The Burial Mounds (乱葬岗, Luànzàng Gǎng; also: Luanzang Hill) is the location of two sieges. Led by the Four Great Clans and hundreds of smaller clans, the first siege ends in Wei Wuxian's death and the massacre of the Qishan Wen Clan remnants. The second siege is intended to defeat Wei Wuxian once and for all; although the siege ends in failure with nearly no loss of life.
Description[]
Throughout the mountain, skeletal remains poke up from the soil from the sheer number of bodies buried here. Crude houses line the mountain, partially demolished and burned from the First Siege.[1]
After the First Siege, four evil-suppressing statues from the Four Great Clans are erected around the mountain; after the Second Siege, they have all been demolished.[1]
At the top of the mountain is a cave with a mouth fifty feet wide – the Demon-Quelling Cave, in which Wei Wuxian is rumored to have carried out his wicked acts. Inside the Demon Slaughtering Cave is a Blood Pool.[2]
History[]
Origins[]
Allegedly an old battlefield, the Burial Mounds is famed as a haven for walking corpses and vengeful ghosts. It resists the Qishan Wen Clan's purification attempts multiple times, until they are forced to close it off.[3]
Birth of the Yiling Patriarch[]
After transferring his Golden Core to Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian is captured by Wen Chao and cast into the Burial Mounds.[3] Injured and alone, without access to any spiritual abilities, Wei Wuxian resorts to his old theories regarding Demonic Cultivation. He develops a method to control Fierce Corpses and persuade ghosts to do his bidding.[4]
After discovering that the Qishan Wen Clan members have been abused so badly that Wen Ning died under Jin Zixun's men, Wei Wuxian kills the Lanling Jin Clan's disciples in revenge and frees the remaining Wen remnants, including a grandmother and Wen Yuan.[5][6]
Upon learning that Wei Wuxian plans to revive Wen Ning as a conscious fierce corpse, Jiang Cheng confronts and duels Wei Wuxian for his reckless actions at the Burial Mounds. Wei Wuxian renounces his place in the Yunmeng Jiang Clan and begins a life building houses and planting potatoes to eat and sell alongside the Wen Remnants.[7]
Sometime later, Wei Wuxian succeeds in reviving Wen Ning's consciousness, to the gratitude of Wen Qing and the surviving Wen Remnants.[8]
First Siege[]
During the First Siege of the Burial Mounds, Jin Guangshan's Lanling Jin Clan and Jiang Cheng's Yunmeng Jiang Clan are the two main forces. While Lan Qiren leads the Gusu Lan Clan and Nie Mingjue leads the Qinghe Nie Clan, their efforts make little difference in the battle.[1]
After Wei Wuxian's death, one hundred and twenty stone beasts are erected on the Burial Mounds. For thirteen years, though many soul summoning rituals are conducted, none can summon his soul.[9]
Second Siege[]
Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji return to the Burial Mounds upon learning that Jin Guangyao has spread rumors that numerous corpses have been heading towards Yiling.[10] Accompanied by Wen Ning, Lan Wangji and Wei Wei Wuxian find over one hundred junior disciples held captive as bait for the corpses – including Jin Ling, Jin Chan, Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi, and Ouyang Zizhen.[1]
After freeing the juniors, they discover that a second siege has begun.[1]
Jiang Cheng, Lan Qiren, Clan Leader Yao, and many more cultivators attacked, believing Wei Wuxian to be controlling the fierce corpses. Soon, a wave of corpses arrives, controlled by the Yin Tiger Tally. As they fight against the first wave of corpses, the cultivators quickly lose their spiritual power. At Nie Huaisang's urging, the cultivators then retreat to the Demon-Quelling Cave, and Lan Qiren repairs the seal to hold back the corpses.[11]
Once safe, several cultivators accuse Wei Wuxian of sealing their spiritual power. He deduces that the culprit is actually Su She and that he has used the same means by which Jin Guangyao killed Nie Mingjue: music. Lan Wangji uses Bichen to trick Su She into drawing Nanping, revealing that he still has spiritual power. Having been exposed, Su She uses a Transportation Talisman to escape.[11][12]
Soon, however, a second wave of corpses begins to break through the seal. The cultivators have only the juniors, Wei Wuxian, and Lan Wangji to defend them with spiritual energy. To survive the onslaught of corpses, the cultivators eventually join in, using their sharp blades as physical weapons. When it seems all of them are spent of both physical and spiritual energy, a third wave of corpses breaks into the Demon-Quelling Cave. Wei Wuxian then uses a Spirit-Attraction Flag to allow everyone else the chance to escape. The juniors, however, refuse.[13]
To everyone's astonishment, the corpses of the deceased Wen remnants emerge from the Blood Pool to defend Wei Wuxian, Wen Ning, and Lan Sizhui, whom they recognize as Wen Yuan. When the siege ends, the "blood corpses" dissolve into ash, and hardly any living cultivators have been lost.[2]
Animation Divergence[]
In the animation, the first siege of the Burial Mounds takes place in takes place in the year Xuanzheng 25; the Novel provides no date.[14]
Trivia[]
- Strictly speaking, 乱葬岗 is a generic name for a mass grave in Chinese.
- The location of the Burial Mounds coincides with the real location of the Battle of Yiling.
References[]
|
Gallery[]
