TFOD Chapter 7

Chapter 6: Arrogance Third

In just a few days, Wei Wuxian realized he might have made a wrong choice.

It was clearly just a donkey, yet it only ate fresh, dewy grass. If the grass tips were even a bit yellow, it wouldn’t touch it. Passing by a farmer’s house, Wei Wuxian stole some wheat straw to feed it, but after chewing a few mouthfuls, it spat it out with a “pui” that was louder than a living person spitting. If it didn’t eat well, it wouldn’t walk. It would throw tantrums and kick, and Wei Wuxian was nearly kicked a few times. Moreover, its bray was extremely unpleasant.

Whether as a mount or a pet, it was completely useless!

Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but miss his sword. That sword was probably hung on the wall by some family leader as a trophy to show off, right?

After running a few stretches of road with great effort, he arrived at a large field surrounded by villages. The sun was scorching hot, and there was a big locust tree at the edge of the field. The locust tree’s shade was thick and lush. There was also an old well. Villagers had placed a bucket and a ladle next to the well for passersby to quench their thirst. When the flowery donkey reached this place, it refused to move at all. Wei Wuxian jumped down and patted its plump rear, saying, “You really have a life of luxury. You’re even harder to serve than me.”

The donkey snorted at him.

While feeling utterly helpless, a group of people approached from the far end of the fields.

These people had woven bamboo baskets on their backs and were wearing cloth shirts and straw sandals. From head to toe, they exuded the rustic air of rural villagers. Among them was a young girl with a round face and a somewhat pretty appearance. Maybe she had been walking under the scorching sun for too long and wanted to come over for some shade and water, but upon seeing the flowery donkey with its hooves stomping and braying wildly under the tree, and a crazy person with red and white makeup and disheveled hair sitting there, she didn’t dare approach.

Wei Wuxian always considered himself a person who cherished the fairer sex. Seeing this, he moved over, making room, and started fussing with the flowery donkey. Seeing that he seemed harmless, the group relaxed and walked over. They were all sweating profusely and their faces were flushed. Some fanned themselves, while others drew water. The young girl sat by the well. It seemed she knew that he had given way intentionally, and she smiled slightly at Wei Wuxian.

One of them held a compass in his hand. He looked into the distance, and then looked down, confused. “Why is the needle still not moving even though we’re almost at the foot of Dafan Mountain?”

The engravings and the needle on the compass were very strange, not like ordinary compasses. It wasn’t used to point to the four directions, but rather a “Wind Evil Compass” used to indicate fierce evils and demonic beings. Wei Wuxian knew that he had encountered a group of down-and-out rural cultivators. Besides the wealthy and cultured noble families, there were also many small households that practiced cultivation behind closed doors. Wei Wuxian figured they might be rushing to join some distant relatives in a big family, or they were going to night hunt.

The middle-aged man leading the group called everyone over to drink water. He said, “Is your compass broken? We’ll get you a new one later. There’s less than ten li to Dafan Mountain. We can’t rest for long. We’ve been traveling non-stop. If we relax here and get left behind, then it won’t be worth it.”

Indeed, they were going night hunting. Many immortal cultivation families liked to be refined, referring to traveling the world and subduing demons and monsters as “hunting tours.” Because these things often appeared at night, it was also called “night hunting.” There were so many cultivation families, but only a few became famous. If they didn’t have a rich inheritance from their ancestors, ordinary families had to produce results to climb the ranks and become famous families, earning prestige and respect in the cultivation world. Subduing fierce demonic beasts or a powerful evil spirit that caused trouble could give the family more influence.

This was originally Wei Wuxian’s forte, but these past few days he had been traveling and stumbling into graves, only managing to catch small ghosts. He was currently missing a ghost general to act as his enforcer. He decided to try his luck at Dafan Mountain as well. If he found a good one, he would capture it and use it.

The group had rested enough and were preparing to leave. Before leaving, the young girl with the round face took out a half-green, half-red apple from her backpack and handed it to him, “This is for you.”

