood! But no, it is blood, just not from a living person."

Wei Wuxian said, "Not from a living person? Did you fight with something?"

Wen Ning led them a short distance to a wild forest. There were two or thirty fresh earthen graves, and next to them was a half-dug pit. Beside the pit was a pile of corpses—or rather, what was left of them, as these corpses had already fallen apart. Some severed arms still twitched, fingers curling and uncurling. Other heads gnashed their teeth, jaws clicking open and shut. They had already turned into corpses.

Wei Wuxian said, "You really smashed them to pieces."

Wen Ning said, "If I didn't smash them so thoroughly, they would have gone to bite people. There's no way to stop them. There were such fierce corpses all along the way..."

Wei Wuxian said, "All along the way? You dealt with all these on the way?"

Wen Ning nodded nervously. His ability to identify his kind was stronger and had a wider range than that of living people. No wonder they hadn’t run into any trouble on the road. Wei Wuxian had been wondering why, despite the rumors of large numbers of fierce corpses heading towards Yiling, they hadn’t encountered even half of one. It turned out Wen Ning had already cleared the way ahead of them. Wei Wuxian said, "When did you start following us?"

Lan Wangji said, "Jin Lingtai."

Wei Wuxian looked at Wen Ning, and Lan Wangji continued, "That day, when the cultivators intercepted and fought, he lent a hand."

Wei Wuxian sighed, "I told you to find a place to hide and not worry about anything."

Wen Ning smiled bitterly, "But young master... where can I hide? Once, I had a place to return to and people to follow, but now, apart from you, everyone else in the world is completely foreign to me."

For a moment of silence, Wei Wuxian stood up, brushed the dust from his clothes, and said, "Let’s bury them."

Wen Ning quickly nodded and continued digging the half-dug pit. Lan Wangji drew Bichen, and with a slash of his sword, dirt flew everywhere, creating a crack in the ground. Wei Wuxian said, "Hanguang Jun, are you here to dig graves too?"

Lan Wangji turned around, about to speak, when he saw Wen Ning standing behind him, struggling to force a smile with his stiffened mouth. Wen Ning said, "...Lord Blue, need a hand? I’ve finished over here."

Lan Wangji looked behind him at the rows of dark pits and the tall, neat mounds of dirt. Wen Ning, maintaining his "smile," added, "I do this kind of thing often. I have experience. I’m fast."

As for who made him "do this kind of thing often," it went without saying.

After a moment of silence, Lan Wangji said, "No need. Go help—"

Before he could finish, he suddenly noticed that Wei Wuxian hadn’t moved at all and had been watching the whole time. When Wei Wuxian left the farmhouse, he had casually picked up a melon and was now contemplating how to slice it open. Seeing Lan Wangji's scrutinizing gaze, he said, "Hanguang Jun, don’t look at me like that. I don’t have anything in my hands, and my spiritual power is low. Each to their own skill, this is true. He’s the fastest at digging graves. How about we discuss how to eat this melon instead? Bichen has been used to dig grave soil and probably shouldn’t be used for now. Does anyone have a spare knife or sword?"

Wen Ning shook his head. "Sorry, I didn’t bring any."

Wei Wuxian said, "Hanguang Jun, do you happen to have Suibian with you?"

Lan Wangji: "..."

In the end, he retrieved Suibian from his sleeve. Wei Wuxian, holding the melon in one hand and the sword in the other, twirled the sword and swiftly cut the small melon into eight pieces. He then squatted on the ground, eating the melon while watching them diligently bury the bodies.

In the span of an incense stick, Wen Ning dug a row of perfectly uniform pits, placing the disassembled corpses inside. He said, "I’m very sorry, but I can no longer distinguish whose body is whose. If I bury anyone in the wrong pit, please don’t blame me..."

After finishing the melon and burying the remaining bodies, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji continued their journey.

A few days later, the two arrived in Yiling.

