Chapter Text
Their timing was quite on time, everyone was pouring out of the cave where the dancing stone goddess had emerged.
The scowling youth frowned, looking at his older brother, "How can that thing move?"
Lan HuiNing grabbed Lan YuJing's sword and waved it, throwing it back to the owner then run into the chaos that's been going on. The blank-faced youth covered his mouth and snorted behind his palm, his sword is really convenient. Lan BaiHe frowned and swiftly followed Lan HuiNing.
The blank-faced youth heard Mo XuanYu shouted, “Run, run, run! Stop slashing around! It won’t work!”
But of course, most of the cultivators ignored him. The probably soul-consuming monster that they had tried so hard to find had finally appeared, so why would they miss out on the chance? However, even with so many swords chopping and stabbing, and so many talismans and magical tools being thrown at it, the statue’s advance didn’t stop at all. It was around three meters tall, resembling a titan as it moved, giving off a strong oppressive aura, it's something Lan YuJing had never sense before, if he think that Lan QiRen's isn't oppressive at all. Though, it'll be dangerous if they let it be.
"I've been wondering who's more oppressive, Lan QiRen or The dancing Goddess?" he commented to which earned a loud snort from the older companion.
The GusuLan Sect disciple was about to run towards the stone dancing goddess when it picked up two cultivators and lifted them in front of its face, although a hand clutched his wrist and stopped him from doing a risky stunt. The stone mouth seemed like it opened and closed, and the swords in the cultivators’ hands dropped to the ground with two clanks. Their heads drooped. Their souls were sucked away.
The blank-faced youth lost all of the color on his face as he watches the scene before him. His expression remains blank despite the uneasiness he's feeling. A hand reassuringly pat him and he was guided elsewhere.
Mo XuanYu, "Stay close to me, YuJing."
Lan YuJing smiled a bit before nodding, "Mm."
With no attack methods working properly, the others were finally willing to listen to Mo XuanYu words. Everyone scatters in all directions as fast as they could. With so many people and faces, Lan YuJing observed as older man's face turned anxious. His eyes scanning the chaos before them.
Lan YuJing, "Who are you looking for, Mo-gege?"
Mo XuanYu look at him, "Jin Ling, he must be here!"
"I'll help looking!" he said while unsheathing Buzhidao and rides his sword, an aerial approach to scan the area and looked for a certain angry duckling. It didn't take long for the blank-faced youth to see Jin Ling, menacingly standing behind the stone dancing goddess, on a high hill edge with other cultivators.
"He's on a hill's edge holding a bow!" he said whilst looking down to the older man who rode on the donkey and ran into a bamboo forest, encountering the others, Lan SiZhui and Lan JingYi as he turned around. The younger youth swoop down and run to them.
Lan YuJing screeched like a bat, "SiZhui-dage! JingYi-gege!" the two sharply turned to his direction and shifted to him.
Lan SiZhui, "YuJing! Where's BaiHe and HuiNing?!"
"They ran to the east!"
Mo XuanYu called for them, “Children!"
Lan JingYi replied, “Who are your children? Do you know which sect we are from? Did you really think that you would be considered a senior just because you washed your face?”
"Pfft----"
"This isn't the time to laugh!!!"
"Fine, fine, forgive me, JingYi-gege!"
The older man spoke, “Okay, okay, okay, gege-s. Send a signal and get your clan’s… HanGuang-jun up here!”
They all nodded a few times, and ran around while searching for signals. Lan SiZhui spoke, “The signal firelights… were all used up during the night at Mo Village."
The blank-faced youth tried not to cackle and pursed his lips.
Mo XuanYu was shocked, “You guys didn’t restock afterwards?”
Lan YuJing, "The signal firelights were usually only needed once in over eight hundred years so..."
Lan SiZhui added bashfully, “We forgot.”
Wei WuXian tried to scare them, “Is this a matter that you should forget about? If HanGuang-jun knew about this, he’s going to make you sorry.”
Lan JingYi’s face was pale with terror, “It’s over. This time, we are gonna be punished to death by HanGuang-jun…”
Lan YuJing snorted, "Don't worry JingYi-gege, I've done worst! Hehe~"
Lan SiZhui sighed, "That's not something to be proud of..."
Wei WuXian, “Indeed, he should punish you! Without punishment, you wouldn’t remember the next time.”
Lan SiZhui, “Young Master Mo, Young Master Mo! How did you know that it was not a spirit-consuming spirit or beast, but the goddess statue instead?”
The older man goes towards where Jin Ling is as he ran, “How did I know? I saw.”
Lan JingYi also caught up. They each ran on one side of Mo XuanYu, “What did you see? We also saw lots of things.”
The blank-faced youth went behind them and quietly listens.
“You saw, so what happens next? What things were in the area of the ancient tombs?"
“What else could there be? There were only dead souls.”
“Correct, there were dead souls. This is why it can’t be a soul-consuming spirit or beast. It’s simple—if it was either of these two, with so many dead spirits in the area, would it have chosen to not eat them? No, it wouldn’t have.”
This time, there's another person who asked, "Why?” Lan BaiHe appeared and ran beside Lan YuJing.
