Black Lotus

13

Lan SiZhui held the earlier disciple up and spoke through clenched teeth, "... Come help me first. His qiqiao are bleeding!"

As soon as he entered the mingshi, Wei WuXian felt a dark energy coming over him.

The dark energy seemed like a combination of the energies of resentment, anger, and arrogance, almost visible to the human eye.

Surrounded by it, one's chest would feel a constricted sense of pain. The inside of the mingshi was about ten meters in both length and width. By its corners, a few people lay motionless on the ground. The object of this summoning was set in the center of the array on the ground.

It was nothing else but an arm—the one taken back from Mo Village!

It stood on the ground, as straight as a stick, with the side where it was cut off on the bottom. Four of its fingers were clenched into a fist, yet its index finger pointed toward the sky as if it was angrily pointing at someone. The steady flow of dark energy that filled the mingshi was emitted by this.

Everyone participating in this spirit-summoning ritual had either ran away or passed out. Lan WangJi was the only one still seated properly, at the main position on the east side.

A guqin lay on his side. Although his hand wasn't on the strings, they continued to vibrate on their own. He appeared to be lost in thought or listening to something, only raising his head as he sensed that someone came in.

Since Lan WangJi's face was always placid, Wei WuXian had no idea what he was thinking about. Lan QiRen, who was originally responsible for one section of the mingshi, now lay collapsed and unconscious on the side, his qiqiao bleeding like the disciple who escaped the mingshi. Wei Lin went to check on him while Wei WuXian replaced into his position, turning around and stepping toward the far west, directly across from Lan WangJi. He pulled the bamboo flute from beside his waist and lifted it to his lips.

During the night at Mo Village, Wei WuXian first used the whistling sound to distract it, then Lan WangJi attacked it from afar with notes of the zither. They only suppressed the arm while unintentionally collaborating like this. Lan WangJi met his gaze, a look of understanding on his face. As he raised his right hand, a melody poured out from the guqin. Wei WuXian quickly joined with the flute.

The song that they played was named "Evocation". It used the corpse, part of the corpse, or loved object of a deceased person as a medium for the spirit to follow the melody. Usually, only one section was needed for the spirit to appear within the array. Yet, the song had almost ended, but there was no spirit being summoned.

The arm seemed as if it was angered, with veins twitching visibly. The sense of suppression in the air felt heavier. If someone else was guarding the west side, they would have fallen long ago and ended up in the same way as Lan QiRen with their qiqiao bleeding. Wei WuXian was secretly shocked. It was almost impossible that the spirit couldn't be summoned with Lan WangJi and him playing "Evocation" together, unless... Unless the dead person's soul was cut apart alongside his corpse!

It appeared that this good fellow's death was a bit worse than his. Although his corpse was chomped into more pieces, at least his soul was complete.

Since "Evocation" didn't work, Lan WangJi's fingers shifted and started playing another tune.

This song had a calm melody, different than the sinister, questioning one from before. Its name was "Rest". Because both of these songs were quite well-known in the cultivation world, it wouldn't be strange for anyone to know how to play them, and Wei WuXian naturally followed him.

The YiLing Patriarch's ghost flute, "Chenqing", was known far and wide. Yet, right now, with his bamboo flute, he purposely played it with many mistakes and short breaths of air, to a point where it was heartbreaking to hear. Lan WangJi had probably never played with someone with such terrible skills before. After a while, he finally couldn't bear to continue as if nothing was wrong any longer, and raised his head to look at Wei WuXian with an expressionless face.