grandmaster of demonic cultivation volume 2

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation Volume 2
by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Series: Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation #2
Published May 17th 2022 by Seven Seas Entertainment
Age Range: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Representation: M/M romance, Chinese cast

Rating:

Synopsis:

Following the trail of a dismembered corpse, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji arrive at the gates of Yi City: an old, abandoned town shrouded in mist and restless spirits. A fiendish foe awaits them in the shadows, heralding a tale of heartbreak and tragedy. When the mysterious corpse’s identity is finally revealed, the hunt for its killer plunges Wei Wuxian back into the depths of the cultivation world’s politics, where he must keep his enemies close and Lan Wangji even closer.

Goodreads

Book Depository

🪷 🪷 🪷

Before you venture further, just know that this post will contain all sorts of spoilers you don’t wanna know if you haven’t read the book and have intentions to do so. You’ll be spoiled from the start to the end. Wanna know what I think of the other book? Click the links below.

Volume 1

Since I’ve watched the donghua and live action show, I kinda knew what was going on. But it’s still interesting to read about Lan Zhan and Wei Ying’s entire journey together. In this volume, we enter into Yi City where the unfortunate story of Xue Yang, A-Qing, Xiao Xingchen, and Song Lan occurred.

AND THE INN SCENE BETWEEN DRUNK LAN WANGJI AND WEI WUXIAN. 😍😍

@ Yi City

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian arrived at Yizhuang (”charitable mortuary”) where citizens are short-lived and specialised in making coffins, funerary goods. It seems abandoned and no living person is there any longer. Some fierce corpses came to life that Wei Wuxian can’t control. He realized that the person that controls them has possession of the Yin Tiger Tally.

lan er gege getting jealous?

Lan Wangji: “what did you give them?”

Wei Wuxian: “only some rogue. i don’t have any flowers and accessories at all times to give to ladies like i did in the past.”

Lan Wangji: frowned and looked away

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji met up Jin Ling, Lan Sizhui, and the rest of the boys. The younger disciples were following clues about the dead black cats when they arrived at Yi City. As the mist is poisonous, all of them went to find a house with glutinous rice.

sizhui’s deja vu moment. oh.. if only you knew….

Wei Wuxian: “here, eat some glutinous rice”

Everyone: “what is this?! why is it so spicy?!”

Lan Sizhui: This flavour… it’s so terrible that it’s giving me deja vu.

All this time, Wei Wuxian thinks that Lan Wangji can handle spice 😂

Hearing taps from outside the house, Wei Wuxian pranked the younger ones to look through the holes on the window. They are met with a mute, blind young woman, using a bamboo stick to hit the floor. Before they could try to communicate with the girl, a blind cultivator rushed past being chased by a group of walking corpses. Recognising the sword the cultivator is carrying as Shuanghua, they deemed him as Xiao Xingchen.

From above, a blind and mute fierce corpse wearing black Daoist robes came crashing through the roof. After immobilising him, Wei Wuxian found two nails in the fierce corpse’s head, used to control it.

Lan Sizhui used Inquiry with his guqin to find out the following:

“Who is he?”: “Song Lan” (Xiao Xingchen’s best friend)
“Who killed him?”: “Xiao Xingchen” (Song Lan’s best friend)
“Who is controlling him?”: “The one behind you” (you guessed it, Xiao Xingchen)

Xiao Xingchen no longer acted as if he’s weak and poisoned by the mist. Wei Wuxian made the younger ones leave the room.

“Qianbei, you and Hanguang-jun are so alike.”
Wei Wuxian was amazed. “Alike? How?”
They were clearly two drastically different people. Lan Sizhui did not answer but only smiled and excited, taking the rest of the boys with him. I don’t know either, Lan Sizhui quietly thought to himself, but they feel very similar. It feels like there’s no need to be scared of anything if either one of them is around.

