Sure enough, as if eyes grew on his back, Jiang Cheng saw that he went outside Lan WangJi's area of protection, and was determined to grasp the chance. With a slanting crack of his whip, Zidian slashed out with the semblance of a poisonous dragon, precisely landing on the center of his back!
Wei WuXian was almost flung away from the attack of the whip. If not for the donkey blocking him, he would have directly crashed into a tree. However, after the blow, both Lan WangJi and Jiang Cheng stopped, looking quite stunned.
Wei WuXian massaged the back side of his waist, and crawled up with the support of the donkey. He hid behind it and yelled angrily, "How amazing! You really can do anything when you're from a powerful clan, can't you? You can even beat up anyone you want! Tsk tsk tsk!"
Lan WangJi, "…"
Jiang Cheng, "…"
He was both shocked and enraged, "What is going on?"
One unique power of "Zidian" was that, if it hit someone who seized another's body, their soul and physical form would immediately separate. Without any exceptions, the person's soul would be whipped away from the body. Yet, Wei WuXian was still moving properly and running about after he was hit. The only explanation was that he did not seize this body.
Wei WuXian thought, of course Zidian couldn't whip out my soul. I didn't seize anyone's body, but was forcibly given one!
Bewilderment could be seen on Jiang Cheng's face as he prepared to whip again, when Lan JingYi suddenly shouted, "Sect Leader Jiang, this should be enough, right? It was Zidian!"
It was absolutely impossible for the first strike to fail and the second to succeed, for a magical weapon of such high level like Zidian. If nothing was taken out, nothing would be taken out; if it wasn't the seizing of a body, it wouldn't be the seizing of a body. In fact, the shout made Jiang Cheng, who cared about maintaining his reputation above anything else, unable to make another move.
However, if it wasn't Wei WuXian, who else could have summoned and controlled Wen Ning?
Even after thinking it over multiple times, Jiang Cheng still couldn't accept the fact. He pointed at Wei WuXian and scowled, "Who on Earth are you?"
Finally, a meddlesome bystander added a word to the conversation. He coughed, "Sect Leader Jiang, you might have not paid attention to these things so didn't know about this. Mo XuanYu was the LanlingJin Sect's… Ahem, he used to be a foreign disciple of the Jin Sect. But, because his spiritual powers were low and he didn't work hard in his studies, and also had that… He harassed a peer and was thrown out of the LanlingJin Sect. I've also heard that he lost his marbles? In my opinion, he was probably bitter from being unable to cultivate using the correct method, he ventured off onto the wrong path. It might not be… the YiLing Patriarch seizing this body."
Jiang Cheng asked, "That? Which?"
"That… As in that…"
Someone couldn't help but to comment, "The cut-sleeve penchant!"
Jiang Cheng's eyebrows twitched. His eyes which stared at Wei WuXian seemed more disgusted than before. There were more comments on the matter, but nobody dared to say them in front of Jiang Cheng.
Although he was infamous, people had to admit that, before the YiLing Patriarch Wei WuXian had betrayed the YunmengJiang Sect, he was known for being a handsome young man and a refined cultivator skilled in the six arts. He ranked the fourth among all of the young masters in the cultivation world, being described as lively and cheerful. On the other hand, the ill-tempered Sect Leader Jiang ranked five, surpassed by him, so most people weren't so bold as to mention the matter. Wei Ying was a frivolous and wanton person who loved to have tangled ties with pretty girls. Nobody knew how many female cultivators he had troubled with his charms, but it was yet unheard of that he was also attracted to men. Even if he wanted to steal a body and seek revenge… according to Wei Ying's taste, he definitely wouldn't have chosen a lunatic cut-sleeve who rode a donkey while eating fruits and painted his face to resemble a hanged ghost!
Someone else muttered, "It's not him no matter how you look at it… The flute was also played horribly… This is definitely a case of blind imitation, hearing how inferior it sounded."
During the "Sunshot Campaign," the YiLing Patriarch stood on the battlefield and played his flute throughout the whole night, controlling the ghost soldiers as if they were a living army. He swept away all obstacles—whether a human or god was standing in front of him, he had defeated them. The sound of his flute was as if it was played by an immortal, absolutely incomparable to the terrible moans made by the abandoned son of the Jin Clan. No matter how horrible Wei WuXian's character was, it was too insulting to compare them like this.
Wei WuXian felt somewhat offended, … Why don't you try playing a few notes after ten-or-so years of not practicing, using a lousy flute made with just a few slices and cuts? If it sounds pleasant, I'll kneel in front of you!
A moment ago, Jiang Cheng was certain that this person was Wei WuXian, and all of the blood in his body started to boil. Yet, now, Zidian was clearly telling him that he wasn't. Zidian definitely wouldn't deceive him or make a mistake, so he quickly calmed himself and thought, this doesn't mean anything. I should first find an excuse to take him back and use every possible method to get information out of him. It's impossible for him to not confess anything or give himself away. I've done things like this in the past anyways. After thinking it through, he made a gesture. The disciples understood his intention and came over.
Wei WuXian hurriedly jumped behind Lan WangJi with the donkey, and exclaimed while holding a hand over his chest, "Ah! What are you going to do to me?"
Lan WangJi gave him a look, putting up with his extremely discourteous, noisy, and exaggerated behavior.
Seeing that he had no means of moving over, Jiang Cheng spoke, "Second Young Master Lan, are you purposely making it difficult for me?"
Everyone in the cultivation world knew that the young leader of the Jiang Clan watched out for Wei WuXian in an almost crazed manner. He would rather catch the wrong person than let go of any possibility, and took anyone who seemed like they held the soul of Wei WuXian away to the YunmengJiang Sect, inflicting severe torture on his victim. If he wanted to take someone back, the opposition would surely lose half of their life. Lan SiZhui spoke, "Sect Leader Jiang. The evidence is clear—Mo XuanYu's body was not taken. If so, why should you want to trouble an unimportant person such as him?"
Jiang Cheng replied coldly, "Then, why is Second Young Master Lan going to such great lengths to protect an unimportant person such as him?"
Out of the blue, Wei WuXian made a few sounds of suppressed laughter.
He spoke, "Sect Leader Jiang, umm, I'll feel very troubled if you keep on bothering me like this."
Jiang Cheng's eyebrow twitched again. His instincts told him that this person would definitely not say anything that pleased him.
Wei WuXian spoke, "Thank you for being so enthusiastic. However, your thoughts are quite off. Even if I am attracted to men, I don't like just any type of man, much less follow anyone who waves at me. For example, I'm not interested in ones like you."