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Sent back to the mortal world by Hua Cheng, Mo Xuanyu kept his eyes tightly shut. When he opened them again, his eyes held a new resolve.
At that moment, Hua Cheng’s low, sinisterly charming voice sounded inside his head. “Go and return quickly. I can buy you some time here. That won’t be a problem.”
“This lowly one thanks the Ghost King,” Mo Xuanyu said softly to the air.
“I’d quite like to see what has become of the Mo Manor today, after Wei Wuxian cleaned it up,” he thought, then lifted his leg and set off with light, brisk steps.
“Wei Wuxian truly did take good care of this body for me. The spiritual energy in my dantian and meridians are flowing smoothly. He must have already completed foundation building. Given time, I should be able to form a golden core.” A smile quietly bloomed across his face as he thought this.
Yet within that smile, there was also a trace of melancholy.
Mo Manor
The once lively Mo Manor was not ruined now, but it was plainly evident that no one lived here anymore. Untended, overgrown with weeds, it was devoid of life.
In fact, the astonished looks the villagers had cast him as soon as he entered town had already told him as much.
He heard them whispering among themselves about the ghost hand, about how the Mo family had been exterminated overnight.
Their talk lent the manor an even more sinister atmosphere.
Mo Xuanyu was rather startled by what he heard.
He had asked Wei Wuxian to avenge him.
So what exactly was this ghost hand?
As he stepped into the manor courtyard, Mo Xuanyu suddenly found himself unable to say for certain whether this was truly the outcome he had wished for.
Though the sacrificial summoning had happened long ago, he still remembered it vividly.
The slander, pain, and abuse he had suffered then had never disappeared just because he had died.
He had wished for revenge, yes, but as for what form that revenge ought to take, the truth was that Mo Xuanyu had never had a clear answer in his heart.
“In a scene like this, has the pain in my heart lessened at all?” Mo Xuanyu gave a bitter laugh and asked himself.
The Ghost King had once told him that any ghost with a manifest form was a soul burdened by deep obsession.
That was also why, instead of passing on to reincarnation, Mo Xuanyu had ultimately wandered his way to Ghost City.
“Now that my revenge is done, there is only one person I wish to see again,” Mo Xuanyu murmured.
Vaguely, the silhouette of someone began to take shape in his heart.
“Sect leader Nie…” Mo Xuanyu quietly whispered those three words.
Back when he had been slandered at Jinlintai, Nie Huaisang, who often came to consult him in private, had spoken up for him behind the scenes to sect leader Jin, sparing him the family whip on charges of improper relations with men and of harassing sect leader Jin.
Instead, he had only been sent back to Mo Manor.
And when he was sent away, Mo Xuanyu still remembered the apolegetic smile on sect leader Nie's face.
“Your true talent does not lie in cultivation, but in the study of arrays. That was enough to earn sect leader Jin’s favor, but it also invited the jealousy and exclusion of your peers. I saw how you were framed with my own eyes. I am sorry, Xuanyu. At present, there is little more I can do for you...” Though Nie Huaisang hid half his face behind his fan, the guilt in his eyes could not be concealed.
“You have already done more than enough for me, sect leader Nie,” Mo Xuanyu replied in a low voice, head bowed deeply.
He felt wronged in his heart, and yet Nie Huaisang’s actions had also made him feel warm.
Nie Huaisang sighed, then said, “For years my elder brother hoped I would become some saber wielding hero, and time and again he was disappointed. I’m not unaware of it. But my physical build was weak from birth, and I happen to love poetry, instruments, calligraphy, and painting. What fault is there in that?”
His expression dimmed as he continued, “You and I are both anomalies in the eyes of others. Powerless as you are, you have suffered endless bullying. Powerful as I may seem, I too am isolated, a laughingstock among the cultivation world. A useless good for nothing.”
He gave a bitter smile, then patted Mo Xuanyu on the shoulder. “Xuanyu, we have known one another. Take good care of yourself. In days to come, I will certainly visit often.”
And afterward, Nie Huaisang did indeed visit him from time to time.
He always came deep in the night, quietly climbing over the wall so as not to cause any unnecessary trouble.
