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After dinner, Ma Rulong called me to help move a pile of jars out of the temple. These jars were quite ordinary, but some were heavy while others were light. I asked him what was inside. Ma Rulong replied, "Some contain ashes, while others just hold spirits, so there are both light and heavy ones. You need to be careful; if you break one, I'll have to go through the trouble of catching it."
I was startled; it turned out these were urns for ashes—what a bad omen!
Following Ma Rulong's instructions, I placed the jars in an empty space at the temple entrance. He had already set up a table there with an incense burner, offerings, paper talismans, and yellow cloth among other items. Then he took out many sky lanterns, placing one next to each jar. After we finished, it was almost midnight. Ma Rulong asked whether I wanted to watch from outside or go back inside the temple.
I asked what the difference was. He said it looked more spectacular from outside but felt safer inside. In the past, when lighting the lanterns, there had been instances of evil spirits causing disturbances that made the soul lanterns fall. These lanterns were oil-lit, and if one fell on your head, it could easily catch fire. Hearing this made me a bit scared, so I decided to go back inside.
He chuckled and waited until I stepped into the room before starting his ritual. Qin Senior Sister saw Ma Rulong dressed in a Daoist robe, wielding a peach wood sword and performing his incantations. It was dark and windy; seeing such a plump man doing something so mystical while surrounded by so many urns was quite unsettling. Qin Senior Sister felt uneasy and asked if we could close the door. I came here to see the soul lanterns; closing the door didn’t make sense, so I lied and said we couldn’t close it or else the spiritual energy in the temple would be affected.
Outside, Fat Daoist Ma Rulong danced with his sword and began scattering glutinous rice and paper talismans from the table. As he sprinkled them, he shouted loudly: "The heavens are vast, the earth is boundless; Taishang Laojun reveals his divine power. Today we send off spirits on their journey, opening the underworld and walking the path of darkness. May the five deities escort them swiftly!"
In the mountains, a wind began to rise out of nowhere. I sensed waves of Yin Qi lingering outside the temple. Ma Rulong took out a compass and tapped each jar with his peach wood sword, saying: "Send you all to reincarnation; hurry up and enter the soul lantern!"
After finishing with the urns, he put away the compass and unfolded a sky lantern from the ground, igniting its wick. The rising heat filled the lantern cover more and more until soon one by one they swayed upward into the sky. After the last lantern rose, Ma Rulong took out the compass again, pointed it toward the sky, and shouted: "I guide you on your path; do not stray; go!"
A surge of Yin Qi burst forth from the compass, swirling around all the sky lanterns before shooting off in a certain direction. However, halfway through its journey, this Yin Qi suddenly twisted in mid-air and turned back toward the temple. In an instant, it entered the room just as Zheng Xuejie let out a panicked scream. I heard her cry: "No! I don't want to die! Qin Yue, save me!"
It was the first time Zheng Xuejie had called Qin Senior Sister's name after so many days; without hesitation, she rushed to her bedside and anxiously asked: "What’s wrong? Where do you feel uncomfortable?"
Qin Senior Sister couldn’t sense Yin Qi, but I understood what was happening and quickly called for Ma Rulong. The Fat Daoist also noticed something was off; above us, the sky lanterns were all askew and hadn’t formed a proper line. He rushed into the room and asked: "What happened? What’s going on?"
I said: "Zheng Xuejie seems to be in trouble!"
Ma Rulong ran over in a few quick steps, glanced at Zheng Xuejie, then looked at the compass in his hand. Annoyed, he slapped it down and said, "What the hell is going on? You’re dragging a living person here, are you out of your mind?"
Zheng Xuejie screamed louder and suddenly, with a fierce expression, said, "Let’s go! If you don’t leave, how can I stay!"
Immediately after, she switched to a terrified look and shouted, "I don’t want to! I want to live; I don’t want to die!"
Her expressions changed rapidly, leaving onlookers confused. Qin Senior Sister shouted at me, "Shen Yi, come and take a look at her!"
I had never encountered such a situation before and didn’t know what to do, so I could only push Ma Rulong forward. The Fat Daoist observed for a moment and suddenly seemed to understand something. He urged me to quickly bring the copper mirror from the table. I complied, and Ma Rulong took the mirror and held it up to Zheng Xuejie. With the light in the room, I saw two faces of Zheng Xuejie in the mirror.
