When the Shao Yang Sect heard that someone could save Linglong, the crowd was so excited that Linglong’s small courtyard was soon filled with people waiting. When Xuanji pushed Ting Nu to go over, she was shocked, and she hardly managed to squeeze through the crowd to the door.
Chu Lei was about to speak for everyone to leave, but heard someone inside the house shout, “Wow, why are you all here!” So he hurriedly dash into the room, only to see Téngshé with both hands full of cakes, mouth also stuffed full, with innocent round eyes.
It was strange that they couldn’t find him just now, because he ran here to eat. Xuanji felt embarrassed and sighed, “Why did you come here? What’s with these cakes?”
Téngshé swallowed the dessert and laughed: “I saw that the dessert on the table here is not eaten, it is a pity. So … the person in the room won’t eat it anyway, so I might as well enjoy it.”
Linglong had lost two souls and six forms, and was no different from a dead person, so her room was set up as a shrine, people often came to replace the fresh cakes and fruits as a tribute. They don’t know how Téngshé got here, but he was hungry so ate them all without ceremony.
“Don’t tell anyone that I know you in the future.” Xuanji gave him a blank look and pushed Ting Nu to the bedside. Yu Sifeng lifted the heavy curtain and saw Linglong lying on the bed with her eyes closed, breathing steadily, as if she was asleep, with her eyelashes trembling slightly, as if she could wake up with a push.
“Linglong, we have come to see you.” Xuanji sat down and gently pushed the hair at her forehead away. Téngshé saw that there was a lot of fun to be had, so he rushed over and looked her up and down, saying, “Oh, so she is Linglong. It is true that the soul has been taken out of the body, just put it back and it will be fine. She looks much prettier than you, and her nature must be softer than yours.”
She’s looks pretty, yes, but softer than her? Yu Sifeng and Xuanji looked at each other, smiled and did not say anything. Téngshé will definitely regret what he said.
“Do you need the help of someone else?” Chu Lei and the elders also came to ask. After all, a soul is not child’s play, maybe she can only sleep like this forever.
Ting Nu shook his head, “No, you guys don’t want to interfere.”
“He is the one who can cast the spell?” Téngshé asked Yu Si Feng in a low voice. In fact, as soon as Ting Nu came in, he noticed a different aura on his body, obviously, this is not a human, but a demon, and a very old demon. Although Téngshé was a divine beast, but he has no opinion on demons, only that we are all beings, not like Chu Lei who is so entangled. But he is a god, and does not know how to invoke the soul magic, today letting the demon step on his head to make a big splash, the heart is very unhappy.
But …… what, the more he looks, the more familiar, as if he has seen him in some place.
Yu Sifeng said in a low voice, He is named Ting Nu. I’d like to say that this is a very important matter, so don’t make any trouble in the middle. If anything goes wrong, you know Xuanji’s temperament.”
Sure enough, Téngshé really turned pale and leaned back peacefully.
Ting Nu took out Linglong’s soul from his sleeve, the bottle was tilted over, opened the lid with a pinch of his fingers, and the lively flames immediately landed on Linglong’s chest, jumping faintly. The crowd held their breath to see what he would do. Ting Nu stretched his fingers and picked up a cluster of flame, gently circled it on Linglong’s forehead, and chanted in a low voice, “O soul, come back! Why have you left your old abode and sped to the earth’s far corners, deserting the place of your delight to meet all those things of evil omen?[1].”
After chanting like this for half a moment, they saw the flames suddenly move and spread out on Linglong’s body, some on the forehead, some on the heart, and some on the belly. Ting Nu stopped chanting immediately, and turned his wrist, the flames that were between his fingers also fell on her body, slowly moving, swimming across her forehead and entering through the head.
On the bed Linglong suddenly frowned slightly, as if she was about to wake up, her mouth “hmmm” a sound. Xuanji was overjoyed and was about to go over to ask her about it, but Yu Sifeng pulled her back and instructed her not to interrupt the spell. Ting Nu picked up the flame on her left shoulder and sang the song over and over again, and with a final throw, the flame burrowed into her left shoulder. Linglong’s eyelashes fluttered and she suddenly shed tears.
The remaining six clusters of flames were all chanted in the same way, and finally burrowed into her body. The expression on her face was also changing, sometimes joyful, sometimes depressed, sometimes melancholy, sometimes angry. The crowd knew that it was because the soul had returned to the body, so all the desires and emotions returned one by one, until the last flame, Ting Nu was already sweating profusely and looked wilted, and finally he forced the most important soul to return. Linglong let out a ‘ah’ and opened her eyes suddenly, wept bitterly and yelled,”… Why don’t you kill me first!”
Before she finished, she suddenly realized that she was in her own house in Shaoyang Peak, so she was frozen, not knowing the year or the month and was at a loss.
Ting Nu, exhausted, gave her a pat on the head and said with a final smile, “Success.”
Everyone was overjoyed, flocked together, asking Linglong all sorts of questions, but she was always at a loss, as if she still could not understand how she suddenly returned to Shaoyang Peak from Gao’s mountain.
At the moment, Chu Lei and his wife were holding her to explain the sequence of events. Although Xuanji’s very happy, but she is not impulsive, as long as she saw Linglong awake, it was better than anything. There are many things that can be said later. She pushed Ting Nu to the side and smiled, “Ting Nu …… thank you.” Before she said another word, two lines of tears still could not help but fall down.
