Coincidentally, he missed the group's whining, which happened shortly afterward.
"I haven't seen anyone like this!"
"Would the leader of a big clan like that need to fight over a soul-consuming spirit with us? He probably killed tons of them when he was young."
"What can we do? He's a sect leader. No matter which clan you choose to offend, you shouldn't offend the Jiang clan, and no matter which person you choose to offend, you shouldn't offend Jiang Cheng. Let's just pack up, leave, and feel sorry for ourselves!"
If it was darker, then one would need a torch to move freely about in the mountain's forest. Wei WuXian walked for a while, but he didn't meet many cultivators.
He was quite surprised, is it possible that half of the clans who came were in Buddha's Feet arguing and talking empty words, while the other half could only come back defeated, like the group of people who just passed by?
Suddenly, cries for help came from in front of him.
"Is anyone there?"
"Help us!"
Both male and female voices could be heard, and all sounded panicked, probably not faked. Cries for help from desolate mountains were usually the works of evil creatures, to lure ignorant people into traps. Yet, Wei WuXian was extremely happy.
The more evil the creature was, the better it was for him!
He directed the donkey toward the direction of the voices, but couldn't find anything around him. As he looked upward, instead of spirits or monsters, it was the rural clan that he met by the field earlier on, hanged on the trees by a huge, golden web.
The middle-aged man was originally patrolling and scouting in the forest with a few others. However, rather than meeting the prey that they had hoped for, they stepped into a net trap, probably set up by some wealthy clan, which was why they were hanging on the trees, complaining and calling for help.
After seeing that someone approached, they immediately brightened up, but the hope faded as they saw that it was a lunatic who came. Although the threads of the deity-binding net were thin, the material was fine in quality, making them difficult to break. No matter human, god, demon, spirit, or monster, it would take a long while for the intruder to struggle out, since it could only be broken by a superior magical tool. The lunatic probably didn't even know what it was, much less how to get them outside of it.
He was about to call others to come help him, when the crisp sounds of parting branches and stepping on leaves approached. A boy wearing a light-colored robe emerged from within the dark forest.
The boy had a vermilion mark in between his eyebrows, his features delicate yet sharp. He was quite young, around the same age as Lan SiZhui-still in his adolescence. He carried a bamboo canister of feathered arrows and a luminous sword on his back, holding a longbow in his hand. The embroidery on his clothes were extremely delicate, forming a magnificent white peony in front of his chest. The golden threads glistened against the dark nighttime shades surrounding him.
"How wealthy!"
This must have been a young master studying in the LanlingJin Sect, since the sect was the only one with a white peony as the clan pattern, using the king of all flowers to suggest that they were the king of all cultivators.
The vermilion markimplied the meaning of "opening the doors toward wisdom and aspiration; illuminating the world with the vermilion light."
The young master already had an arrow on his bow,and was preparing to shoot it, when he realized that the deity-binding nets only caught humans. After an initial moment of disappointment, he quickly became annoyed
"I find you idiots every single time. There are more than four hundred deity-binding nets in the mountain, but you guys have already broken ten or so, and I haven't even seen the prey yet!"
"How wealthy!"
A single deity-binding net was already expensive, yet he had set up four hundred all at once. A smaller clan would've became bankrupt after buying so many, but then, of course, this was the LanlingJin Sect. However, wasting deity-binding webs like this and not caring about what they caught shouldn't be considered night-hunting at all.
In fact, it was almost as if they were chasing people away, not allowing others the chance of contributing to the process. It seemed like that the cultivators who retreated earlier didn't do it because the prey was difficult, but rather because this sect was one that shouldn't be angered.
After a few days of travelling slowly and listening to the intriguing conversations at Buddha's Feet, Wei WuXian gathered a lot of information about the changes to the cultivation world. As the final winner of the hundred-year-long cultivational disruption, the LanlingJin Sect was the head of all clans and sects-its leader was even referred to as the "commander" of all cultivators.
Even before this, the Jin Clan was arrogant, admirers of extravagant splendor. After the years of being at the top and while strengthening the sect, it had trained all of its disciples to do whatever they wanted to. Even a slightly weaker clan would have to submit to their humiliation, much less a small, rural clan such as this one. This was why, although the people trapped in the nets were red with fury, because of the mean words of the boy, they could not talk back.
The middle-aged man spoke with tolerance
"Please, Young Master, do us a small favor and let us down."
The boy was restless with the anxiety of his prey still not arriving, and it was convenient of him to direct his anger toward the country bumpkins. He crossed his arms
"You guys should just stay here, in case you mess around and get in my way again! I'll let you down after I catch the spirit-consuming beast, that is, if I still remember you."
If they really stayed on the trees for the whole night, and happened to bump into the creature that haunted Dafan Mountain, being unable to move, all they could do would be to wait for their souls to be sucked dry. The round-faced girl who gave an apple to Wei WuXian felt scared and started crying. Wei WuXian was originally cross-legged on the donkey, but as it heard the sob, his long ears quivered, and it suddenly leaped forward.
Following the leap, came a long bray. If not for how horrible the bray sounded, its unstoppable vigor could almost pass for a purebred horse. Unprepared for this, Wei WuXian was thrown off of its back, almost injuring his head as he fell. The donkey ran head-first toward the boy, as if it believed that it could knock him off his feet with its head.
