In the Ju'an Pavilion in late autumn, Ji Yuan woke up from a three-month long sleep. He opened his eyes, sat up, and stretched comfortably.
"Kala-la..."
Following a crisp sound in his body, Ji Yuan completely woke up from the remaining dream. He lowered his head to look at the Qingteng Sword leaning against the bed, then turned his head to look in the direction of the yard. The group of little guys were probably still making a fuss.
When Ji Yuan stretched, all the little characters in the courtyard felt it.
"The master is awake!" "Cease fire!"
"Stop, the master is awake."
In an instant, the "battle" under the trees in the yard subsided, and all the text formations were removed. When Ji Yuan stood up, put on his clothes, walked to the door and opened it, the outside was already peaceful.
When Ji Yuan walked out of the room, the branches outside were swaying in the breeze. The small words that were originally in conflict in the yard were all suspended around the jujube tree. When they saw Ji Yuan coming out, they all greeted him.
"Good morning, Master!" "Hello, Master!"
"Did the master sleep well?"
…
"Oh, they're all very well behaved!"
Ji Yuan said cheerfully and walked to the courtyard to look around. Although he did not see any remaining spellcasting aura from these small characters, in his Dharma eyes, he saw faint traces of text in some places on the ground in the courtyard, some of which were "御" and some were "守". Many characters either occupied a corner or overlapped with each other, as if it was a unique projection, left on the land in the courtyard.
"We are all good!" "Yes, we are all obedient!"
"We didn't make any noise." "The master didn't tell us not to make any noise."
"It seems so!" "Anyway, we are all good!"
After a while of noise, Ji Yuan at least smiled and shook his head, then took out the "Sword Intent Letter" and placed it on the table.
"You must be tired after all this time. Let's take a rest."
Ji Yuan could see that, although it was not very obvious, the ink luster of these small characters had dimmed a little, and it was obvious that a lot of ink had been consumed. Although they were also practicing self-cultivation, they were too playful. Without him as the master to suppress them, the spiritual energy and the essence of the sun and the moon absorbed when they were transforming words and fighting could not make up for their own consumption. They also had no ink to eat, so they were actually very tired.
As soon as Ji Yuan finished speaking, all the small characters flew into the "Sword Intent Calligraphy" obediently, and restored the original content in order. Then they all became quiet, as if this was just an ordinary copybook. This copybook was the home of the small characters and their comfort zone for sleeping and resting.
On the jujube tree, the little paper crane, which had nothing to do, flew down and landed on Ji Yuan's shoulder. It didn't make any unnecessary movements and just stayed there quietly.
After sitting in the yard for a while, Ji Yuan glanced at the kitchen, gave up the idea of boiling water, stood up and looked in the direction of the City God Temple in the city.
"Let's go visit the old city god."
…
Half an hour later, in the underworld of Ning'an County, Ji Yuan and Old City God Song sat together at the top of the City God Hall. Originally, there was only one seat here, but because of Ji Yuan's arrival, the underworld specially arranged two chairs. In addition to the City God and Ji Yuan, all the gods from the underworld were present in the hall.
Ji Yuan had been here for a while, and he mainly talked to the gods in the underworld of Ning'an County about his previous experience of picking up Bai Ruo and some of the little tricks he had used in private.
"Mr. Ji, do you mean that the bond in this life may be an extremely important reason, so that even if the ghost body returns to heaven and earth, there is still a possibility of an afterlife?"
The old City God of Ning'an County is naturally not as skilled as many great City Gods with profound cultivation, but Ji Yuan recognizes his wisdom. After listening to Ji Yuan's speech, in addition to feeling sad about this bizarre love between man and demon like other gods in the underworld, he was also the first to grasp the key meaning expressed by Ji Yuan.
Ji Yuan nodded.
"Old City God Song is right. This is my current speculation. Although I cannot rule out other possibilities, this should be an important factor. Normally, when the soul disperses, the heaven and earth souls should immediately leave the body and disappear. But Zhou Niansheng's earth soul dispersed, but the heaven soul lingered for a few breaths. It's very strange."
Wu Pan on the side also said after thinking for a while.
"That is indeed strange. Then, Sir used one of Madam Bai's tears as a guide and penetrated into the Heavenly Soul, just to try that possibility."
The chief officer of the Punishment Department also echoed.
"The evil of human nature will be fully revealed when facing a major struggle, but if more good is revealed at this time, it must be the ultimate good. Based on my many years of experience in punishing evil, I think love is also a kind of good. With these tears as a guide, it may be possible."
Another chief officer from the Yin-Yang Department asked with confusion.
"But ordinary people who have never practiced have very weak soul power. Even if a master casts a spell against the heavens at the last moment, it may not be possible to reunite one soul, not to mention that when the three souls dissipated, only one drop of true love tear was transformed. Moreover, why didn't Mr. Ji transform into the earth soul, or the life soul? According to the theory of yin and yang, the two souls of heaven and earth should be balanced, and according to the feelings of all living beings, the life soul should be the first..."
This was considered questioning Ji Yuan face to face. If it were other ghosts and gods in Dazhen, they might not have the courage to do so. However, the ghosts and gods in Ning'an County and Ji Yuan were fellow villagers. They understood each other's temper very well and did not feel any burden.
