Chapter 109: Shizun’s Second Earth Soul

Mo Ran's head was numb, his thoughts a burr of white noise. His

hands and feet felt like ice as he hugged Chu Wanning's soul to himself and

descended the stairs in a fog.

"Doctor…"

"You again? What is it now?"

"You're sure the one upstairs…is my shizun's earth soul, right?"

The ghost doctor was rather annoyed. "Of course it is. How could I get

something like that wrong?"

Mo Ran refused to give up. "Could it be his cognizance soul, or…"

"Or what?" The ghost doctor clicked his tongue in irritation.

"A person has three souls: earth, cognizance, and human. I've practiced

medicine here for a hundred and fifty years. If I couldn't even tell souls apart,

Lord Yanluo would've kicked me back into the Wheel of Reincarnation long

ago."

Mo Ran pressed his lips into a thin line. But then, a vague idea

unfurled in his mind. "Doctor, in your hundred and fifty years, have you ever

seen anyone with two earth souls?"

"What's wrong with you?!" the ghost doctor snapped, cross. "Looks to

me like your head's not working—maybe I should take your pulse!"

Of course, Mo Ran couldn't actually let the ghost doctor take his pulse.

Master Huaizui might have cast an enchantment on him, but if he wasn't

careful, the jig would be up. He offered a hasty apology and fled the Ailing

Souls Sanitarium, clutching the lantern bearing Chu Wanning's human and

earth souls.

It was always dim in the ghost realm. The only way to tell day from

night was to look up at the sky: if a lukewarm sun hovered behind a layer of

murky mist and heavy red clouds, it was day; if a cold moon hung high above,

it was night. Right now it was night, and the roads were gradually emptying

of traffic.

Mo Ran walked through the streets alone with the soul-calling lantern,

his eyes trained on the ground. He didn't know what to do, and the farther he

walked, the more helpless and alone he felt.

In his childhood, such helplessness and uncertainty had once been his

daily companions. He found that facing these feelings again now rattled him.

Mo Ran thought of the people he'd known back when he was scraping by at

the pleasure house. In the end, the House of Drunken Jade had gone up in

flames. They had all died, save for him… He counted the years. Everyone—

aside from his mom—had probably yet to be reincarnated. If he kept

wandering like this, there was no telling whom he might run into.

Then he thought of Xue Meng. He thought of his angry bellows as he

tried to tear the soul-calling lantern from Mo Ran's hands. He'd called him a

"goddamn scourge."

What right do you have? Have you no shame?

Hugging the lantern close, Mo Ran footsteps slowed until, finally, he

stopped next to a wall. Despite his best efforts, his eyes had grown red. He

hung his head and gazed at that gentle, golden flame. "Shizun," he muttered in

a small voice, "could it be that you…that you really don't want to come back

with me?"

The flame didn't answer. It continued to burn silently.

Mo Ran stood for a long time before he managed to rescue his calm.

The underworld was immense, and he didn't know where he could go, or to

whom. All at once, he remembered Chu Xun, and sped back toward Tailwind

Hall as though he had grasped a lifeline.

By the time he arrived, Tailwind Hall was preparing to close, and a

masked ghost was shutting the doors and locking up for the night. Mo Ran

hastily called out to stop him, a note of pleading in his voice, "Sorry, but

please wait!"

"You again?" The ghost was the same who had led him upstairs

earlier. "What are you doing back here?"

"Sorry to trouble you, but it's urgent…" Mo Ran had run too fast. He

panted for breath, his eyes bright and anxious. He swallowed and said, voice

hoarse, "I want to see Sir Chu Xun again."

Chu Xun was staring absently at a branch of haitang blossoms arranged

in a slender, white porcelain vase. He looked up, startled, at Mo Ran's

sudden return. "Why did the little gongzi come back? Were you unable to find

him?"

"I found him," Mo Ran replied, "but I…I…"

Chu Xun saw at a glance how tense and anxious this young man was,

and correctly guessed that whatever troubled him must be a difficult subject.

He invited Mo Ran in and closed the door behind him. "Have a seat."

Mo Ran, worried that Chu Xun might notice something amiss if he

continued to hold the soul-calling lantern, stowed it away in his qiankun

pouch. Chu Xun was no malicious ghost, but the matter of a living person

sneaking into the underworld was best kept secret from all ghosts if possible.

"The little gongzi went southeast?"

"Mn."

Chu Xun thought for a moment. "It was the Ailing Souls Sanitarium,

wasn't it."

Mo Ran nodded. He considered his words before continuing. "I saw

him at the Ailing Souls Sanitarium, but it was an incomplete earth soul that

couldn't move nor speak. He even looked different from the other ghosts—he

was half-transparent, and he could be seen but not touched."

"Damaged earth souls are often like that." Chu Xun was somber.

"Sometimes a soul like that can scatter if agitated, never to be gathered

again."

