Gu-Gift

Kapitel 3

As a mother, Lady Li constantly missed her son, the Prince of Changyi. At this time, Lady Li did not know how long it had been since her death, or whether her son was still alive. So every July, when the gates of the underworld opened, she would hide among the ghosts and return to Hanzhong to search for her beloved son. After countless Julys, Lady Li finally found the memorial tablet of her grandson, Liu He, who had been demoted to the Marquis of Haihun in Hanzhong. Liu He was the emperor who only reigned for 27 days but committed 1,127 absurd acts and was deposed in less than a month.

Not long after Liu He was deposed and returned to Changyi, he died of illness. In fact, it was Huo Guang and other ministers who secretly murdered him to preserve the authority of the imperial family. How could the Han Dynasty allow a deposed emperor to live? After Liu He's death, the title of Marquis of Haihun should have been passed on to his three sons. However, before the title was conferred, Liu He's eldest son died one after another. The reason for this was naturally not known to outsiders. Empress Dowager Shangguan, considering that Liu He's youngest son was still young and was the last descendant of Empress Xiaowu's family, preserved the title of Marquis of Haihun by abolishing the hereditary title.

Lady Li, residing in the home of Liu He, then Marquis of Haihun, watched as her grandson's memorial tablet was placed beside her son's. The successive murders of her two great-grandsons filled her with bewilderment and heartache. King Ai of Changyi had reigned for eleven years before passing away, and the Han dynasty, including Lady Li's grandson Liu He, had already changed hands three times. From her death until now, Lady Li had inexplicably spent over a hundred years in the dimly lit porcelain vase and in the endless wanderings of the mountains. Though her beauty had not faded, the past was too painful to recall. She had nowhere to go, and her descendants had all perished…

Lady Li was filled with hatred, hating the injustice of Heaven, hating the unfairness of Earth, and hating Emperor Wu of Han for his momentary folly that left her, now a wandering soul, with nowhere to turn...

Third generation

Even now, Madam Li is still quite resentful. However, being kind-hearted by nature, she has never thought of revenge. She only wants to find a place to belong and to be reincarnated. Therefore, feeling desperate about the decline of her Li clan, Madam Li decides to temporarily stay in Fengdu Ghost City to await reincarnation...

But this is a road of no return. Fengdu Ghost City is a place of no day or night, no darkness or light. It is inhabited by wandering souls who, in their lives, were neither good nor evil, yet haven't had their time for reincarnation; by ghosts who committed minor sins in their lives, having already served their sentences in the Ten Courts of Hell but whose time for rebirth has not yet arrived; by departed souls who have lost their chance at reincarnation and are still trying to reclaim it; and naturally, by evil spirits with ulterior motives who hide here…

As soon as Lady Li entered the city, she immediately attracted the attention of most of the spirits on the street. After all, this was a ghost city, and most of the ghosts were temporary residents awaiting rebirth. Therefore, almost all of them were dressed in white or blue robes. Although Lady Li was also dressed in white when she first became a spirit, she was replaced in the queue and later lived in the palace with Emperor Wu of Han. Therefore, she was no longer a spirit in terms of appearance and attire. As described at the beginning of this article, she was magnificent and dazzling. Moreover, because she had absorbed countless yin spirits over the past hundred years, her appearance had become more human than that of ordinary spirits. The spirits in Fengdu City who had settled their karma had the same aura as the immortals in the celestial ranks—without cause or effect, without desire or want. But at this moment, Lady Li's face was full of sorrow and a trace of resentment...

Standing beneath the plaque of "Fengdu Prefecture," Lady Li declared, "I only wish to be reborn, even as a pig or a dog, as long as I am no longer this wronged soul torn between life and death." I understood Lady Li's thoughts exceptionally clearly. However, faced with this woman, burdened with grievances and claiming to be a queen of the Han Dynasty, yet clearly marked in the Book of Rebirth as already reincarnated, the judge of Fengdu Prefecture was helpless and could only order the ghost messengers to escort her to the City of the Wrongfully Dead for trial...

