Chapter 109: Shizun's Second Earth Soul

Head numb and thoughts a jumble of white noise, Mo Ran's hands and feet felt like ice as he hugged Chu Wanning's soul to himself and went back downstairs in a daze.

"Doctor…" "You again? What is it this time?" "You're sure that the one upstairs… is my Shizun's Earth Soul, right?" The ghost doctor was rather annoyed. "Of course it is, I wouldn't get something like that wrong." Still refusing to give up, Mo Ran tried again, "Could it be the Cognizance Soul, or…" "Or what," the ghost doctor tsk'd. "A person has three souls: Earth,

Cognizance, and Human. I've already practiced here for a hundred fifty years, if I can't even tell the three souls apart, Lord Yanluo would've kicked me back into the Wheel of Reincarnation long ago." Mo Ran pressed his lips together, then an uncertain thought occurred to him.

"Doctor, in your hundred fifty years here, have you ever seen anyone with…

two Earth Souls?" "What's wrong with you!" the ghost doctor snapped crossly. "Looks to me like your head's not working right, maybe you should let me take your pulse!" Of course he couldn't let the ghost doctor actually take his pulse; Master Huaizui may have cast an enchantment on him, but if he wasn't careful, he could probably still get found out, so Mo Ran offered a hasty apology and fled out of the Ailing Souls Sanitarium holding the lantern with the Human and Earth Souls inside.

It was always dim in the Ghost Realm. The only way to tell day from night was to look up at the sky: if there was a lukewarm sun behind the layer of murky mist and heavy red clouds, then it was day; if a cold moon hung high above,

then it was night.

It was night right now, and the roads were slowly emptying out.

Holding the Soul-Calling Lantern in his arms, Mo Ran walked through the streets by himself with his head lowered. He didn't know what to do, and the more he walked, the more helpless and alone he felt.

Such helplessness and uncertainty had once been a daily part of his childhood; having to face these feelings once again now unsettled him. He remembered the people he used to know back when he was getting by at the pleasure house. The House of Drunken Jade had gone up in flames in the end.

Everyone died, but he alone survived...

Counting the years, everyone—aside from his mom—had probably yet to be reincarnated. He didn't know whom he might run into if he just kept walking like this.

Then he thought of Xue Meng.

He thought of Xue Meng's angry bellows as he tried to wrest the Soul-Calling Lantern from his hands, calling him a "god damn scourge!" ——"What right do you have, have you no shame." Hugging the lantern to himself, Mo Ran walked slower and slower until he stopped next to a wall, the rims of his eyes red despite his best efforts. He gazed at that gentle, golden flame with his head lowered, and muttered in a tiny voice:

"Shizun, is it that you… that you really don't want to go back with me?" The flame didn't answer, only continued to burn silently.

He stood there for a long time before he managed to calm back down.

The Underworld was so big, and he didn't know where or whom he could go to. Then he suddenly thought of Chu Xun, and hurriedly ran toward Tailwind Hall like he had grasped a lifeline.

When he got there, Tailwind Hall was just about to close, and a masked ghost was shutting the doors and locking up. Mo Ran hastily stopped him,

entreating apprehensively, "Sorry, but please wait!" "It's you?" The masked person was the same one that had led him upstairs earlier. He paused for a moment, then said, "What did you come back for?" "Sorry to trouble you, but it's urgent…" Mo Ran had ran too fast; he panted for breath, eyes bright yet anxious. He swallowed and said hoarsely, "I want to see Sir Chu Xun again."   Chu Xun was staring absently at a branch of haitang blossoms in a slender white porcelain vase, and was startled to suddenly see Mo Ran return.

"Why did the little gongzi come back? Were you unable to find him?" Mo Ran replied, "I found him, but I… I…" Chu Xun saw how tense and anxious he was and guessed that whatever trouble he had must be difficult to talk about, so he invited him in and closed the door, saying, "Have a seat." Worried that Chu Xun might notice something off if he kept the Soul-Calling Lantern in his hands, Mo Ran put it away in his qiankun pouch.

It wasn't that he thought Chu Xun was a malicious ghost, but something like a living person sneaking into the Underworld was best secret from the ghosts here if at all possible.

"The little gongzi went to the southeast?" "Mn." "....." Chu Xun thought for a moment, then said, "It was the Ailing Souls Sanitarium, wasn't it."   Mo Ran nodded, and weighed his words before saying, "I saw him at the Ailing Souls Sanitarium, but it's an incomplete Earth Soul that can't move or speak. He even looks different from the other ghosts, half-transparent, can be seen but can't be touched." "Damaged Earth Souls are generally like that," Chu Xun's expression was somber. "Some souls that have been agitated could even scatter, never to be gathered again."   Mo Ran chewed on his lip, then said, hesitantly, "The doctor there said that people whose souls are incomplete will have certain impairments in life during their reincarnations. But the person I'm looking for… was just fine in life, so I was wondering if there might have been a mistake somewhere." He paused for a while, lifting his head to look towards Chu Xun.