Mo Ran chewed on his lip, then ventured, "The doctor there said

people with incomplete souls will exhibit certain impairments in life. But the

person I'm looking for—he was just fine while alive. So I was wondering if

there might be some mistake." He paused, lifting his head to look toward Chu

Xun. "Sir Chu, is it possible for someone to have two earth souls?"

Chu Xun was taken aback. "Two earth souls?"

"Mn."

Unlike the doctor at the Ailing Souls Sanitarium, who had immediately

shot him down, Chu Xun mulled this hypothesis over carefully with downcast

eyes. Eventually he said, "I suppose…it isn't impossible."

A tremor ran through Mo Ran's body, and his head snapped up. His

eyes were bright in the room's dim candlelight. "Really?!"

Chu Xun inclined his head in affirmation. "Normally, an individual

only has three ethereal souls and seven corporeal spirits. But I once knew a

woman with two cognizance souls."

"Can you tell me anything more about her?"

Chu Xun shook his head, and his lashes dropped lower and quivered

slightly. He took a moment to steady himself before saying, "I would prefer

not to. Those events are long past. That woman is suffering in the seventh

level of hell now. When Yanluo finds someone with an abnormal soul, he

sends them to the seventh level to be slowly peeled apart."

Hearing this made Mo Ran even more fretful. In the low light, he

didn't see the pain in Chu Xun's eyes as he pressed on. "Why did that woman

have an extra cognizance soul? Normally people only need to gather their

three souls after the seventh day. So if someone has an extra earth soul, then

would all four souls need to be reunited?"

"That is likely the case."

"Then the woman you mentioned…"

"She was used by the Ninth King in death. She was forced back to the

living world…" Chu Xun paused, the slender fingers resting on his knee

slowly balling into a fist. "To the living world, where she ate her own child

alive."

Mo Ran fell silent. He abruptly recalled the past events he had

witnessed in Lin'an within the illusion at the Peach Blossom Springs. With a

start, he realized that this "woman" of whom Chu Xun spoke was in truth his

wife, and that these were his most heartrending memories.

Could it be that Chu Xun had put off reincarnation and stayed in Nanke

Town because of his wife? Was he waiting for her to be stripped of that extra

soul and return to him from the seventh level, so they could reincarnate

together? Mo Ran couldn't bear to pry any more than he already had.

Chu Xun said no more on it either. To mention something like this

again, in just this handful of bald words—ate her own child alive—even

after two hundred years, even as a ghost, the jut of his throat still trembled.

Chu Xun closed his eyes. "The woman's soul became scrambled and

torn, and fused with the child's cognizance soul." There was a long pause.

"So her extra soul is actually that child's cognizance soul. The child's soul

became stuck within hers, and the two assimilated until they were completely

inseparable."

In death, as in life, this person swallowed his own pain in order to

help others. Mo Ran felt horrible. But he couldn't say so outright, so he

simply said, "You don't have to say any more. I-I get it now."

"I tell you all this so you may understand: if the Chu-gongzi you're

looking for really has two earth souls, then it's highly likely that one of them

was not originally his."

Mo Ran turned this over in his mind. "Is it not possible that it was one

earth soul split into two?"

"It's possible, but not in your case."

"Why not?"

"I've seen a soul split in two as well," Chu Xun explained, "but that's

another story. Such a thing generally only occurs when an individual has

sinned so deeply and killed so wantonly that their souls cannot bear it and

shatter. Even then, the one that shatters is always the human soul, the one

responsible for morality and humanity. Never the earth soul or the cognizance

soul."

There was a long silence. "I see," Mo Ran muttered. The moment he

heard the words sinned so deeply and killed so wantonly, he had already

concluded that this scenario couldn't possibly apply to Chu Wanning. But as

for himself, he did wonder—when, in this life, he truly met his end and came

to the underworld, would his human soul shatter in two? Would he get his just

deserts?

"Besides," Chu Xun added, "if it really was one soul split in two, the

other half of the earth soul would have been similarly afflicted and been sent

to the Ailing Souls Sanitarium as well. Since the little gongzi found only one

damaged earth soul, I suspect the other is a complete, healthy soul."

At this remark, things clicked into place. Mo Ran brightened

immediately. "Thank you so much, Sir Chu!" he said in a rush. "Then I…I'll

go search again right away!"

"Very good. In addition to pointing toward the Ailing Souls Sanitarium

earlier, the compass also pointed northeast. The little gongzi should try going

that way. However, Nanke Town is large, and there are so many ghosts

coming and going as they await reincarnation…" Chu Xun sighed.

Mo Ran saw the shadow of pity in those gentle eyes. He already knew

what Chu Xun meant to say.

The vastness of Nanke Town. The millions of wandering souls. Even

with a direction to search in, finding one particular earth soul was easier

said than done. If two people were not fated to meet, it wouldn't matter if the

streets were lit as bright as day. They might still pass like ships in the night,

one to the east and one to the west, never once noticing, never once seeing.

And with the underworld as dark and silent as it was now, the task was nigh

impossible.

