If a person becomes desperate, they truly do not fear death anymore!
Fearing that she wouldn't drown and would be rescued only to suffer, she decisively used the small mirror shard that had followed her for over twenty years to slash her wrist. The cut was both quick and fierce, swiftly severing her blood vessels. Blood immediately gushed out, staining the water around her crimson...
As she lay in the water, her blood flowed even faster. In a matter of minutes, Li Yaner felt darkness envelop her vision, and her limbs became powerless. Slowly, bit by bit, she sank into the water, her eyes filled with nothing but darkness. As death approached, what she couldn't bear to part with was the friend who had been by her side for many years,
"Shiyi, I'm sorry, I'm going ahead... If there really is the Underworld you spoke of, when I get there, I'll ask the King of Hell to let us be sisters together in the next life!"
People on the shore didn't notice anything amiss until Li Yaner had been underwater for quite a while, and then panic ensued. There was shouting and commotion as they rushed into the water to save her. However, simply seeing Li Yaner use the mirror shard to cut her wrist made Gu Shi Yi watch helplessly as her good sister sought death. On this side, she had no way to help and was so angry that she wanted to hit her head against the ground,
"Master... Right... I must think of a way with Master!"
Gu Shi Yi jumped off the bed to find the Old Taoist Priest but then suddenly remembered,
"If I go to Master and explain everything, it will be too late... That's right! That's right! The old fellow said, didn't he, that this object is a treasure of the Immortal Sects that can capture souls... I'll try... I'll try..."
Since it could be used to communicate between two worlds, if I couldn't draw the physical body, at least the soul should be possible, right?
Thus, Gu Shi Yi didn't go to find the Old Taoist Priest. Instead, she held the mirror and started chanting spells. Despite her insufficient cultivation, she exerted all her mana but could only manage to attach Li Yaner's soul onto the broken mirror shard, evading the search of the Underworld Messengers.
When the two families pulled Li Yaner's body from the water, nobody noticed the mirror shard, which sank into the muddy bottom of the pond. Fortunately, water is yin-natured and protected Li Yaner's soul from the harshness of daylight; hence, it remained at the bottom of the pond for three years, preserving her soul.
However, Gu Shi Yi's intervention caused Li Yaner to escape the search of the Underworld Messengers, only to become a resentful ghost in the pond for three whole years. As such a ghost, even if she found a ghost messenger, she would be subjected to the purification of hell's Karmic Fire before entering Reincarnation and could only be reborn as an animal in her next life!
Gu Shi Yi regretted causing the man's death which led to Yaner's current plight and then regretted letting Li Yaner's soul attach to the mirror, preventing her from reincarnating. Now, doomed to the animal realm, facing a future as either a human or a fierce ghost, she would still end up captured and punished by the Underworld. After much deliberation, she decided to take the risk and use the Treasure Mirror to draw her good sister's soul from Another world to this one,
"At least in this realm, where Spiritual Energy is abundant, with me and Master around, we can either let her possess a corpse to return to life or she can Cultivate the Path of Ghosts. We can still fight for a chance at life from heaven!"
For this, Gu Shi Yi carefully planned for three years, prepared for three years and only then did the events of last night transpire!
After hearing the entire backstory, the Old Taoist Priest's smile grew more bitter, and he muttered to himself,
"All that effort for naught... all that effort for naught... it turns out... all of this was predetermined in the grand scheme of things!"
It seemed that from the moment he had stolen the Treasure Mirror and encountered his disciple, today's events had already been fated!
Qi Jiufeng sighed deeply again and waved his hand at Gu Shi Yi,
"I understand..."
He paused, then took another glance at the clay figure in her hands, and said,
"She is newly possessed, her soul is unstable. Don't let her be exposed to too much daylight, and bring her to absorb moonlight each night to stabilize her soul body..."
Gu Shi Yi looked at the Old Taoist Priest worriedly,
"Master?"
The old man's face was full of exhaustion as he waved her off,
"Let me rest a bit more, you go out!"
Gu Shi Yi had never seen the Old Taoist Priest like this and was a bit shocked. She didn't dare to speak loudly with him and bowed her head as she exited. She held Li Yaner close, as the clay figure anxiously asked,
"You... Master is all right, isn't he?"
Gu Shi Yi herself was not at ease, but she still reassured her good sister,
"It's nothing serious; he just needs a good night's sleep, and he'll be fine!"
Li Yaner awkwardly nodded and let herself be cradled in her embrace. Gu Shi Yi sat on the Meditation Mat in the side hall with a complex expression, quietly sighing,
I've made a mess!
I've really made a mess!