The Husky and His White Cat Shizun - Chap 108
Mo Ran followed Chu Yunsheng upstairs in confusion. His feet made a strange creaking sound when he stepped on the dilapidated wooden stairs. He couldn’t help but ask, “You called him Mr. Chu?”
“Yes, he was sent by the King of Hell to take care of this building. He is our senior.”
“… …”
Mo Ran didn’t say anything, but he was a little surprised in his heart.
“We’re here.” The masked man stopped in front of a half-moon arched door on the second floor. He gently knocked on the half-closed vermilion door. “Mr. Chu, an old friend of yours is here to see you.”
There was a moment of silence inside, and then a gentle voice sounded, like warm wine on the stove and soft hair on the pillow.
“Old friend? Him again? I said that I don’t want to see him again. You let him go back. ”
The masked man coughed softly. “No, Mr. Chu misunderstood. It’s not him this time.”
“Then who else could it be?” After a moment of silence, he said, “Well, please come in.”
The inside of the warm room was very elegant and clean. The furnishings of the tables and chairs were even simple and cold. However, the floor was covered with luxurious soft felt. When Mo Ran walked in, half of his foot was immediately submerged in it. There was also a pungent smell of beast fur in the air. The only one who didn’t fit in with this atmosphere was the man trimming the flowers by the window.
He had long black hair, white clothes with wide sleeves, and scarlet flower buds trembling on his fingertips. Perhaps because of the consistent rules of Shun Feng Restaurant, he also wore a navy blue ghost mask on his face, showing his fierce fangs and bulging eyes. But even with such a mask on his face, it inexplicably made him look gentle.
He cut off the excess branches and threw them away. Then he turned his head.
Mo Ran felt his throat dry. The conversation between the masked man and Chu Wanning just now made him feel confused and vaguely uneasy. He didn’t know what this soul had lost. If Chu Wanning didn’t remember him …
Just as he was thinking about this, the man put down the scissors and walked towards him.
Mo Ran, who was not afraid of anything, felt a little flustered, and sweat appeared on his back.
“Master.”
The man stopped. He was a little closer. Mo Ran heard him laugh.
“What Shizun?” He said, “Young Master, did you get the wrong person?”
As expected …
What he was afraid of had come true.
Mo Ran’s heart skipped a beat. It was as if a huge rock had fallen from his chest, dragging him into an endless abyss. He stared blankly at the man in front of him, momentarily at a loss for words.
Seeing that he didn’t respond, the man put his slender white hand on the mask and gently took off the thick and colorful ghost face, revealing Zhang Qingjun’s dignified face.
Mo Ran felt as if the thousand-catty boulder had suddenly disappeared.
He looked at the man who had taken off his mask in surprise, but without the slightest suspicion, and blurted out, “Chu Xun?”
No wonder the young master downstairs made a mistake with the portrait. Chu Xun and Chu Wanning originally looked 80% alike, but Chu Xun was gentle while Chu Wanning was cold. However, only those who were extremely familiar with him could tell the difference between the two of them.
For example, Mo Ran.
The man in front of him was the Lin ‘an City’s Young Master Chu Xun he had seen in the illusion more than two hundred years ago, so he said his name without thinking.
But the real Chu Xun had never seen him before, so he was a little surprised. He laughed, “… You really know me?”
Mo Ran hurriedly waved his hand, “No, no, I found the wrong person. But I do know you … “As he spoke, he looked at the other person curiously. Chu Xun had died a hundred years ago, but he hadn’t been reincarnated yet. Obviously, Yama had given him a task to temporarily let him escape from reincarnation.
He didn’t expect to see Chu Wanning’s ancestor. Mo Ran only felt that it was very mysterious.