But Chu Xun was a gentle soul. He lifted a hand and clapped Mo Ran

on the shoulder. "The little gongzi possesses such heartfelt sincerity. I'm sure

you will meet again."

This man looked so like Chu Wanning. As he spoke, a bead of wax

dripped down the candle, and the flame flickered, obscuring his features in

shadow. In the gloom, Mo Ran seemed to see Chu Wanning's face in a

moment of gentleness, seemed to hear Chu Wanning's voice say they would

meet again.

Tears sprang to Mo Ran's eyes despite himself. He swiftly bowed his

head and clasped his hands in a gesture of respect. His voice was hoarse.

"Really, thank you so much."

But Chu Xun made no reply. Even after Mo Ran turned and left,

closing the door behind him, he still stood staring after him, a hint of

bewilderment in his phoenix eyes. Were those…tears he saw in that young

man's eyes?

Ghosts couldn't cry. Had he been mistaken? Or…

He turned to glance over his shoulder at that vase with its quietly

blooming branch of haitang blossoms. Flowers from the living world

couldn't withstand the yin energy of the underworld—even after his careful

tending, a petal had still fluttered down to land on the aged wood of the table.

Chu Xun stepped over and picked up that vibrant petal. Held between

his fingertips, it withered and crumbled away in a heartbeat, scattering into

dust.

"Guard."

"Sir Chu." No sooner had he spoken than a masked ghost entered and

stood respectfully to the side.

Chu Xun didn't turn. He gazed at the haitang blossoms and asked in a

soft voice, "Has that man come to Tailwind Hall recently?"

"No, he hasn't. It's been the same as always: a branch of haitang

blossoms every ten days. He dares not come to Tailwind Hall himself, and

always has another deliver it for him."

Chu Xun remained quiet.

"What is it, sir? Was there something suspicious about that gongzi just

now? If that man dares send people to disturb your peace, you can always

ask Lord Yanluo to…"

"No." Chu Xun shook off his daze and interrupted his subordinate,

turning to the ghost with a faint smile. He exhaled heavily. "It's nothing. I

doubt that man sent him. And even if he did, the child came only to look for

someone; it was nothing to do with me."

"But what if he was sent by that man? Why go to the trouble—"

"He was no party to that wrong." Chu Xun stood quietly next to the

flowering branch, his robes the color of snow. "Let him be."

The streets were desolate. Mo Ran left Tailwind Hall and walked

northeast. He took Chu Wanning's portrait door-to-door, but it was like trying

to find a needle at the bottom of the sea. Those he showed the portrait to

were quick to wave their hands in dismissal. Some didn't look at all before

brushing past.

"The guy in the drawing? Never seen him before."

"Haven't seen him, haven't seen him! Don't disrupt my business."

"Out of my way! So damn annoying! Do you have any idea what time it

is?! Piss off! What portrait? Get it out of my face!"

The residents of Nanke Town may have been ghosts, but these ghosts

had yet to relinquish the emotions and desires of life. Living together as they

did, most had gradually settled back into the familiar rhythm of their days in

the mortal world. Over these eight to ten long years, they would seek out

friends or relatives, or else adopt a dead cat or a dog. In short, they carried

on living as they had before death. And so, though they didn't need to sleep,

they would still lie in their beds to rest out of habit when the moon climbed

high up in the sky.

Thus, as night closed in around him, even fewer people were willing

to talk, and no one had any clues to share. Mo Ran walked down that long,

endless street stretching to the northeast. He knocked on every door and

visited every house, ducking his head and smiling apologetically…

"I already told you! I saw it wrong! I gave it more thought and the guy I

saw wasn't actually the one in the drawing. Leave me alone already!" The

bearded man was trying to close the door, ready to retire for the night with

his wife and kids of the underworld.

Mo Ran had run into this man on the street as he'd been returning home

earlier and had questioned him with the portrait. The man had considered for

a while and said he remembered seeing the person in the picture near the east

market a few days ago. Then his wife had thrown him a look. As if struck by

a sudden realization, he'd clammed up and started waving his hands,

insisting he'd made a mistake.

But Mo Ran was sure this man knew something—so he had refused to

give up. He'd dogged him the whole walk home, pleading with him every

step of the way.

The man shoved him brusquely out the door and pulled at the wooden

door bolt. Mo Ran begged, frantic, "Please think about it again! Where in the

east market? And where did he go after? Please…"

"I said I don't know!"

The commotion drew the attention of nearby ghosts, and a crowd soon

gathered to spectate. The man bellowed angrily as he pushed against the

door, heedless of Mo Ran's hand still in the doorframe.

The door slammed roughly on his fingers. The pain was excruciating,

but he didn't care about that right now. Mo Ran swallowed the pain and

refused to pull his hand from the narrow gap, using all his strength to push it

wider instead. "I'm begging you, please think about it again. I just want to

know where he went after that…"

The man wrenched the door open and, taking no notice of the blood

welling up on Mo Ran's fingers, shoved him roughly back. "I already said I

don't know!" he yelled. "Now fuck off!"