Who You Are Book 2

Chapter 22 - Headless Corpsman

From the sound of the footsteps, he could tell that it wasn't a child. Lan Wangji had probably come back. Quickly adjusting his facial expressions, Wei Wuxian turned around to see a black figure standing within the shadow of a dead tree nearby.

The figure was quite tall, quite straight, quite dignified. It was missing a head, though. As though somebody dumped a bucket of cold water over his head, the curvature of Wei Wuxian's smile froze at once. Standing below the dead tree, the tall figure faced Wei Wuxian. If a head sat atop his neck, he'd be staring silently at Wei Wuxian for sure.

...

"That is the creepiest I've ever seen!" Jin Ling stated.

"This corpse..." Nie Mingjue began and looked at Lan Xichen. Xichen nodded in confirmation but said nothing.

Others who knew the corpse, frowned at the image upon the screen. The almighty Chifeng Zun, had turned to this headless corpse, and it was such a brutal and miserable sight.

...

By the bonfire, the juniors of the Lan Sect saw the shadow as well. Each of them felt their hair stand up. With widened eyes, they went for their swords at once. Wei Wuxian put his pointer finger in front of his lips and softly shushed them.

He shook his head, then looked at them with eyes that said "no". Seeing this, Lan Sizhui noiselessly pushed back Lan Sizhui's half-unsheathed sword.

The headless man reached for the tree trunk beside him and felt it for a while, as if he was thinking or trying to figure out what it was.

He walked a small step forward. Wei Wuxian could finally see most of his body. A burial robe hung over the man, somewhat tattered. It was indeed the one that the torso buried in the Chang Clan's cemetery had been wearing.

And, by the man's feet, a pile of shreds lay scattered on the ground. Wei Wuxian could tell that this was a couple of torn-up Qiankun Pouches.

Wei Wuxian, 'My mistake. It seems that our dear friend has pieced himself together!'

Now that he thought about it, after he and Lan Wangji entered Yi City, so many things had happened that they hadn't played Rest for almost more than two days. During the time that they spent travelling, they only barely managed to suppress the parts again. Yet, since all limbs of the corpse had been collected already, the attraction between each part multiplied. Perhaps they had felt one another's resentful energy and their desire to be put back together grew, now that Lan Wangji was out patrolling, they hurriedly rolled off to the side, barged out of the Qiankun Pouches that had bound them, and pieced into a corpse by themselves.

Unfortunately, however, the corpse still lacked a part. One most important part. The headless man put a hands to his neck, feeling the clean, crimson cut at his throat. After he had been at it for quite some time and still couldn't find the object that was supposed to be there, as though enraged by such a fact, he suddenly slammed his palm into the tree beside him!

With a crack, the trunk broke at once. Wei Wuxian commented in silence, "What a temper!"

...

"Really? You're lives are at stake and that is the first comment you could come up with?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"I was making an observation," Wuxian told him, "

"A dumb one," Jiang Cheng mumbled.

"Lan Zhan, Jiang Cheng is making fun of me," Wuxian pouted.

"Do not listen to that angry raisin," Wangji said pulling him into a hug, "he just doesn't understand your thought process."

"He basically called me dumb," Wuxian continued to pout.