Twenty-four: The Great Dream and the Great Awakening - Part Four
"I'm not, I'm not."
Startled by Mingjin's question, the spirit immediately shook his head in denial. He seemed mature, but his timidity only made Mingjin more confused, wondering what he was up to.
"Actually, I am the spirit outside the cave that day."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the spirit transformed in front of Mingjin. A fairly handsome man instantly became a tree spirit from a ghost story, which startled Mingjin. Moreover, because he had grown taller, Mingjin had to look up even higher to see him, and accidentally ate another mouthful of rainwater.
“That’s my territory,” the spirit’s voice became a little hoarse, a thin wisp floating in mid-air, “I hated you humans loitering near my land, so I went to a friend’s house for a few days. When I came back, I heard that a few people came looking for me. What a coincidence to run into you here. Haha, what did you want to see me about?”
Mingjin didn't reply to him, but just stared at him, lost in his own thoughts. Finally, he helplessly scratched the raindrops off his face and said, "You must be Shanliu."
“You must have mistaken me for someone else,” the spirit said, waving his hands and laughing as he denied it. “I’m really not Shanliu.”
"So what's your name?"
“My name is…” The spirit hesitated for a moment before saying a name, then looked at Ming Jin with its eyes, “That’s right, that’s my name.”
“I’ve seen you at Boss Jiang’s tea stall.”
Already soaked by the rain, the monster's smile and hands drooped when it heard Mingjin's words.
"I do know Mr. Jiang, but we haven't seen each other for a long time. Perhaps you've mistaken him for someone else."
"Come on. I've investigated. If the sun rises and sets more than three times, you spirits will feel like you haven't seen each other for a long time," Mingjin said helplessly. "The last time I went to see Boss Jiang, I saw him call you, 'Shanliu, come have some tea,' and you happily responded and came over, even changing from a different appearance to the human form you just saw in front of the stall."
Mingjin imitated a weakened version of Boss Jiang's expressions and movements, but when Shanliu heard Mingjin imitating Boss Jiang, he slowly reverted to the way he had seen him at the beginning, slowly moving to the tree and squatting down with his legs wrapped around his knees: "Only in this way can you have hands to hold the cup."
Seeing that there was no sign of thunder in the sky, Mingjin, holding an umbrella, leaned against a tree with one hand and held the umbrella with the other, looking at the huddled-up Shanliu: "What exactly do you want?"
“What I meant to say,” Shanliu said slowly after a moment’s hesitation, “I’m here for revenge.”
"Whose grudge is it?"
For a moment, Mingjin couldn't recall, but remembering where she first learned about him, she asked, "You're here for Pinghe too?"
"What Pinghe?"
Seeing Mingjin's confident demeanor, Shanliu assumed she would be able to answer, but unexpectedly, such a name came out. So he got up from the ground and spun around in front of Mingjin. His clothes became brighter as he spun, and when he stood upright in front of Mingjin again, he had a woman's face.
“So you mean Weng Yu?” Mingjin found another name in her mind. “I didn’t do anything to her.”
“No,” Shanliu said with a helpless expression on his new face, “it’s Dangen, Dangen. The Dangen that you burned to ashes with one shot.”
Were you there at the time?
"I... I heard it from Lao Jiang."
Seeing that Shan Gen's arrogance vanished instantly, Ming Jin really couldn't figure out what he was trying to do: "Come on, you're right here. I never told Boss Jiang what kind of magic I used to exorcise ghosts."
“I heard it from Weng Yu,” Shan Liu said, shaking off his urge to speak. “I was just wandering around aimlessly when I had nothing to do, so it’s possible that I misremembered it.”
“You decide,” Mingjin originally wanted to say that Dangen had already been burned to a crisp when Weng Yu arrived, but he couldn’t be sure if she had been watching coldly from the sidelines. “How do you plan to seek revenge?”
“You burned me to death, burned me to death,” Shanliu, with Dangen’s face, suddenly rushed in front of Mingjin, scratching her face with her fingers, and looked at Mingjin with a pair of clear black and white eyes, “Don’t you feel any remorse?”
