Black Lotus

13

Appearing as if he faced an imminent threat, Lan JingYi hastened to block in front of Wei WuXian with his arms stretched wide, "These are HanGuang-Jun's. We just occasionally help him look after them. You cannot dare to roast them!"

As Wei WuXian heard this, he laughed so hard that he almost fell to the ground. He thought,
What an interesting person Lan Zhan is! In the past, he didn't even accept them when I gave them out for free, but now, he secretly raised a whole bunch. And he said he didn't want them. Who was he kidding? Oh please, I bet he likes this sort of white, fuzzy thing. HanGuang-Jun, holding a rabbit while keeping up a straight face. My gosh, I'm gonna die...

However, as he thought of the situation of him lying on top of Lan WangJi last night, his laughter stopped abruptly.

Suddenly, rings of the bell came from the western side of the Cloud Recesses.

These rings were completely different from the ones that told the time. They were hurried and violent as if a madman was striking it. With a sudden change in their faces, Lan JingYi and Lan SiZhui both stopped joking around with him, dashing toward the bell at once. Wei WuXian knew that something was wrong and quickly followed.

The sound came from a watchtower.

The watchtower was called the "mingshi". It was the building the Lan Sect used to summon spirits, with walls made from a special material and incantations carved on them. When the bell of the watchtower started to ring on its own, it only meant one thing—that an accident happened to the people performing the summoning ritual inside.

Outside of the watchtower, more and more of the Lan Sect's disciples started to crowd around, but nobody dared to go in without careful consideration. The door of the mingshi was black and made of wood. It was tightly locked, only able to be opened from the inside. It was not only difficult to violently destroy it from the outside, but it was also forbidden to do so. It was extremely scary for an accident to happen during the spirit summoning ritual since nobody would know what being it would summon or what would happen if someone broke in. And, ever since the mingshi was built, there were almost no cases where the summoning failed. This made everyone more worried.

Seeing that Lan WangJi didn't appear, Wei WuXian had a foreboding feeling. If Lan WangJi was still in the Cloud Recesses, he would have hurried over immediately, as he heard the alarming chimes of the bell, unless...

Suddenly, the black door burst open with a bang. A white-clothed disciple rushed outside, staggering and stumbling.

As his legs weren't steady, he rolled down the stairs as soon as he came out. The door of the mingshi instantly closed again, as if someone angrily slammed it shut.

In confusion, the bystanders quickly helped the disciple up. After he stood up, he immediately fell again, his face covered in tears beyond his control. He held onto the people around him, "We should have... shouldn't have summoned..."

Wei WuXian grabbed his hand at once, speaking in a low voice, "Which being's spirit are you summoning? Who else is inside? Where's HanGuang-Jun?!"

It seemed as if the disciple had trouble breathing, "HanGuang-Jun told me to run away..."

Before he finished his sentence, dark-red blood gushed out of his nose and mouth. Wei WuXian pushed him into Lan SiZhui's arms.

With the hastily created bamboo flute still by his waist, he went up the stairs in just a few strides, followed by Wei Ziyou. He kicked the mingshi's door and commanded, "Open!"

The mingshi's door opened abruptly as if it was laughing wildly with a gaping mouth. Wei WuXian entered in a flash, and the door closed right behind Wei Lin. A few disciples followed him in shock, but the door couldn't be opened again, no matter what. A guest disciple rushed to the door, shock and anger on his face, and blurted out, "Who on Earth was that person?!"