Lan YuJing, "Where's your brother?"
Lan BaiHe, "Went to Jin Ling then to HanGuang-jun."
What's up with Mistress Jin Ling, he's getting popular? The blank-faced youth thought. HuiNing is really fast at thinking.
“Just what can I say about your GusuLan Sect…” he heard Mo XuanYu spoke and seemingly couldn't take something anymore. "Why can’t you teach less annoying, lengthy nonsense like cultivational etiquette, family trees, and history which requires memorization, and teach more practical things? How is this hard to understand? Dead souls are a lot easier to absorb than living souls. The physical body of a living person is like a shield, and if it wants to eat a live soul, it would have to break the shield. For example…”
Trying not to laugh, Lan YuJing pursed his lips together again while Lan BaiHe give him a warning stare. Mo XuanYu looked at the donkey, which panted while running, rolling its eyes, “For example, if an apple is put in front of you, and another one is put inside a locked box, which one would you choose to eat? Of course, it would be the one in front of you. This creature only eats living souls, and knows of a way to obtain them. It is both powerful and selective in terms of food.”
Lan JingYi was astonished, “So that’s how it works? It makes a lot of sense! Wait, so you’re really not a lunatic?”
He tried not to let any snort out which proved harder than trying not to laugh. Lan YuJing wondered if he'll die trying to contain himself.
Lan SiZhui explained as he ran, “We all thought that, because the landslide and lightning led to the series of events, it must be a soul-consuming spirit.”
The older man spoke, “Wrong.”
“What is wrong?”
“The order and the correlation is wrong. Let me ask you—for the landslide and the soul-consuming events, which ones were the first and second, the cause and effect?”
Lan YuJing shifted beside Lan SiZhui while thinking about the talk they had earlier, "... Based on guesses and over-analyzing, the caused was the soul-consuming while the effect was the landslide and the rest went like that...?"
Mo XuanYu made an affirmative noise, "Yes! During the night of the landslide, a storm suddenly started, and a streak of lightning broke a coffin—remember this. This first person to lose their soul, the sluggard, was trapped in the mountains for the whole night, and married a few days later.”
Lan JingYi, "And?"
Mo XuanYu, "There's no way a penniless man could suddenly afford a grand wedding."
Wealth is something they're taught not to care about despite it being the thing that ran the world ever since he can remember.
The older man spoke again, “Did you take a look at all of the dead souls floating in Dafan Mountain? There was an old man who died from a hit to the head, wearing burial clothes that were made with fine craftsmanship and fabric. With such extravagant burial clothes, his coffin couldn’t have been empty, and there must have been a few burial items to protect it. The coffin that was broken by the lightning was most likely his. Yet, the people who came to retrieve the corpse did not find any burial items, which meant that they were definitely taken away by the sluggard, explaining why he suddenly became rich. The sluggard suddenly decided to marry someone after the night of the landslide, so something unusual must have happened during the night. On that evening, there was a harsh storm and he took cover in the mountain. Where on Dafan Mountain is it possible to take cover from the rain? Goddess Temple. And, when most people go into a temple, there is one thing that they would do.”
Lan SiZhui asked, “Pray?”
“That’s right. For example, he would pray for himself to be lucky, to become wealthy, to have enough money to marry, and so on. The goddess fulfilled his wish with the lightning that split open the grave, letting him see the treasures in the coffin. His prayers came true and, as the sacrifice, the goddess came to him on the evening of his marriage, and took his soul away!”
Lan BaiHe who was quiet for a while finally asked, "What about A-Yan?"
Mo XuanYu, "Great question, remember our talk earlier? She must've prayed there afte her engagement."
Lan YuJing spoke this time, "... I know most newly-engaged sisters would wish for something along the lines of..." he paused and cleared his throat, clasping his hands together. "'I wish my husband would love me and take care of me for his whole life'" he said, imitating a girl's sweet voice.
A 'pfft' escape from Mo XuanYu and Lan SiZhui while both Lan JingYi and Lan BaiHe looked like they need to beat him with their sect's scrolls. “Would a wish like this really be able to be granted?”
Mo XuanYu held his palms out, “It’s simple. If her husband’s ‘whole life’ immediately ended, wouldn’t it count as ‘loving only one person for his entire life’?”
Lan JingYi finally understood and shouted excitedly, “Oh, oh! So, so, so, the reason behind her husband being eaten by wolves the day after her engagement!”
Mo XuanYu, "Her soul returned, right?"
Lan JingYi, "Yes but why?"
Lan BaiHe, "Her father was one of the victims as well."
Lan SiZhui speaks this time, "Which means he must have prayed to the soul-consuming goddess for her soul to return!"
All of these were hypothesis and guesses but it all connected well.
Lan YuJing looked at Mo XuanYu, wondering just who is he?
Something about him makes Lan YuJing at ease.
Extra: What song?
Lan YuJing: HanGuang-jun, HanGuang-jun!
Lan WangJi: Wei LinXiu.
Lan YuJing: What song? What song did you play last night for me?
Lan WangJi: What song.
Lan YuJing: Nice name! Can I hear it again?
Lan WangJi: Yes.