TFOD Chapter 6

Chapter 5: The Second Act of Wildness 3

The few young men on the other side were also new to the world, each with a nervous expression. Yet, they still strictly held their positions, guarding the Mo residence, and had pasted talismans all over inside and outside the main hall. The family servant, A-Tong, had already been carried into the hall. Lan Sizhui, with his left hand on A-Tong’s wrist taking his pulse, and his right hand pushing on Madam Mo’s back, was frantically trying to save both, but it was to no avail. Suddenly, A-Tong scrambled up from the ground.

A-Ding exclaimed, “A-Tong, you’re awake!”

Before she could show any joy, she saw A-Tong raise his left hand and grab her neck.

Seeing this, Lan Sizhui tapped three times on several of his acupoints. Wei Wuxian knew that although the people of their sect looked refined, their arm strength was anything but. With such tapping, anyone would immediately be unable to move, but A-Tong seemed oblivious, his left hand tightening more and more, his expression becoming increasingly painful and ferocious. Lan Jingyi tried to pry his left hand away, but it was like trying to pry apart a lump of iron, and it didn’t budge. After a short while, with a “crack,” A-Tong’s head tilted and fell, his hand finally loosening. However, his neck bone was already broken.

He had actually choked himself to death in front of everyone!

Seeing this, A-Ding said in a trembling voice, “…A ghost! There is an invisible ghost here, making A-Tong choke himself to death!”

Her voice was high-pitched and shrill, terrifying others, and they suddenly believed it. However, Wei Wuxian’s judgment was the exact opposite: it was not a fierce ghost.

He had seen the talismans that these young men had chosen, all of which were spiritual expulsion types. They had plastered the entire east hall so tightly that it was practically airtight. If it were a true fierce ghost, entering the east hall, the talismans would have automatically burned with green flames, rather than remaining motionless as they were now.

It wasn’t that these kids were slow to react, but rather that the intruder was too ruthless. The Xuanmen had strict standards for the term “fierce ghost.” Killing one person per month, and continuing to cause trouble for three months, was enough to be classified as a fierce ghost. This standard was set by Wei Wuxian, and it was probably still being used. He was the best at dealing with such things. In his opinion, killing one person every seven days was already considered a frequently haunting fierce ghost. This thing had killed three people in a row, and the time interval was so short. Even a famous cultivator would find it hard to immediately think of a way to deal with it, let alone this group of newly debuted juniors.

Just as he was thinking this, the firelight flickered, and a gust of yin wind swept through. All the lanterns and candles in the entire courtyard and east hall were extinguished simultaneously.

The moment the lights went out, screams rose and fell. Men and women pushed and shoved each other, falling and fleeing. Lan Jingyi shouted, “Stand still! Don’t run around! Whoever runs will be caught!”

This was not an exaggeration. Taking advantage of the darkness to create chaos and muddy the waters was the nature of evil spirits. The more one cried, screamed, and ran, the easier it was to attract misfortune without knowing it. At this time, being alone or losing composure was extremely dangerous. Unfortunately, everyone was terrified, how could they hear clearly or listen, before long, the east hall became quiet. Apart from faint breathing, there were only subtle sobs. It was likely that not many people were left.

In the darkness, a flame suddenly lit up. It was Lan Sizhui who had ignited a bright fire talisman.

The flame of the bright fire talisman would not be extinguished by the yin wind carrying evil energy. He used this talisman to relight the candles, while the remaining few young men went to comfort the others. In the light of the fire, Wei Wuxian inadvertently looked at his wrist, and another scar had healed.

But this one look made him suddenly realize that the number of scars was wrong.

Originally, there were two scars on each of his left and right wrists. When Mo Ziyuan died, one healed; when Mo Ziyuan’s father died, another one; and when the family servant A-Tong died, another one. Calculated this way, three scars should have healed, leaving only the last one, the deepest scar, the wound with the deepest hatred.

But now, his wrist was empty, not a single one was left.

Wei Wuxian believed that Madam Mo was definitely one of Mo Xuanyu’s targets for revenge. The longest and deepest scar was reserved for her. But it had disappeared.

Had Mo Xuanyu suddenly seen things clearly and given up his hatred? That was impossible. His soul had already been sacrificed as the price for summoning Wei Wuxian. For the scar to heal, unless Madam Mo died.

His gaze slowly shifted, moving to Madam Mo, who had just woken up not long ago, who was surrounded by everyone, and whose face was as pale as paper.

Unless she was already dead.

Wei Wuxian could be certain that something had already attached itself to Madam Mo. If this thing wasn’t a soul, then what could it be?

Suddenly, A-Ding cried out, “Hand… hand, A-Tong’s left hand!”

Lan Sizhui moved the bright fire talisman above A-Tong’s corpse. Sure enough, his left hand had also disappeared.

