From now on, the GusuLan Clan will be referred to as the GusuLan Sect.
Only a few days passed, and Wei WuXian realized that he might have made a wrong choice.
The donkey that he conveniently picked up was too hard to please.
Although it was only a donkey, it would exclusively eat fresh, young grass with dewdrops still hanging off them. If the tip of the grass had a streak of yellow, it wouldn't eat it. Passing a farm, Wei WuXian stole some wheat straws to feed it, but after chewing them, it spit it out with a ptoo, even louder than that of its human counterparts. If it didn't eat high-quality food, it wouldn't budge, and it'd lose its temper and kick around. For multiple times, Wei WuXian was almost kicked by it. Aside from that, it's brays also sounded extremely horrible to the ear.
It was useless, no matter as a mount or a pet!
Wei WuXian couldn't help but to think of his sword. The sword was probably collected by the leader of a prominent clan and would have hanged on a wall as a trophy that they could show other people.
After pushing and pulling along for a few blocks, the road reached a vast farmland of some village. Under the scorching sun, there was a large pagoda tree and thick, green grass underneath it. Beside the tree, there was an old well, with a barrel and a dipper on the side, placed there by the farmers for any passersby to quench their thirst. The donkey ran over there and nothing could make it leave. Wei WuXian hopped down and slapped its honoured buttocks, "You're definitely destined for wealth, even harder to please than me."
The donkey spat at him.
While they fooled around aimlessly, a group of people approached from within the fields.
The people carried handmade bamboo baskets, and wore cotton clothes and straw sandals, emitting the rustic airs of rural villagers. In the group, there was a young girl with a round face that could be considered delicate. Possibly because of walking for too long under the sun, they also wanted to come over to rest by the shade and have some water. However, seeing that there was a wild donkey tied to the tree and a lunatic with heavy makeup and dishevelled hair, they were reluctant to go over.
Wei WuXian had always thought of himself as one who was courteous towards women, so he moved over, emptying some space, and went to struggle with the donkey. After realizing that he was harmless, the people were finally at ease to come over. All of them were drenched in sweat and had ruddy cheeks; some were fanning themselves and some fetching water. The girl sat by the well and smiled at Wei WuXian, as if she knew that he purposely moved away.
One of the people held a compass in his hand. He looked into the distance, and then lowered his head questioningly, "We're already at the foot of Dafan Mountain, so why hasn't the pointer started moving yet?"
The designs and pointer on the compass looked strange, indicating that it wasn't a normal compass. It wasn't one that showed the North, South, East, and West, but one that showed the directions malicious creatures, also known as a "Compass of Evil." Wei WuXian realized that this was probably a poor cultivation clan from the countryside. Aside from highbrow, affluent clans, there were also smaller clans like this, who closed their doors and cultivated on their own. Wei WuXian thought that they might have left their village to either find a clan whom they were distant relatives to, or to go night-hunting.
The middle-aged man leading the group called for people to take a drink and replied, "Your compass might be broken; I'll get you a new one later. Dafan Mountain is less than ten miles ahead of us, which means that we cannot rest for too long. We have struggled through the whole journey, and if we relax now and fall behind, with other people beating us to it, it wouldn't have been worth it."
As expected, it was a night-hunt. A lot of refined cultivation clans called travelling to places and exorcising evil beings "hunting." Because of how these creatures often appear at night, it was also called "night-hunting." There were countless cultivation clans, but only a few were distinguished. Without the contributions from its ancestors, if an average clan wanted to become famous and receive respect in the cultivation world, it would have to show its abilities. Only if a clan captured a fierce monster or a terrorizing being, could it have then been treated seriously.
This was originally Wei WuXian's specialty area. However, during the days of travelling, he destroyed a few graves, but only found small ghosts. He happened to need a ghost soldier to do evil for him, and decided to go to Rice Mountain to try his luck. If he found a good one, he'd capture it and put it to use.
After the group of people finished resting, they prepared to move on. Before they left, the round-faced girl took a small, partly-ripened apple out of her basket and handed it to him, "Here you go."
Wei WuXian extended his hand to receive it, grinning broadly, but the donkey also opened its mouth and bit at it. Wei WuXian quickly took the apple away. Seeing that the donkey craved the apple so much, he thought of a good idea. He gathered a long stick and a fishing thread, hanged the apple on one end, and dangled it in front of the donkey. The donkey smelled the apple's refreshing scent from in front of him and wanted to eat it, chasing the apple which was always a centimeter away from him. Its speed was faster than the best horses Wei WuXian had ever seen, leaving only dust behind it.
Without stopping, Wei WuXian arrived at Dafan Shan before dark. Upon arriving at the foot of the mountain, he finally realized that the "fan" wasn't the one he thought it was. It got its name because, looking from far away, the mountain looked like a kind, chubby buddha. There was a small town below the mountain, named Buddha's Feet.
The number of cultivators who gathered here were far more than what he had expected. Everything was a jumble, with people from different sects and clans walking down the streets, all in uniforms of different colours, almost blinding to the eye. For some reason, all of them wore distressed expressions. Nobody bothered to laugh at him even though they saw his strange appearance.
In the center of the long street, a group of cultivators gathered, talking in serious tones. It seemed as if their opinions differed greatly. Even from afar, Wei WuXian could hear them talking. In the beginning, everything was fine, but they suddenly became agitated.
"… I think that there are no soul-consuming beasts or spirits in the area at all. It's clear that none of the Compasses of Evil showed anything."
"If there isn't, then how did the seven people lose their souls? They couldn't have all attained the same disease, could they? I, for one, haven't heard of this disease at all!"