"This is also a helpless move. When the Earth Soul and Life Soul dissipated, Ji had no suitable traction token in his hand. It was not until the Earth Soul disappeared and the Life Soul dissipated that Bai Ruo shed two tears. In fact, even without the tears, the bond between the two was already very deep."
"That's impossible!" "Yeah, we can only wait and see whether it will succeed or not."
"I just don't know how long it will take." "Fortunately, Mr. Ji still has a teardrop in his hand, so he doesn't have to fumble around in the dark without any direction."
"That's right!" "That's right!"
Inside the City God Hall, all the participants nodded frequently, unable to analyze further. The judge also kept writing, adding what Ji Yuan had said today to some of the previous records.
Today's meeting in the underworld hall was both like a discussion and a discussion of an unusual nature. What was discussed was a situation in the ghost world that probably no one had ever discovered. In addition to the previous frank discussion, everyone also discussed how to calculate success or failure, the appropriate time period, and how great the connection between the previous life and the new life could be, etc.
When Ji Yuan left the underworld, it was already midnight. The old city god personally sent Ji Yuan to the gate of hell. When they got here, the old city god suddenly asked Ji Yuan in a low voice.
"Mr. Ji, I know you haven't said all you want to say. Can you give me a definite answer? How sure are you about this?"
Ji Yuan paused, looked at Song Shichang, thought for a moment, and then answered.
"When the Heavenly Soul was wandering and the True Love Tears were blending in, Ji had already felt it in his heart. If I were to say that I was sure of it, it would probably be... at least 90%."
Song Shichang was shocked and looked at Ji Yuan with surprise. He thought that Ji Yuan was holding back, but he didn't expect this kind of answer. Based on his understanding of Ji Yuan, he knew that Mr. Ji would not say many things with certainty, and if he said 90% of it, he would probably be almost 100% sure in his heart.
"Sir, if you say so, doesn't that mean you have already figured out this heaven-defying truth?"
Ji Yuan smiled.
"Against the will of Heaven? How does the old city god know that this is not the will of Heaven?"
After saying this, Ji Yuan bowed to the City God.
"There's no need to see you off, City God Song. You can just stay here."
Song Shichang bowed slightly in return.
"Take care, sir. I'll be waiting for your good news!"
"Um."
After Ji Yuan nodded, he stepped into the world of the living and disappeared under the starlight in the deep night. Unlike his friendship with other friends, the relationship between Ji Yuan and Song Shichang always felt like that of gentlemen, just like a friendship as pure as water.
Ji Yuan did not return to Ju'an Pavilion, nor did he think of looking for any other acquaintances in the county. He took off into the air in just a few steps and left Ning'an County again. Looking back in the night sky, only the swaying jujube trees in the direction of Ju'an Pavilion seemed to be seeing him off in the green light.
…
Ji Yuan didn't have a very good impression of the Zu Yue Kingdom. When he came here last time, many places in the country were quite chaotic. This time, more than ten years have passed, and when he came again, he did not choose to travel all the way here as he did the first time, but flew directly to his destination and visited the Zhonghu Daowei family.
Flying all the way, Ji Yuan saw that many places he passed through were sparsely populated. It was only when he arrived at Luping City on Zhonghu Road that people finally began to liven up.
Ji Yuan landed outside the city and headed for the Wei family manor according to his memory. It seemed that the Wei family had not suffered any major changes. The manor was still there, and many people still lived as usual. But the closer Ji Yuan got, the more he frowned.
The people in the direction of the manor were indeed very angry, but before Ji Yuan got close, he could already smell an indescribable odor. It couldn't be said to be very uncomfortable, but it felt like entering a room with the door closed. Because of this feeling, Ji Yuan opened his Dharma Eyes completely, and when he looked towards the Wei family manor, he could faintly see white mist rising.
Generally speaking, when observing the weather and the color of the sky, seeing white is often a good sign, but this kind of white made Ji Yuan feel uncomfortable instinctively.
At this time, Ji Yuan was not the only one walking on the road leading to Wei's Manor. There were people coming and going sporadically. Seeing a person coming towards him, Ji Yuan judged that he might be someone from Wei's Manor, so he quickly stepped closer, greeted him first and then asked questions.
"My dear brother, I have traveled all the way here, hoping to visit the Wei family in Zhonghu Dao. I wonder if the place ahead is where the Wei family is. Have I taken the wrong road?"
The man who was stopped by Ji Yuan was dressed like a servant. After stopping, he looked Ji Yuan up and down. Seeing that he didn't look like someone who knew martial arts, but seemed to be a scholar, he didn't dare to be too neglectful to him. He returned a slight salute and pointed in the direction they came from.
"Go a few miles down this road and turn right. Another hundred steps will lead you to the Wei family manor. However, not everyone can visit. If you don't have a special status, you should be prepared to be turned away."
"Oh, is the Wei family still led by Senior Wei Xuan and Hero Wei Ming?"
The man didn't show any abnormality and answered naturally.
"Of course. Everyone knows that Master Wei's martial arts have improved greatly. There are so many people who want to visit him."
After saying this, the man continued to walk towards Luping City. Perhaps because he was afraid of being pestered by Ji Yuan, he did not reveal that he was from Wei's Manor.
Ji Yuan watched the visitor leave, then turned to look in the direction of Wei's manor with a thoughtful expression on his face.