TFOD Chapter 20
by VolareWei Wuxian abruptly threw off the covers, his right hand burying itself in his hair. The absurd and terrifying feeling still lingered in his heart.
At this moment, a light knock came from the wooden door of the quiet room. Lan Sizhui’s voice sounded from outside, “Young Master Mo? Are you awake?”
Wei Wuxian replied, “Why are you waking me up so early?!”
Lan Sizhui said, “E-Early?… But, it’s already Si hour.”
The Lan family worked from Mao hour to Hai hour, extremely disciplined. Wei Wuxian, on the other hand, worked from Si hour to Chou hour, also disciplined, but two hours later than theirs. He had been lying prone for half the night and his back was aching, so he said candidly, “I can’t get up.”
Lan Sizhui said, “Uh, what happened to you again?”
Wei Wuxian replied, “What happened to me? I was slept by your Hanguang-Jun!”
Lan Jingyi’s voice also sounded aggressively, “If you keep talking nonsense, we won’t let you off the hook. Come out!”
Wei Wuxian cried injustice, “It’s true! He slept me all night! I can’t go out, I have no face to see anyone!”
The juniors outside exchanged glances. Hanguang-Jun’s residence was not a place anyone could casually enter. They were caught between laughter and tears, and had no way to just drag the person out. Lan Jingyi angrily said, “You’re shameless! Hanguang-Jun isn’t a cut-sleeve, why would he sleep with you?! You should be grateful that he didn’t sleep with you. Get up! Take that donkey away and deal with it. It’s being so loud!”
Mentioning his steed, Wei Wuxian quickly got up, “What did you do to my Little Apple?! Don’t touch it, it’ll kick.”
Lan Jingyi asked, “What’s Little Apple?”
Wei Wuxian answered, “My donkey!” He left the quiet room, hurrying the juniors to take him to find his steed. He was led to a patch of grass, and sure enough, the flowered donkey was braying loudly and incessantly. The reason was that it wanted to eat the grass, but dozens of rolling white fluff balls were gathered there, preventing it from getting its mouth in.
Wei Wuxian happily exclaimed, “So many rabbits! Come, come, let’s roast them!”
Lan Jingyi was furious, “Cloud Recesses prohibits killing! Quickly make it shut up, the people doing morning readings have already come to ask several times! If this keeps going on, we’ll get scolded to death!”
Wei Wuxian fed it an apple from his breakfast, and as expected, the flowered donkey didn’t have time to bray and instead crunched on the apple. Wei Wuxian stroked the back of its neck, while plotting to get his hands on the jade token from the juniors. He then pointed at the white rabbits on the ground and said, “Really can’t roast them? If I do, will I be kicked off the mountain?”
Lan Jingyi was on high alert, quickly opening his arms to block him, saying, “These are Hanguang-Jun’s, we’re only helping to take care of them sometimes, you dare to roast them!”
Hearing this, Wei Wuxian almost laughed himself to the ground, thinking, “Lan Zhan, that person! He didn’t want them before when they were given to him, and now he secretly raises a large group of them. He said he doesn’t want them, who is he trying to fool? Mercy, he secretly likes these fluffy white things! Hanguang-Jun holding a rabbit with a straight face, oh my god, I can’t take it…”
But when he thought about what it looked like when he was on top of Lan Wangji last night, he suddenly couldn’t laugh anymore.
Just then, from the west of Cloud Recesses, a series of bell tolls came.
These tolls were completely different from the time-announcing tolls. They were rapid and intense, as if a madman with a mental breakdown was banging on them. Lan Jingyi and Lan Sizhui’s expressions changed drastically. They didn’t bother to joke with him anymore and ran off, leaving him behind. Knowing that something was wrong, Wei Wuxian quickly followed.
The bell tolls were coming from a corner tower.
This corner tower was called the “Meditation Chamber”. Its walls were made of special materials, engraved with incantations. It was a building specifically for summoning spirits. When the bell in the tower began to ring spontaneously, it meant that something had happened: the people conducting the summoning ritual inside had encountered an accident.
Outside the tower, more and more Lan disciples gathered, but no one dared to rashly enter. The door to the Meditation Chamber was a black wooden door, locked tightly and only able to be opened from the inside. Forcing it open from the outside was not only difficult, but also against the rules. An accident during a summoning ritual was a terrifying thing because no one knew what exactly would be summoned. Rashly entering could lead to unknown consequences. Moreover, since the establishment of the Meditation Chamber, almost no summoning ritual had ever failed, making people even more anxious.
Wei Wuxian didn’t see Lan Wangji and had a bad feeling. If Lan Wangji was still in Cloud Recesses, he should have rushed over immediately upon hearing the alarm bells, unless… Suddenly, the black door was slammed open, and a disciple in white stumbled out.
His footing was unstable, and he rolled down the steps as he came out. The door to the Meditation Chamber was immediately closed automatically, as if it had been slammed shut by someone in anger.
