TFOD Chapter 37

The hearts of Jin Ling and the others were pounding, afraid that when he peeked outside, he would suddenly encounter some unforeseen danger and fall down, covering his eyes. They heard Wei Wuxian let out an “Ah!” and the group of teenagers felt their hearts jump up, their hair standing on end, “What’s wrong?!”

Wei Wuxian said in a soft and hushed voice, “Shh, don’t talk. I’m looking at it.”

Jin Ling lowered his voice even more than him, “Then what did you see? What is outside the door?”

Wei Wuxian didn’t move his gaze, nor did he answer directly, and said, “Hmm… hmm… So amazing, so amazing.”

The expression on his face was full of delight, his praise and amazement seemed genuine, causing the curiosity in the hearts of the famous clan disciples to quickly overwhelm their tension. Lan Sizhui couldn’t help but ask, “…Senior Mo, what’s so amazing?”

Wei Wuxian said, “Oh my! It’s really beautiful. Keep your voices down, don’t scare it away. I haven’t seen enough yet.”

Jin Ling said, “Move aside! I want to see.”

“Me too!”

Wei Wuxian said, “You really want to see?”

“Yes!”

Wei Wuxian slowly moved aside, seeming reluctant. Jin Ling was the first to squeeze over, aiming at the thin wooden gap, and looking out.

It was already night. The night was a bit cold, and the demonic fog in Yi City had also dissipated a lot, so he could barely see the street a few feet away. Jin Ling looked for a while, but he didn’t see the “amazing, beautiful” thing, feeling a little disappointed, and thought: “Could it be that when I spoke just now, I scared it away?”

Just as he was feeling bored, a thin, shriveled figure suddenly flashed in front of the wooden gap.

Caught off guard and seeing the full appearance of this thing, Jin Ling felt like his entire scalp had been blown off. He almost cried out, but somehow, a force was suppressed in his chest, and he actually held it back. He stiffly maintained his bent-over posture, waiting for the numbness on his head to pass, and couldn’t help but look at Wei Wuxian. He saw that this hateful person was leaning against the window panel, standing to the side, with one corner of his mouth hooked up, raising his eyebrow at him, and saying with a wicked smile: “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Jin Ling glared at him fiercely, knowing that he was deliberately making fun of people, grinding his teeth, “…Yeah…”

His mind turned, and he straightened up, acting as if he didn’t care, and said, “It’s just so-so, barely acceptable!”

After saying that, he stepped aside and waited for the next person to be fooled. After being tricked one after the other, the curiosity of the rest of the people had been led to a peak, and Lan Sizhui couldn’t hold back, and also stood in that position. However, as soon as he brought his eyes closer, he very honestly shouted “Ah!”, jumped back, his face full of bewildered panic, and after spinning around twice, he finally found Wei Wuxian, and accused him, “Senior Mo! There’s a… there’s a…”

Wei Wuxian said with an expression of understanding, “There’s a ‘that’ is it? No need to say it, saying it will spoil the surprise, let everyone see it for themselves.”

Seeing Lan Sizhui being scared like this, how could the others dare to go closer, what surprise, more like a fright, they waved their hands repeatedly, “No more, no more!” Jin Ling spat, “You’re still tricking people at this time, I really don’t know what you’re thinking!”

Wei Wuxian said, “Didn’t you trick them too? Don’t use your uncle’s tone. Sizhui, was that thing scary just now?”

Lan Sizhui nodded, honestly saying, “Scary.”

Wei Wuxian said, “It’s supposed to be scary. This is a great opportunity for your cultivation. Why do ghosts want to scare people? Because when people are scared, their minds are hurt, and their primordial spirit is agitated, at this time, it’s easiest to have their yang energy sucked away. Therefore, the thing ghosts fear most is courageous people. Because the brave are not afraid of them, they can’t do anything to them, and they have no chance to take advantage of them. Therefore, as disciples of prestigious families, the first thing you need to do is make your courage stronger!”

Lan Jingyi, while secretly rejoicing that he couldn’t move and didn’t curiously go over to look just now, muttered, “Courage is something you’re born with. What can you do if someone is naturally timid?”

Wei Wuxian said, “Were you born able to fly through the sky with your sword? No, it’s something you learn with practice. By the same logic, you can get used to being scared by being scared more. Public restrooms smell bad, right? Disgusting, right? But believe me, if you lived in a restroom for a month, you’d still be able to eat in there.”