In the City of the Wrongfully Dead, countless innocent souls perished, making the place permeated with an aura of vengeance. Numerous messengers escorted these overwhelming hordes of wronged spirits. This scene, surprisingly, reminded Madam Li of her own death…

Fearing that Lady Li's favor with the emperor would lead to the usurpation of the Han throne by the mother of the Prince of Changyi, the Crown Prince's faction conspired with Yu Zhongzhen, the chief physician of the Imperial Medical Academy. Although Yu Zhongzhen held a high-ranking position, he succumbed to the allure of beauty and money, adding a medicinal ingredient called "Sanbai Dan" to Lady Li's daily prescriptions. This "Sanbai Dan" was actually made from several cold-natured Chinese herbs: raw ginkgo, white poria, tung oil, angelica, silverwort, and rhubarb. While these herbs themselves wouldn't kill her and could even initially promote detoxification, long-term use would disrupt a woman's blood and qi balance. Lady Li was already physically weak, and Emperor Wu of Han was attracted to her delicate fragility; however, this very fragility ultimately led to her death. Madam Li's long-term use of "Sanbai Dan" had already led to her blood and qi deficiency and metabolic disorders. Yu Zhongzhen even instructed her to increase the dosage after her menstrual period each month. Women are already at their weakest after menstruation, and coupled with the large dose of this cold-natured Chinese medicine, Madam Li soon passed away...

At this moment, the long-suppressed injustice of Madam Li's wrongful death, as well as the resentment that had been amplified over the past hundred years due to consuming yin spirits, were completely unleashed in this City of the Wrongfully Dead. And just then, she encountered an old friend here...

The Taoist priest who exploited Madam Li's emotions was punished by Heaven and died unjustly. He was sentenced to be punished in the thirteen levels of hell before being reborn as an animal. This sentence of thirteen levels of hell actually refers to the progressive punishment from the first level to the thirteenth level, not just one level of hell. Every hungry ghost in hell must return to their respective hell for trial once every hundred years after being punished...

Encountering the Taoist priest at this moment undoubtedly intensified Lady Li's resentment. Therefore, upon arriving at the Palace of the Wrongfully Dead, before the Sixth City King could even interrogate her, Lady Li angrily swallowed the Taoist priest who was waiting beside her. Having endured a century of torture, the Taoist priest had long lost his original divine power; his face was ashen, his limbs withered and curled, and his face still bore the regrown flesh from the wounds cut during his torture. He had long lost his former handsome and dashing appearance… Lady Li's act of devouring a hungry ghost in front of the Sixth City King, the ghost messengers, and the soul-sending officials was tantamount to declaring war on the Palace of the Wrongfully Dead. Therefore, in a fit of rage, the Sixth City King cast Lady Li into hell for punishment, pending further investigation, without even giving her a chance to defend herself…

As the saying goes, the deeper the love, the deeper the hate; even a soul without a body cannot escape the karmic burden of love!

(II) Dark Night Ritual Chapter 8: The Wail of the Ghosts and the Time of Cause and Effect

Fourth

Lady Li was imprisoned in the City of the Wrongfully Dead for a hundred years, but more than a hundred years later, the one who interrogated Lady Li was not the Lord of the City of the Wrongfully Dead, the Sixth King, but the reincarnated Heavenly God—Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che.

Emperor Wu of Han, as the Son of Heaven and a wise ruler of ancient times, followed the way of Heaven. After his death, he would enter the realms of gods, asuras, and hungry ghosts for three lifetimes each before being reborn as a human. The gods' realm lasted for 1,100 years, the asura realm for 700 years, and the hungry ghost realm for 300 years...

Emperor Wu of Han, who has been reincarnated as a god, is now the Heavenly Official in charge of investigating fraud and injustice cases in the world. At this time, he is investigating the City of the Wrongfully Dead. According to custom, he must investigate all fraud and injustice cases in this city. Naturally, the matter of Lady Li's place in the underworld is also under investigation.

