Mo Ran's grip on the Soul-Guiding Lantern tightened. He wrapped his arms around the lantern as if trying to hide it away from Chu Xun's burning glares.
"Sir Chu..." Mo Ran stuttered out, but he did not finish his sentence. In his mind, he was trying to find out how much time Master Huaizui still needed to get them both back. And what exactly the problem was.
Chu Xun narrowed his eyes at Mo Ran. They walked in circles, keeping a safe distance from each other while looking for a good opportunity to pounce. Mo Ran gulped when he saw the gleaming sword in Chu Xun's hand. In his heart, he prayed incessantly.
-Please, Master Huaizui.
-Please get us back right away.
-Else it will be too late...
As if reading his mind, Chu Xun ruthlessly snuffed out the small flame of hope in Mo Ran's heart, leaving him to drown in despair.
"Don't think you can run away. This whole town is within my jurisdiction. If I don't allow you to leave, you will never be able to leave."
Mo Ran gritted his teeth.
"Sir Chu, I am going to revive my Shizun. He is willing to come with me."
Chu Xun slashed with his sword and the sword aura cut open a wound on Mo Ran's left shoulder. The latter cried in pain but he did not dare to loosen his arms around the lantern.
"It is impossible. If he is, then you must have deceived him somehow."
Mo Ran fought against the stinging tears in his eyes.
"It is not a deceit..."
It was just a lie. Besides, Xue Meng did suffer a lot. Mo Ran only exaggerated a little...
Another slash resulted in another cut on Mo Ran's right shoulder.
"I don't believe you, Little Gongzi. I am not going to stop unless you hand the lantern over."
Mo Ran shook his head repeatedly.
"I am this close. Please, Sir Chu, please let me go. I want my Shizun to come back to life."
Chu Xun's face grew a few degrees colder.
"'You' want it, but 'he' does not want it. Little Gongzi, if you care even the least for your shizun, you will let him reincarnate in peace. He saved your life and this is how you repay him???"
Mo Ran burst into tears.
"It's because he saved my life that I want to repay him. How am I supposed to repay him if I cannot revive him???"
"You can start by handing the lantern to me."
"Wanning...!!!"
Chu Xun lunged at Mo Ran to attack, but a bright red something emerged and repelled his sword. Chu Xun retreated a few steps and saw Mo Ran holding a burning willow vine that coiled back at his feet after absorbing the impact of Chu Xun's attack.
Chu Xun raised an eyebrow at Mo Ran.
"'Wanning'?"
Blood crept up Mo Ran's face, threatening to burst out of his nose.
Chu Xun dismissed the strange connection between the willow vine and Chu Wanning. He kept attacking, and Mo Ran kept defending against the attacks. Both of them tried hard to avoid hitting the lantern, so the moves were very light.
Mo Ran's back was already hurt when he protected Chu Wanning. When Chu Xun slashed his shoulders open, more blood flowed out. Mo Ran started to feel dizzy from severe blood loss. He stumbled on unsteady feet a few times when he avoided Chu Xun's attacks before he fell to the ground. Some of his blood splashed on the lantern, dirtying the otherwise immaculate lantern. Mo Ran desperately tried to wipe his blood away, but he was unable to.
His fingers were slowly turning translucent.
Panicked, Mo Ran started to look down at himself. He was disappearing!
Chu Xun also saw it. He lowered his sword and knelt with one leg in front of Mo Ran.
"Little Gongzi, you have lost. Go back to the land of the living. If you stay here any longer, you will disappear."
Mo Ran's tears flowed like a small river down the tail of his eyes.
"Shizun..." He whispered, desperately trying to touch the lantern.
-Wanning, I am sorry...
"Don't think that I will give in," Chu Xun growled. "Let go."
-Wanning, please let me hug you a little bit more...
-I am so sorry.
-I hope you will have a beautiful life in your next reincarnation...
-Shizun... Will you please pay attention to me one more time...
Mo Ran slowly closed his eyes. His grip turned slack as his consciousness slowly slipped away. Chu Xun sighed. He reached out to grab the lantern from Mo Ran's hands, but unexpectedly the lantern started to shine brightly with a golden light.
"!!!"
The golden light spread from the lantern to Mo Ran's half translucent body, as if protecting him.
Aghast, Chu Xun released his barrier around Nanke Town. Both Mo Ran and the lantern disappeared in an instant, leaving Chu Xun and his ghost soldiers in a trance. After some time, a subordinate approached Chu Xun, who was still staring at the spot where Mo Ran lay just moments ago.
"Sir Chu, is everything alright? Why did you suddenly let them go?"
Chu Xun rubbed at his forehead.
"Chu Wanning was burning his own soul to prevent Mo Ran from disappearing. If I had not let them go, both of them would die here."
"Oh," the masked ghost subordinate nodded in apprehension. "Such a kind shizun indeed."
A kind Shizun?
Sure, Chu Wanning was a kind soul but Chu Xun had a feeling that it was more than that. In life and death, Chu Wanning protected Mo Ran again and again. Why? Was it really only because he was a kind shizun? Would he do that for all his disciples?
Also, why was Mo Ran so determined to revive Chu Wanning? Selfish as he was, he should still prioritize his own life. He went as far as risking his own safety to keep Chu Wanning with him, not even letting go as he was on the verge of disappearing.
Why? It simply did not make sense.
Chu Xun spent a few days after that pondering about Chu Wanning and Mo Ran. He inquired about what was happening to the two people afterward and found out that they had safely arrived to the mortal realm.
Chu Wanning's Cognizant Soul never came to Nanke Town. So maybe Mo Ran managed to revive him after all.
The haitang branches kept coming every ten days wordlessly. One day, someone else appeared in his office. Li Wan-er, whose souls had been successfully peeled off from Chu Lan's.
As soon as Chu Xun saw Li Wan-er's sorrowful appearance, he knew that the peeling process had concluded. Chu Lan's soul was forever lost, never again to be found.
"Husband, I am sorry," Li Wan-er sobbed endlessly. She did not even have any more tears to shed. "I killed our son with my own hands. I am so sorry. Lan-er... Lan-er..."
Chu Xun pulled Li Wan-er into his arms and kissed her on the forehead. After two hundred years, the pain of losing a child never went away, but he had cried so much that his heart went completely numb. He had prepared for the day for two hundred years. For Li Wan-er whose soul was pieced together at the cost of Chu Lan, the wound was especially fresh.
"Wan-er," he spoke with a hoarse voice full of repressed pain, "let's go back to the mortal realm, okay? We will go together. I will accompany you. Let's start anew."
Li Wan-er could not stop sobbing but she nodded in agreement.
Yanluo was glad to hear that Chu Xun was ready to re-enter the reincarnation cycle. The permission to skip the line that he got for Chu Wanning was used for him and Li Wan-er instead.
Just before Chu Xun drank the bowl of Forgetfulness Soup that Granny Meng Po gave him, he thought about Chu Wanning and Mo Ran again. He might be wrong, he thought as he sipped at his bowl, but the only force strong enough to bind two souls to each other like that was a deep and mutual love.
For the sake of their happiness, hopefully, this time not only their souls but also their hearts could find their way to each other...