With great difficulty, he uttered those two simple words, which seemed to drain all his strength, causing him to tremble slightly as he laughed and cried at the same time, watching Li Tan gently adjusting the zither strings.
“Sorry, no.”
After a brief silence, Li Tan stopped playing and lifted his head.
“Who are you, and why do you know this piece?”
“I’m Li Tan from the Linjiang Li family. I learned it by chance.”
“Do you know Hao?”
“Did Hao teach it to you?”
“What difference does it make how I learned the piece?”
“You probably have other questions, young lady.”
Jiang Xin gradually calmed down from her excitement but quickly fell into confusion. Touching her icy cheek, she asked:
“Right, am I not dead?”
“Could this be the underworld?”
Li Tan sighed.
“Look carefully at where you are.”
“This! This is my room, and there’s my memorial tablet. Does that mean I’ve become a ghost?”
Li Tan shook his head.
“There are no ghosts in this world.”
He placed the soul jade on the table. “You’re in a state similar to that of a primordial spirit. You probably won’t understand that term, so just think of yourself as a ghost. However, you don’t have the usual restrictions like fear of sunlight. This jade is what caused your current state.”
Jiang Xin shuddered and tried to reach out with her trembling hand to touch the soul jade, but her fingers passed right through it.
“You can’t touch anything now,” Li Tan explained.
“It’s him,” Jiang Xin withdrew her hand, staring blankly at the soul jade.
“Jiang Xin?” Li Tan asked with concern.
“I’m fine,” she replied, still dazed, seemingly lost in thought.
Li Tan clicked his tongue, then slowly recounted his experiences meeting her, finally revealing his intentions.
“Cui Ge left these treasures for you intending for you to live a peaceful life, but he forgot that possessing treasures can invite disaster. The Lin family owes you, and I will get everything back for you. So later on, I hope you can tell me the specific details about that incident.”
“Rest assured, Sister Jiang Xin, we’re truly here to help you.”
Tang Leyin said the same.
Because Li Tan always referred to Cui Hao as “Cui Ge,” Tang Leyin felt puzzled.
She naturally knew who Cui Hao was, but why did Li Tan address him so casually as “Cui Ge”?
It was quite unusual for a junior to address a senior like that.
After hearing all this, sorrow appeared on Jiang Xin’s face.
My father was a merchant. Because he possessed some cultivation abilities, he often organized mercenaries to venture into the Fallen Immortal Domain to gather medicinal herbs and treasures. Over the decades, he accumulated extensive experience and had a thorough understanding of the distribution of ferocious beasts in the outer regions.
As I grew older and gained some cultivation skills, I pleaded with my father to let me join them in exploring the Fallen Immortal Realm, but he always refused.
I was indignant and felt belittled by my father, so I was eager to prove myself. Once, when my father attended a merchant association meeting in a neighboring city, I secretly took a map marking the distribution of ferocious beasts and ventured into the Fallen Immortal Realm (Zhui Xian Zhi Yu). My thinking was very simple at the time—I just wanted to gather some spirit herbs and bring them back so my father would acknowledge me.
My luck was good, and I found the spirit herbs not long after. However, on my way back, I accidentally discovered a severely injured young man. At that time, I didn’t think much about it and assumed it was the work of a ferocious beast. I used the medicine I had to treat his wounds. Only after tearing off his clothes did I realize it was a sword wound, not caused by a beast.
He told me that someone was chasing him and urged me to run quickly, or I would be implicated. I didn’t listen and carried him to hide in a nearby cave. Perhaps it was heaven’s will, because it immediately started raining heavily. The pursuers he mentioned circled around but never found the cave where we were hiding.
Later, he stayed at my house to recover. When my father returned, he went to the inn. Over time, feelings developed between us. However, he left these things behind and departed without saying goodbye. He was afraid I would be sad, but actually, I knew everything. We were from different worlds. He was lofty, radiant and brilliant, while I was nothing more than an ordinary woman. I was destined to be just a passerby in his life.
A few years later, I was practicing the martial arts manual he gave me when someone from the Lin family saw me. Not long after, they sent betrothal gifts to my doorstep. Cart after cart, lined up for a whole street. Quite a spectacle, right? My father had no choice but to agree to the marriage.
I’m just a woman, and even if I was unwilling, what could I do? I had to marry them. You probably already know what happened next—they forced me to hand over the martial arts manual.” After Jiang Xin finished speaking, Tang Leyin angrily said:
“The Lin family went too far.”
Li Tan nodded in agreement and looked at Jiang Xin.
“We can directly go to the current head of the Lin family and get the martial arts back.”
“No need.”
“Why not?”
“Don’t you hate them?”
Jiang Xin smiled.
“I do hate them, but what can I do about it?”
“Now that it’s come to this, getting the martial arts manual back is too late, right? We can’t just kill all the members of the Lin family, can we?”
Li Tan fell silent.
Tang Leyin also fell silent.
After a while, Li Tan asked with some helplessness.
“So what do you plan to do next?”
“Me?” Jiang Xin looked helplessly at her own hands.
Tang Leyin suggested.
“Why not dwell inside this soul jade for now? There might be a chance to reshape your physical body in the future, or even meet Master Cui again.”
Li Tan nodded.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
Just like Tang Leyin followed him, she would definitely meet Cui Hao again someday. If she could reshape her physical body, she would have the opportunity to start cultivating again.
Reshaping a physical body was extremely difficult, but Jiang Xin was just an ordinary person, so relatively speaking, the difficulty wasn’t that great.
However.
“Thank you, young master, for your kind offer. If possible, please let me rest in peace.” Both Li Tan and Tang Leyin were instantly stunned and asked in unison.
“Why?”
Jiang Xin looked at the night sky outside the window and smiled calmly.
“In the end, he and I are from different worlds. Meeting him again would only be a burden to him. It’s better not to meet at all.”
“Is that really what you think?”
“Yes.”
The term “deliverance” is frequently mentioned in folk legends, referring to the act of helping aggrieved spirits find peace. However, ordinary individuals typically do not possess souls. Its true purpose is to neutralize the threat posed by the dangerous primordial spirits (yuan shen) of powerful martial artists after their demise. Additionally, it serves a more compassionate function—allowing primordial spirits (yuan shen) who refuse to continue existing after the death of their physical bodies and have no desire to possess another form to depart peacefully.
Although Li Tan and Tang Leyin wanted to help Jiang Xin and seek justice from the Lin family, they still respected her choice. When they asked why she didn’t want revenge or at least retrieve the martial arts manual, she calmly explained that there were no more family members left in this world, so what was the meaning of living alone?
After hearing Jiang Xin’s words, Tang Leyin and Li Tan fell silent, feeling sorrow in their hearts. However, they still prepared the deliverance ceremony under the parasol tree in the courtyard that very night. However, before the ceremony could begin, they had to retrieve Jiang Xin’s remains first.
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