During the Sunshot Campaign, these deeds had been widely considered inspiring and praise-worthy. But as the Sunshot Campaign dipped further into the past, they were treated with far more horror and contempt. Even Wei Wuxian himself shared the current public sentiment—in retrospect, he truly had gone too far. And with the exposing of his identity a few days ago, he couldn’t really blame anyone for hearing about this rash of grave-digging incidents and immediately assuming them to be the work of the Yiling Patriarch.
“I just hope he knows every debt has its debtor,” the wife said. “If he wants to seek revenge, go take it out on cultivators. Don’t harm ordinary folks like us.”
“Who can say for sure?” her husband said. “I was still very young when he killed more than three thousand people in one go in Qishan, but I remember it wasn’t just cultivators who feared him. Common folks feared him too. He’s a maniacal, bloodthirsty demon. One who would even turn his back on his own flesh and blood.”
Wei Wuxian’s smile gradually grew subdued.
He had been quite interested in listening to this young couple chat about domestic trivialities, but now all of a sudden, his head felt like it weighed a thousand tons. He couldn’t raise it and couldn’t manage to look at the expression on Lan Wangji’s face. The rest of the couple’s conversation was completely lost to him.
Just then, a terrifying snarl suddenly echoed from outside the farmhouse. The family of three had been talking and laughing as they ate their meal in the courtyard, but this abrupt and inhuman roar startled them so terribly that one of the bowls fell to the ground and shattered. A-Bao started crying, and the young man grabbed a hoe.
“Don’t be scared! Don’t be scared!”
They weren’t the only ones startled. Even Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian jerked slightly. Lan Wangji moved to get up, but Wei Wuxian, coming to a sudden realization, grabbed at the front of his clothing.
“Don’t move,” he said.
Lan Wangji’s eyes widened slightly. The snarling creature was clearly both savage and evil. If this farmer tried to take it on alone, he would no doubt lose his life.
But Wei Wuxian insisted, “Don’t move.”
A scream rang out from the courtyard, along with more crazed inhuman roars. The noise was extremely close—the creature had entered the compound. Lan Wangji could not lie still anymore, and Bichen left its sheath at the speed of lightning. They heard the family of three fling the door open and flee, screaming all the way.
The pile of straw had scattered everywhere after being slashed by Bichen. A creature in black stood in the courtyard amidst the rain of dancing straw. Its hair was disheveled, its fangs were bared, and horns sprouted all over its body. It looked at once terrifying and comical.
Lan Wangji, who had never seen such a monster before, was slightly taken aback. Wei Wuxian, meanwhile, had already opened his mouth to give praise.
“Oh, Wen Ning. Your shouts are ever so scary after not using your voice for so many years.”
A resigned-sounding human voice came from the black creature’s mouth. “Gongzi…I’m a fierce corpse after all. And this is…how all fierce corpses sound.”
Wei Wuxian patted him on the shoulder. “You sound mighty and powerful.”
Wen Ning glanced at Lan Wangji. Perhaps remembering that the Lan Clan of Gusu loathed those who were sloppily dressed, he smoothed his hair apprehensively.
Wei Wuxian, unable to bear the sight of the tree branches sticking out of his hair, plucked one off. “Why did you suddenly jump out? And looking like this to boot…were you robbed? What’s all that stuff smeared on your face?”
“Dirt and mud from the ground…” Wen Ning answered. “I saw that both of you went in and didn’t come out after such a long time…”
“You’ve been following us?” Wei Wuxian asked.
Wen Ning nodded, and Wei Wuxian understood. Wen Ning didn’t dare to approach anyone other than him, so he’d secretly tailed them after they departed the Cloud Recesses. When he saw no movement after they entered the farmhouse, he’d gone over to eavesdrop and heard the young couple discussing Wei Wuxian. Feeling awkward just standing there, he’d thought to scare them away so that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji could come out. And he’d probably felt his usual appearance wasn’t sufficiently intimidating, so he’d stuck a whole bunch of random things to himself.
Wei Wuxian almost laughed himself to death at Wen Ning’s antics. Wen Ning looked abashed as he vigorously wiped the mud away, and as he did, Wei Wuxian noticed the blood on his hands.
“What happened?”
“Oh, it’s nothing…” Wen Ning replied.
“The stench of blood,” Lan Wangji said.
It was only then that Wei Wuxian noticed Wei Ning reeked of blood. His heart stopped. Wen Ning hurriedly waved his hands.
“It’s not blood! Or no, I mean yes, it’s blood, but not the blood of living humans.”
“Not living humans?” Wei Wuxian questioned him. “Did you fight with something?”
Wen Ning led them to a patch of forest some distance away. There were twenty or thirty fresh graves in the woods, next to a partially dug pit with a pile of corpses beside it—a “pile” rather than a “stack” because the corpses were in pieces.
Wei Wuxian went up to inspect it. Some of the severed arms were still clenching and unclenching their fingers, while some of the heads were still opening and closing their jaws and filling the air with the sound of grinding teeth. They had already turned into animated corpses.
“You tore ’em up pretty good,” Wei Wuxian commented.
“If I didn’t, they would’ve been completely unstoppable and gone on to bite people,” Wen Ning said. “There were fierce corpses like these all along the way…”
“The entire way? Were you hurrying ahead of us to dispose of them?”
Wei Ning nodded hesitantly. His ability to identify his kind was better than that of a living human’s, and he could do it over a greater range too. If that was the case, it was little wonder their journey had been so uneventful. Given the news that a horde of fierce corpses was making its way toward Yiling, Wei Wuxian had been wondering why they hadn’t encountered a single one. It seemed Wen Ning had beaten them to it and cleared out any such obstacles.