Chapter Text
It had been 14 years since Wei Wuxian, Yiling Laozu, the scourge of the world died in Burial Mound.
Today was the 14th anniversary of the encirclement and suppression of the Burial Mound. Previously, every year and every anniversary, all the cultivation sects would hold a banquet, commonly held in Jinlintai, and occasionally held in YunmengJiang, the two greatest victims of this despicable scourge. All the cultivators would spend the night, drinking, eating, laughing, and telling hundreds of stories about the evil deeds of that Wei Dog.
But today, no one held a banquet.
No one had the time to celebrate the anniversary.
Or actually, no one even had the time to remember that today was the supposed big day of winning against evil at all.
The cultivation world had exhausted themselves.
It all began a few months ago.
Mo Xuanyu was originally the person who had chosen death to avenge his grudge to his family, the Mo. To do so, he had sacrificed his soul and body to summon the Great Evil Yiling Laozu back to the living.
Nie Huaisang, the secret master behind the scene, had been anxiously waiting and monitoring the hut from morning to the next morning and waiting to see any change at all.
On some afternoon, the young master of Mo Manor came to Mo Xuanyu's hut to bully him as he usually did.
But once he opened the door, what awaited him was the strong smell of blood and the gruesome scenery of a mangled body lying in the pool of still freshly dripping blood.
Mo Ziyuan was a spoiled brat.
Never once in his life had he seen something as terrifying as he saw that day. He never even once saw how a person killed a pheasant or a cow, not to mention a real person bathed in blood and gore.
He had fainted on the spot, while A-Tong and the other servants were also scared shitless looking at the situation in Mo Xuanyu's hut. They could only bring Mo Ziyuan back to the Mo Manor and didn't tell anything about Mo Xuanyu's condition at all.
His subordinate whom Nie Huaisang commanded to secretly monitor the hut took a peek inside the hut and quickly checked the situation. Inside, Mo Xuanyu's body had started to grow cold. He died from the excessive loss of blood. It seemed like Mo Xuanyu originally had cut 3 slices of wounds in his arm for the contract, but when the ritual turned out to be failed, there was no sign of the appearance of Yiling Laozu, neither did any sign his body was taken by another soul at all, Mo Xuanyu eventually grew desperate and cut his body all over in order to produce more blood to strengthen the array.
A pity, it's not the blood or the array that was wrong, it's just...the soul he intended to call had already been scattered 13 years ago, dissipated with time, and got erased from existence, unable to go back to the earth nor enter the reincarnation circle.
Nie Huaisang was at a loss.
The plan to resurrect Wei Wuxian was the perfect plan, but also the most desperate plan he had in his sleeves.
On the bright side, if it succeeded, then Nie Huaisang's plan was guaranteed to succeed as well, while the processes onwards would also be a lot easier with the assistance of Wei Wuxian.
But the downside of this plan was, it was a big gamble with only 50% of possibility. Thus, although this plan was Nie Huaisang's grand plan, he actually still arranged another plan in case this plan was thwarted.
Though, he himself knew, his other plan consisted of many worst-case scenarios...
Right now, when his subordinate reported to him of Mo Xuanyu's death, it was clear that Wei Wuxian's soul was unable to be called, either by the mass soul calling array made by the cultivation's world, even Hanguang-Jun's inquiry had never heard an answer. And now, the most brutal method to forcefully drag the soul to the living world was proved to be failed as well.
In other words, once lost it will be eternally lost. Once died, Wei Wuxian truly could not be back to the living.
Sighing helplessly, Nie Huaisang could only close his eyes and went forward to the next plan.
The next day, Gusulan disciples went to Mo Manor to deal with the low-level corpse's problem.
At night, Mo Ziyuan who was still shivering and could not forget the gore sight in Mo Xuanyu's hut was dragged out by his mother. Madam Mo had always wanted to promote his son to the big sect, she wanted Mo Ziyuan to linger around Gusulan disciples and make a big impression in their nighthunt. Mo Ziyuan who was already scared was even more scared to go around at night while still remembering the bloody sight of Mo Xuanyu. Thinking that Spirit's attraction Flag was a precious artifact, he took one of them for his self-protection....and the result was, what everyone think it would be.
Not long after, the scream of Madam Mo was heard from everywhere.
