Chapter 89

Chapter 89: Dan Xin Chapter 19, Part 11

After being stunned for a moment, Jiang Cheng shouted, "What nonsense are you talking about?!"

Wen Ning, seemingly calm, replied, "I'm not talking nonsense."

Jiang Cheng said, "Shut up! My golden core... my golden core was..."

Wen Ning said, "It was restored by Baoshan Sanren."

Jiang Cheng said, "How do you know? Did he tell you this?"

Wen Ning said, "No. Wei gongzi never mentioned a single word to anyone. I witnessed it myself."

Jiang Cheng's eyes were bloodshot as he laughed, "Liar! You were there? How could you have been there! I was the only one who went up the mountain at that time, you couldn't have followed me!"

Wen Ning said, "I didn't follow you. I was already on that mountain from the start."

Jiang Cheng's forehead veins bulged as he said, "...Liar!"

Wen Ning said, "Listen to see if I'm lying! When you climbed the mountain, your eyes were covered with a black cloth, and you held a long branch in your hand. When you were near the top, you passed through a stone forest and took almost half an hour to get around it."

Jiang Cheng's facial muscles twitched slightly, and Wen Ning continued, "Then you heard the sound of a bell, which startled a flock of birds away. You tightly gripped the branch in your hand, as if it were a sword. When the bell stopped, a sword was pressed against your chest, and you heard a woman's voice ordering you not to move forward."

Jiang Cheng's whole body trembled, and Wen Ning raised his voice, "You immediately stopped, looking very nervous, but with a hint of excitement. The woman's voice was soft as she asked who you were and how you found this place. You replied..."

Jiang Cheng roared, "Shut up!"

Wen Ning also roared, "...You replied that you were the son of Cangse Sanren, Wei Ying! You spoke of your family's destruction, the chaos at Lotus Pier, and how your golden core was destroyed by Wen Zhuliu, the Core-Melting Hand. The woman repeatedly asked you questions about your parents, and when you answered the last one, you suddenly smelled a fragrance and passed out..."

Jiang Cheng looked as if he wanted to cover his ears, "How do you know? How do you know all of this!"

Wen Ning said, "Didn't I already tell you? I was there. Not only was I there, but Wei gongzi was also there. Not only me and him, but also my sister, Wen Qing, was there. Or rather, the entire mountain had only the three of us waiting for you.

"Family Head Jiang, did you really think that was some kind of secluded place of Baoshan Sanren? Wei gongzi himself didn't even know where to find such a place. His mother, Cangse Sanren, never revealed any information about her sect to him when he was so young! That mountain was just a barren hill in Yiling!"

Jiang Cheng repeated the same words hoarsely, as if trying to cover his sudden lack of vocabulary with ferocity, "Nonsense! This is fucking enough! Then why was my golden core restored?!"

Wen Ning said, "Your golden core was never restored, it was completely destroyed by Wen Zhuliu! The reason you thought it was restored was because my sister, Wen Qing, the best physician of the Wen family of Qishan, took out Wei gongzi's golden core and gave it to you!"

Jiang Cheng's face went blank for a moment, "Gave it to me?"

Wen Ning said, "Exactly! Do you think he stopped using Suibian for no reason? Why did he always go without a sword? Was it really because of youthful arrogance? Did he really enjoy people pointing fingers at him, saying he was rude and uncultured? It was because even if he carried a sword, it would be useless! Because... if he carried a sword to those banquets or night hunts, someone would inevitably challenge him to a sword duel, and without a golden core, his spiritual power would be insufficient. Once he drew his sword, he wouldn't last long..."

Jiang Cheng stood dumbfounded, his eyes green, his lips trembling, even forgetting to use Purple Lightning. Suddenly, he threw Suibian to the ground and struck Wen Ning hard in the chest, shouting, "Liar!"

Wen Ning took the blow, stepped back twice, picked up Suibian from the ground, sheathed it, and pushed it back to Jiang Cheng's chest, saying, "Take it!"

Jiang Cheng involuntarily took the sword, not moving, but instead looked at Wei Wuxian in a daze. It was fine if he didn't look, but once he did, Wei Wuxian's pale face and blood-stained lips hit him like a heavy hammer, and Lan Wangji's gaze made him feel as if he had fallen into an icy abyss.

Wen Ning said, "Take this sword, go to the banquet hall, the training ground, or anywhere, and ask everyone you see to try drawing this sword. See if anyone can draw it! Then you'll know if I'm lying or not! Family Head Jiang—you, such a competitive person, always comparing yourself to others, do you know that you could never have surpassed him in the first place!"

Jiang Cheng kicked Wen Ning, grabbed Suibian, and stumbled toward the banquet hall.

He ran while shouting, his entire person seeming to be in a frenzy. Wen Ning, who had been kicked into a tree in the courtyard, slowly stood up and hurriedly turned to look at the other two. Lan Wangji's beautiful face was now extremely pale, his expression cold and stern. He glanced at the ancestral hall of the Yunmeng Jiang family, adjusted Wei Wuxian's body on his back, and without looking back, walked in another direction.

Wen Ning said, "Lan... Lan gongzi, where are you going?"

Lan Wangji paused at the steps and said, "Just now, he asked me to take him away."

Wen Ning hurried after him, leaving the gates of Lotus Pier together.

At the dock, they saw that the large fleet of boats of various sizes that had brought them had all returned home after dropping off their passengers, leaving only a few unattended old ferries. The ferries were long and slender, shaped like willow leaves, able to carry seven or eight people, with slightly upturned ends and two oars resting diagonally at the stern. Lan Wangji, with Wei Wuxian on his back, boarded the ferry without hesitation. Wen Ning quickly hopped onto the stern, grabbed the oars, and after a few strokes, the ferry glided smoothly several meters away. Soon, the ferry drifted away from the dock with the river's current, heading toward the center of the river.

