MDZS - In Cinemas Now! Starring WWX and LWJ

Chapter 29 - Dew

The waiter, "Take it easy. I was just about to mention that. Everyone did die. Although I said that he survived, it was only for a short while. After a few years, the clan's head, Chang Ping, died as well."

The mocking whispers of the cultivators who were just in the middle of criticising the inconsistency in the waiter's story immediately ceased. Nothing can shut cultivators up faster than a juicy, preferably violent story that they can gossip about, Wei Wuxian reflected with an amused smirk. 

As the waiter's voice lowered, the background music grew ominous and more mysterious, his face getting darker and darker with shadows. 

"This time, the death was even more horrifying. He was killed by lingchi with a sword! I don't need to tell you what lingchi is, do I?"

Sizhui gasped. He happened to be one of the few cultivators who did know about lingchi, who all cringed and muttered, "No, you really don't." But the waiter kept going anyway, because he clearly wanted to say it out loud.

"It's when the flesh on someone's body is piece by piece sliced off with a saber or a sword for three thousand and six hundred times, until all of the flesh is gone and there's only a skeleton left..." 

"W-what?!" Jingyi choked, his face growing pale. "Why does such a- a gruesome techinque have a name?? Do people use it a lot??" He started to hyperventilate, imagining piles of scraps of flesh and lingchi assassins hiding in the shadows, waiting for innocent people to walk by. 

Wei Wuxian wanted to pat his head reassuringly, but he couldn't reach over that far, so he just said calmly, "Don't worry Jingyi, not many people have the cultivation level to perform lingchi, it really doesn't happen that much."

"And not many people have enough hatred for another person to actually do such a thing." Sizhui added. "There were only less than 10 cases in the last hundred years." 

When people around him gave him funny looks for knowing so much about lingchi, he blushed and quickly said, "I've read every book in the Library Pavilion, it just came up somewhere." After he said this, the looks became even more incredulous. 

Meanwhile, a rural culitvator who'd never heard of these gruesome city affairs shivered. "Yes, someone must have hated Chang Ping very, very much, to have bothered killing him in such a painful and drawn-out way."

Of course, it was impossible for Wei WuXian not to know what lingchi was. If somebody wanted a book called A Thousand Ways to Die Agonizing Deaths, he'd have been the person who was most qualified to write it.

Some people laughed, but Lan Wangji did not look amused. He didn't like it when Wei Ying made such casual jokes about how he'd died. Particularly jokes about how agonising it was. Unless, Wei Ying was referencing the ways he'd killed other people? He hoped it was the latter. The only people Wei Ying had killed had deserved it, really.

He raised a hand, "I understand. Then, do you know why the Chang Clan was wiped out?" The waiter, "I heard that it was planned by another cultivational sect. That's for sure, right? Or else, why did a bunch of people who could cultivate fail to escape? They were definitely trapped inside by something or someone."

The audience nodded along, thinking this sounded very reasonable. However, Sizhui frowned. "That still doesn't make sense."

"Why not?" Jin Ling asked.

"Why would another cultivational sect go to such lengths to trap and massacre the whole Chang clan? Sects don't go killing other sects unless there's a war."

"Well, you said someone must have hated Chang Ping a lot to use lingchi on him. Maybe they hated the whole sect too." Jin Ling replied.

After a pause, Sizhui looked over at Jin Ling, and said with an impressed smile, "Wait, I think you're right."