Chapter 120: The Seized Door

Things start from that night, three days ago.

That night, Qin Noble came home from a dinner engagement, worn out and tipsy, about to turn in, when he suddenly heard knocking.

Somebody, over and over, hammering hard on the Qin Manor front gate.

The gatekeeper servant mumbled a question, hauled himself up with a lantern to check. Before he could ask anything, whoever was knocking went wild, slamming into the door like they'd lost their mind.

Really slamming. The bolt groaned, and the door panels sounded like ten steel claws were scraping at them all at once.

The racket was too loud. Soon the courtyard was full of servants who'd been woken up. A bunch of them holding oil lamps, leaning on sticks, lanterns in hand, exchanging looks — until finally the master showed up in just his outer robe, sword in hand.

Qin Noble drew his sword with a ring and shouted, 'Who's there!'

Right then, the clawing at the door got even louder.

One servant was cowering in a corner with a broom. Qin Noble pointed at him. 'Get up there. Take a look outside.'

The servant didn't dare disobey, face green, scrambling up slow while shooting Qin Noble these agonized looks over his shoulder — which only got him more impatient urging.

Finally, trembling, he got both hands on the eaves, peeked over — one look — and went 'thud,' head over heels, flat on his back.

Qin Noble said, 'He told me — whoever was knocking was a monster in a Funeral Garment. Hair loose, covered in blood. Not alive.'

At that, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji exchanged a look.

Lan Sizhui said, 'Qin Noble, nothing more detailed than that?'

Qin Noble wasn't a cultivator. He'd stumbled onto the right people by accident — knew they were in the trade, didn't know their names. But Lan Wangji had this cold, otherworldly air about him, Wei Wuxian looked sharp and sure of himself, and Lan Sizhui, young as he was, carried himself with poise. So Qin Noble didn't dare be rude. 'Nothing more. That cowardly servant took one look and passed out. I pinched his pressure point for ages before he came to. You think he saw anything clear?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Let me ask you something.'

Qin Noble said, 'Go ahead.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Qin Noble — you sent someone else to look, but you didn't look yourself?'

'No.'

'Shame.'

'Why shame?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'From what you're telling me, what showed up at your gate was a Malevolent Corpse. When a Malevolent Corpse comes calling, nine times out of ten it's after someone specific. If you'd taken a look yourself, you might've recognized an old friend.'

Qin Noble said, 'Maybe I'm the one in ten. And even if it was after someone, that someone doesn't have to be me.'

Wei Wuxian nodded, smiling. 'Fair enough.'

Qin Noble went on, 'The thing kept clawing at the door till dawn. When I went out at first light to check, the front gate was wrecked.'

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji walked a slow circle around the gate.

Lan Sizhui followed behind, watching carefully. The Qin Manor gate was covered in hundreds of vicious claw marks — five gouges to a set, some a few feet long, some a few inches. Wrecked was right.

Sure, they were clearly hand-shaped. But no way a living person's fingernails could've done this.

Qin Noble said, 'Back to business. You two are cultivators — any way to drive this thing off?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Won't need to.'

Lan Sizhui found that strange but kept quiet. Qin Noble also found it strange. 'Won't need to?'

Wei Wuxian confirmed, 'Won't need to.'

'A house — the moment it's built and claimed by someone, it takes on the job of sheltering them and keeping things out. The front door is a natural barrier. It doesn't just block people, it blocks the not-people too.'

'You're the rightful owner of this place. So as long as you don't invite the evil in — by word or by action — it can't get in. From the residual energy on the gate, whatever came looking for you isn't some once-in-a-century monster. One door's enough to hold it.'

Qin Noble, half-convinced: 'Really that strong?'

Lan Wangji said, 'Really.'

Wei Wuxian put one foot on the threshold. 'Really. And the threshold counts as a barrier too. A walking corpse has no circulation, no blood flow — it can only hop stiffly. Unless it had crazy leg strength in life and could leap three feet in the air, even with the gate wide open, it can't get over.'

Qin Noble still wasn't reassured. 'Nothing else I should buy? Town-protecting Talismans, demon-slaying swords, whatever. I'm happy to pay well. Money's no object.'

Lan Wangji said, 'Get a new door bolt.'

'…'

Seeing Qin Noble's disbelief — like he thought they were brushing him off — Wei Wuxian said, 'Up to you, Qin Noble. Your call. If anything else comes up, feel free to come back.'

After leaving Qin Manor, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji walked side by side for a while, wandering aimlessly, trading the occasional line back and forth.