Chu Xun nodded, “So that’s how it is.” He laughed, “Young Master, who are you looking for? Since fate brought us upstairs, I’ll help you look. Otherwise, in the vast Nanke Village with thousands of ghosts, I don’t know how long it will take to find him. ”
Mo Ran originally planned to explain a few words and go downstairs to find someone to do the divination again. Who knew that Chu Xun was so warm-hearted that he didn’t change even after becoming a ghost, and was willing to help him personally. He couldn’t help but feel very happy, “That’s great. Thank you, Mr. Chu! ”
As he spoke, he handed the portrait to Chu Xun.
Chu Xun unfolded it and smiled, “No wonder the people downstairs made a mistake. He really does look like me. What’s his name? ”
“Chu Wanning.” Mo Ran said, “His name is Chu Wanning.”
“Also surnamed Chu? … What a coincidence. ”
Mo Ran’s heart skipped a beat, and he asked, “Could it be Mr. Chu’s relative?”
“It’s hard to say. If you want to see the state of the world of the living, you need to go to the Ninth King of the Ghost World. I … have a life and death feud with the Ninth King. I didn’t want to ask him, so I didn’t ask about the affairs of the mortal world anymore. ”
Naturally, he was talking about the Ghost King who broke the enchantment of Lin ‘an and killed his family. Poking at a sore spot, even a person as calm as him couldn’t help but feel a little awkward.
Mo Ran originally thought that this time he could confirm the relationship between Chu Wanning and Chu Xun, but he didn’t expect it to be like this. He could only shake his head, “It’s a pity.”
Chu Xun smiled and didn’t say anything else. He went to the shelf and took a gilded Yin and Yang compass, and invited Mo Ran to sit down.
“You can use this to find where he is?”
“Most likely.”
“What’s the situation with the other two?”
“Some people’s souls are always a little strange, it’s possible that you can’t find them.” Chu Xun said, “But it’s not common, the young master shouldn’t be so unlucky.”
After the divination, a small golden needle in the compass pointed to the north, but after a while, it turned to the south, then to the east, then to the west, and in the end it started to spin again.
Chu Xun, “…”
Mo Ran cautiously asked, “How is it?”
“Cough.” Chu Xun coughed lightly, looking a little embarrassed, “The young master … is indeed a little unlucky.”
Mo Ran, “…”
In fact, Mo Ran’s luck was often bad, he knew that it wouldn’t be so smooth. He sighed, thanked Chu Xun, and prepared to throw himself into the sea of people again to continue to search for Chu Wanning’s whereabouts.
Unexpectedly, at this time, the compass that was spinning crazily suddenly stopped, the needle pointed to a certain direction, trembling, as if it wasn’t so sure. After a while, it pointed to a position a little further away.
Chu Xun hurriedly called him, “Young master, wait a little longer.”
Mo Ran immediately stopped, and held his breath as he stared at the compass by the table. The needle swayed left and right, but it didn’t stop, but it roughly pointed to a direction.
Chu Xun frowned, “What’s going on …”
“Does this represent some kind of strange phenomenon?”
“It’s not a strange phenomenon, but it’s very strange.” Chu Xun looked at the compass, and his frown deepened, “It seems that in two directions, there’s his figure?”
Mo Ran was shocked.
How could it be?
Now that his soul was in Chu Wanning’s body, and his soul was in the Soul Guiding Lamp, there should only be one soul left in the Ghost Realm, how could Chu Wanning appear in two places at the same time?
Chu Xun said, “In short, one is in the Southeast, and the other is in the Northeast, the young master should go and look for them, maybe the compass is affected by some magic, it’s hard to say.”
Mo Ran was very anxious, he thanked Chu Xun, and hurriedly left Shunfeng Brothel, running to the East.
After running for a long time, he suddenly came to a fork in the road, Mo Ran suddenly stopped.
Southeast or Northeast?
He held the Soul Guiding Lamp, his heart burning with anxiety, but after a while, he looked at the lantern in his hand that gathered the souls, and his heart suddenly seemed to have a vague and strange feeling.
