Chapter 238: [Dragon Blood Mountain] Soulless

"What."

Mo Ran, startled, takes a half-step back, and would have knocked over the netting next to him if he hadn't been a mere figure in this picture of memory

Yandi: The sacred wood can recreate a living person

"The Yandi wood, the Nuwa earth and the Fuxi zither are the three divine weapons of the Three Emperors. With a piece of Yandi wood, even without Shennong God Tongtian's earthly power, it would not be difficult for me to shape a human being. Just as after the death of Shennong God Tongtian, his mother used the lotus root to recreate his body, I have finally made up my mind to take this piece of divine wood and carve it into the likeness of Little Prince Chu."

Mo Ran's eyes felt dizzy as the sky spun around.

Carved in the likeness of Chu Lan, the youngest son of Chu

Huai Zui said, "I want to return a son to my benefactor."

Mo Ran's throat was dry to the touch, as if something was blocking it, and it took half a day before he muttered, "Impossible."

In the painting, the Temple of No Mercy rings the evening bell and the twilight falls.

The tired birds are returning to their nests, and the monks are passing under the verandah with their robes flowing and their sleeves wide.

Before taking the Yandi sacred wood and reshaping it into a living figure, he had already carved hundreds of dolls until they looked exactly like the Chu Lan he remembered.

That evening, he finally took out the Yandi wood with care and, after a long and careful examination, made the first cut.

The wood shavings fluttered and fell to the ground and were scattered as gold dust.

With each stroke he carved down, he did his best, and with each stroke he carved down, the figures of those two deceased people were before him. A hundred years of time fell and fell beneath the carving knife, and the old monk buried his head so low that his neck seemed to have been crushed by his sins long ago.

"It took me five years in the temple to finally finish carving Chu Lan."

Mo Ran walks woodenly towards Huai Zui as he watches the monk slowly lower his carving knife, the last stroke of the brush, the remaining flecks of ash being brushed off by Huai Zui.

Huai Zui trembled as he rubbed over the wooden statue of a gentleman's face, his crown, and he cried, falling to his knees and bowing uncontrollably to the one wooden statue.

Mo Ran stares blankly at the small statue that sits on top of the table.

Divine wood for the body, guilt for the blade.

The small body is what Chu Wanning looked like as a child.

It was late in the evening, the bells were ringing, and only the last remnants of the bloody sun were left between heaven and earth, spilling in through the window pane and shining on the cases.

At sunset, the sound of bells was heard throughout the temple, and outside the courtyard, monks were burning cypress and pine leaves, the fragrance of which was tinged with a bitterness and coldness.

The night is approaching and the Zen garden is peaceful.

"Let's call you, Chu Wanning."

The last blow of the flood bell fell, and Huai Zui whispered to himself at the wooden statue.

He bit the tip of his finger and dropped a drop of blood full of metallic spiritual energy, and in an instant, the room was filled with a brilliant light.

Mo Ran's eyelashes fluttered and his eyes closed in the glow, his eyelids trembling uncontrollably as he tried to see everything in the light, but he could not see anything because of the teary eyes and the blinding light.

While being stabbed until his eyes were completely closed, Mo Ran was thinking

Chu Wanning knows all this already, how much his heart hurts!

Not a living person.

Without father or mother.

Just a dead wood and a drop of blood. Bewildered between heaven and earth, it has lived for more than thirty years.

"The sacred wood had a spirit, and after dripping its blood to become a human being, it really did take the form of Chu Lan's little son, just as I had hoped. I raised him in the monastery and took him as my disciple, and slowly he grew up and began to ask me about his own origins and where he came from."

Mo Ran saw Chu Wanning as a child sitting next to Master Huai Zui, eating a candy cane while asking, "Master, you keep saying that I was carried back from the snow by you, so where exactly did you carry me back"

Huai Zui's gaze was directed towards the distant mountains with their chilly décor, and he looked away for a moment before uttering two words as if with a sigh.

" Lin'an ."

"So I'm a Lin'an?"

"Hmm."

"But I've never been outside the monastery, I don't even know what Lin'an is like." Chu Wanning looked a little dejected, "Master, I want to go down and see the outside. I want to go and see Lin'an."

The visions fade, the Temple of No Mercy fades away and the sunny summer landscape of Jiangnan comes into view.

It is June, and the lotus flowers in the lotus pond are delicate and fragrant, and Chu Wanning, who is smaller than Xia Sini, is kicking and stomping along the stone path, followed by Huai Zui.

" Wangning, you walk slowly, be careful of falling."

Chu Wanning smiles and turns back to us.

There was a young, youthful, carefree smile that Mo Ran had never seen before.

"Yes, I'll wait for the Master."

At that time, Chu Wanning was dressed in a small green and grey monk's robe, with his hair untouched, tied in a small bun, and a lotus leaf on his head, which was still covered with some crystal dew, making Chu Wanning's face even more pure and clear.

Huai Zui walked up to him and took his hand: "Well, having seen Xizi Lake, where do you want to go next?"

"Go and get something to eat, will you?"

"Then," Huai Zui paused, "go to the city."

