Chapter 22
Purple petals fluttered in the space. They lingered and were very enchanting. In trance Ling Xi saw the endless sea of lotus flower from Cangjia Mountain. It was also purple. That sea of flowers was beautiful, clean and dust-free. The petals of these jacarandas were an astonishingly purple as if they had gathered the most brilliant colors in the world.
“Does big brother like jacarandas very much?” Ling Xi asked smilingly. In a blink of an eye, the person next to her lay sideways on a trunk of jacaranda. The sun on the red clothes was burning to the eyes.
“This deity doesn’t have a little sister.” High-tiered deity Donghua closed his eyes. There was a smile on his mouth. Ling Xi didn’t know whether he was enjoying the warmth of the sun or the delightful flower fragrance.
Ling Xi lowered her head and looked at the jacaranda petals under her feet without saying a word.
“Big brother, you can save eldest senior brother, right?” Ling Xi looked up and a smile was on her face again.
High-tiered deity Donghua raised an eyebrow and said, “If this deity is unhappy, this deity can let him become scattered ashes and dispersed smoke at any time.”
Scattered ashes and dispersed smoke: annihilatedLing Xi’s eyes got red. She lowered her head again. After a long, she took two steps back, knelt and paid her respect. She struggled to suppress her choked voice, “Cangjia Mountain’s disciple of the 397th generation under Cang Yu Ling Xi greets high-tiered deity Donghua.”
Only now did the smile return on high-tiered deity Donghua. He looked at Ling Xi with narrowed eyes and praised, “This is what the interesting little girl should be like.”
Ling Xi knelt on the ground and continued, “High-tiered deity must’ve heard that when Ling Xi was young, Ling Xi caused a big trouble. This time that Ling Xi got the opportunity to see high-tiered deity, Ling Xi asks high-tiered deity to be benevolent and save eldest senior brother’s life.”
When Ling Xi finished, she kowtowed hard. She heard high-tiered deity Donghua laugh, “If this deity doesn’t save him, then this deity can’t bear the word “benevolent”?”
Ling Xi got anxious and cried, “Big brother…” Before she finished, a touch of warmth touched her face. The tears on her cheeks disappeared. High-tiered deity Donghua was in front of her and smiled like a peach blossom in spring, “This deity was only joking with you.”
“How old are you?” High-tiered deity Donghua asked.
“Sixteen.”
“Hmm…” High-tiered deity Donghua smiled and said, “You are not little anymore. This deity doesn’t like crying little girls.”
Ling Xi quickly wiped away the remaining tears at the corners of her eyes. She took a few deep breaths and knelt quietly on the ground.
“Get up.”
Ling Xi stood up.
“You want to save Feng Shu?” He asked.
Ling Xi nodded, looked up and saw that he was smiling softly, but it was like a thin layer of mist that one couldn’t see through it. Only that seductive red clothes became the most dazzling embellishment in this sea of purple flowers.
“Do you want to have a look at him first?” He asked again with some enticement in his voice.
Ling Xi looked at him expectantly, “Can I?”
High-tiered deity Donghua smiled faintly. He turned and casted a spell with his hand. The silver mirror that had been in his cuff rose into the air and rotated slowly.
Ling Xi watched as the silver mirror grew bigger and turned faster and faster. She didn’t dare to blink.
The silver mirror caused a whirlwind. With its rotation, the wind became more and more powerful and made the jacaranda petals rise from the ground. The purple petals hovered around the silver mirror as if to weave an airtight robe, wrap it and devour it.
Ling Xi moved unconsciously and grabbed the jacaranda tree nearest to her for fear to be blown away by the strong wind.
The purple jacarandas got thicker and thicker along with the flying petals and the red clothes of high-tiered deity Donghua.
The wind was getting stronger and stronger and didn’t seem to be stopping at all. Ling Xi no longer looked at the silver mirror. All her strength was used on her hand. When she felt that she could no longer hold it together, she yelled, “Big brother!”
The wind didn’t stop and high-tiered deity Donghua also didn’t look at her. Ling Xi felt that her whole body was weightless like leaves that were blown by the wind. The silver mirror seemed to have caught sight of Ling Xi. The whirlwind hit her again.
Could it be that the silver mirror wanted to eat her?
In the panic, Ling Xi blurted, “Nan Zhi!”
The fragrance of the jacarandas in her nose had been covered by the fragrance of Chinese roses. Ling Xi’s body finally had a focus. Her arms tightly locked on the body that embraced her.