The servants were ordered to drag Mo Xuanyu to the courtyard, because in the Mo House if something happened it must be blamed on Mo Xuanyu. Unfortunately, the person whom they used to throw all the blame onto was not there anymore. Thus, what happened was exactly another series of screams from the servants who went and found the mangled corpse of Mo Xuanyu and the blackened pool of blood painted everywhere on the Hut's floor.
Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi hurried to check the hut and were also horrified at what they found there.
It's not like they never saw a bloody scene. It's just, they're used to dealing with a walking corpse and evil spirits. When faced with regular dead people especially in a gruesome manner, and seeing the ominous array that was obviously drawn from blood, they did not know what to do. A distress fireworks signal was then shot to the sky, asking for help from the Seniors nearby.
They hadn't gotten any time to take care of Mo Xuanyu's case when they heard another series of screams from the courtyard. Helpless, both of them quickly went back to the courtyard only to see that the situation was even worse, because Madam Mo was currently strangling her servant, and at the side, her husband's body was slumped, dead in the same manner as Mo Ziyuan.
In fact, all Gusulan disciples were top class in theory and cultivation abilities. But still, when it came to the real world and real cases, their flaws were especially glaring. They're after all still 15 and 16-year-old disciples who hadn't gone into many night hunts to gain experiences.
The situation at hand was already chaotic, they could not think straight and analyze better. They were distraught and could not find the evil spirits, not until Madam Mo who was possessed attacked Lan Sizhui and grabbed his body.
The sudden turn of events had shocked the Lan Juniors. Lan Jingyi quickly drew his sword to attack Madam Mo's hand.
Unexpectedly, Madam Mo's body slumped down and die quietly just like any other corpse before her. Meanwhile, on the side, Lan Sizhui had been the one who screamed painfully instead. His left arm shot out to the sky with blue veins tensed visibly as if it was about to burst out from under his skin. It was clear that Lan Sizhui was trying so hard to prevent the arm from strangling his own neck or strangling other people's neck.
Lan Jingyi was panicking and tried to grab Lan Sizhui's left arm, "Sizhui, hang on!"
"Arrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" An almost inhuman scream came out from Lan Sizhui's throat.
The "arm" had sucked Lan Sizhui's, and Lan Jingyi's life essences at the same time after Lan Jingyi made a contact with the left arm.
Though they did not immediately die like the Mo family before them, Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi were in unimaginable pain and their left arm was devoured bits by bits. Both their complexion was pale, black veins intruded on their skins and coloring their neck and face,
...it was the scene Lan Wangji saw when he first arrived at Mo Manor.
Even if at the end the left arm was suppressed and got retracted from Sizhui and Lan Jingyi's body, the two young boys still lost their left arm. Their spirits were sucked thoroughly by the evil arm. For Lan Jingyi even if he stayed alive, he was no different from a disabled mortal human.
While Lan Sizhui....he was in a much worse state.
Lan Wangji fell to his knees with a blank look on his face.
His hands were trembling when he took Lan Sizhui's body in his arms.
"Hanguang-Jun....I, I know you will come," Sizhui opened his eyes and tried to speak, "I, I'm glad the others were not hurt," he sighed and smiled in the end before he lost consciousness.
"A-Yuan...,"
the words could not contain how much grief Lan Wangji felt at this moment.
He arrived as fast as he could, and he was just late for a mere one minute.
Mere minutes....and many things could happen in that mere one minute.
His face distorted, his eyes were bloodshot, and his whole body that was hunched in the ground while cradling Sizhui was quivering all over.
Lan Wangji seldom cried.
The last time he cried was 13 years ago when he knew Wei Ying's death and the months after.
3 years after his seclusion was over and his body was healed, Lan Wangji finally shut his heart and never shed any tears ever again.
But right now, as if the dam was broken, his tears flowed continuously, drenching the agonized look on his face.
13 years ago he had failed to protect Wei Ying,
and now he had failed to protect the last legacy of that person as well...
The journey back to Gusulan was gloomy.
Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi were rushed to the medical center as fast as they could.
After the Gusulan Cultivators who were proficient in medics tried their very best, at the end of the day, Lan Jingyi was rendered in a disabled mortal human body.
While even though Lan Sizhui did not die that day, he just had a few more months left with this kind of body and injury.
The evil arm had not only absorbed his spiritual power, but also sucked out his life essence from his soul.