Sometimes he brought food for Mo Xuanyu. Sometimes he slipped him books on arrays and magical tools for him to study.
When Mo Xuanyu’s mother passed away, Nie Huaisang stayed at a nearby inn and kept him company every night, comforting him, guiding him through it.
Bound by their shared understanding of the pain of losing loved ones, the two gradually grew close.
Over time, the two of them became the closest of friends.
They often discussed strange arrays together, or rare calligraphy and paintings.
Though Mo Xuanyu still frequently suffered Mo Ziyuan’s curses, beatings, and kicks, his days nevertheless continued, one by one, in stubborn endurance.
Until one night, their secret meeting was discovered by Mo Ziyuan and his servant, who had come intending to steal magical tools.
“You have some nerve, Mo Xuanyu!” Like a man who had just caught his prey, Mo Ziyuan’s eyes gleamed with bloodthirsty delight as he roared, ““You shameless thing with a taste for men! Back then you couldn’t climb into sect leader Jin’s bed, and now look at you, latching onto another great household!”
Throwing back his head, he laughed. “What, so desperate your ass is burning for it? Then moan a few times for us and let me see how you bewitch men, just like your whore of a mother did with that fool!”
With that, he and his followers burst into laughter.
“You are not to speak disrespectfully of sect leader Nie!” The instant the words left his mouth, Mo Xuanyu regretted them.
If Mo Ziyuan learned Nie Huaisang’s identity, then with his temperament, he would surely spread even worse rumors.
Mo Xuanyu went ashen. He knew full well that sect Leader Nie’s standing among the cultivation clans was already precarious. In the past, people had regarded him as a useless fool who knew nothing. If baseless rumors were added on top of that now...
“No, no, that is not it! sect leader Nie and I are innocent. We were only talking. Mo-xiong, I beg you, I will kneel to you, I will kowtow, but you absolutely must not speak of this. Please, please! I beg you!” Mo Xuanyu dropped to his knees, pleading. Tears fell one by one like pearls from a broken string, and his vision gradually blurred.
Seeing Mo Xuanyu suddenly fall to his knees to kowtow, Nie Huaisang quickly pulled him up, helped him to his feet, and steadied a hand against his back, as though lending him strength.
Looking at Mo Xuanyu, Nie Huaisang spoke to Mo Ziyuan without even turning his head. “Your mouth is on your face. Say what you like. But let me warn you first. If you choose to spread slander without a shred of proof, then you had best have the courage to bear the consequences. I, Nie Huaisang, may be a laughingstock among the cultivation clans, but that doesn’t mean I won’t take actions if I am slandered.”
Nie Huaisang opened his folding fan and hid half his face, revealing only a pair of utterly placid eyes.
And yet, though those eyes seemed calm, for one instant Mo Ziyuan truly thought sect leader Nie might flay him alive on the spot. He silently took a step back.
His servant, however, didn’t see it that way.
Ignorant and reckless, with the sort of lapdog temperament that believed his master would hold up the sky if it fell, he yelled at the pair before him, “What, caught in the act, so now you start threatening Young Master Mo? Have you lost your minds?! Young Master and I both saw you two pulling at each other beneath the moon, and Mo Xuanyu, you have a whole room full of magical tools and books. Where do you think all those came from? Is that not proof enough? What a joke!”
The servant had a harsh, ducklike voice. Once he finished speaking, he stupidly turned to look at his master, as though hoping for praise.
Mo Ziyuan had still been a little intimidated by the look in Nie Huaisang’s eyes, but after listening to his foolish servant say all this, his arrogant swagger came surging back.
“That’s right, the evidence is ironclad. You two can forget about denying it. I think I will go pick out a magical tool and have some fun with it. Perhaps then I might wait a few more days before making this public. Heh, heh, heh.”
With that, he turned and strode into Mo Xuanyu’s dilapidated little hut. Amid a racket of banging, kicking, overturning, and rummaging, he swaggered back out holding an old looking magical tool, then wandered off.
Mo Xuanyu silently listened as his little hut was wrecked. He watched Mo Ziyuan walk off with his favorite magical tool, and he was disheartened by his own helplessness.
But what worried him most at that moment was sect leader Nie’s reputation, which was about to be utterly ruined because of him.