Xiao Xingchen (disguised by Xue Yang) asked Wei Wuxian for a favor. As Yiling Patriarch, Wei Wuxian should know how to restore a spirit but the soul within the pouch was so shattered, it can’t be patched back. Xue Yang forged the Yin Tiger Tally, but it’s not as formidable as it was when created by Wei Wuxian.

Xue Yang’s sword is called Jiangzai (“to call forth disaster”)
[all i can say is.. how on point. ☹️😒]

While Wei Wuxian fought with Xue Yang, he summoned Wen Ning to fight Song Lan. Lan Wangji came back to help Wei Wuxian.

the young ones watched too many soap operas 😂

Wei Wuxian: “Hanguang-jun, we are going first!”

Lan Wangji: “mn”

Lan Jingyi: “That’s it?”

Wei Wuxian: “What more do you want me to say?”

Lan Jingyi: “what about “i’m worried about you, i’m staying”. then he’d say “leave!” then you cry back “no! i’m not leaving! if we have to leave, we leave together!” isn’t that the script?”

Wei Wuxian: “… can you imagine hanguang-jun saying any of that?”

Meanwhile, Wei Wuxian and the boys followed the tapping noises made by the blind and mute spirit girl. She brought them to a coffin. Within lies the real Xiao Xingchen, dead.

Instead of using Inquiry, Wei Wuxian is going to use Empathy (inviting the resentful spirit to directly possess him, using his own body as a medium to plunge into the deceased souls’s memories). It’s a first person experience of what the person had felt, viewed, and heard at the moment of the memory. The most effective yet most dangerous method.

A Monitor was an essential actor in the Empathy ritual. Essentially, supervising the ritual, making sure that the Empathizer wouldn’t be trapped in the state.
By ringing the silver bell that is a signature accessory of the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng, it’ll bring Wei Wuxian back. Jin Ling is the Monitor.

Wei Wuxian had a weird expression when he saw Jin Ling’s clarity bell.

I bet it’s because [MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR FUTURE BOOKS] he was thinking of the clarity bell he made for Jin Ling’s one month celebration that was destroyed by Jin Zixun at Qiongqi Path. Poor babies. 😢

@ Yi City | A-Qing’s memories

A-Qing was roaming around the town, pickpocketing people by acting she’s blind because she was born with white eyes. One of her victims is Xiao Xingchen. Finding him interesting, A-Qing followed him from then onwards. They found an injured man lying by the side of the road and brought him to Yi City.

Because Xiao Xingchen is blind and A-Qing isn’t part of the cultivation world, they didn’t recognise the injured man as Xue Yang.

Not trusting Xue Yang, A-Qing continued to pretend that she’s blind. When she followed the two of them during one of the night hunts, A-Qing saw Xue Yang cutting off people’s tongue and poisoned living humans with corpse toxin so that Xiao Xingchen would think it’s a fierce corpse.

One day, A-Qing met Song Lan in the village who was finding Xiao Xingchen. Instead, he discovered Xue Yang’s trickery.

Before this, Song Lan was blinded and Xiao Xingchen bought him to his mentor, Baoshan Sanren. Xiao Xingchen gave Song Lan his eyes.

Confronting Xue Yang, Song Lan’s tongue was cut off and was poisoned by corpse toxin. Xiao Xingchen, unable to see his best friend, killed Song Lan with Shuanghua. As A-Qing witnessed the death of Song Lan, she asked Xiao Xingchen if he knew anyone named Xue Yang. That’s when Xiao Xingchen learned about the truth.

Xue Yang’s story

Young Xue Yang was asked by a man to deliver a message to another in exchange for sweets. In a rage, the recipient beat up Xue Yang and when Xue Yang returned to the first man, he drove the cart’s wheel over Xue Yang’s hand, breaking his fingers.
The person was Chang Ping’s father. That’s why Xue Yang massacred the entire Chang family.

Xiao Xingchen recognised the sword, Fuxue, that clashed against Shuanghua. Song Zichen is now a fierce corpse. Knowing that he was the one who killed his best friend, Xiao Xingchen committed suicide using Shuanghua.

His soul shattered.

