TFOD Chapter 43

Xiao Xingchen’s smile froze.

The two words “Xue Yang” were too much of a blow for him. His face already lacked color, and upon hearing this name, it drained away in an instant, his lips becoming almost pale white.

As if unsure, Xiao Xingchen said in a low voice, “…Xue Yang?”

He suddenly woke up, “A-Qing, how do you know this name?”

A-Qing said, “This Xue Yang is the person right here with us! That bad thing!”

Xiao Xingchen said dazedly, “The person with us? …The person with us…”

He shook his head, as if feeling a bit dizzy, and said, “How do you know?”

A-Qing said, “I heard him killing someone!”

Xiao Xingchen said, “He killed someone? Who did he kill?”

A-Qing said, “A woman! Her voice was very young, and she seemed to be carrying a sword. Then, this Xue Yang also had a sword hidden, because I heard them fighting, banging and clanging. That woman called him ‘Xue Yang,’ and also said he was a ‘butcher,’ ‘murderer and arsonist,’ and that ‘everyone should punish him.’ Heavens, this person is a murderous fiend! He’s been hiding by our side, I don’t know what he wants!”

A-Qing hadn’t slept all night, fabricating lies in her stomach all night long. First, she definitely couldn’t let the Daoist know that he had killed living people as if they were fierce corpses, and even more so, she couldn’t let him know that he had personally killed Song Lan. Therefore, even if she was sorry for Daoist Song, she absolutely couldn’t reveal his death. It would be best to make Xiao Xingchen discover Xue Yang’s identity and then quickly run away, as far away as possible!

But this news was too hard to accept, and it sounded absurd at first hearing. Xiao Xingchen only felt disbelief, “But the voice is wrong. And…”

A-Qing, in her hurry, kept poking the bamboo pole, “The voice is wrong because he was pretending! He’s just afraid you’d recognize him!” Suddenly, a thought struck her, and she jumped up and said, “Oh right! Right, right! He has nine fingers! Do you know, Daoist? Does Xue Yang have nine fingers? You must have seen it before!”

Xiao Xingchen stumbled.

A-Qing quickly supported him and helped him to the table, where he slowly sat down. After a while, Xiao Xingchen said, “But A-Qing, how do you know he has nine fingers? Have you touched his hand? But if he is really Xue Yang, how would he let you touch his left hand and discover his deformity?”

A-Qing gritted her teeth and said, “…Daoist! I’ll tell you the truth! I’m not blind, I can see! I didn’t touch it, I saw it!”

One thunderclap after another, Xiao Xingchen was slightly dazed from the blasts, “What did you say? You can see?”

A-Qing was scared, but she could no longer hide it, repeatedly apologizing, “I’m sorry, Daoist, I didn’t mean to lie to you! I was afraid that if you knew I wasn’t blind, you wouldn’t let me follow you anymore, I was afraid you would chase me away! But please don’t blame me right now, let’s run away together. He’ll be back as soon as he finishes buying vegetables!”

Suddenly, she closed her mouth.

The bandages that covered Xiao Xingchen’s eyes were originally pure white, but at this moment, two patches of blood were seeping out from within, more and more, gradually soaking through the cloth and flowing down from his eye sockets.

A-Qing shrieked, “Daoist, you’re bleeding!”

Xiao Xingchen seemed to just realize it, and with a soft “Ah,” he raised his hand to touch his face, his hand coming back covered in blood. A-Qing’s hand trembled as she helped him wipe it, but the more she wiped, the more it flowed. Xiao Xingchen raised his hand and said, “I’m fine…I’m fine.”

Originally, the wounds around his eyes would only bleed when he overthought things or became too emotional, but it had been a long time since it had happened. Wei Wuxian had even thought they were healed. Who would have known that it would happen again today.

Xiao Xingchen murmured, “But…but if it’s really Xue Yang, how could this be? Why didn’t he just kill me from the start, and why would he stay by my side for so many years? How could this be Xue Yang?”

A-Qing said, “He did want to kill you at first! I saw his eyes, they were very fierce and scary! But he was injured and couldn’t move, he needed someone to take care of him! I didn’t recognize him, but if I had recognized him, if I had known he was a murderous fiend, I would have poked him to death with my bamboo pole when he was lying in the grass! Daoist, let’s run away! Huh?”

