Who You Are Book 2

Chapter 51 - Saving the Juniors Again

After the delicate man sat for a while, he finally stood up, bracing a hand against his knees. The three walked farther up and finally, at the end of the path, they saw a cave with a dark opening. The mouth of the cave was around fifty feet in both height and width. Before they were even near, they could feel a cold breeze in front of them. They could almost hear the blurry sounds of human moans.

This was the legendary den where the YiLing Patriarch made humans into his corpses and did the deeds that even the Heavens couldn't tolerate—the Demon-Slaughtering Cave. The ceiling of the cave was broad. The three held their breaths and snuck inside. Nobody made a noise, but the human voices coming from the depths of the cave grew louder.

Wei Wuxian knew the terrain of the cave like the back of his palm. He walked in the front. At some point, he gestured for them to stop. The main area of the cave was just a wall away from them. Through the holes on the wall, they could see a large enough area that could contain a thousand people. In the center sat around a hundred. Both their hands and their feet were tightly bound by deity-binding ropes. The one hundred people were quite young as well. Judging from the color of their robes and their swords, they were either high level disciples or direct disciples from clans.

Wei Wuxian exchanged a look with Lan Wangji. Before they began to discuss, a boy sitting on the ground suddenly spoke up, "In my opinion, I don't think you should've stabbed him only once. Why didn't you just slash his throat out?"

His voice wasn't big, but the cave was rather empty. Echoes vibrated as soon he spoke. And so, even if they didn't listen in, they could hear his words with clarity. As soon as the boy spoke, Wei Wuxian thought that he both looked and sounded familiar. He only remembered after a while. Wasn't this the one who fought with Jin Ling the other day, Jin Chan?

And he looked again—who was the cold-faced boy sitting beside this disciple, if not Jin Ling?

Jin Ling didn't even look at him, remaining quiet. Loud rumbles came from the stomach of a boy beside him, "They have left for so many days already. Just what do they want? If they want to kill us, then let us off easy. I would rather be eaten by a monster on a night-hunt than starve to death here!"

The boy rambled on and on. It was Lan Jingyi. Jin Chan spoke, "What could he do? He'd definitely do what he did with those Wen-dogs during the Sunshot Campaign, make us into his corpse puppets and then use us against our family, so that they can't attack and his enemies can fight amongst themselves." He clenched his teeth, "That dirty, inhuman Wei-dog!"

Suddenly, Jin Ling spoke, his voice icy, "Shut up."

Jin Chan was shocked, "You want me to shut up? What do you mean?"

Jin Ling, "What do I mean? Are you deaf or are you dumb? You can't understand human speech? Shut up, means for you to stop making so much noise!"

Having been tied-up for so long, Jin Chan had been grumpy for a long time. He fumed, "Why should you tell me to shut up?!"

Jin Ling, "What's the use of talking so much garbage? If you go on would the ropes break because of you? It's annoying."

"You!!!"

Another young voice interjected, "Now, we are stuck here and none of us know when the walking corpses on the mountain will rush inside. Even in such circumstances, you two have to argue?"

The calmest voice was Lan Sizhui's. Jin Chan protested, "He flipped out first! What, you can call him names but other people can't?! Jin Ling, hah, who do you think you are? You think that because LianFang-Zun is the chief cultivator that you'll also be? I'm not gonna shut up. I think you..."