Chapter Text
It was the beginning of spring. The scenery was all green and the air felt fresh. There was a slight chill in the air but the cool gentle breeze felt nice as Wei Wuxian walked alongside Lan Wangji towards a small village on the hill. They were on their way back to the Cloud Recesses after two months of travelling and night-hunting together. The trip was successful as both of them were able to defeat and subdue several ghosts that had been frightening villagers and travelers. Wei Wuxian took a deep breath and smelled the scent of fresh grasses and flowers. He closed his eyes and smiled. Beside him, Lan Wangji had a slight curve on his lips as he admired the scenery in front of them.
The small narrow road they were walking on led to a small village on the foot of a hill. The houses were crude and scattered all over the place. There was a long river passing through the village and several villagers could be seen working in the field. Even though small, it seemed like a nice, quiet village.
As they chose a different path back to Gusu, this was the first time Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji passed through this village. Upon arriving, they were stopped by one of the villagers. The elderly man curiously greeted them,
“Greetings, Young Masters. Are you two travelers? Do you have business with someone in our village?”
Wei Wuxian bowed slightly to the older man and replied politely,
“Good morning, sir. We are cultivators from Lan Sect. We are just on our way back to Gusu and hope you don’t mind us passing through.”
The old man seemed to be surprised and waved his hand in front of him.
“Ahh, I see, I see. That explains why both of you carry such impressive aura around you, especially your friend with the headband here. Very noble indeed. We don’t get many visitors here at Puqi village, let alone cultivator masters such as you two. My apologies for stopping you.”
Lan Wangji slightly nodded at the old man and simply asked,
“Do you have any problems with ghosts and demons around here?”
After hearing the question, the old man must have been recalling incidents after incidents that happened here in his head because his facial expressions kept changing back and forth. A minute passed and he seemed to finish reminiscing as he concluded with a smile,
“Well, right now all is peace and quiet. However, we did have several weird incidents happened here in the past, but thanks to the Daozhang who lives here, all of those incidents were taken care of by him. I don’t know if they involved ghosts though...”
Wei Wuxian narrowed his eyes and interrupted the old man.
“Hold on. You said this Daozhang handled all the ‘weird incidents’ all by himself? Is he a powerful cultivator?”
If these incidents the old villager talked about really involved ghosts and this cultivator could deal with them all by himself, then it meant he must be strong. And the fact that he had been living here in this remote village meant he did not join any sect. For some reasons, this Daozhang reminded Wei Wuxian of Xiao Xingchen who decided to become a lone cultivator. Unfortunately, his noble and kind heart led him to his tragic ending. Seeing that Wei Wuxian showed interest in Daozhang’ story, the old man smiled,
“I don’t know much about cultivators’ world and what they are capable of. But if you ask me, although he appears to be kind and humble, I would say our Daozhang is indeed very strong. He currently lives at Puqi shrine over there.”
The old man then pointed to a building further away on the hill. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji followed his gaze and saw a colorful building surrounded by lots of trees. They thanked and bid farewell to the old villager and headed towards the shrine.
Looking from afar, the shrine was indeed colorful and stood out from the rest of the houses in the village. However, when one stood in front of it and had a good closer look at the building, the word that would come to most people’s mind would be gaudy. The shrine had bright red and green colors all over the place. Lan Wangji looked at the shrine and even though he didn’t say a single word as usual, Wei Wuxian could tell his partner was stunned and actually lost for words for once. The worst part of the whole thing wasn’t even the tasteless colors and design, but the establishment plaque. Were those actual letters or just some random doodles? Wei Wuxian tried to make out what was written here but found he couldn’t. There was no way anyone could read this. Was this establishment plaque written by a five years old? No, scratch that. Even a five years old kid could write better than this. Suddenly, Wei Wuxian remembered something.
“Wait…Puqi village. Puqi shrine... I feel like I have heard this name before.”
Still looking the building in front of him, Lan Wangji replied,
“I believe it was mentioned by His Highness the Crown Prince of Xianle when we ran into him two years ago.”
