The Passerby Female Supporting Character – Chapter 71
by Little PandaSoul Recalling – This Chapter from Chi Qianning’s Perspective
[Refresher: Cultivation Levels: Qi Refining > Foundation Establishment > Golden Core > Nascent Soul > Divine Transformation > Void Refining Integration > Great Ascension > Tribulation Transcendence]
[LP: I thought Integration was a typo… but it’s not, it’s the other way around! Oh well ┐(￣∀￣)┌]
With Tan Hai’s death, and following the demise of its Cult Leader, the Wenxin Cult was utterly annihilated. The incident was sudden; no large-scale contingent of cultivators had journeyed to the Wenxin Cult midway through, which negated the possibility of it being the work of some other power. No one knew just how the Wenxin Cult had met its end. This power, which had risen to prominence in the Demon Realm in recent years, was thus extinguished silently and without a trace within a single day.
What shocked people even more amidst this was that among the several thousand members of the Wenxin Cult, the wounds on their corpses were discovered to have been inflicted by none other than the Wenxin Cult’s own leader, Tan Hai!
Could it be that this Tan Hai had gone mad? To think he would personally destroy the power he had painstakingly built over many years.
Some said that Tan Hai had practiced demonic arts to the point of becoming muddle-headed and recognizing no one1, and that was why he killed so many. However, a portion of people boldly speculated that the reason Tan Hai killed so many was that he was very likely forced. The evidence was that Tan Hai’s fatal wound was a sword piercing his heart; this sword strike was clean and decisive, directly ending Tan Hai’s life.
Tan Hai was an expert at the Integration Stage, nearing the Great Ascension Stage. For someone to be able to strike him before he could react and kill him with a single sword blow, it was likely a top-tier powerhouse who had acted.
Furthermore, the through-and-through wound on Tan Hai’s corpse, at his heart, was truly too small. It was considerably thinner than a typical longsword, nor did it seem to be the work of a dagger or short knife. And within the Wenxin Cult, there was no one who used such a special weapon.
For a time, opinions varied widely throughout the Jianghu regarding how the Wenxin Cult had been thus annihilated2. Rumors of such annihilations naturally occurred daily, but for such a large power to be suddenly wiped out was something that hadn’t happened in a very long time. Once the news leaked, it began to spread rapidly.
Chi Qianning paid no mind to how others evaluated this Wenxin Cult annihilation incident. After dealing with Tan Hai, she left the Demon Realm and headed for the Extreme North Land3.
She was going to the Cangkong Abbey4 in the Extreme North Land. Cangkong Abbey was built on White Cloud Peak5 in the Extreme North Land. The entire Extreme North Land was a snow plain, and among its most famous powers was Cangkong Abbey.
The Abbey Head of Cangkong Abbey was proficient in various secret Daoist arts, and it was said he even knew a forbidden Daoist art—Soul Recalling6.
Who created this art is long unknown. It is said that it can summon the three hun and seven po souls7 left behind by a deceased person whose time of death does not exceed seven days. As long as the souls are complete and a suitable body is prepared, it can bring the dead back to life.
This type of art clearly belongs to a kind of evil sorcer. Its practice had long been banned, and it was kept secret, not allowed to spread, though inheritances of it surely still existed in secret.
And in the Jianghu, there had always been rumors that the Abbey Head of Cangkong Abbey seemingly knew this forbidden art. Even if he hadn’t learned the Soul Recalling art, Cangkong Abbey was a Daoist establishment passed down from ancient times, so it surely preserved the secret manual for Soul Recalling.
Chi Qianning hadn’t been to the Extreme North Land in a very long time. This place was too cold; staying for long always made one unbearably drowsy, and one’s combat readiness in such a place was not as good as elsewhere.
Cangkong Abbey was not a large Daoist temple, standing firm atop White Cloud Peak. The Daoist priests within numbered no more than a hundred in total. Of course, adding some menial workers and Daoist acolytes8, they could barely scrape together over a hundred people.
The menial worker sweeping snow outside the main gate was engrossed in his task. Outsiders rarely came to the Daoist temple, so it wasn’t until Chi Qianning walked up beside him that he realized someone had arrived.
This gave the menial disciple quite a start. The woman beside him made no sound as she walked, and strangely, no matter how carefully he tried to look, he actually couldn’t make out her appearance.
Chi Qianning didn’t spare him a second glance, directly bypassing him and walking into the Daoist temple. The menial disciple could only shout at the figure’s back from behind:
“Hey! You can’t just barge in here! Who are you?”
His voice was very loud, and since the Daoist temple was small, people inside heard the commotion and immediately came out to check. They saw a stranger walking into the temple on her own.