Wei Wuxian sighed inwardly, “It’s impossible now. If he didn’t tell Xiao Xingchen, he would continue to live with Xue Yang like this. If he told him, he would definitely not just run away like that, he would have to question Xue Yang face-to-face. There’s no solution to this.”

Sure enough, after barely calming his mind, Xiao Xingchen said, “A-Qing, you should go.”

His voice was slightly hoarse, and A-Qing said a bit scared, “I go? Daoist, let’s go together!”

Xiao Xingchen shook his head and said, “I can’t leave. I have to figure out what he wants to do. He must have a purpose, and most likely these past few years of pretending to be someone else by my side was to achieve that purpose. If I leave him here, I’m afraid so many people in Yi City would suffer at his hands. Xue Yang is always like this.”

This time, A-Qing’s crying was no longer an act. She threw the bamboo pole to the side and hugged Xiao Xingchen’s leg, “I go? Daoist, how can I go alone! I want to be with you, if you don’t go, I won’t go either. At worst, we’ll die together. Anyway, I’m going to end up alone and miserable outside anyway. If you don’t want that for me, let’s run away together!”

Unfortunately, now that her secret about not being blind was exposed, using this trick to act pitiful no longer worked. Xiao Xingchen said, “A-Qing, you can see, and you’re smart. I believe you can live well. You have no idea how terrifying Xue Yang is. You can’t stay, and you absolutely can’t get near him again.”

The scream in A-Qing’s heart could be heard even by Wei Wuxian: “I know! I know how terrifying he is!”

But she couldn’t reveal all the truth!

Suddenly, light footsteps came from the distance.

Xue Yang was back!

Xiao Xingchen raised his head in alarm, returning to his alertness from night hunts. He quickly pulled A-Qing closer, and said in a low voice, “Later, when he comes in, I will deal with him, and you take the chance to run away immediately. Be obedient!”

A-Qing was so scared that she nodded tearfully. Xue Yang kicked the door with his foot, “What are you doing? I’m back already, are you still not gone? If you’re not gone, open the latch and let me in. I’m exhausted.”

Just listening to that voice and tone, he seemed like a friendly young man, a lively little junior apprentice. But who would think that at this very moment, standing outside the door, was an inhumane, deranged fiend, a devil wearing a handsome human skin, imitating human movements, and speaking human words!

The door wasn’t locked, but was latched from the inside. If they didn’t open it, Xue Yang would definitely be suspicious. If he came in then, he would surely be on guard. A-Qing wiped her face, and cursed, “Exhausted, my ass! You just walked a bit to buy vegetables, did it tire you out so much?! Sister took two more minutes to change, is that cutting off your flesh?!”

Xue Yang said disdainfully, “How many clothes do you even have? They all look the same anyway. Open the door, open the door.”

A-Qing’s calves were shaking, but she said forcefully, “Tch! I just won’t open it for you, you try and kick it!”

Xue Yang laughed, “You said it yourself. Daoist, when you fix the door later, don’t blame me.”

With that, he kicked the door, and the wooden door was kicked open. He stepped over the high threshold, and entered the room. He had one hand carrying a full basket of vegetables, and one hand holding a bright red apple. He took a bite out of it, and as he lowered his head, he saw the blade of Frost Blossom piercing into his abdomen.

The vegetable basket fell to the ground, and the greens, carrots, apples, and steamed buns rolled everywhere.

Xiao Xingchen shouted in a low voice, “A-Qing, run!”

A-Qing took off running, dashing out of the main gate of the Burial Mound. After sprinting for a while, she quickly changed direction and circled back. She stealthily went back to the Burial Mound, climbing up to her most familiar, most often used spot for eavesdropping, and this time, even peeked out half her head, looking inside the house.

Xiao Xingchen said coldly, “Was it fun?”

Xue Yang took a bite of the apple that was still in his hand, slowly chewed it for a while, swallowed the fruit, and said, “Fun. Why wouldn’t it be fun.”

He used his real voice.

Xiao Xingchen said, “These past few years I’ve spent with you, what exactly did you want to do?”

Xue Yang said, “Who knows? Maybe just because I was bored.”

Xiao Xingchen pulled out Frost Blossom, ready for another strike. Xue Yang said, “Daoist Xiao Xingchen, that story I wasn’t able to finish. You don’t want to hear the second half now, do you?”

Xiao Xingchen said, “I don’t.”

Although he refused, he slightly tilted his head and the sword stance froze. Xue Yang said, “But I insist on telling it. After I finish, if you still think I’m in the wrong, you can do whatever you want.”

