“While we’re on the topic, not only should he not have stolen my stuff, he shouldn’t have done so in the middle of the night. Everyone knows I like men. Even if he has no shame, I know not to make myself suspicious.”
Madam Mo drew in a sharp breath and yelled, “What are you spewing in front of the village folks?! How shameless! A-Yuan is your little cousin!”
When it came to outrageous behavior, Wei Wuxian was an expert. In the past, he’d had to maintain some form of decorum so people couldn’t accuse him of having a poor upbringing, but now he was a lunatic anyway, so what did he care for shame? He could go wild and cut loose to his heart’s content.
He stiffened his neck and said outright: “He knew he was my little cousin, but he still didn’t observe propriety and keep his distance, so who is the more shameless one here?! I don’t care if you don’t care about your reputation, but I still care about mine!! I STILL GOTTA FIND A GOOD MAN!!!”
Mo Ziyuan roared, raising a chair to hurl it Wei Wuxian’s way. Seeing that he’d finally snapped, Wei Wuxian quickly scrambled up to go hide. That chair broke into pieces upon impact with the ground. The spectators crowding in and out of the east hall were waiting with unconcealed delight to watch the Mo family be disgraced, but they all quickly dispersed once things got violent, afraid they might be injured.
Wei Wuxian ducked toward the youths from the Lan family, who were completely dumbfounded by what was unfolding, crying as he did so.
“You see! You see!! He’s hitting me even though he stole my stuff—how heartless!”
Mo Ziyuan chased him over, ready to lunge, but the leader of the youths stopped him. “This… Gongzi, we can talk this out.”
Seeing that the youth intended to protect the lunatic, Madam Mo grew apprehensive. She forced a smile. “This young man is my younger sister’s son. He’s a little…unstable here. Everyone at the Mo Estate knows he’s crazy. He’s always saying strange things, so don’t take him seriously. Esteemed cultivators, you mustn’t—”
Before she could finish, Wei Wuxian poked his head out from behind the youth. “Who said I can’t be taken seriously? From now on, if anyone tries to steal my stuff, I’m gonna chop off an arm for every time they do. Just try me!”
Mo Ziyuan was being held back by his father at first, but when he heard this, his anger flared up again. Wei Wuxian darted out the door like a fish, taunting him with a la-la-la as he went.
The youth quickly blocked the door right after and changed the topic, assuming a serious face to talk business. “Um… Then we will be borrowing your esteemed west courtyard for tonight. Please remember exactly what I said earlier. Lock all doors and shut all windows tight after dusk. Do not come out for any activities, especially not near the west courtyard.”
Madam Mo was shaking with rage, but it wouldn’t have been courteous to push the youth aside, despite him blocking her. So, she could only reply, “Yes, yes, thank you, thank you…”
Mo Ziyuan was in a state of disbelief. “MOM! Are you gonna let that lunatic get away with slandering me in public?! Didn’t you say yourself that he was only a mere—”
“Shut your mouth!” Madam Mo cut him off sharply. “Can you not wait until we’re back inside?!”
Mo Ziyuan had never suffered such a wrong before, nor had he ever been humiliated this way. He had especially never been scolded by his mother like this.
He cried furiously, “That lunatic is dead!!”
After Wei Wuxian was done letting loose, he went out the main entrance of the manor and strolled around the Mo Estate to show his face, scaring innumerous passersby and enjoying himself while he was at it. He began to understand the joy of being a madman and was even starting to be pleased with the hanged ghost makeup, not wanting to wash it off.
It’s not like there’s water around anyway, so I’ll let it be.
He fixed his hair and glanced at his wrist. There was no indication the cuts were fading or healing at all, which meant the trifling revenge of venting anger on Mo Xuanyu’s behalf was far from enough.
Did he really have to slaughter the entire Mo family?
…To be honest, that wouldn’t have been anything difficult to do.
Wei Wuxian pondered this as he sauntered back to the Mo Manor. As he snuck past the west courtyard with small, quick steps, he noticed the Lan disciples on top of the rooftops and wall eaves, gathered in somber discussion. He snuck back again with those small, quick steps and looked up, watching them intently.
