Premier tome de la série Le Magicien Oolong Qui suis-je

Chapitre 30

"Big brother, I want to go home, please take me home, okay?" Lin Yiyi longed to return to her home, but did she still have a home? Could she still go home? Her home was gone, but her heart remained stubbornly set on returning.

"Going home?" I gave a wry smile. I wanted to go home too!

"Yes! I want to go home, to go home with my older brothers and sisters!" A rare smile appeared on Lin Yiyi's pale face when she mentioned going home.

"Big sister?" I asked curiously, "Who is that?"

“Big sister is really big sister!” Lin Yiyi replied.

Could it be her? Wasn't she imprisoned in the formation? How could Lin Yiyi possibly see her? Or is it that her elder sister is someone else?

"Then Yiyi, can you take me to find Big Sister? If Big Sister and I work together, we can find our way home!" I coaxed Lin Yiyi, hoping she could lead me out of this damn sewer maze!

"Okay!" Lin Yiyi replied happily, breaking free from my embrace and hurriedly grabbing my hand to walk forward. Holding Lin Yiyi's cold and stiff little hand, my heart was filled with strange emotions, a mixture of fear and pity.

"Big brother, follow me and don't look back!" Lin Yiyi said, holding my hand in front of her.

"Why not look back?" My curious nature was entirely influenced by Li Yang.

"Don't look back, that's all!" Lin Yiyi's words were icy cold, her tone stiff and mechanical, completely devoid of her previous pitiful demeanor. I shrank back, remaining silent. At that very moment, the sound of flowing water around us suddenly vanished, replaced by faint weeping and mournful howls, chilling to the bone. The darkness seemed to shift as well, a faint red light emanating from behind me. A pungent, bloody stench filled the air.

It smells like a pool of blood! I was a little worried and wanted to turn around and look, but Lin Yiyi, who was clearly facing forward, suddenly said to me, "Don't turn around!"

I was startled; my neck, which was about to turn, froze in mid-air. Silently following behind Lin Yiyi, my heart pounded with dread. The piercing cries grew ever more real, as if they were right behind me, in my ears, and finally echoing in my mind. Perhaps it was just my nervousness, but I felt something touching my feet, like hands, countless hands. Trembling, I looked down at my feet, but there was nothing there.

Should I turn around and look? Why won't Lin Yiyi let me look? What's she up to? The more you think about it, the more worried you become. All these questions finally made my curiosity overcome my fear. Without saying a word, I suddenly stopped and quickly turned around.

A scene even more horrific than the pool of blood unfolded before my eyes. Countless red figures crowded together in the once clear sewers, their faces obscured, only blurry outlines, gaping black eyes, and equally gaping black mouths. Red hands emerged from the sewers, swarming upwards, and the hands that touched my heels were those of nameless ghosts!

"What is this?" I exclaimed in surprise, as one of my feet was firmly grabbed by a hand that reached out from the sewer!

"I told you not to turn around!" A chilling voice rang in my ears. I whirled around to look at Lin Yiyi. Her face suddenly turned terrifying—a bluish-black complexion, her eyes bloodshot. Her once-normal hands were now withered and emaciated, her nails black. Her hair was disheveled, and her mournful eyes peered at me through her black hair.

"Who are you? You're not Yiyi!" I asked the "Lin Yiyi" in front of me while trying to shake off the hand on my foot. Although her appearance hadn't changed much, her voice had completely changed. This was no longer the pitiful little girl who had been clamoring to go home just a moment ago.

"Have you forgotten me?" she said softly, but her voice sounded like the sound of fingernails scratching glass in the middle of the night. I felt a sudden dizziness and a chill run down my spine. Wasn't this Lin Yuyan?

"Lin Yuyan?" I asked tentatively. How did Lin Yiyi become Lin Yuyan?

“It’s me!” Lin Yuyan nodded.

Having finally broken free from those hands, I quickly stepped back and leaned against the wall, asking, "What did you do to Yiyi?"

"It's nothing, I'm just temporarily borrowing her soul," Lin Yuyan replied coldly.

Why do ghosts always like to borrow other people's things? I stared blankly at Lin Yuyan in front of me, feeling so awkward, not knowing whether to call her Lin Yiyi or Lin Yuyan?

"Why do we need to borrow it?" I asked, a little dumbfounded.

"Because that formation has trapped most of my soul, I can only move my consciousness now. And the only one I can use as a vessel is Yiyi!" Lin Yuyan replied helplessly.

