In the past, only others would ask him what to do. Now, he is the one asking others what to do. And no one can give him an answer.

Suddenly, Wei Wuxian felt a slight pain on the side of his neck, as if he had been pricked by a very thin needle, and his whole body went numb. He was in a trance and lost his vigilance. After this feeling came, it took him a while to realize that something was wrong, but he had already fallen on the stone bed involuntarily. At first, he could still raise his arm, but soon, even his arm fell on the bed, and his whole body could not move.

With red eyes, she slowly withdrew her right hand and said, "...I'm sorry."

Originally, she would definitely not be able to stab Wei Wuxian with her speed, but Wei Wuxian was completely unprepared. The needle was so strong that it calmed Wei Wuxian's mind a little. His Adam's apple rolled up and down, and he asked, "What are you doing?"

Wen Qing and Wen Ning looked at each other, then stood in front of him and saluted solemnly.

Seeing this, Wei WuXian felt a surge of anxiety in his heart and asked, "What are you going to do? What do you want to do?"

She said tenderly, "When you woke up just now, we were discussing it. We have almost finished discussing it."

Wei WuXian said, “What are you discussing? Stop talking nonsense, take out the needle and let me go!”

Wen Ning slowly stood up from the ground, still with his head down, and said, "My sister and I have discussed it. Let's go to Jinlin Terrace and apologize."

“Apologize?” Wei WuXian asked in astonishment, “What do you mean by apologizing? Apologizing by carrying a thorn stick on one’s back? Turning oneself in?”

She rubbed her eyes tenderly and said calmly, "Well, almost. During the few days you were lying there, the Lanling Jin Clan sent someone to the mass grave to speak to you."

Wei WuXian said, “What are you shouting? Don’t say one sentence at a time. Say it all at once! Say it all!”

Wen Qing said, "Lanling Jin Clan wants you to give an explanation. This explanation is to hand over the two leaders of the Wen Clan's remnants. Especially the Ghost General."

“…” Wei WuXian said, “I’m warning you two, quickly pull out this needle.”

Wen Qing continued to talk to herself: "We are the leaders of the remnants of the Wen family. From what they said, as long as you hand us over, this matter will be over for the time being. Then I'll trouble you to lie down for a few more days. This needle will wear off in three days. I have told my fourth uncle and the others that they will take good care of you. If there is any emergency in these three days, I will let you out."

Wei WuXian shouted angrily, “Shut the fuck up! It’s already a mess! Stop making things worse for me, you two. What the hell, did I ask you to do this? Pull it off!”

Wen Qing and Wen Ning stood with their hands down, their silence was identical. Wei Wuxian's body was weak, his struggles were fruitless, and no one listened to him, so his heart suddenly became weak.

He couldn't shout or move, and said with a hoarse voice: "What are you doing at Jinlin Terrace? I didn't cause those holes..."

"But they have already determined that it is you," she said tenderly.

Wei WuXian tried hard to think of a way to deal with it. Suddenly, an idea came to his mind. He said, “Then find the real person who cast the curse! Jin ZiXun must have found a sorcerer. The way to deal with this kind of evil curse is usually to hit it back and let it bounce back to the caster. Even if it can’t be rebounded completely, it can bounce back a part. Just find someone with the same evil curse on him!”

"It's useless," he said tenderly.

Wei WuXian asked: “Why is it useless?”

She said tenderly, "There are so many people, where can we find him? Do we have to set up checkpoints on every road in every city and ask everyone to take off their clothes for inspection?"

Wei WuXian asked randomly, “Why not?”

She said tenderly, "Who is willing to help you set up these checkpoints? And when are you going to find it? Maybe you can find it in ten or eight years, but are they willing to wait?"

Wei WuXian said, “But there are no signs of rebound of the evil curse marks on my body!”

She said tenderly, "Did they ask you when they intercepted you today?"

Wei WuXian said, “No.”

Wen Qing said, "Yes. I didn't ask you, I just killed you. Do you understand? I don't need any evidence, and I don't need you to find out the truth. It doesn't matter whether you have evil curse marks on your body. You are the Yiling Patriarch, you are the king of ghosts, you are proficient in evil ways, it's not surprising even if there are no rebound marks. And you don't have to do it yourself, you can send your Wen dogs to do it. Anyway, it's you, you can't deny it."

