Chapter 113
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According to the signs of Bagua divination that Yuan Chongxi had given, I hacked at the directions of East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, Northwest, North, and Northeast with my sword where the flow of energies swirled uncontrollably around us. With each stroke, the flow of the energies was immediately sealed as if blocked by an invisible wall. Could this be the hidden ability of the swordsmanship Father taught me?
As if on cue to my thoughts, noises like splintering glass and snapping wood began cascading from every corner of the hospital before slowly intensifying into a chaotic amalgam of crashing din until everything stopped, giving way only to a still blanket of silence. But with my Spirit Sight, I could see countless of ghosts, vengeful spirits, drifting away like air escaping from the puncture of a balloon. The ghastly spectacle of wraithlike figures escaping to their freedom sent me a jolt of shock. How could I have forgotten the countless innocent souls trapped here!
Something must be done, I reflected. With my Spirit Gourd, I had all the wandering ghosts and vengeful spirits drawn into captivity. It was fortunate that the Gourd, my father's gift to me, was so potent a magical instrument that it could contain so many souls within itself.
I extracted a yellow talismanic charm from my knapsack. It had been more than two years since I last used items like this. I had not needed them ever since Father had given me his Gourd and taught me the magic of controlling my sword via telekinesis. Still, I had always kept them with me, knowing that there were still situations where they might come handy, such as curing illness or sickness induced by supernatural means. The talismanic charms would have to first be dissolved in water before it was ingested by patients because the power contained within these charms were too powerful for raw consumption by humans. Nevertheless, the purpose of using these charms now was not for curing illnesses, but to summon certain entities.
I set the charm alight, and watched the green fumes rising from the conflagration and into the air. The strange smoke did not rise further into the sky, rather, it snaked into the distance towards West like a phantasmal serpentine leviathan. Within minutes, two figures appeared from that direction, following the course of the shadowy fumes to us. They were not humans, but the keepers of the Underworld responsible in ferrying the souls of the dead to the afterlife.
Quite sometime later, I would later find out that I no longer needed to burn talismanic charms to summon any Hell Guards or the ilk due to the demise of Yan Jishi of the three Champions of Yishui. Formerly unbeknownst to us, Yan Jishi was the eldest son of the Yan Clan of Yishui. The Yan Clan were known to be a clan of Hell Guards. On a later date before his death, I would later hear from Yan Jishi himself that an ancestor of his clan had once served as one of the keepers of the Underworld. Due to his exemplary service, he was accorded the privilege of rebirth and one from each generation of his descendants was bestowed the opportunity to serve in a similar capacity in Hell.
The availability for Yan Jishi's generation was given to him, hence he began serving in the Underworld after his demise and would personally come to us whenever we needed the assistance of the Underworld's custodial services.
The two spectral figures drifted towards me and ascertained that it was me who had summoned them. "Speak, stranger. What business do you seek with us?" One of them began speaking. "Let it be known that a terrible price will come if we, the keepers of the Underworld, are summoned without purpose!" I remained silent; I did not wish to exchange barbed words with them. These were nevertheless the servants of the Underworld who served both the living and the dead. With a respectful bow, I embarked on my tale on everything that had happened and stated my wish for them to take over the souls in my Gourd that numbered to more than a hundred.
The guards were immediately stunned when their eyes caught sight of my Gourd. They surveyed me again and was again shocked to see the sword in my hand. With a heretofore unknown civility, they returned my courtesy by bowing back to me, saying, "I see. Thank you for your help."
I gave a quick nod and released all the souls in my Gourd to the Hell Guards, keeping only the soul of Ha'ri Naohai. For his transgressions, he would be denied the chance of rebirth! This shall be the price of incurring my wrath!
With more than a hundred ghosts for them to escort into the Underworld, the two Hell Guards could not be more overjoyed as if a fat reward would be waiting for them. It was only much later when we mentioned this matter to Yan Jishi, he told us that Hell Guards were indeed rewarded for the number of souls they shepherd into the Underworld. The pair of Hell Guards must be waiting for a lucrative prize for sending so many spirits in one single night!
The pair of Hell Guards finished their preparations and bowed before leaving. "Thank you for the trouble," I said to them, bowing to them as well with a smile of my own. "How about leaving your names and birthdates? I shall sacrifice some offerings for you both as a token of thanks." To my surprise, the Hell Guards immediately declined sheepishly, "No, please. Still, we are grateful for your kind gesture. Now, if that is all, we'd be taking our leave then."
