Chapter Ninety-One: Yun Ranran at the Nine Provinces Academy

The Black Envoy summoned a booklet out of thin air. Inside were all the records concerning the City of Peaceful Ease and the underworld during the years it had no ruler.

“For sixteen years, without the King of the Underworld suppressing it, the wandering souls lingering in Peaceful Ease City could not enter the underworld. Some branches, led by the temple, sent priests into every city to guide those souls onward.

“According to the tally made by the ghost envoys, some of the spirits went missing. Once they were discovered, the Judge immediately ordered the ghost envoys to search for them. Though only a few were found, those recovered had already lost their minds and become ordinary drifting phantoms, so they were sent into reincarnation.

“There was one special case among them: an infant spirit was directly sent by certain means into the womb of a living woman, because the underworld could not interfere openly in the affairs of the human realm.

“But now it seems that Your Highness has already found the most suitable person to handle this matter.”

Yun Ranran looked at the little black envoy with approval. He really was far more reliable than the little white one.

“Does Your Highness need Little Black to do anything else?”

Yun Ranran waved a hand to indicate that he could leave. The Black Envoy took the hint, slipped into the black vortex, and returned to the underworld. The formation then lost its effect, and the room once again regained its usual temperature.

Yun Ranran turned her head. Lian had already awakened.

“When did you wake up?”

Lian answered honestly, “When the White Envoy left.”

Yun Ranran raised a brow; she had not noticed a thing. “Feeling better now?”

Lian nodded, then lowered her head a little in embarrassment. “I was careless this time. Is that infant spirit now in the underworld?”

Yun Ranran nodded. “What else? Although children like that are not the sort to bully people, once they successfully enter your body and take form as a spirit, you would truly have to carry it for ten full months, Goddess.”

In her dream just now, Lian had seen everything clearly: a child, lovely and adorable, came to bid her farewell, looking like a plump New Year figurine, waving its little hand at her with great reluctance. It should already have drunk the Soup of Forgetfulness and gone on to be reborn.

“Why did the lantern sold by that one-eyed priest seal an infant spirit inside it? Could the other lanterns have had them too?”

If that were the case, it would make some sense.

“The priests guiding ghosts onward are not wrong, but that takes both time and effort. Rather than guiding them, it is better to use a spell to transform them into harmless spirit wisps and then use them to serve one's own ends. Though it can earn merit, it greatly damages the spirits themselves. It does not merely scatter one of the three souls and seven spirits; it also strips them of all mind, leaving them devoted only to fulfilling the wish of the one who obtained them.

“If I am not mistaken, there should be priests dividing the captured spirits into two groups: adults and infants. Am I right?”

Yun Ranran tapped lightly on the tabletop with her finger.

“That priest only brings two hundred lanterns each year. Those who make wishes may pray for safety, for marriage, or for children.”

Lian was somewhat weak, and Chongli handed her a cup of warm tea to moisten her lips.

Yun Ranran swallowed this mouthful of their affection in one gulp. “Then that is it. Letting a ghost spirit cling behind you to ensure safety, asking for marriage by having the spirit secretly use little tricks on the two of you, and asking for children is even simpler, yet also more complicated.”

At last Chongli spoke. This concerned Lian Bao, and he had to ask clearly. “How so?”

“After obtaining the infant’s consent, the infant spirit is made to attach itself to the lantern. When the lantern meets the parents it prefers, the priest naturally gives it to you. You light it, the seal is broken, and it follows you, wrapping itself around your abdomen. Then the spell upon it takes effect, the infant spirit is transformed, enters your womb, and completes reincarnation.

“It is simple because most infant spirits do not like lingering in the human realm, yet they cannot enter the underworld. They envy children with parents, and they long to have parents of their own, so obtaining their consent is very easy.

“As for why it is difficult: because this spell was lost for thousands of years. The last priest to use it has long had his bones gnawed away to nothing by termites. Who knows who dug it out from some forgotten corner, only to keep making trouble for the underworld.

“This spell can only be carried out if both sides agree, so... Goddess, you... want a child?”

The matter that had puzzled Yun Ranran all afternoon finally came out at midday. She was truly curious why the Goddess's standards for choosing a reincarnation had fallen so low. Though Chongli was somewhat handsome, how could he compare with the one who ruled the Three Thousand Worlds, that being of the Thirty-Third Heaven?

Besides, no matter how much the Goddess liked someone, there was no need to go so far as to bear a child for her!

She had grown up hearing the "rumors" of the Goddess and the Supreme God since birth, only to have the falsehoods shattered so quickly, like a tornado sweeping through.

At once, Lian's face and neck went red, like a boiled shrimp; Chongli looked much the same.

Yun Ranran was shocked. “Could it be that you've already gone that far?! Goddess, forgive me for saying so, but this is truly, truly... a bit much. A girl's first time is precious enough as it is, let alone when you, when you are still... sigh, forget it. If that one ever finds out, you'll have a hard time of it...”

She had already conjured up a grand drama in her own mind, with Chongli cast as the villain who had bullied the Goddess.

Hearing Yun Ranran's runaway imagination, Lian hurriedly said, “It is not what you think! That day I wanted to join in the excitement, so I made up an excuse and used it to buy that lantern.”

Yet Yun Ranran pressed on. “What excuse did you make up?! How could it have made the spell work?”

Lian had spoken offhandedly the night before, and at the time she had not felt especially shy. But now that she thought about repeating it, she was still a girl too, and her face was thin-skinned—how could she say such a thing out loud?

“We pretended to be husband and wife seeking a child. The priest believed us, so he gave us that lantern. Thinking of it now, the lantern he chose really was different from the others used for prayers of safety. Back then, Lian Bao and I only thought it was a difference in style.”

Chongli, always quiet in the eyes of outsiders, said the longest sentence he had spoken that night. But if one thought back to the details...

If only they could see these spirits, they could avoid such things.

Lian and Chongli thought of the same thing at once. “Ranran, do you have some treasure like a yin-yang sight?”

Having understood the whole matter, Yun Ranran no longer pursued the details. Hearing Lian's question, she fell into thought. It did remind her that aside from ox-tear drops, the underworld did indeed have such a special artifact, one that could let those without yin-yang sight see wandering spirits.

“If you put it that way, I really do recall an artifact. It has been sitting in the treasury too long, though. I should go fetch it and try it out. Wait here a moment.”

Yun Ranran came and went as freely as the wind. In less than the time it took to brew a cup of tea, she appeared in the room holding a mirror.

She placed the item she had retrieved into Lian's palm. “This is called the Mirror of Yin and Yang. At heart, it is just an ordinary mirror. After falling from the mortal world into the underworld, it was slowly nourished by the spiritual aura here until it gained a spirit of its own. With it, you can see ghosts!”

Then Yun Ranran took out another pill and placed it in Lian's hand. “Take this. Afterward, you won't feel cold all over anymore. When I touched your palm just now, I thought I had returned to the underworld.”

Lian did not doubt her at all. She swallowed it in one gulp and continued discussing the Mirror of Yin and Yang with the two of them.

Dear reader, this chapter is complete. Wishing you an enjoyable read!