The others hurried over to help the disciple up. As soon as he was lifted up, he immediately fell back down, uncontrollably weeping and crying, grabbing at people and saying, “Shouldn’t have… shouldn’t have summoned it…”
Wei Wuxian grabbed his hand, and said in a low voice, “What spirit were you summoning? Who else is inside? Where is Hanguang-Jun?!”
The disciple seemed to have great difficulty breathing. He opened his mouth and said, “Hanguang-Jun… let me escape…”
Before he could finish speaking, bright red blood gushed out of his nose and mouth. Wei Wuxian pushed the disciple into Lan Sizhui’s arms. He had a roughly made bamboo flute still tucked into his waist, and in a few strides, he ascended the steps, kicked the door of the Meditation Chamber, and shouted, “Open!”
The door of the Meditation Chamber opened with a laugh-like sound. Wei Wuxian immediately flashed inside. The door closed tightly behind him. The disciples were shocked and rushed up after him, but the door was impossible to open. A guest elder slammed on the door, shocked and angry, blurting out, “Just who was that person?!”
Lan Sizhui supported the disciple, gritting his teeth, “… Help me first. He’s bleeding from all his orifices!”
As soon as Wei Wuxian entered the Meditation Chamber, he felt a wave of oppressive black energy wash over him.
This black energy seemed to be a mixture of resentment, anger, and madness. It was almost visible to the naked eye. Enveloped by it, his chest felt a dull ache. The inside of the Meditation Chamber was more than thirty feet across, with several people slumped in disarray in the four corners. In the center of the formation on the ground, the object of the summoning was standing upright.
There was nothing else, just an arm. It was the one brought back from Mo Village!
It stood there as straight as a stick, the severed end facing the ground, four fingers clenched into a fist, and the index finger pointing at the sky, as if angrily pointing at someone. The continuous black energy filling the entire Meditation Chamber was coming from it.
The people participating in the summoning ritual had either fled or fallen. Only Lan Wangji, sitting at the seat of honor in the east, was still sitting upright.
A guqin lay across his lap. His hands were not on the strings, yet they still trembled and vibrated non-stop. He seemed to be in contemplation, or perhaps listening intently to something, before sensing someone’s intrusion and raising his head.
Lan Wangji’s face was always expressionless, and Wei Wuxian couldn’t discern what he was thinking. Lan Qiren, who was supposed to be in charge, had already collapsed to the side. Like the disciple who had escaped the Meditation Chamber, he was bleeding from all his orifices and was out of his mind. Wei Wuxian took his place, swiveled and stepped to the west, drew the bamboo flute from his waist, and raised it to his lips, facing Lan Wangji from afar.
That night in Mo Village, Wei Wuxian had first disturbed it with whistling, and Lan Wangji had then counteracted with the sound of his guqin from afar. The two had unintentionally joined forces to suppress the arm. Lan Wangji made eye contact with him, understood, and raised his right hand. A series of notes flowed from his guqin strings, and Wei Wuxian immediately harmonized with his flute.
The melody they were playing was called “Summoning of the Soul”. Using the corpse of the deceased, a part of the corpse, or a beloved object as a medium, the soul could be called to follow the sound. Usually, it only took one section for the figure of the soul to appear in the formation. However, as the two were about to finish the melody, no soul was summoned.
The arm became enraged. The veins on its skin pulsed, and the oppressive feeling in the air intensified. If someone else was guarding the west at this time, they would not be able to escape Lan Qiren’s fate of bleeding from all their orifices and would have collapsed long ago. Wei Wuxian was secretly shocked. Even he and Lan Wangji playing “Summoning of the Soul” together could not summon the soul. This was almost impossible, unless… unless the soul of the deceased had been severed along with his body!
It seemed this brother was a little more miserable than him. Although his body had been torn to shreds, at least his soul had remained whole.
When “Summoning of the Soul” failed, Lan Wangji’s fingers changed the tone, and he began playing a different piece.
This piece was completely different from the previous eerie and sinister, question-like tone. It was peaceful and serene, called “Repose”. Both of these pieces were well-known among the cultivation world. It wasn’t surprising that anyone could play them. Naturally, Wei Wuxian joined in.
The Yiling Patriarch’s ghost flute was named “Chenqing”, and its fame was widespread. At this time, he was deliberately playing wrong notes and not having enough breath, making it unpleasant to listen to. Lan Wangji had probably never collaborated with anyone so awful before. After playing for a while, he finally couldn’t continue pretending nothing was happening. He lifted his head, looking at him expressionlessly.
Wei Wuxian shamelessly pretended not to see him. His tune strayed further away, and he turned his body, preparing to continue playing. Suddenly, a strange sight came from behind. He looked back, immediately startled. He saw that Lan Qiren, who had lost consciousness, was now sitting up straight. His face was covered in blood from all orifices, and he was shaking, pointing at Wei Wuxian with a trembling hand and voice, he shouted, “Stop playing! Get out! Get out! Don’t—”
Before he could finish saying what he wasn’t going to allow, he spat out a mouthful of blood and fell back down, lapsing into unconsciousness again.
Lan Wangji: “…”
Wei Wuxian was stunned.
