Who You Are Book 2

Chapter 5 - Empathy (Part Five)

If she were another girl of the same age, she would've started screaming immediately. However, since A-Qing had feigned being blind for so many years, a lot of people had put down their guard in front of her, believing that she couldn't see. She was used to seeing the more sickening sides of people, which had hardened her heart. She somehow managed to not make a sound. Even so, Wei Wuxian could feel the numbing stiffness that travelled upward from the bottom of her legs.

Standing amid numerous villagers' corpses that lay scattered on the ground, Xiao XingChen sheathed his sword and spoke in a solemn voice, "How can it be that there isn't a single living person inside this village? That all of them are walking corpses?"

Xue Yang smiled, but the voice that came out of his mouth sounded extremely confused, even somewhat pained, "Yeah. Good thing that your sword points at corpse energy on its own. Or else, with just the two of us, it would've been very difficult to break through."

Xiao XingChen, "Let's examine the village again. If there really isn't anyone left, then let's burn these corpses as soon as possible."

After they walked side-by-side into the distance, some strength finally returned to A-Qing's legs. She sneaked out from behind the house to where the piles of corpses were and glanced around on the ground. Wei Wuxian's viewpoint oscillated as well. All of these villagers were killed by sharp, clean pierces through the heart, done by Xiao XingChen's sword. Suddenly, Wei Wuxian saw a few familiar faces.

A few pieces of memory ago, the three of them went outside one day and came upon a few men who had too much free time on their hands, playing dice at a the crossroad of a village. As the three passed the village, the men glanced up and saw a blind man, a blind girl, and a boy who limped, they all laughed and pointed. A-Qing spat at them and brandished her bamboo pole; Xiao XingChen walked passed calmly, as if he didn't hear anything; Xue Yang even smiled, although his eyes held no trace of any amusement.

A-Qing flipped over quite a few corpses. Opening their eyelids, she saw that all of them had white eyes. Livor mortis had already climbed over some of their faces. She let out a sigh of relief, but Wei Wuxian's heart sunk even lower. Although they looked a lot like walking corpses, these people were indeed living. Except that they were under corpse poisoning.

...

"That's what happens if the corpse poison isn't treated?" Lan Sizhui asked.

"For the most part, yes," Wei Wuxian answered, "if it is mild like you juniors back then, but if it's severe enough, it's hard to treat unless you have a cure for it...that isn't my 'so-called' horrible congee."

"But it was horrible," Jingyi said in response.

Wei Wuxian looked at him, "would you like me to make more for you since you love it so much? I would be happy to."

"No thank you," Jingyi answered, "once was enough."

"Then watch it," Wei Wuxian said and looked at Lan Zhan, "you say we are alike, am I that annoying?"

"No, and Jingyi isn't that annoying either, he is just playful like you," Lan Wangji told him.

"He is a bit," Wei Ying protested.

"I can hear you, you know!" Jingyi yelled.

"You were meant to," Wei Wuxian teased.

"I am going to spar against you someday," Jingyi mumbled.

Wei Wuxian smirked and looked at Lan Zhan again, "did I hear him correctly? He wants to challenge me?"

"I wouldn't if I were him," Lan Zhan said, "so far I have been the only one who has ever come close to matching you fighting level."

"Really?" Jingyi asked, "but against Uncle Jiang?"

"Oh, you mean Uncle Jiang who stabbed your Baba? That Uncle Jiang?" Wei Ying taunted.

"I'm sorry okay! Gosh," Jiang Cheng yelled.

"Can we please move on?" Wen Qing spat, "Jingyi, it's be pointless to fight your Baba unless you are one hundred percent sure you want to."

Jingyi nodded and let it go for now. He just let out a huff and turned to the screen.

...

Near the mouths and noses of a few corpses, Wei Wuxian could also see leftover traces of a reddish-purple powder. Of course, the ones who'd been under poisoning for a long time were beyond hope since they had already become walking corpses. However, among them, there were still a few who hadn't been poisoned for long. They'd start to develop traits of corpses that had transformed, such as emitting corpse energy, but they would still be conscious and be able to speak, which meant that they would still be living. If they were helped, they could still be saved like Lan Jingyi and the others. One should truly be careful not to accidentally kill them, since it'd be the same as killing a live human.

They should've been able to talk, to say who they were, to shout for help. However, the awful thing was that somebody had cut all of their tongues off before this. The corners of all of the corpse's lips seeped blood, either still warm or already dried.

Although Xiao XingChen couldn't see, Shuanghua could point out the directions of corpse energy. Because these villagers lost their tongues, they could only make strange howls that was extremely similar to those of walking corpses. Thus, he didn't doubt at all that the villagers he killed had already died. It was a maniatic way to kill others without dirtying his own hand, a merciless way to instead dirty the hand that fed him.

A-Qing, however, didn't understand how this worked. She only knew of the rough process, having heard them sometimes being mentioned by Xiao XingChen. She murmured, "Is the bastard really helping Daozhang?"

Wei Wuxian cautioned in silence, 'Please don't believe Xue Yang just like this!'

Luckily, A-Qing's intuition was rather sharp. Although her knowledge didn't allow her to find anything suspicious, her vigilance toward Xue Yang was already deeply rooted in her intuition. She instinctively hated him and refused to settle. And so, whenever Xue Yang went out night-hunting with Xiao XingChen, she'd secretly follow them. Even when they were in the same house, she didn't lower her guard.