Left hand!

In a flash, a clear understanding dawned on Wei Wuxian. The source of the trouble, the missing left arms, all came together. He suddenly laughed, “Puhaha!” Lan Jingyi angrily said, “This idiot, he can still laugh at a time like this!” But then he thought, since he was an idiot to begin with, what was there to argue with him about?

Wei Wuxian grabbed his sleeve and shook his head, saying, “No, no!”

Lan Jingyi impatiently tried to pull back his sleeve, “No what? Not an idiot? Stop messing around! No one has time to pay attention to you.”

Wei Wuxian pointed at the corpses of Mo’s father and A-Tong on the ground, saying, “These aren’t them.”

Lan Sizhui stopped the about-to-become furious Lan Jingyi and asked, “What do you mean by ‘these aren’t them’?”

Wei Wuxian said solemnly, “This one isn’t Mo Ziyuan’s father, and that one isn’t A-Tong either.”

The more solemn his face was now, with this make-up on, the more he looked like he really was ill. But hearing this in the dim candlelight, it was actually bone-chilling. Lan Sizhui was stunned for a moment, and couldn’t help asking, “Why?”

Wei Wuxian proudly said, “Their hands, they aren’t left-handed. They always used their right hand to hit me. I do know that much.”

Lan Jingyi couldn’t hold back anymore, and spat, “What’s there to be proud about! Look how pleased you are with yourself!”

Lan Sizhui was slightly taken aback. Thinking about it: A-Tong used his left hand to choke himself to death. When Madam Mo’s husband pushed his wife, he also used his left hand.

However, when Mo Xuanyu was causing a ruckus in the east hall during the day, these two were busy grabbing and shooing people away, and they were used to using their right hands. It wasn’t possible that these two suddenly became left-handed before they died.

Although he didn’t know the exact reason, if he wanted to find out what was causing the trouble, he had to start with the “left hand.” Lan Sizhui thought through this, slightly surprised. He looked at Wei Wuxian and couldn’t help but think, “For him to suddenly say this, it really isn’t…like a coincidence.”

Wei Wuxian only grinned shamelessly. He knew that his hint was still too deliberate, but he couldn’t help it. Fortunately, Lan Sizhui did not pursue the matter, thinking, “In any case, since this young master Mo is willing to remind me, he is probably not harboring ill intentions.” He then shifted his gaze away from him, sweeping over A-Ding, who had just cried herself into unconsciousness, and then onto Madam Mo.

His gaze traveled down her face, all the way to her hands. Her arms were hanging down, mostly hidden in her sleeves, with only small parts of her fingers exposed. The fingers on her right hand were snow-white and slender, like the hand of a pampered lady who didn’t do any work.

However, the fingers on her left hand were slightly longer and thicker than those on her right. Her knuckles were hooked, filled with strength.

These were not hands that should have grown on a woman—they were clearly a man’s hand!

Lan Sizhui shouted, “Hold her down!”

Several young men had already grabbed Madam Mo. Lan Sizhui said “excuse me” and was about to slap a talisman down, when Madam Mo’s left hand twisted back at an impossible angle, grabbing for his throat.

For a living person’s arm to twist like this, their bones would have to be broken. And her attack was very fast, about to grab his neck. At that moment, Lan Jingyi shouted “Aiyo” and pounced in front of Lan Sizhui, helping him to block this grab.

A flash of fire could be seen. The moment the arm grabbed Lan Jingyi’s shoulder, clumps of green flames appeared on it, and it immediately released its grip. Lan Sizhui escaped the disaster. Just as he was about to thank Lan Jingyi for his heroic rescue, he saw that half of the latter’s school uniform had been burned to ashes. He was in a very sorry state, as he took off the remaining half, turning back and scolding furiously, “Why did you kick me, you crazy lunatic? Did you want to kill me?!”

Wei Wuxian ran away holding his head, “I didn’t kick you!”

It was him who kicked him. The inside of the Lan family’s school uniform was embroidered with dense spell incantations using fine threads of the same color, which had the magical effect of protecting the body and life. However, when faced with something this powerful, it could only be used once before being rendered useless. In his urgency, he could only kick Lan Jingyi, making him use his body to shield Lan Sizhui’s neck. Lan Jingyi was about to scold him again, but Madam Mo collapsed to the ground, her face having been sucked so dry that there was only a layer of skin sticking to a skull. The man’s arm that didn’t belong to her fell from her left shoulder. Her five fingers were still able to flex and extend as if they were exercising their muscles. The pulsing of the blood vessels and veins on it could be seen clearly.

This thing was the evil entity that had been summoned by the Summoning Flag.