“You’re right! So this is his shrine then! I remembered His Highness dressed in such a plain white robe. I didn’t expect his shrine to be this...vivid! Maybe it wasn’t his idea in building it this way?”
Wei Wuxian rubbed his chin and decided to walk into the yard. Lan Wangji silently followed behind him. The door of the shrine was closed. In front of the shrine itself, Wei Wuxian noticed a donation box with the sign “Looking for donation” on the wall. Maybe the donation could go to redesigning the shrine, or to hire an actual calligrapher who knew how to write a proper establishment plaque? Recalling the god himself was also a scrap collector, he probably didn’t have a lot of money to spend. Wei Wuxian fished out a small pouch from lan Wangji’s robe and took out some money.
He walked over and was going to put the money into the donation box but, to his surprise, found that the box was full. Puzzled, he opened the box and was shocked to see that it was filled with gold bars to the brim. The bright gold color almost blinded him on the spot. Who the hell stuffed so many gold bars into the box?!! No, never mind that, the real question is if His Highness had such amount of money, surely, he didn’t need to be collecting scraps in the first place?
Wei Wuxian sighed. He felt like he couldn’t understand Xie Lian’s actions. Perhaps the way the gods think was different than mortals and beyond his comprehension? Nevertheless, since he already made up his mind to donate some ( of Lan Wangji’s ) money to his shrine, Wei Wuxian would see that he went through with it. He took out some of the gold bars which were crudely stuffed inside the box and rearranged them so that there was enough space for his money. However, before he could finish, the door of the shrine suddenly swung open and came a scolding voice of a young man,
“Yi Zhen! I told you many times to stop sneaking your gold into my donation box! Since you are here, you better take them all back with yo….oh?”
Xie Lian stood at the door. He was still wearing the same plain white cultivator robe. It seemed like he had heard the noise of someone messing with his donation box and had assumed it was the person who stuffed the gold bars inside it. Why was he scolding someone who donated so much money to his shrine though? Again, the way immortals think was beyond his understanding. Wei Wuxian hurriedly put his thoughts aside and cupped his hands together to greet the god.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince..”
Behind him, Lan Wangji also did the same,
“Your Highness the Crown Prince. Lord Ghost King.”
Startled, Wei Wuxian moved his head to the side a little bit to see behind Xie Lian. Since Xie Lian stood in the doorway and blocked his view, he didn’t see Hua Cheng in his youth form sitting at the altar table inside the shrine. Wei Wuxian immediately cupped his hands and bowed to him. The Ghost King didn’t seem to pay both him and Lan Wangji much attention. He only swiftly glanced at them and his attention quickly went back to the bowl on the table. However, Wei Wuxian’s face suddenly went pale as soon as he took a good look inside the shrine. What shocked him wasn’t the rainbow-colored statue of the Crown Prince on the altar, nor the fearsome Ghost King eating purple-colored dumplings, but the fact that there was a man lying on the floor!
The man dressed in what seemed to be an expensive warrior outfit. His long hair and limbs sprawled in different direction on the floor. He was tall and had good physique and even though he was lying face down on the floor, you could tell he must have been a good-looking man. With trembling finger, Wei Wuxian pointed to the man and asked,
“Your….Your Highness, why is there a dead man in your shrine?”
Xie Lian seemed to recall the man and smiled weakly at him and Lan Wangji,
“Ohh! Ha ha ha, ehh, please don’t mind him. He’s just pretending to be dead! He’s an acquaintance of mine and he just likes to fool around! Ha ha! Please come in!”
Xie Lian stepped aside and walked towards the man on the floor. He then grabbed him by the hands and easily dragged him to the corner of the room and covered his body with a small mat. Lan Wangji just stared at the god without any emotion while Wei Wuxian’s mouth hung open with no words coming out. The man didn’t look like he was playing dead at all. And was His Highness trying to cover a dead elephant with a bamboo leaf?? The small mat didn’t help cover the body one bit. Xie Lian seemed to be content with his works and turned back to them with a smile,
“Please take a seat! I remember you two. You’re Young Master Wei and Young Master Lan, from uhh…”
Without skipping a beat, Hua Cheng casually added,
“Gusu Lan sect.”