For some reason, Xue Yang cleaned up Xiao Xingchen’s body and was actually pretending that he wasn’t dead. I’M SO SAD. What the heck.
The slow realization when Xiao Xingchen found out he killed Song Lan… oh my heart. 🥺🥺 and his soul couldn’t be repaired.

Xue Yang found out that A-Qing isn’t actually blind and murdered her.

Yi City | Back to reality

Wei Wuxian removed the iron nails from Song Lan’s head. Lan Zhan took Shuanghua and the pouch with Xiao Xingchen’s soul from Xue Yang. With A-Qing’s help, Lan Zhan managed to land hits on Xue Yang.

A-Qing’s ghost was shattered by Xue Yang’s talisman but they managed to fatally wound Xue Yang. Wei Wuxian trapped A-Qing’s soul in a pouch before it fully scattered.

A spell fire of transportation talisman appeared and took Xue Yang away, even though he was already dying, for the Yin Tiger Tally.

Song Lan regained consciousness. Wei Wuxian passed him A-Qing and Xiao Xingchen’s souls.

Cremate the body, nature the soul.

Even though Song Lan knows that with how fragmented Xiao Xingchen’s soul is, there was no way it would return to the body. However, with care and patience, perhaps it could return to the world one day.

the words he was unable to say to xiao xingchen while he was alive. 🥺😢😭

Song Lan wrote: Carry Shuanghua, walk the worldly path. Exorcise evil together with Xingchen.

He paused briefly, then wrote: Once he wakes, tell him–it was not your fault.

and thus, he walked a different path. i don’t know why this paragraph is so sad. they’re watching him walk away alone.

Song Lan bade them farewell at the city gates. He was still dressed in the same ink-black Daoist robe. Alone, he carried two swords–Shuanghua and Fuxue–and two souls–Xiao Xingchen and A-Qing.

Xiao Xingchen, bright moon, cool breeze, ever distant; Song Zichen, dauntlessly scorns the snow and frost.

『明月清风晓星尘，傲雪凌霜宋子琛. 』

After leaving Yi City,

wei wuxian asking lan wangji about burning paper money for him when he was dead.

The more he thought about it, the more he thought it was impossible. He turned his head to Lan Wangji and whispered, “Hanguang-jun, did you burn any paper money for me? At least you did, right?”

Lan Wangji cast a glance at him, then lowered his head and brushed off the bit of ash staining the end of his sleeve. He gazed quietly into the distance, not providing a single comment.

Wei Wuxian watched his serene profile and thought, No way?

He really didn’t?!

Wei Wuxian got Lan Wangji drunk… Again.

Wen Ning came to find Wei Wuxian. The Ghost General only remembered being chained up at a dark place with people checking on him periodically. After that, Wen Ning has no memory. He heard Wei Wuxian’s flute and broke out from his own to find him at Mount Dafan.

lan wangji found wei wuxian and wen ning talking, while drunk and have selective hearing.

“…What’s wrong with Lan-gongzi?” Wen Ning asked.

“Nothing. Just drunk,” Wei Wuxian replied.

“Huh?!” Wen Ning went blank, as if this was too much to believe. A good moment later, he finally asked, “Then…what should we do?”

“What else?” Wei Wuxian shrugged. “I’ll take him inside and toss him in bed.”

“Okay,” Lan Wangji said.

Wei Wuxian asking drunk Lan Wangji to take off his forehead ribbon AND STILL DOESN’T KNOW THE TRUE MEANING BEHIND IT. AND THEN LAN WANGJI TIED WEI WUXIAN’S HANDS TOGETHER WITH THE RIBBON.. 😂😂

“Lan Zhan, will you still answer whatever question I ask of you? Do whatever I ask of you?”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji replied.

“Take off your forehead ribbon,” Wei Wuxian commanded him.

Sure enough, Lan Wangji reached behind his head and slowly undid the knot to remove the white forehead ribbon embroidered with rolling clouds.

…

Suddenly, he felt something tighten around his wrists. Lan Wangji had used the forehead ribbon to bind his hands together and was now suing a knot at an unhurried pace.