“It’s all my fault...” After Mo Ziyuan had gone far enough away, Mo Xuanyu finally broke down. He crouched to the ground, covering his eyes with one hand as his tears flowed like a river.
Once his grief burst forth, it could no longer be restrained. For a long time, he couldn’t compose himself.
Nie Huaisang crouched beside Xuanyu, laid a hand gently over his back, and slowly, quietly soothed him.
A new determination entered Huaisang’s eyes as he said steadily, “Come back to the residence with me.”
“What?” Mo Xuanyu lifted his head from his hands, face streaked with tears and snot, still hiccuping with sobs.
“Come back to the residence with me,” Huaisang repeated.
“No!” Mo Xuanyu’s crying face crumpled even more. He wailed, “If I return with you, then it will only make Mo Ziyuan’s slander seem true!”
“So what?” Nie Huaisang closed his fan and answered with grave directness. “I won’t let him hurt you again.”
A plan had already begun to take shape in his mind.
“Trust me, Xuanyu.” Nie Huaisang smiled gently at him. “If you don’t wish to return with me right now, I won't force you. But you need not worry about me either. I will find a way.”
His hand rested on Mo Xuanyu’s back, giving him warmth and confidence.
Mo Xuanyu looked at Nie Huaisang hesitantly. At last, his tears stopped, though he said nothing.
“It’s already late. What happened just now has happened. There is no use dwelling on it any further. I’ll return to the residence first. What you fear won’t come to pass.” After giving Mo Xuanyu a supremely confident smile, Nie Huaisang cupped his hands in farewell and left.
Xuanyu watched him go, his eyes dull and spirit dazed.
It was as if he had heard what Nie Huaisang had just said, and yet not truly taken it in.
On the way back, Nie Huaisang sat within the carriage, fanning himself with his fan, eyes closed in thought.
“Release the fierce corpses into the back hills of Mo Manor. Then place that hand within the manor itself, so it can blend in among the corpses and kill without revealing its source.” Thinking thus, Nie Huaisang clicked his tongue and mused, “But what if the hand’s resentful energy is too strong? What if, after it kills that Mo wretch, I cannot subdue it?”
A moment later, Nie Huaisang muttered to himself, “Then I will first release only a small batch of fierce corpses. The number need not be large, but they must be extremely close to Mo Manor. Then Mo Manor will seek help from the Lan Clan, being the nearest.”
He continued to fan himself, murmuring, “If it’s only a few fierce corpses, they will likely send only juniors to investigate. Those juniors are not highly skilled yet. Before their eyes, they likely won’t be able to stop that hand from killing that scum Mo Ziyuan.”
He nodded to himself and thought further, “It should be feasible. With Mo Ziyuan’s habit of snatching up magical tools, the Lan Clan’s summoning flags will be all the more effective against him. If the juniors are unable to suppress the hand after it kills him, then, given Lan Wangji’s habit of appearing wherever chaos arises, he will surely arrive in time to clean up the aftermath. He will also be able to help me uncover the truth behind my elder brother’s death.”
Nie Huaisang snapped his fan shut into his palm, completely confident now as this chain of plans settled into place. “Good. Then it is decided.”
For the next three days, what greeted Mo Xuanyu, besides sunlight, gentle wind, birdsong, and the scent of flowers, was the daily racket made by Mo Ziyuan and his servants.
At times Mo Ziyuan cursed at him. At times he mocked him. At times he simply kicked the door open and beat Mo Xuanyu without a word. Once he had had his sport, he would casually snatch away a pill or magical tool before leaving.
In truth, this was no different from before. Yet over the course of these three days, the fear within Mo Xuanyu’s heart only deepened under the constant humiliation.
“Oh my, still sleeping when the sun is already high? What, now that you have latched onto sect Leader Nie, you don’t even need to work anymore?” The moment Mo Xuanyu opened his eyes that day, Mo Ziyuan was already there beside him, staring with a provocative look, the arrogant grin never once fading from his lips.
“Come now. Did I not say I wanted to see how exactly you manage to seduce one sect leader after another? You really do know your trade, don’t you? I even brought rouge and face powder today to dress you up. I’lll make you enticing, just like that whore of a mother of yours!”
