TFOD Chapter 36

He involuntarily loosened his hand. Before the oil lamp could fall to the ground, Wei Wuxian snatched it back, calmly rubbed it against the still-burning fire talisman in his other hand, lit it, and placed it on the table, saying, “Did you make all of these, old lady? You’re very skilled.”

Only then did the others realize that the things standing all over the room weren’t real people, but a large group of paper figures.

These paper figures’ heads and bodies were the same size as real people, made with great care. There were men, women, and even children. The men were all “Yin laborers,” made to look tall and sturdy, with their hair bristling in anger. The women were all beautiful, with pretty faces, some with twin buns, others with elaborate cloud-like hairstyles. Even under the wide paper clothes, one could see their graceful figures. The patterns on the paper clothes were even more exquisite than those on real brocade robes. Some were colored with bold and vivid reds and greens, while others were still unpainted, all white. Each paper figure had two large smudges of rouge on their cheeks, acting as a living person’s rosy complexion, but their eyes seemed to have been forgotten, the eye sockets were entirely white. The more vivid the rouge, the more eerie and ghastly they appeared.

In the main room, there was another table, on which stood several candles of varying lengths. Wei Wuxian lit them one by one, the yellow light illuminating most of the room. Besides these paper figures, there were also two large wreaths placed to the left and right of the room, with small mountains of paper gold ingots, spirit money, and pagodas piled in the corners.

Jin Ling had already drawn his sword a third of the way out of its sheath, and upon seeing that it was just a shop selling funerary items, he inconspicuously let out a breath of relief and sheathed his sword. Even if a cultivator from a prominent sect passed away, they never organized such messy, sinister-looking events like those found among commoners. Having seen such things so seldom, their initial shock gave way to curiosity. As goosebumps rose on their skin, they found the experience to be even more stimulating than a typical night-hunt against demonic beasts.

The fog, no matter how thick, couldn’t penetrate the house. After entering Yi City, it was only at this moment that they could easily see each other’s faces, making them feel much more at ease. Seeing that they had relaxed, Wei Wuxian asked the old woman again, “May I trouble you to use the kitchen?”

The old woman seemed to dislike the firelight, staring almost fiercely at the oil lamp, and said, “The kitchen is in the back, use it yourself.” Having said that, she dodged into another room as if trying to avoid a plague god. The sound of her door closing was so loud that it startled them all. Jin Ling said, “That old hag is definitely strange! You…” Wei Wuxian said, “Alright, stop talking. I need some help, who will come with me?”

Lan Sizhui quickly said, “I will.”

Lan Jingyi was still standing straight, and said, “Then what do I do?”

Wei Wuxian said, “Keep standing, if I don’t tell you to move, don’t move.”

Lan Sizhui followed Wei Wuxian to the kitchen at the back. As soon as they entered, a stench of decay and mildew hit them. Lan Sizhui had never smelled such a terrible odor in his life. He felt dizzy for a moment, but managed to resist the urge to run out. Jin Ling also followed, but immediately jumped back out as soon as he entered, fanning himself frantically, “What kind of awful smell is this!!! Instead of trying to find an antidote, why did you come here!”

Wei Wuxian said, “Oh? You came at the right time. How did you know I wanted you to come over? Help out.”

Jin Ling said, “I didn’t come to help! Ugh! Did someone kill someone here and forget to bury them?!”

Wei Wuxian said, “Young master Jin, are you coming or not? If you’re coming, then come inside and help. If not, then go back and sit down, and I’ll call someone else over.”

Jin Ling was furious, “Who is young master Jin, watch how you speak!” He pinched his nose for a while, hesitating over whether to stay or leave. In the end, he huffed, “I want to see just what kind of mischief you’re up to.” With that, he angrily lifted his robes and stepped inside. Who knew that Wei Wuxian would then loudly open a box on the ground, and that the stench was coming from inside. The box contained a pig leg and a chicken, the red meat was full of green, with small, wriggling white maggots among the green.

