Chapter 60
Chapter 60
“I’m out… I’m really out!”
Excitement slowly dawned on Ding Ling. She lifted her eyes. The wind, the mist, even this pitch-black night were more beautiful than any starlit or moonlit sky she had seen in ten years.
The Stone Lions had received a portion of the incense offered to the master after the temple was built, which was how they awakened as spirits.
They had accompanied Ding Ling for ten years and watched her grow from a child into a graceful young woman. Seeing her freed from her shackles, they gathered around her in equal delight.
Qiao Ying folded her arms. The scene eased her heart, and a smile appeared on her face. “At least this story has a fairly happy ending.”
“Not necessarily.”
She looked up and found Shen Qingyu standing silently beside her. “What is that supposed to mean?”
He lowered his head and smiled faintly. “You’re willing to speak to me again?”
Only then did Qiao Ying remember that she was angry with him. She pressed her lips tightly together and turned away.
Shen Qingyu had always used a smile as his mask.
Before the white silk blindfold covered his eyes, the last face he had seen had been smiling in just that way. It was the only expression he remembered.
Strangely, however, ever since meeting Qiao Ying, cracks had often appeared in that mask.
Just as they did now.
Qiao Ying smiled and spoke with others but refused to speak to him.
The fingers stroking his Blind Staff curled. His nails scraped its surface with an abrasive hiss. Irritation stirred within him for no apparent reason. He did not know how to dispel it, so he turned to the method he knew best for obtaining what he wanted.
“Qiao Ying, speak to me.”
She ignored him.
His nails dug harder into the staff, producing an even harsher screech. Yet his lips slowly curved into an exceptionally gentle, radiant smile.
“If you keep ignoring me, I will…”
Qiao Ying turned. “Kill me?”
His smiling face stiffened.
She stared directly at him and asked again, “Like before? If I do something you dislike, will you want to kill me?”
Somehow, though he had demanded an answer from her, the situation had reversed in the blink of an eye. Now he was the one on the defensive.
His frustration mounted. His nails whitened against the Blind Staff and bent backward, as though they might tear away completely at any moment. Perhaps he could not feel the pain. Or perhaps he did feel it and needed it to smother the unfamiliar turmoil within him.
He possessed an instinctive sense for danger.
Now that instinct warned him that if he answered incorrectly, she might never buy him flowers again, never crawl willingly into his arms for warmth, and never allow him to “cure” her.
Shen Qingyu pressed his lips together.
Qiao Ying persisted. “Why have you stopped talking? I want to know what you meant. If I ignore you, what will you do?”
Now she was the aggressive one.
It was absurd. She was pitifully weak. A tiny Water Yaoguai could destroy her without leaving a corpse. What gave her the courage to confront him without yielding an inch?
Shen Qingyu grew more agitated. Every finger around the Blind Staff turned white. His nails had nearly peeled back, and one could easily imagine the blood covering those elegant fingers once they broke away.
Qiao Ying sighed helplessly. At last, she caught his hand and pried his fingers from the staff one by one.
Facing her, Shen Qingyu remained silent.
“Forget it. If you don’t want to answer, then don’t. There’s no need to torture yourself.”
So this was torture.
The instant she touched him, his agitation miraculously vanished. Yet the word “torture” made him lower his face in thought. His aching fingers shifted.
Afraid he meant to harm himself again, she clutched his hand tightly between both of hers.
His fingers went still and trembled faintly at the heat of her palms.
“Ding Lingling, you’re no longer trapped here!”
“You can go home! Your family must be waiting for you!”
The Stone Lions wagged their tails excitedly, looking happier than Ding Ling herself.
Ding Ling still remembered the word home. She remembered that her home was very large. Her father had never been close to her, but her brother had loved and spoiled her. She wanted to go back.
The instant she stepped down from the entrance, her legs weakened and she collapsed.
“Miss Ding!” Qiao Ying called.
But Shen Qingyu refused to release her hand, preventing her from hurrying over.
“Ding Lingling, what’s wrong?”
“Ding Lingling, are you feeling unwell?”
Surrounded by the Stone Lions, Ding Ling pushed herself into a sitting position. Then she saw that her hands and legs had become translucent. She froze, bewildered and helpless.
