TFOD Chapter 120

The day after meeting Luo Qingyang and his wife, the two arrived at a small town in Guangling.

Wei Wuxian raised a hand to his brow, seeing the fluttering pennants of a wine shop ahead, and said, “Let’s rest up ahead.”

Lan Wangji nodded. The two walked side by side.

After that night at the Guanyin Temple in Yunmeng, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji traveled together, taking Little Apple along for hunting trips in all directions. They still went wherever chaos appeared, going to investigate and resolve the problems whenever they heard of evil spirits causing trouble and harming the people. While doing so, they also enjoyed the scenery and learned about local customs. Three months passed in this manner, with their ears closed to the matters of the cultivation world, and they were exceedingly carefree and content.

They entered the tavern, choosing an inconspicuous corner table. The waiter came forward to greet them. Looking at their appearances and demeanor, he noticed the sword at Lan Wangji’s waist and then Wei Wuxian’s flute, and couldn’t help but link them with the two people who had been the subject of much recent gossip. But after staring hard for quite a while, the white-clad guest was definitely not wearing a forehead ribbon of the Gusu Lan sect, so he did not dare to be certain.

Wei Wuxian ordered wine, while Lan Wangji ordered some dishes. Wei Wuxian listened to his deep voice reciting the names of the dishes, propping up his cheek with one hand while the other hand under the table toyed with a snow-white forehead ribbon, his face full of smiles. After the waiter left, he said, “So many spicy dishes, can you even eat them?”

Lan Wangji picked up the teacup on the table, took a sip, and said in a low voice, “Sit properly.”

Wei Wuxian said, “There’s no tea in the cup.”

“…” Lan Wangji filled the teacup and brought it to his lips again.

After a while, he said again, “…Sit properly.”

Wei Wuxian said, “Am I not sitting properly? I haven’t put my leg on the table like I used to.”

After a moment of restraint, Lan Wangji said, “Then don’t put it anywhere else.”

Wei Wuxian said, puzzled, “Where did I put it?”

Lan Wangji: “…”

Wei Wuxian said, “Young Master Lan, you really have a lot of requirements. Why don’t you teach me how to sit?”

Lan Wangji put down the teacup, looked at him, shook his sleeves, and was about to get up to teach him properly, but a burst of loud laughter suddenly erupted from a table in the hall.

A person at the table said gleefully, “I knew that Jin Guangyao would fall sooner or later with this kind of behavior! I’ve been waiting for this day for so long. He’s finally been exposed, hmph! It’s true that good and evil are ultimately rewarded, and heavenly justice is fair!”

At first hearing, Wei Wuxian felt very familiar. The person’s tone and content of yelling were very familiar, only the target of yelling was changed. He couldn’t help but listen more closely. A cultivator holding chopsticks pointed at the world and said, “Indeed, the old saying is right! Those people on top, the more glamorous they appear, the more filthy and unbearable they are behind the scenes!”

“That’s right, there’s not a single good one. What Lords, what Gentlemen? Which one of them isn’t just putting on an act for others to see?”

One person took a gulp of wine and ate a large mouthful of meat, spitting as he spoke, “Speaking of which, Sisi was also a famous courtesan back in the day. She’s so old now, I didn’t even recognize her. She’s seriously disgusting. Jin Guangshan’s death was also miserable enough, hahahaha…”

“It’s thanks to Jin Guangyao that he could come up with such a way to kill his father. A perfect match. Amazing!”

“I’m just curious, why didn’t Jin Guangyao kill that old prostitute? Witnesses should be silenced, is he stupid?”

“How do you know he’s stupid? He’s Jin Guangshan’s seed, maybe he’s also a philandering seed. Maybe he has a special taste, maybe he has some kind of… heh heh, unspeakable relationship with Sisi?”

“Heh heh, although I also think so, it is also rumored that Jin Guangyao got a hidden disease because of having an affair with his own sister. He is willing, but has no power, hahaha…”

These rumors and fabrications were indeed extremely familiar. Wei Wuxian thought of how countless people used to spread rumors that he had kidnapped thousands of virgins in the Burial Mounds for nightly debauchery in order to cultivate evil arts. It was strangely comical, and he thought, “Alright, at least it’s better to spread rumors about me like that than spreading those rumors about Jin Guangyao.”

The words behind them became more and more unbearable. Lan Wangji also frowned. Fortunately, a normal person at that table couldn’t listen anymore and said in a low voice, “Keep your voices down… it’s not like it’s anything nice to hear.”

The people who had been laughing said carelessly, “What’s there to be afraid of, no one here knows us anyway.”

“That’s right! Besides, so what if they hear us? They can control heaven and earth, but can they control what people say and fart?”