He casually wiped the wound on his abdomen, and held it down to prevent it from bleeding too much. He said, “That little kid saw the man who tricked him into delivering a letter. He felt very wronged and happy, and he burst into tears and ran up to tell him: the letter has been delivered, but the dessert is gone, and I was also beaten up. Can you give me another plate?

“And that man seemed to have just been caught by the burly man, beaten up, and had wounds on his face. When he saw this dirty little kid hugging his leg, he felt extremely annoyed and kicked him away.

“He got on the ox cart, and told the driver to leave immediately. The little kid got up from the ground, and ran after the ox cart. He really wanted to eat that sweet dessert. He finally caught up, and waved in front of the cart, wanting them to stop. The man was annoyed by the kid’s crying, and snatched the whip from the driver, and whipped the boy on the head, knocking him to the ground.”

He said every word very clearly, “And then, the wheels ran over the kid’s hand, crushing it, one finger at a time!”

Regardless if Xiao Xingchen could see or not, Xue Yang held up his left hand to him, “Seven years old! The bones of his left hand were all crushed, and one finger was immediately reduced to a puddle of flesh! That man, was Chang Ping’s father.

“Daoist Xiao Xingchen, when you took me up to the Jinlin Platform, you were so righteous and stern! You condemned me for destroying a whole family over a minor grievance. Is it because the fingers aren’t on your bodies that you don’t know the pain! You don’t know what it’s like when a heartbreaking scream comes out of your own mouth! Why did I kill his whole family? Why don’t you ask him, why did he come and toy with me just to entertain himself?! The Xue Yang of today is all thanks to Chang Ci’an of the past! The Chang family of Leyang was simply reaping what they sowed!”

Xiao Xingchen said in disbelief, “Chang Ci’an broke one of your fingers that year. Even if you wanted revenge, you could have broken one of his fingers. If you hated him too much, you could have broken two, or ten! Or even if you cut off one of his arms! Why did you have to kill his entire family? Does one of your fingers equal more than fifty lives?”

Xue Yang even thought about it seriously, as if he found his question very strange, and said, “Of course. The finger is my own, but their lives are theirs, no matter how many I kill, it’s still not enough. Just fifty people, how could that be comparable to one of my fingers?”

Xiao Xingchen was so angry at his smug and self-righteous attitude that his face turned even paler. He shouted, “What about the others?! Why did you massacre White Snow Temple? Why did you blind Daoist Song Zichen?!”

Xue Yang asked in return, “Then why did you stop me? Why did you interfere with my business? Why did you help the Chang family of trash? Were you helping Chang Ci’an? Or Chang Ping? Hahahaha how grateful and tearful was Chang Ping at first? And how did he beg you not to help him anymore later? Daoist Xiao Xingchen, from the beginning, you were in the wrong, you shouldn’t have interfered in other people’s disputes. Who’s right, who’s wrong, who owes more, who’s hated more, can outsiders really figure it out? Or maybe you shouldn’t have even descended the mountain in the first place, your master, Baoshan Sanren, was so clever, why didn’t you listen to her and stay on the mountain cultivating? If you don’t understand the ways of the world, then don’t enter it!”

Xiao Xingchen couldn’t tolerate it anymore and said, “…Xue Yang, you’re truly…too disgusting…”

Hearing those words, that fierce glint that hadn’t been seen in Xue Yang’s eyes for a long time reappeared.

He laughed coldly a few times, and said, “Xiao Xingchen, that’s why I hate you. The thing I hate most of all, are people like you who pride themselves on justice, people like you who think their virtue is so high, just you people who think that if you do some good things the world will become beautiful, you big fools, idiots, naive, morons! You think I’m disgusting? Very well, am I afraid of being thought disgusting? But, do you even have the right to think I’m disgusting?”

Xiao Xingchen was slightly stunned, “What do you mean?”

A-Qing and Wei Wuxian’s hearts were practically jumping out of their chests!

Xue Yang said intimately, “Recently we haven’t gone out to kill the fierce corpses at night anymore, have we? But in the previous two years, weren’t we going out to kill a bunch every few days?”

Xiao Xingchen’s lips moved, as if he was feeling slightly uneasy, “What do you mean by saying this now?”