The Hell Guards promptly left, leaving Edelweiss staring wide-eyed at us. For entire night she had been following at our heels, but she had not been able to fully comprehend what had happened. But I was wearied with the fatigue and toil of riding throughout the night. We spurred our horses and began riding back to Aunt Ulan's encampment.
We arrived at the camp in time for lunch. But I wanted only to sleep. Still, there was another pressing matter to attend to: Aunt Ulan's physical body could hold out no longer. I immediately placed a call to Father and told him everything only to be reciprocated with Father's harsh rebuke for my failure to recover Aunt Ulan's soul. But I responded with nothing; I knew Father too was anxious about Aunt Ulan's safety.
Finally, when he was done bombarding me with a heavy tongue-lash, Father said, "I'll have your mother travel there at once. She can project her consciousness from her body and enter Ulan's body temporarily. This will buy you some time. Use it well to recover Ulan's soul this time." But what Father said almost had me leaping out of my chair with astonishment! Never had I imagined that Mother was capable of such astral projection magic! Before I even ended the call, the door of Aunt Ulan's cabin opened suddenly and I felt a breeze from nowhere gusting into the room, and Aunt Ulan's body rose from her bed! My eyes caught sight of the screen on my phone; Father had ended the call. Everyone in the room began huddling around Aunt Ulan, peppering her with questions, asking how she felt although Aunt Ulan merely wore a blank look. Only then I realized! Everyone was speaking to her in the Mongolian tongue! It was Mother's soul who had entered Aunt Ulan's body and she could not understand Mongolian!
I meandered through the crowd surrounding her and spoke timidly, "Errr... Mother?" She nodded. "Yes. Have some rest first, Son. I'll help Ulan hold up her physical body for now." Everyone else in the cabin gasped with disbelief. Her voice was different from Aunt Ulan's! Yuan Chongxi, Lin Feng, and Edelweiss; all of whom who knew Mother's voice were speechless beyond words. "I-is that Auntie?!" Lin Feng stammered, his eyes as wide as an egg. But Mother was hardly perturbed; in fact, she seemed as if she was enjoying all this. "Feng, Chongxi. I trust you too are tired. Go have some rest for now!" She remarked casually to them. With their mouths falling open with awe, I quickly gave a short explanation of what was happening, while avoiding to delve too much into the details with so many people around.
We had a quick lunch and the four of us immediately trotted off to bed. For hours I slept until I woke up in the wee hours of the next day. I must have been too exhausted, I reflected. I might need some work-out to improve the state of my health. Lin Feng was already outside training, while Yuan Chongxi was still in bed, filling the entire room with the coarse rumble of his snores. "What bliss it is to be one like him," I wondered aloud.
Just as I was gazing at the slumbering Yuan Chongxi salivating in his sleep, a brief ring of music chimed from somewhere. It was his phone.
But who would send messages to this slowpoke in such early hours, I asked myself. I flipped myself off my bed and swiped his phone. It was a contact called "Xiao Yu" who had sent him a message, saying, "Are you still in bed? How are you at Inner Mongolia?" with crimson-colored hearts at the end.
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According to the signs of Bagua divination that Yuan Chongxi had given, I hacked at the directions of East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, Northwest, North, and Northeast with my sword where the flow of energies swirled uncontrollably around us. With each stroke, the flow of the energies was immediately sealed as if blocked by an invisible wall. Could this be the hidden ability of the swordsmanship Father taught me?
As if on cue to my thoughts, noises like splintering glass and snapping wood began cascading from every corner of the hospital before slowly intensifying into a chaotic amalgam of crashing din until everything stopped, giving way only to a still blanket of silence. But with my Spirit Sight, I could see countless of ghosts, vengeful spirits, drifting away like air escaping from the puncture of a balloon. The ghastly spectacle of wraithlike figures escaping to their freedom sent me a jolt of shock. How could I have forgotten the countless innocent souls trapped here!
Something must be done, I reflected. With my Spirit Gourd, I had all the wandering ghosts and vengeful spirits drawn into captivity. It was fortunate that the Gourd, my father's gift to me, was so potent a magical instrument that it could contain so many souls within itself.
I extracted a yellow talismanic charm from my knapsack. It had been more than two years since I last used items like this. I had not needed them ever since Father had given me his Gourd and taught me the magic of controlling my sword via telekinesis. Still, I had always kept them with me, knowing that there were still situations where they might come handy, such as curing illness or sickness induced by supernatural means. The talismanic charms would have to first be dissolved in water before it was ingested by patients because the power contained within these charms were too powerful for raw consumption by humans. Nevertheless, the purpose of using these charms now was not for curing illnesses, but to summon certain entities.