Nowadays, the two of them could be considered half-retired — if there was no urgent business, they'd just wander aimlessly outside, sometimes for half a month, sometimes just a few days. Wei Wuxian had heard of Lan Wangji's reputation for 'showing up whenever there's trouble,' and hadn't thought much of it, but now that he was following Lan Wangji and experiencing it firsthand, he found it truly trying on the spirit. Not because it was difficult — on the contrary, it was too simple. In his past Night Hunts, he'd always liked to pick those strange and perilous places, all kinds of adventures and experiences, naturally full of twists and turns. But Lan Wangji didn't pick and choose — he did what needed to be done, which inevitably meant sometimes running into Night Hunt targets that were utterly mundane for Wei Wuxian. Take this case of a Malevolent Corpse showing up at someone's door — compared to what Wei Wuxian used to hunt, there was really nothing interesting about it. If anyone else saw it, they'd probably think it was overkill, not worth the trip.

Still — because he was with Lan Wangji, even when the case itself wasn't that exciting, having each other for company made it easy and pleasant.

Lan Sizhui trailed behind, leading Little Apple. He thought about it, and thought about it, and finally couldn't hold back. 'Han Guang Jun, Senior Wei — is it really okay to just leave Qin Noble's place like that?'

Lan Wangji said, 'It's fine.'

Wei Wuxian laughed. 'Sizhui, you don't think I was just making stuff up to fleece him, do you?'

Lan Sizhui hurried, 'No! Ahem, that's not what I meant. I just — the front door does block evil on its own, sure, but that door's about to fall apart. Not even one talisman? Really nothing's going to happen?'

Wei Wuxian, puzzled: 'Do you even need to ask?'

Lan Sizhui: 'Oh…'

Wei Wuxian: 'Of course something's going to happen.'

Lan Sizhui: 'Huh? Then why?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Because Qin Noble lied.'

Lan Wangji gave a small nod. Lan Sizhui looked mildly stunned. 'How did Senior Wei figure that out?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'I've only met the man once. I won't claim I'm eighty, ninety percent sure. But this guy…'

Lan Wangji said, 'Stubborn and cold.'

'Mm,' Wei Wuxian said. 'Close enough. Point is, he's not the scaredy-cat type. The situation that night was weird, sure, but from what he described, it wasn't so weird it'd make a person lose their mind. Climbing up to take a peek outside — would that really be hard for him?'

Lan Sizhui got it. 'But he insisted he didn't look at all…'

'Right? If someone was pounding on your front door in the middle of the night, curiosity's universal. You're not a coward — sneaking a peek would be the normal thing. Insisting you didn't look at all — isn't that weird?'

Lan Wangji said, 'Completely agree.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Great minds think alike, then!'

At the end, he grinned again, rubbed his chin. 'Plus, the claw marks the Malevolent Corpse left on the gate — they look scary, but the evil energy and blood energy aren't heavy. It didn't come here to kill or take revenge. That much I'm sure of. So what's actually going on, we'll have to look into more.'

Lan Sizhui said, 'In that case, why not just summon the Malevolent Corpse, Senior Wei? One question and we'd know.'

'Not summoning.'

'Huh?'

Wei Wuxian said, with perfect composure, 'Drawing a Soul-Calling Banner doesn't take blood, does it? I'm in poor health.'

Lan Sizhui, thinking he genuinely couldn't be bothered to bleed: 'Senior Wei, you can use mine.'

Unexpectedly, Wei Wuxian burst out laughing.

He said, 'Sizhui, that's not really the point. We brought you out on this trip to get you some field experience, right?'

Lan Sizhui blinked. Wei Wuxian went on, 'I can absolutely summon the Malevolent Corpse and make it scram. But can you?'

At that, Lan Sizhui immediately understood.

After everything that had happened, he and the other juniors of the Gusu Lan Sect had gotten too reliant on Wei Wuxian. Summon and interrogate, raise corpses into an army — fastest method around, but not everyone can do it. He didn't practice Ghost Divine Art, so for him, that wasn't a method he should learn too much of. If Wei Wuxian just used his usual tricks and wrapped it up in two or three moves, what was the point of the training?

This time, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji wanted to walk him through the ordinary way — see how you'd handle it following the standard path.

Lan Sizhui said, 'So — Han Guang Jun, Senior Wei — you mean, since Qin Noble won't tell the truth, you just leave him alone for now? Scare him a little?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'That's right. Watch — that bolt'll hold maybe two more days, tops. Your Han Guang Jun telling him to get a new one was solid, practical advice. From the look of him, Qin Noble didn't take it seriously. But if he's really hiding something important, ten new bolts won't help. It'll come back eventually.'

Wouldn't you know it — the bolt didn't even last one night. The next day, Qin Noble showed up at Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji's door with a face like thunder.