Wei WuXian cursed.

Wen Qing listened to him scolding quietly, and said: "So, you see. It's useless. And at this point, it doesn't matter who made the thousands of holes. What's important is that the more than 300 people on Qiongqi Road, and... Jin Zixuan, were indeed killed by Aning."

Wei WuXian said: “…But, but…”

But what? He himself couldn't think of a "but". He couldn't think of any reason to refuse, any excuse to excuse himself.

He said, "…But if anyone has to go, it should be me. I was the one who left the corpse and killed the person. Why shouldn't the murderer go, but a knife should go?"

"Isn't it better this way?" she said tenderly.

Wei Wuxian said: "What's good about it?!"

Wen Qing said calmly, "Wei Ying, we all know. Wen Ning is a knife, a knife that scares them, but it is also a knife they use as an excuse to attack you. If we go, you will lose this knife, and they will have no excuse. This matter may be over."

Wei Wuxian stared at her in a daze, and suddenly let out a meaningless roar.

He finally understood why Jiang Cheng always showed extreme anger at some of the things he did, why he always scolded him for having hero syndrome, and why he always wanted to beat him up to wake him up. Because the feeling of watching others take the responsibility on themselves, and bear the bad consequences, and no matter how hard you try to persuade them, it is really hateful and abominable!

Wei WuXian asked, “Do you understand? If you go to Jinlingtai to plead guilty, what will happen to the two of you, especially Wen Ning? Aren’t you the one who loves your brother the most?”

"Whatever the outcome, he deserves it," he said tenderly.

No. It wasn't what Wen Ning deserved at all. It was what he deserved.

She said tenderly, "Anyway, we should have died a long time ago. These days are what we have earned."

Wen Ning nodded.

He was always like this, nodding his head to show his agreement with whatever others said, and never objecting. Wei Wuxian had never hated his actions and his docility so much.

Wen Qing squatted down beside the couch, looked at his face, and suddenly reached out and flicked Wei Wuxian's forehead.

This slam was very powerful, causing Wei Wuxian to frown in pain. Seeing this, Wen Qing seemed to be in a much better mood and said, "I have finished talking, explained everything clearly, and said goodbye. Then, goodbye."

Wei WuXian said, “Don’t…” Wen Qing interrupted, “I haven’t said this to you many times, but today is the day, and some things must be said. There will really be no chance in the future.”

Wei WuXian murmured, “…Shut up…let me go…”

"I'm sorry. And thank you."

Wei Wuxian lay in bed for three full days.

Wen Qing's calculation was indeed correct. Three whole days, not a moment more or less, after three days, he was able to move.

First the fingers, then the limbs, the neck... After the blood in his almost stiff body started flowing again, Wei Wuxian jumped up from the stairs and rushed out of the Demon-Suppressing Cave.

The Wen family members seemed to have not slept for the past three days, sitting silently around the table in the large shed. Wei Wuxian didn't even look at them, and ran all the way down the mass grave.

After rushing down the mountain in one breath, he stood in the wilderness, panting, bending over with his hands on his knees, and finally straightened up. However, looking at the several mountain roads covered with weeds, he didn't know where to go.

Mass grave, he had just come down from it.

He hasn't been back to Lotus Pavilion for a year.

Jinlintai?

Three days have passed. If we go there again now, all we'll see is probably Wen Qing's corpse and Wen Ning's ashes.

He stood there in a daze, suddenly realizing that the world was so big and there was nowhere to go.

I don’t even know what to do.

Suddenly, a terrible thought arose in his mind.

He rejected this idea repeatedly during the three days, but it kept coming back and couldn't be shaken off.

Wen Qing and Wen Ning left on their own. Perhaps, in his heart, he was actually glad about this.

Because of this, he didn't have to worry about what choice he should make, because they had already made the decision for him and solved the problem.

Wei WuXian raised his hand and slapped himself, then yelled to himself in a low voice: “What are you thinking?!”

With a burning sensation on his face, he finally suppressed this terrible thought and changed his mind. He decided to get the bodies and ashes of the Wen siblings back no matter what.

So, he finally ran towards Jinlintai.

If Wei Wuxian wanted to sneak into a place silently, it was not difficult. The Jinlin Terrace was very quiet. There was not as much guarding as he had imagined. After searching for a long time, he did not see anything suspicious.