When he finished, he laughed loudly to himself and ordered his servants to smear the cosmetics all over Mo Xuanyu’s face.
“Look at you. You’re looking more and more enticing by the moment. You shameless thing with a taste for men!” After another round of laughter with his servant, Mo Ziyuan shouted, “I’m going to find you a woman’s outfit to wear next! If I’m in a good mood, perhaps I won’t tell those cultivators from the Lan Clan about that night just yet.”
After spitting at Mo Xuanyu, Mo Ziyuan swaggered off with his servant to look for clothes.
Over these past three days, Mo Ziyuan had repeatedly reminded him of what happened that night. Mo Xuanyu did nothing but quietly endure it, his mind growing more and more strained and fragile.
He was terrified that the slightest resistance, the slightest wrong look, would give Mo Ziyuan even more reason to tell the story of that night.
“No, no. I can’t place sect leader Nie in danger.” Xuanyu bowed his head, desperately asking himself over and over.
How could he possibly protect the sect leader he respected, keep him from being ruined by the label of love of men?
“What happens to me does not matter. But I must protect sect leader Nie...” he thought.
“That’s right, protect him, protect him. How can I protect him?” Faintly, an answer began to take shape in Xuanyu’s mind.
Back when he had been at Jinlintai, although Mo Xuanyu had often made mistakes in his usual daily tasks, he had always been unusually sensitive to arrays, able to remember them perfectly after seeing only once.
By chance, on one occasion, Mo Xuanyu had pointed out a flaw in a minor array, drawing Jin Guangyao’s attention.
From then on, Jin Guangyao began teaching him array construction. Later, he would often give him extremely profound and complex arrays to study and improve.
It was then that Jin Guangyao granted him access to the secret chamber and tasked him with studying highly confidential arrays.
Of all the arrays he worked on there, the teleportation array was the one Jin Guangyao praised most.
The spiritual power required for such an array went without saying, but beyond that, every stroke within it had to be exact.
If even a single line was drawn slightly wrong, the place to which one was sent could be off by a hundred thousand miles.
Because of this, though the array existed in the world, very few people used it.
There were even rumors that only heavenly officials, whose bodies didn’t age or die and whose spiritual power was abundant, could activate teleportation arrays as a means of travel.
And it was Mo Xuanyu who, at the time, devised precise teleportation arrays for the various territories.
He carved each array into hide, creating a different template for every destination. Rolled up, the hides were easy to carry and took up almost no space.
When needed, one only had to apply cinnabar to the carved portions of the hide template, then channel spiritual power into it and recite the incantation. Each time, one would arrive at the intended destination without the slightest deviation.
When Mo Xuanyu first encountered the sacrificial summoning ritual, it was because he had secretly come across it in Jin Guangyao’s secret chamber.
Legend said it had been among the relics left behind by the Yiling Patriarch, Wei Wuxian, before he was devoured by the hundred ghosts at the Burial Mounds.
Right then, Mo Xuanyu had felt admiration for the wild, unfettered arrangement of the array and incantations in that manuscript, and for this so called great devil, Wei Wuxian.
And now, with nowhere left to turn, what Mo Xuanyu remembered was precisely that sacrificial summoning ritual from the manuscript.
Mo Xuanyu lay collapsed on the ground, his face smeared red and white with makeup, his cheeks itching and burning.
He pushed himself upright and looked around. What met his eyes were only a few remaining books, magical tools, and old pieces of furniture, all torn, smashed, and ruined.
This crude little hut was shabbier than even a woodshed, its walls full of holes.
Through those holes, beams of flickering light shone in. Whenever the breeze passed through them, it produced mournful sounds, as though countless eyes were opening and closing in tears for him, as though countless mouths were softly weeping and lamenting for him.
“So this is how it is...” Mo Xuanyu said calmly to himself, lowering his head.
In this world, no one cared for him except sect leader Nie.
And yet it was precisely because of that care that sect leader Nie had been placed in danger of slander, disgrace, and ruin.
Toward Mo Ziyuan and his family, Mo Xuanyu felt only hatred.
But when it came to Nie Huaisang, all he felt was guilt.