The young men felt their hair stand on end, and they refused in unison, “No!!! I don’t believe it!!!”

Wei Wuxian said, “It’s just an analogy. Okay, I admit, I haven’t lived in a restroom, and I don’t know if I’d be able to eat in there, I’m just talking nonsense. But you must try looking at the thing outside the door. Not only look, but also look carefully, pay attention to its details, and find its possible hidden weaknesses in the shortest time possible. Be calm in the face of danger, and look for opportunities to counterattack. Alright, I’ve said so much, did you understand? Ordinary people don’t get the chance to listen to my guidance, so cherish it. Don’t back down, all of you get in line, and look one by one.”

“…Do we really have to look?”

Wei Wuxian said, “Of course, I never joke, and I never tease people. Let’s start with Jingyi then. Jin Ling and Sizhui have already seen it.”

Lan Jingyi said, “Ah? I don’t have to, right? The person poisoned by the corpse can’t move, that’s what you said.”

Wei Wuxian: “Stick out your tongue. Ah.”

Lan Jingyi: “Ah.”

Wei Wuxian: “Congratulations, your poison has been cured. Bravely take the first step, come on!”

Lan Jingyi: “It’s cured so quickly?! You’re lying to me, right?!”

His protests were ineffective, so he had to bite the bullet and walk to the window, look once, then look away, look once, then look away. Wei Wuxian tapped the wooden board and said, “What are you afraid of? I’m standing here, it wouldn’t dare break through this board, it won’t eat your eyeballs.”

Lan Jingyi jumped away and said, “I’m done looking!”

Then it was the next person’s turn, and each person made a hissing intake of breath when they looked. After everyone had taken a turn, Wei Wuxian said, “Done looking? Then let everyone talk about what details they saw. Let’s summarize.”

Jin Ling was the first to speak, “White pupils. Female. Very short and thin. Looks okay. Holding a bamboo pole.”

Lan Sizhui thought for a moment, and said, “This girl is probably up to my chest, her clothes are tattered, not very tidy, looking like a beggar on the streets. That bamboo pole seems to be a blind cane, perhaps her white pupils aren’t something that only formed after death, but she was blind when she was alive.”

Wei Wuxian commented, “Jin Ling saw a lot, but Sizhui saw the details.”

Jin Ling curled his lip.

A young man said, “This girl is probably only fifteen or sixteen years old, with an oval face, very pretty, and there is a hint of vitality in her prettiness. She has her long hair pinned up with a wooden hairpin, and at the end of the hairpin is carved a small fox head. She is thin and her figure is slender. Although not very clean, she is not dirty either, and is not unpleasant. If she was tidied up, she would definitely be a lovely beauty.”

Wei Wuxian, upon hearing this, immediately felt that this young man had a bright future, and praised him greatly, “Not bad, not bad, very observant and with a unique focus. This young man will surely be a charmer in the future.”

The young man blushed, covered his face and turned to the wall, ignoring the laughter of his companions. Another young man said, “It seems that the sound of the bamboo pole hitting the ground is the sound she makes when walking. If she was already blind when she was alive, she wouldn’t be able to see after turning into a ghost either, and she must rely on that blind cane.”

Another young man said, “But that’s not right, you’ve all seen blind people, right? Because their eyes are not good, they walk and move slowly, afraid of bumping into something. But that ghost outside the door moves very quickly, I’ve never seen such an agile blind person.”

Wei Wuxian laughed, “Hmm, you thought of this point, very good. That’s how you should analyze it, not letting go of any doubts. Then let’s invite her in now, and clarify the answers to these doubts.”

After speaking, he immediately reached out and took off a door panel. Not only the young men in the room, but even the wandering ghost outside the window was startled by his sudden action, and raised her bamboo pole defensively.

Wei Wuxian first greeted the ghost, and then asked, “This young lady, you’ve been following them, is there something you need?”

The young girl’s eyes widened. If she was a living person, this appearance would surely be charming and lovely. However, she had no eyeballs, and two streams of bloody tears flowed from her eye sockets, making her look particularly gruesome. Behind him, someone gasped quietly, and Wei Wuxian said, “What are you afraid of? You’ll see plenty of people bleeding from all seven orifices later, and you can’t even handle two orifices? That’s why I’m telling you to gain more experience.”