He knew what Lan Qiren’s “Don’t allow” was followed by: Don’t play anymore! Don’t harmonize! Don’t desecrate his beloved disciple Wangji’s music!
Their collaborative guqin and flute playing had actually woken up Lan Qiren and then made him faint again, which showed just how awful it was…
However, even so, the hand was slowly falling down under the combined suppression of the flute and guqin music. Wei Wuxian thought shamelessly, “It’s awful, but as long as it works.”
The last string rang out, and in a moment, the door of the Meditation Chamber sprang open, and sunlight flooded in. It seemed the alarm bell in the corner tower had stopped ringing. The disciples and guest elders who had surrounded the Meditation Chamber all rushed in, and a chorus of voices calling “Hanguang-Jun” rang out.
Lan Wangji placed his hand on the strings, stopping the guqin’s reverberating sound. He got up to check Lan Qiren’s pulse. With him taking the lead, the others quickly calmed down. The older elders laid the people who were bleeding from all orifices flat and administered treatment. While they gave acupuncture and medicine, another group of disciples brought in a bronze bell, intending to cover the arm. Although the scene was busy, everything was in order, and everyone spoke in low voices. No one made loud, chaotic noises.
Some people worriedly said, “Hanguang-Jun, the medicine and acupuncture are ineffective. What should we do?”
Lan Wangji placed three fingers on Lan Qiren’s pulse, frowning and silent. Lan Qiren had presided over hundreds of summoning rituals, some of them involving fierce ghosts and evil spirits. Even he was injured by the backlash of resentment, which showed how terrifying the arm’s resentment was. It was truly unprecedented.
Wei Wuxian tucked the bamboo flute back into his waist and squatted beside the bronze bell, stroking the gold inscriptions on it. He was pondering things, when he suddenly saw Lan Sizhui’s face was gloomy. He asked, “What’s wrong?”
Lan Sizhui already knew that he wasn’t an ordinary person. After a slight hesitation, he whispered, “I just feel a little guilty.”
Wei Wuxian asked, “Guilty about what?”
Lan Sizhui said, “That ghost hand, it was targeting us.”
Wei Wuxian smiled, “How do you know that?”
Lan Sizhui said, “Summoning Flags of different grades have different drawings and powers. The Summoning Flags we drew back in Mo Village only had a range of about five miles. But this ghost hand has a strong killing intent and feeds on human flesh and blood. If it was within that range from the beginning, with its ferocity, Mo Village would have already been bathed in blood. But, it only appeared after we arrived… That means that someone with malicious intent deliberately placed it there at that time and in that place.”
Wei Wuxian said, “Your lessons were pretty solid. Good analysis.”
Lan Sizhui lowered his head and said, “In that case, the lives lost in Mo Village… I’m afraid we have to take responsibility… And now, we’ve caused Mr. Lan and the others to fall unconscious…”
After a moment of silence, Wei Wuxian patted his shoulder, saying, “It’s not you who should take responsibility, it’s the person who released the ghost hand. There are some things in this world that you cannot control.”
Over there, Lan Wangji withdrew his hand. The Lan family rushed to ask, “Hanguang-Jun, how is he?”
Lan Wangji said, “Trace the source.”
Wei Wuxian said, “That’s right. Trace the source, find the ghost hand’s complete corpse, and figure out his identity. Naturally, there will be a way to save people.”
Although Lan Jingyi already knew that he wasn’t crazy, he couldn’t help but speak to him in a reproaching tone, “You make it sound simple. The summoning doesn’t work, and it’s become like this. Where are we supposed to find it?”
Lan Wangji said, “Northwest.”
Lan Sizhui asked curiously, “Northwest? Hanguang-Jun, why northwest?”
Wei Wuxian said, “Hasn’t it already been pointed out to you?”
Lan Jingyi asked in confusion, “Pointed out to me? Who? Who pointed it out? Hanguang-Jun didn’t point!”
Wei Wuxian said, “It did.”
Only then did everyone realize that he was pointing at the ghost hand!
The arm was steadily pointing in one direction. When someone changed its position, it stubbornly turned back to the original direction. The crowd had never seen anything like this and were shocked. Lan Jingyi asked, “It? It… What is it pointing at?!”
Wei Wuxian said, “What else could it be pointing at? Either the other parts of his corpse, or the murderer who turned him into this.”
Hearing this, some of the youths who were standing in the northwest quickly moved away. Lan Wangji glanced at him, slowly stood up, and said to the disciples, “Settle Uncle.”
The disciples nodded, “Yes! Are you going down the mountain now?”
Lan Wangji nodded slightly. Wei Wuxian had already crept up behind him, happily and loudly muttering to himself, “Good, good, finally we can run away together down the mountain!”
The people’s faces were filled with unbearable expressions, and the older disciples were particularly horrified. The youths, on the other hand, were somewhat used to it. Only Lan Qiren, lying on the ground, seemed to have another spasm on his face. Everyone thought, “If this person says a few more sentences, Mr. Lan might just be scared awake again…”