“The temple imprisoned you, but it was also connected to your soul and preserved it.” Yan Yanchi approached slowly and looked down at the girl. “Now that your connection is severed, you will soon dissipate.”
Ding Ling asked blankly, “What does dissipate mean?”
Yan Yanchi’s voice was cold. “Your soul will scatter into nothing.”
Her expression emptied. For a long time, she could not react.
Shen Qingyu held Qiao Ying on the steps. Hearing Yan Yanchi, she asked, “Didn’t you say she was a ghost? Why would her soul scatter?”
“She is a Living Soul, not a dead one,” Yan Yanchi replied.
“What is a Living Soul?”
“You said she was trapped here ten years ago, when she was still a child. Yet now she is grown. If she were a ghost, she would retain the appearance she had at death. She could never have aged.”
His expression sharpened. “There is only one explanation. Her physical body still exists, but for some unknown reason, her soul left it. An ordinary person’s soul would disperse within a day of leaving the body. She survived for ten years because this temple protected her.”
Because she was a Living Soul, her spirit had matured as her body grew.
Qiao Ying immediately grasped the implication. “If we find her body, can we return her soul to it and make her a normal person again?”
Ding Ling raised hopeful eyes, waiting for Yan Yanchi’s answer.
“It is possible,” he said. “But can she survive that long?”
Ding Ling was already beginning to disappear. Forget finding her body; she would not last long enough to descend the mountain.
“Is there any way to help her?” Qiao Ying asked.
Yan Yanchi did have a solution. “She is a Living Soul, not a ghost. To keep her from dissipating, someone must nourish her with Yang Qi.”
Having spoken, he folded his arms around his sword and watched from the sidelines, his gaze settling on Qiao Ying.
Shen Qingyu smiled. “You would be wise to abandon that idea.”
Yan Yanchi’s expression turned peculiar, and he withdrew the meaningful look he had aimed at Qiao Ying.
She glanced between them. “Actually, I wouldn’t mind…”
Shen Qingyu smiled sweetly at her. “No. You cannot.”
“Then you…”
“I most certainly cannot.”
Qiao Ying could only look at Yan Yanchi.
He did not respond.
Shen Qingyu laughed.
“For ten years, Miss Ding served as the heart of the formation and suppressed the dead souls in the temple. If her soul now disperses, would that not mean the good receive no reward?”
“You drew your sword to free Miss Ding because you already pitied her. As you said yourself, she is a Living Soul, not an Evil Ghost. If you abandon her now, you will not be killing a ghost. You will be killing a person.”
“You hate evil with all your heart, Daoist Master. If you add the life of an innocent to your hands, from what position will you punish evil and uphold justice in the future?”
Yan Yanchi’s expression changed repeatedly. He looked ready to grind his teeth.
He had freed Ding Ling because he had recognized Qiao Ying’s kind heart and assumed she would eventually offer her Yang Qi. He had not expected Shen Qingyu to see through him from the beginning and refuse to let Qiao Ying become involved.
Yet Shen Qingyu was correct about one thing. Yan Yanchi had destroyed countless Yaoguai and ghosts, but he had never mistakenly killed a good person.
His gaze fell to the figure on the ground, his expression unfriendly.
Ding Ling lay upon the cold earth, struggling to raise her head. Disheveled strands clung to her tear-streaked cheeks. She stared at the hem of Yan Yanchi’s robes, her reddened eyes wet with hope, like a lost cub looking upon its only path to life.
Yan Yanchi turned his face away with an irritated click of his tongue. Finally, he stepped forward and bent down. Forming a sword gesture, he touched two fingers to her brow, sending warm energy into her body.
“If you had not truly accumulated merit through good deeds, I would not care whether you lived or died,” he said coldly.
Qiao Ying blinked. “Is that how you transfer Yang Qi?”
Shen Qingyu asked, “What did you imagine?”
“Mouth to mouth?”
“That method would work as well.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You sound as though you’ve tried it.”
His voice was bright with pleasure. “How do you think I cured you every night and protected your soul during the past half month in the temple?”
Qiao Ying fell silent.
Qiao Ying became confused.
Qiao Ying was horrified.
“I thought you kept me in that cycle for three days. You kept me there for half a month?”
Shen Qingyu turned away and began picking at his Blind Staff again.