Wei Wuxian grinned and reached out to take it, but the flowery donkey raised its head and bared its teeth, trying to bite it. Wei Wuxian quickly grabbed it. Seeing that the donkey was drooling over the apple, an idea struck him. He picked up a long branch and a fishing line and hung the apple in front of the flowery donkey’s head. The flowery donkey smelled the fragrance of the apple in front of it and wanted to eat it. Chasing the apple that was always just a bit out of reach, it charged forward with its head held high. It was even faster than any of the famous steeds Wei Wuxian had ever seen! It galloped away, leaving dust flying behind it!

The donkey ran non-stop, and Wei Wuxian arrived at Dafan Mountain before dark. Only at the foot of the mountain did he realize that this Dafan wasn’t the other Dafan. From afar, the mountain looked like a plump, big-bellied Buddha, hence its name. Below the mountain was a small town called Buddha Foot Town.

There were far more cultivators gathered here than he had imagined. It was a mixed crowd, and the colors of the various sects were dazzling to the eye as they moved about the streets. For some reason, they all looked tense and didn’t even bother to mock or pay attention to him in his ghostly attire.

In the center of the long street, a group of cultivators were gathered, talking seriously. It seemed that they had very different opinions. Wei Wuxian could hear their conversation from afar. They were fine at first, but later, for some reason, they became agitated:

“… I think there are no soul-eating beasts or soul-eating fiends here at all. Clearly, all of the Wind Evil Compasses aren’t showing any movement.”

“If there aren’t any, then what about these seven villagers’ loss of souls? They can’t all have caught the same strange disease, right? I’ve never heard of such a disease!”

“Just because the Wind Evil Compass didn’t point it out, doesn’t mean there isn’t one. It can only point in a general direction. It’s not precise enough and can’t be fully trusted. Perhaps there is something nearby that can disrupt the needle’s direction.”

“Don’t forget who made the Wind Evil Compass. I’ve never heard of anything that can disturb its needle’s direction.”

“What do you mean? Why does your tone feel strange? Of course, I know Wei Ying made the Wind Evil Compass, but the things he made aren’t perfect. Is it wrong for others to question it?”

“I didn’t say that I don’t allow you to question it, nor did I say that the things he made were perfect. Why are you putting words in my mouth!”

Then they began arguing in another direction. Wei Wuxian rode his flowery donkey and passed by, chuckling to himself. It seemed that after so many years, he was still undefeated in the cultivators’ war of words. As it was said, “Whenever Wei, there is an argument.” If there was a vote for the most popular person among the hundred families, he would definitely be it.

To be fair, what the cultivator said wasn’t wrong. The currently used Wind Evil Compass was the first version he made, and it was indeed not precise enough. He was originally working on improving it, but his old base was destroyed before he could finish. So everyone would have to make do with the first, less precise version.

Now that he thought about it, most things that ate flesh and gnawed bones were low-level, like walking corpses. Only higher-level, more refined demonic beasts or fierce ghosts could absorb and digest souls, and they had eaten seven in one go. No wonder so many families had gathered here. Since the night hunting target was extraordinary, it was unavoidable that the Wind Evil Compass would have some problems.

Wei Wuxian pulled on the reins and jumped off the donkey, bringing the apple that had dangled in front of the donkey’s head all the way to its mouth, “One bite, just one bite… Pui, you want to eat my whole hand with that bite!”

He bit off two pieces of the other side of the apple, then stuffed it back into the flowery donkey’s mouth. He reflected on why he had fallen to the point of sharing an apple with a donkey, when someone suddenly bumped into his back. When he turned around, he saw a young girl. Although she had bumped into him, she completely ignored him, her eyes vacant, her face smiling as she stared straight in a certain direction.

Wei Wuxian followed her gaze. That direction was a dark mass at the top of the mountain – Dafan Mountain.

Suddenly, the young girl started dancing in front of him without any warning.

The dance was wild and flailing. Wei Wuxian was watching with interest when a woman, lifting her skirt, ran over and embraced her, crying, “A-Yan, let’s go home, let’s go home!”