They went into town together, Mo Ran walking right beside them, and he looked at Chu Wanning on top of the lotus leaves, not even reaching his own knees, with a mixture of pity and sadness.

He reached out, knowing that he could not touch the person in the vision, but reached over and touched Chu Wanning's head.

"Hmm."

Unexpectedly, Chu Wanning suddenly stopped in his tracks at this touch.

Huai Zui asks amiably, "What's wrong?"

Chu Wanning looked up and tilted his face, his eyes were as clear as two springs in the sunlight, and they fell on Mo Ran without any prejudice.

Mo Ran was almost stunned, only to hear his heart thumping and his blood rushing.

He found it unbelievable, but secretly looked forward to

"What's that?"

Chu Wanning lets go of Huai Zui's hand and walks towards Mo Ran.

The more Mo Ran looked at him, the harder he felt. He had never seen such a carefree, detached Chu Wanning before, and he couldn't help but lean down and open his arms to embrace him.

But Chu Wanning passed right through his shadow.

Mo Ran froze for a moment and looked back to see the boy walking up to a dim sum shop behind him, watching with his head tilted as the stall owner lifted the bamboo cage and the smoke rose and steamed, revealing a pale pink flower cake inside.

Mo Ran was slightly relieved, and then a little disappointed.

Surely it's just a coincidence.

He followed Huai Zui over to him. Chu Wanning saw Huai Zui coming and smiled, "Master, this pastry, it looks delicious."

"Do you want a taste?"

"May I?"

Huai Zui's expression seems to be in a trance: "You all really like it"

Chu Wanning heard this and asked innocently, with slightly wide-open eyes, "Who all likes it?"

Huai Zui pursed his lips and said, "It's nothing. Master thought of an old friend."

He paid for three glutinous rice cakes and watched thoughtfully as Chu Wanning took a bite, the steam rising to blur the boy's face.

The past rolls by like a river.

Huai Zui sighs softly and closes his eyes.

Suddenly his sleeve was tugged and he looked down to see a pastry broken in half, the red bean paste inside delicately soft and smelling of heat and sweetness.

"Half for the Master, half for me. The big one goes to the Master."

"Why is the big one for me?"

"When you're tall, you eat a lot."

"" Mo Ran watched as Huai Zui took the pastry and stood with Chu Wanning, eating and talking at the stall. He was quiet for a moment, standing in the brilliant Lin'an sunlight and smiling slightly.

It hurts.

But then he felt the spring water flowing in his heart, and he felt that no one would not feel soft and fond towards such a Chu Wanning.

It was the best and most well behaved child in the world.

The exuberant sunlight in front of us fades again.

This time the new picture does not emerge immediately, and Mo Ran stands in the darkness, with Huai Zui's hollow, ghost-like voice in his ears.

"I spent all my days with him, teaching him to read, to read, to speak to him about the scriptures and to understand them. But my greatest concern was his spells I still have not forgotten that I made such a child myself in order to eventually return him to my benefactor. It was my intention from the beginning that when Chu Wanning grew up with his hair and his spiritual power and body could bear it, I would take him to the ghost world."

Huai Zui paused, his voice growing a little lower.

"Bring it over and melt the only remaining remnants of young Duke Chu Lan's soul into his body."

Mo Ran :""

Huai Zui said hoarsely, "I didn't think it was wrong to do so at that time. Chu Wanning was something he was not a real living person, he was just a piece of wood, a wooden sculpture, I gave him life and taught him the truths of the world, but in the end, it was not real blood that flowed in his body, nor was it real flesh that covered his muscles and bones."

Mo Ran, who was already upset, couldn't hold back when Huai Zui said this and he shouted, "No."

But what's the point?

Huai Zui could not hear his indignant retort, and the monk's voice continued to swirl like a whirlpool, swirling Mo Ran into a deeper and more painful vortex.

" Chu Wanning is superfluous, he has no life, no soul."

"No, why doesn't Shingi have a soul? He has a life, he has a soul... he's not anyone... he's not like anyone." Mo Ran hissed like a trapped animal in a vision. What's the difference?"

But Huai Zui is still murmuring to himself, like the numbness of chanting before the Buddha, a thousand words forged from his lips, not knowing whether he is really sincere in his rituals or just trying to numb the pain that is too intense in his heart.

"He is a physical body that I have carved for Chu Lan, and only when Chu Lan's soul takes up residence can Chu Wanning be considered a complete person."

Mo Ran was almost creeped out, he didn't know what was going on behind him, but he felt like he was going crazy, almost insane, he was running through the darkness, but everywhere was an abyss, nowhere was there an exit, he couldn't stop muttering under his breath, the muttering turned into a hiss, "No you can't destroy him, Huai Zui, he has a soul inside him, he's a living human being Ah."

He got down on his knees.

He was suddenly so scared, even more so than the revelation of the truth in his previous life.

He was suddenly afraid that he would next see Huai Zui take Chu Wanning to the ghost world, cut open his chest and fuse the spirit core with Chu Lan's soul.

What about the original Chu Wanning?