The young girl had been anxiously pacing in front of their window, tapping the ground with her bamboo pole, stomping her feet, staring, and waving her arms, but at this moment, she suddenly changed her actions. She gestured with both her hands and her body, as if trying to tell them something. Jin Ling said, “Strange, can’t she talk?”

Hearing this, the girl ghost paused her movements, and opened her mouth to them.

Fresh blood poured out from her empty mouth. It turned out that her tongue had been pulled out by the root.

The young disciples of the cultivation families all got goosebumps, and at the same time felt a sense of sympathy, “No wonder she can’t speak. Both blind and mute, so pitiful.”

Wei Wuxian said, “Is she using sign language? Does anyone understand?”

No one understood. The girl became so anxious that she stamped her feet, and wrote and drew on the ground with her bamboo pole. But she was clearly not a woman from a scholarly family, she didn’t know how to read, and she couldn’t write anything. She drew a pile of messy little people, making it impossible for people to understand what she wanted to express.

Just at this time, from the far end of the long street, came a rush of footsteps, and the sound of someone panting.

The girl ghost suddenly disappeared, but she would probably come back on her own, so Wei Wuxian wasn’t worried, he quickly inserted the door panel back, and continued to peek out through the wooden crack. The other young disciples also wanted to see what was going on outside, so they squeezed in front of the door, a row of heads stacking from the top to the bottom, blocking the door gap with their eyes.

The demonic fog had been thin for a while, but now it gradually began to flow again. A disheveled figure broke out of the white mist and ran over.

This person was dressed in black, seemed to be injured, stumbled as he ran, and a sword was hanging at his waist, also wrapped in black cloth. Lan Jingyi whispered, “Is that the fog-faced man?”

Lan Sizhui replied in a low voice, “It shouldn’t be, that fog-faced man’s movements are completely different from this person.”

Behind the person followed a group of walking corpses, moving extremely fast, and they immediately caught up to him. The person drew his sword to meet them, the sword light was clear and bright, cutting through the fog, and Wei Wuxian cheered in his heart, “What a fine sword!”

But after a sweep of the sword, there was a familiar “popping”, “popping” sound. Black and red powder sprayed out again from several severed limbs of the walking corpses. The person was surrounded by them, with nowhere to dodge, and stood in place, covered from head to toe with a cloud of corpse poison powder. Lan Sizhui watched in alarm, and whispered, “Senior Mo, this person, we…”

At this time, another group of new walking corpses surrounded him, surrounding him more and more. He swung his sword again, exploding even more corpse poison powder, and he also inhaled more, and seemed to have already started to lose his balance. Wei Wuxian said, “This person must be saved.”

Jin Ling said, “How are you going to save him? We can’t go over there now, corpse poison powder is floating all over the place, getting close will lead to poisoning.”

After pondering for a moment, Wei Wuxian left the window and walked inside the main room. The gaze of the group of young men also involuntarily followed him. They saw a group of paper figures, with different appearances, standing quietly between two large wreaths of flowers. Wei Wuxian slowly walked past them, and stopped in front of a pair of female paper figures.

The appearance of each paper figure was different, and this pair seemed to have been specially made as twin sisters, with their makeup, clothing, facial features, all carved out of the same mold. Their eyebrows were curved, and they had smiles on their faces. It was as if they could hear them making “giggles” of laughter. They had double buns on their heads, were wearing red beaded earrings, gold bracelets on their wrists, and embroidered shoes on their feet, looking exactly like maids from a very wealthy family.

Wei Wuxian said, “Let’s go with these two.”

He casually wiped a young man’s unsheathed sword, drawing a wound on his thumb, then turned around and dotted two pairs of eyes, four eyeballs on them.

Then, taking a step back, he smiled slightly, and said, “Seductive eyes hiding their shyness, red lips opening in laughter. Not asking about good or evil, dotting the eyes to summon what’s to come.”

A gust of yin wind, from who knows where, suddenly filled the entire shop. The young men couldn’t help but tighten their grip on the swords in their hands.

Suddenly, the twin sisters paper figures shivered violently.

The next moment, real “giggles” of laughter floated out from their painted bright red lips!

