Arc 3: Epilogue

 

Recently, the spirit realm had been a bit chaotic. Since the day of the great turmoil between Yin and Yang, all sorts of demon spirits had been causing trouble, going crazy for a whole week. It was like going back to hundreds of years ago, behaving recklessly, fighting every day. If they couldn't agree on three sentences, they would just roll up their sleeves and start fighting. It was fortunate that they didn't care about causing trouble, otherwise the hotline for demon spirits would have been ringing off the hook.

At first, Li Dong and Feng Li were deeply worried for two days, wishing they had eight legs each so they could chase after them everywhere to prevent those demon spirits from causing any major disturbances and disrupting the order of the Three Realms. But after almost breaking their legs, they realized that those thousand year old tortoises and king snakes were quite clever. They picked the perfect spots for fights, just enough to enjoy themselves without causing trouble to other realms, like picking at their teeth after a meal.

"See, I told you so the other day. There's no need to bother with them!" Lou Xianyue, wearing a gorgeous cheongsam dress (NT: also called qipao, long, one piece garment with a standing collar, an asymmetric, left-over-right opening and two side slits) despite the cold winter weather, didn't care about the side slit, sitting cross-legged with her legs up. She cracked melon seeds as she spoke, "After holding it in for hundreds of years, finally having an excuse to stretch out, if I don't fight, it's like I don't know how to fight. If I could fight, I would cause a commotion. I'd challenge Yin Wushu directly. Losing is normal. If I win, I'll be famous."

Luo Zhuosheng just took a sip of tea, and he choked on her words, patting his chest for a long time before saying, "Challenging Yin Wushu one-on-one is one thing, but thinking about winning? It's been only a few days since I last saw you, and you're already planning to turn the world upside down?"

Lou Xianyue fed her parrot a melon seed and casually said, "What if I see a ghost?"

Li Dong raised his head in thought, silently pouring her a cup of tea.

Lou Xianyue squinted at him and said, "The look on your face is like you're planning my funeral in advance. If you keep looking at me like that, I'll go upstairs and fight him! He just woke up from the array at noon. It's only been half a day. He might still be weak. If I fight him now, I think I have a one percent chance of winning."

Li Dong  and Feng Li: "... Where's your dignity?"

Luo Zhuosheng was speechless, "... You have the nerve."

Lou Xianyue thought for a moment and added, "If he doesn't fight back, I can raise it to fifty-one percent. Honestly, he owes me a favor for saving his life. It's too much to stand and let him fight me for a while, isn't it?"

Luo Zhuo had just wanted to reply, when he heard a voice coming from the side, interrupting Lou Xianyue's words, "Makes sense, perfectly reasonable, not excessive at all."

Alright, the main character is here.

Lou Xianyue scratched her chin, bowed her head in embarrassment, and continued to crack melon seeds. Just as she was about to eat one, she suddenly remembered something and asked, "We didn't dare to go into your room to check. Did Xiao Bai wake up? Didn't you say he'd wake up tonight without any accidents?"

"Just woke up, his throat's a bit hoarse. I came down to make him some warm water to drink," Yin Wushu replied.

"Awake?!" The people sitting around the table were all pleasantly surprised, finally able to let go of the worry that had been hanging over them for days.

Li Dong hurriedly poured a glass of water before Yin Wushu, but he shook his head. "He can't drink from this glass right now. Find a saucer."

Everyone was a bit puzzled by his words.

Li Dong scratched his ear, almost thinking he misheard. "Find... a saucer? Why would you need a saucer to drink water? What kind of saucer?"

Yin Wushu waved his hand. "I know where to find one. It's okay, you eat your melon seeds."

With that, he turned on his heel and disappeared into the first room on his right.

Li Dong blinked a few times, looking at the glass of water in his hand, then at the room. He walked back to the table with a puzzled expression, joining the others in confusion.

After a moment, Yin Wushu came out of the room, holding a shallow bone china dish (NT: type of porcelain that contains cow bone ash, which gives it a translucent quality) the size of a palm between his slender fingertips. He came over and poured a dish of water.

Luo Zhusheng raised his eyebrows and pointed to the dish. "Isn't this the dish usually used for dipping sauces? Who uses this to drink water?"

The others also looked at Yin Wushu with complicated expressions, wondering if he hadn't fully recovered despite being alive again. However, no one dared to say anything directly.

"Are you really awake or just pretending? Don't tell me you're still suffering from the aftereffects of the Reviving Candle I gave you last time? It hasn't been a full month yet, it shouldn't be..." Luo Zhusheng looked at him worriedly, saying, "Since everything has settled down, you should come and take back your things from me and stop making me hold onto them."

Yin Wushu didn't reply, just saying as he went upstairs, "Okay, I'll come to redeem them from you tomorrow."

The group exchanged glances and stood up, following him upstairs, feeling uneasy.

Yin Wushu didn't stop them from following to the bedroom door.

The bedroom door was wide open, indicating that it was okay to look inside. However, even though Yin Wushu didn't say anything, everyone present instinctively stopped at the door and didn't step inside.