One was filled with panic, while the other was fierce and malicious. They were entangled with each other; the former swayed and began to blur as if it was about to disappear. Ma Rulong immediately threw aside the copper mirror, bit his fingertip, smeared it on the compass, and said, "Quickly guide us; we don’t need you here!"
The Yin Qi that lingered around Zheng Xuejie hesitated for a moment before leaving the temple and returning to the sky. I glanced outside; the Sky Lanterns began to arrange themselves orderly, one by one drifting away with the wind. At that moment, the Fat Daoist asked Qin Senior Sister, "Are you still a virgin?"
Qin Senior Sister was taken aback for a moment, then her face turned bright red as she replied, "Why are you asking this at a time like this?"
Ma Rulong said, "Her soul is separated; we need pure female blood to draw the talisman."
Upon hearing this, Qin Senior Sister immediately nodded but didn’t have the courage to say it out loud. Ma Rulong didn’t say much either; he quickly ran to a corner table and grabbed several sheets of blank talisman paper. Then he took Qin Senior Sister's hand and bit into it. As she cried out in pain, he had already begun drawing symbols with her blood. It was a chaotic mess of lines that resembled some kind of special script. Once he finished drawing on one sheet of talisman paper, Ma Rulong placed it on Zheng Xuejie’s forehead while tearing up the others into a ball and stuffing them into her mouth, nose, and ears.
Zheng Xuejie was bound up and unable to breathe due to the talisman paper blocking her nostrils; her face quickly turned bright red. Seeing that the Fat Daoist wasn’t taking further action, Qin Senior Sister grew anxious and asked, "What else do we need to do? Hurry up; she’s going to suffocate!"
Ma Rulong looked at the compass in his hand and then at the Sky Lanterns that hadn’t completely disappeared yet outside. He muttered, "Why is this taking so long..."
After a minute passed, just as Zheng Xuejie was about to roll her eyes from lack of air, the Sky Lanterns finally vanished completely from the sky. Ma Rulong's expression brightened; he quickly patted the compass and said, "Good treasure, quickly help her calm her spirit!"
Yin Qi rushed back from outside and entered the compass, then fell silent. Ma Rulong shouted a few times, then angrily cursed, "Greedy thing, all you know is to eat, eat, eat. Can't you do your job first?"
Although he said that, he bit the wound on his fingertip again, letting the blood smear onto the compass. Only then did Yin Qi leisurely emerge, circling around Zheng Xuejie continuously. Ma Rulong took out some talisman papers and pressed the compass against Zheng Xuejie's forehead. After a while, when her breathing gradually stabilized and she stopped struggling or shouting, he let out a sigh of relief.
Seeing him put down the compass and feeling that Yin Qi had left Zheng Xuejie, I knew the situation had been resolved and quickly asked what had happened.
Ma Rulong shot me a glare and said, "Why didn't you tell me she has dual souls?"
Dual souls? I had never even heard of such a thing; how was I supposed to tell you!
Then, under Ma Rulong's explanation, we learned why Zheng Xuejie had suddenly acted strangely earlier.
It turned out that in addition to the soul controlling her body, there was another dormant spirit within her. Normally, this spirit would not awaken, but just now when the Soul Lantern ascended, the guiding compass detected the sleeping soul within Zheng Xuejie and mistakenly thought it was another spirit to be sent away. This caused a conflict between the two souls, leading to them fighting within her body, which resulted in Zheng Xuejie's expressions changing constantly.
I was astonished to hear that a person could have two souls existing simultaneously within their body. Ma Rulong said, "This situation is rare but not unheard of. You should have told me earlier; it could have caused a big problem. If I hadn't arrived in time, once her soul left her body, it would have been very difficult for it to return."
I replied that I had no idea there was another spirit within Zheng Xuejie; judging by Qin Senior Sister's expression, she probably didn't know either. After pondering for a moment, Ma Rulong suddenly said, "Perhaps this is why her personality changed so drastically!"
"What do you mean?" I asked in confusion.
Ma Rulong explained, "It's simple. She has two souls; the one you first met is the first one. Later on, her second soul took over her body, causing the first soul to fall into dormancy, which is why she became unrecognizable."
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