Chapter 26 - Malice

Lan WangJi, "The details, please." Sitting down, his polite words were almost as powerful as a threat. Nie HuaiSang finally started his explanation.

As the chattering audience quickly quieted in anticipation of the explanation, Wei Wuxian rested his head on his husband's shoulder. Tingly butterflies fluttered in his stomach when Lan Zhan turned slightly to press a feather-light kiss into his hair. Now that the annoying cultivators had finally shut up, all of them absorbed by listening to the explanation on the board, he could almost pretend that he and Lan Zhan were just relaxing together, reminiscing on funny memories...almost.

He began, "HanGuang-Jun, you know that we, the Nie Sect, are different from the other sects. Because our sect's founder was a butcher, the other sects cultivate using swords, while our sect, on the other hand, cultivates using sabers."

This was known by everyone and was by no means a secret. Even the sect motif of the QingheNie Sect was the vicious head of a beast that resembled a dog or a pig.

The audience 'tsk'ed in displeasure. Of course they already knew that. They had all been so eager for answers, they had nearly forgotten that this was the infamous "One question, Three 'I don't know's " Nie Huaisang. It was remarkable that he was even attempting to give an explanation in the first place.

Nie HuaiSang continued, "Because our cultivation method was different from those of the other sects' and our founder was originally a butcher, it was only natural for blood to be shed. The sabers of our past sect leaders were all heavy with hostile energy and killing intent. Almost every single sect leader met a sudden death from a qi deviation explosion. Their irritable tempers also had a lot to do with this." Wei WuXian raised a brow, "Now, this is getting quite close to demonic cultivation."

"What do you mean, Senior Wei??" Zizhen asked, tilting his head in confusion. "How do the sabers have anything to do with demonic cultivation?"

"Oh. Well, I just meant that the way the sabers affected their users' temperaments with their hostile energy, it's similar to what happens when you use demonic cultivation." Wei Wuxian replied, scratching his nose. He glanced sideways at Lan Zhan, whose expression had suddenly gone stiff, likely because he was remembering those unpleasant times back when they were fighting over what the effects of his demonic cultivation would have over his mind.

"Ohhh... I see." Zizhen said. "Wait, no, I don't. How does demonic cultivation cause you to die suddenly? And I'm sure you've never had an irritable temper!"

A vivid memory of a supervision office filled with Wen corpses flashed suddenly before Jiang Cheng's eyes. That was possibly about the most 'irritable' he'd ever seen Wei Wuxian - he wondered if that scene would appear on the board eventually. He might have to cover Jin Ling's eyes if it did.

Meanwhile Wei Wuxian was chuckling nervously. "... I'm sorry to have to remind you of this, but I did die quite violently. Not exactly from qi-deviation, but getting torn apart by fierce corpses was also-"

Lan Xichen cleared his throat very loudly to cut Wei Wuxian off, because Zizhen looked to be on the verge of tears.

Nie HuaiSang quickly defended, "It's different! Demonic cultivation is only demonic cultivation because it uses human lives. But, instead of human lives, our sect's sabers use the lives of those evil spirits and beasts. Throughout their whole lives, they've been killing such things, so if they aren't able to kill them any longer, they'd cause trouble and disrupt the sect. A saber spirit only deems one person as its master, allowing nobody else to use it. It's not like we later generations can melt the sabers. First, it'd be disrespectful to the ancestors; second, it's possible that even melting them won't solve the problem."

Wei WuXian commented, "Quite full of themselves, aren't they?"

The audience laughed. That was an accurate way to describe them! Those sabers really did seem to be a lot more trouble than they were worth...

The cultivators suddenly felt sympathetic to Sect Leader Nie, who had to deal with such an impossible problem.

Nie HuaiSang, "Indeed. The sabers who fought and cultivated alongside our ancestors are indeed in a position to be full of themselves."

He continued, "As the generations went on, the sect leaders had higher levels of cultivation, and the problem also worsened. That is, until the sixth sect leader came up with a solution."

Wei WuXian asked, "To build the Man-Eating Castle?"