Originally, Lan Xichen had intended to visit Jinlintai to discuss the upcoming Cultivation Conference. But when Lan Sizhui was in his death bed, another Gusulan disciple was crippled, and Lan Wangji was grieving, he decided to cancel his plan, and assisted his uncle to study the evil arm harboring a heavy resentment inside.
Calling out the soul with Evocation had failed.
Not only did it fail, but even Lan Qiren and the other Gusulan elders were also injured and bleeding from their 7 Orifices due to the backlash. Lan Xichen was the only one holding on until later Lan Wangji was called and helped Lan Xichen to suppress the arm.
They realized that the soul of this arm was cut off in pieces along with the body.
Lan Xichen knew that Lan Sizhui was Lan Wangji's bottom line after Wei Wuxian's death. Looking at the boy lying in a death bed, a young boy full of possibilities was rendered to mere flesh and bone, and his life was counted to a few more months, Lan Wangji kept blaming himself for not coming faster. He kept blaming himself for his failure to protect Sizhui. He didn't want to leave Sizhui's sides, not even an inch, and he was determined to take care of Sizhui in his death bed.
Lan Xichen was also sorrowful to see the state of his younger brother.
The least he could do was investigate this evil arm and bring the problem to light to appease Lan Sizhui's sacrifice.
Lan Xichen went to Qinghe as the arm had pointed at.
In Qinghe, he directly came to the person in charge, QingheNie. He came to meet Nie Huaisang and enquired about any strange evil place or strange occurrence that had happened recently.
Nie Huaisang, "Er-ge, I don't know, I don't know, I really do not know anything." The young Sect Leader was still as clumsy and hopeless as ever.
He continued helplessly, "The only problem I know is still about the saber tomb. It seems like some thief went to our tomb curiously and disturbed the tranquility of the tomb not long ago. The tomb is restless recently. Er-ge please accompany me, please, I do not know what to do!"
The Headshaker was after all still deserving of his title. Shaking his head continuously, wailed pitifully and asked for help instead, when he was asked for help by others.
They went to the saber tomb, and the spirits inside the tomb were indeed restless. The reason was finally revealed to be some thieves who were swallowed by the tomb's wall. Though disappointed for not finding any lead about the Evil arm, Lan Xichen still helped Nie Huaisang to solve his Sber Tomb's problem.
It was the least he could do to make his Sworn Brother, Nie Mingjue, who had died 10 years ago to be at ease in the underworld...
Unexpectedly, in the process of digging out the thiefs' body, suddenly the evil arm in Lan Xichen's possession was agitated. Feeling suspicious, Lan Xichen decided to dig out more of the Saber Tomb's wall. Finally, when one of the corpses was dug out, the arm acted even fiercer, and voila, the mismatched pair of legs was found!
"Er-ge, what is this!? How could this thing end up being here? I do not know, I do not know anything. Er-ge, there should have been no one who knows about this tomb, really, what should I do, Er-ge??" Another wailing, another panic, another distressed expression, another horrified look, was let out by The Infamous Headshaker.
Truly, only a Headshaker, that when others found a problem in his area, would he wail and ask their help and what should he do instead of giving them an explanation. Truly befitting of someone who knows nothing even to his own area----Or so what the people had always thought him as.
Lan Xichen was helpless and was left to try his best to find the answer himself. But first, he needed a confirmation,
"Huaisang, aside from you, do any of your subordinates have access to this tomb?"
"My subordinates? Huh...? No, I don't think so?" QingheNie's Sect Leader frowned in bewilderment.
He added quickly, "It's true that they can come to this tomb, but they need to go with me in order to pass the mass array. Only me, Er-Ge, and San-Ge have free passes, Naturally, I would not go here every day if there weren't any disturbance. Besides, who wants to plant an evil thing in a sacred Burial ground?" Nie Huaisang complained sullenly.
Lan Xichen fell into silence.
It was not like he didn't know it himself. As Nie Mingjue died, he and Jin Guangyao had been like the other owner of QingheNie, as they tried to support Nie Huaisang who at that time knew nothing and was unprepared to be a Sect Leader.
Nie Huaisang's answer was already there in his mind...to be honest.
At this time, Nie Huaisang who was crouching on the tomb's floor and buried the other corpses back to the wall suddenly muttered,
"...San-Ge,"
"No!" Lan Xichen felt like his heart was almost jumped out and unconsciously raised his voice.
