Yi City (义城, Yì Chéng) is an abandoned city located in the Shudong area.
Appearance[]
Yi City is surrounded by steep cliffs on all sides that tilt toward the center in an extreme manner, appearing both menacing and constricting, almost as if it would collapse any moment. Furthermore, it is enveloped in a thick white fog. [1]
Somewhere within the city is a coffin house for unclaimed bodies, where A-Qing, Xiao Xingchen, and Xue Yang used to live.[2] By the time of the main events in the novel, Yi City is home to Fierce Corpses and Xue Yang.
Events[]
Lead Up[]
Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji travel to Yi City following the direction of the Demonic Left Arm. On the path leading into the city, they encounter the paper maché head of a Yin Muscleman.[1]
Wei Wuxian is suddenly attacked by the junior cultivators,.who mistake him for a walking corpse due to the dense fog. Lan Wangji is able to deflect the junior cultivators' blades, and Wei Wuxian then recognizes the voices of Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi and Jin Ling.[1]
Wei Wuxian requests that Lan Wangji draw Bichen so that the junior cultivators can see where they are. He realizes that the person standing next to him is not Lan Wangji but the Gravedigger they had encountered in the cemetery of Yueyang Chang Clan. The gravedigger tries to steal the Qiankun bag containing the body parts of the dismembered corpse, but Wei Wuxian has already switched the bag for a Spirit-Trapping Bag. The Gravedigger easily destroys the spirits inside the bag, only to be attacked and pursued into the fog by Lan Wangji.[1]
The junior cultivators are then surrounded by a group of walking corpses, resulting in the accidental inhalation of corpse poison. Wei Wuxian easily diagnoses their symptoms and agrees to cure them on the condition that all the junior cultivators obey him without question. Wei Wuxian orders the juniors that are not poisoned to carry those who are, and they head to the houses and shops to find a cure.[3]
They finally encountered an inhabitant inside a shop selling Paper Effigies. Although the old lady is hesitant to let them inside her house, Wei Wuxian offers to pay her with Lan Wangji's money pouch.[3]
Once inside, Wei Wuxian sets Lan Sizhui and Jin Ling to work cleaning the kitchen, and proceeds to create a pot of extremely spicy glutinous rice congee, as glutinous rice is a cure for Corpse Poisoning. Despite the horrific taste, the juniors are cured of their corpse poisoning, and the awful taste brings back a curious feeling of déjà vu for Lan Sizhui.[4]
Wei Wuxian then helps the juniors investigate, explaining that the old lady is in fact a walking corpse with some sentience: the marks on her face and hands are not from old age but from livor mortis.[4]
A-Qing's Arrival[]
After being cured of their poisoning, the juniors become frightened when they noticed the ghost of A-Qing watching them. Wei Wuxian instructs the juniors, including Lan Jingyi and Ouyang Zizhen, how to observe a ghost. They conclude that she is blind and has had her tongue removed, yet seems to be trying to warn them of something.[5]
Xue Yang's Arrival[]
Outside in the fog, Wei Wuxian sees a lone cultivator battling against a group of walking corpses. He helps by summoning a pair of spirits to inhabit two effigies inside the shop. Wei Wuxian orders the effigies to destroy the walking corpses and bring the cultivator back inside.[2] The man wears bandages over his eyes and claims to be Xiao Xingchen, but Lan Sizhui's Inquiry to the fierce corpse of Song Lan reveals that the cultivator is actually Xue Yang in disguise. When Xue Yang attempts to kidnap Wei Wuxian to have him restore a broken soul, Lan Wangji arrives to engage Xue Yang in battle.[2]
Empathy[]
As Lan Wangji battles Xue Yang, Wei Wuxian and the juniors follow A-Qing's ghost to the coffin house, where Wei Wuxian engages in Empathy to learn what she knows.[6]
A-Qing reveals that she had lived in the coffin house with Xiao Xingchen and a disguised Xue Yang for several years. She had personally seen Xue Yang trick Xiao Xingchen into murdering the inhabitants of nearby villagers: as long as the villagers were under corpse poisoning and had their tongues removed, Shuanghua could not distinguish between the living and the dead. When Song Lan arrived, he confronted Xue Yang only to have his tongue removed and corpse toxin thrown on him, prompting Xiao Xingchen to mistakenly kill him, too.[7][8]
After A-Qing informed Xiao Xingchen, she hid while Xiao Xingchen confronted Xue Yang. After learning that he had killed innocent people and his best friend, Xiao Xingchen killed himself, shattering his soul. Though Xue Yang used a Spirit-Trapping Bag to salvage his soul, he could not resurrect Xiao Xingchen, to his grief and despair.[9] He then hunted A-Qing to Yueyang, removing her tongue and blinding her before her death.[9]
Xue Yang's Defeat[]
Once he finishes Empathy, Wei Wuxian confronts Xue Yang on his motivations for bringing Xiao Xingchen back from the dead. A-Qing aids Lan Wangji in the fight and suffers the loss of her soul as a result. Xue Yang's arm is cut off, and just before he can die, a Transportation Talisman is used to extract Xue Yang's dying body.[10]
When Wei Wuxian examines his dismembered arm, he notices that Xue Yang is still holding the now-rotten piece of candy Xiao Xingchen had given him the morning before he died.[10]
Aftermath[]
Song Lan accepts the spirit-trapping bags of both Xiao Xingchen and A-Qing's shattered souls, and declares his intention to roam the world nursing their souls back to wholeness.[10]
Web Series Divergence[]
In the Web Series, the Yin Tiger Tally is taken from Xue Yang, but his body is left behind for Song Lan to deal the killing blow. In addition, A-Qing is not a ghost, but a living person who is killed in the fight against Xue Yang and buried outside Yi City by the juniors, Lan Wangji, and Wei Wuxian.[11]
Gallery[]
.png "Yi City (live-action).png (2.32 MB)")
References[]
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