Of evil ghosts and fierce ghosts, Mo Xuanyu knew hardly any, much less their names.
“Wei Wuxian. Then Wei Wuxian it shall be,” Mo Xuanyu muttered. A vicious, feverish light entered his eyes. His lips slowly curled upward, and low, suppressed laughter kept slipping from him, again and again.
He thought that it would be good enough to offer himself to this great devil of whom everyone spoke, to let him take revenge in his stead.
To summon Wei Wuxian back through Wei Wuxian’s own sacrificial ritual could also be considered a kind of fitting completion.
Once that thought settled, Mo Xuanyu bit his finger, used blood as the medium, drew with his own hand, and began to chant the incantation.
And so, at last, he brought this brief and sorrowful life to its end.
After hearing that Lan cultivators had gone down the mountain to investigate, Nie Huaisang immediately took that hand and hurried toward Mo Manor without pause.
Three days had passed since that night. It was neither a long time nor a short one. Nie Huaisang only hoped Mo Xuanyu could endure until he arrived to resolve the matter.
By the time he reached Mo Manor, dusk was near. He quietly climbed over the wall and headed toward Mo Xuanyu’s hut.
“I must first get Xuanyu away. I absolutely can’t place him in danger.” That was what Nie Huaisang thought, and as his scheme neared execution, his heartbeat quickened.
Standing before Mo Xuanyu’s hut, Nie Huaisang’s face turned deathly white as a dreadful foreboding surged through him like a crushing wave.
The bolt that had been used to lock Mo Xuanyu inside had already been kicked open from within, shattered into pieces.
He looked inside and saw an array at the center of the hut floor. In the light of the setting sun, orange rays streamed through the holes in the walls, giving the blood red array an even eerier cast.
“What happened here?” Nie Huaisang began trembling uncontrollably, hundreds of thoughts racing wildly through his mind.
He couldn’t calm himself, nor could he make sense of anything. He couldn’t help but think in the worst possible direction.
His mouth opened and closed again and again. Only after several attempts did he finally manage to force out the answer that had already lodged itself in his heart.
“Did I come too late?”
His question was answered at once.
Not far away, in the main hall, someone seemed to be creating an uproar. Cursing poured out without end.
Nie Huaisang hurried to the courtyard outside the main hall. There he saw that most of the servants and maids of the manor had already gathered outside the doors, each of them looking both angry and entertained, entirely unaware of Nie Huaisang hiding behind a pillar.
His brows drew tightly together as he listened to the vile scene unfolding within.
“He stole my things, and I came to take them back. Is that called making trouble?” a voice rang out from the hall, and Nie Huaisang’s scalp went numb.
There was no doubt that the voice belonged to Mo Xuanyu. And yet its tone and bearing were completely different.
The more he listened, the more it sounded like someone else entirely, someone he too had once known, but who was no longer of this world.
Now, having seen the array inside the hut, and hearing the one currently causing a ruckus in the hall, Nie Huaisang felt as though struck over the head.
The Mo Xuanyu he had known no longer existed.
Breathing heavily, Nie Huaisang fled the courtyard in terror and returned to Mo Xuanyu’s old, shabby hut.
By then, the sun had already slipped behind the mountains. In the dark hut, he stood staring at that sinister, uncanny array.
After a long while, he finally murmured to himself,
“In the end... did I still come too late?”
“Why did you not wait for me?”
“Did I not tell you to trust me?”
“Why would you not let me protect you, just once?”
Again and again, Nie Huaisang questioned himself in silence.
Suddenly, he slapped himself hard across the face, the crack of it slicing through the stillness around him.
Then another slap.
Tears rolled down his burning cheeks as he spoke again in a low voice. “Once, there was someone who understood me, and chose to be my friend. Not because I was a sect leader in name only, with something still to be gained from me. Not because he pitied me. He befriended me simply because our interests were alike, because we were kindred in suffering, because we understood one another.”
He drew another difficult breath. “And now, such a good person, because of these filthy bastards, has offered himself in sacrifice and passed from this world. Did he do it to protect me? To rid me of that scum?”
The array in the darkness remained silent, unable to answer his questions, unable to soothe the hatred in his heart.
He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were rimmed red.