Nie Huaisang looked back at Lan Xichen and cowering, "Er-Ge, why did you shout so suddenly? You scared me~" he whined. "I wanted to tell you, let's ask San-Ge and ask for his help. San-Ge is smart, he must know what to do at this time," Nie Huaisang blinked innocently at the end of his speech.
Lan Xichen didn't even realize that he had held his breath a while ago. As he looked at Nie Huaisang and heard his explanation, he finally let out a relieved breath.
"Huaisang...this matter, let Er-Ge check about it for a while. A-Yao, your San-Ge, let's not bother him too much."
At this time Lan Xichen didn't know why but his heart was heavy.
He went to Yueyang as the arm pointed at next.
In Qinghe, there's QingheNie Sect who's responsible for the area and could be asked for help. But Lan Xichen knew that the Chang clan in Yueyang was destroyed and even the last descendant had died a few years ago. That way, he had no choice but to ask the Civilians to investigate.
He went to the Chang Manor after he knew that a strange haunting case had been happening for years. Though he had slightly suspected that it was just the Remaining Resentful souls from the massacred Chang Clan, but the event in Qinghe Burial Ground had taught him not to brush off any chance.
And, it was the right choice. Because later, he had inexplicably encountered a gravedigger and even went to fight with him. It seemed like this grave digger wanted to take the body parts Lan Xichen was looking for.
The grave digger's face was clouded with black mists, and his sword was hidden in the same manner as well. Lan Xichen and the other senior cultivators he brought with him quickly surrounded the person, cutting off his retreat. Never in his mind would he think that the next thing the gravedigger did was, attacking them...with a Gusulan Sword Style!
In a moment of surprise and confusion, Lan Xichen's move faltered for a second. But it was in that second that the grave digger ended up taking advantage of. He had quickly activated a teleportation talisman and went in a flash with the body part.
Lan Xichen had lost the opportunity to arrest the person as well as losing the body part from the Evil arm he had been pursuing.
His heart that was already heavy a while ago grew even more restless.
It was because he knew the Evil arm was not just a mere Evil creature, but there were other people behind them controlling the situation. Either they were the people who had killed and caused the Evil arm to harbor intense malice...or they were experimenting with corpses and Demonic Cultivation to cause havoc.
In addition, the Gusulan Sword Style used by the Gravedigger had given him a big blow. While he didn't recognize the person's personal sword style, the thought that Gusulan might have been consciously or unconsciously involved in the appearance of such a malicious being...was a serious matter.
Thus, he quickly sent one of the senior cultivators who were with him back to Gusulan to enquire any Gusulan member who was out within the days.
While waiting for the report, Lan Xichen went to Yi City, another point the evil arm had pointed at.
In the city that had been transformed into a dead city, he encountered no ghost or ordinary corpses, but many living corpses! That was a corpse who was originally made right from a living human. The most shocking thing was he finally met Xue Yang who commanded a giant horde of those living corpses using the Stygian Tiger Seal.
Once he saw Xue Yang, Lan Xichen felt like fainting.
Around a decade ago, Xue Yang was kicked out of JinLintai by Jin Guangyao. A-Yao said at that time that he had already killed Xue Yang. After all, the boy not only massacred the whole Clan, mortal or cultivators in the Chang Clan, he had also massacred the whole Baixue Temple, just because the one who had caught him previously was Song Lan!
With the saber tomb, and now the appearance of Xue Yang, Lan Xichen did not know what to think anymore.
Xue Yang didn't even try to entertain himself to fight directly with Gusulan cultivators.
Lan Xichen couldn't chase the young man and tried to ask many things he wanted to find the answer for. He and several Gusulan senior cultivators were preoccupied with the endless living corpses spouting corpses powder as well as trying to find the remaining body part.
When suddenly a fierce corpse Song Lan appeared, they fell into more disadvantage. F
The fierce Corpse Song Lan was truly fierce. It reminded them of the time where Ghost General Wen Ning went rampaged at the trial in Jinlintai after looking at Wen Qing who was burned alive in front of him. Between the attack of thousands of corpses, Song Lan, and Xue Yang, even Lan Xichen got injured seriously, while the other Gusulan Senior Cultivator fell to death one after another.