The Burial Mounds were less than ten miles ahead of this small town, and although Wei Wuxian didn’t know exactly what awaited them there, he could sense it wouldn’t be anything good.

Yet, Lan Wangji was by his side, walking with steady steps and a calm gaze. Wei Wuxian, who generally didn’t feel much of a sense of crisis, found it even harder to feel tense with such a person beside him. Walking through the streets of Yiling, surrounded by the local dialect, he felt right at home, refreshed and at ease. Even though he wasn’t buying anything, he couldn’t help but strike up conversations with street vendors in the local dialect. After chatting to his heart’s content, he turned to Lan Wangji and said, "Hanguang Jun, do you remember this town?"

Lan Wangji nodded slightly and said, "I do."

Wei Wuxian smiled and said, "I knew your memory would be better than mine. It was in this town that we met once before. By chance, you were here for night hunting, and I offered to treat you to a meal. Do you remember that?"

Lan Wangji said, "I do."

Wei Wuxian said, "But I’m a bit embarrassed that in the end, you were the one who paid the bill, haha!"

Sitting cross-legged on his donkey, Wei Wuxian swung his legs casually and asked, almost as an afterthought, "By the way, Hanguang Jun, have you ever thought about retiring and living in seclusion?"

Lan Wangji paused for a moment as if pondering, and Wei Wuxian quickly added, "Have you thought about what you’d do after retiring?"

Lan Wangji looked at him and said, "I haven’t thought about it yet."

Wei Wuxian thought to himself that it was just as well he hadn’t. He had already thought of a plan for him. He wanted to find a secluded place with beautiful mountains and clear waters, build a large house, and conveniently build another house next door for Lan Wangji. Every day, they would have two dishes and one soup. Ideally, Lan Wangji would cook; otherwise, they’d be stuck with his cooking. The accounts should also be managed by Lan Wangji. He could already picture Lan Wangji sitting expressionlessly at a handmade wooden table, mending his clothes and counting coins before heading out to work with a hoe on his shoulder, while he would... What would he do?

Wei Wuxian pondered earnestly about what role he would play. People say daily necessities like firewood, rice, oil, and salt, weaving and farming. Someone was already farming, so weaving remained. Thinking about himself sitting at a loom shaking his legs was quite creepy. It would be more suitable for Lan Wangji to weave. By day, they could fish and farm, and by night, they’d head out with their swords for some demon-hunting action. If they got tired of it, they could pretend there was no seclusion and re-enter the world. But still, they needed a little one... someone to complete the family.

Lan Wangji suddenly said, "Little what?"

Wei Wuxian said, "Huh?"

He realized he had spoken the last sentence aloud again and immediately straightened his expression. "I said, Little Apple needs a buddy."

Little Apple turned its head and spat hard. Wei Wuxian gave Little Apple’s head a playful slap and tugged on its long ears, laughing—until he couldn’t anymore.

Not for any other reason, but because he was reminded of something. Back then, he had indeed taken care of a little child. If the child had lived, he would be a teenager by now.

The Burial Mounds lay deep within the Yiling mountains.

People said the Burial Mounds were a mountain of corpses, where bodies could be found anywhere you dug. This was true. The Burial Mounds had once been an ancient battlefield, and for many years after, people had the habit of throwing unnamed corpses there. The resulting yin qi and resentment never dissipated, eventually becoming a nightmare for everyone in the Yiling area.

As if deeply imbued with resentment, the trees on this hill had blackened leaves and branches. A high wall over a zhang tall was built from the foot of the mountain, with dense curse inscriptions carved into the surface to prevent humans or non-humans from entering or leaving. This curse wall enclosing the entire Burial Mounds was first built by the third generation head of the Wen family of Qishan. Unable to cleanse the overwhelming tide of resentful spirits, they opted to seal and isolate the area instead. Wei Wuxian had once toppled this wall, and now it had been rebuilt and reinforced by the Jin family of Lanling.

But when they arrived, they found a long section of the wall had been toppled once more.