“Yes, from Gusu Lan sect! I remember we met a couple of years ago. It’s good to see you two are doing well!”
Xie Lian gave them a warm and genuine smile this time. Wei Wuxian felt honored that the immortals remembered them despite the fact that their meeting was pretty brief. Knowing the god, Wei Wuxian knew there was no way the Xie Lian could murder someone in cold blood and just let his corpse lying around. Perhaps the man really wasn’t as dead as he seemed? Before he could say anything else, Lan Wangji was the first one who took a step inside the shrine and respectfully said to Xie Lian,
“My apologies.”
Lan Wangji walked towards the man on floor and gracefully crouched down on one knee beside him. He carefully turned the man’s head to the side and put his finger close to his nose. Wei Wuxian noticed the man’s face looked rather blue, and was that a foam at the corner of his mouth?! Lan Wangji checked his pulse before slowly standing up again.
“This man is still alive, but his breathing and pulse are weak. Judging from his symptoms, it looks like he had been poisoned.”
Both Xie Lian and Hua Cheng didn’t seem to be surprised hearing this. The god just gave out a weak laugh while the Ghost King spared a single glance at the unconscious man before putting another purple dumpling in his mouth,
“Or maybe it’s simply because he randomly ate something and his weak stomach couldn’t handle it. If Gege thinks he’s an eyesore, I can bury him in the backyard for you.”
Xie Lian laughed and put his hand on Hua Cheng’s shoulder,
“No, San Lang, you can’t do that. He will be angry at you once he recovers and wakes up.”
Hua Cheng just shrugged. His lips curved into a confident smile.
“I don’t particularly care. He can come at my anytime.”
Wei Wuxian could tell even though the Ghost King’s tone of voice held no malicious intent, he wasn’t totally happy to have this unconscious guest at the shrine. Perhaps the man invited himself in even though he wasn’t welcomed?
Lan Wangji cupped his hands and addressed Xie Lian,
“Your Highness, I have an antidote with me. It could help relieve the poison. If you allow it, I can try giving it to him.”
Xie Lian smiled with delight and encouraged him to give the man his medicine. Lan Wangji took out a small bottle from his robe. The bottle contained some antidote pills and he carefully put one into the man’s mouth. Although being unconscious, he was able to swallow it down without an issue. In less than 5 minutes, colors gradually came back to his face, and his eyes trembling. Everyone, except Hua Cheng, breathed a sigh of relief. Xie Lian clapped his hands together and complimented,
“Your medicine is truly a work of wonders!”
“The Lan Sect’s medicines are one of the best, Your Highness.”
Wei Wuxian said proudly. He looked at the man on the floor who was slowly gaining his consciousness. Suddenly, the man’s eyes swung open, jumped up from the floor, and screamed.
“WHAT HAPPENED….TO ME!!? WAS I BEING….AMBUSHED?!! WHERE....AM I? WHERE….ARE THE ENEMIES!!??”
Wei Wuxian was startled. Lan Wangji immediately stood in front of him just in case the man was still delirious and tried to harm them. The man looked to be in his late 20s. He was indeed tall and appeared to be quite a charming man. If he wasn't looking half-dazed still, Wei Wuxian was sure this man must be able to steal any ladies' heart with just a few flirtatious words. Xie Lian rushed to grab him by the shoulder to steady him.
“General Pei, please calm down. There was no enemy here. You are at my Puqi shrine, remember?”
‘General Pei’ looked at Xie Lian and blinked a few times. He seemed to remember the man in front of him. His speech seemed to be affected by the poison still.
“Your…Your Highness?….That’s right…. I came to pay….you a visit because I….have something to…. discuss with you but….nobody was here.”
He swayed left and right on his feet. He put one hand on his temple as he tried to gain balance and recalled what happened to him.
“I was going to….wait for you here….and then… I saw a pot of….. dumplings soup….on the altar….so I tried one. After that….everything went….black.”
Xie Lian smiled weakly and tried to support him as best as he could,
“San Lang and I went to help the villagers out in the field. When we came back, we saw you lying down on the floor. Perhaps you fainted after eating my ‘Paradise-on-Earth-Dumpling-Soup’?”