He wandered among the palaces of Jinlin Terrace like a ghost, hiding when he saw people and running away when there was no one. He didn't know what he was looking for or how to find it, but when he heard a baby crying, his steps froze, and a voice in his heart urged him to walk towards the source of the sound.

The crying sound came from a dark hall.

Wei Wuxian quietly crept to the door and peered inside through the cracks in the wooden window that was intricately carved with patterns.

There was a dark coffin in the hall, and two women in white were kneeling in front of the coffin.

The woman on the left was frail, and he would never mistake her back. From childhood to adulthood, he had been carried on the back of the owner of this back countless times.

It’s Jiang Yanli.

Jiang Yanli knelt on a cushion, staring blankly at the shiny black coffin in front of her. The baby was in her arms, still crying softly.

The woman on the right whispered, "...Ali, don't sit down. Go and take a rest."

Jiang Yanli shook her head. Madam Jin sighed.

This woman was quite similar to her good friend Madam Yu in temperament, very competitive, and always spoke in a high voice. But when she spoke these few words just now, her voice was low and hoarse, and she sounded extremely old.

Mrs. Jin added, "I'll just stay here. Don't sit down any longer. You won't be able to bear it."

Jiang Yanli said softly, "Mother, I'm fine. I want to sit for a while."

After a while, Mrs. Jin slowly stood up and said, "You can't go on like this. I'll go get you something to eat."

She must have been kneeling here for a long time. Her legs and feet were numb. When she stood up, her body swayed slightly, but she immediately stabilized. Turning around, it was indeed the woman's face with a somewhat hard outline.

In Wei Wuxian's memory, Madam Jin was resolute and decisive, arrogant, noble, and golden. She was well-maintained and looked very young. Some people would believe she was only 20 years old. But at this moment, what Wei Wuxian saw was an ordinary middle-aged woman in plain clothes with frosted hair. She had no makeup on, her face was pale, and there was a layer of dead skin on her lips.

She walked over and tried to push the door open to leave, but Wei Wuxian immediately dodged and tapped his feet lightly. Just as he swam onto the brackets in the corridor, Madam Jin stepped out and closed the door with her backhand. She took a deep breath with a cold face and adjusted her facial muscles, as if she wanted to make her usual majestic expression.

However, before she could finish her breath, her eyes turned red.

Just now in front of Jiang Yanli, she never showed any sadness. However, as soon as she came out, the corners of her mouth drooped, her facial features shrank, and her whole body trembled.

This was the second time Wei Wuxian saw such an extremely ugly and heartbroken look on a woman's face.

He really didn't want to see such an expression again.

Wei Wuxian accidentally clenched his fist, and unexpectedly, his finger bones made a crisp "crack" sound. Upon hearing the sound, Madam Jin immediately raised her eyebrows and shouted, "Who!"

As soon as she looked up, she saw Wei Wuxian hiding beside the brackets. Madam Jin had very good eyesight and could see the face hidden in the darkness. Her face twisted for a moment and she shouted in a shrill voice: "Someone! Come here! Wei Ying—he's here! He sneaked into Jinling Terrace!"

Wei Wuxian jumped down the corridor and suddenly heard hurried footsteps. Someone ran out of the hall, and he could not help but flee.

At this time, he didn't dare to look at Jiang Yanli's expression, let alone listen to a word she said to him!

After escaping from Jinling Terrace and leaving Lanling City, Wei Wuxian lost his direction again and began to wander around in a daze, not knowing what was going on. He did not stop for a moment and passed through several cities. Suddenly, he saw a group of people gathered in front of a city wall, talking in a lively atmosphere, with everyone excited.

Wei Wuxian had originally ignored these people, but when he walked over, he suddenly heard the three words "Ghost General" whispered in the crowd. He immediately stopped and listened attentively.

"The ghost general is really cruel...he said he came to apologize, but suddenly he went crazy and started killing people in Jinlin Terrace again!"

“Luckily I didn’t go that day!”

"As expected of a dog taught by Wei Wuxian, it bites anyone it sees."

"This Wei Ying is really something. If you can't control yourself, don't practice blindly. You've created a mad dog without a chain. Sooner or later, it will backfire. At this rate, I think that day is not far away."

Wei Wuxian listened quietly, his knuckles and facial muscles twitching slightly.