In the chaos, a masked man quietly and suddenly came, he grabbed Lan Xichen, and as quickly as he appeared, Lan Xichen had also transported away with the teleportation talisman.
Meanwhile, the Gusulan senior cultivator who was sent to enquire about the in and out of Gusulan cultivators, within the days they had encountered the gravedigger, was still in frenzy to interrogate many Gusulan cultivators who were out during that period. He intended to report the current finding to Lan Xichen and asked for further command.
But a few days later, Gusulan had suddenly lost contact with Lan Xichen and several senior cultivators who were with him.
The last time they knew was Lan Xichen said he'd go to Yi City.
Again, just when they're about to go find Lan Xichen in Yi City, suddenly they heard more news,
Yiling Laozu is back!
And now the Feared Demon had kidnapped many young sect heirs to the Burial Mound for revenge!
All the sect leaders in cultivation sects had almost gone crazy. After all, it was their sons and heirs who were kidnapped!
They quickly went to Jinlintai and amassed the forces for the second siege of Burial Mound.
Gusulan was helpless.
They had lost contact with their sect leader and the other senior cultivators who were supposed to investigate the Evil arm. And now, new trouble was already brewing! They didn't ask for this!
Lan Qiren informed Lan Wangji about the matter, asking him to lead Gusulan cultivators. But the Uncle was faced with an answer,
"Forgive me, Uncle, Wangji must refuse. Wei Ying is dead. Just how far do people intend to smear Wei Ying's name for their own problem? Wangji has faith in Wei Ying's character. This is not something he would do, not before, and not in any way."
After that, he went back to care for Sizhui.
Lan Qiren knew it was no use to pester his younger nephew any longer.
In the end, he could only begrudgingly go and led several Gusulan cultivators to join the second siege in Jinlintai.
He had also hoped that the reason Lan Xichen had been missing was due to this case. Perhaps the Sect Leader of Gusulan had already come to Jinlintai, visiting his sworn brother, Lianfang-Zun, as he always did.
Unfortunately, Lan Qiren was bound to be disappointed. There was no news of Lan Xichen or any other Gusulan senior cultivators. But since he had already come to the Siege meeting, Lan Qiren couldn't just go back to Gusu and ditch the other Sect Leaders whose heirs were kidnapped.
The second siege of Burial Mound went with this formation,
YunmengJiang and LanlingJin as the main force led by Jiang Wanyin. As Jin Guangyao was apparently severely injured after Yiling Laozu had attacked LanlingJin and kidnapped LanlingJin juniors, thus LanlingJin forces were following under Jiang Wanyin.
Gusulan was led by Lan Qiren and QingheNie was led by Nie Huaisang for the flank, and the rest consisted of the smaller cultivation sects and rogue cultivators for support.
Several months ago, or precisely a week after the tragedy in Mo Manor, LanlingJin lost its heir, Jin Rulan, Jin Ling.
It was the reason why the banquet that was supposed to be held in Jinlintai was also canceled.
At that time Lan Xichen was already out from Gusu and didn't hear the news. He just got the news after he arrived at QingheNie saber tomb, told by Nie Huaisang. But back then, when he knew that Jin Ling apparently had also died in a night hunt, he was even more determined to solve the evil body parts that had taken Sizhui and Jingyi's life.
Lan Xichen didn't know what kind of strong evil spirits could take the life of Jin Ling who was always followed closely by Sandu Sengshou. Even so, the case of Sizhui and the evil arms was already clear evidence. If out there, other strong evil spirits were to be let out in the open, they would take more lives aside from Jin Ling and Sizhui! That's why, Lan Xichen didn't immediately go to show his condolence, but tried to solve the problem of Evil arm first.
Jin Ling, Jin Rulan, had died after encountering a soul-devouring Goddess in Dafan Mountain. Though, no one alive actually knew about the real cause of his death.
In Dafan Mountain, because Gusulan disciples had hurried back to the Cloud Recesses, aside from YunmengJiang cultivators, there were no other cultivators from the big sects.
After all, it was known far and wide that whenever LanlingJin's heir went into a nighthunt, he'd go to dominate and monopolize the whole night-hunting area. The young boy was even followed by the fearsome Sandu Sengshou. No other cultivators aside from the fearless Gusulan who keep coming to where chaos is, dared to offend the little Heir by hunting the same target.