"Sir Chu, is it possible for someone to have two Earth Souls?" Chu Xun faltered, "Two Earth Souls?" "Mn." Unlike the doctor at the Ailing Souls Sanitarium who had immediately shot down Mo Ran's hypothesis, Chu Xun mulled it over carefully for a while with his gaze downcast, and then said, "I suppose… it isn't impossible."

A tremor ran through Mo Ran's body and his head snapped up, eyes bright in the dim candle light of the room.

"Really?!" Chu Xun inclined his head, "Normally, a person only has three ethereal souls and seven corporeal spirits, but I once knew a woman with two Cognizance Souls." "Could you tell me more?" Chu Xun shook his head, his eyelashes dropping lower and trembling slightly. He took a moment to steady himself before saying, "It's all things long past now, I'd rather not talk about it. That person is suffering in the seventh level of Hell right now. Anyone whose soul is abnormal, once found by Yanluo, is sent to the seventh level to be slowly peeled apart."   His words made Mo Ran even more anxious, and in the dim light, he didn't notice the pain in Chu Xun's eyes when he asked, "Why does that woman have an extra Cognizance Soul? Normal 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 gathered?" "That is probably the case." "Then the woman you mentioned…" "She was used by the Ninth King in death, forced back to the living world…" Chu Xun paused, the slender fingers resting on his knee slowly clenching into a fist, "to the living world, and ate her own child alive."   "!!" Mo Ran abruptly recalled the past events of Lin'an that he had borne witness to at the Peach Blossom Springs, and only then did he realize that the "woman" of whom Chu Xun spoke was actually his wife, that these were his most painful memories.

Then the reason Chu Xun had stayed at Nanke Village rather than reincarnate into his next life was to wait for his wife to be peeled of that extra soul and come back from the seventh level to reunite with him, so that they could reincarnate together?

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

Chu Xun said no more of it either. To mention something like this again, in just these few, understated words—"ate her own child alive"—even after two hundred years, even as a ghost, his throat still trembled.

He closed his eyes.

"The woman's soul became scrambled and torn, and fused with the child's Cognizance Soul," a long while passed before he continued. "So her extra soul is actually that child's Cognizance Soul that got stuck between hers, which slowly assimilated into her soul until it became a part of it, completely and inseparably."   This person, in death as in life, always endured his own pain to help others.

Mo Ran felt horrible. He couldn't say it directly, and could only say, "You don't have to say any more, I, I understand now." "The reason I'm telling you these things is to let you know that, if the Chugongzi you're looking for really does have two Earth Souls, then most likely one of them was not originally his."

Mo Ran turned it over in his head for a while, then asked, "Is it not possible that it was one Earth Soul split into two?" "It's possible, but not in your case." "How come?"   Chu Xun explained, "I've seen a soul split in two as well, but that's another story. Something like that generally only happens when someone has sinned so deeply and killed so wantonly that their souls are unable to bear it and shatter as a result. But even then, the one that shatters is always the Human Soul which is responsible for morality and humanity, and never the Earth Soul or the Cognizance Soul."   "...I see," Mo Ran muttered.

He had already concluded that this scenario had nothing to do with Chu Wanning as soon as he heard "sinned so deeply and killed so wantonly." But as for he himself, on the other hand, he wondered; when he truly meets his end in this life and comes to the Underworld, will his Human Soul shatter into two, will he get his just deserts?

Chu Xun added, "Besides, if it really was one soul split into two, then the other half of the Earth Soul would've been unable to walk and gotten sent to the Ailing Souls Sanitarium as well. Since the little gongzi only saw one damaged Earth Soul there, then I think the other one should be a complete, healthy soul." Mo Ran lit up immediately at his remark as things clicked into place, and he said in a hurry, "Thank you so much, Sir Chu! Then I… I'll go back to searching right now!" "Very good. Aside from pointing toward the Ailing Souls Sanitarium earlier,

the compass also pointed in the northeast direction. The little gongzi should try going in that direction. Though, Nanke Village is vast, with so many ghosts coming and going while waiting their turn to reincarnate…" Chu Xun sighed.

Mo Ran saw those gentle eyes tinged faintly with pity, and already knew what he wanted to say.

The vastness of Nanke Village, the millions of wandering ghosts.

Even knowing the direction, it would be no easy task to find one particular Earth Soul.