…

Taking the other end of the forehead ribbon, he lifted Wei Wuxian’s hands and raised them to his eyes, like he was admiring his grand masterpiece. With his hands suspended, Wei Wuxian thought, I look like a criminal… Wait, why am I playing along with him? Shouldn’t I be the one playing him?

Snapping out of it, Wei Wuxian demanded, “Untie me.”

Repeating the same old trick of deliberate misunderstanding, Lan Wangji happily reached out for Wei Wuxian’s collar and sash.

…

Lan Wangji’s brows furrowed again at his demand, and he was still for the longest time. Wei Wuxian raised his hands in front of him and coaxed, “Didn’t you say you’d listen to me? Hmm? Untie this for gege. Good boy.”

Lan Wangji gave him a look, then calmly turned away, as if he couldn’t understand what he was saying. As if his words required painstaking and lengthy consideration.

THEN HANGUANG-JUN DRAGGED A FOREHEAD RIBBON-TIED WEI WUXIAN THROUGH THE INN DOORS AND PROUDLY SHOWED THE YOUNGER DISCIPLES HIS MASTERPIECE. AND NOBODY BELIEVED WEI WUXIAN’S EXCUSE. HAHAHA

Lan Sizhui was greatly shocked. “Hanguang-jun, your forehead ribbon…”

“He hadn’t finished the sentence when his eyes fell on Wei Wuxian’s wrists, with Hanguang-jun’s forehead ribbon binding them. As though miffed that not enough people had noticed, Lan Wangji raised the ribbon high, Wei Wuxian’s arms to show everyone present.

A chicken wing fell from Lan Jingyi’s mouth. It landed in his bowl, splashing sauce everywhere and staining his robes.

Only one thought filled Wei Wuxian’s head: Lan Wangji will have lost all face once he sobers up.

Jin Ling asked, sounding unsure, “…What is he doing?”

“He’s demonstrating a unique use for the Lan Clan’s forehead ribbon,” Wei Wuxian hurriedly explained.

”What unique use…” Lan Sizhui began to question before trailing off.

At the inn

Drunk Lan Wangji and his antics

Wei Wuxian started chasing drunk Lan Wangji around the screen in their room. Lan Wangji ran away until he realized he wanted to be caught by Wei Wuxian so he can be licked.😛🤣

He ran at Lan Wangji for a couple of steps, feigning a chase. Sure enough, Lan Wangji also resumed fleeing. Wei Wuxian decided to treat this like he was playing a game with a little one and did his best to humor Lan Wangji, chasing him around for a few more laps.

“Run, run, run, run faster, don’t let me catch you! Every time I catch you, I’ll lick you! You scared?”

He had intended this to be a threat, but Lan Wangji unexpectedly walked around the screen and deliberately collided with him. Wei Wuxian was trying to catch him–why would he deliver himself to his doorstep?

He was speechless for a second, forgetting to even reach out. Seeing he wasn’t moving, Lan Wangji took Wei Wuxian’s bound hands and looped his arms round his own neck, like he was voluntarily sticking his head into an indestructible noose.

“You caught me.”

Wei Wuxian was confused. “…Uh? Mmm, yes, I caught you.”

Lan Wangji appeared to be waiting in anticipation for something. After a good while of waiting, it had not arrived, so he repeated the three words again–with more emphasis this time, as if impatiently urging him.

”You caught me.”

”Yeah. I caught you.” Wei Wuxian agreed.

After Wei Wuxian realized that was what Lan Wangji wanted, he licked him.

Lan Wangji turned back around. his face calm once more, he requested, “Again.”

”Again? Again, what?” Wei Wuxian asked.

Lan Wangji ducked behind the screen again and peeked half his face out to peep at him.

That meaning was more than obvious: Let’s play again. You chase, I run.

Briefly speechless, Wei Wuxian followed along and did it “again.” This time, he’d only chased him for two steps before Lan Wangji came colliding with him on his own again.

”You really are doing this on purpose,” Wei Wuxian griped.