It seems that Lin Yuyan didn't do this intentionally, which makes me feel a little better. Most importantly, it seems that Lin Yuyan didn't have any ill intentions towards Lin Yiyi.

"Where did you think I was going? And what's going on here?" I pointed to the hellish scene before me and questioned her.

"I originally intended to use Lin Yiyi's soul to take you to the place where my soul is trapped, but I didn't expect things to go wrong!" Lin Yuyan replied helplessly. "This is the entrance to purgatory in the Netherworld. Every Netherworld has a spatial rift connected to the purgatory blood pool. The only way to take you to the center of the formation is to pass through this place. Originally, as long as you didn't turn back, everything would have been fine, but you..."

"So what do we do now?" I interrupted her grumbling. Now is not the time to blame each other; finding a way out is the most important thing.

"There's no way." Lin Yuyan's unusually calm answer almost made me faint on the spot. What was this? Was she just waiting to die?

"You must have a way, right? I don't want to be dragged to hell by these things!" I almost shouted. The red figure in front of me was gradually approaching me and showed signs of climbing up.

Lin Yuyan looked at me in silence for a while before saying, "Do you know? We're actually family!"

"Yes, yes! We were one family five hundred years ago!" I replied perfunctorily. What kind of time is this to try and claim kinship with me?!

"Listen to me!" Lin Yuyan said seriously, "I don't know exactly how many hundreds of years ago we were from the same family, but I can sense that you should be a branch of our Lin family."

"So what?" I looked worriedly at the blood pool in front of me, while Lin Yuyan wanted to list my family tree!

"Don't be impatient, listen carefully, this is very important!" Lin Yuyan clearly noticed my agitation and said, "Our Lin family is actually a lineage of soul refiners!"

"Soul Refiner?" I stared blankly at Lin Yuyan; I had never heard of this term before.

"That's right, it's the lost art of soul refining! For some reason, this secret technique was suddenly lost in our Lin family over a hundred years ago. I only vaguely heard my grandfather mention it to me. Unfortunately, this legend was regarded as an amusing story by later members of the Lin family. I also used to think it was just a story my grandfather told me to lull me to sleep, until I met a woman who gave me a book, a book about soul refining, and I learned that my grandfather's story was real. And that's why every generation in our Lin family has someone born on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month!" Lin Yuyan said in one breath.

I looked at her blankly, but her earnest tone didn't seem like she was lying, so I asked, "So, have you learned it? Where's that book?"

"Unfortunately, I didn't learn it!" Lin Yuyan shook her head and said, "I hid that book somewhere in a temple in my hometown. It's very safe!"

"Then who was the woman who gave you the book?" I asked hastily.

"I don't know! I couldn't even see her face clearly, I only judged that she was a woman from her figure and voice!" Lin Yuyan replied helplessly.

“So…” I leaned harder against the wall, the red ghostly figures in the blood pool almost climbing up me, “Does telling me this have anything to do with leaving here?”

“Of course. You’re from the Lin family, and you were born on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, so you should know the Soul Refining Technique! It can help us leave this place.” Lin Yuyan looked ahead and slowly said, “Of course, there’s also him!”

"Him?" I quickly turned my head to look to the side. A swaying figure was running towards me. Could it be Song Tian? He hasn't disappeared yet?! He's as tenacious as a cockroach! Touching my aching temples and twitching eyelids, and looking at the red ghostly figure in front of me and the approaching Song Tian, I couldn't help but wonder if it would be more satisfying to just smash my head against a wall and die now than to face the unknown situation later?

"Then tell me quickly how to use the Soul Refining Technique!" I asked Lin Yuyan helplessly. Anyway, I was being forced into this situation and had to cram at the last minute!

"I don't know either!" Lin Yuyan's answer left me frozen in place. What? You don't know? Then you read that book for nothing?

"No way! What time is it and you're still joking?" I asked, not giving up.

"I'm not kidding! That book only provides some information; it doesn't mention the specific soul refining technique at all!" Lin Yuyan said calmly.

"What should we do then?" I asked anxiously, completely at a loss.

"Fate has already arranged everything!" Lin Yuyan answered me with a profound statement, then closed her mouth tightly, clearly having no intention of continuing the conversation. I could only glance at her silently; she was practically dead, of course she wouldn't worry! But I was still a living, breathing person, what was I to do? If fate truly had already arranged everything, then dear goddess of fate, could you allow me to secretly peek at your face first? Please tell me, what kind of ending awaits me?

Book One, The Three Ghosts of the City, Chapter Sixty-Six: The Outcome. Cause and Effect.

Book One, The Three Ghosts of the City, Chapter Sixty-Six: The Outcome. Cause and Effect.