Despite knowing that he had disappeared for a few days, but at a desperate moment, the two words “Nan Zhi” came out unconsciously. And he, he truly appeared.
Ling Xi opened her eyes slowly and saw that he had pulled her into his embrace and she was protected inside a spell. The wind on the outside was still going on, but it no longer interfered with her.
“Look at the silver mirror,” Nan Zhi said suddenly.
Ling Xi looked up and saw that the spiritual mirror had become the size of half a human and had slowly stopped turning. When it was completely still, Ling Xi looked at it closely. She saw the scattered pieces of a soul floating in the mirror like the petals floating around her. Gradually, they came together and became a person’s face.
Ling Xi’s eyes got red and she stared at that person.
He was still dressed in white without any dust. His body was thin like a piece of paper. His black eyes were dim and dull and stared blankly at Ling Xi.
“Eldest…eldest…senior…” Ling Xi’s whole body trembled. She trembled so much that she couldn’t speak a whole sentence.
The person in the mirror gradually pieced together into a whole person. There seemed to be some beam of lights in his eyes. His lips curved when he looked at Ling Xi and he smiled, “Xi er…”
Er: term of endearmentWith only these two words, the violent wind stopped. The petals flew slowly. The soul that had just been pieced together in the mirror burst in flash. The silver mirror hit the ground. The sound of that hit at Ling Xi’s heart.
The tears in her eyes hadn’t fallen yet, the emotions in her heart hadn’t calmed down yet and she didn’t had time to look carefully at eldest senior brother’s face. Ling Xi seemed to have returned to the night of three years ago.
That soul-like person shattered into pieces before her eyes, tearing her heart apart.
Ling Xi froze. She didn’t cry nor shout. She only closed her eyes and snuggled in Nan Zhi’s arms.
“His soul is incomplete and he received a palm from Cang Yu when he was seriously injured. It was already lucky that he didn’t scatter into ashes and disperse into smoke on spot.” High-tiered deity Donghua put away the silver mirror and said with a smile, “If you thought that this deity could let him return with a complete soul with a flick of my finger, you thought too highly of this deity.”
Ling Xi clutched her chest, breathed hard and forced away the tears that was about to fall. She knelt and kowtowed, “Ling Xi asks high-tiered deity for guidance.”
High-tiered Donghua casted her a sidelong glance. His gaze turned and fell on Nan Zhi, “You broke your promise.”
Nan Zhi was expressionless and didn’t say a world. When he saw that Ling Xi was still kowtowing on the ground, he frowned and wanted to pull her up.
“We had an agreement. This deity will help you cultivate a human body, you will listen to this deity’s commands. This deity didn’t let you appear,” High-tiered deity Donghua said with raised eyebrow.
Ling Xi was startled. Only now did she realize that the Nan Zhi by her side was no longer the Nan Zhi who only had a human form that she couldn’t touch. From the moment he appeared, he was in a human body. She could hold him, could snuggle in his arms and could hold his hand.
“Really? I don’t remember.” Nan Zhi was expressionless.
“You want to go back on your words?” High-tiered deity Donghua smiled with an implication. “Are you not afraid that this deity will take back that human body?”
“If you have the ability, then take it!” Nan Zhi pulled up Ling Xi with great force and protected her behind him. Sharp aura was all over his body.
“Haha…” High-tiered deity Donghua suddenly burst into laughter. “Good! Break a promise and go back on your words. This deity likes it very much!”
Originally, Ling Xi was worried that Nan Zhi would fight with him. She got confused. She had to admit that high-tiered deity Donghua was indeed…different from ordinary people…
“If you want to save Feng Shu, it will only succeed if you have the Soul-Locking water in the netherworld, Soul-Suppressing pearl at the Eastern Sea, Cangjia’s spiritual object as guide and with me performing the spell.” High-tiered deity Donghua said laughingly, “Since you want to save Cangjia Mountain’s precious eldest senior brother, naturally, you don’t have to worry about the Cangjia’s spiritual object. It is just that ordinary people wouldn’t be able to get that Soul-Locking water and Soul-Suppressing pearl. You have to personally go to the netherworld and Eastern Sea.”
Ling Xi saw that he truly didn’t want to keep bothering with Nan Zhi, she asked with courage, “Ling Xi’s cultivation is shallow, the netherworld…presumably…”
Among the six realms, the heaven realm is the most powerful. The gods could travel through every realm. The mortal realm is the weakest and is constantly disturbed by the other realms. The others, demons, devils and immortals wouldn’t interfere with each other. Just by the name, one would know that the Soul-Locking water was not an ordinary thing. To get it on one person’s ability…Ling Xi didn’t need to think about it. She knew that with her capability, the moment her toe stepped into the netherworld, she would be encircled by the ghosts.