Among the many ghosts beneath the temple, when Lady Li first saw the Inquisitor of Heaven, it was as if she had accidentally been scalded by boiling water. She instinctively withdrew her hand, then hesitated, unsure whether to plunge it into cold water or apply burn ointment, whether to wrap it in gauze or leave it to air dry. Although Liu Che had changed his appearance, Lady Li recognized him the instant she looked up after greeting him. This Inquisitor of Heaven no longer possessed the imperial aura of Emperor Wu of Han; though he had lost his wealth and nobility, he was still upright and dignified, exuding an air of otherworldly grace and purity…

Before this unfamiliar Emperor Wu of Han, Lady Li's grievances, accumulated over hundreds of years, poured out like the Yellow River...

The Sixth Generation

"Women with graying hair will be killed; men with their hair tied up will be killed."

...

"Mother, mother! Mother——"

"Dad, wake up! Don't sleep! It's dawn! Wake up! Xiao Bao is scared..."

"You beast! You beast! Stop!"

"Oh God, God, please open your eyes..."

...

The land was littered with corpses, and filled with the sounds of fighting and looting. At this time, the land of China had already reached the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, when the Jin army entered the pass and massacred the city...

In the nearly twenty years since Zuo Weiyang learned this Yin-Yang art, this was the first time she had ever witnessed the opening of a "Yin Altar," the first time she had ever seen a soul leave the body, and the first time she had ever experienced the memory of becoming a vengeful ghost...; however, all these firsts paled in comparison to the sheer absurdity of this event...

Lady Li's memory abruptly and inexplicably ceased the moment she saw Liu Che in the City of the Wrongfully Dead.

What I was seeing at that moment was the late Song Dynasty, nearly a thousand years after the Han Dynasty...

The place where Lady Li was standing was the residence where her brother, Li Yannian, had presented her to Emperor Wu of Han. However, it had been demolished and rebuilt countless times since then. The former residence of the Li family during the Han Dynasty had become a private school in the town. After the Jin army entered the pass, this private school became a veritable "dead school," and its former prosperity had long since vanished.

Madam Li erased a thousand years of memories from her mind. I know nothing of the reasons, the process, or the result. The only thing I know is that Madam Li's hatred is now stronger, more intense, and deeper...

Lady Li's visit to the Li residence in Hanzhong this time was not out of nostalgia, nor because she couldn't forget the grudges and passions she shared with Emperor Wu of Han. Since losing her memories of a thousand years ago, I could sense that all the passions and past desires within Lady Li had vanished. It was as if a wall had suddenly appeared in the space of her memory—a copper wall stretching to the ends of the earth, almost reaching the heavens. This wall blocked all of Lady Li's nearly thousand years of grudges and passions from the realm of my own memory. Lady Li came here in this chaotic era of war, simply to absorb more "yin spirits" during the Jin army's massacre of the city. A thousand years after the City of the Wrongfully Dead, Lady Li had transformed from a vengeful spirit into a true "vengeful ghost," and therefore, the yin spirits she needed now were many times greater than before…

A person who dies unjustly will inevitably harbor resentment after death, which may cause their soul to die unjustly again in the cycle of reincarnation. If a wandering soul harboring resentment begins to feed on other spirits, the resentment within it will transform into a vengeful spirit. As a vengeful spirit, one must endure the seventeen levels of hell before being reincarnated, and this reincarnation will certainly be in one of the three evil realms. If a vengeful spirit becomes a vengeful ghost, to be reborn, it must endure the eighteen levels of Avici Hell before being judged and pardoned by the gods, and then be reincarnated in the realm of hungry ghosts. Hungry ghosts in the realm of hungry ghosts must undergo the punishment of the first seventeen levels of hell again before being reborn into the three evil realms according to fate. Of course, if the gods do not pardon their sins during the judgment, then they will be condemned to eternal damnation in the eighteenth level of Avici Hell...