Chi Qianning made no effort to conceal the fierce, baleful aura of someone who had just annihilated an entire group. Seeing that the newcomer was hostile, the Daoist masters inside the temple immediately moved to intercept Chi Qianning, but the whole group was sent flying by a single slap from her.
Not bothering to eliminate these small fry9, Chi Qianning stood her ground, waiting for the Abbey Head, Yun Daozi10, to appear on his own. Sure enough, just a few seconds after she made her move, Yun Daozi appeared before her.
“It’s you?!” Yun Daozi had sensed a fight at the abbey gate and had hurried over, only to see an unexpected person.
Yun Daozi had a deep impression of this individual. Her claim to fame was slaughtering an entire family on a snowy mountain in a single night, and that family had not insignificant ties with Cangkong Abbey.
The powers in the Extreme North Land, more or less, all had some connection with Cangkong Abbey. Back when that family was exterminated, Hong Ye had vanished after the killings, and the various powers of the Extreme North Land had jointly issued a warrant for her arrest but failed to capture her.
Hong Ye was one of the people Yun Daozi least wanted to see. He immediately became vigilant and questioned, “Hong Ye, what are you doing here? Don’t tell me you think you alone can annihilate my entire Cangkong Abbey?”
“Yun Daozi, use the Soul Recalling art to resurrect someone for me.” Chi Qianning couldn’t be bothered with beating around the bush11 with him and stated her purpose directly.
Yun Daozi was taken aback by her directness. This was entirely the tone one used when speaking to a subordinate. ‘You, Hong Ye, are not the Abbey Head of Cangkong Abbey. On what grounds should I listen to you?’
Truly a shameless scoundrel! Who asks for a favor in such a tone?
“Hmph! My Cangkong Abbey is an orthodox Daoist sect. How could we possibly help a violent criminal like you?” Yun Daozi snorted coldly, rejecting her request without any hesitation.
Chi Qianning, however, noted that he hadn’t said he couldn’t perform Soul Recalling, only that he refused to help.
“Is that so?”
The next moment, all the Daoists who had previously been sent flying by Chi Qianning screamed miserably, their faces contorted in agony, writhing madly on the ground. Chi Qianning looked coldly at Yun Daozi. “If you don’t help, I’ll kill all the other Daoists in Cangkong Abbey.”
“You!!!” Rage instantly welled up in Yun Daozi’s heart.
Chi Qianning paid no heed to the enraged Yun Daozi, stating faintly, “I will only count to three.”
“Three…”
“Two…”
“Enough!!!”
Yun Daozi suppressed the urge to fight her. Cangkong Abbey was only so large; he didn’t doubt in the slightest the truthfulness of Hong Ye’s threat to massacre the entire Cangkong Abbey, because this woman definitely dared!
She couldn’t kill Yun Daozi, the Abbey Head, but killing the other Daoists would be simpler than slaughtering chickens for Chi Qianning.
“I can help you with Soul Recalling once, but afterwards, you may not step foot into my Cangkong Abbey again! Nor can you kill anyone from my Cangkong Abbey!” Yun Daozi said unwillingly. Helping Hong Ye was entirely out of compulsion; of course, he had to exact some concessions.
Chi Qianning nodded. “Agreed.”
Afraid she might make things difficult for him, Yun Daozi cautiously pressed, “It hasn’t been more than seven days, has it? The Soul Recalling art is only effective on those who died within seven days. And I’ll need a personal item of the deceased.”
Chi Qianning merely grunted in affirmation. Counting today, it was only the second day. After settling matters with the Wenxin Cult, she had taken only about half a day to travel from the Demon Realm to the Extreme North Land. The journey between them was vast, and she had rushed over at her fastest speed.
“Alright, I need to prepare the items required for Soul Recalling. We can only begin tomorrow. Soul Recalling isn’t something that can be completed instantly either. After summoning the three hun and six po souls, it will take at least another month. You will provide all materials consumed during this period.” Yun Daozi deliberately emphasized his last few sentences.
Chi Qianning didn’t haggle with him over the details. “Fine.”
The Soul Recalling ritual began at dusk on another day. Yun Daozi had to guard it constantly and could not leave, while Chi Qianning would go out from time to time to gather the materials Yun Daozi requested.
Although Chi Qianning herself had collected many rare materials, the items needed for Soul Recalling were all uncommon and strange things. She hadn’t slacked off on going out to rob these past few days.
In a flash, more than a month had passed. Today was the day Yun Daozi had predicted the Soul Recalling ritual would conclude.
At this moment, in the rear mountains12 of Cangkong Abbey, Chi Qianning and Yun Daozi were both looking at a ritual formation before them. Simultaneously, clumps of strangely glowing gas floated in the surrounding air.