Jin Ling was forced back out again. Wei Wuxian lifted the box and handed it to him, saying, “Throw it away. Just throw it anywhere, just don’t let us smell it.”

Jin Ling felt nauseous but also suspicious. He did as he was told and threw it out, then frantically wiped his fingers on his handkerchief, and then threw that away as well. When he returned to the kitchen, Wei Wuxian and Lan Sizhui were actually drawing water from the well in the backyard, and were cleaning the kitchen. Jin Ling said, “What are you doing?”

Lan Sizhui worked diligently as he wiped, saying, “As you see, cleaning the stove.”

Jin Ling said, “Why clean the stove, it’s not like we’re going to cook anything.”

Wei Wuxian said, “Who says we’re not? We are going to cook. You can clear away the yang dust, get rid of the cobwebs up there.”

He spoke so confidently, so matter-of-factly, that Jin Ling was inexplicably stuffed a yang dust brush into his hand, and confusedly began to follow his instructions. The more he swept, the more wrong it felt. Just as he was about to throw the broom at Wei Wuxian’s head, Wei Wuxian opened another box, scaring him into running out. Luckily, this time there was no stench.

The three of them worked quickly. Soon, the kitchen was completely transformed, finally having a hint of human activity, unlike a haunted house that had been abandoned for many years. In the corner, there was wood that had already been chopped. They piled it into the stove and lit it with a fire talisman, then placed a large, clean pot on top to boil a pot of water. Wei Wuxian poured a pile of sticky rice from the second box, rinsed it, and put it into the pot.

Jin Ling said, “Are you making porridge?”

Wei Wuxian said, “Yes.”

Jin Ling threw down the rag. Wei Wuxian said, “Look at you, you get angry after working for just a little while. Look at Sizhui, he’s working so hard, and hasn’t said a word. What’s wrong with porridge?”

Jin Ling said, “What’s good about porridge, it’s just plain water! No… am I angry because of the porridge?!”

Wei Wuxian said, “Anyway, it’s not for you to eat.”

Jin Ling was even more furious, “What did you say? I’ve worked so hard and I don’t even get any?!”

Lan Sizhui said, “Young master Mo, is it, is it possible that porridge can cure corpse poison?”

Wei Wuxian smiled and said, “It is possible, but it’s not the porridge that cures the corpse poison, it’s the sticky rice. It’s a folk remedy. Usually, you apply the sticky rice to the wounds caused by bites, and if you ever encounter this situation in the future, you can try it. Although it will hurt a lot, it is absolutely effective, it will work right away. But they weren’t bitten, they inhaled the corpse poison powder, so they can only drink some sticky rice porridge.”

Lan Sizhui realized, “No wonder you insisted on entering the house, and a house where people live. Only a place where people live would have a kitchen, and a kitchen is likely to have sticky rice.”

Jin Ling said, “Who knows how long this rice has been stored, if it’s even edible? And this kitchen hasn’t been used for at least a year, it’s full of dust, and the meat has rotted. Doesn’t that old woman eat anything this past year? She can’t possibly live without food, how is she surviving?”

Wei Wuxian said, “Either this house hasn’t been lived in for a long time, and she isn’t the shop owner here. Or, she doesn’t need to eat.”

Lan Sizhui quietly said, “If they don’t need to eat, then that means they’re dead. But that old woman clearly has a pulse.”

Wei Wuxian stirred the porridge with a spatula while haphazardly mixing in various spices from the jars and bottles around him, saying, “Right. You haven’t finished speaking, how did you all end up coming to Yi City together? It can’t possibly be such a coincidence that we just happen to run into each other again, right?”

The two young men’s expressions immediately became serious. Jin Ling said, “I, the people from the Lan family, and a few others from different families, we’re all chasing after something. I came from Qinghe.” Lan Sizhui said, “We came from Langya.”

Wei Wuxian said, “What thing?”