“The netherworld?” High-tiered deity Donghua raised an eyebrow and smiled, “The thing you should be worried about is not the netherworld, but…” He swept a glance at Nan Zhi. Then, he laughed more joyously, “Since you don’t dare to go, then, let Feng Shu stay peacefully in the mirror.”
“I will go!” Ling Xi said quickly.
“Don’t speak so soon. This deity is not very benevolent. Even if you are able to gather those three things, this deity may not perform the spell.”
“Ling Xi had a slip of tongue before. Asking high-tiered deity to not take offense and help Ling Xi,” Ling Xi knelt again.
“You are truly a cute girl…” High-tiered deity Donghua laughed again, “But you have to promise this deity one thing first.”
Ling Xi stared at high-tiered deity Donghua who smiled impeccably. She hesitated slightly and asked, “What?”
“Will you be like him…” High-tiered deity looked at Nan Zhi, “Break your promise and go back on your words?”
“Ling Xi…doesn’t dare.”
“Right.” High-tiered deity raised an eyebrow.
When he didn’t spoke for a long time, Ling Xi kowtowed again, “Asking high-tiered deity to help Ling Xi!”
After a long while did high-tiered deity Donghua said slowly, “Eventually, you have to go to the netherworld…”
He looked up at the large and small apertures floating above the jacarandas. “This deity had been alive for thousands of years and is very bored. The only hobby is to collect people’s memories to pass time. How about you help me get someone’s memory from the River of Forgetfulness?”
The River of Forgetfulness also translated as the River of Oblivion by others is a river in the Chinese Mythology. Souls have to drink Madam Meng’s soup made from the water of the river that will enable them to forget the present lifetime and reincarnate into the next with no memories of this lifetime. In this book, the River of Forgetfulness also traps the memories in its water.Ling Xi exhaled slightly. This was not a difficult task. Just a scoop from the River of Forgetfulness would contain the memories of ten people.
“Her name is Jian Ying.” High-tiered deity Donghua looked at Ling Xi. His smile has disappeared and his eyes were deep like a pond. He said, “The owner of the memories is called Jian Ying.”
Chapter 22
Purple petals fluttered in the space. They lingered and were very enchanting. In trance Ling Xi saw the endless sea of lotus flower from Cangjia Mountain. It was also purple. That sea of flowers was beautiful, clean and dust-free. The petals of these jacarandas were an astonishingly purple as if they had gathered the most brilliant colors in the world.
“Does big brother like jacarandas very much?” Ling Xi asked smilingly. In a blink of an eye, the person next to her lay sideways on a trunk of jacaranda. The sun on the red clothes was burning to the eyes.
“This deity doesn’t have a little sister.” High-tiered deity Donghua closed his eyes. There was a smile on his mouth. Ling Xi didn’t know whether he was enjoying the warmth of the sun or the delightful flower fragrance.
Ling Xi lowered her head and looked at the jacaranda petals under her feet without saying a word.
“Big brother, you can save eldest senior brother, right?” Ling Xi looked up and a smile was on her face again.
High-tiered deity Donghua raised an eyebrow and said, “If this deity is unhappy, this deity can let him become scattered ashes and dispersed smoke at any time.”
Scattered ashes and dispersed smoke: annihilatedLing Xi’s eyes got red. She lowered her head again. After a long, she took two steps back, knelt and paid her respect. She struggled to suppress her choked voice, “Cangjia Mountain’s disciple of the 397th generation under Cang Yu Ling Xi greets high-tiered deity Donghua.”
Only now did the smile return on high-tiered deity Donghua. He looked at Ling Xi with narrowed eyes and praised, “This is what the interesting little girl should be like.”
Ling Xi knelt on the ground and continued, “High-tiered deity must’ve heard that when Ling Xi was young, Ling Xi caused a big trouble. This time that Ling Xi got the opportunity to see high-tiered deity, Ling Xi asks high-tiered deity to be benevolent and save eldest senior brother’s life.”
When Ling Xi finished, she kowtowed hard. She heard high-tiered deity Donghua laugh, “If this deity doesn’t save him, then this deity can’t bear the word “benevolent”?”
Ling Xi got anxious and cried, “Big brother…” Before she finished, a touch of warmth touched her face. The tears on her cheeks disappeared. High-tiered deity Donghua was in front of her and smiled like a peach blossom in spring, “This deity was only joking with you.”