According to Yun Daozi, the deceased’s soul would be summoned at the beginning of the ritual. However, the soul after death is too fragile, and these attracted soul fires could be absorbed by the deceased’s soul to strengthen and nurture it. The more complete the soul, the greater the chance of successful resurrection.
The ritual formation began to emit light. The Soul Recalling was about to end. The soul had been nurtured for over a month and could now condense into a stable form to appear before them. At that point, they would only need to fuse the deceased’s soul into the prepared physical body, and the deceased would complete their resurrection.
The light from the ritual formation grew increasingly dazzling, yet Chi Qianning and Yun Daozi didn’t even blink. The white light became brighter and brighter, enveloping the entire interior of the formation, making it impossible for those outside to see the situation within.
After reaching its peak, the light gradually dimmed. The soul must have appeared inside the ritual formation by now. The two of them stared even more intently at the situation within the formation. The light grew weaker and weaker, yet even when all the light from the formation had faded, Chi Qianning still did not see Song Linlin’s soul appear within it.
“What’s going on?” Chi Qianning felt she had been tricked by Yun Daozi. It was agreed the soul would appear in the ritual formation, so why was there nothing now?
This was Yun Daozi’s first attempt at Soul Recalling. At this moment, he too was somewhat baffled, suspecting he might have missed a step, thus causing the Soul Recalling to fail.
But he carefully recalled every step he had taken, yet couldn’t find the slightest flaw. He had strictly followed the steps recorded in the secret manual; how could it possibly have gone wrong?
Seeing Yun Daozi standing aside, speechless, Chi Qianning felt even more strongly that there was something wrong with this Yun Daozi. To think she had wasted over a month here with him; now, even if she wanted to find someone else to attempt Soul Recalling, it would be impossible for it to succeed.
“Wait!”
Yun Daozi, of course, also sensed the anger of the person beside him. He suddenly thought of a possibility and immediately said, “Don’t be hasty! Let me ask you, did you personally see the deceased’s corpse?”
Seeing that Yun Daozi seemed to have another idea, Chi Qianning calmed down slightly. “No.”
“Just as I thought!”
Yun Daozi was overjoyed and said loudly, “Then the person you’re looking for definitely isn’t dead at all!”
Since his Soul Recalling couldn’t have gone wrong, and now the soul hadn’t appeared, didn’t that just mean the person wasn’t dead yet? That’s why the soul couldn’t be summoned.
“What?!” Chi Qianning couldn’t believe it.
“Coincidentally, the personal item of that person you brought is also here. If she isn’t dead, relying on her item, I can definitely divine her location!”
Yun Daozi was a man of action; he immediately took out a luopan compass13 from his sleeve. Compared to a complex ritual like Soul Recalling, divining the location of a living person was much simpler.
He manipulated the luopan compass for a bit, and the originally motionless compass began to spin, its needle pointing towards a direction to the south.
Yun Daozi burst out laughing. “Haha, she really isn’t dead! And my Soul Recalling ritual wasn’t wrong at all!”
Footnotes
- Original: 神智不清、六親不認 | shénzhì bù qīng, liùqīn bù rèn | Lit. ‘mind unclear, not recognizing six relations (close family)’; Meaning: to be so mentally gone as to not recognize anyone, even close kin.
- 滅門 | mièmén | Literally “extinguish the gate/door”; refers to the complete extermination of a family, clan, or sect. A common trope in Wuxia and Xianxia genres.
- 極北之地 | Jíbĕi zhī Dì
- 蒼空觀 | Cāngkōng Guàn | Guàn refers to a Daoist temple or abbey. Cangkong can mean “azure sky” or “vast sky.”
- 白雲峰 | Báiyún Fēng
- 還魂 | huánhún | Literally “return soul”; a ritual or art to bring the dead back to life.
- 三魂七魄 | sānhún qīpò | In Chinese folk religion and Daoism, these are the components of a person’s soul. The three ‘hun’ are ethereal, yang-associated souls, while the seven ‘po’ are corporeal, yin-associated souls. Their integrity is crucial for life and consciousness.
- 道童 | dàotóng | Young attendants in a Daoist temple.
- 雜魚 | záyú | Slang, literally “miscellaneous fish”; refers to unimportant people, underlings, or weaklings.
- 雲道子 | Yún Dàozi
- Original: 彎彎繞繞 | wānwanràorào | Literally “curves and coils”; meaning to speak or act in a roundabout, indirect, or convoluted manner.
- 後山 | hòushān | The area behind the main buildings of a temple or sect, often used for seclusion, training, or important rituals.
- 羅盤 | luópán | A compass, specifically in Chinese contexts often a Feng Shui compass or one used for divination.
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