Lan Sizhui shook his head, saying, “We don’t know. It hasn’t shown itself, we don’t know what it actually is, whether it’s a thing, a person… or perhaps an organization.”

It turned out that a few days earlier, Jin Ling had tricked his uncle into letting Wei Wuxian escape. He was constantly worried that Jiang Cheng would actually break his leg this time. He decided to sneak away for ten or so days, to disappear, and to show up in front of Jiang Cheng after Jiang Cheng’s anger had faded. He handed over the Purple Lightning Whip to Jiang Cheng’s trusted subordinate and ran off. He traveled to a small city just before reaching the border of Qinghe, to look for his next night hunt location. He stayed for a bit at a large inn. That night, he was in his room reciting incantations when suddenly, his pet fairy dog, who was lying at his feet, started barking at the door. It was already late at night, and although Jin Ling told the dog to stop, he immediately heard knocking.

Although fairy dog stopped barking, he was very agitated, scratching furiously at the ground and letting out low growls. Jin Ling became alert and asked who was there, but received no reply, so he ignored it. However, half an hour later, the knocking began again.

Jin Ling led his fairy dog out the window, and after circling around, came up from downstairs to attack from behind and catch whoever was causing trouble at midnight by surprise. However, he found nothing, and after silently waiting for a while, he still didn’t see anyone at his door.

He had a gut feeling that something was wrong, so he let fairy dog guard the door, ready to attack whoever appeared. He didn’t get any rest the whole night, and still, nothing happened. He just kept hearing a strange sound, like water dripping.

The next morning, there were screams outside the door. Jin Ling kicked the door open, and stepped straight into a pool of blood. Something fell from above the door, and Jin Ling dodged, and only then did he not get hit.

A black cat!

Someone, at some point, had nailed the dead body of a cat to the top of his door. The strange dripping sound that he had heard in the middle of the night was this cat’s blood dripping down.

Jin Ling said, “It’s the same at several inns. I started chasing after it, if I heard that a cat corpse had appeared, I would go and look, I want to find out who is playing tricks.”

Wei Wuxian turned towards Lan Sizhui, “You too?”

Lan Sizhui nodded and said, “That’s right. A few days ago, we were night-hunting in Langya. During dinner one night, we suddenly pulled a cat’s head from the soup, without it having been skinned… At first, we didn’t know that it was targeted at us, but that day we switched to another inn, and there, we found cat corpses inside our bedding. It has been like that for several days, and we followed it all the way to Liyang, and we met young master Jin. We found out that we were investigating the same thing, so we began to act together. Only today, we followed it to this area. We asked a hunter in a village by a stone tablet, and were directed to the road leading to Yi City.”

Wei Wuxian thought, “A hunter?”

The youngsters passed by the village by the stone tablet later than he and Lan Wangji did. And they hadn’t seen any hunter, just a few shy village girls who were feeding chickens, who said that the men were out transporting goods and wouldn’t be back for a long time.

The more Wei Wuxian thought about it, the more solemn he looked.

From their descriptions, other than killing cats and throwing the bodies, there were no other actions. Although it sounded and looked very horrifying, they didn’t receive any actual harm. These things instead stirred up their curiosity and desire to find out what was happening.

And furthermore, the location where these youngsters met was Liyang. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji were also traveling south from Liyang to Shu Dong. It seemed as though someone was intentionally leading these naive young people to meet up with them.

Leading a bunch of naive youths to a dangerous and unknown location, to face a fiercely homicidal limb of a fierce corpse— wasn’t this exactly the same pattern as what happened at Mo Village?

And this wasn’t even the most complex thing. What Wei Wuxian was currently most wary about was… the Yin Tiger Seal, which was possibly in Yi City right now.

Although Wei Wuxian himself didn’t want to accept this possibility, it was the most logical explanation. After all, someone who could restore half a piece of the Yin Tiger Seal existed, and although it was said that they had been dealt with, who knew where the Yin Tiger Seal they had restored had ended up?