He followed this vague feeling and walked along the narrow streets and deep alleys that crisscrossed with each other.
The further he went, the more obvious this feeling was.
He even felt that Chu Wanning’s soul, was invisibly summoning the Soul Guiding Lamp in his hand, or calling him to go to a certain place.
Mo Ran finally stopped in front of a two-story old wooden building.
“Sick Soul Hospital.”
He looked up, his eyes sweeping across the huge and heavy hanging plaque. The plaque was exposed to the wind and sun all day long, the black paint had already peeled off, and a large piece of the red inscription on it had lost a lot of color, revealing the mottled rotten wood underneath.
Mo Ran frowned, his heart trembling, he felt that these three words made him very uneasy.
Sick Soul … what does it mean?
Chu Xun’s compass malfunctioned, was it because of this reason?
He pushed open the door, stepped over the high threshold, and walked in.
He soon knew the answer.
There were a few hundred beds in the Sickly Soul Hospital, and all the souls lying on them were unconscious souls. More than ten souls wearing white masks shuttled back and forth, delivering spiritual energy to the sickly beds.
The so-called Sick Soul Hospital was the Ghost Realm’s main hospital.
Mo Ran found the Ghost Doctor, who was in charge of overseeing the entire situation, and cupped his hands to him, saying, “Doctor, I want to …”
The doctor was very busy, and rather impatiently said, “Get medicine on the second floor, diagnosis on the left, line up.”
“Then what about searching for people?”
“Searching for people goes … what? Searching for people? ”
Mo Ran showed him the picture scroll, “Doctor, have you seen this Immortal Monarch before?”
The Ghost Doctor took the picture scroll and looked at it, then raised his head to look at Mo Ran. Under the black hole of the mask, a pair of eyes seemed to be filled with pity, “Your relative?”
“Un, that’s right.”
“His soul is damaged.” The Ghost Doctor pointed at the stairs, “He’s lying in the innermost compartment upstairs. We can’t cure this kind of illness, so we can only delay it, you can go find him yourself. ”
Mo Ran was shocked, “His soul is damaged? How could it be damaged? ”
“Who knows? The Six Paths of Reincarnation is already an extremely painful thing, who knows, his soul might have been damaged during his previous reincarnations, but he’s a cultivator in this life, so who knows, he might have suffered from qi deviation and damaged his soul. In short, it’s incomplete. If you ask me, who would I ask? ”
Mo Ran anxiously said, “Then … then what will happen if his soul is damaged?”
“Affect?” The Ghost Doctor thought for a moment, “It’s still alright, after all, only one of the three souls is slightly incomplete, so it won’t affect his reincarnation. If you really want to talk about something … it’s probably just that his next life will be shorter, his luck will be worse, or his body will be weaker. ”
“…” When Mo Ran heard this, although he was somewhat unwilling, there was nothing he could do, so he could only thank the Ghost Doctor and head upstairs.
The layout above was not as tight and tight as below, making it hard to breathe.
Perhaps it was because the Sick Soul Hospital was unable to save the remnant souls, so they didn’t need too much care. Only a single doctor was leisurely taking a nap on a rattan chair in the lobby.
Mo Ran didn’t wake him up, and directly walked inside.
In the large empty space, there were only ten or twenty sickbeds placed next to the windows made of red rosewood, and between them was a plain-colored screen.
It was quiet all around.
His feet creaked as he stepped on the floor, and Mo Ran’s gaze fell on the innermost compartment, where there was a half-moon shaped arched door. Outside the arched door was an open-air balcony, and the moonlight seeped in through the hanging thin gauze curtains, swaying gently in the breeze.
There were clearly more than twenty sick souls here, but Mo Ran didn’t know why, but he had a strong feeling.
Perhaps it was because the Soul Guiding Lantern was leading him forward, but his heart was unguarded, and he walked towards the innermost compartment, into the pure and hazy moonlight.