“They should die... all of them should die,” he mouthed soundlessly.
Hidden behind an ornamental rock in one corner of the main hall courtyard, Nie Huaisang didn’t have to wait long before he spotted Mo Ziyuan sneaking around and peering all over the courtyard.
Then, with a speed almost too quick to catch, the wretch secretly plucked a summoning flag and tucked it into his robes.
Narrowing his eyes, Nie Huaisang bared a smile and tore every talisman from that hand.
Freed of its talismans, the severed hand shot toward Mo Ziyuan like something newly unleashed. That dog scum didn’t even have time to scream before all life was drained from him.
Having absorbed his essence, the hand grew stronger still. In a flash, it scuttled away and vanished, already in search of its next prey.
Nie Huaisang looked down coldly at Mo Ziyuan’s shriveled corpse and thought that even this had been too easy a death for such scum.
“What remains, then, will depend on Mo Manor’s own fate.” He gave a soft scoff and thought bitterly.
His original plan had been to leave that hand for Hanguang-jun to deal with. Yet if the one who had taken Mo Xuanyu’s place truly was, as he suspected, that same person, then perhaps the truth of his elder brother’s death might yet be brought fully to light.
“At present, this is no place to linger.” After a moment’s thought, Nie Huaisang quietly climbed back over the wall and left.
Seconds later, he heard the shrill screams rising from within the manor, and the heaviness in his chest eased a little more.
Not long after, Nie Huaisang secretly trailed the cultivators, deliberately allowing himself to be discovered, and saw Mo Xuanyu once again.
At the inn, he forced a blank, vacant look into his eyes and said the words he was meant to say. “I really don’t know...”
Opening his folding fan to hide half his face, he tried to conceal the storm raging inside him.
Their eyes met. Both pretended not to know the other, each with thoughts hidden in the heart.
Having returned once more to himself, Mo Xuanyu headed toward Qinghe. Along the way, he remained immersed in memories of his previous life.
In those memories, there was the confusion of watching his father come to visit him and his mother, only to keep him shut outside the door.
There was his mother’s joy when he had first been able to cultivate, and her disappointment after he was sent back.
There were the strange looks from fellow cultivators at Jinlingtai and Mo Ziyuan’s bullying at Mo Manor.
Above all, there was the happiness of talking deep into the night with Nie Huaisang.
Time and again, he thought about what he ought to say when he saw Nie-zongzhu.
What if he doesn’t recognize me? Mo Xuanyu thought, doubt creeping into his heart as worry clouded his face.
But after a moment, he gave a faint smile. “Why am I so nervous? It’s only a visit, a greeting, and a farewell.”
He thought so, yet the smile on his face only grew stiffer. He still could not make himself look at ease.
The moment he knocked on the front gate, he regretted it, wishing he had waited a little longer and calmed himself before doing so.
There would have been no harm in waiting a little more, would there?
His clenched fists were damp with sweat. His heart was beating so fast it felt as though it might burst from his mouth the next second, and he couldn’t force it down.
That night, he had been frightened senseless and had cried himself foolish. Of the words Nie-zongzhu said to him, it seemed he had understood only half.
At the time, all he could hear was the buzzing in his ears and the sound of his own sobbing.
After that, the two of them had never truly said goodbye.
He always felt there were still many things he wanted to tell sect leader Nie openly, and yet at the same time it seemed that perhaps nothing needed to be said. Sect leader Nie already understood it all.
A servant slowly opened the gate. At the sight of Mo Xuanyu, the man’s face brightened at once as he asked in a flattering tone, “Young Master Wei, have you come to see sect leader Nie? Please come in, please come in.”
The moment he entered the residence, he saw that person from afar.
Nie Huaisang’s eyes drifted toward Mo Xuanyu. He was just about to greet him, but the moment he noticed that Hanguang-jun was not at his side, his expression changed at once.
As Nie Huaisang slowly approached, Mo Xuanyu wanted to say something, but his lips remained tightly shut, his mind in complete disarray.
He was afraid that the moment he spoke, something bad would happen. Afraid that if he spoke, all of this would turn out to be an illusion. Afraid that if he spoke... there were simply too many fears, and the hesitation in his heart would not go away.