Then Wei Wuxian taunted Lan Wangji with “If you like it, we don’t have to run. I’ll do it as much as you want.” And he started kissing Lan Wangji’s hand. 😚

Lan Wangji began to shrink back again, but Wei Wuxian held his hand tight, not letting him withdraw. Then he pressed his lips against those defined knuckles, his breath feather-light. His lips traveled along Lan Wangji’s fingers until they found the back of his hand, where he dropped another kiss.

Lan Wangji couldn’t pull his hand back, no matter how hard he tried. He curled his fingers, clenching them into a fist.

Wei Wuxian pulled back a bit of his sleeve, revealing his snow-white wrist, and dropped a kiss on it too. He didn’t move his head after this kiss, only raising his eyes.

“Is that enough?”

Lan Wangji’s lips were tightly pursed, unspeaking. Only then did Wei Wuxian languidly straighten up.

“Did you burn me any paper money?” he asked.

No response. Wei Wuxian snorted a laugh, then pressed close. He dropped another kiss over his heart, against his robe.

“If you don’t talk, then I won’t give you any more. Tell me, how did you recognise me?”

Lan Wangji closed his eyes, his lips trembling. He looked as though he was about to confess.

However, it just so happened that Wei Wuxian had been staring at those pale, red, soft-looking lips. As though bewitched, he dropped a kiss upon them. His tongue followed after, licking along his lips as though unsatisfied.

Their eyes widened at the same time.

Wei Wuxian finds out the actual meaning behind Lan Clan’s forehead ribbon by Lan Sizhui. And when Sizhui mentioned that no one can touch the ribbon and cannot be easily removed or tied onto someone else, AND trailed off with “mm, except… except..” hehe 🤭🤭

“Only in the presence of your fated person, in the presence of the one your heart belongs to, can you allow yourself to be free of restraint.”

Flashback to a hunting during Qishan Grand Symposium, Wei Wuxian touched and took Lan Wangji’s forehead ribbon after trying to adjust it. This is one year after Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng left Gusu Lan.

At the campfire

The headless corpse of their “Good Buddy” appeared in front of Wei Wuxian and the younger disciples. Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen appeared to help them.

The headless corpse is Chifeng-zun. They recognised him because not many cultivators swing swords like this, only a butcher will do that with a saber.

Lan Xichen didn’t want to believe that his long-time friend is the mastermind behind the death of Chifeng-zun, their other sworn brother.

@ The Grand Symposium hosted at Golden Carp Tower of the Jin Clan of Lanling

Jin Guangyao, the current family head of Jin Clan, and his wife, Qin Su (from Qin Clan of Laoling) had a son who was killed by clans that opposed the construction of watchtowers.

Wei Wuxian found out that Mo Xuanyu was harassing Jin Guangyao before his sacrifice.

bad uncle’s move: Wei Wuxian taught Jin Ling how to fight against a group of people at once

“Don’t listen to him,” Wei Wuxian said. “Let me tell you–once you’re older, you’ll discover that there are so many people out there you still want to beat up, but you’ll have to force yourself to get along with them. So hit whoever you want to, to your heart’s content, while you’re still young. If you don’t get into at least a few spectacular brawls, your life will be incomplete.”

Wei Wuxian has “moved on from Jin Guangyao” and that “Lan Wangji is his ideal type now”. Little did he know, Lan Wangji heard everything.

Wei Wuxian continued, deeply emotional, “In these intervening days, I’ve pondered deeply and seriously, and finally discovered that Lianfang-zun is not, in fact, my type. And he’s not suitable for me either.”

…

”In the past, I didn’t know my own heart. But after meeting Hanguang-jun, I’m now certain.” Wei Wuxian drew in a deep breath and continued, “I cannot leave him anymore. I don’t want anyone besides Hanguang-jun… Wait, where are you running off to, I’m not done! Jin Ling. Jin Ling!”

Cutting up a paper effigy, Wei Wuxian possessed it so that he can go around spying. As the paper effigy, even after knowing the truth behind the forehead ribbon, Wei Wuxian tugged at Lan Wangji’s ribbon.