The room was as neat and clean as always, almost devoid of any dust. The array that Lou Xianyue had drawn for Yin Wushu was still there on the floor, with the golden threads flowing, enclosing a small area. Each direction had a piece of paper with a piece of gold-red thread, each string threaded with a copper coin, which Lou Xianyue had just added today to help Yin Wushu recover.

On the big bed next to the array, Xie Bai lay flat with his eyes closed. His face was so pale it was almost transparent, without any signs of life. There was no movement at all, not even the rise and fall of his chest.

"This..." Lou Xianyue at the door quickly glanced at Luo Zhusheng, whispering, "Why do I feel like Xiao Bai hasn't woken up yet? Could he be wandering in a state of hysteria due to demonic influence?"

Luo Zhusheng didn't speak, but judging from his expression, his thoughts were not much different from Lou Xianyue's.

The group stood at the door, staring at the lifeless Xie Bai on the bed, lost in thought. Then they saw Yin Wushu casually place the bone china saucer filled with water on the glass side table, then moved to the bedside, draw the curtains, and bend down to pick something up from the corner of the wall. He walked back to the side table and sat in the single sofa, placing the black lump he was holding on the side table.

The lump lay motionless for a while, as if giving up, before finally lifting its head and drinking from the saucer.

Lou Xianyue turned her head to look at Luo Zhusheng expressionlessly. "I think my eyes might be playing tricks on me. Can you take a look for me?"

Luo Zhusheng answered gently, "I can't see properly either. I think my eyes might be playing tricks on me too."

Li Dong stood behind the two of them, blinking several times and patting Feng Li on the shoulder. "Hey Fengzi... can you tell me what the boss is holding in his hand? I can't see it clearly, but it doesn't look human."

Feng Li's face remained expressionless as he calmly replied, "Hmm, it's not human-shaped. It's a cat..."

He paused for a moment, apparently feeling that the description wasn't complete enough, so he added one more word, "... cub."

Luo Zhusheng and Li Dong remained silent for several seconds, murmuring, "So I wasn't seeing things."

Lou Xianyue couldn't help but sigh, "Isn't that the little black cat that Xiao Bai often holds? Yin Wushu said Xiao Bai woke up just now and wanted to bring him some water for his throat. How did it turn into feeding the cat?"

The group exchanged glances again, all showing a very complicated expression on their faces. They signaled each other, and then, with a perfunctory greeting to Yin Wushu, they all rolled downstairs and returned to the table.

Lou Xianyue shook her head, sighed, and pointed upstairs with a worried expression. " It can't be that as Xiao Bai hasn't woken up yet, he is overly concerned...... That's it, right?"

Luo Zhusheng replied warmly, "Which one?”

Lou Xianyue: "Silly."

Feng Li: "..."

"Don't doubt it. I've seen plenty of old monsters. There are really such cases. Once they become silly, they're pitiful. They also tend to roll their eyes, shake their hands, and drool easily." Lou Xianyue spoke as if she knew what she was talking about, making up nonsense about Yin Wushu with wide-open eyes.

Luo Zhusheng glanced at her speechlessly and said, "I guess Xie Bai's soul has been captured in that cat."

Downstairs, people were discussing this and that. Upstairs, Yin Wushu watched as the little black cat drank from the saucer, then got up to close the door securely before returning to sit back down, leaning against the sofa. He raised his hand to rub the round head of the kitten.

The little black cat paused its drinking, glanced at him sideways, moved its head, moved away from his hand, and used its front paws to push the saucer a little further away before lowering its head to continue drinking.

The bone china saucer was shallow and couldn't hold much water. In a moment, it was emptied by the cat.

Silently, it looked up at Yin Wushu and gestured with its front paws, kicking the saucer.

"Still want more?" Yin Wushu seemed to understand the cat's intentions from its watery eyes. There was no barrier in communication between them. He scratched the cat's chin with his finger and said, "You can't drink too much water these days. Just moisten your throat for now. You can drink more when you return to your normal body after these two days."

The cat moved away from his hand again, glancing at him, but didn't say anything. It didn't pay attention to the saucer anymore, either, lowering its head in contemplation, whether it was observing its current state or thinking about something else.

Yin Wushu didn't insist after being moved away from twice. Instead, he bantered, "Is your throat still hoarse? Meow for me to hear."

The pensive kitten immediately snapped out of it, glaring at Yin Wushu. "..."

Then, without a word, it turned and walked away, hopping off the side table in a couple of bounds and snuggling into the warmest corner of the room.

*

When Xie Bai had just woken up and hadn't realized he was in the body of the little black cat, his consciousness was not very clear. He probably wanted to speak and ask for water, but when he opened his mouth, all that came out was a soft meow. He was instantly stunned, his fur standing on end, freezing into a small clay-like statue, as if he could crack with just a touch.

Fortunately, Yin Wushu woke up earlier than him. He came out of the array, rubbed his fur, and explained to him once, saying that this situation was only temporary, and he would be back in his own body in three days. Thus, Xie "Kitten" Bai reluctantly managed to retrieve his soul.

 

Fin de l’arc 2

 

Translator : DarNan