Right at that moment, Lan Sizhui was squatting on the ground fanning the firewood, looking up and saying, “Senior Mo, the sticky rice porridge seems ready?”

Wei Wuxian came back to his senses, stopped stirring the pot, took the bowl Lan Sizhui had just cleaned, and scooped some up to try, saying, “It’s ready. Take it out, one bowl for each poisoned person, and feed them.”

However, after taking only one bite after it had been taken out, Lan Jingyi spat it out, saying, “What is this, poison?!”

Wei Wuxian said, “What poison, it’s an antidote! Sticky rice porridge.”

Lan Jingyi said, “Without even talking about why sticky rice is an antidote, I’ve never had such spicy sticky rice porridge!”

The others who tasted it all nodded, their eyes were tearing up. Wei Wuxian rubbed his chin. He grew up in Yunmeng, and the people there were very good at eating spicy food. Wei Wuxian’s palette was even more extreme, so anything he made was guaranteed to be so spicy that even Jiang Cheng would throw down his bowl and curse it as disgusting. But he could never help but add more and more seasonings to the pot. It seemed that he just couldn’t hold back his hands. Lan Sizhui, out of curiosity, took a bowl and had a taste. His face flushed red, and he pursed his lips to stop himself from spitting it out. His eyes were red and he thought, “This taste… is actually terrifyingly familiar…”

Wei Wuxian said, “Medicine is three parts poison, it’s better to sweat it out a bit, it will get better faster.”

The young men made sounds of “Ew!” and all said they didn’t believe him, but still, they forced themselves to drink the porridge with a bitter expression. For a moment, they were all flushed and covered in sweat, each one feeling like they were suffering more than death. Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but say, “Is it really that bad? Hanguang-Jun is also from Gusu, and he can eat spicy food as well. Why are you all like this?”

Lan Sizhui covered his mouth and said, “No, senior, Hanguang-Jun has a very light palette, he never eats spicy food…”

Wei Wuxian paused, saying, “Really.”

But he remembered, in his past life after he had left the Yunmeng Jiang Sect, he had met Lan Wangji in Yiling once. At that time, although Wei Wuxian was quite criticized, it wasn’t to the point where everyone was chasing after him. And so, he brazenly wanted to have a meal and catch up with Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji had ordered all of those spicy dishes full of peppercorns, so he had always thought that Lan Wangji’s palette was the same as his.

Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t even remember if Lan Wangji had touched those dishes. But he didn’t even remember that he said he would treat before eating and then forgot, and that it was Lan Wangji who paid for the meal. So he naturally wouldn’t remember such details.

“…Senior, Senior Mo!”

“Huh?” Wei Wuxian finally snapped out of his thoughts. Lan Sizhui quietly said, “That old woman’s door… it’s open.”

A gust of yin wind came from somewhere, blowing open a crack in the door of that small room. Sometimes it was open, and sometimes it was closed. The room was dark, and one could vaguely see a hunched shadow sitting at a table. Wei Wuxian gestured for them not to move, and went into the room himself.

The light from the oil lamp and candles in the main room entered, and the old woman had her head down, as if not noticing anyone had come in. She had a piece of cloth on her lap, stretched out with a frame. She seemed to be doing needlework. Her two stiff hands were pressed together, trying to thread a needle.

Wei Wuxian also sat down at the table, saying, “Old woman, why don’t you light a lamp to thread the needle? Let me do it.”

He took the needle and thread, and threaded it through in one go. He returned it to the old woman, and then calmly walked out of the room, closing the door, saying, “Don’t go in there.”

Jin Ling said, “When you went inside, could you see if that old hag was alive or dead?”

Wei Wuxian said, “Don’t call her an old hag, it’s rude. This old woman is a living corpse.”

The young men looked at each other. Lan Sizhui said, “What’s a living corpse?”

Wei Wuxian said, “It has all the characteristics of a corpse, from head to toe, but the person is still alive. That’s what a living corpse is.”

