Chapter 108: The Master's Earthly Soul

Mo Ran followed him up the stairs in a daze, his feet creaking on the old wooden steps, and he couldn't help but ask, "You call him Mr. Chu?"

"Yes, he was sent by Yanluo himself to take care of the building and is our honourable superior."

""

Mo Ran didn't say a word, but in his heart he was a little surprised.

"Here we are." The masked man paused, stopped at a half-moon archway on the first floor and knocked gently on the hidden vermillion carved door, " Mr. Chu, there is an old friend of yours to see you."

There was a moment of silence, and then a gentle voice, like warm wine on the stove and soft hair on the pillow, came to life inside.

"The late man is him again I told you, I don't want to see him again. You tell him to go back."

The masked man coughed softly, "No, Mr... Chu misunderstood, it's not him this time."

"Who else could it be," said the man inside, after a moment's silence, "just, please come in."

The interior of the warming room is very plain and simple, the tables and chairs are even furnished to the point of being cold. But the floor was covered in luxurious soft felt, and Mo Ran walked in, half his feet immediately sinking into it, and the air smelled pungent and fishy of beast fur. What was out of place was the man pruning the flowers by the window.

He wears long ink hair, white clothes with wide sleeves, and scarlet flower buds trembling at the tips of his glistening fingers. Perhaps because of the usual rules of the Shun Feng House, he also wears a navy blue mask of a ghostly face with hideous fangs and protruding tiger eyes. But even this mask, when worn on his face, was inexplicably gentle.

He cut off the excess stubs and gathered them up in one place to discard them before turning his head.

Mo Ran's throat felt dry, the conversation between the masked man and Chu Wanning had just left him puzzled and vaguely unsettled, wondering what it was that this soul had lost. If Chu Wanning didn't remember him

As he thought this, the man set aside his flower shears and came towards him.

Mo Ran, who is not afraid of anything, felt a little panicky and a fine sweat broke out on his vest.

"Master."

The man stopped, getting a little closer. Mo Ran heard what appeared to be a chuckle from him.

"What master," he said, "the young lord has mistaken him for someone else."

As expected

Fear what comes.

Mo Ran's heart thudded and a huge boulder seemed to crash down in his chest, taking him into an endless abyss. He looked at the man in front of him in a daze, not knowing what to say for a moment.

When the man did not respond, he placed his long white hand over the mask and gently removed the heavily coloured ghost face, revealing a handsome and dignified face.

Mo Ran felt the boulder, which weighed a thousand pounds, disappear in a flash.

Surprised, but without the slightest doubt, he looked at the man with his mask off and blurted out, " Chu Xun "

No wonder the young master downstairs got the portrait wrong. Chu Xun and Chu Wanning were originally eight times alike, though Chu Xun was soft and gentle and Chu Wanning was cold. But only those who know them well enough can tell the difference between them.

For example, Mo Ran.

The man in front of him was none other than Chu Xun, the Prince of Lin'an City, whom he had seen in a vision more than two hundred years ago, and so he gave his name without thinking.

But the real Chu Xun had not seen him before, so he was a little surprised and laughed: "You really know me."

Mo Ran waved his hand: "No, no, I've got the wrong person. But I do know you," he said, looking at the other man with some curiosity. Chu Xun had died a hundred years ago, but had not yet passed on to the next life, and it was obviously Yanluo who had given him the task of escaping from reincarnation.

Mo Ran was surprised to see an ancestor of Chu Wanning's. It was a mystery to him.

Chu Xun nodded and said, "So that's how it is." He smiled again and said, "Since you have come up here by chance, I will help you to find out who you are looking for. Otherwise, there are millions of ghosts in Nanke Town, and I don't know how long it will take to find them."

Mo Ran was going to explain and go downstairs to get a new fortune teller, but Chu Xun was so enthusiastic that he was willing to help him personally, even though he had become a ghost. Thank you, Mr. Chu."

With that, he handed the portrait to Chu Xun.

Chu Xun opened it up and laughed, "No wonder the people underneath were mistaken, they really do look like me. What is his name?"

"Chu Wanning." Mo Ran said, "His name is Chu Wanning."

"It's a coincidence that the surname is also Chu."

Mo Ran's heart fluttered and he asked, "Could it be a relative of the gentleman?"

"It's not easy to say. To see the hundred states of the yang world, you need to go to the Ninth King's side of the ghost world. I have a life-and-death grudge against the Ninth King. Being unwilling to beg him myself, I did not ask any more questions about the affairs of the red world."

Naturally, he was talking about the Demon King who had broken the Lin'an boundary and killed his family. Even for a man as self-assured as he was, his expression was a little obscure when he was poked at the scar.