If two people were not fated, then even if the streets were so brightly lit it appeared not to be night at all, they would still brush right past one another as they walked, one toward the east and one toward the west, never once noticing the other, never even seeing the other.

And with the Underworld silent as it was now, it was even easier said than done.

But Chu Xun was a gentle soul in the end. He lifted his hand and clapped Mo Ran on the shoulder. "The little gongzi has such heartfelt sincerity, you will surely meet him again."   He looked so much like Chu Wanning, and as he spoke, a bead of melted wax dripped slowly down and the candle flame flickered, making his face look even more indistinct.

In the dimness, Mo Ran seemed to see Chu Wanning's face in a moment of gentleness, seemed to hear Chu Wanning say to him that they will meet again.

Wetness gathered in Mo Ran's eyes despite himself.

He hurriedly lowered his head and clasped his hands in a gesture of respect,

voice hoarse as he said, "Really, thank you so much." But Chu Xun said nothing in response. Even when Mo Ran had already turned and left, closing the door behind him, he was still standing there staring after him, a hint of bewilderment flickering in his phoenix eyes.

Were those… tears he saw… in that young man's eyes?

Ghosts couldn't cry. Did he see wrong? Or...

He turned to look over his shoulder at that quietly blooming branch of haitang blossoms in the vase. Flowers from the living world couldn't bear the Yin energy of the Underworld; even with careful tending, a petal had still drifted down to land on the aged, wooden table.

Chu Xun walked over and picked up that vibrant petal. It withered and crumbled away in no time, scattering from his fingertips into powder.

"Guard."   "Sir Chu," a masked person came in immediately, standing respectfully to the side.

Chu Xun didn't turn around. He gazed at the haitang blossoms as he asked in a soft voice, "Has that person come to Tailwind Hall himself recently?"   "No, he hasn't. Things have been the same as always, a branch of haitang blossoms every ten days. He dares not come here to Tailwind Hall himself, and always has someone else deliver it for him." "..." "What is it, Sir? Was there something off about that gongzi just now? If that person dares send people to bother you, you can always ask Lord Yanluo to…"   "No," Chu Xun broke out of his daze and interrupted him, turning to smile lightly at his subordinate. He exhaled, "It's nothing, he probably wasn't sent by that person. And even if he was, that child came only to look for someone, it had nothing to do with me." "But if that person did send him here, then why did you still go to the trouble ——"   "He had no involvement in 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 headed northeast,

going door to door with Chu Wanning's portrait, but it was like trying to find a needle at the bottom of the sea.

Those he showed the portrait to waved their hands no; some didn't even want to look at all before walking past him.

"The person 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 not see what time it is! Piss off!

What portrait? Get it out of my face!"   Although the residents of Nanke Village were all ghosts, these ghosts had yet to severe their emotions and desires. Living together like this, most of them had gradually settled back into how they used to spend their days in the living world. While waiting out their eight to ten long years, they would seek out some friends or relatives, or else adopt a dead cat or a dead dog; simply put, they lived as they had when they were still alive. And so, although they did not need to sleep, they would still lie down in their beds to rest when the moon climbed high up in the sky.

With the night falling, even fewer people were willing to talk to him, and no one had any information or direction for him.

He walked by himself down that long, endless street stretching into the northeast, knocking on every door and visiting every house, keeping his head down while smiling apologetically…

"I already told you!!! I saw wrong! I thought about it more and the person I saw actually wasn't the one in the drawing, can you just leave me alone already!" The bearded man was getting ready to retire for the night with his wife and kids of the Underworld, trying to close the door.

Mo Ran had run into him on the street earlier as he'd been coming back, and had asked if he had seen the person in the portrait. He'd thought for a while and then said that he seemed to remember seeing him around the east market a couple days ago, but then his wife had thrown him a look and he'd shut up immediately as if realizing something, and started waving his hands and insisting he didn't know anything.

But Mo Ran felt like he knew, so he had refused to give up, following him the whole way home and pleading with him the entire time.

The man shoved him brusquely out the door and pulled the wooden door bolt. Mo Ran begged frantically, "Could you please think about it again? Where in the east market? And where did he go after? Please…" "I don't know!"   The commotion drew the attention of nearby ghosts, and a crowd had gathered to watch. The man bellowed loudly and angrily as he tried to shut the door, heedless of the fact that Mo Ran's hand was still on the doorframe.

The door slammed roughly on his fingers. It was excruciating, but he couldn't care about that right now, swallowing the pain and refusing to pull his hand from the closing gap, using all of his strength to push it open instead—— "I'm begging you, please think about it again, I just want to know where he went after that…"   But the man abruptly wrenched the door open and, taking no notice of the blood welling up on Mo Ran's fingers, shoved him roughly backwards and yelled,

"I already said I don't know! Fuck off!"