“Do you think the Lanling Jin Sect is still the same Lanling Jin Sect as before? Can they still control other people’s mouths? If they don’t like hearing it, they can just hold it in!”

One person changed the topic: “Alright, alright, what’s the point of talking about this? Let’s eat, let’s eat. No matter how much Jin Guangyao stirred up trouble when he was alive, now he can only be trapped in a coffin fighting with Nie Mingjue.”

“I don’t think so, when enemies meet, their eyes are especially red. His body and bones will probably be torn apart by Nie Mingjue.”

“That’s right! I went to the sealing coffin ceremony. The resentment around the coffin was so heavy that nothing could grow within a mile! I seriously doubt if that coffin can really seal them for a hundred years?”

“Whether it can be sealed or not, it’s not your place to worry about it. It’s a headache for those few families. Anyway, the Lanling Jin Sect is done for, it’s completely changed.”

“But, at the sealing coffin ceremony, Zewu-Jun’s face looked really bad.”

“Can it not be bad? His two sworn brothers are in the coffin, and the juniors in his family are running around with a fierce corpse all day long. They even need the fierce corpse to help them out when they go night-hunting! No wonder he’s always in seclusion. If Lan Wangji doesn’t go back, I think Lan Qiren will start cursing in the streets…”

Lan Wangji: “…”

Wei Wuxian chuckled. The conversation continued, “Speaking of which, this sealing coffin ceremony made me look at Nie Huaisang with new eyes, he actually did a pretty good job? When he volunteered, I thought for sure he was going to mess it up. After all, he doesn’t know anything.”

“Me too! Who knew he could actually preside over it better than Lan Qiren.”

Hearing their surprised chatter, Wei Wuxian thought, what is this? In the next few decades, maybe this sect leader of the Qinghe Nie Sect will gradually start to show his edge and continue to bring more surprises to the world.

The dishes arrived, and the wine arrived. Wei Wuxian filled a cup and slowly drank it.

Suddenly, he heard a young man’s voice say, “Is the Yin Tiger Seal really in that coffin?”

The tavern suddenly fell silent. After a while, someone said, “Who knows, maybe it is. If Jin Guangyao didn’t keep the Yin Tiger Seal on him, where else would he put it?”

“But it’s hard to say, isn’t it said that the Yin Tiger Seal is just a piece of scrap metal now? It’s useless.”

The young man sat alone at a table, holding a sword in his arms, and said, “Is that coffin really secure enough? What if someone wanted to see if the Yin Tiger Seal is inside, what would happen?”

Immediately, someone said loudly, “Who would dare!”

“The Qinghe Nie Sect, the Gusu Lan Sect, and the Yunmeng Jiang Sect have all sent people to guard that cemetery, who would be so bold as to have a death wish?”

Everyone chimed in with agreement. The young man didn’t speak again, he picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip, as if he had given up on the idea. However, his eyes did not change.

Wei Wuxian had seen this kind of look on many people’s faces. And he knew that this would definitely not be the last time he would see it.

After leaving the tavern, Wei Wuxian was still riding on Little Apple, with Lan Wangji leading the way with the rope.

Swaying on the little flowery donkey, Wei Wuxian took out the flute from his waist and put it to his lips. The clear sound of the flute soared through the sky like birds. Lan Wangji stopped and listened silently.

It was the song he had sung for Wei Wuxian when they were trapped at the bottom of the Xuanwu Cave.

It was also the song that Wei Wuxian had played by chance at Dafan Mountain after his rebirth, which had made Lan Wangji confirm his identity.

When the song ended, Wei Wuxian winked his left eye at Lan Wangji and said, “How was it? I played well, right?”

Lan Wangji nodded slowly and said, “Rare.”

Wei Wuxian knew that “rare” meant that it was rare for his memory to be good for once. He couldn’t help but chuckle, “Don’t always be so serious, it was my fault in the past, is that okay? Besides, if my memory is bad, it should be my mother’s fault.”

Lan Wangji asked, “Why?”

Wei Wuxian propped his arm on Little Apple’s head, and Chenqing spun quickly in his hand as he said, “My mother said that you should remember the good others do for you, not the good you do for others. Don’t keep too many things in your heart, that way you’ll be happy and carefree.”

This was also one of the few things he could remember about his parents.

His thoughts drifted for a moment, then Wei Wuxian pulled them back. Seeing Lan Wangji staring at him intently, he said, “My mother also said…”

Seeing that he hesitated to say the second half of the sentence, Lan Wangji asked, “Said what?”

Wei Wuxian beckoned him with his finger, his expression solemn. Lan Wangji moved closer. Wei Wuxian leaned down and said in his ear, “…said you are already mine.”