Xue Yang said, “I don’t mean anything. It’s just too bad you’re blind. Both of your eyeballs have been dug out by yourself, so you couldn’t see the ‘fierce corpses’ you were killing. How scared and painful they were when your sword pierced through their hearts. And also, the ones who kneeled down, crying and begging you to spare their family. If I hadn’t cut off their tongues, they definitely would have cried out loud, and shouted ‘Daoist, spare our lives!'”

Xiao Xingchen’s whole body began to shake.

After a long while, he said with difficulty, “You’re lying to me. You want to lie to me.”

Xue Yang said, “Yes, I’m lying to you. I’ve been lying to you this whole time. Who knew you would believe the things I lied about, and not believe the things I didn’t lie about?”

Xiao Xingchen staggered and hacked at him with his sword, and shouted, “Shut up! Shut up!”

Xue Yang covered his abdomen, snapped his left finger, and retreated calmly. And the expression on his face was no longer like that of a human. His eyes were actually flashing green, and the small fangs that would show when he smiled made him look like a living demon. He shouted, “Fine! I’ll shut up! If you don’t believe me, then go match up with that one behind you, and let him tell you whether I lied to you or not!”

The sword wind attacked, and Xiao Xingchen subconsciously held Frost Blossom back to block it. As the two swords met, he was stunned.

It wasn’t that he was stunned, but rather his whole body instantly transformed into a withered stone statue.

Xiao Xingchen carefully, very carefully asked, “…Is it Zichen?”

There was no answer.

Song Lan’s corpse stood behind him, seemingly staring at Xiao Xingchen, but his eyes had no pupils. He held a long sword, which was intersecting with Frost Blossom.

They must have often sparred with their swords, so that when their swords connected, they could judge the identity of their opponent with their strength alone. But Xiao Xingchen didn’t seem certain, so he slowly turned around and trembling, reached out and touched the blade of Song Lan’s sword.

Song Lan didn’t move. He followed the blade upwards, finally, bit by bit, tracing the two words engraved on the hilt of the sword, “Brush Away the Snow.”

Xiao Xingchen’s face became paler and paler.

He touched the blade of Brush Away the Snow with no presence of mind, not even knowing that the sharp edge had cut his palm. His whole body was shaking so badly that his voice was practically falling apart, “…Zichen…Daoist Song…Daoist Song…is it you…”

Song Lan silently looked at him, not speaking a word.

The bandages around Xiao Xingchen’s eyes had already been soaked with unending blood, forming two terrifying bloody holes. He wanted to reach out and touch the person holding the sword, but didn’t dare to. His hand reached out and then retreated. A-Qing’s chest felt a tearing pain, which made her and Wei Wuxian struggle to breathe. Tears poured out like a spring.

Xiao Xingchen stood there at a loss for what to do, “…What’s going on…say something…”

He completely broke down, “Someone say something?!”

As he wished, Xue Yang spoke, “Do you want me to tell you who that fierce corpse you killed yesterday was?”

With a “clang.”

Frost Blossom fell to the ground.

Xue Yang burst into laughter.

Xiao Xingchen knelt in front of Song Lan, who was standing woodenly, and hugged his head and wailed heartbreakingly.

Xue Yang laughed until there were tears in his eyes, and said viciously, “What’s wrong! Two good friends meeting each other, so moved that you’re both crying! Do you want to hug each other?”

A-Qing covered her mouth tightly, not letting even a whisper of her weeping escape. Inside the Burial Mound, Xue Yang walked back and forth, all while speaking in a terrifying voice that was both furious and ecstatic, “Saving the world! That’s hilarious, you can’t even save yourself!”

Wei Wuxian felt waves of sharp pain go through his mind. But this pain wasn’t coming from A-Qing’s soul.

Xiao Xingchen knelt on the ground, a wretched sight, and was lying at Song Lan’s feet. He had shrunk down until he seemed so small, as if he had become a weak little bundle. He wished he could disappear from this world. His once pure white Daoist robe was now stained with blood and dust. Xue Yang shouted at him, “You achieved nothing, you were a complete failure, you brought it upon yourself, you deserved it!”

At that moment, on Xiao Xingchen, Wei Wuxian saw himself.

A complete failure, covered in blood, having achieved nothing, someone who was being criticized, being yelled at, powerless to change anything, only able to wail!

The white bandages had been completely dyed red. Xiao Xingchen’s face was covered in blood. He had no eyes, so no tears would flow out, only blood. He had been deceived for years, treating his enemy as a friend. His kindness had been trampled on, he thought he was ridding the world of evil, but his hands were covered in innocent blood, and he had personally killed his own friend!