I set the charm alight, and watched the green fumes rising from the conflagration and into the air. The strange smoke did not rise further into the sky, rather, it snaked into the distance towards West like a phantasmal serpentine leviathan. Within minutes, two figures appeared from that direction, following the course of the shadowy fumes to us. They were not humans, but the keepers of the Underworld responsible in ferrying the souls of the dead to the afterlife.
Quite sometime later, I would later find out that I no longer needed to burn talismanic charms to summon any Hell Guards or the ilk due to the demise of Yan Jishi of the three Champions of Yishui. Formerly unbeknownst to us, Yan Jishi was the eldest son of the Yan Clan of Yishui. The Yan Clan were known to be a clan of Hell Guards. On a later date before his death, I would later hear from Yan Jishi himself that an ancestor of his clan had once served as one of the keepers of the Underworld. Due to his exemplary service, he was accorded the privilege of rebirth and one from each generation of his descendants was bestowed the opportunity to serve in a similar capacity in Hell.
The availability for Yan Jishi's generation was given to him, hence he began serving in the Underworld after his demise and would personally come to us whenever we needed the assistance of the Underworld's custodial services.
The two spectral figures drifted towards me and ascertained that it was me who had summoned them. "Speak, stranger. What business do you seek with us?" One of them began speaking. "Let it be known that a terrible price will come if we, the keepers of the Underworld, are summoned without purpose!" I remained silent; I did not wish to exchange barbed words with them. These were nevertheless the servants of the Underworld who served both the living and the dead. With a respectful bow, I embarked on my tale on everything that had happened and stated my wish for them to take over the souls in my Gourd that numbered to more than a hundred.
The guards were immediately stunned when their eyes caught sight of my Gourd. They surveyed me again and was again shocked to see the sword in my hand. With a heretofore unknown civility, they returned my courtesy by bowing back to me, saying, "I see. Thank you for your help."
I gave a quick nod and released all the souls in my Gourd to the Hell Guards, keeping only the soul of Ha'ri Naohai. For his transgressions, he would be denied the chance of rebirth! This shall be the price of incurring my wrath!
With more than a hundred ghosts for them to escort into the Underworld, the two Hell Guards could not be more overjoyed as if a fat reward would be waiting for them. It was only much later when we mentioned this matter to Yan Jishi, he told us that Hell Guards were indeed rewarded for the number of souls they shepherd into the Underworld. The pair of Hell Guards must be waiting for a lucrative prize for sending so many spirits in one single night!
The pair of Hell Guards finished their preparations and bowed before leaving. "Thank you for the trouble," I said to them, bowing to them as well with a smile of my own. "How about leaving your names and birthdates? I shall sacrifice some offerings for you both as a token of thanks." To my surprise, the Hell Guards immediately declined sheepishly, "No, please. Still, we are grateful for your kind gesture. Now, if that is all, we'd be taking our leave then."
The Hell Guards promptly left, leaving Edelweiss staring wide-eyed at us. For entire night she had been following at our heels, but she had not been able to fully comprehend what had happened. But I was wearied with the fatigue and toil of riding throughout the night. We spurred our horses and began riding back to Aunt Ulan's encampment.
We arrived at the camp in time for lunch. But I wanted only to sleep. Still, there was another pressing matter to attend to: Aunt Ulan's physical body could hold out no longer. I immediately placed a call to Father and told him everything only to be reciprocated with Father's harsh rebuke for my failure to recover Aunt Ulan's soul. But I responded with nothing; I knew Father too was anxious about Aunt Ulan's safety.
Finally, when he was done bombarding me with a heavy tongue-lash, Father said, "I'll have your mother travel there at once. She can project her consciousness from her body and enter Ulan's body temporarily. This will buy you some time. Use it well to recover Ulan's soul this time." But what Father said almost had me leaping out of my chair with astonishment! Never had I imagined that Mother was capable of such astral projection magic! Before I even ended the call, the door of Aunt Ulan's cabin opened suddenly and I felt a breeze from nowhere gusting into the room, and Aunt Ulan's body rose from her bed! My eyes caught sight of the screen on my phone; Father had ended the call. Everyone in the room began huddling around Aunt Ulan, peppering her with questions, asking how she felt although Aunt Ulan merely wore a blank look. Only then I realized! Everyone was speaking to her in the Mongolian tongue! It was Mother's soul who had entered Aunt Ulan's body and she could not understand Mongolian!