“How old are you?” High-tiered deity Donghua asked.
“Sixteen.”
“Hmm…” High-tiered deity Donghua smiled and said, “You are not little anymore. This deity doesn’t like crying little girls.”
Ling Xi quickly wiped away the remaining tears at the corners of her eyes. She took a few deep breaths and knelt quietly on the ground.
“Get up.”
Ling Xi stood up.
“You want to save Feng Shu?” He asked.
Ling Xi nodded, looked up and saw that he was smiling softly, but it was like a thin layer of mist that one couldn’t see through it. Only that seductive red clothes became the most dazzling embellishment in this sea of purple flowers.
“Do you want to have a look at him first?” He asked again with some enticement in his voice.
Ling Xi looked at him expectantly, “Can I?”
High-tiered deity Donghua smiled faintly. He turned and casted a spell with his hand. The silver mirror that had been in his cuff rose into the air and rotated slowly.
Ling Xi watched as the silver mirror grew bigger and turned faster and faster. She didn’t dare to blink.
The silver mirror caused a whirlwind. With its rotation, the wind became more and more powerful and made the jacaranda petals rise from the ground. The purple petals hovered around the silver mirror as if to weave an airtight robe, wrap it and devour it.
Ling Xi moved unconsciously and grabbed the jacaranda tree nearest to her for fear to be blown away by the strong wind.
The purple jacarandas got thicker and thicker along with the flying petals and the red clothes of high-tiered deity Donghua.
The wind was getting stronger and stronger and didn’t seem to be stopping at all. Ling Xi no longer looked at the silver mirror. All her strength was used on her hand. When she felt that she could no longer hold it together, she yelled, “Big brother!”
The wind didn’t stop and high-tiered deity Donghua also didn’t look at her. Ling Xi felt that her whole body was weightless like leaves that were blown by the wind. The silver mirror seemed to have caught sight of Ling Xi. The whirlwind hit her again.
Could it be that the silver mirror wanted to eat her?
In the panic, Ling Xi blurted, “Nan Zhi!”
The fragrance of the jacarandas in her nose had been covered by the fragrance of Chinese roses. Ling Xi’s body finally had a focus. Her arms tightly locked on the body that embraced her.
Despite knowing that he had disappeared for a few days, but at a desperate moment, the two words “Nan Zhi” came out unconsciously. And he, he truly appeared.
Ling Xi opened her eyes slowly and saw that he had pulled her into his embrace and she was protected inside a spell. The wind on the outside was still going on, but it no longer interfered with her.
“Look at the silver mirror,” Nan Zhi said suddenly.
Ling Xi looked up and saw that the spiritual mirror had become the size of half a human and had slowly stopped turning. When it was completely still, Ling Xi looked at it closely. She saw the scattered pieces of a soul floating in the mirror like the petals floating around her. Gradually, they came together and became a person’s face.
Ling Xi’s eyes got red and she stared at that person.
He was still dressed in white without any dust. His body was thin like a piece of paper. His black eyes were dim and dull and stared blankly at Ling Xi.
“Eldest…eldest…senior…” Ling Xi’s whole body trembled. She trembled so much that she couldn’t speak a whole sentence.
The person in the mirror gradually pieced together into a whole person. There seemed to be some beam of lights in his eyes. His lips curved when he looked at Ling Xi and he smiled, “Xi er…”
Er: term of endearmentWith only these two words, the violent wind stopped. The petals flew slowly. The soul that had just been pieced together in the mirror burst in flash. The silver mirror hit the ground. The sound of that hit at Ling Xi’s heart.
The tears in her eyes hadn’t fallen yet, the emotions in her heart hadn’t calmed down yet and she didn’t had time to look carefully at eldest senior brother’s face. Ling Xi seemed to have returned to the night of three years ago.
That soul-like person shattered into pieces before her eyes, tearing her heart apart.
Ling Xi froze. She didn’t cry nor shout. She only closed her eyes and snuggled in Nan Zhi’s arms.
“His soul is incomplete and he received a palm from Cang Yu when he was seriously injured. It was already lucky that he didn’t scatter into ashes and disperse into smoke on spot.” High-tiered deity Donghua put away the silver mirror and said with a smile, “If you thought that this deity could let him return with a complete soul with a flick of my finger, you thought too highly of this deity.”
Ling Xi clutched her chest, breathed hard and forced away the tears that was about to fall. She knelt and kowtowed, “Ling Xi asks high-tiered deity for guidance.”
High-tiered Donghua casted her a sidelong glance. His gaze turned and fell on Nan Zhi, “You broke your promise.”