"Talking about guilt with a ghost, does that mean I'm stupid or dumb?"
"You even offered incense to Pinghe..."
When the topic of offering incense came up, Shanliu suddenly realized that he had been too talkative.
"I guessed..."
Mingjin's attitude changed from indifference to concern, his eyes gleaming as he stared at Dangen's flickering gaze: "How did you know that?"
Shanliu did not immediately answer Mingjin's fingerprint. Instead, she turned around and knelt down with a "bang": "Heavens, take away my mouth, I don't want it anymore."
"Enough," Mingjin said, flipping Shanliu over to face him and grabbing her collar. He looked into Shanliu's panicked eyes as her face transformed back from Dangen to his own. "You answer whatever I ask you. Do you know where Zhulian and Caoxiu went? Is the original form of the spirit trapped in the cave real or fake?"
"Although I know her, Zhu Lian, it's not to the point that she told me about moving the original body away."
Large raindrops gathered on the umbrella were blown by the wind and hit Shanliu's nose, causing him to sob as he spoke: "As for Caoxiu, the original body that was trapped in the cave was actually her. She's probably gone."
"What do you mean?" Mingjin asked, frowning, and moved the umbrella slightly.
“We spirits, once the seed has grown, can move between several original forms. Generally speaking, as long as the original form is not completely destroyed, the spirit's life is not in danger. However, the original form on Grass Show Stone Mountain was trapped in the evil spirit's magic. After she moved over, she couldn't get out for some reason and quickly went to find Zhu Lian for help. The two of them came to the cave once, but they were so frightened after only a few steps that they ran out and went to find Zhu Lian for help. When Zhu Lian arrived, she thought it was fire magic, which the spirit couldn't handle, so she wanted to ask you for help. And then all the things that happened afterward occurred.”
How did you know?
“That grove was my territory. I was right there, wanting to see what they were up to.”
Why didn't you come to help?
“I am also a spirit,” Shanliu’s voice suddenly cracked as he spoke, coughed, and then continued, “I will also be burned to death. Besides, I’m not very familiar with them, we’re just nodding acquaintances.”
"How do you know what I was saying to that evil spirit?"
“Because, because,” Shanliu looked around trying to make up a story, but his collar was too tight around his neck, and his head could only move closer to Mingjin’s direction. “This is my unique spell, which allows me to hear your conversation through the rocks.”
Do you know that evil spirit?
"Of course I don't know him!"
Mingjin asked the question purely on a whim. After all, the evil spirit was digging a hole in front of Shanliu's house, and Shanliu didn't seem to care at all, which puzzled Mingjin. The fact that such a casual question elicited such a strong reaction from him meant that this guy knew many secrets that he didn't.
"What exactly is your relationship with him?!" At this point, Mingjin suddenly remembered the friends the ghost had mentioned when it was talking to itself. "Are you courting death?"
"Of course not."
"So you're the one who hopes that evil spirit dies soon?"
"It's not that bad. I don't know why he said that either, even though I did break off our friendship."
"Why?"
“I met him when my cultivation was low,” Shan Liu said, being held by Ming Lin. Fearing that this woman would burn her to ashes, she quickly confessed, “I thought he was just an ordinary man. Later, I witnessed him harming people and realized he was a vengeful spirit, so I broke off all contact with him. He had been living in this mountain for a long time, but he was right in front of my house, and I didn’t know how to make him leave. Spirits also have their own territories, and there wouldn’t be any other spirits around here. I never expected that a seed would just happen to fly to that mountain.”
At this point, Shanliu paused to rest for a while, and then continued, "The last time we met, I was out of my mind and said some harsh words, but I can't remember what they were. I only remember that his face looked terrible. I don't know if that's why he thought I wanted him dead."
How long have you known each other?
Mingjin's hand, which had been gripping his collar, was also tired. Shanliu, having been released, used the strength to sit down on the ground.
"It's been a while. I don't know how long you people have been here."
"What's that evil spirit called?"
