Black Lotus

14

"That's so bad!", he forced out between breaths of laughter.

As the charlatan was about to reply, Wei WuXian suddenly felt a gust of wind from behind. He dodged to the side.

Although he avoided the attack, the charlatan was thrown off, crashing into a pinwheel stand beside the street. Some people helped him up, while others gathered the fallen items—the scene was a jumble. The charlatan wanted to curse, but as he saw that the person who kicked him was a young master that sparkled all over, appearing to be either rich or royalty, his imposing attitude immediately dropped.

Looking again, he saw that the white peony Sparks Amidst Snow was sewn in front of his chest, and he was deflated at once. Despite this, he couldn't take receiving such a kick without any reason, so he asked feebly, "Why did you kick me?"

The young master just happened to be Jin Ling. Crossing his arms, he spoke coldly, "Kick you? Anyone who dares to mention the words "Wei WuXian" in front of me should be kneeling in gratitude if I don't kill them. Yet, you're shouting right in the middle of the streets. Do you want to die?!"

"Oh?"

Wei Ziyou stood glaring at the younger man. "So you mean to tell me that I can't talk about my twin, Wei Wuxian, without 'fearing' for my life in front of you?", he leaned a bit closer to Jin Ling, who leaned away, "A bit pretentious, don't you think?"

Jin Ling merely glared back, his hand resting on his sword hilt, "My uncle says it's not worth my time to even talk to you. He says you're just a common whore!"

"Your uncle has never even held a girl's hand. Next to Wei Wuxian and me, he was like the ugly duckling. What would he know of whores?", Wei Ziyou sneered.

Wei WuXian didn't expect Jin Ling to appear here at all, much less how arrogant he behaved, thinking to himself, I wonder how did this child's personality turn it this way, with a poor temper and strong hostility. He learned all of his uncle's and father's faults, but none of his mother's strengths. If I don't do some tinkering with him, he'd definitely suffer great losses in the future. Seeing that Jin Ling seemed as if he was still angered and walked a few more steps toward the man on the ground, Wei WuXian interrupted, "Jin Ling!"

The charlatan didn't dare to make a sound, but his eyes were full of appreciation. Jin Ling turned to Wei WuXian, his words overflowing with contempt, "You still haven't run away yet? Well, you may as well stay."

Wei WuXian laughed, "Huh. Who was it again that was forced down onto the ground, unable to get up?"

Jin Ling sneered and blew a short whistle. Wei WuXian didn't understand the reason behind it, but, after a while, the heavy huffs and puffs of some sort of beast came from afar.

As he turned around to look, a black-haired spiritual dog of waist height went out of a corner, dashing straight at him. The cries of fear on the street came closer and closer, louder and louder, "A mad dog's on the loose!"

With an immediate change on his face, Wei WuXian fled as fast as he could.

"Ah, shit.", Wei Ziyou mumbled and took to the rooftops, following the three.

It had always been hard for him to bring it up, but, although the YiLing Patriarch was known for being ever-so invincible, he'd become a coward whenever he faced a dog. This couldn't be helped, though. When he was still young, before Jiang FengMian had brought him home, he grew up on the streets, often having to fight for food with vicious dogs. After several bites and chases, he gradually became extremely scared of all dogs, no matter the size. During this time, Wei Ziyou had disappeared. He still didn't know how but he was found by Jiang Fengmian too. Jiang Cheng laughed at him because of this quite a lot of times. If he told others this, it would not only be shameful but also believed by only a few people, which was why practically nobody knew of it. Wei WuXian almost died from the fright. As he saw a tall, white figure, he quickly shouted at the top of his lungs, "Lan Zhan, save me!"

Finding Lan WangJi after chasing this far, Jin Ling was shocked, Why would this lunatic show up alongside him again?! Lan WangJi had a serious personality and never chattered or joked. Even a few disciples of the same generation as him feel nervous when they see him, much less these juniors. His level of intimidation was even worse than Lan QiRen's, back in those days. The dog underwent harsh training. Being different from the average dog, it was quite intelligent. As if it also knew that it couldn't behave rudely in front of this person, it howled a few times, then hid behind Jin Ling with its tail between its legs.

This black-haired spiritual dog was a rare species given to Jin Ling by Jin GuangYao.
When most people heard that it was a present from LianFang-Zun, they didn't dare to offend him. However, Lan WangJi was different from most people. He didn't care who gave it or who owned it, disciplining them all in the same strict way. As Jin Ling was using his dog to chase Wei WuXian down the streets and happened to be caught by Lan WangJi, his heart sank, It's all over. He'd definitely kill the spiritual dog that I took such lengths to train, and then give me a harsh beating!

Yet, Wei WuXian ducked under Lan WangJi's arm and went behind him, seeming as if he wanted to climb up like climbing a pole.

Feeling a pair of arms clasp around him, Lan WangJi froze for an instant. Taking this opportunity, Jin Ling blew two more whistles and ran off with his black-haired spiritual dog.
The charlatan on the side struggled to get up, still in a state of shock, "The moral degeneration of the world is getting worse day by day. How terrifying are the disciples from prominent clans these days! How terrifying!"

As Wei WuXian heard the barks gradually leave, he finally came out from behind Lan WangJi. He put his hands behind him and agreed as if nothing happened, "That's right, it's getting worse day by day. Men are not what they were in the past."

Wei Ziyou jumped down from the roof beside them, staring at Jin Ling as he ran away.

The charlatan looked at Wei Wuxian as if he was looking at his savior, and hurriedly tossed the stack of "The YiLing Patriarch's Evil-Suppressing Portraits" into Wei WuXian's hands like it was a hot potato, "Brother, thank you so much for what happened earlier! This is a gift for you. If you cut the price and sell one for three coins, you'd still end up earning at least three hundred."

Lan WangJi took a look at the scary-faced hunk in the portrait and did not comment, while Wei Lin couldn't look at it without laughing. Wei WuXian, seeing that his price became lower and lower, didn't know whether to frown or laugh, "This is to thank me? If you really want to thank me, you can draw him in a prettier way! ...Stop, don't go yet. There's something I want to ask you. Doing your business here, have you ever heard of any strange events? Or seen any odd things?"

The charlatan replied, "Strange events? Good thing that you asked me. I stay here most of the year, known as the know-it-all of Qinghe. What sort of strange events are you looking for?"

Wei WuXian, "For example, evil spirits haunting around, cases of dismembered corpses, incidents in which whole clans were destroyed..."

The charlatan, "There's isn't any here, but if you go a bit less than two miles ahead, there's a mountain ridge named Xinglu Ridge. I suggest you don't go there."

Wei WuXian asked, "Why is that?"

The charlatan, "The Xinglu Ridge is also called the Man-Eating Ridge. Why do you think that is?"