He raised his hand and pulled open the curtain.
As expected, the last piece of Chu Wanning’s soul was lying there. His eyes were closed, and his face was very pale, very similar to the corpse in Frosty Sky Hall.
Even though he had found him, even though his rebirth was in sight, Mo Ran couldn’t help but feel pain in his heart when he saw this blood-stained, cold, and frail figure. The tip of his nose felt sour.
He walked over and placed the Soul Guiding Lantern at the head of the bed.
Then he sat beside the bed of Chu Wanning’s earth soul, wanting to gently grasp the other’s ice-cold hand.
But this remnant soul was different from the human soul from before. Perhaps it was because it had been greatly damaged, but his soul was actually illusory. Mo Ran’s fingertips couldn’t touch him, and just like that, they passed through the illusory image of Chu Wanning’s earth soul, and landed on the spotlessly white bed.
Because of this illusory image, Mo Ran felt a bitter sense of loss.
If there had been the slightest mistake, if Grandmaster Huaizui had never appeared, if Chu Wanning’s soul had been a little more damaged, if Master had been disheartened, and they had not met in heaven or on earth …
He lowered his body. He clearly knew that he couldn’t touch Chu Wanning’s forehead, but he still couldn’t help it. He closed his eyes, as if he wanted to embrace that illusory earth soul, and leaned over the bed.
“Master.”
He and his departed soul overlapped, and the moonlight sprinkled down, making no distinction between you and me.
Mo Ran sighed and let out a long breath, but his heart was bitter and heavy.
He had seen Chu Wanning’s corpse, Chu Wanning’s human soul, and now he had seen this sick earth soul. Each time he saw them, his feelings were different. He knelt down in front of the corpse, his sin and guilt almost tearing him apart. He confessed in front of the human soul, holding hands and begging Chu Wanning to return.
And the earth soul.
He tried to embrace it, but he couldn’t grab anything, couldn’t touch anything. He suddenly felt a kind of boundless fear in his heart, and actually felt that this was the ending he deserved.
He was full of resentment, and his hands were stained with blood. What virtue and ability did he have to be able to accompany his old friend and never leave?
Mo Ran closed his eyes. His eyelashes seemed to be a little wet, warming the thin blanket on the pillow.
He had once thought that the heavens had treated him poorly, but now, it seemed like a ridiculous joke. It turned out that the truth was not so. The heavens had treated him well, but his heart was too thin, and everything he saw was dark.
It was his fault.
He suddenly realized that he had walked such a path of no return. He wanted to turn back now, he wanted to use the rest of his life to make up for it, to use the rest of his life to pay it back. He didn’t know if doing this, he could return to the starting point in time.
What Emperor Ta? What Emperor Ta of the Human Realm?
He didn’t want any of it.
He just wanted to live a good life, to be the upright person that Chu Wanning had always wanted him to be.
Some people said that there was nothing greater than knowing one’s mistakes.
But his mistake was too deep.
He didn’t know how long it would take for him to pay it back. Perhaps even on the day of his death, he would still be unable to shake off this endless regret. After all, a mark in the water could be restored to peace, but a wound in the wood would always be three parts of the bone.
“Shizun.” After a long time, he was immersed in Chu Wanning’s almost transparent soul under the moonlight. He said, his voice like he was coaxing a child, “Come on, let’s go back.”
He straightened up and lifted the Spirit Guiding Lamp.
He silently recited the incantation, and the Earth Soul entered the lamp. A faint shadow quickly sank into the wick of the lamp and disappeared without a trace.
Mo Ran waited.
But after waiting for a long time, the Earth Soul and the Human Soul completely merged into one. After a long time, there was still no movement.
Mo Ran’s face suddenly paled.
What happened?!
Didn’t they say that after the Earth Soul and the Human Soul merged, he would be able to bring Chu Wanning back to the human world?
Could it be that Master Huaizui’s incantation had lost its effect?!