How should a person react when faced with the threat of death? Fear or sorrow? But I am unusually calm now, quietly watching Song Tian's figure get closer and closer, and I have become calmer.

“The Soul Refining Technique is a trial for the soul. The Lin family is born with the ability to purify the soul, and I think you have it too, but it just hasn’t been developed yet,” Lin Yuyan said, looking at me.

“Whether it’s true or not, there’s no time to discuss it now,” I replied, because Song Tian was already in front of us. His entire body had been melted away by the golden light, leaving almost only half of him. His skin had melted away, clearly revealing the rotting muscle and grayish-pink bones beneath. His clothes, pus, blood, and internal organs were all stuck together in clumps of yellowish-red matter, making me feel nauseous. What was even more eerie was his face, almost half of which had been melted away, revealing the bare skull and a thin layer of red muscle tissue on his cheeks. His nostrils were gone, leaving only a dark outline, and both eyeballs were bulging out, one of them drooping out of its socket.

"I won't... let you go!" Song Tian's voice sounded like a rusty mechanical gear. His hand reached out to me, his pinkish bone and flesh stuck together, making him look particularly terrifying.

"Get out of the way!" Lin Yuyan suddenly jumped up, pulled me behind her, and blocked my way.

"Lin Yuyan?" Song Tian looked at him suspiciously and said, "Then I'll send both of you to hell together!"

"You should be the one going to hell!" Lin Yuyan suddenly clasped her hands together, then rotated her palms and made a strange gesture. Instantly, faint blue light particles emanated from her palms and drifted into the air, spinning rapidly in the air.

"Look closely, these are the basic hand gestures for the soul refining technique that I recently learned from that book!" Lin Yuyan shouted at me.

Is this the Soul Refining Technique? So beautiful! Countless blue specks of light, like fireflies, danced in the air, flying towards Song Tian. The light gradually enveloped Song Tian, completely surrounding him. Song Tian's power was not to be underestimated; his entire body emitted a dazzling red light, like sharp daggers piercing the blue specks of light. Upon contact with the red light, the blue specks of light fell to the ground, the red light growing increasingly blinding.

"Ah!" Lin Yuyan suddenly screamed and was thrown towards me, where dozens of red beams struck her solidly.

"Lin Yuyan!" I quickly caught her body. Her body, which was already cold, was now as cold as a block of ice. What worried me even more was that her body felt as light as a feather.

"Haha~~~!" Song Tian laughed heartily, saying, "Your soul refining technique doesn't work!"

"Lin Yuyan, are you alright?" I shook her and asked anxiously. Song Tian was closing in step by step, and the red ghostly figures in the sewers weren't idle either, all climbing upwards. With Song Tian in front, ghostly figures beside us, and a wall behind us, I really couldn't think of a better way to escape. Were we really going to be eaten alive by this evil ghost, Song Tian?

"Lin Xiao! It seems there must be something wrong with the gesture I came up with!" Lin Yuyan said weakly.

"What kind of time is this to still be researching your soul refining technique? I'm truly defeated by her, but it seems like this is the only thing that can help me right now! Thinking of this, I gritted my teeth. Anyway, I might as well die. I'll take this gamble!" With that thought, I put Lin Yuyan's body aside, and relying on my memory, I put my hands together, rotated them, and copied Lin Yuyan's hand gesture exactly!

Song Tian, a little frightened, shifted his body slightly backward, but to his disappointment, not a single blue dot appeared in my palm! Had I made the gesture too quickly? Let's try again… no use! Still no response!

"What's going on?" I shouted at Lin Yuyan. Is there some other trick to it?

"Haha~~~~! Since you like this gesture so much, go do it in hell!" Song Tian suddenly rushed towards me, and red nails with a red glow grew out of the tips of his fingers.

"Watch out!" Lin Yuyan, who was still weak, immediately jumped up and pushed me away before Song Tian's nails could pierce my body.

"No!" I roared, but I could only watch helplessly as Song Tian's fingernails pierced through Lin Yuyan's—no, I should say Lin Yiyi's—body. No blood splattered, but the pained expression on Lin Yuyan's face horrified me. Her entire face was contorted, her eyes bulging out. And at that moment, her body was still firmly impaled on Song Tian's long fingernails, like a rag doll.

"Get out of my way!" Song Tian flung Lin Yuyan away forcefully, sending her flying straight into the Purgatory Blood Pool in the sewers.

"Damn it!" I cursed under my breath, but I had already jumped over there.