Mo Ran thought he would be able to confirm the connection between Chu Wanning and Chu Xun, but instead he shook his head, "That's a pity."

Chu Xun smiled, said nothing more, went to the museum shelf and fetched a gilt yin and yang compass and invited Mo Ran to take his seat.

"Use this to know where he is."

"Nine out of ten."

"And one or two what's the deal."

"Some people's soul power is always a bit strange, and it is possible that they cannot be found." Chu Xun said, "But it's not common, the young master should not be this unlucky."

When the reckoning was finalised, a small golden needle at the head of the compass trembled and pointed north, but after a while it turned south, then suddenly east, then west, and finally it spun up again in a dribbling circle.

Chu Xun :""

Mo Ran said carefully, "How was it?"

"Ahem." Chu Xun coughed lightly, looking a little embarrassed, "The young duke is indeed a little unlucky."

Mo Ran :""

The truth is that Mo Ran's luck is often bad, and he knew it wouldn't go so well. He sighed, thanked Chu Xun and was ready to go back to the sea of people to find out where Chu Wanning was.

Unexpectedly, at that moment, the frantic rotation of that compass suddenly stopped and the needle pointed in a certain direction, faltering, seemingly not so sure, and after a while, it pointed to a position a little off.

Chu Xun called out to him, "Young master, wait a little longer."

Mo Ran immediately stood still and watched the compass at the table with bated breath. The needle swung from side to side and just wouldn't stop, but it pointed approximately in one direction.

Chu Xun frowned, "What's going on?"

"Does this represent some kind of vision?"

"Not so much a vision, but it's strange." Chu Xun looked at the compass and his brows knitted deeper and deeper, "It seems that in both directions, there is his figure"

Mo Ran snapped.

How is it possible

Now that the spirit of knowledge is inside Chu Wanning's corpse and the human spirit is in the spirit guide lamp, there should only be one earth spirit left in the ghost world, how could Chu Wanning appear in two places at the same time?

Chu Xun said, "In any case, one is southeast and the other northeast, young master, go and look for them.

Mo Ran was very anxious, so he thanked Chu Xun and hurriedly left Shunfeng House and headed east.

After running for a long time, he came to a fork in the road and Mo Ran came to a sharp halt.

South East or North East

He held the lantern in his hand, his heart burning with anxiety, but after a while, as he looked at the lantern in his hand, which had gathered human souls, a vague and strange perception suddenly seemed to arise in his heart.

He followed this discrete perception through the narrow streets and deep alleys of one pathway after another.

The further you go, the more pronounced this feeling becomes.

He even felt that the earthly spirit of Chu Wanning was invisibly calling, or rather summoning, the spirit guide lamp in his hand, towards a place.

Mo Ran eventually stops in front of an old two-storey wooden building.

"Sick Souls Hall."

He tilted his head and swept his gaze across the large, heavy hanging plaque. The black lacquer on the plaque had peeled off, and a large chunk of the red inscription on it had fallen off, revealing the rotting wood beneath.

Mo Ran frowned, a chestnut in his mind, feeling uneasy about those three words.

What does it mean to be a sick soul?

Is this the reason why Chu Xun's compass is not working?

He pushed the door open, stepped over the high threshold and walked in.

He soon knew the answer.

Inside the Hall of Sick Souls there are hundreds of cots on which lie unconscious spirits. A dozen ghosts wearing white masks pass through them, sending their aura to the couch.

The so-called Sick Soul Hall is the sitting doctor's hall of the ghost world.

Mo Ran sought out the ghostly medical officer at the far end of the room who was coordinating the whole situation, arched his hand to him and said, "Doctor, I think"

The doctor was very busy and said rather impatiently, "Catch the medicine on the first floor and queue on the left for diagnosis."

"What about the search for people?"

"What to look for in a person"

Mo Ran showed him the scroll: "Has the doctor ever seen this Your Mightiness?"

The ghost doctor took the scroll and looked at it, then looked up at Mo Ran again, his eyes seemingly compassionate beneath the black hole in his mask: "Your kin."

"Well, yeah."

"His earthly soul is damaged." The ghost doctor pointed to the stairs, "He is lying in the innermost compartment upstairs. We can't cure this illness, so we can only delay it, so go and find him yourself."

Mo Ran was shocked: "How could the earth's soul be damaged?"

"Who knows, the six paths of reincarnation are supposed to be extremely painful, maybe his soul was damaged during his first few reincarnations, but he was a monk in this life, or maybe he went off the deep end and injured his soul. Anyway, it's just not complete. If you ask me, I'll ask who."

Mo Ran said anxiously, "And what would that damage to the earth's soul affect?"