Lan Wangji’s brows twitched slightly. Just as he was about to open his lips, Wei Wuxian interrupted, “Shameless, improper, boring, frivolous, talking nonsense again, right? Alright, I’ll say it for you. It’s always just a few words. You’re really the same as before, not a bit changed. I’m also yours, so it’s even, okay?”

When it came to being quick-tongued, Lan Wangji could never beat Wei Wuxian. He said in a low voice, “If you say it’s okay, then it’s okay.”

Wei Wuxian pulled Little Apple’s reins and said, “But seriously, I came up with more than eighty names for this song, and you didn’t like a single one?”

Lan Wangji firmly said, “No.”

Wei Wuxian said, “Why is that? I think ‘Lan Zhan Wei Ying’s Love Song’ is pretty good.”

Lan Wangji did not reply. Wei Wuxian again spoke nonsense, “Or ‘Hanguang Yiling Everyday Song’ is also very good. It sounds very story-like…”

Lan Wangji seemed like he did not want to hear any new names and said, “There is.”

Wei Wuxian said, “There is what?”

Lan Wangji said, “A name.”

Wei Wuxian said in surprise, “There is? If there is, you should have said so earlier. What is it? You didn’t tell me, and I wasted so much time thinking up names. It wasted my intelligence.”

After a moment of silence, Lan Wangji said, “《WangXian》.”

Wei Wuxian said, “Huh?”

Lan Wangji said, “The song is named 《WangXian》.”

Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened.

After a while, he said, holding his stomach, “Hahahaha, hahaha, no wonder you didn’t tell me, so you secretly picked such a name. Your intentions are obvious. Good job, Lan Zhan, when did you pick this name? Hahahaha, hahaha, hahaha….”

Lan Wangji seemed to have already anticipated that Wei Wuxian would react this way. Watching him laughing on Little Apple’s back, he could only shake his head slightly. His expression seemed helpless, but the corner of his lips had already imperceptibly curved into a shallow smile, and his eyes had also rippled with a hazy light.

He raised his hand and supported Wei Wuxian’s waist to prevent him from falling off the donkey. After he finally had enough of laughing, Wei Wuxian said solemnly, “《WangXian》, very good, extremely good! I like it. Yes, it should be called that name.”

Lan Wangji said with a straight face, “I also like it.”

Wei Wuxian said, “It sounds very elegant and upright, very Gusu Lan Sect, I think it can be directly included in your sect’s music collection, requiring all Gusu Lan Sect disciples to learn this song. If they ask, ‘Hanguang-Jun, what is the meaning of the song’s name?’ you can tell them how this song came to be.”

Hearing him start talking nonsense again, Lan Wangji directly pulled Little Apple, who was carrying Wei Wuxian, and grasped the thin rope tightly in his palm. He continued walking forward. Wei Wuxian was still talking, “Where are we going next? It’s been a long time since I had a taste of Emperor’s Smile, how about we go back to Gusu and go play in Caiyi Town first?”

Lan Wangji said, “Okay.”

Wei Wuxian said, “After so many years, the water ghosts there should have been cleaned up, right? If your uncle can barely tolerate me, you can hide me and a few jars of wine in your room; if he can’t stand me, then let’s go see Wen Ning, it sounds like he and Sizhui are having fun night hunting.”

Lan Wangji said, “Mm.”

Wei Wuxian said, “But I heard that the Gusu Lan sect’s rules have been revised again? I say, that rule stone in front of your sect’s gate, can it still fit more text…”

A gentle breeze blew, and their clothes rippled like spring water.

Wei Wuxian looked at Lan Wangji’s back in the wind, narrowed his eyes, and crossed his legs, surprised to find that he could maintain balance on Little Apple’s back in this unusual posture.

It was just a trivial, boring matter, but he seemed to have discovered something new and interesting, eager to share it with Lan Wangji, and called out, “Lan Zhan, look at me, look at me!”

Just like in the past, Wei Wuxian called him with a smile, and he looked over.

From then on, he could never take his eyes away.

The author has something to say:

========================

New revised edition postscript, here it is:

[cp] “The Founder of Demonic Path” New Revised Edition Postscript

Finally finished the revision.

It took so long, and I finally finished something important. I originally wanted to use an explosive voice to write a word and add an exclamation point to yell three times, but in the end I just said it normally.

The initial edition had 520,000 words of text, and the new revised edition has 570,000 words. For me, this is a big project. Writing and revising the text took several months. I can’t say which was more tiring and agonizing, but both were painful and joyful.