The boy's arrow was still poised on the bow, conveniently drawing the bow toward its direction. Wei WuXian didn't want to find a new mount so soon, so he quickly yanked on its reign. The boy took a look at him, a look of shock to suddenly appear on his face.
After a second, the shock turned into disdain. His mouth twitched
"So, it's you."
The tone was made of twenty percent surprise and eighty percent disgust, making Wei WuXian blink. The boy spoke again
"Did you lose your marbles after you were thrown back to your village? How could they let you outside when you looked as freaky as this?"
Did he really just hear something of such significance?
Might it be, Wei WuXian suddenly realized, that Mo XuanYu's father isn't the head of some small sect, but the famous Jin GuangShan?
Jin GuangShan was the last leader of the LanlingJin Sect, having already passed away. On the topic of this man, one sentence could not tell the whole story. He had a fierce wife from a prominent family and, in fact, he was known for being scared of her. However, even if he was scared, it never stopped him from going to other women.
No matter how fierce Madame Jin was, it was impossible for her to follow him twenty-four hours a day. Therefore, from ladies of distinguished statuses, to prostitutes in rural areas, if he could get his hands on one, he wouldn't miss the chance. And, although he enjoyed casual relationships and flirted everywhere, having an uncountable amount of illegitimate children, it was extremely easy for him to get bored.
After he grew tired a woman, he would forget about her completely, without any responsibility or whatsoever. Among all of his illegitimate children, there was only one who proved to be exceptionally talented and ended up being taken back-the current leader of the LanlingJin Sect, Jin GuangYao.
Moreover, Jin GuangShan didn't die honorably either. He believed that he was old but vigorous, and wanted to challenge himself, fooling around with a group of women. However, unfortunately, he failed and passed away during the act. This was too humiliating, and so, the LanlingJin Sect told the public that the old leader died from overworking himself. All of the other clans decided to keep silent about the matter and pretended that they didn't know anything. Anyways, those were the real reasons behind his "fame."
During the siege in Luanzang Hill, aside from Jiang Cheng, Jin GuangShan was the second-greatest contributor. And now, Wei WuXian had taken over the body of his own illegitimate son. He really didn't know if they were even with each other.
Seeing that he was spacing out, the boy grew even more annoyed
"Get out of here! It's disgusting just looking at you, you damn gay!"
In terms of his generation, it was highly possible of Mo XuanYu to be an elder to the boy, maybe an uncle. After being humiliated by a junior like this, Wei WuXian thought that, even if not for his own sake, he needed to return the humiliation for Mo XuanYu's body
"What an attitude! I suppose that you didn't have a mother to teach you?"
Hearing his words, two raging flames sparked in the boy's eyes. He unsheathed the sword on his back and threatened
"What... Did you say?"
The blade of the sword shone a golden light. It was a rare sword of high quality-most clans probably couldn't get a small piece of it even if they spent their whole lives saving for it. Wei WuXian examined it attentively, somehow thinking that the sword seemed familiar to him. Then again, he had seen his share of gold, top-notch swords. He didn't think too much about it and began to spin a tiny cloth bag that he held in his hand.
It was a makeshift "spirit-locking bag" that he had created a few days ago, using the scraps and pieces of things. As the boy wielded the sword and came toward him, he fished a piece of human-shaped paper out of the spirit-locking bag. He shifted to the side, avoiding the attack, and slapped the paper onto his opponent's back.
The boy's movements were already fast, but Wei WuXian had done a lot of "tripping someone while slapping a talisman onto their back", which meant that he was faster. The boy suddenly felt his torso become numb, his back weakening, and he unwillingly collapsed onto the ground, with his sword also falling to the side with a clunk.
He couldn't get up no matter how hard he tried, as if a mountain was on top of him. On his back, there was a ghost who had died from gluttony, crushing him to the point that he couldn't even breathe. Although the ghost was weak, it was completely capable of dealing with brats like this one. Wei WuXian picked up his sword, weighed it in his hands, and swung toward the direction of the deity-binding net, splitting it in half.
The family fell to the ground in an awkward way, but they sprinted off without saying anything. The round-faced girl seemed as if she wanted to thank him, but she was pulled away by an elder, who was scared that Young Master Jin would hate them even more. The boy on the ground was fuming
"You damn gay! Good for you, taking this sort of wrong path because you didn't have enough spiritual powers to do anything! Watch out for your life! Do you know who came today? Today, I..."
Although the cultivation method that he used in the past was often criticized and, in the long term, it harmed the cultivator's health, it could be mastered quickly. It was also especially attractive because there were no limitations as to the cultivator's spiritual powers or talent, making it so that there were always people who secretly practiced it to find a shortcut. The boy presumed that, after being chased from the LanlingJin Sect, Mo XuanYu had chosen the dishonorable path, which was a reasonable conclusion to draw, saving Wei WuXian from a lot of unnecessary trouble.
The boy pushed on the ground, but couldn't get up even after a few tries. His face was scarlet and he gritted his teeth
"If you don't stop, I'm gonna tell my uncle, and you're gonna wait for your death!"