The cultivators laughed again, particularly at Wei Wuxian's unimpressed expression. How would a Man-Eating Castle possibly fix this situation? By eating everyone who tried to get near the sword so that everyone stayed away??

Nie HuaiSang, "No, no. Although they are connected, this solution only appeared later. The sixth sect leader did this: he built two coffins for his father's and his grandfather's sabers, then dug a tomb. Inside the tomb, instead of any valuable treasures, he put hundreds of corpses that were about to transform."

Lan WangJi frowned slightly.

"...what?" Sect Leader Nie's 'explanation' just got continually weirder and weirder.

"And...where...did those corpses come from??" said Guo Wanxin carefully.

Everyone hushed when they saw Lan Wangji's tiny frown. When even the perpetually impassive Lan Wangji seemed disturbed, it clearly meant this was not the right thing to do.

"Sect Leader Nie, I'm sorry to have to inform you this, but your ancestors were totally crazy." a cultivator from a small rural sect blurted out.

"There's no need to be rude..." Sizhui said reasonably.

"And just. Be. Patient." groaned Wei Wuxian . This is why he and Lan Zhan wanted to elope away to the mountains. The cultivation world was honestly infuriating.

Nie HuaiSang immediately blurted, "HanGuang-Jun, I can explain! They weren't killed by our sect's people! We had to gather them from place to place! We also bought a bunch of them at high prices."

"Oh, I guess that's fine, then!" smiled Guo Wanxin in relief, before frowning again. "But...that's a lot of time and money your sect is spending, to procure hundreds of corpses that are just about to transform. Seems kind of excessive to me."

"The sixth sect leader said that, if the saber spirits wanted to fight with evil beings, then give them evil beings for them to fight forever. The pre-transformation corpses were buried along with the swordcontaining coffins, like they were burial goods for the saber spirits. The saber spirits would suppress the transformation of the corpses and, at the same time, the corpses would calm the sword spirits' desire and fury. The situation would go on as they were, with the two sides keeping each other in check. Only by this method did the future generations attain peace."

The room was silent, before everyone started whispering to each other.

"That's actually...really smart!" some cultivators said in surprise. "That Nie sect leader really was innovative!"

They were all thinking back to the stone bunkers, and the sabers in coffins. It was all making sense now!

Wei Wuxian rolled his eyes at Nie Huaisang, who was looking extremely relieved that people weren't insulting him anymore.

Wei WuXian asked again, "Then why was a stone castle built afterward? Why were the corpses buried inside the walls? And, didn't you say that it did eat a few people?"

Nie HuaiSang answered, "These questions are actually the same question. I guess... you can say that it did eat people. But it wasn't on purpose!!!"

"..." The cultivators suddenly realised that Wei Wuxian was raising some good questions.

"Oh, so the castle 'accidentally' ate people. Including me." Jin Ling muttered sarcastically. "Nice to know it wasn't 'on purpose'."

"Our sixth sect leader constructed the saber tomb in such a way that it looked like the average tomb, and the future generations followed how he did it. But, about fifty years ago, the tomb was dug up by some grave robbers."

Wei WuXian made an "oh" sound. He silently exclaimed, What a case of waking the sleeping lion.

The cultivators snickered in agreement. Those grave robbers really picked the wrong tomb to rob. The juniors found it especially funny how Senior Wei was in the middle of his trademark 'questioning detective mode' had to pause to make fun of the grave robbers.

Nie HuaiSang, "For an event as big as building a tomb, no matter how cautious and discreet one can be, it's impossible for everything to stay hidden. The grave robbers pried into the matter and firmly believed that there was a huge tomb from past dynasties in the Xinglu Ridge."

The pictures on the board suddenly shifted from an alternating close ups between Nie Huaisang, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji to a band of people clothed in black,  creeping through a dark forest. These must have been the foolish grave robbers!

The hazy quality of the pictures showed that this was more of a brief history lesson - everyone could still hear Nie Huaisang's voice continuing the story in the background.