“His name is Wei Lin,” Shan Liu replied. “They also have nicknames; most of the other ghosts call him Feng Wu.”
"Is he Pinghe's master?"
"You could say that. Ghosts and cultivators are different. Ghosts can be considered master and disciple as long as they pass on some experience to each other. They are just more familiar with each other."
"And the other one?" The rain finally stopped, and Mingjin folded his umbrella. "Who was the one who courted death?"
“She, she is Fengwu’s master,” Shanliu said, sitting cross-legged. “Her alias is Ciyun, and her real name is Zhegui.”
"Was it she who led the evil spirits to attack Huicheng?"
“Yes,” Shanliu nodded, “but that wasn’t her own plan. She was also under Yishan’s roof and had to listen to other ghosts. I’ve never met her; Fengwu told me all this. Although it wasn’t explicitly stated, Zhegui and Yishan’s boss had some disagreements, so after the Huicheng incident, the important tasks were handed over to other ghosts.”
"Why is the boundary drawn based on the events at Huicheng?"
"Another evil spirit offered a suggestion, saying that we should see the scale of a century-old sect and know things like 'knowing the basics and the writing brush'," Shanliu repeated Fengwu's original words with difficulty, because he was fluent in speech but illiterate. "Zhegui felt that such actions were too ostentatious. Later, because Zhegui's group suffered heavy losses, the evil spirit came up with another idea, and they went to do something else."
However, based on Shanliu's words, Mingjin felt that the timeline didn't match up, so he asked, "When exactly did you break off relations with Fengwu? After the breakup, you encountered Dangen, but Caoxiu was only recently trapped by the original body. But from what you've said, it feels like Fengwu has occupied this place for several decades."
“I did break off contact with Feng Wu a long time ago. I don’t know exactly how long, nor have I counted how many sunrises and sunsets I’ve had. I met with Feng Wu, Lu Yuzhu, and Ping He, all near that cave. At the time, I didn’t know the difference between ghosts and humans, and they didn’t do anything to me, so quite a while passed.”
"I met Dangen a year after I broke off contact with Fengwu and the others. I was in a bad mood at the time, so I ran away and came across a place with a lot of people. I saw them playing together, so I joined them. After it was over, the people there told me that I had to wait until next year to come again. I didn't know what next year was, so I could only wait and kept wandering around that area until the second time. After it was over, I was walking in the trees when I met Dangen."
“Cao Xiu, she,” Shan Liu continued, catching her breath, “her seed flew here this year, landed, and luckily it rained, so it took root. This cave was set up by Feng Wu a long time ago, and he said there were still some problems. Whenever there was water outside, he would go to another place. Coincidentally, the rain drizzled for a while, allowing the roots to grow well. But when Feng Wu came back, it was a dead end.”
"Other places..."
Upon hearing Shanliu say that the cave wasn't waterproof, Mingjin instinctively felt that Fengwu might specifically seek out a place with water. Remembering the ring of water outside Youran City, he quickly asked, "Is it Youran City? Do you know anyone named Gongsha?"
“I don’t know, and I don’t recognize them,” Shanliu shook his head. “Although they are all in Yishan, the evil spirits are divided into different sects. If Fengwu is not familiar with them, then naturally I would have even less reason to know.”
"So, Lu Yuzhu also knows Feng Wu?"
Mingjin recalled that on the night several evil spirits saved Pinghe, it seemed that no evil spirits similar to Fengwu appeared.
“Lu Yuzhu,” Shanliu was clearly reluctant to mention her, “I only managed to exchange a few words with her because of Fengwu, but she didn’t learn anything from him. Later, when I broke off relations with Fengwu, she was unhappy about it and came to my door to argue with him. Fengwu thought we were making too much noise and told her not to come again. I haven’t spoken to them much since.”
“Isn’t Feng Wu right in the cave? It’s not difficult for you to talk if you want to,” Ming Jin asked.
“After falling out with Feng Wu, I didn’t know how to see him, so I had no choice but to run away. I didn’t expect the outside world to be so interesting, so after that, I generally didn’t come back unless it was during the group gathering.”
