diff --git a/icefall/decode.py b/icefall/decode.py
index 573c6bf78..e678e4622 100644
--- a/icefall/decode.py
+++ b/icefall/decode.py
@@ -128,43 +128,6 @@ def get_lattice(
     return lattice
 
 
-# TODO(fangjun): Use Kangwei's C++ implementation that also
-# supports List[List[int]]
-def levenshtein_graph(symbol_ids: List[int]) -> k2.Fsa:
-    """Construct a graph to compute Levenshtein distance.
-
-    An example graph for `levenshtein_graph([1, 2, 3]` can be found
-    at https://git.io/Ju7eW
-    (Assuming the symbol table is 1<->a, 2<->b, 3<->c, blk<->0)
-
-    Args:
-      symbol_ids:
-        A list of symbol IDs (excluding 0 and -1)
-    Returns:
-      Return an Fsa (with 2 axes [state][arc]).
-    """
-    assert 0 not in symbol_ids
-    assert -1 not in symbol_ids
-    final_state = len(symbol_ids) + 1
-    arcs = []
-    for i in range(final_state - 1):
-        arcs.append([i, i, 0, 0, -0.5])
-        arcs.append([i, i + 1, 0, symbol_ids[i], -0.5])
-        arcs.append([i, i + 1, symbol_ids[i], symbol_ids[i], 0])
-    arcs.append([final_state - 1, final_state - 1, 0, 0, -0.5])
-    arcs.append([final_state - 1, final_state, -1, -1, 0])
-    arcs.append([final_state])
-
-    arcs = sorted(arcs, key=lambda arc: arc[0])
-    arcs = [[str(i) for i in arc] for arc in arcs]
-    arcs = [" ".join(arc) for arc in arcs]
-    arcs = "\n".join(arcs)
-
-    fsa = k2.Fsa.from_str(arcs, acceptor=False)
-    fsa = k2.arc_sort(fsa)
-    return fsa
-
-
 class Nbest(object):
     """
     An Nbest object contains two fields:
@@ -456,9 +419,8 @@ class Nbest(object):
 
     def build_levenshtein_graphs(self) -> k2.Fsa:
         """Return an FsaVec with axes [utt][state][arc]."""
-        word_ids = get_texts(self.fsa)
-        word_levenshtein_graphs = [levenshtein_graph(ids) for ids in word_ids]
-        return k2.Fsa.from_fsas(word_levenshtein_graphs)
+        word_ids = get_texts(self.fsa, return_ragged=True)
+        return k2.levenshtein_graph(word_ids)
 
 
 def one_best_decoding(
@@ -590,7 +552,7 @@ def nbest_oracle(
         lattice_score_scale=lattice_score_scale,
     )
 
-    hyps = nbest.build_levenshtein_graphs().to(device)
+    hyps = nbest.build_levenshtein_graphs()
 
     oov_id = word_table[oov]
     word_ids_list = []
@@ -603,24 +565,16 @@ def nbest_oracle(
                 word_ids.append(oov_id)
         word_ids_list.append(word_ids)
 
-    levenshtein_graphs = [levenshtein_graph(ids) for ids in word_ids_list]
-    refs = k2.Fsa.from_fsas(levenshtein_graphs).to(device)
+    refs = k2.levenshtein_graph(word_ids_list, device=device)
 
-    # Now compute the edit distance between hyps and refs
-    hyps.rename_tensor_attribute_("aux_labels", "aux_labels2")
-    edit_dist_lattice = k2.intersect_device(
-        refs,
-        hyps,
-        b_to_a_map=nbest.shape.row_ids(1),
-        sorted_match_a=True,
+    levenshtein_alignment = k2.levenshtein_alignment(
+        refs=refs,
+        hyps=hyps,
+        hyp_to_ref_map=nbest.shape.row_ids(1),
+        sorted_match_ref=True,
     )
-    edit_dist_lattice = k2.remove_epsilon_self_loops(edit_dist_lattice)
-    edit_dist_best_path = k2.shortest_path(
-        edit_dist_lattice, use_double_scores=True
-    ).invert_()
-    edit_dist_best_path.rename_tensor_attribute_("aux_labels2", "aux_labels")
 
-    tot_scores = edit_dist_best_path.get_tot_scores(
+    tot_scores = levenshtein_alignment.get_tot_scores(
         use_double_scores=False, log_semiring=False
     )
     ragged_tot_scores = k2.RaggedTensor(nbest.shape, tot_scores)
diff --git a/icefall/utils.py b/icefall/utils.py
index cc658ae32..2324201c3 100644
--- a/icefall/utils.py
+++ b/icefall/utils.py
@@ -186,7 +186,9 @@ def encode_supervisions(
     return supervision_segments, texts
 
 
-def get_texts(best_paths: k2.Fsa) -> List[List[int]]:
+def get_texts(
+    best_paths: k2.Fsa, return_ragged: bool = False
+) -> Union[List[List[int]], k2.RaggedTensor]:
     """Extract the texts (as word IDs) from the best-path FSAs.
     Args:
       best_paths:
@@ -194,6 +196,9 @@ def get_texts(best_paths: k2.Fsa) -> List[List[int]]:
         containing multiple FSAs, which is expected to be the result
         of k2.shortest_path (otherwise the returned values won't
         be meaningful).
+      return_ragged:
+        True to return a ragged tensor with two axes [utt][word_id].
+        False to return a list-of-list word IDs.
     Returns:
       Returns a list of lists of int, containing the label sequences we
       decoded.
@@ -216,7 +221,10 @@ def get_texts(best_paths: k2.Fsa) -> List[List[int]]:
         aux_labels = aux_labels.remove_values_leq(0)
 
     assert aux_labels.num_axes == 2
-    return aux_labels.tolist()
+    if return_ragged:
+        return aux_labels
+    else:
+        return aux_labels.tolist()
 
 
 def store_transcripts(