“Me? You know how poor I am. Where would I get the money to hire people?”
Lan Sizhui nodded again and again. “Uh-huh, I knew it! I knew that qianbei is really very poor!”
Wei Wuxian was momentarily struck speechless. “…Good boy,” he finally faintly praised. “How many people do our opponents have? Are there any ambushes set up around here?”
Lan Jingyi shook off the rope on him and barged into the conversation to answer.
“They have lots of people! Their faces were covered with black smoke, so we didn’t get a clear look at what they looked like. They tied us up and threw us in here, then just ignored us, like they wanted to leave us to perish here. Oh, oh, oh, and there are lots of walking corpses outside! They keep on howling!”
Bichen emerged from its sheath with a sching to sever the remaining Immortal-Binding Ropes that bound the two of them. Lan Wangji summoned the sword back into its sheath and commended Lan Sizhui.
“Well done.”
What he meant was that Lan Sizhui had done well to keep his composure and maintain his trust in them. Lan Sizhui hurried to his feet and stood tall as he faced Lan Wangji, but before he could manage a smile, Wei Wuxian intervened with a cheeky comment.
“That’s right, well done indeed. Sizhui even knows how to brawl now.”
Lan Sizhui’s face flushed red in an instant. “That…that was…a momentary impulse…”
All of a sudden, Wei Wuxian sensed someone approaching. He looked back, only to see Jin Ling standing stiffly behind them.
Lan Wangji immediately stepped in front of Wei Wuxian to shield him, and Lan Sizhui stepped in front of Lan Wangji.
“Jin-gongzi,” Lan Sizhui cautiously called.
Wei Wuxian strode out from behind them. “What’re the two of you doing? It’s like you’re making a human pyramid.”
Jin Ling’s expression was strange as he relaxed his fists, clenched them, and relaxed them again. He looked like there was something he wanted to say but couldn’t. Instead, he just stared at the spot where he had stabbed Wei Wuxian in the abdomen.
Lan Jingyi’s face drained of color. “You, you, you! You’re not thinking about stabbing him again, are you?!”
Jin Ling’s expression froze.
“Jingyi!” Lan Sizhui admonished hurriedly.
Wei Wuxian wrapped his arms around the kiddos’ necks, with a Jingyi on his left and a Sizhui on his right. “All right, let’s hurry out,” he chided.
“Yes, sir!” Lan Sizhui answered.
The other boys were still huddled together in the corner, not daring to move.
“Uh, let’s go? Or do you want to stick around here?” Lan Jingyi asked the crowd.
A boy stiffened his neck and said, “There are so many walking corpses out there! You want us to go…to our deaths?!”
“Gongzi, I’ll go out and chase them away,” Wen Ning stated.
Wei Wuxian nodded, and in an instant Wen Ning swept out like a gust of wind.
“The Immortal-Binding Ropes have been cut,” Lan Sizhui said. “If worst comes to worst, we’ll join forces and work as one to fight our way out. What if the corpses swarm in after we depart? Judging by the topography of this cave, won’t you be easy prey if you stay here?”
Having said this, he pulled Lan Jingyi with him. The two of them followed after Wen Ning, and several other Lan juniors followed suit.
The rest of the boys exchanged looks of dismay.
Soon after, someone called out, “Sizhui-xiong, wait for me!” He caught up and left with them. This boy was the “romantic” who had burned paper money and shed tears for A-Qing in Yi City. The others called him Zizhen. He appeared to be the only son of the Ouyang Clan of Baling.
After that, several others followed in succession, all of them familiar faces from Yi City. The remaining boys were hesitant but then saw Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji staring at them. The staring made them nervous, no matter who was doing it, so all they could do was steel themselves and head outside, keeping a wide berth between them as they did.
Surprisingly enough, Jin Ling was the last one out.
Just as the giant group had managed to drag their feet to the cave’s entrance, a figure was suddenly flung inside. The figure smashed into the cave wall, creating a deep, human-shaped crater. Dust and stone rained down noisily.
A few juniors exclaimed in shock, “The Ghost General!”
“Wen Ning?” Wei Wuxian questioned. “What happened?!”
“…Nothing,” Wen Ning answered arduously.
He tumbled from the crater, then stood up to crudely pop his arm back into its socket in silence. Wei Wuxian squinted his eyes to look and saw a man in purple standing at the mouth of the Demon-Quelling Cave with his hands at his sides. Spiritual energy sizzled around Zidian. The whip was what had sent Wen Ning flying into the cave.
