My intuition tells me that the blind man may not have told me the truth. He claimed to not know the whereabouts of Mount Modu and had never even heard of it, which seems illogical. I have mentioned Mount Modu to him multiple times before, so if he really didn't know its location, he would have raised questions earlier. This can only imply that he already knew where Mount Modu was and simply did not want to tell me.
But why would the old man do this? He himself said that my strength has surpassed that of the Yin King and that I would definitely win in a one-on-one fight. So why wouldn't he tell me the location of Mount Modu? Could it be that in addition to the Blood-Sucking Soul Devil on Mount Modu, there are also other Yin creatures at the level of the Yin King? Perhaps the old man is worried about me, and that's why he doesn't want me to go.
But if that's really the case, then when will I be able to save Little Huhtu? I can't continue to wait like this. I must find a way to locate Mount Modu on my own. I don't believe that only the old man knows about this place.
If all else fails, I'll return to Black Moon Ridge and find Three Homeless for the location of Mount Modu.
"Master, what's the plan for tonight? Do I need to prepare anything?"
Since the old man doesn't want to talk about Mount Modu, I won't press him for answers. Otherwise, he will likely say something like 'heavenly secrets cannot be revealed.'
"The things you and JIETOU bought last time should be enough," said the old man. "There's not much else to prepare. If anything, prepare your strength. You may need to run errands later."
"Run errands?" I asked, confused.
"You'll know when the time comes," the old man said with a smile. "Oh, it's already past noon. Go prepare some food. We'll eat first and then get to work."
"Understood," I got up to cook.
Soon enough, we finished eating and the sun had begun to set. The old man calculated that it was time to prepare for the ritual.
The ritual was called the Thousand-Mile Search for Relatives Formation, which used the method of bone and soul searching. The two things we needed were bones and a soul.
I had already prepared these two things. I moved an Eight Immortals Table to the center of the living room and placed YunQingYue's urn in the middle of the table. Then I put candles, incense, talismans, and brushes on the table.
After the table was set up, the old man told me to draw a Tai Chi diagram around it.
When everything was ready, we ate a little more, and as night fell, I lit the candles and placed five sticks of incense in the censer.
As the incense smoke rose, the old man began to recite spells and approached the table, rummaging through YunQingYue's urn with his hands.
"Master, what are you doing?" I watched the old blind man's movements curiously.
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. From nothing comes something, from something comes life and death, born of fate between heaven and earth, fate determined by three lives and a stone..." The old man paid no attention to my words, trembling as he picked up YunQingYue's skull. He then began chanting the soul retrieval spell while gesturing towards me with his hand.
"What does this mean?" I looked at the old man, confused about what he was doing.
Before I could figure it out, YunQingYue had already reappeared, holding her own skull in her hands.
"Come, come, come, seeking fate and reversing reincarnation, life and death are all in the heavens..." The old man beckoned YunQingYue over and she approached, holding her own skull.
"Soul condensed in bones, qi flows through the third eye..." The old man chanted the spell slowly, then removed his hand, allowing YunQingYue to hold onto her own skull.
After completing these steps, the old man rubbed a talisman and produced a burst of smoke, then pointed at YunQingYue and said, "Go, go, go..."
Upon hearing this, YunQingYue turned around with her skull in hand and floated towards the door.
"Master?" I couldn't help being curious about what was happening.
"Come here!" The old man gestured for me to come over, then placed a talisman on my forehead and chanted a spell. "Om, fasang, fasang, hum, pu, discern all souls, hurry like a law! Go, follow her!"
The old man finished the spell and slapped my back, causing me to run alongside YunQingYue, my feet barely touching the ground as I flew out the door.
YunQingYue's speed was incredibly fast, and we traveled more than ten kilometers without stopping until later that night, when she finally began to slow down.
Seeing her slow down, I also slowed my speed, scanning the environment as I gasped for breath. I realized we were in a densely forested area with a meandering river flowing nearby. The riverbanks were overgrown with vines and reeds, and various animals had made their homes there. It was an extremely primitive place.
"I don't know where we are, but since YunQingYue has come here, her brother should not be far away," I said to myself.
At that moment, I saw the girl holding her skull, staring pensively at the river not far away.
"QingYue, have you found him?" I walked up to her and asked.
"I'm not sure," YunQingYue turned to look at me, her eyes glowing with purple and red light, while green light shone from the eye sockets of the skull in her hands.
"My master used the Yin-Yang dual eye method to search for relatives. My Yang soul's eyes can work together with the skull's Yin eyes to locate the position of my closest relatives. But the most important thing is to have my brother in my heart so that we can find him through a telepathic connection," YunQingYue explained, pausing for a moment before adding, "But I'm confused because after I arrived here, both eyes pointed towards the river. What does this mean?"
Hearing this, I couldn't help but sigh in disappointment, slapping my forehead and squatting down. "What else could it mean? Your brother has been reincarnated as a fish. It's clear what has happened, and I don't think we should continue searching. It will only bring you more pain if you find out," I said, feeling helpless.