A-Yan struggled to shake her off. The smile on her face never faded from beginning to end. It carried a kind of chilling and loving intention as she continued to dance. The woman had no choice but to chase after her, running all over the street, crying mournfully. A peddler on the side said, “It’s such a tragedy, A-Yan from the Zheng Blacksmith’s family is running around again.”

“Her mother is so pitiful. A-Yan, A-Yan’s fiancé, and her husband, none of them were good…”

Wei Wuxian wandered around, piecing together the strange events happening here from the scattered fragments of conversations from various people.

On Dafan Mountain, there was a cemetery. Most of the ancestors of the people of Buddha Foot Town were buried there, and sometimes, nameless corpses would also be buried there with a wooden marker. Several months ago, one night there was thunder and lightning and heavy rain. The downpour eroded the ground. After one night, a landslide occurred on Dafan Mountain in the area that was the cemetery. Many old graves were destroyed. Several coffins were overturned and had their lids shattered by lightning, leaving the corpses and coffins charred black.

The people of Buddha Foot Town felt very uneasy and, after praying for blessings, rebuilt the tombs, thinking they had settled things. Who knew, after that, people in Buddha Foot Town started frequently losing their souls.

The first was a lazy bum. This person was penniless and idle. Because he always liked going to the mountains to catch birds, he happened to be trapped on Dafan Mountain the night of the landslide and was scared half to death. Luckily, he escaped unscathed. What was strange was that a few days after he returned, he suddenly married a wife. He threw a big wedding and said that he would start doing good deeds and live a peaceful life.

On the wedding night, he got completely drunk. He fell onto the bed and didn’t get up. The bride called him, but he didn’t respond. When she pushed him, she discovered that the groom’s eyes were fixed, and his whole body was ice cold. Other than still being able to breathe, he was no different from a dead person. He laid there without eating or drinking for several days before being properly buried. It was pitiful, as the bride had become a widow soon after marrying.

The second was Zheng Blacksmith’s daughter, A-Yan. The young girl had just been engaged, but the next day her future husband was killed by jackals while hunting in the mountains. After learning of this, she also exhibited the same symptoms as the previous lazy bum. Fortunately, after a while, her soul loss disease actually healed itself. However, she became completely insane after that, smiling and dancing outside for people to watch every day.

The third was A-Yan’s father, Zheng Blacksmith. To date, there have been seven victims.

Wei Wuxian surmised that it was most likely a soul-eating fiend, rather than a soul-eating beast.

Although they were only different by one character, they were completely different things. A fiend belonged to the ghost category, while a beast was a demonic beast. In his opinion, it was possible that the landslide had collapsed the tombs, and the lightning had opened the coffins, releasing an ancient fiend that had been resting inside. Whether this was the case or not, he only needed to take a look at the coffin, see what kind of coffin it was, and whether there were any remnants of a seal. However, the people of Buddha Foot Town had surely reburied the charred coffins and reburied the remains, and there probably wasn’t much trace left.

To ascend the mountain, one had to take the mountain path from the town. Wei Wuxian slowly rode his donkey up the slope. After a while, several people came down looking gloomy.

Some of these people had injuries on their faces. They all talked at once. It was dark, and they were all startled when they bumped into a donkey rider wearing ghostly makeup. They cursed and hurriedly skirted past him, heading down the slope. Wei Wuxian turned his head and pondered, had their prey turned out to be too tough, forcing them to retreat in defeat? After a moment’s thought, he patted the donkey’s rear and rode up the mountain at a trot.

He just happened to miss the group’s ensuing complaints:

“I’ve never seen anyone so overbearing!”

“The head of such a big family, why does he need to come here to snatch a soul-eating fiend from us? He’s probably killed countless of these things when he was younger!”

“What can we do? Who told him he was the sect leader? You can offend any family, but you can’t offend the Jiang family. You can’t offend Jiang Cheng no matter what. Pack up and leave. We’re just unlucky!”