Dotting the Eyes Summoning Technique!

As if seeing and hearing something extremely funny, the pair of paper figures shook with laughter, and at the same time, the pair of eyeballs, dotted with living people’s blood, rolled around wildly in their eye sockets, the scene was truly charming and extremely eerie. Wei Wuxian stood in front of them, nodded slightly, and bowed his head to them in a bow.

In return, the pair of paper figures also slightly inclined their bodies, returning an even bigger bow.

Wei Wuxian pointed to the outside, and said, “Bring the living person in—and other than that, destroy everything!”

Sharp and piercing laughter came from the mouths of the paper figures, and a gust of yin wind attacked, and the door slammed open to both sides!

The two paper figures flew out side by side, and flew into the encirclement of the group of walking corpses. It was hard to imagine that these were clearly fake people made of paper, they actually had such fierce and destructive power, they stepped on their delicate embroidered shoes, and waved their light sleeves, one wave would cut off an arm of a walking corpse, and another wave would cut off half of a head, the paper sleeves seemed to have turned into sharp blades. That charming laughter constantly echoed in the entire long street, making people’s minds tremble, yet also terrified.

In a short while, the fifteen or sixteen walking corpses were all cut into pieces by this pair of paper figures, scattered all over the ground!

The two paper maids had a complete victory, and following orders, they carried the exhausted escapee into the door, then jumped back outside the door, which automatically closed. They then stood guard on the left and right, like imposing guardian lions, becoming quiet.

The several disciples from the noble families inside were already dumbfounded.

They had only heard some descriptions of evil and unorthodox ways in books and from their seniors before, and at the time, they just felt confused: “Since it’s an evil and unorthodox way, why do so many people still want to learn it? Why did the Yi Ling Patriarch have so many imitators?” But now, seeing it with their own eyes, they finally understood that the evil and unorthodox way had its own magical appeal. Moreover, this was just the tip of the iceberg—“Dotting the Eyes Summoning Technique.” Therefore, after most of the young men recovered from their shock, their faces did not show any rejection, but were instead full of barely concealed excitement, feeling that they had broadened their horizons, and they had new topics of conversation to bring back to their elder and younger siblings. Only Jin Ling’s face was very ugly.

Lan Sizhui went over to help Wei Wuxian support the man, but Wei Wuxian said, “Don’t come over, be careful of getting contaminated by the corpse poison powder. Maybe you’ll get poisoned if it gets on your skin.”

The man had been half-conscious when he was carried in by the paper figures, having lost most of his strength. Now he had become a little more awake, coughed a few times, and seemed worried that the corpse poison powder would contaminate others when he coughed it out, so he covered his mouth, and whispered, “Who are you people?”

His voice was extremely weary. Asking this question wasn’t because he didn’t recognize the people in the room, but because he couldn’t see anything.

This person had a thick layer of white bandages wrapped around his eyes. He must be blind.

And he was a very handsome blind person, his nose bridge was straight and delicate, his thin lips had a faint red color, almost to the point of being pretty, and his appearance also looked very young, somewhere between a teenager and a young adult, which made people feel pity for him. Wei Wuxian thought: How come I’ve been encountering so many blind people recently? Both hearing and seeing them. Alive and dead.

Suddenly, Jin Ling said, “Hey, we don’t even know what this person’s identity is, whether he’s a friend or foe, why did you rashly save him? What if he’s an evil person, wouldn’t we have brought a snake into our home?”

He wasn’t wrong to say this, but it was a bit awkward for him to say it so bluntly in front of the person. The man wasn’t angry at all, and didn’t seem worried about being thrown out, smiled slightly, revealing a pair of small canine teeth, and said, “This young master is right. It would be better for me to go.”

Jin Ling didn’t expect that he would react like this, and was stunned for a moment, not knowing what to say, and just huffed in a mess. Lan Sizhui hurriedly smoothed things over, “But this person might not be evil, no matter what, to not save someone in need goes against our family’s teachings.”

Jin Ling said stubbornly, “Alright. You’re good people. Don’t blame me when someone gets hurt.”

Lan Jingyi angrily said, “You this person…” Before he could finish his words, his tongue got tied.

Because he saw the sword that the man had been leaning against the table. Half of the black cloth wrapped around the sword had slipped off, revealing the blade.