Jin Ling was shocked, “You’re saying she’s still a living person?!”

Wei Wuxian said, “Did you guys see inside just now?”

“We did.”

“What did you see? What was she doing?”

“Threading a needle.”

“Did she thread it through?”

“…No.”

“Right, she can’t thread it through. Dead people’s muscles are stiff, they can’t do such complicated things like threading a needle. Those aren’t age spots on her face, they’re corpse spots. And she doesn’t need to eat, but somehow can still breathe, she’s alive.”

Lan Sizhui said, “But, but this old woman is very old, a lot of old women have bad eyesight and can’t thread needles themselves.”

Wei Wuxian said, “That’s why I threaded it for her. But did you notice something else? From the moment we entered the door to now, she hasn’t blinked once.”

The group of young men blinked repeatedly. Wei Wuxian said, “Living people blink to prevent dry eyes, but dead people don’t need to. Also, when I took the needle and thread, how did she look at me, did anyone notice?”

Jin Ling said, “She didn’t move her eyes… she moved her head!”

Wei Wuxian said, “That’s it. Usually, when a person looks in another direction, their eyes move a little, but dead people don’t, because they can’t do such detailed actions like moving their eyes. They can only move their head and neck.”

Lan Jingyi blankly said, “Should we be taking notes?”

Wei Wuxian said, “That’s a good habit. But when you’re night-hunting, you don’t have the time to look at your notes, remember it in your heart.”

Jin Ling gritted his teeth and said, “Walking corpses are already evil enough, why do things like living corpses exist?!”

Wei Wuxian said, “It’s hard for a living corpse to naturally form. Usually they’re made by people, this one is.”

“Made?! Why would they do that?!”

Wei Wuxian said, “Dead people have a lot of drawbacks: their muscles are stiff, they move slowly, etc. But dead people also have a lot of advantages: they’re not afraid of injuries, they can’t think, and they’re easy to control. Someone thought that they could improve their drawbacks and create a perfect corpse puppet. That’s how living corpses came to be.” He summarized, “A failed imitation.”

Although the young men didn’t say it out loud, their faces were already written with large letters saying, “This person is definitely Wei! Wu! Xian!”

Wei Wuxian was dumbfounded and thought, “I never made anything like that!”

Although it did sound like his style!

He said, “Ahem. Alright, it was Wei Wuxian who started it all, but he successfully created Wen Ning, who is also the Ghost General. Actually, I’ve always wanted to ask, who came up with that name? It’s so stupid. There are other people who wanted to imitate, but couldn’t do it right, so they took a twisted path. They used living people to make living corpses.” He concluded, “A failed imitation.”

Hearing the name Wei Wuxian, Jin Ling’s expression turned cold. He huffed, “Wei Ying himself is on a twisted path.”

Wei Wuxian said, “Yes, and those who make living corpses are even more twisted, the twisted path within the twisted path.”

Lan Sizhui said, “Senior Mo, what do we do now?”

Wei Wuxian said, “Some living corpses might not know that they’re dead. I think this old woman is quite confused about her situation, so let’s not disturb her for the time being.”

Right at that moment, the crisp sound of a bamboo pole tapping the ground suddenly rang out.

This sound was coming from very close to the window. And that window was sealed with strips of black wood. The faces of all the disciples from the different sects turned pale. Since they entered the city, they had been constantly tormented by this sound, and the mere sound was enough to change their expression. Wei Wuxian gestured for them not to make any noise, so they held their breaths, and watched Wei Wuxian go to the window, and through a very fine crack in the wooden panel, look outside.

As soon as Wei Wuxian got close to the crack, he saw a patch of white. He thought that the white fog outside was just too thick to see through. However, suddenly, that patch of white quickly moved back.

He saw a pair of fierce white eyes, staring fiercely at the crack in the door. The white he had seen earlier wasn’t fog, but rather, those eyes without irises.