He could only sob miserably, “Please spare me.”

Xue Yang said, “Weren’t you about to stab me to death just now? How did you start begging for mercy so quickly?”

He knew very well that Song Lan’s fierce corpse was protecting him, and there was no way Xiao Xingchen could lift his sword again.

Once again, he had won. He had won a complete victory.

Suddenly, Xiao Xingchen grabbed Frost Blossom from the ground, and turning the sword around, he placed the sharp blade against his own neck. A pure, clear silver light passed through Xue Yang’s dark and gloomy eyes, and Xiao Xingchen let go of the sword, and crimson blood slid down the blade of Frost Blossom.

With that clear sound of the long sword hitting the ground, Xue Yang’s laughter and actions came to a screeching halt.

After a long silence, he walked to Xiao Xingchen’s unmoving body, lowered his head, and the twisted curve of his mouth slowly subsided. Blood vessels popped up in his eyes. It was hard to tell if it was just a trick of the light, but it seemed that Xue Yang’s eyes were slightly red.

Immediately after, he gritted his teeth and said viciously, “You forced me to do this!”

After speaking, he sneered, and said to himself, “It’s better that you’re dead! Dead people are obedient.”

Xue Yang tested Xiao Xingchen’s breathing, and squeezed his wrist. Seemingly feeling that he wasn’t dead enough, wasn’t stiff enough, he stood up, went to the side room, took out a basin of water, and using a clean cloth, wiped the blood off his face and changed it with a new bandage, carefully wrapping it around Xiao Xingchen.

He drew the formation on the ground, placed the necessary materials, and hugged Xiao Xingchen’s corpse into the center. After completing these tasks, he finally remembered to wrap his own wound.

He probably believed that they would be able to see each other again after a short while, and he became more and more cheerful. He picked up all the vegetables and fruit that had fallen on the ground, and reorganized them neatly in the basket. He even cleaned the house with great enthusiasm, and added a thick layer of new hay to the coffin that A-Qing slept in. Finally, he took out the candy that Xiao Xingchen had given him last night from his sleeve.

He was about to put it into his mouth, but after thinking about it, he restrained himself, put it back, propped his head on one hand at the table, and idly waited for Xiao Xingchen to sit up.

But he never did.

The sky grew darker and darker, and Xue Yang’s face also grew more and more gloomy. His fingers tapped impatiently on the table.

When twilight completely fell, he kicked the table, cursed, and got up. He knelt next to Xiao Xingchen’s corpse to check the formation and incantation he had drawn earlier. After repeatedly confirming that it seemed to be correct, he frowned and erased it all, and drew it again.

This time, Xue Yang sat directly on the ground and very patiently stared at Xiao Xingchen. He waited for a long time. A-Qing’s feet had gone numb for three rounds, and it was both painful and itchy, as if millions of ants were nibbling at her. Her eyes had also swollen up from crying, making it hard for her to see clearly.

After waiting for another hour, Xue Yang finally realized that things were out of his control.

He put his hand on Xiao Xingchen’s forehead, closed his eyes to sense, and after a while, suddenly opened his eyes.

Wei Wuxian knew that what he felt, was probably just a few wisps of weak, fragmented souls.

And with his soul shattered like that, he couldn’t use it to refine a fierce corpse.

Xue Yang seemed to have never imagined that such an accident would occur. That face that was always filled with smiles was now completely blank for the first time.

Without a second thought, he belatedly reached out and covered the wound on Xiao Xingchen’s neck with his hand. But the blood had already flowed out, and Xiao Xingchen’s face was as white as paper. Large areas of dark red blood had dried up on his neck. Trying to stop the wound now was useless.

Xiao Xingchen was dead, completely and thoroughly dead.

Even his soul had shattered.

In Xue Yang’s story, that crying child who couldn’t get his dessert was so different from the him now, making it very difficult to connect them. And at this moment, Wei Wuxian finally saw a shadow of that lost and confused child on Xue Yang’s face.

In an instant, Xue Yang’s eyes filled with blood vessels. He suddenly stood up, tightly clenched his fists, and began to charge around in the Burial Mound, knocking into things as he went, breaking everything to pieces. The noises were thunderous. He smashed the house that he had just cleaned into a complete mess.

At this time, his expressions and the sounds he made were closer to being deranged than all the evil he had displayed before.