Ting Nu smiled faintly and patter her hand to express comfort. On the other side Téngshé stared at him for a long time, saw him smile, the brain flashed and immediately jumped up and shouted, “You are you! The one in the Celestial Pond! I’ve seen you before!”
His cry startled everyone in the room and they all looked back at him. Téngshé was a little embarrassed, touched his ears and laughed: “Uh …… nothing …… you guys continue. I was just talking about it.”
After speaking, he squatted in front of Ting Nu, looked straight at him, and said, “Is it you? The one who was deprived from the immortality for the crime of guilt by association, that one.”
Ting Nu said lightly, “So what if it’s me ……? It’s been a long time, Lord Téngshé. You still remember an insignificant mote.”
Téngshé said angrily, “Don’t talk nonsense! You know him, right? He still owes Lao Zi a fight!”
Ting Nu was unmoved and said, “Lord Téngshé has to fight people every day, I don’t know which one you are talking about.”
“He! That’s him! The one who is locked up in the underworld! Wuzhiqi!”
Ting Nu lowered his eyelashes and whispered, “I don’t know him. Didn’t the heavenly realm take him into captivity in the first place? Why do you ask me?”
“Hey, you …” Téngshé was about to get angry when his hair was suddenly tugged, causing him to scream in pain. Xuanji grabbed his hair and said angrily, “Your voice is too loud! What are you doing to Ting Nu?!”
Téngshé was furious and cursed, “Stinky Girl! What do you want me to do! That’s right! You’re the one who stole my fight! I haven’t settled the score with you yet!”
She threw the words back at him before he finished speaking, “I don’t know what you’re yelling about! Shut up!” She smiled at Ting Nu and sighed, “I’m sorry, this is my spirit beast, Téngshé. He is very bad-tempered, if he bullies you, you must tell me. I will punish him severely.”
“Stinky girl …” she stepped on Téngshé’s feet. He tried to resist, but it was bound by a contract and was unable to resist, so it could only curse.
Ting Nu said, “He … became your spirit beast?”
Xuanji nodded, “Yes. But he is really annoying, I’m really annoyed by him.”
Ting Nu blankly stared for a while, then suddenly burst into laughter. Xuanji was so confused by his laughter that she asked, “What’s wrong? What are you laughing at?”
“Nothing …” Ting Nu covered his mouth with his sleeve, and couldn’t help but smile. He remembered something from the past, Téngshé was the most aggressive person in the heavenly realm, always thinking that he was the best in the world. Later, he heard that the God of War is not only a woman, but also terribly powerful, a person facing thousands of troops, without fear, he spent his days looking for her figure in the heavenly court, day and night screaming to fight with the General God of War.
Finally, the God of War was punished for their crimes and sent down to the world to experience the tribulation, he had no choice but to give up this ambition. This time, he doesn’t know what kind of coincidence, actually met Xuanji, Ting Nu thinks he must have provoked first, the two had a big fight, the result must be that he lost, and became her spirit beast. The resentment in his heart can be imagined.
Téngshé’s feet were stepped on by Xuanji, finally gave up resistance, only said, “Wu Zhi Qi was arrested, I only learned about it later. I went to the Heavenly Emperor to argue with him, but he kicked me out and put me in solitary confinement for 100 years.”
He said very plainly, Ting Nu was somewhat moved, and whispered: “It’s hard to think that Lord Téngshé …… would actually plead for him ……”
“Excuse you! He owes Lao Zi a fight! Whether he wants to die or live, at least wait until after the fight with Lao Zi!”
He roared very arrogantly, seemingly without a trace of weakness. Ting Nu smiled and said, “Even so … I still want to thank Lord Téngshé for his care of Wu Zhi Qi,” said Tingnu.
When Xuanji heard what they said about being helpless and fighting, she felt a little familiar, but she couldn’t remember what it was. She was trying to think about it when she heard someone call her from behind, “Xuanji!”
It was Linglong’s voice. She looked back with surprise and joy, stepped on Téngshé’s feet, and ran over to the bedside, only to see Linglong looking at herself with care and excitement. She called out, “Linglong.” Her voice suddenly choked up, and then hugged her, unable to speak again.
She came back alive, and finally saved her. Xuanji hugged her tightly as if she hadn’t seen her for a lifetime, hugging each other like this, neither letting go first.
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[1]: The chant/poem used here is 魂兮歸來！去君之恆干，何為乎四方些？舍君之樂處，而離彼不詳些。Which is a line from a poem called Summons of the Soul, or Summoning of the Soul, or Zhao Hun (Chinese: 招魂, or, with old variant 招䰟; Pinyin: Zhāo Hún). It is one of the poems anthologized in the ancient Chinese poetry collection, the Chu Ci.
The poem is based on and directly related to the Chinese philosophical and traditional religion idea of Hun and Po. Hun (Chinese: 魂; pinyin: hún; lit. ‘cloud-soul’) and po (Chinese: 魄; pinyin: pò; lit. ‘white-soul’) are types of souls in Chinese philosophy and traditional religion. Within this ancient soul dualism tradition, every living human has both a hun spiritual, ethereal, yang soul which leaves the body after death, and also a po corporeal, substantive, yin soul which remains with the corpse of the deceased. Some controversy exists over the number of souls in a person; for instance, one of the traditions within Daoism proposes a soul structure of sanhunqipo 三魂七魄; that is, “three hun and seven po“.
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