"What else could there be? There were only dead souls."
"Correct, there were dead souls. This is why it can't be a soul-consuming spirit or beast. It's simple—if it was either of these two, with so many dead spirits in the area, would it have chosen to not eat them? No, it wouldn't have."
This time, there were more than one person who asked, "Why?"
"Just what can I say about your GusuLan Sect…" Wei WuXian could not tolerate it any more, "Why can't you teach less annoying, lengthy nonsense like cultivational etiquette, family trees, and history which requires memorization, and teach more practical things? How is this hard to understand? Dead souls are a lot easier to absorb than living souls. The physical body of a living person is like a shield, and if it wants to eat a live soul, it would have to break the shield. For example…" He looked at the donkey, which panted while running, rolling its eyes, "For example, if an apple is put in front of you, and another one is put inside a locked box, which one would you choose to eat? Of course, it would be the one in front of you. This creature only eats living souls, and knows of a way to obtain them. It is both powerful and selective in terms of food."
Lan JingYi was astonished, "So that's how it works? It makes a lot of sense! Wait, so you're really not a lunatic?"
Lan SiZhui explained as he ran, "We all thought that, because the landslide and lightning led to the series of events, it must be a soul-consuming spirit."
Wei WuXian spoke, "Wrong."
"What is wrong?"
"The order and the correlation is wrong. Let me ask you—for the landslide and the soul-consuming events, which ones were the first and second, the cause and effect?"
Lan SiZhui answered without thinking twice, "The landslide was the first, and the soul-consumption was the second. The first was the cause, and the latter was the effect."
Wei WuXian spoke, "Completely wrong. The soul-consumption was first, and the the landslide was second. The soul-consumption was the cause, and the landslide was the effect! During the night of the landslide, a storm suddenly started, and a streak of lightning broke a coffin—remember this. This first person to lose their soul, the sluggard, was trapped in the mountains for the whole night, and married a few days later."
Lan JingYi asked, "Where is it wrong?"
Wei WuXian replied, "It is all wrong! Where would a good-for-nothing and penniless person obtain the money to form such a grand wedding?"
The boys were rendered speechless. But, it couldn't have been helped, since the GusuLan Sect was a sect that did not need to worry about matters of wealth. Wei WuXian spoke again, "Did you take a look at all of the dead souls floating in Dafan Mountain? There was an old man who died from a hit to the head, wearing burial clothes that were made with fine craftsmanship and fabric. With such extravagant burial clothes, his coffin couldn't have been empty, and there must have been a few burial items to protect it. The coffin that was broken by the lightning was most likely his. Yet, the people who came to retrieve the corpse did not find any burial items, which meant that they were definitely taken away by the sluggard, explaining why he suddenly became rich. The sluggard suddenly decided to marry someone after the night of the landslide, so something unusual must have happened during the night. On that evening, there was a harsh storm and he took cover in the mountain. Where on Dafan Mountain is it possible to take cover from the rain? Goddess Temple. And, when most people go into a temple, there is one thing that they would do."
Lan SiZhui asked, "Pray?"
"That's right. For example, he would pray for himself to be lucky, to become wealthy, to have enough money to marry, and so on. The goddess fulfilled his wish with the lightning that split open the grave, letting him see the treasures in the coffin. His prayers came true and, as the sacrifice, the goddess came to him on the evening of his marriage, and took his soul away!"
Lan JingYi, "All of these are just your guesses, right?"
Wei WuXian, "Yes, they are guesses. But, following this train of logic, all of the things that happened afterward could be explained."
Lan SiZhui, "How can this explain what happened with the girl, A-Yan?"
Wei WuXian, "Great question. You guys probably asked around before you came up the mountain. A-Yan had just got engaged during those days. All recently-engaged girls will definitely have the same wish."
Lan JingYi was befuddled, "What wish?"
Wei WuXian replied, "None other than something that goes like, 'I wish my husband would love me and care for me for his whole life, attracted to only myself'."
The boys were at a loss, "Would a wish like this really be able to be granted?"
Wei WuXian held his palms out, "It's simple. If her husband's 'whole life' immediately ended, wouldn't it count as 'loving only one person for his entire life'?"
Lan JingYi finally understood and shouted excitedly, "Oh, oh! So, so, so, the reason behind her husband being eaten by wolves the day after her engagement was that it was highly possible for A-Yan to have been to Goddess Temple to pray!"
Wei WuXian struck while the iron was still hot, "It was hard to say whether he was attacked by a wolf or something else. There is another factor that is unique to A-Yan: why is that, out of all of the victims, only A-Yan's soul returned? How is she different from everyone else? The difference is that she has a relative who also lost his soul. Or, in other words, a relative replaced her! Blacksmith Zheng is A-Yan's father, especially one who loved his daughter. So, when he saw that his daughter lost her soul, and there were no ways to deal with it, what was the only thing that he could do?"
This time, Lan SiZhui was quick to reply, "He could only entrust his hope to the Heavens. Therefore, he also went to Goddess Temple to pray, the wish being 'I wish my daughter A-Yan's soul can be found'!"
Wei WuXian spoke with appraise, "This is why only A-Yan's soul came back, and also the reason behind Blacksmith Zheng losing his soul. However, although A-Yan's soul was given back, it was still slightly fractured. After her soul returned, she had unconsciously started to imitate the goddess statue's dance and even its smile."
The similarity of the people who lost their souls was that, most likely, they had all prayed in front of the goddess statue. The prices to pay for their wishes were their souls.