During the serialization period, I was too rushed due to the daily updates, and on top of the pressures of my real life, many places that I originally wanted to expand on were forced to be rushed over. Some details and logical issues also could not be smoothed out. This time I finally wrote it to my heart’s content, adding the plot and dialogues that I originally wanted to write. For example, the kiss of uncontrollable feelings at the hundred-clan hunting conference in the previous life, I skipped it because I did not have the energy to slowly ponder how to write such a large sports meeting recruitment event during serialization (; the path of Nie Da and Yao Mei from fan to hater; Wangji following Wifi to Burial Mounds, the zombie melee in the Burial Mounds in later life, etc. I skipped because I didn’t want to write battle scenes; and acknowledging Sizhui, I completely forgot it…

These places where I was lazy were all filled in during the revision process. In short, the new version after careful revision is closer to the original state of this story in my mind. In other words, for me, the current one is the real “original version” of “The Founder of Demonic Path”.

Although I know that too many people have read the old version, and many impressions are deeply ingrained, it is difficult to completely get rid of the influence of the old version, and there will inevitably be many doubts. But I have heard a lot of doubts during the serialization of “The Founder of Demonic Path”, and I have come all this way. I know that many things cannot satisfy everyone, so I choose to satisfy myself. When I look back at this article in the future, at least I have written everything I wanted to write, and I will not have too many regrets.

It is said that when writing summaries and postscripts, you should recall the past years, so I will also recall a little. The outline of this article began to take shape in my last year of college. Every night, while walking and listening to music on the playground, I worried about my horrible graduation thesis and couldn’t help but make up things in my mind.

What initially drove me to write such a story seemed to be a vague image that appeared in my mind: a black-clad person with a pale face and blood on his face in a dark rainforest, coldly breaking something in his hand, not knowing if it was a flute or an arrow.

I don’t even remember how this picture suddenly popped up. There was no logic to support it. I didn’t know who this person was, nor did I know why he had that expression, but I was indeed infected by a strange emotion. Then, I suddenly became interested and started to think, what kind of person would this be, what kind of experiences would he have, and I worked hard to create specific plots and complete logic for him, wrote them into text, and then tried to infect others.

First, there was an emotion, then a character, and finally a story. In the process of transformation, expression, and transmission, the energy will inevitably shift and be lost. However, for the current me, I have done my best.

In short, there are still many places to explore and learn. (? ??_??)?

The scenes where the conception and writing had chemistry or conflict (referred to as flirting and tearing up) were a super, super awesome experience. The former included things like the stealing of Emperor’s Smile over the wall, the student days of sitting together to copy punishments, Caiyi Town (yes, I really, really like every scene of their student days), the pushing and pulling at the bottom of the Xuanwu Cave, and all sorts of domineering Hanguang-Jun’s crazy enthusiasm and the little runaway wife (???), etc. The latter included things like Madam Yu tearing up Wang Lingjiao, the Yi City group of people stabbing each other, and the Jiang Clan’s ancestral hall where Jiang Cheng angrily scolds WangXian for being immoral and shameless (hey), etc.

These are the greatest joys that this article, “The Founder of Demonic Path”, brought me. It is a joy that cannot be compared to anything else.

“The Founder of Demonic Path” is definitely a significant article for me. I never thought that so many people would see this story at the beginning. Because of it, I experienced many incredible things and met many amazing people. There were both great joys and great sorrows, I was startled all the time. For a period of time, I felt like a madman every day. Because it was an experimental work, it had too many immature parts. Even if I try my best to revise some parts, the framework was already set, it is very difficult to change it to be completely satisfactory. But looking back in the future, it is also one of the footprints of my growth.

But I don’t want to write and revise it again, it doesn’t conform to the reading habits of online literature, and it will also torture myself twice… So in the future, I will still save the entire manuscript and revise it before releasing it.

During that early break-in period, I was hesitant and cautious when writing. But the more I wrote, the deeper my feelings for the characters in the story became. During serialization and revision, I felt like I was about to die from exhaustion and wondered when it would end. But when it really was over, when I typed a few carriage returns at the end of the word document and wrote the word “end”, I was extremely reluctant to let it go.

Even if I knew that it was only the end of the main text, and there were still side stories, I was still reluctant.

On the day the serialization ended, I originally planned to use a poem as the ending of the main text to put on a cultured facade. The poem was, “The song ends and the person is gone, counting the green peaks on the river,” but in the end, I didn’t use it. Perhaps because although this poem is very beautiful, very profound, and very meaningful, this is not the ending that I expected in my heart. It is too lonely and sad.

And what I hope is “WangXian’s song is far, but the people do not disperse.”

The hustle and bustle are fading, and you and I will not be scattered.

— Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, 20160812

This site has no pop-up ads, permanent domain name (volarereads.com)