Now that Madam Li is a wronged ghost, and has been absorbing so many yin spirits, she has probably already lost her path to rebirth.

Early Yuan Dynasty

Lady Li found the deceased prince among the Jin soldiers' swordsmiths.

At this time, Crown Prince Liu Ju was merely a foundry worker on the Mongolian grasslands, with a dark, muscular physique and rough, purplish-red skin unique to the grasslands, a far cry from the wealthy and frail figure he had been over a thousand years ago; yet even so, Lady Li still did not let go of this Mongolian man who reeked of the smell of cattle and sheep…

The faction led by Crown Prince Liu Ju was a thorn in the side of Lady Li, who even drove Liu Ju into rebellion to secure her son's ascension to the throne. However, Lady Li ultimately paid with her life but failed to secure the throne for her son, nearly resulting in the extermination of her entire family. Therefore, Liu Ju's death was the most tragic—all the metal in the sword-forging workshop was embedded in his body; the forged arrows and swords were pierced into his chest and skull; the molten gold-orange liquid in the furnace melted into his lower body, fusing his legs to the ground; the still-gold-orange swords being forged, still glowing with heat, pierced through his body; iron filings covered his purplish-red face, leaving it riddled with holes and pits, even his eyeballs were embedded with iron nails…

Late Yuan Dynasty

The shaman from back then has already been reborn into the human realm. This shaman had been reborn into the animal realm several times, but Lady Li waited until he was reborn into the human realm today to take revenge...

At this moment, Wu Bu was just a butcher's wife. Her eyes would only light up when she saw money. She was bloated and her clothes were always covered in grease and blood.

Back then, this sorcerer should have sent Lady Li back to the underworld after Emperor Wu of Han ordered her exorcism, or even beaten her soul to pieces, which would have been better than her current predicament. However, this sorcerer betrayed his master and informed the Crown Prince's faction that Lady Li was being kept in the harem. Afterwards, he sealed Lady Li in a porcelain bottle...

While the woman was cleaning pig offal at home, the pig intestines in the basin suddenly seemed to come alive and wrapped directly around her neck. As she struggled to cut them, the feces inside the large intestine blocked her seven orifices completely. A moment later, the woman's legs kicked out and she lay still. Her child, a boy of about ten years old, witnessed this and died less than half a month later…

(II) Night Ritual Chapter Nine: The Debt of Love and Wailing of the Ghosts

bright

The Taoist priest who once adored Lady Li with affection, making Qingfeng envious, but then betrayed her and sealed her back into a porcelain bottle, has now been reincarnated in the human world after more than a thousand years in hell, living in the home of a hunter in the mountains...

The Taoist priest was once tall and elegant, with a charming and refined demeanor. However, he was born into a hunter's family and was still illiterate at the age of ten. On a snowy night, Madam Li sent everyone in the hunter's family except for the ten-year-old child to their deaths.

This Taoist priest lived alone in the mountains, hunting for a living. Several times he was on the verge of death, but Madam Li saved him. It wasn't until the child was fifteen years old that Madam Li became involved in his life...

In the Ming Dynasty, a fifteen-year-old boy should have been married long ago, but this hunter's family was penniless, and no girl in the neighborhood was willing to marry him. So, Madam Li appeared on a full moon night, claiming to be a celestial being descended to earth to repay the hunter for saving her life in a past life, and offered to give him a fortune and marry her to him as a wife or concubine...

As the saying goes, a leopard can't change its spots; thousands of years ago, this Taoist priest was a smooth talker who coveted wealth and status. In this life, facing this beautiful woman who claims to be a fairy, how could he not be moved and believe her?

...