Cultivator clans kept properties all over. The three of them were staying at Xiaozhu Pavilion, a quiet little place owned by the Gusu Lan Sect. Qin Noble arrived early — early enough to catch Lan Sizhui hauling a donkey by the reins. Poor Lan Sizhui had been struggling to drag Little Apple away from chewing on the bamboo. He turned around and saw Qin Noble's mouth twitch, his own face flush slightly, tossed the rope aside, and invited Qin Noble inside.

He went carefully to knock at the two seniors' bedroom to announce the visitor. Lan Wangji, fully dressed, opened the door without a sound, shook his head — and Lan Sizhui knew Senior Wei wasn't getting up anytime soon. Lan Sizhui was in a real bind. In the end, he screwed up his courage, broke the family rule against lying, and told Qin Noble the seniors were unwell and resting. He couldn't exactly say, 'Senior Wei is sleeping and Han Guang Jun says wait,' could he…

Wei Wuxian slept till the sun was high, and only got up after Lan Wangji petted and coaxed him a good long while. Half-asleep through washing up, he even put on Lan Wangji's inner robe by mistake — the sleeves stuck out a few inches under his outer robe, rolled up several times. Honestly ridiculous. Luckily, Qin Noble had zero attention to spare for whether he looked ridiculous or not. He dragged all three of them out the door.

The Qin Manor gate was shut tight. Qin Noble went up and knocked on the ring, skipping pleasantries. 'After your advice yesterday, I felt a little better. Still couldn't sleep, so I sat in the main hall reading through the night, keeping an ear out.'

Quickly, a servant opened the gate and led the three of them into the courtyard. The moment they stepped down off the stairs, Wei Wuxian went still.

A wide scatter of bright red footprints covered the courtyard. Visceral.

Qin Noble said, in a dark voice, 'Last night, it came back. Outside the gate, clawing and slamming, making a racket for almost half an hour. I was getting more and more irritated, and then I heard a crack — the bolt snapped.'

The moment he heard the bolt break, every hair on Qin Noble's back stood on end.

He rushed to the door and peeked out through the crack of the main hall's wooden door.

The moonlight was dim. Far off, the gate stood open, and a figure was bouncing in front of it — like a wooden post with springs for feet, hopping around at the entrance.

It bounced for a while, but didn't get in. Qin Noble let out a small breath of relief. Thought to himself — so the thing really was like Wei Wuxian said in the daytime, no circulation, stiff all over, legs couldn't bend. No way it could clear his high threshold.

But before he could finish that breath, the figure bouncing at the gate suddenly leapt straight up — and hopped right over the gate in one go.

Qin Noble spun around and slammed his back against the door.

The evil thing cleared the gate, entered the courtyard, and hopped straight ahead. Thump thump, thump thump — in a few bounds it was on the main hall door.

Qin Noble felt the wooden door shudder behind him. Realized the thing was only one door away from him, and scrambled off in a hurry.

Qin Noble said, 'Its shadow, lit by the moon, fell right on the paper window. It couldn't get in, so it went around the hall — left, right, back, forth. Every footprint in this courtyard is its! Sirs, I'm not doubting you, but you told me clearly this thing couldn't hop in.'

Wei Wuxian tapped the threshold with his foot. 'Qin Noble, generally speaking, a stiffened corpse really can't hop in. Dead people have no blood flow, can't bend their knees. You can take that to any cultivator clan stationed anywhere — they'll tell you the same thing.'

Qin Noble spread his hands, like he was showing Wei Wuxian the courtyard full of red footprints. 'Then how do you explain this?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Only one explanation — whatever got through your gate isn't your average corpse. Qin Noble, think back. When you snuck a look at the Malevolent Corpse last night, did anything seem off?'

Qin Noble thought about it, his face souring. Finally: 'Come to think of it, the way it jumped was kind of strange.'

Wei Wuxian asked, 'How strange?'

Qin Noble said, 'It seemed like…'

Beside them, Lan Wangji had already walked a circuit of the courtyard. He came back to Wei Wuxian's side and said mildly, 'Limping.'

Qin Noble said at once, 'Right!'

Then, suspicious: 'How did this gentleman know?'

Lan Sizhui was wondering the same thing, but he'd always known Han Guang Jun knew everything, so he was just curious, not doubtful. He waited for the answer.

Lan Wangji said, 'The footprints on the ground.'

Wei Wuxian crouched down. Lan Sizhui crouched with him, studying the prints carefully. Wei Wuxian glanced twice, looked up at Lan Wangji. 'Single-leg corpse?'

Lan Wangji nodded. Wei Wuxian stood up. 'No wonder it got over. Every footprint's one deep, one shallow. This walking corpse has one leg missing.'