"They planned this out a long time ago and came prepared. Among the unruly group of people, there were actually one or two who had true skills, allowing the mob to locate the orientation, pass the maze array, and find our saber tomb. They've seen enough dead people in their lives, so, after digging a hole and entering the tomb, they weren't really scared of the corpses. But they searched everywhere for gold and treasures, breathing next to the corpses, and, even worse, they were youthful men in the prime of their lives, filled with yang energy. Remember, the corpses lying inside were all about to transform!'

The cultivators had been watching in increasing consternation how the grave robbers ignored the piles of corpses, and just kept looking for gold and treasure. If they were clever enough to navigate through the maze array, how did they not realise that those piles of corpses were close to transforming into walking corpses? Surely they couldn't be that desperate for money?

It wasn't hard to figure out what happened. Ten-or-so corpses transformed immediately. "However, these grave robbers weren't average people. With a complete set of tools, they actually managed to somehow kill the walking corpses once more. After the fight, there was flesh and blood all over the ground. They finally realized that the tomb was dangerous and got ready to leave. But, just as they were leaving, they were eaten!"

The cultivators cheered briefly, then went silent as they realised it was an incredibly boring fight of a few grave robbers against some weak walking corpses. Perhaps they would have been more excited before, but after watching the fights between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, the ghost arm and the fierce corpses at Mo Manor, their expectations were higher than usual.

Meanwhile, Jingyi looked at the scraps of corpses all over the floor and turned away, his face green. So the grave robbers had finally noticed how creepy the place was and wanted to leave? If he were there, he would have left the moment he looked inside.

At the precise moment the grave robbers were suddenly sucked away to somewhere unknown, the pictures shifted back to the present, with Wei Wuxian questioning Nie Huaisang, who was still talking.

"The number of corpses put in the tomb was strictly controlled. It was neither more, neither less, just enough to be at a balance with the saber spirits. It would've been fine if the grave robbers caused just the transformation, since, after they left, the saber spirits would've suppressed the transformation again. But, with the chaos they caused, the corpses were all cut to pieces, and so there were suddenly a few less corpses than it began with. For the saber tomb to ensure that there were enough fierce corpses and sword spirits to suppress each other, it... it could only... close itself off and trap them inside the tomb for the group to make up for the shortage they had caused."

With this final piece of explanation, everyone finally understood how the castle was called the 'Man Eating Castle'.

"Well...it's all very logical and all and I'm happy that I understand now...but that's kind of lame. I thought there'd be a real man-eating monster." huffed a Jiang disciple. Everyone around him murmured in agreement.

"Since the saber tomb was destroyed, the sect leader at that time began to think of different methods. He chose another spot on the Xinglu Ridge and built a saber hall instead of a saber tomb. In case grave robbers came again, he hid the corpses inside the walls in disguise."

"How does that even help?" muttered Jingyi. "It still ate Jin Ling."

"The sword hall was the rumored 'Man-Eating Castle'. When the grave robbers came to Qinghe, they pretended to be hunters. They never returned after going into the Xinglu Ridge and left no corpses behind, so people started to say that they were devoured by a monster in the ridge. Then, after the stone castles were built, before the new maze array was set up, a passerby accidentally came upon it again. Luckily, no doors were built on the castles, so he couldn't venture inside. But, after leaving the ridge, he told everyone that there were a group of strange, white castles in the Xinglu Ridge and that the man-eating monster must have dwelled there. We thought that it'd be beneficial for the rumors to spread so that nobody dared to go near the area, so we exaggerated a bit and created the legend of the 'Man-Eating Castle'. But it really can eat humans!"

"Wow..."

The cultivators looked at each other in exasperation. 'Exaggerated a bit ??' That was practically a criminal exaggeration! The difference between a terrifying man-eating creature that hides in white stone castle and an ancestral tomb for swords that sucks you in when you upset its balance  was enormous.

Nie HuaiSang took out a handkerchief and a white stone the size of a garlic head from within his sleeves. He used the handkerchief to wipe away sweat and passed the white stone over, "The two of you can take a look at this."

Everyone leaned forwards, as if they were really Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, ready to receive the white stone. It was easy to feel part of all the action when they were watching from their perspectives.

