Chapter 225: Oil Exhausted, Lamp Withered

Li Qingying and I originally thought that reinforcing the courtyard formation array would be enough for one night.

As it turned out, Liu Junyan and Hui Moqiong stayed in the courtyard for three days and three nights.

Those three days and three nights felt to me like I had gone through a calamity.

I dared not sleep, for as soon as I did I would hear the Great Witch's voice.

She kept repeating that phrase: "Return to Cangwu Mountain…"

I was worn thin all over, and I truly didn't know what to do.

From Liu Junyan's earlier investigation, it seemed the Great Witch originally lived in Cangwu Mountain, so returning there might be her obsession.

Perhaps after sending her back to Cangwu Mountain she could be separated from my body?

But there is another possibility: I send her back to Cangwu Mountain and she seizes my body.

After all, we know little about the Feng Clan, and even less about this Great Witch.

Over those three days and three nights I barely got two hours of sleep.

I didn't even dare to meditate.

By the end I felt dazed all over, seeing people as double images.

That feeling wasn't just from fatigue; it was a vivid sense that my soul was about to leave my body.

On the evening of the third day, while Li Qingying was cooking, I fainted at the kitchen doorway.

With a boom I fell straight down, frightening Li Qingying badly.

At that moment I clearly saw myself standing at the kitchen doorway while my body lay there, held by Li Qingying and resting on her thigh.

Li Qingying was pinching my philtrum.

She checked my breath, and it was clearly present.

In other words, I was still alive, but my soul had wandered out, yet because the Great Witch was still parasitic in my soul, I hadn't died?

This process lasted less than half a minute, and then I heard the Great Witch chanting a spell.

Immediately an unnamed force pulled me back into my flesh, and I slowly came to.

Li Qingying was frightened by me; seeing me wake up, her eyes turned red.

She gave me brown sugar water, forced me to drink it, then hurried back to cooking.

While cooking, she had me bring a small stool and sit beside her, not allowing me to leave her sight by even half a meter.

I was so sleepy, sitting on that stool and leaning against the stove's edge, that I just fell asleep like that.

As expected, no sooner had I fallen asleep than the Great Witch's voice sounded again.

This time, however, she did not insistently urge me to return to Cangwu Mountain.

That half‑minute soul‑exit just now seemed to have frightened her too, as if she were reassessing my body.

After a while, her voice rang out again, murmuring many incantations.

She chanted so fast I could barely keep up, yet the incantations seemed to sprout legs and drill straight into my mind.

Her lips kept moving, repeating the chant over and over without tiring.

Strangely, every previous time I fell into the Great Witch's dream I would quickly wake up on my own.

But today I was deeply trapped in that dream, unable to free myself from the Great Witch's chanting of incantations.

Until a surge of true qi poured into my back, whereupon I suddenly opened my eyes.

As soon as I opened my eyes I saw Liu Junyan.

He anxiously said, "Xiao Jiu, what's wrong with you?"

I opened my mouth, wanting to say I had gone several days without sleep and was utterly exhausted.

After instinctively stretching, I found that my formerly languid body had become much lighter.

I recounted to Liu Junyan everything that had happened these past days, including that half‑minute soul‑exit just now.

Liu Junyan listened with his brows furrowed.

But before we could devise a countermeasure, that very night my soul again wandered out of my body.

At that moment I was nestled in Liu Junyan's embrace, he holding me as we leaned together and slept deeply.

Yet my soul stood at the bedside, watching that warm scene.

Liu Junyan seemed to have a psychic sense; though he had been sleeping soundly, he suddenly opened his eyes, turned, and looked toward my soul standing at the bedside.

He could see my soul.

His slit pupils contracted, his brows knit.

But Liu Junyan ultimately dared not speak, lest he frighten me.

He carefully sat up, formed a sword‑finger and pressed it to my brow, murmuring under his breath.

Soon afterward my soul was pulled back into my body.

Such scenes recurred frequently over the following week or so.

Sometimes Liu Junyan noticed in time and pulled me back.

Sometimes, when the soul‑exit lasted too long, the Great Witch would chant a spell to draw me back.

Although nothing irreparable had occurred, continuing like this inevitably caused worry.

After much speculation we concluded that my condition might be related to the death of Feng Lixiu.

One week later, Liu Junyan had everything arranged and insisted on taking me to Mount Song.

The Buddha Lamp he enshrined in the Dafa King Temple could obviously no longer support my resistance to the birth‑bond spell; he had already told the temple's abbot, and they would perform a salvation rite for me after bringing me there.

Of course, the rite would not be for me, but to liberate the Great Witch dwelling within my soul.

I did not refuse Liu Junyan's arrangement.

First, my situation indeed calls for some measure; whether it works or not, we should act first and talk later.

Another thing is, I have always been deeply curious about the Great Dharma King Temple.

If Liu Junyan really is Liu Xingyi, and is the Dahui Chan Master, then his previous incarnation came out of the Great Dharma King Temple.

I want to go there and have a look; maybe I can find a clue.

·

Mount Song is some distance from River City; driving takes about half a day.

Liu Junyan drove, I sat in the passenger seat, and at first we were chatting.

We chatted and then fell asleep.

As soon as I fell asleep, the Great Witch's chanting voice sounded again.

For the latter half of the journey, I just listened to the Great Witch's chanting.

Mount Song is vast, and the scale of the Great Dharma King Temple is also vast.

The abbot knew Liu Junyan was coming and personally greeted him at the temple gate.

Now the abbot of the Great Dharma King Temple, whose dharma name is Mountain Silence, is a plump, especially kind-looking person.

He first bowed to Liu Junyan, then stared at me for a while.

I don't know if he saw something in me, but he always smiles narrowly and is composed.

He led us into the temple and directly took us to his usual meditation hall where he sits and does his practice.

A novice monk brought clear tea, and we sat facing each other at a tea table, chatting idly.

After a few pleasantries, Liu Junyan told the Empty Silence Abbott everything about my situation.

After listening, the Empty Silence Abbott was not surprised, still smiling narrowly and said: 'A week ago, the Buddha Lamp offered by Xiao Jiu the shopkeeper suddenly burst into a flame flower, and then the lamp oil rapidly decreased; I knew she must have met with an accident.'

Liu Junyan asked: 'Is the rapid decrease of lamp oil an omen?'

The Empty Silence Abbott said: 'You should have all heard of a term called…… lamp oil exhausted, wick withered……'