Chapter 190
Chapter 190
Hui Moqiong might have put it crudely, but he had a point.
Exactly. Why were we going to all this trouble?
“The main problem is,” Hui Moqiong said, scratching the lock of white hair at his temple, “he originally planned to use that Ghost King Butterfly to steal Ms. Tang’s Souls. Now that we’ve left her with him, Ms. Tang…”
By then, we had already reached the living room.
Hui Moqiong continued, “If Ms. Tang’s Souls are still taken, then what was the point of everything we did here tonight?”
He was right.
After all that commotion, if Tang Xun’s Souls were taken anyway, all our previous efforts would have been for nothing.
The situation had clearly left us caught in a bind.
Yu Nian performed another divination. This time, she said with certainty, “Aunt Tang is blessed with great fortune. She won’t die in this Calamity, so there must still be a way out.”
Even with Yu Nian’s reassurance, everyone remained deeply worried.
A suffocating tension hung over the living room.
After another while, Yu Nian said, “The Ghost Soldiers should be gone now.”
I hurried to the rear window and looked outside. Sure enough, the backyard was completely empty.
Winter had passed, but the backyard had already been desolate to begin with. Now it looked even more withered and lifeless.
The yin energy of those Ghost Soldiers had been far too oppressive.
“He’s still upstairs,” Liu Junyan said. “I’ll go talk to him.”
With that, Liu Junyan turned toward the stairs.
Just then, someone slowly descended from the upper floor.
It was Tang Xian.
His gaze was vacant and his movements mechanical, as though he were a marionette being manipulated by invisible strings.
When he reached Liu Junyan, he said, “Master… Master wishes to see you.”
Huh?
It seemed the other party also had something he wanted to discuss with Liu Junyan.
Liu Junyan went upstairs. The moment he did, Tang Xian’s body went limp. If Hui Moqiong hadn’t reacted quickly and grabbed him, Tang Xian would have tumbled down the stairs.
Liu Junyan remained upstairs for a full half hour.
When he finally came back down, his expression was grim.
Tang Tang clutched my sleeve and repeatedly gestured for me to ask what had happened.
I went up to Liu Junyan. “What did he say?”
“Tang Xun is fine. She should wake up after the rooster crows,” Liu Junyan said. “But…”
He hesitated, clearly reluctant to continue.
My heart instantly leaped into my throat. “Did he demand something in return?”
“It isn’t exactly a demand,” Liu Junyan said. “Just as Yu Nian divined, he never intended to harm Tang Xun. He only wanted to rekindle their past relationship. He did originally plan to use the Ghost King Butterfly to steal Tang Xun’s Souls, but that is no longer necessary.”
A dreadful premonition rose in my heart. “He… wants me to do something for him, doesn’t he?”
Liu Junyan’s vertical pupils abruptly contracted. Then he stroked my head and pulled me into his arms, whispering in my ear, “He needs you to use the Soul-Guiding Lantern to guide Tang Xun’s Souls into the Netherworld Realm.”
Those words drained every trace of color from my face.
I had once recklessly used the Soul-Guiding Lantern to ferry Souls, and it had nearly cost me half my life.
And now, he wanted me to use the Soul-Guiding Lantern to guide Aunt Tang’s Souls into the Underworld?
I…
“I really want to help Aunt Tang,” I said uneasily. “But you know my limits better than anyone, Ah Yan. I’m afraid I won’t be able to do it. If I end up losing Aunt Tang’s Souls instead, I’ll never be able to forgive myself.”
Liu Junyan stroked my hair. “Xiao Jiu, don’t be afraid. Guiding Souls into the Underworld is something you would have had to experience sooner or later. I just never expected the moment to come so soon or so suddenly. But I’ll be with you.”
I twisted my fingers together, thinking it over again and again.
Aunt Tang had not only saved me, but had always treated me exceptionally well. Tang Tang and I were best friends, too.
During the year-end tally on New Year’s Eve, the Merit in the Hexagonal Palace Lantern had been nearly overflowing.
And with Liu Junyan accompanying me… perhaps I really could take this step.
Gritting my teeth, I nodded firmly. “All right. I’ll make the trip.”
“Good,” Liu Junyan replied at once. “Go upstairs and check on Tang Xun first. Once she wakes after the rooster crows, we’ll head back and make preparations.”
Tang Tang asked cautiously, “C-Can I go upstairs too?”
Liu Junyan refused. “Wait down here for now. You can go up once she wakes after the rooster crows.”
After that, I followed Liu Junyan upstairs.
Tang Xun’s room was still bitterly cold. She lay silently on the bed.
Liu Junyan stopped at the doorway and came no closer.
I walked over to the bed and carefully lifted the hem of Tang Xun’s clothes from her lower back. To my surprise, the butterfly chrysalis was still there.
And it had now fully formed.
Puzzled, I looked at Liu Junyan. “What’s going on?”
“Wait another seven days,” Liu Junyan said. “Seven days from now, we’ll bring the Soul-Guiding Lantern here to collect the Ghost King Butterfly when it emerges from its chrysalis.”
If we did not come to collect it, the newly emerged Ghost King Butterfly would carry Tang Xun’s Souls away, never to return.
But if I came to receive it with the Soul-Guiding Lantern, Tang Xun’s Souls would be nourished within the Soul-Guiding Lantern rather than attached to the Ghost King Butterfly.
I would be able to take Tang Xun’s Souls out — and bring them back again.
That had to be the difference.
Yet there were still a few things that did not add up.
At the time, I had no idea just how important this trip to the Underworld would be for Tang Xun.
Seven days later, every inconsistency would be given the most reasonable explanation possible.
After the rooster crowed, Tang Xun slowly came to, just as Liu Junyan had predicted.
But she was in poor condition.
She looked exhausted.
It also seemed as if something weighed heavily on her mind.
Everyone went upstairs to visit her, but it wasn’t long before her strength failed her again and she fell into a deep sleep.
We left the Tang Family Old Mansion just before dawn.
I had planned to drop Yu Nian off on the way, but she said she intended to stay for the next few days and help watch over Tang Xun, so she would not be coming back with us for the time being.
When Yu Nian told me this, her expression was grave. I immediately sensed that she seemed unusually concerned about Tang Xun.
After the tragic deaths of her master’s wife and her mother, Yu Nian would never casually involve herself in karmic entanglements like these.
Yet she had twice taken the initiative to perform divinations for the Tang Family and help them survive their Calamity. She had to have a deeper reason for doing so.
I did not press her. When Yu Nian wanted to tell me, she naturally would.
As the car slowly pulled away from the Tang Family Old Mansion, I turned to look back at the front gate and saw Tang Tang and Yu Nian standing side by side.
Yu Nian’s empty eye sockets remained fixed on the car.
The moment I met her gaze, my heart jolted as something suddenly occurred to me.
The Buddha Eyes!
Back then, the Teahouse Proprietress had told me that the clan chief of their little village had brought Gu Die all the way from the Shiwandashan Mountains to Huicheng, traveling thousands of miles. Even then, I had found it strange.
What exactly had those people gone to Huicheng to do?
At the time, all my attention had been focused on the Teahouse Proprietress, and I had overlooked the Buddha Eyes themselves.
A genuine pair of Buddha Eyes might not appear even once in ten thousand years.
Using the lie of selecting a Gu Saintess, they had screened batch after batch of likely girls, only to end up finding Gu Die alone.
That pair of Buddha Eyes was far too important to them.
Unless some enormous benefit awaited them, they would never have taken Gu Die to Huicheng.
And in Huicheng… there was Hundun…