I meandered through the crowd surrounding her and spoke timidly, "Errr... Mother?" She nodded. "Yes. Have some rest first, Son. I'll help Ulan hold up her physical body for now." Everyone else in the cabin gasped with disbelief. Her voice was different from Aunt Ulan's! Yuan Chongxi, Lin Feng, and Edelweiss; all of whom who knew Mother's voice were speechless beyond words. "I-is that Auntie?!" Lin Feng stammered, his eyes as wide as an egg. But Mother was hardly perturbed; in fact, she seemed as if she was enjoying all this. "Feng, Chongxi. I trust you too are tired. Go have some rest for now!" She remarked casually to them. With their mouths falling open with awe, I quickly gave a short explanation of what was happening, while avoiding to delve too much into the details with so many people around.
We had a quick lunch and the four of us immediately trotted off to bed. For hours I slept until I woke up in the wee hours of the next day. I must have been too exhausted, I reflected. I might need some work-out to improve the state of my health. Lin Feng was already outside training, while Yuan Chongxi was still in bed, filling the entire room with the coarse rumble of his snores. "What bliss it is to be one like him," I wondered aloud.
Just as I was gazing at the slumbering Yuan Chongxi salivating in his sleep, a brief ring of music chimed from somewhere. It was his phone.
But who would send messages to this slowpoke in such early hours, I asked myself. I flipped myself off my bed and swiped his phone. It was a contact called "Xiao Yu" who had sent him a message, saying, "Are you still in bed? How are you at Inner Mongolia?" with crimson-colored hearts at the end.
According to the signs of Bagua divination that Yuan Chongxi had given, I hacked at the directions of East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, Northwest, North, and Northeast with my sword where the flow of energies swirled uncontrollably around us. With each stroke, the flow of the energies was immediately sealed as if blocked by an invisible wall. Could this be the hidden ability of the swordsmanship Father taught me?As if on cue to my thoughts, noises like splintering glass and snapping wood began cascading from every corner of the hospital before slowly intensifying into a chaotic amalgam of crashing din until everything stopped, giving way only to a still blanket of silence. But with my Spirit Sight, I could see countless of ghosts, vengeful spirits, drifting away like air escaping from the puncture of a balloon. The ghastly spectacle of wraithlike figures escaping to their freedom sent me a jolt of shock. How could I have forgotten the countless innocent souls trapped here!Something must be done, I reflected. With my Spirit Gourd, I had all the wandering ghosts and vengeful spirits drawn into captivity. It was fortunate that the Gourd, my father's gift to me, was so potent a magical instrument that it could contain so many souls within itself.I extracted a yellow talismanic charm from my knapsack. It had been more than two years since I last used items like this. I had not needed them ever since Father had given me his Gourd and taught me the magic of controlling my sword via telekinesis. Still, I had always kept them with me, knowing that there were still situations where they might come handy, such as curing illness or sickness induced by supernatural means. The talismanic charms would have to first be dissolved in water before it was ingested by patients because the power contained within these charms were too powerful for raw consumption by humans. Nevertheless, the purpose of using these charms now was not for curing illnesses, but to summon certain entities.I set the charm alight, and watched the green fumes rising from the conflagration and into the air. The strange smoke did not rise further into the sky, rather, it snaked into the distance towards West like a phantasmal serpentine leviathan. Within minutes, two figures appeared from that direction, following the course of the shadowy fumes to us. They were not humans, but the keepers of the Underworld responsible in ferrying the souls of the dead to the afterlife.Quite sometime later, I would later find out that I no longer needed to burn talismanic charms to summon any Hell Guards or the ilk due to the demise of Yan Jishi of the three Champions of Yishui. Formerly unbeknownst to us, Yan Jishi was the eldest son of the Yan Clan of Yishui. The Yan Clan were known to be a clan of Hell Guards. On a later date before his death, I would later hear from Yan Jishi himself that an ancestor of his clan had once served as one of the keepers of the Underworld. Due to his exemplary service, he was accorded the privilege of rebirth and one from each generation of his descendants was bestowed the opportunity to serve in a similar capacity in Hell.The availability for Yan Jishi's generation was given to him, hence he began serving in the Underworld after his demise and would personally come to us whenever we needed the assistance of the Underworld's custodial services.The two spectral figures drifted towards me and ascertained that it was me who had summoned them. "Speak, stranger. What business do you seek with us?" One of them began speaking. "Let it be known that a terrible