Under Madam Li's machinations, this illiterate young man surprisingly passed the imperial examination, becoming the top scholar. Soon after, he rose rapidly through the ranks to become the Governor-General of Liangjiang, a fourth-rank official. Madam Li then arranged for the daughter of the current prime minister to marry him. This top scholar is now incredibly wealthy and powerful, with numerous wives and concubines, and with the help of a fairy, everything he desires seems to go his way. His only shortcoming is that, at around forty years old, he still has no children. At the age of forty-four, his wives and concubines began to die one by one. However, for a wealthy fourth-rank official, this meant little. But after a series of remarriages and funerals, the governor's reputation deteriorated until no woman was willing to marry him anymore. At this time, Lady Li also disappeared from his life under the pretext of their relationship ending. This former top scholar, now governor, continued to decline until the emperor confiscated all his property on charges of corruption, stripped him of his official position, and exiled him to Liangzhou to repair the official road. Only then did his good fortune come to an end.

He was only fifty years old when he was sent to Liangzhou, but Lady Li allowed him to live for a full one hundred and fifty years before he died. During those hundred years, as a convict being sent there, he was only allowed a bowl of rice and wild vegetable porridge and a cornbread bun each day, though water was provided. He had to work from dawn till dusk, and his sleeping place was just a small shed next to the stable where hay was stored. It was cold in winter and hot in summer, with mosquitoes everywhere, and occasionally a few snakes would scurry in… The once plump and healthy governor had long since become skin and bones from hunger, slowly enduring this for a full hundred years until he finally died of illness beside a manure cart…

Throughout his life, he had a total of forty-four women, both at home and outside, but he had no children.

After the Taoist priest's death and subsequent punishment in hell, he was reborn as a human. His original lifespan was only twenty years, but he had two children to continue his family line, and his family was poor. However, Madam Li used the lives of all of the Taoist priest's descendants to exchange for his wealth, status, and numerous wives and concubines. Although the Taoist priest lived to be over a hundred years old in this life, it was not enough to repay the debt of his descendants. Therefore, whenever this Taoist priest is reborn as a human, he will be poor, childless, and die alone…

The moment Madam Li stopped crying, I suddenly felt a strong urge to express my gratitude for the rules of the Six Paths of Reincarnation. If it weren't for the fact that Emperor Wu of Han had to endure two thousand years of karmic retribution—three lifetimes in the realm of gods, three lifetimes in the realm of asuras, and three lifetimes in the realm of hungry ghosts—before he could be reborn as a human, I fear that after the Taoist priest's death, everyone present would have had to endure another round of revenge. Even as a memory, this was far too cruel…

Clearly, everyone in the courtyard felt the same way I did – a sense of relief. Those six masters must be feeling deeply guilty for seeing this memory; at least, that's how Miao Ba beside me felt. This little monk, though almost unable to stand under the dual pressure of being absorbed by me and experiencing Madam Li's "ghostly wails," still kept chanting Buddhist mantras to find peace of mind. A monk only truly acts like a monk when he's chanting scriptures.

After experiencing that "ghostly wailing," I could barely gather my scattered soul. As my world blurred, a gentle breeze suddenly swept by. This breeze came just in time, managing to gather my dispersing soul together—a true lifesaver. When I regained my senses, I realized that the breeze was actually a soul-summoning banner in Grandma Feng's hand. Unfortunately, no matter how powerful Grandma Feng was, if Madam Li didn't return my body before the hour of Yin (3-5 AM), even one hundred and eighty soul-summoning banners would be useless. And now it was already a quarter past Chou (1-3 AM)...

"Amitabha Buddha, Empress Xiaowu, I respect your imperial status and earnestly hope that you will stop here and not harm the innocent any further." Although Monk Benqing had entered Madam Li's memory like me, he was clearly not as flustered as the others present at this moment.

"These ten lifetimes of karmic entanglements are all due to your willfulness and irresponsibility in falsely claiming to be the emperor back then..." Madam Li's voice came out of my mouth, while I, as an observer, watched all of this from the sidelines, which I found quite interesting.

Miao Ba also stopped chanting at this moment and stared blankly at Master Benqing.