After smashing the house, he calmed down again, and squatted back in his original spot, and softly called, “Xiao Xingchen.”

He said, “If you don’t get up again, I’m going to let your good friend Song Lan go kill people.

“I’ll kill everyone in this entire Yi City, and turn them into fierce corpses. You’ve lived here for so long, can you really be fine with that?

“I’m going to strangle that little blind girl A-Qing to death and leave her corpse in the wilderness for wild dogs to chew until she’s completely unrecognizable.”

A-Qing shuddered silently.

There was no reply. Xue Yang suddenly roared angrily, “Xiao Xingchen!”

He desperately grabbed Xiao Xingchen’s collar and shook him a few times, staring at the face of the dead man in his hands.

Suddenly, he grabbed Xiao Xingchen’s arm, and carried him on his back.

Xue Yang carried Xiao Xingchen’s corpse out the door, like a madman, mumbling to himself, “Soul-locking pouch, soul-locking pouch. Right, a soul-locking pouch, I need a soul-locking pouch, soul-locking pouch, soul-locking pouch…”

Only after he had gone quite far did A-Qing dare to move slightly.

She couldn’t stand, so she fell to the ground, squirming for a long time before she finally got up. She took a few steps and her muscles began to loosen up. Then she began to walk faster, faster, and finally, she began to run.

After running for a long time, putting Yi City far behind her, she finally dared to release the loud wails she had been holding in her stomach, “Daoist! Daoist! Wuwuwu, Daoist!…”

The scene shifted to another place.

By this time, A-Qing should have already escaped for a while. She was walking in an unfamiliar town, carrying her bamboo pole. She was pretending to be blind again, asking everyone she met, “Excuse me, are there any large clans around here?” “Excuse me, are there any powerful experts around here? Cultivation experts.”

Wei Wuxian thought, “She’s looking for someone who can help Xiao Xingchen take revenge.”

But unfortunately, no one took her questions seriously, and would just casually answer with a few words and leave. A-Qing wasn’t discouraged, and continued to ask and ask, and was constantly waved away. Seeing that she couldn’t find anything here, she left, and started walking on a small path.

She walked all day, and asked all day. She was so tired that she could barely move, dragging her heavy steps to the side of a small stream. She scooped up some stream water, drank a few mouthfuls, and moistened her throat which felt like it was on fire. Looking into the water, she saw a wooden hairpin on her hair, and reached out to take it off.

This wooden hairpin was originally very rough, like an uneven chopstick. Xiao Xingchen had smoothed it down and made it thin and delicate, and had also carved a small fox at the end of it. The little fox had a pointed face and big eyes, and it was smiling. When A-Qing had received the hairpin, she touched it and happily said, “Ah! It looks like me!”

Looking at this hairpin, A-Qing pouted and wanted to cry again. Her stomach rumbled, and she took out a small white coin purse from her sleeve, the same one she had stolen from Xiao Xingchen. She also pulled out a small piece of candy from it, and carefully licked it. Her tongue tasted the sweetness, and she put the candy back.

This was the last piece of candy Xiao Xingchen had left for her.

A-Qing lowered her head and put the coin purse away. Glancing casually, she suddenly discovered that there was another person’s shadow behind her reflection in the water.

In the reflection, Xue Yang was smiling at her.

A-Qing was so scared she shrieked, and scrambled to get away.

Xue Yang had appeared behind her at some point. He held Frost Blossom in his hand and spread out his arms, striking a pose as if he were embracing her, and happily said, “A-Qing, why are you running? It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other, don’t you miss me?”

A-Qing shouted, “Help!”

However, this was a remote mountain path, and no one would come to save her.

Xue Yang raised his eyebrows and said, “I just went to Leyang to do some business, and I actually just so happened to run into you in the city, asking all kinds of things. What a fated meeting. Speaking of which, you can really act. You actually managed to trick me for so long. Impressive.”

A-Qing knew that she couldn’t run away, and her death was inevitable. After her panic, she thought that since she was going to die anyway, she might as well curse him thoroughly before dying. A burst of insolence rose up in her, and she jumped up and spat, “You beast! Ungrateful wretch! You’re worse than a pig or a dog! Your parents must have conceived you in a pig pen, you’re nothing more than a bastard! You grew up eating shit, you piece of trash!”

She had hung out in the streets before, and had heard all kinds of foul curses. She began spouting any dirty words she knew at him. Xue Yang listened with a smile on his face, and said, “You’re really good at cursing. Why haven’t I ever heard you curse like this in front of Xiao Xingchen? Is there any more?”