"After all, only one of the three souls is incomplete, so it won't affect his reincarnation. If there's really anything, it's probably just a shorter life in the next life, less luck, or a weaker body."

"" Mo Ran heard this, and although he was quite upset, he was unable to do anything about it, so he just thanked the ghost doctor and headed upstairs.

The layout at the top is not as tight and breath-taking as the one below.

Perhaps because all the souls parked were remnants that the Sick Souls Hall could not save from waking up, there was not much need for nursing. There was just one medical officer sleeping idly on a wicker chair in the foyer taking a nap.

Mo Ran didn't bother to wake him up and went straight inside.

The large, empty space was set up with only ten or twenty cots, leaning against the red-acid windows, with a plain screen drawn between them.

There is silence in all directions.

Mo Ran's gaze falls on the innermost compartment, where a half-moon archway opens onto an open terrace, the moonlight filtering in through a thin curtain and the breeze swaying.

It was clear that there were more than twenty sick souls here, but Mo Ran had a strong sense of it for some reason.

Perhaps it was the spirit guide lamp that led him along the way, and without a care in the world, he headed for the innermost room, into the pure, hazy moonlit night.

He raised his hand and lifted the curtain.

The last piece of Chu Wanning's solitary soul was indeed lying there, his eyes closed and his face pale, so similar to the body resting in Frost Palace.

Even though he was found, even though he had a chance to be reborn, Mo Ran could not help but feel a hidden pain in his heart and a sore nose when he saw such a bloodstained, cold and thin figure.

He walked over and rested the spirit guide lamp on the bed.

He then sat down on the bedside of Chu Wanning's earth spirit and tried to gently hold his cold hand.

But this remnant soul was different from the previous human soul, perhaps because it was so depleted that his spirit body was so empty that Mo Ran's fingertips could not touch it, and it just passed through the shadow of Chu Wanning's earth soul and landed on the white mattress.

Mo Ran's bitterness and loss are caused by this emptiness.

If something goes wrong, if Master Huai Zui does not appear, if Chu Wanning's soul is broken even more, if the Master is discouraged, and if we do not see each other in heaven and on earth

He lowered himself, knowing that he could not rest against Chu Wanning's forehead, but he could not resist, closing his eyes as if to embrace the ethereal spirit of the earth, and leaned over the obeisance.

"Master."

He overlaps with his dead soul, and the moonlight spills over them without distinction.

Mo Ran sighed tersely and let out a long breath, but his heart was bitter and heavy.

He had seen Chu Wanning's body, he had seen Chu Wanning's human soul, and now he had seen this sick earth soul, and each time he saw one, he felt different. He knelt before the corpse, his guilt and guilt almost tearing him apart, and he confessed before the human soul, holding hands and pleading with Chu Wanning to come back.

And the soul of the earth.

He tried to embrace them, but nothing could be caught, nothing could be touched, and suddenly he felt a boundless fear in his heart that this was the end he deserved.

He is full of grievances and sins, and his hands are full of blood. How could he ever again be in the company of his deceased and never be separated from

Mo Ran's eyes were closed and her eyelashes seemed a little moist, soaking the thin pillowcase.

He had thought that God had treated him poorly, but now it seemed ridiculous as a joke. It turned out that God had treated him well, but his heart was so thin that he saw everything in a dark light.

It's his bad.

He was shocked to realise that he had taken that path of no return, and he wanted to turn back at this moment; he wanted to spend the rest of his life making up for it, and the rest of his life paying it back, not knowing if by doing so he would still have time to get back to square one.

What Fairy Tramper, what emperor of the human world.

None of them are wanted.

He just wants to get on with his life and be the decent person Chu Wanning always wanted him to be.

Some people say that it is better to know your mistakes than to correct them.

But his faults run too deep.

He didn't know how long it would take to pay for it, and perhaps on the day he died, he would still not be free of this endless remorse. After all, a scratch in the water can return to peace, but a wound in the wood will always penetrate the bone.

"Master." After a long time, dipping into the moonlight, into Chu Wanning's almost transparent soul, he said, his voice like he was coaxing a child, "Come on, we're going back."

He straightened up and lifted the spirit-guiding lamp.

The incantation is recited silently, the earth soul enters the lamp, and the faint sparse shadow soon sinks into the pistil and dissipates without a trace.

Mo Ran waits.

But after waiting for a long time, the local soul and the human soul completely merged into one, and after another long time, there was still no movement.

Mo Ran's face suddenly went pale.

What's going on?

Wasn't it said that when the earth soul merged with the human soul, he would be able to bring Chu Wanning back to earth with him?

Master Huai Zui's spell, perhaps it has failed