Chapter Ninety-Five: Yun Ranran of Nine Provinces Academy

For ten years, Cui Yu had subdued every ghost spirit in Yin Mountain. Within the mountain, he set up a spirit-gathering array, using the world’s vital energy to purify the dark miasma of Yin Mountain while also cleansing the resentment from the vengeful ghosts he had subdued.

Only after obtaining a spirit’s consent would he seal it into a lantern with a spell, then take it to Anning City every year on the sixth day of the ninth month, so that it might complete its final purpose.

Because he did not know the great ghost’s name, Cui Yu carved a nameless stele for him and placed it in the flower garden outside.

By the time the one-eyed Daoist finished speaking, the mist in his eyes had already dispersed, as though he had finally made peace with it.

Lian did not waste words. "If I had a way to send these spirit beings directly to the Netherworld for reincarnation, would you be willing to take them back, the ones in the lanterns?"

At her words, excitement flooded the one-eyed Daoist's face, only to be quickly replaced by suspicion. "You? You can really do that?"

Lian said nothing. She merely looked at the one-eyed Daoist steadily, her eyes saying enough.

After a moment of thought, the one-eyed Daoist let out a relieved smile. "To let all the lonely souls still lingering in the human world return to the Netherworld for rebirth... I think that was his dying wish as well."

He immediately led Lian and the others out of the small building. "Wait here a moment. I need to reverse the spell."

The one-eyed Daoist took out his treasured artifact and began his ritual on the spot, muttering something under his breath. Lian could not make it out clearly; without that little translator, things were truly a bit difficult.

Suddenly, dark clouds covered the entire mountain range. As lightning flashed and thunder roared, the one-eyed Daoist spat out a mouthful of blood and continued chanting:

"Reverse... grant release!"

A bolt of heavenly thunder came crashing down, striking the peach-wood sword he had raised high.

The air around them suddenly grew cold. With the Yin-Yang Mirror in hand, Lian grabbed Chongli. In the next instant, both of them saw a dense mass of black, bobbing heads in front of their eyes. No, not heads - ghost heads.

One by one they floated in the air and drifted toward the one-eyed Daoist. The Daoist wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, fed the sword with his own blood, and a translucent blade of sword light severed the contract binding him to all the spirits. Then he collapsed to the ground.

Weak and drained, he looked toward Lian and murmured, "I am in your care..."

Lian nodded and took out a black jade pendant. This was the token Yun Ranran had given her before leaving, used to summon Little Black and Little White.

She tossed it directly into the air and opened it with spiritual power. A ghost gate burst wide open, and a chill wind rose at once. From within the Gate of the Underworld came the harsh scraping of iron chains against the ground, echoing through the ears of every living and dead soul there.

Some of the lonely spirits had long wanted reincarnation and automatically followed behind Little Black and Little White.

Others had once escaped from the Netherworld. They had just been freed from the one-eyed Daoist's spell and were about to flee when a squad of underworld soldiers had already arrived behind them, fastening iron chains on each one and dragging them back below.

Hundreds of ghosts were escorted back to the Netherworld in the time it takes a stick of incense to burn halfway down.

Little Black and Little White formally cupped their hands and bowed in Lian's direction. "Many thanks for the Divine Maiden's aid!"

Then the ghost gate closed, and everything around them returned to normal.

Lian gave the one-eyed Daoist a bottle of elixir. A spell backlash was not something ordinary people could endure, and this one-eyed Daoist was truly no ordinary man.

Lian did not dare imagine how terrifying it would be if someone capable of commanding ten thousand ghosts were an enemy. But she knew that evil could never prevail over good, because there would always be someone quietly bearing the weight of it all.

Cui Yu still chose to spend his later years deep in the mountains. Before leaving, Lian also paid a visit to the senior who had created the spell. Though the ghost had been blinded in mind, he was still a figure worthy of respect.

Watching Lian and Chongli ride the wind away, Cui Yu murmured, "Divine Maiden... perhaps that is only a title."

Chongli had already calculated that the lotus petals in this world were sacred relics of the Sanctuary. As for how to obtain them, Lian had already formed a plan in her heart.

When she saw Yun Ranran again, Lian even felt a strange sense that a single day apart felt like three autumns. That fellow had returned to his original appearance. Though somewhat similar to the shell she herself had been using, he somehow looked even more refined.

Lian asked Yun Ranran for two Dream-Entering Pills. They would be used when the soul left the body: she would then enter the dream of the Sanctuary's leader and imitate Chonglian's bearing, using the claim of a divine maiden reclaiming a sacred relic to take back the lotus petals.

Chongli felt that Yun Ranran seemed somewhat changed this time, yet could not tell exactly how. It was as if he had gained a trace more respect for him.

On the eve of their departure, Lian took Chongli to wander Anning City's night market for an entire night. From moonlit skies and scattered stars to the rising dawn, Chongli remained by Lian's side until the person beside him no longer breathed.

He knew then that she was gone.

...

Lian had now returned to her own appearance, though she was no different from the wandering spirits around her, all of them touching neither earth nor ground. At that moment, she was laboring toward the Sanctuary.

Master! Jianjian has leveled up again!

Oh, come on! You're trying to scare me to death!

Lian, who was struggling to work those tiny little legs, stiffened. As a spirit body, she could not use spiritual power. More importantly, she was not a ghost cultivator, so she could only keep moving her feet. The sight was somehow rather amusing.

Little Jianjian drooped its small ears in grievance. Only then did Lian notice that the fellow had grown a whole size larger - or rather, fatter.

It was now a perfectly round lump, like a walking ball of meat, with tiny arms and legs, and now it even had two ears. Its bean-sized eyes were cunningly bright.

"How did you end up like this?"

Lian's slightly disgusted tone made Little Jianjian heartbroken.

Master, could it be that I am not cute like this? ...

Cute! Of course you're cute! Adorable, in fact!

Lian was not lying. The gray-white little dumpling really had become even cuter, all soft and plump.

After being praised, Little Jianjian happily curled up into a ball, its bean eyes shining with delight.

Master, what are you going to do now?

"Retrieve my true body, of course. What else would I be doing?"

Let me sense it. The Great Main God said that after this upgrade, I can help the master do even more things! Fetching things from afar is child’s play!

"Oh? Is that so? Jianjian is amazing!"

Lian's shameless praise turned the little thing into a beam of delight.

Then she suddenly noticed that there was still a little beast curled up in the space. Hmm? A mirage spirit!

Right. With a mirage spirit, why would she still need Dream-Entering Pills?

Lian shamelessly woke the sleeping mirage spirit. "Little spirit, how about helping big sister with something?"

Under Lian's wicked expression, the mirage spirit looked so tiny and pitiful. "What does big sister want me to do?"

"Just a small thing. We need you to weave an illusion, one convincing enough that people will believe what they see in it."

The mirage spirit agreed at once. This was effortless for it.

With the help of the two little ones, Little Jianjian used spatial transfer to retrieve the lotus petals, while the mirage spirit wove dreams for all the senior members of the Sanctuary. After that, they left the Nine Provinces Continent.

As for the remaining trivial matters at Nine Provinces Academy, Yun Ranran and Zitan would help explain everything. Still, Lian knew that after she left, there would definitely be one person overjoyed beyond words, and that position would surely belong to Puyu.

After waking, the people of the Sanctuary sent someone to check the sacred relic, only to find that it was indeed no longer in the treasury. They knelt down outside the Sanctuary in prostration, and the divine maiden they worshipped had already gone to the next world...

This chapter ends here. Happy reading.