A-Qing said, “Go to hell, you shameless bastard! You dare mention the Daoist, that’s the Daoist’s sword! How are you worthy of holding it? You’re making his things dirty!”

Xue Yang raised Frost Blossom in his left hand, and said, “Oh, you mean this? Now, it’s mine. Did you think your Daoist is so clean? He will become mine in the future anyway…”

A-Qing said, “You’re dreaming! You wouldn’t be worthy of even talking about whether the Daoist is clean or not! You’re just a wad of phlegm. The Daoist was so unlucky to have come across you! You’re the only dirty thing! It’s only you, you disgusting wad of phlegm!”

Xue Yang’s face finally darkened.

After being so frightened for so long, A-Qing finally reached this moment. And yet her heart suddenly felt lighter.

Xue Yang said in a sinister tone, “Since you like to pretend to be blind so much, then you should be a real blind person.”

He waved his hand and scattered an unknown powder, which struck A-Qing in the face and entered her eyes. Her vision instantly turned blood red, and then went dark.

Her eyeballs burned with stinging pain, and A-Qing screamed loudly. Xue Yang’s voice came again, “Since you’re so talkative, your tongue isn’t needed either.”

An icy, sharp object pierced into A-Qing’s mouth. Just when Wei Wuxian felt the pain from the tip of his tongue, he was suddenly pulled out.

The crisp sound of silver bells rang “ding ding,” “ding ding,” so close. Wei Wuxian was still immersed in A-Qing’s emotions, and couldn’t snap out of it for a long time. He felt dizzy. Lan Jingyi waved his hand in front of his face, “No reaction? Has he gone dumb?!”

Jin Ling said, “I told you, empathy is very dangerous!”

Lan Jingyi said, “It’s not like you weren’t spacing out earlier, and didn’t shake the bell in time!”

Jin Ling’s face stiffened, “I…”

Luckily, at this time, Wei Wuxian finally recovered, and stood up, holding onto the coffin. A-Qing had already detached from his body, and was also clinging onto the side of the coffin. The group of youngsters, like a bunch of piglets, crowded around, surrounding him in a circle, “He’s up, he’s up!” “Great, he hasn’t gone dumb.” “Wasn’t he already dumb?” “Don’t talk nonsense!”

Wei Wuxian said in the cacophony, “Don’t shout, my head is spinning.”

They immediately quieted down. Wei Wuxian lowered his head and put his hand inside the coffin, slightly parting the collar of Xiao Xingchen’s neat Daoist robe. As expected, he saw a thin scar on his neck, where the fatal wound was.

Wei Wuxian sighed inwardly, and said to A-Qing, “Thank you for your hard work.”

The reason why A-Qing’s ghost was blind, but didn’t move as slowly or carefully as most blind people, was because she had only become truly blind a moment before her death. Before that, she was a lively, quick little girl, moving like the wind.

Over the years, she had been alone, hiding and running in the fog-filled Yi City, going against Xue Yang, scaring away living people who had entered the city, guiding them out of the city, and giving them warnings. This required so much courage and persistence.

A-Qing lay on the side of the coffin, clasped her hands together, and kept bowing to Wei Wuxian. She then used her bamboo pole as a sword, mimicking the “kill, kill, kill” motions she used to make when playing. Wei Wuxian said, “Don’t worry.”

He said to the other disciples, “You all stay here. The fierce corpses in the city won’t come to this Burial Mound. I’ll be right back.”

Lan Jingyi couldn’t help but ask, “What exactly did you see when you were empathizing?”

Wei Wuxian said, “It was too long to tell now, I’ll talk about it another time.”

Jin Ling said, “Can’t you make it shorter? Don’t keep us in suspense!”

Wei Wuxian said, “It’s simple: Xue Yang must die.”

In the fog that filled the sky, A-Qing’s bamboo pole tapped, and led the way for him. They moved quickly, and quickly went back to where the fierce battle had taken place.

Lan Wangji and Xue Yang were already fighting outside, and the sword light from Bichen and Jiangzai were engaged in a desperate battle. Bichen was calm and composed, with the upper hand, but Jiangzai was like a mad dog, barely able to hold out. However, the white fog was terrifying, and Lan Wangji couldn’t see clearly. But Xue Yang had lived in this Yi City for many years, and