Lan Wangji let Wei Wuxian lean on him, first feeding him two pills. After making sure he swallowed them, he took out a handkerchief and gently wiped the blood from his face.

Suddenly, Wen Ning's nervous voice broke the silence: "Lan, Lan gongzi."

Lan Wangji said, "What is it?"

The bold demeanor Wen Ning had shown earlier in front of Jiang Cheng was gone. He gathered his courage and said, "Please... don't tell Wei gongzi yet that I revealed his core extraction. He sternly warned me never to tell anyone. Although it probably won't be hidden for long, I..."

After a pause, Lan Wangji said, "Don't worry."

Wen Ning seemed relieved, though as a dead man, he had no breath to spare. He said sincerely, "Lan gongzi, thank you."

Lan Wangji shook his head. Wen Ning said, "Thank you for standing up for me and my sister on Jin Lingtai back then. I’ve never forgotten. Later, when I lost control, I... I’m truly sorry."

Lan Wangji did not respond. Wen Ning continued, "And thank you for looking after A Yuan all these years."

At this, Lan Wangji glanced up slightly. Wen Ning said, "I thought everyone in our family was gone, not a single one left. I really didn't expect that A Yuan could still be alive. He looks just like my cousin did in his twenties."

Lan Wangji said, "He hid in a tree hollow for too long. He got a high fever and fell ill."

Wen Ning nodded and said, "I figured he must have been sick. He doesn’t remember anything from his childhood. I talked to him for a long time, and he kept bringing you up." He said, a bit disappointed, "Before, he’d always talk about Wei gongzi... but he never mentioned me."

Lan Wangji said, "You didn't tell him."

Wen Ning said, "You mean about his past? No, I didn’t tell him."

He turned away from the two behind him, rowing hard, and said, "He’s doing well now. Knowing too much, remembering things that are too heavy... would only make things worse for him."

Lan Wangji said, "He’ll find out sooner or later."

Wen Ning was stunned for a moment and said, "Yes. He’ll find out sooner or later." He looked up at the sky and said, "Just like Wei gongzi and Jiang Cheng. The core transfer—Jiang Cheng will find out sooner or later. He can't really hide it from him forever."

The night was still, and the river flowed silently.

Suddenly, Lan Wangji said, "Was it painful?"

Wen Ning: "What?"

Lan Wangji said, "Extracting the core, was it painful?"

Wen Ning said, "If I said it wasn’t painful, Lan gongzi, you wouldn’t believe me, would you?"

Lan Wangji said, "I thought Wen Qing would have a way."

Wen Ning said, "Before going up the mountain, my sister prepared a lot of anesthetic drugs to try to reduce the pain of the core extraction. But she later found that those drugs were completely ineffective. Because if the person is anesthetized when the core is extracted and separated from the body, the core would also be affected, and it would be difficult to guarantee whether it would dissipate or when it would dissipate."

Lan Wangji said, "...So?"

Wen Ning paused his rowing and said, "So, the person whose core is being extracted must be awake."

They must be awake, watching as the core connected to their spiritual veins is stripped from their body, feeling the surging spiritual power gradually calm, settle, and become ordinary. Until it becomes a stagnant pool, no longer able to stir up waves.

After a long while, Lan Wangji's voice finally sounded, slightly hoarse, the first two words seeming to tremble slightly: "Awake the whole time?"

Wen Ning said, "Two nights and a day, awake the whole time."

Lan Wangji asked, "At that time, what were the odds of success?"

Wen Ning replied, "About fifty percent."

"Fifty percent." Lan Wangji silently took a deep breath, shook his head, and repeated, "...Fifty percent."

He tightened his arm around Wei Wuxian, his knuckles whitening from the grip. Wen Ning said, "After all, no one had ever actually attempted this kind of core transfer before. Although my sister had written a treatise on core transfer, it was purely theoretical. No one could test it for her, so it remained purely theoretical. The elders all dismissed her ideas as fanciful. Moreover, it was entirely impractical. Everyone knew that no one would willingly sacrifice their own golden core for another. Because doing so would mean becoming a mediocre person for life, never reaching the pinnacle. So when Wei gongzi approached us, my sister initially refused, cautioning him that theory and practice were worlds apart. She had less than a fifty percent chance of success."

"But Wei gongzi persisted, arguing that a fifty percent chance was acceptable, a fair gamble. Even if it failed, he wouldn't be left without options, but Family Head Jiang was different. He was too proud, too fixated on the stakes involved. His cultivation was his very lifeblood. If Family Head Jiang were reduced to an ordinary, mediocre existence, his life would be ruined."

Lan Wangji lowered his eyelids, his pale, translucent eyes fixed on Wei Wuxian's face. He reached out, but ultimately, only lightly brushed his fingertips against Wei Wuxian's cheek.

Wen Ning glanced back and couldn't help but ask, "Lan gongzi, you don't seem very surprised. Did... did you already know about this?"

"..." Lan Wangji said hoarsely, "I only knew that his spiritual power had been compromised in some way."

But he had no idea the truth was so dire.

Wen Ning murmured, "If it weren't for this..."

If it weren't for the fact that there was truly no alternative.

At that moment, the head resting on Lan Wangji's shoulder stirred slightly. Wei Wuxian's eyelashes fluttered, and he gradually regained consciousness.