He thought for a moment, then asked, 'Do you think the leg was lost before or after death?'

Lan Wangji said, 'Before.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Mm. If it was after death, losing a limb wouldn't matter.'

They were talking back and forth without a hitch, but Lan Sizhui couldn't keep up. He had to interrupt. 'Wait — Han Guang Jun, Senior Wei, let me get this straight. You're saying this Malevolent Corpse is missing a leg, limps, and because of that it's actually better at clearing this high threshold than a… uh, fully-legged Malevolent Corpse?'

Qin Noble was clearly thinking the same thing. 'I'm hearing this right?'

Lan Wangji said, 'You are.'

Qin Noble's face was a picture of absurdity. 'You're basically telling me a one-legged person runs faster than a two-legged one?'

The two of them were deep in discussion. Wei Wuxian found a moment to grin at him. 'You're thinking about it wrong. Maybe this'll help. Some people lose an eye, so they take extra care of the one they've got left. Even with one eye, their sight might not be worse than someone with two — might even be better. Same logic — if someone loses their left hand and has to rely on their right, over time that right hand might get incredibly strong. One hand doing the work of two…'

Lan Sizhui got it. 'And this Malevolent Corpse — because it lost a leg in life, after death it spent years hopping on one leg, so its jumping power is actually stronger than a two-legged walking corpse's?'

Wei Wuxian said, pleased, 'Exactly.'

Lan Sizhui found it genuinely interesting and made a mental note. Qin Noble said, irritated, 'My fault — I argued with my wife last night, dealing with family stuff kept me up too late, didn't get around to fixing the gate. I'll go reinforce it right now. I'll make this gate solid as an iron bucket if I have to!'

But Lan Wangji shook his head. 'No use. "No opening a precedent."'

Qin Noble startled. Sensed it wasn't good news. 'What does "no opening a precedent" mean?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'It's a trade saying of ours. Some defenses against evil only work once — the second time, they don't. If you'd rushed to fix it yesterday, sure, it would've held for a while. But once you let the thing through the gate once, it'll be able to come and go freely from now on.'

Qin Noble, alarmed and regretful: 'Then — what do I do?'

Lan Wangji said, 'Just sit tight.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Don't panic. It got through the front gate, but it can't clear the second. Your home's like a fortress — right now it's only broken through the first wall. There are two more behind it.'

'Two more? Which two?'

Lan Wangji said, 'The door of gathering. The door of privacy.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Your main hall. Your bedroom.'

By the time they finished talking, the group had already crossed the courtyard and sat down in the main hall. No one brought tea for the longest time — the servants had all disappeared somewhere. Qin Noble had to snap at them before one showed up, and he kicked the man away. Having vented, his expression eased slightly, but he wasn't satisfied. 'Can't you give me some talismans to Subdue it? Sirs, please — the reward really isn't an issue.'

He didn't know these people didn't care about payment when they went out on Night Hunts. Wei Wuxian said, 'Depends how you want to Subdue it.'

'How do you mean?'

And Wei Wuxian was off.

He said, 'Subduing it — that's treating the symptom, not the cause. If you just want to keep the evil from getting in, fine, swap out an Exorcism Talisman every half month. But it'll still come scratch up your door and dig at the wood. I'd guess you'll be replacing your gate more often than your Exorcism Talismans. If you want the evil to keep its distance, you have to swap them every seven days, and those Exorcism Talismans are complicated to draw and expensive. Plus, the longer you keep it Subdued, the more Malevolent Qi it builds up…'

Lan Wangji just sat quietly, listening to Wei Wuxian talk nonsense, saying nothing.

Subduing wasn't really a good solution, sure — but making and using Subdue talismans and banishment talismans wasn't nearly as much work as Wei Wuxian made it sound. Still, when it came to this kind of talk, nobody could spin a yarn like Wei Wuxian. Even Lan Sizhui, who was a good student, was listening wide-eyed, almost believing it. Qin Noble heard how complicated it all was, like choosing Subduing meant endless trouble down the line, and couldn't help getting nervous. He kept glancing at Lan Wangji, who sat beside him sipping tea with his head down. But Lan Wangji's face never showed any sign of 'he's exaggerating,' so Qin Noble couldn't help believing him. 'Isn't there anything that fixes it once and for all?!'

Wei Wuxian shifted gears. 'Whether there is or not — that depends on you, Qin Noble.'

'How does it depend on me?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'I can make you a special talisman. But that depends on whether you'll answer my questions honestly.'

'What questions?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Did you know this Malevolent Corpse in life?'

A long silence. Finally, Qin Noble said, 'I did.'