The crueler the being was, the better Wei WuXian could control it. These walking corpses hadn’t been trained by him and couldn’t withstand direct manipulations from him. He didn’t have any materials on him, which meant that he couldn’t immediately make tools to ease the walking corpses. He couldn’t even muddle and assemble bits and pieces. The soaring green flames in the East Courtyard gradually grew dimmer. Suddenly, Wei WuXian found a solution.
Why would he need to come outside and find a dead person with strong resentment and a cruel personality?
There were not only one, but multiple corpses in the East Hall!
He ran back to the East Courtyard. As Lan SiZhui’s first solution failed, he found a second one. The disciples pulled out their swords and stuck them into the ground, making a sword fence. The ghost hand crashed into the fence, and they spent all their energy compressing their hilts so that it didn’t break out, paying no attention to who was entering and leaving. Wei WuXian strode into the East Hall and grabbed Madame Mo and Mo ZiYuan’s corpses, one on each hand, and spoke in a low voice, “Wake up!”
In a split second, Madame Mo and Mo ZiYuan’s eye whites turned up, and started making the shrill and powerful shrieks that ferocious ghosts made after they came back to life.
Amidst the shrieks, another corpse trembled and crawled up, making the lowest and faintest shriek. It was Madame Mo’s husband.
The shrieks were loud enough and the resentment was strong enough. Wei WuXian smiled, feeling quite satisfied, “Do you recognize the hand outside?”
He commanded, “Tear it apart.”
The three members of the Mo family whipped out like three clouds of black wind.
The left arm fractured one of the swords, and was about to break out, when three cruel corpses without left arms came at it.
Aside from being unable to defy Wei WuXian’s command, the family also loathed the creature that killed them, and let out their anger on the ghost hand. The main attacker was undoubtedly Madame Mo. Because female corpses were often especially fierce after they were modified, her hair was loose and her eyes were bloodshot. With nails that multiplied in length, foam gathering at the corners of her mouth, and shrieks that were enough to uplift the ceiling, she looked extremely insane. Behind her followed Mo ZiYuan, who cooperated with her and used both his teeth and his hands. His father was at the end, covering for the gaps between the attacks of the other two corpses. The struggling boys were stricken dumb with amazement.
They had only seen these battles between multiple fierce corpses in books and hearsay, and they all gaped as they saw the gore-splattered scene for the first time, unable to avert their gazes. They all thought that it was… Absolutely thrilling!
The three corpses and the hand were in the middle of a tough battle, when Mo ZiYuan abruptly moved out of the way. His abdomen area was attacked by the hand, causing a few chunks of his intestines to spill out. As Madame Mo saw this, she screamed incessantly and shielded her son behind herself. Her attacks were more violent, the strength of her fingers almost comparable to that of steel and iron weapons. But,Wei WuXian knew that she was gradually being overpowered.
Even three cruel corpses who recently died couldn’t subdue this single arm!
Wei WuXian was watching the battle attentively. His tongue was slightly curled, suppressing a sharp whistle inside of his lips, preparing it to be let out. The whistle would be able to evoke even more hostility in the cruel corpses, which might turn the tables. Then, however, it would be difficult to ensure that nobody knew that it was his doing. In the blink of an eye, the hand moved like lightning, ruthlessly and precisely breaking Madame Mo’s neck.
Watching as the Mo family grew closer to defeat, Wei WuXian prepared to blow the whistle that he suppressed under his tongue. At the same time, the echoes of two strums on a stringed instrument came from far away.
The sound seemed to have been played by a human. The timbre was ethereal and clear, carrying the bleak chills of windswept pines. The creatures battling in the courtyard all stiffened as they heard the sound.
Instantaneously, the boys from the GusuLan clan started beaming, as if they were born again. Lan SiZhui wiped the blood off his face and raised his head, happily exclaiming, “HanGuang-Jun!”
As soon as he heard the two faraway strums of the zither, Wei WuXian turned around and began to leave.
The sound of another strum came. This time, the pitch was higher, piercing through the sky with a few degrees of bitterness. The three cruel corpses backed off and covered one ear with their right hands. However, it was impossible to block out the Eradication Tone of the GusuLan clan by means such as this. They had just retreated a few steps, and slight bursting sounds came from within their skulls.
Because the arm had just endured a tough fight, after hearing the sound of the strings again, it instantly fell onto the ground. Although the fingers were still flinching, the arm was unable to move.
After a short moment of silence, the boys couldn’t help but to cheer loudly, celebrating the joy of surviving the incident. They had struggled through the exhilarating night, and their clan’s reinforcement had finally came. Even if they’d be punished because of reasons such as “being discourteous and making noise is harmful to the clan’s reputation,” they didn’t care.
After waving towards the moon, Lan SiZhui suddenly realized that someone had disappeared. He tugged Lan JingYi, “Where is he?”
Lan JingYi was absorbed in the act of rejoicing, “Who? Which one?”
Lan SiZhui replied, “Young Master Mo.”
Lan JingYi said, “Hmm? Why are you looking for that lunatic? Who knows where he ran off to. He’s probably frightened by my threats to hit him.”
“…” Lan SiZhui knew that Lan JingYi had always been careless and straightforward, not thinking twice about anything or suspecting anyone. He thought, I’ll wait for HanGuang-Jun to come, and then tell him about everything.
Mo Village was still asleep, but it was difficult to tell whether it was a real slumber or a faked one. Although the corpse fight was a mass of blood and gore, the villagers didn’t wake up during the early morning to watch. After all, even bystanders needed to choose which events to show up at. One that involved lots of screaming was definitely not the safest type.
Wei WuXian eliminated all evidence of the sacrificial formation in Mo XuanYu’s room as fast as he could, and ran out the door.
Unfortunately, the person who came happened to be from the Lan clan, but even more unfortunately, he happened to be Lan WangJi!
This was one of the people who had fought with him before, so he should retreat quickly. He was in a hurry to find a mount, as he passed a courtyard and saw a big millstone inside. A donkey was tied to the handle, chewing on its mouth. When it saw him run over rashly, it seemed like it was surprised, and eyed him sideways as if it was a real person. Wei WuXian made eye contact with him for one second, and was immediately touched by the minuscule amount of contempt in its eyes.
He tried to grab onto the rope and pull it out, but the donkey complained by making a few loud noises. Therefore, Wei WuXian had to use both his words and his strength to deceive it and get it onto the road. As dawn came over the horizon, they went off onto the main path.
Translator’s Notes:
Seal: This does not mean to seal a piece of paper. It means to “apply a sort of power to an object/person so that they cannot use one or more of their usual powers” (“Baidu Baike”).