"Xiao Rui, don't be rude to Comrade Ruan, let her come over!"
Hearing the noise, Song Nanli paused in her writing and looked up. After recognizing the person as Ruan Xianxian, her tone was cool but still relatively gentle.
Drawing talismans requires a smooth, continuous process. With this interruption, the talisman that Song Nanli was drawing was now ruined.
The comrade named Xiaorui clicked her tongue regretfully, glared at the instigator, and made way.
"Did you need something?" Song Nanli asked, putting down her pen.
"I want to see how the Xuanmen (Taoist sect) secures the soul," Ruan Xianxian replied straightforwardly, "and I also want to know the underlying principles."
"You want to steal my skills?" Xiao Rui was about to kick her out when Song Nanli glanced at her and she fell silent!
Ruan Xianxian looked at the woman's puffed-up round face with amusement, "If I could learn it after just a few glances, you'd probably be out of a job."
Xiao Rui thought about it and agreed.
With no one blocking her way, Ruan Xianxian casually stood behind Song Nanli, watching him dip his talisman brush in cinnabar and let the brush tip move across the talisman paper as if he were about to complete it in one go.
At one point, the pen seemed to encounter some resistance and suddenly stopped. Song Nanli's face turned cold, and she shot an impatient gaze at the culprit beside her.
"Keep your eyes to yourself, you're practically staring at the talisman."
After saying that, he picked up his brush again and dipped it in sand.
When the third piece of yellow paper was ruined, veins bulged on Song Nanli's forehead, and he finally could no longer bear it.
“My senior brother is preparing to perform a ritual to help Princess Xiangmu’s soul pass on. He’s using all sorts of magical artifacts and talismans. Don’t you want to go down and take a look?”
Having been expelled, Ruan Xianxian recalled a classic line: "Little master, how can you blame me if your mind is not at peace?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the veins on Song Nanli's forehead throbbed even more noticeably.
It was obvious that this guy had no patience, but he refrained from violently kicking her out. What was he after? Ruan Xianxian was very curious.
With her purpose in mind and the main target still here, Song Nanli found it difficult to calm down.
He picked up several completed soul-suppressing talismans from the table and called Xiao Rui over, "First, suppress the souls of the soldiers whose names are listed last in the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches."
Xiao Rui shoved Ruan Xianxian aside with her bottom, and the moment she got the talisman, all the little expressions on her face disappeared. She solemnly took out a few red ropes from her pocket.
He stepped to within half a meter of the Eastern Slight Tail Warrior, his hands moving swiftly like butterflies flitting among flowers, forming hand seals.
With his breath focused on his dantian, he pointed his finger at the talisman, and the yellow talisman flew out as if it had a life of its own, passing over the soldiers' heads and landing steadily in the void.
It's as if there's an invisible, transparent wall there, with yellow talismans pasted on it.
Xiao Rui quickly cut off a piece of red string and placed it in her palm. With one hand, she drew several symbols in the air and inserted them into the red string.
He stepped forward, wrapped one end of the red rope around the soldier's little finger, and connected the other end to the yellow talisman in the void.
After everything was done, Xiao Rui's forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat. She wiped her forehead and revealed a pure smile.
Turning around, her eyes gleamed with anticipation as she looked in Song Nanli's direction. Seeing her master nod slightly at her, Xiao Rui finally burst out laughing, "It's done!"
Whether it was an illusion or not, the instant the talisman connected with the red rope, Ruan Xianxian seemed to see a burst of red light, and the incomprehensible scribbles on the yellow talismans began to appear and disappear.
This effect, which resembled post-processing, lasted for less than a second. If it weren't for her sharp eyesight, Ruan Xianxian would have thought it was an illusion.
Her eyes shone like stars. "Sister, Sister Xiaorui, was what you just used Taoist magic?"
Seeing Ruan Xianxian turn into a fangirl, Xiao Rui raised her chin and said, "Make way, I need to reinforce the soul of the next warrior."