By the time Nie Huaisang had already walked up before him, Mo Xuanyu still hadn’t managed to say a single word.
The longing and guilt pent up within him pressed the tears he was trying so hard to hold back into his eyes. Even his gaze no longer knew where to rest.
Nie Huaisang looked at him quietly, a gentle smile appearing on his face.
Within that smile, longing was hidden too.
“It’s you. You came back,” Nie Huaisang said softly, as though if his voice were any louder, the person before him would vanish like mist.
With a loud cry, all the grief, longing, and guilt he had held back came rushing out in that instant.
Tears blurred his sight until he could no longer see sect leader Nie’s expression clearly. He only felt warmth enter his body as Nie Huaisang pulled him into a tight embrace.
After a long while,
“You...”
“Sect leader Nie...”
The two of them spoke at the same time. Then they looked at one another and both realized how absurdly funny their earlier behavior had been, so they burst into shared laughter.
After the laughter faded, they fell into silence once more.
The only difference was that their smiles still remained on their faces, and the way they looked at one another was peaceful.
In the time that followed, they spoke without pause, pouring everything out as though time itself had been left blank, and they were desperately trying to fill that empty space with words.
“There is not much time left...” While listening to Nie Huaisang speak of Jin Guangyao’s rise and fall, Mo Xuanyu couldn’t help but think about how much time he had left. The smile on his face dimmed somewhat.
Understanding what was on Mo Xuanyu’s mind, Nie Huaisang suddenly murmured, “This body must be returned to Wei Wuxian, mustn’t it?”
Smiling, Mo Xuanyu lowered his gaze and nodded.
“This time, I was fortunate enough to return to this body for a little while, and it was only so that I could do something I should’ve done long ago.” Mo Xuanyu lifted his head again and looked at Nie Huaisang.
His smile never faltered. Tears shone in his eyes as he said, “I’m sorry. And also, thank you.”
Nie Huaisang’s body trembled at once. His voice shook, tears gathering in his eyes, as he answered with immense solemnity, word by word, “I feel the same. I’m sorry. And also, thank you.”
And then, in that very instant, Mo Xuanyu vanished from before Nie Huaisang’s eyes, still wearing a smile.
It was dusk, and the scenery was beautiful. The breeze blew softly, fallen leaves drifted lightly, and quiet sobs rose and fell with the coming of night.
Even after the moon had climbed high and deep night had settled in, faint sounds of weeping still seemed to linger within the Impure Realm of the Qinghe Nie Clan.
Ghost City
His mind heavy and muddled, the man opened his eyes once more, his vision blurred. Vaguely, he heard someone calling to him.
“Wei Ying?”
He wanted to answer, but when he opened his mouth, no sound came out.
“Wei Ying!”
At last his eyes came into focus, and he slowly made out the figure before him. It was Lan Zhan, his face cool and calm, his eyes burning.
He lifted both hands and turned them over, feeling his own face, then wrapped his arms around himself, as though trying to prove by this that he still existed.
Once he had confirmed it, he threw himself joyfully at Lan Zhan with such force that it seemed he intended to knock him over and pin him beneath him.
Unexpectedly, his soul had only just returned to his body. Dizzy and disoriented, he had the heart but not the strength.
“It’s alright,” Wei Wuxian whispered, rubbing his face repeatedly against Lan Zhan’s body as though he wished to absorb that sandalwood scent into himself once again.
“Did you miss my body?” Wei Wuxian gave him a teasing smile, then blew hot air at Lan Zhan’s ear.
His voice dropped into a low, teasing murmur. “I used this body for so long that losing it all at once felt terribly strange. I was nearly going out of my mind...hm?”
As soon as he finished speaking, he gently licked Lan Zhan’s ear. His tongue slid mischievously down to the earlobe, and he slowly began to suck on it.
Lan Zhan drew in a breath. After slowly letting it out, he said, “I did.”
The slight flush at the tip of his ear was proof enough. Wei Wuxian laughed softly, just about to say something more, but Lan Zhan had already sealed his mouth with a kiss.
No matter where they were, no matter who else might still be nearby, at that moment, there was only each other in their eyes.
As for everything else, neither of them cared in the slightest.