"The Lanling Jin clan is so unlucky."

"The Gusu Lan family is the unlucky one! Most of the thirty or so people killed were from their family. They were only there to help quell the incident."

"Fortunately, the Ghost General was finally burned. Otherwise, I would not be able to sleep well if I thought about this thing hanging around outside all day and going crazy from time to time."

Someone spat, "This is what the Wen dog deserves!"

"The Ghost General has been burned to ashes. Now Wei Wuxian should know how powerful he is, right? I heard that many family heads who were going to attend the oath-taking ceremony have spoken out. It feels great!"

The more Wei Wuxian listened, the more indifferent his expression became.

He should have known this long ago. No matter what he did, these people would never say a good word. When he was proud, others were afraid of him; when he was frustrated, others were happy.

It was all evil anyway, so what was the point of his persistence? What was the purpose?

However, the colder the look in his eyes was, the more intensely the raging fire in his heart burned.

One of them was very proud, as if he had made a great contribution here, and said: "Yes, it's great! It would be fine if he stays on that broken hill and behaves himself, but if he dares to show his face in public? Hey, as soon as he shows up, then..."

"So what?"

The people who were discussing enthusiastically were startled when they heard the voice and turned around.

A pale-faced young man in black with two dark streaks under his eyes stood behind them and said coldly, "What will happen if he dares to come out?"

The sharp-eyed people saw the flute with a bright red tassel tied around the man's waist and were immediately horrified and blurted out: "Chen Qing. It's Chen Qing!"

The Yiling Patriarch Wei Wuxian actually came out!

In an instant, the crowd, with Wei Wuxian as the center, cleared a large area and fled in all directions. Wei Wuxian blew a sharp whistle, and these people suddenly felt their bodies sink and all fell to the ground. Looking back in fear, he found that behind everyone, including himself, there were several ghosts of different shapes and blood dripping from their mouths!

Wei WuXian walked slowly among the crowd of people staggering and unable to move, saying as he walked, "Hey, what's wrong with you? Weren't you arrogant when you were talking about me behind my back just now? Why are you so prostrate in front of me?"

He walked up to the man who had spoken the most viciously just now, stepped on his face, and laughed: "Speak? Why don't you say anything? - Knight, what exactly do you want to do to me?!"

The man's nose was broken by his kick, and blood gushed out of his nose, screaming in agony. Several cultivators watched from the top of the city wall, wanting to help but not daring to step forward. They shouted from afar: "Wei... Wei Ying! If you are really capable, why don't you go find the heads of the big families at the oath-taking ceremony? What kind of ability is it to come and bully low-level cultivators like us who have no power to fight back?"

Wei WuXian blew another short whistle, and the monk who had shouted suddenly felt a hand pulling him hard, causing him to fall from the city wall, breaking both his legs and howling miserably.

Amid the wailing, Wei WuXian remained calm and said, “Low-level cultivators? Just because you are low-level cultivators, do I have to tolerate you? If you dare to speak out, you must dare to bear the consequences. If you know that you are an insignificant, lowly scum like an ant, why don’t you keep your mouth shut!”

Everyone looked ashen and silent. After a long while, Wei WuXian did not hear any more gossip. He said with satisfaction, “That’s right, that’s it.”

After saying that, he kicked the man who was arranging the most enthusiastically, knocking out half of his teeth!

Blood splattered all over the ground, and everyone was trembling with fear. The man had already fainted from the pain. Wei Wuxian lowered his head and rubbed the blood on the sole of his boot on the ground, leaving a few bloody footprints. He looked at them for a while and said calmly, "But you bastards are right about one thing. There's no point in wasting time with people like you. Let me go find those big ones? Very good, I'll go and settle accounts with them right away."

He looked up and saw the huge notice on the city wall. The group of people were discussing this notice.

At the top of the notice were the words "Oath-taking Ceremony". The content was that the four major families, led by the Lanling Jin family, the Qinghe Nie family, the Yunmeng Jiang family, and the Gusu Lan family, would scatter the ashes of the remnants of the Wen family on the ruins of the abandoned immortal residence of the Qishan Wen family, the Never-Night City, and at the same time swear an oath to be irreconcilable with the Yiling Patriarch who occupied the mass grave.

The city that never sleeps, a swearing-in ceremony?