Jiang Cheng.
No wonder Wen Ning had shown no intent to counterattack.
“Jiujiu!” Jin Ling called out.
“Jin Ling, come here,” Jiang Cheng ordered coldly.
Cultivators in various clan uniforms slowly walked out of the black forest behind him. More and more gathered until finally, a dense mass of a couple thousand people surrounded the Demon-Quelling Cave. The cultivators and Jiang Cheng himself were soaked in blood, and they looked exhausted. The group of boys dashed out of the Demon-Quelling Cave, crying “Father!”, “Mother!”, and “Gege!” as they swarmed into the crowd.
Jin Ling looked hesitantly to his left, then to his right, like he hadn’t yet made up his mind.
“Jin Ling, what are you dawdling for?” Jiang Cheng snapped. “Get over here right now! Or do you have a death wish?!”
Lan Qiren stood before the crowd, looking considerably more aged. There were even streaks of white in his hair.
“Wangji,” he called.
Lan Wangji greeted him quietly, “Shufu.”
But he still didn’t move to join Lan Qiren’s side.
Lan Qiren understood all too well that this was Lan Wangji’s firm and unshakable answer. With an extremely disappointed expression, he shook his head and did not attempt to admonish him again.
✦ ✦ ✦
A female cultivator in flowing white robes stepped forward with tears in her eyes. “Hanguang-jun, what is happening to you? You…you’re no longer yourself. Years ago, you were irreconcilably at odds with him. How did the Yiling Patriarch bewitch you and make you stand against us?”
Lan Wangji ignored her.
As she was denied an answer, the female cultivator could only regretfully lament, “Then you are unworthy of your reputation!”
“Everyone’s come to visit again,” Wei Wuxian commented.
“Of course we had to come,” Jiang Cheng replied icily.
Su She was also among the crowd, his seven-stringed guqin strapped to his back. “Had it not been for the Yiling Patriarch digging up corpses and taking hostages with such fanfare—as if he feared his return would go unnoticed by the world—I imagine we would not have had to come calling at your lair so soon,” he explained leisurely.
Wei Wuxian rebuffed the accusations. “I clearly saved these juniors. Why are you people jumping to accuse me instead of thanking me?”
Many in the crowd scoffed and grumbled, “Now the wolf is crying wolf.” Wei Wuxian knew that arguing with them was futile, but he was in no hurry anyway.
“Come now.” Wei Wuxian flashed a smile. “Your turnout this time is a little shabby. We’re missing two prominent figures, aren’t we? Might I ask why Lianfang-zun and Zewu-jun are not in attendance at this grand occasion?”
Su She sneered. “Hmph. The day before yesterday, an unknown assailant made an assassination attempt on Lianfang-zun at Golden Carp Tower. He’s seriously injured, and Zewu-jun is doing his best to save him. Why ask if you already know?”
Learning that Jin Guangyao was “seriously injured” reminded Wei Wuxian of the heroic suicide feint that had allowed him to carry out a sneak attack on Nie Mingjue. He snorted with laughter, unable to stop himself in time.
Su She frowned. “What are you laughing about?”
“Nothing,” Wei Wuxian answered. “Just thinking that Lianfang-zun is pretty prone to getting injured, that’s all.”
A tiny voice suddenly spoke up. “Dad, I think maybe he really isn’t the culprit. He was the one who saved us back at Yi City, and he seems to be here to save us this time too…”
Wei Wuxian looked in the direction of the voice. The one who had spoken was Ouyang Zizhen. However, his father immediately rebuked him.
“Kids should know to keep their mouths shut! Do you understand the situation right now? Do you know who that is?!”
Wei Wuxian withdrew his gaze and commented calmly, “I get it.”
He’d known from the start that no matter what he said, no one would believe him. Whatever he denied could be forced on him, and whatever he admitted could be twisted to fit others’ narratives.
Lan Wangji’s words had originally carried a lot of weight, but he was probably also a target of public criticism after associating with him for this long. Mediation might have been a possibility if Lan Xichen were here to take charge regarding clan matters. But both Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao were absent.
During the first siege of the Burial Mounds, Jin Guangshan had led the Jin Clan of Lanling; Jiang Cheng, the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng; Lan Qiren, the Lan Clan of Gusu; and Nie Mingjue, the Nie Clan of Qinghe. The former two were the main forces, and the latter two there purely for backup.