The young apple maiden and her family who were trapped in the net were still kept to be trapped by Jin Ling, with the saying of I'll let you out later after I caught my prey.
And yet because more and more people got trapped, their families continuously begged Jin Ling and clamored around him, attracting Jiang Cheng's ire.
In his rage, he had scolded Jin Ling with,
“Why are you still standing there after wasting hundreds of Spiritual nets? Waiting for the prey to come and throw itself onto your sword? If, today, you don’t catch the creature hunting Dafan Mountain, don’t come to me ever again!”
Jin Ling had grown up being spoiled by both of his uncles, from his maternal and paternal family.
His temper was by no means lesser than his uncle's, and his pride was even more difficult to coax, as he was still a 14 or 15 years old teenager.
After he got scolded by his uncle because of several unimportant third rates cultivators' families who foolishly got into his trap, he had run away in displease. Thus, when he discovered the Guanyin cave where the Malicious Guanyin Statue was placed at, he had arrogantly said,
“These rural villagers don’t work hard when they face difficulties, but instead pray to the Buddha and other things every day. There are thousands and millions of people in the world, but gods and Buddhas are already hands-full with their own matters, so who would care about them? Let alone a powerless goddess without status, like this one. If it’s really that effective, then I’m gonna pray for the soul-consuming creature in Dafan Mountain to appear in front of me right now. Can the statue do it?”
The soul-consuming Goddess truly appeared.
During the chaos of the Statue suddenly attacking, eating the cultivator's flesh and blood, and the shock that the Statue could not be hurt by their sword or talismans, Jin Ling was instead determined to stay and defeat the stone statue.
He did not light up any distress signal at all. After being scolded by Jiang Cheng, Jin Ling was unwilling to let go of the Guanyin Statue and seek help.
With a solemn face, he set three arrows onto the bow at once. Although she was shot in the head twice, the soul-consuming goddess was not angered, and advanced toward Jin Ling with the same smile plastered on her face. Although she danced while walking, her speed was terrifyingly fast, decreasing the distance between them by half in just a few moments. A few cultivators appeared from the side and fought with her, hindering her strides. Jin Ling shot each arrow as the goddess took each step, probably intending to use up all of the feathered arrows first, before fighting in a closer range with the soul-consuming goddess. His arm was quite steady, and his shots were accurate, but all magical weapons were useless against it!
In the battle, three or four of the cultivators who were fighting with the soul-consuming goddess had lost their souls. Jin Ling pulled out his sword. He was already less than two zhang away from the soul-consuming goddess. His heart thumped like crazy and all of the blood in his body went toward his head, if I can’t slice off her head with this blow, I will die here—death it is, then!
He was after all a mere young hotblooded teenager, still reckless, and his temper had affected his decision greatly...
The battle between the Goddess and the cultivators created a big chaos in the small mountain.
The trees and grasses were chopped down and burned by many spiritual weapons.
All the cultivators' bodies were scattered around with gruesome wounds and missing body parts here and there, and their souls were missing, absorbed by the Malicious creature.
Among those bodies, one lone golden robes, a bright peony like a spark amidst snow, was even more dazzling with large dots of fresh blood.
The body was still holding onto Suihua.
....It was the sight that Jiang Cheng saw when he came to Dafan Mountain just a few minutes after the chaos that was originally heard from the foot of the mountain died down.
There was no leftover evil aura anywhere, not even one speck of resentful energy to be detected.
There's no trace of what entity killed all the cultivators including Jin Ling here.
Little did Jiang Cheng know, the stone Guanyin statue had already gone back to her cave, smiling elegantly like before, with no sign of having feasted to dozens of cultivators' body and soul...
In rages and full of grieves, Jiang Cheng whipped out Zidian to all of the ghosts and souls within the scopes of Dafan Mountain.
Needless to say, with all the scattered souls wiped out, all the evidence for the Smiling Goddess existence was also wiped out.
Even the smallest speck of resentful energy from the newly corpse in the graveyard at the foot of Dafan Mountain had become the target of suspicion and ended up being ravaged by Zidian.
Even cultivators and humans within the scope of Dafan Mountain were all whipped by Zidian in his blind anger, to make sure they were not possessed by the evil entity.
In the end, not even one resentful entity was found.