"So?" Ruan Xianxian followed closely, "The yellow talismans floating in the void are actually affixed to the souls of the soldiers?"
"That's one way to understand it."
Standing in front of the next person, looking at the inquisitive Ruan Xianxian, Xiao Rui's round face crumpled in confusion. Manipulating her master's talismans in mid-air was simply too taxing on her magical abilities...
This was the first time she had been so admired since becoming an apprentice. Should she continue?
Fine, Xiao Rui gritted her teeth and performed the Nine Syllable Mantra hand seals again.
Seeing this, Song Nanli shook her head with amusement. Sure enough, children still need to be coaxed by children.
Five soldiers were afflicted with talismans at once. At this moment, Xiao Rui was hunched over and drenched in sweat, as if she had been pulled out of the water. Yet, the scene before her was enough to shock any layman.
Five yellow talismans floated in the air, connected by a red rope wrapped around the little finger of a soldier, creating a magical scene.
Ruan Xianxian helped the exhausted Xiao Rui sit down to the side, saying, "Why do you have to force yourself when you can't do it?"
The little girl couldn't resist being provoked. She stood up, holding onto the table, her face full of arrogance. "Who? Who can't do it? Master, finish your drawing, and I can still perform."
Before he finished speaking, Song Nanli flicked five talismans with two fingers and tossed them gently into the air. The talismans flew as if guided by his own arms and fingers to the tops of the five soldiers' heads.
"Xiao Rui," he called softly.
Xiao Rui blushed as she looked at Ruan Xianxian, whose face was full of mockery and whose eyes seemed to say, "I know, I know."
Without daring to delay, he hurried to the five soldiers and used a red rope to connect the soul to the body.
"Actually, this process doesn't require fingerprints, right?" Ruan Xianxian asked as she strolled back to Song Nanli's side while Xiao Rui was busy.
Song Nanli hummed in agreement. "She entered the Dao through medicine, but she's not proficient in Daoist arts. Perhaps she thinks it's cool to make talismans fly?"
Ruan Xianxian chuckled, knowing full well that's how it is.
With his mind free of distractions, Song Nanli drew talismans very quickly, perhaps because the Soul-Suppressing Talisman was simple; he could complete one in less than a minute.
Completed talismans were continuously tossed into the air, and Xiao Rui assigned each one a link.
Ruan Xianxian smiled knowingly. No matter how cold she appeared, she still felt sorry for her silly apprentice.
Song Nanli even had time to answer Ruan Xian's questions, which he now considered rather naive.
"The living soul resides in the middle dantian, specifically the Tanzhong acupoint, not outside the body. What you are seeing now is a special case."
As long as no further accidents occur within seven days, the soul can fully return to its original place, without affecting subsequent work and life, and without affecting lifespan.
Ruan Xianxian: "If the soul isn't found and runs away from home, will the physical body die?"
"If the living soul leaves the body and becomes a dead soul, the physical body will die. If the living soul continues to wander outside, the physical body will either become foolish or insane."
It's also possible that they will fall into a dormant state, which is what you know as a vegetative state.
Ruan Xianxian was enlightened. She suddenly pointed to the yellow talismans flying around above a soldier's head. Everyone else's talismans were obediently floating less than half a meter behind them, but his were flying around like a little kite.
If it weren't for the red string holding it back, the talisman would probably have flown away long ago.
"Does this mean the living soul is rather mischievous?"
Song Nanli's breathing became disordered, and another Soul-Suppressing Talisman was rendered useless. "The living soul is mischievous, what a damn niche term!"
He took a deep breath and told himself not to get angry. "The soul has no consciousness and only follows instinct. What you are seeing is a manifestation of an unstable soul."
"Comrade Ruan," he said, "Your senior brother's ritual for the deceased is quite unique. Don't you really intend to go down and take a look?"
Ruan Xianxian's curious expression faded, replaced by a nonchalant smile, and she drawled out her words:
"I haven't even found out what Comrade Song's intentions are towards me, how dare I leave..."
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