price will come if we, the keepers of the Underworld, are summoned without purpose!" I remained silent; I did not wish to exchange barbed words with them. These were nevertheless the servants of the Underworld who served both the living and the dead. With a respectful bow, I embarked on my tale on everything that had happened and stated my wish for them to take over the souls in my Gourd that numbered to more than a hundred.The guards were immediately stunned when their eyes caught sight of my Gourd. They surveyed me again and was again shocked to see the sword in my hand. With a heretofore unknown civility, they returned my courtesy by bowing back to me, saying, "I see. Thank you for your help."I gave a quick nod and released all the souls in my Gourd to the Hell Guards, keeping only the soul of Ha'ri Naohai. For his transgressions, he would be denied the chance of rebirth! This shall be the price of incurring my wrath!With more than a hundred ghosts for them to escort into the Underworld, the two Hell Guards could not be more overjoyed as if a fat reward would be waiting for them. It was only much later when we mentioned this matter to Yan Jishi, he told us that Hell Guards were indeed rewarded for the number of souls they shepherd into the Underworld. The pair of Hell Guards must be waiting for a lucrative prize for sending so many spirits in one single night!The pair of Hell Guards finished their preparations and bowed before leaving. "Thank you for the trouble," I said to them, bowing to them as well with a smile of my own. "How about leaving your names and birthdates? I shall sacrifice some offerings for you both as a token of thanks." To my surprise, the Hell Guards immediately declined sheepishly, "No, please. Still, we are grateful for your kind gesture. Now, if that is all, we'd be taking our leave then."The Hell Guards promptly left, leaving Edelweiss staring wide-eyed at us. For entire night she had been following at our heels, but she had not been able to fully comprehend what had happened. But I was wearied with the fatigue and toil of riding throughout the night. We spurred our horses and began riding back to Aunt Ulan's encampment.We arrived at the camp in time for lunch. But I wanted only to sleep. Still, there was another pressing matter to attend to: Aunt Ulan's physical body could hold out no longer. I immediately placed a call to Father and told him everything only to be reciprocated with Father's harsh rebuke for my failure to recover Aunt Ulan's soul. But I responded with nothing; I knew Father too was anxious about Aunt Ulan's safety.Finally, when he was done bombarding me with a heavy tongue-lash, Father said, "I'll have your mother travel there at once. She can project her consciousness from her body and enter Ulan's body temporarily. This will buy you some time. Use it well to recover Ulan's soul this time." But what Father said almost had me leaping out of my chair with astonishment! Never had I imagined that Mother was capable of such astral projection magic! Before I even ended the call, the door of Aunt Ulan's cabin opened suddenly and I felt a breeze from nowhere gusting into the room, and Aunt Ulan's body rose from her bed! My eyes caught sight of the screen on my phone; Father had ended the call. Everyone in the room began huddling around Aunt Ulan, peppering her with questions, asking how she felt although Aunt Ulan merely wore a blank look. Only then I realized! Everyone was speaking to her in the Mongolian tongue! It was Mother's soul who had entered Aunt Ulan's body and she could not understand Mongolian!I meandered through the crowd surrounding her and spoke timidly, "Errr... Mother?" She nodded. "Yes. Have some rest first, Son. I'll help Ulan hold up her physical body for now." Everyone else in the cabin gasped with disbelief. Her voice was different from Aunt Ulan's! Yuan Chongxi, Lin Feng, and Edelweiss; all of whom who knew Mother's voice were speechless beyond words. "I-is that Auntie?!" Lin Feng stammered, his eyes as wide as an egg. But Mother was hardly perturbed; in fact, she seemed as if she was enjoying all this. "Feng, Chongxi. I trust you too are tired. Go have some rest for now!" She remarked casually to them. With their mouths falling open with awe, I quickly gave a short explanation of what was happening, while avoiding to delve too much into the details with so many people around.We had a quick lunch and the four of us immediately trotted off to bed. For hours I slept until I woke up in the wee hours of the next day. I must have been too exhausted, I reflected. I might need some work-out to improve the state of my health. Lin Feng was already outside training, while Yuan Chongxi was still in bed, filling the entire room with the coarse rumble of his snores. "What bliss it is to be one like him," I wondered aloud.Just as I was gazing at the slumbering Yuan Chongxi salivating in his sleep, a brief ring of music chimed from somewhere. It was his phone.But who would send messages to this slowpoke in such early hours, I asked myself. I flipped myself off my bed and swiped his phone. It was a contact called "Xiao Yu" who had sent him a message, saying, "Are you still in bed? How are you at Inner Mongolia?" with crimson-colored hearts at the end.