One of the cultivators was scared to death, and in a desperate attempt he said,
"Sect leader, sect leader, It's Yiling Laozu! It's that Wei Dog!"
Once one person planted an idea, other people who were desperate to escape Jiang Wanyin's wrath followed suit.
And who was the perfect target they could turn all blames into asides from the Boogeyman Yiling Laozu?
Besides, when it came to Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng would immediately lose all reason and logic, and it's easy for him to turn all hatred and resentment towards that scourge, Wei Wuxian!
So another person added more, "Yes, yes, It must be him! Who in the world could command an evil spirit as malicious as this aside from him!?"
And more people chirped as well, "It's true! He must have come to the world and wanted to take revenge on you, sect leader Jiang! Yes, he must have resent you because you are the one who led the siege 13 years ago, now he took revenge and killed Young Master Jin!"
"Hmphh! That Wei Dog! Pei Pei Pei," this person quickly spat on the ground to express his disgust.
"It's not enough that he killed young master Jin Zixuan back then along with his wife young Madam Jin, and now he killed young master Jin Ling!"
"Yes, yes, yes!"
"That Evil Wei Ying!"
"It must be him!"
"Yiling Laozu!"
"Wei Dog!"
Listening to this talk, Jiang Cheng's face distorted in more hatred and rages, Zidian went sparkling on his finger, his eyes bloodshot, his teeth gritted in anger.
"Wei. Wu. Xian!" he let out a low growl brimming with fury.
So on, and so on happened afterward.
In those months after Jin Ling's death, Jiang Cheng was like a rabid dog.
If before his arrests of demonic cultivators made him famous enough to get the title of the sage of Buddhist 3 poisons or Sandu Sengshou, right now even the slightest sign of similarity between a person and Wei Wuxian, the person would be dragged into Lotus Pier to be interrogated. It didn't matter if it's a cultivator or a mortal human.
Yunmeng was in turmoil.
Even ordinary people were all scared to go out, in fear of attracting the attention of Sandu Sengshou.
Right now the ones who were still safe to go out were women, old people, and children.
But people could not make a guarantee if tomorrow or the days onward even a woman would not be dragged into Lotus Pier as well, for reason that they were suspected to be possessed by the Wen Dog, Wen Qing, the person who had close contact with Yiling Laozu before his death.
After all, in the eyes of some cultivators, Yiling Laozu and his Wen Dog armies were omnipotent and able to spread malice even if they were already dead for so many years.....
The small clan and rogue cultivators in Yunmeng still remember the event of 13 years ago in the first siege of Burial Mound. The one who had opened a path to Burial Mound was Jiang Wanyin. And the Wen Dogs living there were killed and thrown to the Blood Pool unceremoniously.
While those Wen Dogs....included, if not most of them, were women and the Olds.
There's no guarantee for a woman or old human to be safe from Sandu Sengshou's wrath and grieves after losing a relative, not before, and not today...
Fortunately, a few months later, the notice about the kidnapping of sect heirs by the supposed Yiling Laozu was out.
Jiang Wanyin immediately set out to Jinlintai and took command of the forces for the second siege.
Right now, after they had assembled and managed their line-up in Jinlintai, the cultivators set out to Burial Mound with full of determinations.
The other sect leaders went to this Second Siege to retrieve their children.
Jiang Wanyin went to lead the siege to find Wei Wuxian, sent him to his death for the second time, and sought justice for Jin Ling's death.
Other cultivators just came for numbers, they were greedy, imagining the later glory for besieging Yiling Laozu.
After all, the last siege had elevated many small sects and brought them much fame for their righteous win against the wicked and evil Yiling Laozu.
At the foot of Burial Mound, Nie Huaisang, looking at the gloomy and barren mountain, he tremblingly chirped,
"E-everyone, w-wait, wait a minute,"
When All the cultivators looked at him, Nie Huaisang shrunk his body even more, "A-ah, you know we were going towards Yiling Laozu, It-It's Yiling Laozu, you know!? If he's truly there, would, would it not be scary?"
"Hmph! Sect leader Nie, what are you afraid of? Didn't we kill him before?" Sect leader Yao snorted disdainfully.
"That's right! That's it!" Other cultivators nodded vigorously.
"He was once killed by us, why can't we kill him for the second time? Pei Pei Pei" Yi WeiChun spat on the ground.