Wei WuXian took the stone. After having a better look at it, he found something white that protruded from the stone. It looked like... the bone of a human's finger. He immediately realized what was going on.

"Okay, good for you, you understand everything immediately!" sulked one disciple, "But you could just say it or at least think it out loud for us idiots at the back?"

Wei Wuxian snorted. "I'm sure you can figure it out yourselves. Besides, you should be glad this magic board cuts out a lot of my other thoughts. You really don't want to hear all of them, particularly not the ones when I get distracted when fantasising about Lan Zhan-"

"Wei Ying!" Lan Wangji's ears were scarlet.

Nie HuaiSang finished wiping his sweat and continued, "That... Young Master Jin... somehow made an explosion that created a hole in the wall. To be able to break such a thick wall must have meant that he also carried a lot of spiritual tools on him—but wait, that's not the point... What I'm saying is that the area he blew up just happened to be the earliest saber hall we built in the Xinglu Ridge. Back then, we didn't think of using stone bricks on the both sides and filling the center with soil to prevent yang energy from going in, so that they can't easily transform. We simply put the corpses inside. So, when Young Master Jin made the opening, he didn't realize that he also destroyed a skeleton that was buried inside."

"Oh. Right, of course."  several cultivators muttered, still distracted from Wei Wuxian's words.

Jin Ling pouted. Of course it was his fault again. He hadn't even realised that the white stones he'd blasted apart had bones sticking out of them. How could he have been as stupid as those grave robbers?!

"Before long, he was sucked into the wallsof the castle, in place of the corpse that he blew up... Every so often, I go to the Xinglu Ridge to check things out. Today, when I went, I found this. Just as I picked up the stone, a dog came after me. Ah... The sword hall is pretty much our ancestral tomb. I really..." The more Nie HuaiSang talked, the more miserable he felt, "Most cultivators know that this is our area, so they'd never night-hunt around Qinghe. Who knew that..."

Who knew that he had such bad luck. First, the disobedient Jin Ling had his mind set on the Xinglu Ridge, and then the two in search of where the ghost hand pointed, Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian, came as well.

The audience laughed again at Nie Huaisang's pitiful expression.

Wei Wuxian, in hindsight, had to admire Nie Huaisang's acting. He knew now (or at least very strongly suspected) that he had planted that ghost arm to lead them to the parts of Nie Mingjue's body - so he must have been expecting them. That was probably why he 'just happened to visit' Xinglu Ridge the exact time and day they did.

Wei Wuxian suddenly wondered if Nie Huaisang had led Jin Ling to the stone castles as well for extra motivation. He hoped not, because as much as he knew Nie Huaisang's motivations were just, deliberately getting his nephew into danger was seriously not okay with him.

He spoke again, "HanGuang-Jun and you... I already said that you mustn't tell anyone else about this. Or else..." Or else, seeing from the QingheNie Sect's half-dead situation right now, if this was released to the public, Nie HuaiSang would become a sinner, a disgrace to his ancestors even if he died.

Nie Huaisang was glad to see that his pessimistic prediction had not come true. It looks like with the right explanation, they were willing to accept anything.

To be honest, he was already probably the biggest disgrace the Nie sect had every produced. If his ancestors were watching him, they'd probably have fallen out of the sky in horror by now. Not that he cared, obviously. If he was going to avenge his brother's murder, of course he was going to do it thoroughly.

It was only natural that he'd rather be the secret laughingstock of all the sects instead of focusing on cultivation or daring to sharpen his saber's blade. If his cultivation reached a certain level, he would gradually become more irritable and, in the end, die with anger the same way that his brother and ancestors died. Even after his death, his sword would haunt the living and disrupt the peace of the whole sect. If so, being a worthless person even seemed better. It was quite an unsolvable problem. Ever since the founder of the Nie Sect, this had been the same. Surely it didn't mean that the future generations would have to deny the path and basis that the founder forged?

The audience was quiet. They were always mocking the 'Head Shaker', but worded like this, they felt a lot of sympathy towards Nie Huaisang. No wonder he didn't want to practice the saber - it was so much trouble for himself and the future generations...