Being dismembered and disarticulated was a standard, tragic death. It was just a little more decent than Wei Wuxian’s death, but not that much more. Unlike being smashed into dust, dismembered limbs would be tainted with some of the resentment of the deceased, yearning to return to the rest of the body, yearning for a complete corpse. Therefore, it would try all means to find the other parts of the body. If it found them, it might be satisfied and rest in peace, or it might cause even more trouble. But if it couldn’t find them, this part of the limb would have to settle for second best.

How would it settle for second best? By finding the bodies of living people to make do.

Just like this left hand: it would eat the left hand of a living person, take its place, suck all of the living person’s essence, blood, and flesh, then discard the body and continue searching for its next parasitic container, until it had gathered all the other parts of its corpse.

Once this arm latched onto someone, the person being parasitized would immediately die, but before all of the flesh and blood on their body were sucked dry, they could still walk as usual under its control, as if they were still alive. After being summoned, the first container it found was Mo Ziyuan. The second container was Mo Ziyuan’s father. When Madam Mo told her husband to get out, he unexpectedly retaliated by pushing her. Wei Wuxian originally thought that it was because he was grieving for the death of his son, and was also fed up with his wife’s arrogance. But thinking about it now, that was not how a father who had just lost his son should behave. It wasn’t a disheartened numbness, but deathly stillness, the stillness of the dead.

The third container was A-Tong. The fourth container was Madam Mo. Taking advantage of the chaos when the lights were extinguished, the ghost hand transferred to her body. And when Madam Mo died, the last scar on Wei Wuxian’s wrist also disappeared.

Seeing that talismans were useless, but their clothes were effective, the few young men from the Lan Sect all took off their outer garments and threw them out, covering the left hand, layer upon layer like a heavy white cocoon wrapping it up. After a moment, this bundle of white clothes “whooshed” as it began to burn, and green flames erupted into the sky. Although it was effective for a while, it wouldn’t be long before the school uniforms were burned up, and the hand would break through the ashes. Taking advantage of no one paying attention, Wei Wuxian headed straight for the west courtyard.

The walking corpses that were captured by the young men were standing silently in the courtyard, ten of them in total. There was a spell drawn on the ground to seal them. Wei Wuxian kicked one of the characters with his foot, destroying the entire array, and clapped his hands twice. The walking corpses shivered, and the whites of their eyes suddenly rolled up as if they had been awakened by a thunderclap.

Wei Wuxian said, “Get up. Do some work!”

He didn’t need any complex spells or summoning words to control the corpse puppets. He only needed the most common and straightforward commands. The walking corpses in front trembled and struggled to take a few steps, but as soon as they got close to Wei Wuxian, they seemed to be so frightened that their legs went limp and they fell to the ground, just like living people.

Wei Wuxian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He clapped his hands twice more, this time more softly. But these walking corpses were probably born in Mo Family Manor and died in Mo Family Manor, and hadn’t seen much of the world. They were instinctively going to obey the summoner’s commands, but were also inexplicably terrified by the person who issued the commands. They lay on the ground whimpering, afraid to get up.

The more ferocious the evil spirit was, the more skillfully Wei Wuxian could control it. These walking corpses hadn’t been trained by him, and couldn’t bear his direct control. He also didn’t have any materials on hand to make any tools to ease the burden. He couldn’t even make do with random substitutes. Seeing that the green flames soaring in the east courtyard were gradually dimming, suddenly, a lightbulb went on in Wei Wuxian’s mind.

Why did the dead with extreme resentment and ferocity have to come out to look for things?!

There were already some in the east hall, and more than just one!

He flashed back to the east courtyard. Lan Sizhui was at his wit’s end, so he used another tactic, drawing their long swords and sticking them in the ground to form a sword barrier. The ghost hand was frantically crashing about inside the barrier. They were already trying their best to keep it from breaking out and had no time to pay attention to who was coming in and out. Wei Wuxian entered the east hall and, with one hand on each side, lifted the corpses of Madam Mo and Mo Ziyuan, and said in a low voice, “Wake up!”

With that one call, they were immediately brought back to life!

In the next moment, Madam Mo and Mo Ziyuan’s eyes rolled back, and their mouths let out the sharp cries that were unique to fierce ghosts after they were brought back to life.

Among the cries, one high and one low, another corpse shakily climbed up and followed with a weak cry, it was Madam Mo’s husband.

The cries were loud enough, and the resentment was full enough. Wei Wuxian was very satisfied, and he smiled, “Do you recognize the hand outside?”

He commanded, “Tear it apart.”

The Mo family of three were like three black whirlwinds that instantly blew out.

The left arm had just broken a long sword and was breaking free of the barrier. And as soon as it came out, three fierce corpses without left arms pounced on it at the same time.