The spirit of the sacred wood of Chu Wanning will then leave, the six paths of reincarnation, he is a piece of broken wood, where can he go

Heavenly, underground, between the clouds, yellow springs.

Nowhere will he be wanted.

"No Huai Zui you can't" Mo Ran frightened, lips blue and white, "you can't"

How can there be no soul

How come it's not a living person

The child running and jumping along the road with a smile on his turquoise lotus leaf.

The child who carefully broke open the flower cake and gave the big one to his master and ate the small one for himself.

He is still so young, yet he is more affectionate and vocal than many.

He is no less than any being congealed in flesh and blood.

Why, not a living person

But Mo Ran's desperate pleas and shouts could not wake Huai Zui.

This is where Huai Zui's centuries-long heartache lies. He feels that he owes it to the Chu Xun family, and that he has gone through a lot of trouble to create such a righteous body, so how could he have misplaced it?

"As the days went by and Chu Wanning grew up, he was the reborn body of Chu Lan and I feared for his well-being more than I feared for myself. So for many years, I only took him to Lin'an for a few months when he was five or six years old, and then I never went outside the Temple of No Mercy."

Huai Zui sighed and continued, "Sometimes I wonder if he had seen so little of the world that he lived until he was fourteen years old and had never been anywhere but Lin'an.

The eyes finally lit up again.

It was a moonlit night when Mo Ran first saw Huai Zui standing at the door of his meditation room, looking out into the courtyard.

In the frosty moonlight, he saw the fourteen-year-old Chu Wanning dancing with his sword, the begonia blossoms flying, the young man in white looking like an immortal in the light of the petals and the cold moon.

Huai Zui's voice remains unbroken, haunting the ears along with the harsh sound of a sword breaking through the air.

"But I also think that it is good to see less. There are too many sufferings in the world, and if this divine wood spirit is destined to live only a short life of ten years or so, after which it will be replaced by Chu Lan, would it not be kinder to live an easy, frank and open life, unaware of the sufferings of the red earth"

After the sword dance.

Remnant flowers fall.

Chu Wanning puts his long sword behind his arm and with his other hand, his fingers up, he concentrates.

He calms his slightly rapid breathing, looks up, sees Huai Zui looking at him and smiles.

The evening breeze tickled his forehead and he blew gently to try and get rid of the strands of hair that kept tickling his cheeks, but it was clearly useless, so he finally had to run his hands through it, his dark phoenix eyes smiling back at Huai Zui.

That is also the direction in which Mo Ran is standing.

"Master."

"Hmm. Not bad." Huai Zui nodded, "Come here, I'll test how well your spirit core is cultivated today."

Chu Wanning came over to him without question, smoothing out his white sleeves and handing Huai Zui his hand.

At the first test, Huai Zui said, "It's very strong, but it's still a bit unstable, so practice more and you should have a great success before winter."

Chu Wanning then smiled and said, "Thank you very much, Master."

When he said this, I don't know if it was an illusion, but Mo Ran saw Huai Zui's shoulders, which seemed to tremble slightly.

But Huai Zui ultimately said nothing, showed nothing, and changed nothing.

He turned and went into the house.

Mo Ran stood still, no longer looking at Huai Zui inside the house, but looking with great desire, urgency and greed at Chu Wanning, a young man who would disappear at some point.

It is still clean, pure, even gentle.

How can such a man be soulless?

His gaze dropped and he caught a glimpse of Chu Wanning's heaving chest beneath her white bodice.

Mo Ran suddenly remembered something, and suddenly felt a thunderclap, as if a huge stone had fallen on his chest, stirring up a thousand layers of shock.

"No no."

He took a step back.

But what can be done?

The memory had reached out with hideous fingers and claws and seized into his guts.

He remembered that Chu Wanning had a scar on his chest.

He was caved in he he

Mo Ran shuddered as Chu Wanning danced his sword and stepped on flying flowers under the moon in front of him.

So handsome.

But he felt as if a bucket of ice had fallen in his stomach, and he felt nothing but shivers.

He had his chest cut open

So did Huai Zui really do it in the end?

He really took Chu Wanning to the ghost world and fused pieces of Chu Lan's soul into Chu Wanning's heart, so the original Chu Wanning is long gone, so

He clutched his head as he sat curled up on the ground.

He shivered, not daring to think about it any further.

Ouch.

Heart hurts so much.

I would rather it was myself who had my heart ripped out, and I would rather it was myself who had been stripped of my initial soul.

Chu Wanning.

He's so good.

Why should one suffer so much and end up with the sentence of "not a living person" and be treated by the living as a lifeless shell to carry another life?

And who was the master he worshipped?

Chu Lan, or Chu Wanning

Mo Ran just felt like he was going crazy, his head was pounding, he even felt dizzy and nauseous, and he didn't know how long he had been sitting where he was.

Then it became dark and the meditation room and the flowering trees disappeared.

Chu Wanning also faded away.

Huai Zui's voice flows slowly through the darkness.

He said, "When Chu Wanning was fourteen, the time was ripe for me to take him to the ghost world and merge him with Chu Lan in another year."