Shen Lian was not bothered by that – how there were no living creatures around. He was troubled by the white lantern, as he could feel the pull of his spirit toward it.
The connection between his physical body and spirit gradually weakened, which made Shen Lian notice his own shortcomings. No doubt, the lack of harmony between the physical body and the spirit made it easy to have an out-of-body experience and to master supernatural Daoist powers such as the Deity Vanquishing Sword, but it was also a huge downside for him.
If his spirit and his soul were more compatible to each other, it would not be so easy to pull his spirit out of his body.
At that moment, the sandalwood sword on his waist glowed. It created a canceling force that acted against the pull of the white lantern.
Shen Lian remembered the remark made by Mister Su that he had mastered the way of forging alchemy.
The sandalwood sword became an instrument that was exclusive to Shen Lian, but it did not have any special power.
The sandalwood sword was akin to Shen Lian’s blood and flesh, and could contain his spirit. The bond shared by the sandalwood sword and his spirit was stronger than that shared by his body and his spirit.
The sandalwood sword was a blank paper, and Shen Lian made his mark on it when he was cultivating Being and Non-Being of Sword Aura. The sandalwood sword had since became a part of Shen Lian.
The boat drifted along the current, and it was closing into Shen Lian. As the distance got closer, the pull of the white lantern got stronger.
The sandalwood sword vibrated at Shen Lian’s waist. For a couple of times, it almost flew off along with Shen Lian.
The person in white was singing the elegy for the dead and did not notice Shen Lian. The motion of shaking the white lantern was merely mechanical; the sparse dots of spirit flame were stolen and trapped into the white lantern.
When the boat got closer, Shen Lian realized why it was white – it was a paper boat.
Under the pale moonlight and the lonely lamp, Shen Lian noticed that the person in white did not have a nose, ears, eyes, or even legs.
Shen Lian and the person in white were almost at their closest, and if Shen Lian managed to get past, the person in white would drift away from him. However, if he did not manage to get past, he would be pulled into the white lantern like all the other spirit flames.
The sad elegy was sung in a language unknown to Shen Lian.
For a few times, Shen Lian tried to think of the statue of the innate deity as a countermeasure. However, the singing interrupted him.
The pull from the white lantern got stronger, and Shen Lian felt that he was at his limit.
He focused on the last bit of connection his spirit had with the sandalwood sword.
The sandalwood sword floated in mid-air and carried Shen Lian’s spirit. It flew toward the white lantern. During its journey, it drew a certain abstruse track in the air. The track was strangely similar to that of the Being and Non-Being of Sword Aura.
Shen Lian was about to use his spirit as sword aura as his ultimate move.
Only those like Shen Lian who had never gone through proper cultivation would make such a bold and risky move. He hoped that by turning his spirit into a sword, amidst the disappearance in Being and Non-Being of Sword Aura, he could dodge the attraction of the white lantern.
He was not sure about the consequences. He did not know where Being and Non-Being of Sword Aura would disappear, and he was unaware of what would happen during the period of disappearance.
He was not even sure if the disappearance would take place. Contrasting to his usual sword aura made from inner Qi, he was using his spirit as sword this time around.
All of a sudden, Shen Lian heard a familiar bell ringing.
That was the bell on the lady in purple.
The water ceased to flow, and space froze itself. Shen Lian almost lost awareness of his existence.
By the time he came back to his sense, the breeze was cooling and the moon was clear. The paper boat, lamp, white lantern, and the mysterious person in white were nowhere to be found.
His sandalwood sword fell in front of him and had wet patches on it.
Gingerly, he reached for his sword. His hand came into contact with the wet patches, and a gust of green smoke emerged from his hand. He felt bouts of intense pain.
The pain came from his spirit. His spirit was melted slightly by the water on the sandalwood sword, which explained the pain.
All these while, he did not touch the water in the river. He found it scary that it could actually melt one’s spirit.
It was only when the wind dried up the wet patches that Shen Lian touched the sandalwood sword again. The soul-melting incident did not repeat itself, and Shen Lian could finally rest easy.
However, he noticed that the sandalwood sword was heavier and darker.
The only thing that remained the same was his connection to the sword.
The feeling that the sword was part of his blood and flesh came to him when he held the sword in his hand.
After the incident, Shen Lian did not walk along the river anymore. He distanced himself from the river and increased his pace.
He had always been a cautious person. He knew that he should have stayed away from the river when he realized that something was odd. He should not have continued walking along the river and should have refrained from meditating next to the river at night
However, he overlooked all of these. It was as though the river had some sort of magical power that numbed his senses, causing him to overlook the danger.
After distancing himself from the river, Shen Lian headed toward the south hurriedly. Before the sunset of the next day, he saw a steep cliff.
The sword marks on the cliff were fine and delicate, as though a powerful and mythical sword had left its mark here.
The impact he felt was not something that could be put into words. It was something that one had to experience for oneself.
It was unclear if this was a work of human, celestial, or nature. At the top of the cliff, there was nothing but a lonely human shadow.
The purple clothes wrapped against her body. Her hair danced in the wind as the wind blew at her. A strand of her hair got caught in the perfect curvature of her lips.
‘Is she a human, a ghost, or a celestial? Or could she be a monster that took on the shape of a human?’ Shen Lian thought.
He could feel the lady sizing him up, but no one said anything.
It would take great skills to send one’s voice down all the way from the top of the cliff.
Shen Lian knew that he did not have the skills for it, even though back in the mortal world, his martial arts skills were considered to have reached the state of sublimity.
When he least expected it, the lady spoke. He was sure that she was speaking to him from the top of the cliff.
Even with the great distance between them, he could feel her staring at him.
This might be a moment that he could never forget – under the setting sun, a beautiful lady who stood on the cliff was staring at him. Her gaze was pure, and there were no impurities in it.
Of course, what was even more unexpected was the content of the conversation.
“Whose child are you? Why did you go to the River of Spirits? Didn’t your parents tell you that you should stay away from it?” Shen Lian was a young man, yet the lady who looked around his age addressed him as a child.
He would never have thought how natural she could make it sound like.
“Wait a minute, are you not from Nanke Town? How would you know the Shenzu Scripture? Oh, it is that time of the year, my apprentice-nephew did not bother to inform me about the opening of the gate,” she spoke clearly.
Shen Lian could sense a hint of anger from her last sentence. Since she pointed out the fact that Shen Lian knew Shenzu Scripture, it showed that she was definitely related to Qing Xuan.