In addition to not daring to disobey Wei Wuxian’s orders, this family of three also carried a fierce resentment for the thing that killed them, venting their anger on the ghost hand. The main attacker was undoubtedly Madam Mo. Female corpses that had transformed into zombies were often exceptionally ferocious. She was disheveled, her eyes were bloodshot, white foam was oozing from the corners of her mouth, and her screams nearly lifted the roof off the house. She was extremely crazy. Mo Ziyuan closely followed his mother, helping her tear at and attack, while his father followed behind, patching up any gaps in the other two fierce corpses’ attacks. The young men, who had been struggling hard to hold on, were all stunned.

They had only ever heard of this kind of fierce corpse fight in books and legends. This was the first time they had witnessed such a scene of flying flesh and blood. They were so engrossed that they couldn’t take their eyes away, and they all felt…it was amazing!

The three corpses and the single hand were battling fiercely when suddenly, Mo Ziyuan shrieked as he dodged. His abdomen had been gouged by the hand, and a few sections of his intestines were exposed. Seeing this, Madam Mo roared non-stop. She protected her son behind her, her grabs were even fiercer, and her nails breaking through the air were as powerful as steel blades and iron swords. However, Wei Wuxian could see that she was already barely able to hold on.

Three fierce corpses that had just died were actually unable to suppress a single arm!

Wei Wuxian watched the battle intently. His tongue curled slightly, suppressing a sharp whistle in his mouth, about to release it but not releasing it. If he blew this whistle, it could rouse the fierce corpses he was controlling to greater violence, which might turn the tide of the battle, but then it would be difficult to guarantee that no one would notice that he was the one who was causing trouble. In the blink of an eye, the hand moved like lightning, accurately breaking Madam Mo’s neck bone.

Seeing that the Mo family of three were steadily retreating, Wei Wuxian was just about to blow the long whistle he was suppressing under his tongue when, at that moment, two zheng sounds came from the sky.

These two sounds seemed to have been plucked casually by someone, they were very ethereal and clear, with a chilly, pine-forest-like feeling. The demonic entities who had been fiercely fighting in the courtyard all froze for a moment.

The young men of the Gusu Lan Sect instantly lit up with radiance, as if reborn. Lan Sizhui wiped the blood from his face and raised his head abruptly, exclaiming joyfully, “Hanguang-Jun!”

Upon hearing these two celestial zither sounds, Wei Wuxian turned and left.

Another zither sound rang out. This time the tone was slightly higher, piercing through the clouds, bringing with it a hint of coldness. The three fierce corpses retreated, covering their ears with their right hands at the same time. However, how could the Gusu Lan Sect’s barrier-breaking sounds be blocked so easily? After retreating a few steps, a soft cracking sound came from their skulls.

And the left arm, which had just gone through a fierce fight, suddenly drooped to the ground upon hearing the zither sounds. Although the fingers were still flexing, the arm had gone still.

After a brief moment of silence, the group of young men couldn’t help but cheer loudly. In this cheer, there was a sense of wild joy after surviving a disaster. After a terrifying night, they had finally waited for their family’s support. Even if they were severely punished later with “Improper conduct, dishonoring the sect,” they wouldn’t care.

After waving at the moon for a while, Lan Sizhui suddenly noticed that someone was missing. He pulled Lan Jingyi and asked, “Where is the person?”

Lan Jingyi was only concerned with being happy, “Who? Which one?”

Lan Sizhui said, “That young master Mo.”

Lan Jingyi said, “Ah? Why are you looking for that lunatic? Who knows where he ran to, afraid of getting beaten by me.”

“…” Lan Sizhui knew that Lan Jingyi was careless and straightforward, never thought things through when he encountered them, and never doubted things. He thought, “I’ll wait until Hanguang-Jun arrives, and then tell him about this person as well.”

Mo Family Manor was still sleeping soundly, but it was unknown whether they were really sleeping soundly or not. Even though the east and west courtyards of the Mo family were engaged in a corpse fight, and blood and foam were flying everywhere, others would not get up in the middle of the night or early morning to watch. Watching the excitement had to be selective. It was best not to watch the excitement that was filled with screams.

Wei Wuxian quickly and swiftly destroyed all traces of the sacrifice formation in Mo Xuanyu’s room and rushed out of the door. He thought that it was too coincidental that the Lan family came, and it was also too much of a coincidence that Lan Wangji came. This was one of the people he had fought with and fought against. He needed to leave quickly. He was eager to find a mount, and as he passed by a courtyard, there was a large millstone inside, with a piebald donkey with a constantly chewing mouth. It seemed a bit surprised to see him rushing over so furiously. It even looked at him with a sideways glance like a living person. Wei Wuxian met its gaze for a moment, and was immediately touched by the look of contempt in its eyes.

He stepped forward, grabbed the rope, and dragged it out. The piebald donkey complained loudly to him. Wei Wuxian coaxed and dragged it, persuading it to get on the road. Stepping on the fish-belly white of the dawning sky, he trotted onto the main road.