"That's true! That's true! Besides, we have Sandu Sengshou here! We have our hero who once before led our army to break Wei Wuxian's corpses' barrier with the powerful Zidian!"
"That's true! That's true!"
Jiang Wanyin looked at Nie Huaisang in contempt, the little old classmate had never changed in his opinion, just a useless and weak young master. "If Sect leader Nie doesn't want to go, then don't go. No one wants to be burdened in saving your ass later!"
When Jiang Wanyin said those words, the others finally remembered that at the previous siege in Burial Mound, the one who led QingheNie was Chifeng-Zun. So, this useless good for nothing Nie Huaisang had never known the taste of Burial Mound, not even one bit.
Remembering this fact, they quickly threw him a pitying look and ignored this useless sect leader.
In the end, Lan Qiren arranged for Nie Huaisang to wait at the foot of the Mountain and would only act in an emergency.
Before Lan Qiren went ahead with the other, Nie Huaisang stopped him for a while, "Laoshi, uh, I mean, Sir Lan,"
"What?"
"Why are you here instead of Hanguang-Jun?"
Lan Qiren didn't answer and just snorted gloomily.
"Do you think this is really the work of Wei-Xiong? uh, Yiling Laozu I mean," Nie Huaisang timidly asked.
"Regardless it's his work or not, those heirs need to be rescued, "
"Uh, right, right, it's true! Still, I wonder if Wei-Xiong, uh, I mean, Yiling Laozu is truly capable of doing this thing, killing those sect heirs, I mean?"
Lan Qiren frowned, "He had already shown his capabilities in slaughtering thousands of people in the bloodbath of Nightless City 13 years ago."
"Ahhhhh, it's true...how forgetful this foolish me!" Nie Huaisang brought his fan to smack his head, and gave an embarrassed smile to Lan Qiren, "Sir Lan, Nie Mou is weak and useless. This weak man can only stay here and wait for the news. Please be safe."
Lan Qiren nodded and went ahead to the Burial Mound.
After the group went to the mountain, Nie Huaisang who previously looked helpless and miserable suddenly erased all the expressions on his face.
He calmly went to a nearby tea-house and enjoyed a light meal.
His subordinates who were also left with him to wait and act on emergency approached him.
"How is it?" Nie Huaisang whispered.
"It's already been deployed, sect leader."
Nie Huaisang hummed in response and sighed.
His subordinate looked at him silently.
"Sect Leader,"
"Hm?"
"Did you originally want to stop Lan Qiren earlier?"
"...Yes." Nie Huaisang sighed. "To pay the debt of teaching this foolish self for 3 years in a row before."
Propping his chin with his left hand, while the right hand was trying to reach the osmanthus cake served on a plate quite far from him, Nie Huaisang sighed once again. "Lan-Laoshi...though, He's too old and too prejudiced. He could not see the bigger picture. Even if I tried hard to prevent him, he will just hate me in return for these unrighteous deeds in his eyes...if he knows later why I tried to prevent him."
The subordinate fell into silence, looking at the gloomy sect leader.
"Then, when will we go and rescue them?" His subordinate glanced at the mountain top.
"Well...," Nie Huaisang smiled. His hand idly played with the mist coming up from his teacup.
"What will happen if we rescue them on time?" Nie Huaisang threw the question to his subordinate.
"They will be thankful?"
"Wrong!" Nie Huaisang chuckled. "They will throw the blame on us, supposedly because we are not there, they were almost dying, so it will be our fault in their logic."
The subordinate kept silent. He didn't refute it because it was true. Those people who could only talk and talk, throwing blame on here and there and were greedy for fame and recognition, would throw the blame on people who could be blamed.
In their logic, it was not their fault they went to Burial Mound seeking glory while being ignorant of the risks. It was not their fault that apparently they would later get deceived by just a single mention of Yiling Laozu. It was not their fault that they put their faith in the two-faced devil named the Chief Cultivator who could throw their life in a heartbeat after being threatened by a mere letter to expose his sins, a threatening letter to desecrate his mother's body. After all, in their Chief Cultivator's eyes, those hundreds of fools were worth nothing compared to the remnant of his mother.
"Let's wait for a while. Tonight, in this mountain, in the siege they orchestrated themselves towards their imaginary Yiling Laozu, all the retribution will come in due. Those people will die according to their karma...."