General Pei seemed to turn pale again after hearing the name of the dish he ate. His voice was trembling in disbelief.
“Paradise-on-Earth…??! There was nothing…..paradise about….it!! And I didn’t….faint. I was…poisoned. It’s probably….from your food…!!”
Wei Wuxian had to secretly agreed. If the dish he had eaten was the one Hua Cheng was eating right now, it surely didn’t look good. The soup was dark blue in color, while the dumplings themselves were purple. Wei Wuxian wholeheartedly believed in his ability to consume any kind of food but even him wouldn’t want to touch that dish. He swore he might be able to see dead spirits rising from it if he looked hard enough. Maybe he could try playing his ghost flute to see if he could summon one?
General Pei’s exclamation was interrupted by a loud noise coming from the altar table. Everyone turned around and saw it was the Ghost King who slammed the chopsticks on the table. It seemed like he already finished everything in the bowl and was now looking at General Pei with cold eyes.
“There is nothing wrong with His Highness’s cooking. It tastes as good as usual. It was your weak pathetic stomach that couldn’t handle it. Maybe this should teach you not to randomly eat food in someone else’s house without their permission.”
After hearing Hua Cheng’s remark, General Pei’s face turned slightly red from anger and he pointed finger at the Ghost King,
“Crimson Rain Sought….Flower, only you…..could eat His…..Highness’s cooking and….not getting any….effect .I have lived….for hundreds of years…..and fought countless…..battles, of course…. my stomach can handle….any kind of food…..”
Wei Wuxian admired his bravery in bickering with Hua Cheng. Even in such weak state, this man showed no fear and dared to talk back to the Ghost King. As General Pei was going to continue, he finally noticed him and Lan Wangji standing not far away. It seemed like he had realized something and immediately stopped talking. His face unreadable. Xie Lian seemed to understand his concern so he said,
“General Pei, don’t worry, they are my guests and they knew who San Lang and I are. Young Master Wei, Young Master Lan, I’m sorry for not introducing you sooner. This is General Ming Guang. He’s the Martial God of the North. Perhaps you have seen his temples before.”
Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji cupped their hands and bowed to the god. As expected from the famous Martial God, he wasn’t afraid of picking a fight with the Ghost King.
“General Pei, these are Young Masters from the Lan sect. They are Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. This Young Master over here was the one who gave you medicine and helped you regain your consciousness.”
Xie Lian introduced them and pointed his hand towards Lan Wangji. To Wei Wuxian’s surprise, General Pei actually put his hands together and slightly bowed to Lan Wangji.
“Pei thank…..Young Master Lan. Without your…..antidote, who knows……how long will I be in…..such helpless state.”
Lan Wangji briefly cupped his hands but didn’t say anything. Pei Ming then took his time looking at both him and Lan Wangji. After a minute, he curiously asked,
“Are you two…traveling….together?” Of all the questions, Wei Wuxian didn’t expect the god to ask them this. However, it was Lan Wangji who calmly answered him as if he knew the meaning behind his question,
“We are cultivator partners.”
Hearing this, Pei Ming revealed a weird understanding smile on his face. He took another good look of them before turning to look at Xie Lian and Hua Cheng. He then rubbed his chin and said,
“Ho ho….I see.”
Wei Wuxian didn’t want to think about what General Pei had realized. It’s not as if he and Lan Wangji were hiding their relationship but hearing the god said it like, it gave him a weird funny feeling. Before he could say anything back, Pei Ming already turned to Xie Lian and cupped his hands together,
“Since Your Highness…..has guests, I will not……bother you any longer……and will take my leave….for now. But I…..will come back another……day to discuss with you about…..Pei Xiu.”
Xie Lian’s smile faded from his face. He nodded and solemnly replied,
“Alright. But you can probably already guess what my answer would be, General Pei.”
Pei Ming smiled weakly but it seemed like he still wouldn’t give up.
“One can never…..know until one….tries.”
He then turned towards the door. He slightly nodded to Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji before shakingly walked out of the shrine, closing the door behind him. Wei Wuxian was sure if he opened the door now, the god would already long disappear.