"Empress Xiaowu!" Master Benqing shouted, interrupting Madam Li. He continued, "From the day I entered the Buddhist order, I knew that I had committed many sins in my past lives. I have spent my whole life cultivating Buddhism in order to atone for my sins. Now that I still owe you a life, I will naturally repay you. I only hope that you will calm down the resentment of your past lives after today. My disciples will give you a place to go."

"How can you atone for my grievances of thousands of years with just one life?" After saying this, Madam Li paused for a moment and then said, "Besides, I have absorbed countless 'yin spirits' over the past thousands of years. Even Hell will not accept me. What place can your disciples give me? If you want to beat me to the point of annihilation, then the yin spirits in my body will also scatter throughout the world. What can you do then?"

“Empress Xiaowu, monks do not lie. Now that I have agreed, you can rest assured. As long as you let go of these grudges and affections that have lasted for thousands of years…” Master Benqing’s plump face was unusually calm, and his eyes, which I usually jokingly called “black beans,” now had a transcendent light.

"Ah..." It was Miao Ba. As I heard Miao Ba's voice, I suddenly felt a strange pain, like an electric shock, piercing through the rest of my soul...

(II) Night Ritual Chapter Ten: Nirvana

Humans possess three souls and seven spirits. The three souls are the Heavenly Soul (胎光), the Earthly Soul (爽灵), and the Life Soul (幽精), while the seven spirits are the Heavenly Soul (天冲), the Spiritual Wisdom (灵慧), the Qi (气), the Strength (力), the Central Soul (中枢), the Essence (精), and the Heroic Soul (英). Among them, the Central Soul, located in the heart, is called the Life Soul.

When I exchanged souls with Madam Li, the one spirit that remained within my body was this central spirit; and the pain I feel now also originates from this spirit. The three souls and seven spirits are also divided into yin and yang. These yin and yang within the body not only clash and restrain each other but also generate and connect with one another, thus enabling a person's "fate" and "destiny," maintaining balance. Once the soul and spirit leave the body, the heavenly and earthly souls will quickly wander outside the world. Although I am currently attached to Miao Ba, if I encounter any attack from a spirit, it could lead to the separation of my heavenly and earthly souls, and it might also harm Miao Ba…

The pain I felt at that moment was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. This agony made everything in the world suddenly stop, including myself...

In this still and chaotic world, six or seven people suddenly appeared around me, six or seven strangers who also seemed vaguely familiar. These people were pushing, hitting, and calling my name forcefully. In my frozen world, only they were still moving...

When I was finally woken up, these six or seven people were standing there beside me, watching everything unfold before them...

Miao Ba collapsed to the ground, utterly exhausted, staring anxiously at the altar in front of him; not far from the altar, Abbot Benqing and the six masters were engaged in their final duel with Madam Li…

At this moment, Madam Li had already left my body and was standing in the "Nirvana Formation" formed by several masters. This "Nirvana Formation," also known as the "Mysterious Bird Formation," originates from the Vermilion Bird, the star of rebirth in the south. This "Nirvana Formation" has seven directions: Well, Ghost, Willow, Star, Net, Wings, and Chariot. The "Mysterious Bird" is also called the "Phoenix," and the phoenix's rebirth from fire is regarded as "Nirvana." Therefore, this "Nirvana Formation" is actually a "Rebirth Formation"...

Standing in the center of the formation, Lady Li, though still dressed in magnificent attire, had lost her former dignity and nobility. Instead, she gleamed with a fierce light, her expression turning menacing. Standing in the formation, she spread her arms, and countless clumps of purplish-blue things flew out from the wide sleeves of her black robe, attacking the barrier set up by the masters. These shapeless clumps of purplish-blue things were the "vengeful energy" accumulated by Lady Li over two thousand years of absorbing the spirits of the underworld. This "vengeful energy" had no place to go and would never perish. It was impossible to destroy it; the only way was to make it return to where it came from, back to the underworld.