It was strange that no one from the other cultivation sects had realised what a precarious situation the Nie sect was in. Each one of their previous leaders must have had to make similar choices - to follow the sect tradition and die early, or to be a worthless sect leader. Nie Huaisang must have just happened to be the first sect leader to choose the latter choice.

Many cultivators were privately wondering why the Nie sect insisted on still using their sabers. Surely the trouble wasn't worth it? Why couldn't they transition back to normal swords like every other sect? If it meant more peace for the future generations and longer lives for everyone, surely it was the right thing to do?

All of the cultivation sects were skilled in different areas. Similar to how the GusuLan Sect was skilled at music, the violence and power of the QingheNie Sect's saber spirits were how it outshone the other sects.

Sizhui shook his head. Of course, that was the answer. For the price of glory and in order to outshine the other sects, they were willing to face such painful consequences.

If it abandoned its founder's ideal and started anew in search of a different path, who knew how many years it'd take, or if it'd even succeed or not. Moreover, Nie HuaiSang would never dare to betray the Nie Sect and cultivate a different path. Because of this, his only choice was to be a goodfor-nothing.

Nie Huaisang felt uncomfortable with the board explaining his life choices in front of the entire cultivation world. It was nice that everyone understood now that he wasn't slacking for the sake of slacking - he really didn't have much other choice - but at the same time the sympathetic glances and all the attention was unnerving , particularly for someone who did his best to hide in the shadows for the majority of his life.

If he weren't a sect leader and spent his whole life the same way as he did back in the Cloud Recesses, fooling around for entire days, he'd certainly be in a more comfortable position than he was now. But, since his brother had passed away already, no matter how hard it was for him, he'd still have to take the responsibility on his shoulders and stumble forward.

All the cultivators were still staring in surprise at the board. The revelations about Sect Leader Nie's background and difficult life choices made them feel bad about all the times they'd mocked him or used him as the butt of their jokes.

Lan Xichen couldn't help but feel a rush of compassion towards his san-di. Being in such a position, who could blame him for struggling with sect duties and choosing to not practice cultivation?

After hearing that last sentence, Jiang Cheng wondered to himself how he and Nie Huaisang really had some similar experiences.

Nie HuaiSang left after telling them again and again not to say anything, and Wei WuXian blanked out for a while. Suddenly, he felt Lan WangJi walk over. Lan WangJi kneeled with a single leg in front of him, then proceeded to roll up his trousers with an earnest face.

Everyone snapped out of their brooding, sympathetic silence. Clearly, the board was telling them that the information reveal was over and the story was back to Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian dancing around each other again. Many cultivators leaned forwards despite themselves,  shocked by the sight of Lan Wangji kneeling - and clearly Wei Wuxian from the past felt the same way/

He hurriedly spoke, "Wait, again?"

Lan WangJi, "We will remove the Curse Mark first." Within one day, HanGuang-Jun had kneeled in such a way so many times in front of him. Although Lan WangJi looked quite serious, he really couldn't bear to look at the scene.

Wei WuXian spoke, "I'll do it myself." Quickly rolling up the trouser legs, he could see that the Curse Mark covered the entire lower half of his leg, passed his knees, and climbed onto the upper half.

The audience gasped. Wei Wuxian's whole leg looked like it had been shrivelled with ink. What sort of monster could leave such a huge Curse Mark?? Sizhui had his hand over his mouth, while Jin Ling felt like crying again. That Curse Mark had been on his leg originally...

Past Wei Wuxian's reaction was minimal, however.

Wei WuXian took a glance at it, "It's already passed my thighs."

"...You're not concerned by how severe the Curse Mark is? You're talking as if some harmless rash or something!"

Lan WangJi turned his head away and did not answer. Wei WuXian found it quite odd, "Lan Zhan?"

"Ohh, I see." Wei Wuxian said to his husband playfully. "You were shy because I was talking about my thighs?"

Lan Wangji didn't answer, but the way he averted his eyes told Wei Wuxian more than enough.

"Hahahaha! There's no need to be embarrassed, Lan er-gege! You've seen much more than just my thighs now, anyway..."