Nan Zhi was expressionless and didn’t say a world. When he saw that Ling Xi was still kowtowing on the ground, he frowned and wanted to pull her up.
“We had an agreement. This deity will help you cultivate a human body, you will listen to this deity’s commands. This deity didn’t let you appear,” High-tiered deity Donghua said with raised eyebrow.
Ling Xi was startled. Only now did she realize that the Nan Zhi by her side was no longer the Nan Zhi who only had a human form that she couldn’t touch. From the moment he appeared, he was in a human body. She could hold him, could snuggle in his arms and could hold his hand.
“Really? I don’t remember.” Nan Zhi was expressionless.
“You want to go back on your words?” High-tiered deity Donghua smiled with an implication. “Are you not afraid that this deity will take back that human body?”
“If you have the ability, then take it!” Nan Zhi pulled up Ling Xi with great force and protected her behind him. Sharp aura was all over his body.
“Haha…” High-tiered deity Donghua suddenly burst into laughter. “Good! Break a promise and go back on your words. This deity likes it very much!”
Originally, Ling Xi was worried that Nan Zhi would fight with him. She got confused. She had to admit that high-tiered deity Donghua was indeed…different from ordinary people…
“If you want to save Feng Shu, it will only succeed if you have the Soul-Locking water in the netherworld, Soul-Suppressing pearl at the Eastern Sea, Cangjia’s spiritual object as guide and with me performing the spell.” High-tiered deity Donghua said laughingly, “Since you want to save Cangjia Mountain’s precious eldest senior brother, naturally, you don’t have to worry about the Cangjia’s spiritual object. It is just that ordinary people wouldn’t be able to get that Soul-Locking water and Soul-Suppressing pearl. You have to personally go to the netherworld and Eastern Sea.”
Ling Xi saw that he truly didn’t want to keep bothering with Nan Zhi, she asked with courage, “Ling Xi’s cultivation is shallow, the netherworld…presumably…”
Among the six realms, the heaven realm is the most powerful. The gods could travel through every realm. The mortal realm is the weakest and is constantly disturbed by the other realms. The others, demons, devils and immortals wouldn’t interfere with each other. Just by the name, one would know that the Soul-Locking water was not an ordinary thing. To get it on one person’s ability…Ling Xi didn’t need to think about it. She knew that with her capability, the moment her toe stepped into the netherworld, she would be encircled by the ghosts.
“The netherworld?” High-tiered deity Donghua raised an eyebrow and smiled, “The thing you should be worried about is not the netherworld, but…” He swept a glance at Nan Zhi. Then, he laughed more joyously, “Since you don’t dare to go, then, let Feng Shu stay peacefully in the mirror.”
“I will go!” Ling Xi said quickly.
“Don’t speak so soon. This deity is not very benevolent. Even if you are able to gather those three things, this deity may not perform the spell.”
“Ling Xi had a slip of tongue before. Asking high-tiered deity to not take offense and help Ling Xi,” Ling Xi knelt again.
“You are truly a cute girl…” High-tiered deity Donghua laughed again, “But you have to promise this deity one thing first.”
Ling Xi stared at high-tiered deity Donghua who smiled impeccably. She hesitated slightly and asked, “What?”
“Will you be like him…” High-tiered deity looked at Nan Zhi, “Break your promise and go back on your words?”
“Ling Xi…doesn’t dare.”
“Right.” High-tiered deity raised an eyebrow.
When he didn’t spoke for a long time, Ling Xi kowtowed again, “Asking high-tiered deity to help Ling Xi!”
After a long while did high-tiered deity Donghua said slowly, “Eventually, you have to go to the netherworld…”
He looked up at the large and small apertures floating above the jacarandas. “This deity had been alive for thousands of years and is very bored. The only hobby is to collect people’s memories to pass time. How about you help me get someone’s memory from the River of Forgetfulness?”
The River of Forgetfulness also translated as the River of Oblivion by others is a river in the Chinese Mythology. Souls have to drink Madam Meng’s soup made from the water of the river that will enable them to forget the present lifetime and reincarnate into the next with no memories of this lifetime. In this book, the River of Forgetfulness also traps the memories in its water.Ling Xi exhaled slightly. This was not a difficult task. Just a scoop from the River of Forgetfulness would contain the memories of ten people.
“Her name is Jian Ying.” High-tiered deity Donghua looked at Ling Xi. His smile has disappeared and his eyes were deep like a pond. He said, “The owner of the memories is called Jian Ying.”