The craftsmanship of this sword was extremely exquisite. The scabbard was bronze-colored, and on it were carved hollow frost patterns. The blade that was visible through the hollow patterns was like a silver star, sparkling with snowflake-shaped light, with a beautiful and pure, yet brilliant beauty.

Lan Jingyi widened his eyes, as if he had something he wanted to say. Although Wei Wuxian didn’t know what he wanted to say, since this person had covered his sword with black cloth, it was likely that he didn’t want people to see it, and he instinctively didn’t want to startle anyone, so he reached out and covered Lan Jingyi’s mouth, and at the same time, placed his index finger in front of his lips, indicating that the other young men, who also had expressions of surprise on their faces, should not make a sound.

Jin Ling mouthed two words to him, and then reached out and wrote two words on the dusty tabletop:

“Frost Blossom”.

…The Frost Blossom sword?

Wei Wuxian silently asked with his mouth: Xiao Xingchen’s—Frost Blossom sword?

Jin Ling and the others all nodded in confirmation.

Although these young men had never seen Xiao Xingchen in person, “Frost Blossom” was a rare famous sword, not only was its spiritual power strong, but its appearance was also beautiful and unique, and it had been drawn into countless versions of sword illustrations and famous sword catalogs, making it unforgettable. Wei Wuxian pondered: if the sword is Frost Blossom, and the person is also blind…

A young man also thought of this, and involuntarily reached out to touch the bandages wrapped around the person’s eyes, wanting to take them off, and see if the person’s eyes were still there. But as soon as his hand touched the bandage, the other person’s face showed an expression of extreme pain, and unconsciously retreated backwards, seemingly very afraid of having his eyes touched by others.

The young man, realizing he was being rude, quickly retracted his hand and said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to.”

The person raised his left hand, wearing a pair of black thin gloves, wanting to cover his eyes, but not daring to touch them, it must hurt so much that even a light touch was unbearable, and a layer of thin sweat had already appeared on his forehead, he said with difficulty, “It’s alright…”

But his voice was trembling slightly.

This kind of behavior was almost enough to confirm that this person was Xiao Xingchen, who had disappeared after the Chang Clan of Leyang case.

Xiao Xingchen still didn’t know that his identity had been exposed, and after enduring the pain, he groped around to get his Frost Blossom. Wei Wuxian quickly pulled the slipped black cloth back up. He touched Frost Blossom, and nodded, “Thank you for saving me, I’ll take my leave now.”

Wei Wuxian said, “Don’t go yet. You’ve been poisoned by corpse poison.”

Xiao Xingchen said, “Is it serious?”

Wei Wuxian said, “Very serious.”

Xiao Xingchen said, “Since it’s very serious, then why stay? Since there’s no cure anyway, it’s better to kill a few more walking corpses while I haven’t become a corpse.”

Hearing him treat life and death so lightly, the blood of the young men in the room was surging, and Lan Jingyi couldn’t help but blurt out, “Who said there’s no cure? You stay! He’ll heal you!”

Wei Wuxian: “Me? Sorry, are you talking about me?” He was really embarrassed to tell the truth, that this Xiao Xingchen had already inhaled too much corpse poison powder, his complexion was faintly turning black and red, the poisoning was too deep, and probably glutinous rice porridge wouldn’t work anymore.

Xiao Xingchen said, “I’ve already killed many walking corpses in this city, they’ve been following me, and soon there will be new ones coming. If I stay, you will all be overwhelmed by the corpse horde sooner or later.”

Wei Wuxian said, “Does this gentleman know why this Yi City has become like this?”

Xiao Xingchen shook his head, “I don’t know. I’m just a traveling Daoist… I traveled here, and learned of the abnormalities here, so I entered the city to night-hunt. The number of living corpses and walking corpses in this city, and their strength, you haven’t experienced yet. Some move very fast, making them impossible to defend against. Some, after being killed, will explode with corpse poison powder, and you’ll be poisoned when touched, but if you don’t kill them, they will attack you and bite you, and the result will be the same as getting poisoned. They are really difficult to deal with. From your voices, there are a lot of young masters in here, right? I advise all of you to leave as soon as possible.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the giggling laughter of the paper-figure sisters came from outside the door. This time, the laughter was more piercing than ever.