@ Jin Guangyao’s room

Paper effigy Wei Wuxian saw an opened letter but couldn’t read the message.

Qin Su walked in, not looking good. When Jin Guangyao asked what happened, she found out something that her husband had been hiding from her, including how A-Song (their child) died.

Knowing that nothing can be done, Jin Guangyao brought a paralysed Qin Su into his secret treasure room. On a shelf, Wei Wuxian found his manuscript about forbidden magic of possession. Jin Guangyao found them after the Yiling Burial Mounds was sieged. Mo Xuanyu got information about forbidden magic from Jin Guangyao.

Wei Wuxian found the head of Chifeng-zun in Jin Guangyao’s treasure room. He unsealed it and was yanked into Nie Mingjue’s memory.

In Nie Mingjue’s mind

Before Jin Guangyao was acknowledged by the Jin Clan, he followed his mother’s surname Meng and was named Meng Yao

His mother was a famous courtesan in Yunmeng and was wooed by Jin Guangshan, who didn’t care about her afterwards.
Meng Yao appeared on Jin Zixuan’s birthday. In a rage, Jin Guangshan kicked his illegitimate son off the Golden Carp Tower.
After the Sunshot Campaign began, Meng Yao joined a sect under the Nie Clan’s banner.
Nie Mingjue found out that Meng Yao was doing most of the work and he was discriminated because of his background. Nie Mingjue wrote a letter of recommendation so that Meng Yao can bring it back to his father.

When Nie Mingjue finally trusted Meng Yao, he saw him killing other cultivators with the sword techniques of the Wen Clan. He pretended to commit suicide in front of Nie Mingjue then stabbed him in the back. Meng Yao fled to the Wen Clan.

Nie Mingjue was then caught by the Wen Clan and was imprisoned. He saw Meng Yao there.

Later, Lan Xichen will tell Nie Mingjue that Meng Yao was the one who gave them Wen Clan’s maps and information. This helped them take down the Wen Clan. Meng Yao became a key figure in the Sunshot Campaign.

Nie Mingjue forgave Meng Yao, believing that he’s a good person. However, he saw Meng Yao hanging out with Xue Yang from the Kui Prefecture. At this point, Meng Yao was accepted into the Jin Clan and became Jin Guangyao.

Nie Mingjue, Lan Xichen, and Jin Guangyao became sworn brothers. Lan Xichen taught Jin Guangyao the Purification Tone, one of the Lan Clan’s unique arts.

Jin Guangyao imprisoned Xue Yang instead of being killed as wanted by Nie Mingjue.

Jin Guangyao got kicked down the Golden Carp Tower for the second time. This time it was by Nie Mingjue.

Suddenly, Nie Mingjue had qi-deviated and died.

Back in reality,

Wei Wuxian found his old sword, Suibian, kept in Jin Guangyao’s secret room. Jin Guangyao saw the paper effigy and attacked Wei Wuxian, and shockingly, Wei Wuxian drew his sword.

Paper effigy went back to Lan Wangji and all of them went to Jin Guangyao’s secret room.

Qin Su, in front of everyone, grabbed a dagger and killed herself.

Jin Guangyao announced that Wei Wuxian has returned in Mo Xuanyu’s body because he could draw Suibian. Ever since Wei Wuxian’s death, nobody else could do that. The sword had sealed itself.

Together with Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian escaped the place to be stopped by Jin Ling, who stabbed Wei Wuxian.

Lan Wangji brought the injured Wei Wuxian away.

🪷 🪷 🪷

That’s it for Volume 2. Drunk Lan Wangji is my favorite Lan Wangji. I’ve never read the novels before so when THE SCENE AT THE INN came up, it was refreshing and simply, entertaining ✨ It’s also quite fun to watch Wei Wuxian go “wait, what am i doing with this drunkard?” AND THEY KISSED.

I’m done.

grandmaster of demonic cultivation volume 2 – moxiang tongxiu