While the Lan Clan of Gusu was a major part of the coalition that had come to besiege him in the past, those juniors hadn’t yet been born at the time, or if they had, would’ve been only a few years old. So that event had nothing to do with them. Wei Wuxian stood there and observed, wanting to see how they planned on handling the situation. As he looked on, he suddenly felt something amiss.
Why did those black flags being flown on the rooftops and wall eaves look so familiar?
The flag was called a spirit-attraction flag. If it was stuck on a living person, then it would attract every dark spirit, every vengeful ghost, every fierce corpse, and all such manner of evil to attack said person. Since wearing a flag was akin to becoming a live target, the flag was also called a target flag. It could also be stuck on buildings, but said building had to have living persons within, and the range of the target would increase to include all people within the building. Since yin energy swirled around the area where these flags were planted like a black whirlwind, they were also known as black wind flags. Those youths were setting up the flag formation and had told others not to go near, so they had to intend to lure the walking corpses here to capture them all at once.
As for why the flags looked familiar…how could they not? The creator of the spirit-attraction flag was this very Yiling Patriarch!
It appeared that, despite how the cultivation world had demanded Wei Wuxian’s demise, they nevertheless had no qualms about making use of his inventions.
One of the disciples on the rooftops noticed him watching and chided him. “Go back, this is not a place you should be.”
Though he was being ordered to shoo, it was done with good intentions, and the tone of voice employed was also greatly different from that of those Mo servants. While the youth was off his guard, Wei Wuxian hopped up and plucked a flag.
Greatly alarmed, that disciple jumped down the wall to chase after him. “Don’t touch that, it’s not for you!”
Wei Wuxian hollered as he ran, looking completely like a lunatic; his hair flying loose and disheveled, arms waving and legs skipping. “Finders keepers! I want this! Mine!”
That disciple quickly caught up with him and grabbed his arm. “Give it back! Or else I’ll hit you!”
Wei Wuxian clutched the flag tightly, refusing to let go. The leader of the group that was setting up the flag formation was alerted by the commotion and also came fluttering down from the eaves.
“Jingyi, let it go. Retrieve the flag nicely; there is no need to start a dispute.”
“Sizhui, I didn’t hit him for real!” Lan Jingyi complained. “Look at him, he’s messed up the flag formation!”
During their push and pull, Wei Wuxian had swiftly finished inspecting the spirit-attraction flag. The drawn patterns were correct, and none of the spells were missing either. There were no mistakes, so no mishaps would occur if the flags were used. The only issue was that the person who’d drawn the flag was not very experienced, so the spell could only attract any evil and walking corpses within a two and a half radius at most. But that would be enough.
Lan Sizhui turned to him with a smile. “Mo-gongzi, it is getting late, and we will be starting to catch walking corpses here soon. It is dangerous at night. You’d best hurry back to your chambers.”
Wei Wuxian sized up this youth. The boy was gentle in disposition, refined and elegant, noble in his bearing with a light grin curving the corners of his lips. This was a good sprout very worthy of encouragement, and Wei Wuxian mentally gave him a nod of approval. The child had set up the flag formation in a proper and orderly manner, and his upbringing really was quite commendable as well. Wei Wuxian wondered who among that terrifying group full of uptight sticks-in-the-mud known as the Lan Clan had managed to raise such a junior.
Lan Sizhui added, “This flag—”
Before he could finish, Wei Wuxian tossed the spirit-attraction flag onto the ground and humphed. “What’s so good about this crappy flag? I can draw better!”
He then took off right after. The juniors who were on the rooftop, watching the show, burst out laughing at his shameless declaration so riotously that they almost fell off the roof. Lan Jingyi also laughed in exasperation, then picked up the flag on the ground, dusting it off.
“What a lunatic!”
“Don’t say that,” Lan Sizhui chided him. “Let’s go back and help now.”
As for Wei Wuxian, he wandered idly about for a while. It wasn’t until after dark that he returned to Mo Xuanyu’s little courtyard. The door latch was snapped, without anyone to clean up the mess. He ignored it and picked a somewhat clean spot in the room before sitting down and continuing to meditate.