The barrier set up by the seven masters was already crumbling under the impact of these "vengeful spirits." The number of spirits, accumulated over thousands of years, was beyond human calculation. These vengeful spirits surged relentlessly towards the "star" position where Abbot Benqing stood, in clumps, waves, and layers. It seemed that Madam Li was willing to risk her own life to ensure Abbot Benqing's demise. At this moment, the crimson light above the "Nirvana Formation" had begun to show dark streaks under Madam Li's onslaught. The prayer beads in the hands of Masters Qingsong and Qingfeng had fallen, and the prayer beads of Masters Qingming, Qingkong, and Qingyu had been torn in multiple places. Abbot Benqing, under the heavy attack, had blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. Only Master Qingyun remained unharmed...

A few people around me suddenly nudged me and pointed to the front of the altar. There was a person lying on the ground in front of the altar, and another person was lying on the platform drawing talismans. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the person lying on the ground was me, and my grandmother was obviously trying to save me.

So, the people around me now must be my three souls and seven spirits. The excruciating pain I felt just now was caused by Madam Li expelling my central soul from my body. Since I was attached to Miao Ba at the time, he also felt the pain, which is why he suddenly cried out...

Now, I am completely a soul. If my grandmother hadn't sealed my last breath, my two souls would have already ascended and scattered. No wonder I could see Madam Li and the masters' fight so clearly, while Miao Ba, who was slumped on the ground, stared blankly and didn't dare to blink, still looking completely lost.

The thought of my unfortunate fate leading to a meeting with Yama, the King of Hell, filled me with a sense of injustice, even though the current situation left me no time for lamentation. However, before this injustice could linger, I saw my grandmother light seven or eight paper talismans in front of the altar. Then, she somehow obtained a lot of embroidery needles and placed them in the ashes of the burnt talismans, along with some cinnabar water...

Grandma had just picked up her embroidery needle when two people next to me walked towards the altar, and the others followed...

"pain--"

In the blink of an eye, I was pulled in by an inexplicable force...

...

"Ouch—" When I woke up again, the pain was still there. Although it was a little less than when Madam Li had forced my central soul out of my body, it was still so painful that I couldn't get up. Moving my fingers only made the pain more excruciating. I looked down and, oh my god, all ten of my fingers were stuck with those embroidery needles that Grandma had given me earlier...

"Grandma, Grandma, the ten fingers are connected to the heart—" The feeling of needles pricking my fingers really makes me want to faint again.

"Lianxin, Lianxin, ah, you're awake, you're awake, good, good, good!" Grandma was so happy to see me wake up that she didn't even care what I was saying.

I tried to pull the needle out with my teeth, but every time I moved my fingers, my heart clenched with pain. Fortunately, Grandma finally understood, and Miaoba crawled over to help me and pinned me to the ground. Finally, we managed to pull the needle out.

Watching helplessly as blood gushed out with each needle pulled, my tears flowed like the Yellow River, endlessly rushing for miles…

But I had no time to complain, not even to wipe away my tears, because Abbot Benqing's battle was still ongoing. Now that my soul had returned to my body, I understood why Miao Ba hadn't dared to blink. It was too fast. All I could see were countless purple and blue lights constantly moving under the crimson light. Besides Abbot Benqing, the other six masters were also moving rapidly, their robes almost torn, occasionally seeping blood...

Within this chaotic barrier, Madam Li appeared and disappeared intermittently, but each time she appeared, she was always near Master Benqing; more and more dark cracks appeared on the crimson light shield above the "Nirvana Array," and each time Madam Li appeared, she exacerbated the spread of these cracks...

When Madam Li appeared before Master Benqing again, a voice, like a lion's roar, rang out from an unknown place, chanting: "Namo Amitabha Svaha..."

Along with these words, a continuous stream of golden rays emanated from the "star" position where Abbot Benqing stood. Wherever the rays swept, all spirits returned to the void...

This also includes Abbot Benqing, who is located above the gold line...

(II) Night Ritual Chapter Eleven: Annihilation

As the golden light faded, besides Madam Li and the "aura of resentment" she emitted, Abbot Benqing also vanished into thin air...