“You really do know a lot,” Mingjin said. “Is everything you’re saying true?”
Upon hearing this, Shanliu, who had been lost in reminiscing, suddenly jumped out: "What? You still doubt me? I'm not a criminal you arrested, so I don't have to answer every question you ask. I simply have a kind and simple heart. To doubt me like this, really, really..."
However, after waiting for several sentences, Shanliu still couldn't come up with the second half of his sentence. With Yin Mingjin watching him from the side, his face turned red. This made it even harder for him to remember what he originally wanted to quote, and he forgot what he had wanted to say at all.
"Didn't you say at the beginning that you were coming to seek revenge on me for Dangen's sake?"
Upon hearing Dangen's name, Shanliu's initial sharpness subsided, and she unconsciously scratched her hair.
"How do you plan to seek revenge?"
“I was just saying that,” Shan Liu said, her head bowed. “I have no right to seek revenge for Dan Gen. If it weren’t for me, she would be living a peaceful life. She and the evil spirit will eventually be eliminated by cultivators, and it will be the same for any of you.”
"Then why did you stop me? Hmm?"
Seeing that Shanliu was still keeping her head down and not speaking, Mingjin asked again, puzzled.
“What I wanted to say,” Shanliu finally raised her head slightly, but still didn’t look at Mingjin, only landing on the ground, “you, you shouldn’t hold a grudge against Zhulian.”
As Shanliu spoke slowly, he gradually looked up to observe Mingjin's reaction, and sure enough, he was met with a cold face, even more indifferent than when he had been speaking to him just moments before.
“I’m not asking you to forgive her,” Shanliu quickly explained, “I just want you to forgive her a little bit. Or, for the sake of all I’ve said to you today, for the sake of these few words, forgive her a little bit, just a little less than she has now.”
"Aren't you two strangers? Why are you going to such lengths for her?"
"I didn't say that because we're familiar with each other, or because we're not familiar at all..."
Shanliu was conflicted; he couldn't come up with a convincing reason, especially when facing someone who knew how to speak best. He disliked being pressured to say anything.
He simply didn't know; he couldn't possibly know everything, not even his own thoughts and ideas.
"I promise you."
"Huh? Really?"
Upon hearing Mingjin say this, Shanliu could hardly believe it. She quickly stood up from the ground and asked Mingjin to repeat it.
"I will no longer pursue the matter of Zhu Lian's past."
Shanliu smiled as she looked at Mingjin, repeatedly re-analyzing the sentence in her mind to confirm that it meant exactly what she thought it meant.
“But that’s the end,” Mingjin glanced at the pond beside him, his eyes calm. “From this day forward, I sever all ties with her.”
"Severing all ties?" Shanliu repeated the phrase, his lips curling. "What does that mean?"
"It means that from now on, she and I will act as if we are complete strangers. I will never hold a grudge against her and I will completely forgive her. You don't need to worry anymore."
"Yes, is that so?"
Although it was the similarity she wanted, judging from Mingjin's tone, Shanliu felt that the result was completely different from what she wanted.
However, he still didn't know exactly what the problem was.
"However, this is not about the trivial things you told me today."
It started raining again. Mingjin opened his umbrella and prepared to leave.
"What was the reason for that?" Shanliu asked, puzzled.
“Thank you for having Boss Jiang give me those fruits,” Ming Jin said calmly. “They saved both of us. We owed you, and we’re repaying it today.”
“I picked those from the Wengyu tree. I was just guessing, maybe they would work,” Shanliu replied blankly, glancing at Mingjin as she spoke. “I didn’t give you those fruits for any particular reason.”
“I understand,” Mingjin said, looking at him. “But I thank you anyway, and I’ll put this matter behind me from now on. I’ve stayed long enough, I’m leaving.”
"Will you still come to the Gathering of Forests?" Shanliu suddenly asked after taking a step. "Old Jiang wants everyone to come to his place for tea."
“I’m not going anytime soon, I’m too busy,” Mingjin said as she walked forward. “We’ll talk about it later.”
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