"Grab me!" I shouted, grabbing Lin Yuyan's hand with my right. Unfortunately, she was falling too fast, and I fell to the ground due to inertia as soon as I grabbed her.

"Let go!" I pulled Lin Yuyan to the side of the sewer, her small body dangling in the air above the sewer, while half of my body was also above the ground. I desperately used my left hand to support myself so that I wouldn't fall any further, or I would really fall into the Hellfire Blood Pool!

"Hold on tight!" Although I don't know if Lin Yuyan is related to me by blood, things have come to this point, and I can't let go no matter what!

"If you don't let go, you'll fall too!" Lin Yuyan said anxiously. "Anyway, I'm going to die, but you're still alive."

"Falling down is better than being drained of blood by ghosts!" I struggled against the ghostly figures in the blood pool for Lin Yuyan's body, but their strength was immense, and they could easily pull me down as well.

"Then you can let me suck you dry before you go down, hehe!" Song Tian sneered, and his middle fingernail suddenly curled up, turning into a thin, long tube that stretched towards me.

"Let go!" Lin Yuyan cried out in worry.

"No!" Sometimes I can be as stubborn as a bull, a bull being sucked blood by leeches! The thin red tube pierced my neck with a snap, a feeling like being bitten by an insect, not very painful, just numb and itchy! Then I felt the blood being drawn out of my body, and gradually felt a painful sensation of being sucked onto my skin.

My body began to weaken, my eyelids grew heavy, and my grip on Lin Yuyan's hand gradually lost its strength. I could feel the thin tube continuing its insertion into my body; the sensation of a foreign object invading my flesh made me gag, and I felt dizzy and lightheaded. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through my chest—the thin tube had reached my heart! A sweet, metallic taste filled my throat, and when I opened my mouth, I vomited blood.

Damn it! I'd rather die than let Song Tian take advantage of me! With that thought, I mustered my last bit of strength and smiled at Lin Yuyan. Lin Yuyan looked at me with pity, and I knew she understood what I meant. In the end, she nodded and peacefully closed her eyes.

I'm sorry, Fang Lei, I don't have the chance to love you anymore!

Li Yang, it looks like I won't have a chance to argue with you anymore!

Li Hai, I still owe you a Sichuan meal!

And Ah Bao and my older sister, I really can't bear to part with you, but now it's all too late!

Taking a deep breath, I mustered the last of my strength and twisted the thin tube off my neck.

"What?" Song Tian exclaimed in surprise, as another thin tube was already being extended.

I rolled down the sewer, and my entire body plummeted downwards, falling with Lin Yuyan into the infernal blood pool. Suddenly, everything around me turned red, countless ghostly figures swirled around me, and countless hands touched my body. At that moment, my chest suddenly burned, not just from the surface of the jade pendant as usual, but a heat emanating from deep within my heart, as if my entire heart had become a red-hot iron.

"Ahhh!" The intense pain made me cry out, and the red light before my eyes was suddenly replaced by a white light. The white light grew stronger and stronger, and in a daze, a pair of slender, jade-like hands quietly appeared in the scene shrouded in white light. They were fair and soft, as if they were the most beautiful hands in the world. A feeling of familiarity mixed with strangeness made me want to see clearly the owner of the hands. But apart from these hands, everything else was hazy, as if a person was standing behind a thick veil, with only these hands extending from behind it.

The jade-like hands began to move, clasping together, then rotating, and then forming a rather strange gesture. It resembled the gestures Lin Yuyan had taught, yet it was different, seemingly more complex. Could this be the true hand gesture of the Soul Refining Technique? Thinking this, my own hands moved as well, expertly following the movements of the jade-like hands before me. It felt so familiar and natural, as if I had been born with it!

Tiny specks of blue light emanated from my palm, multiplying and growing brighter! Finally, they coalesced into a dazzling spectacle, like the Milky Way, while the surrounding red light vanished. In the darkness, only my blue light shone brilliantly, flying towards one place: Song Tian!

Is this the true power of the Soul Refining Technique? I felt myself suspended above the sewer. Song Tian was firmly enveloped in a blue halo, and within it, his soul was being gradually extracted from Yang Tianxing's corpse. The faint red shadow must be Song Tian's soul; he was struggling desperately, but the blue light slowly rose, simultaneously pulling the red soul from the body like a seedling being uprooted. Then, the red shadow was compressed by the blue light until only a tiny red dot remained, which flew towards me.

My eyelids grew heavy again, my mind went blank, and only the gentle, smiling faces of Lin Yuyan and Lin Yiyi appeared before me, magnified infinitely...