"Knock, knock, knock." As the knocking on the door faded, the rickety door in front of them opened. It was Lu Xia, Lu Anguo's son. He looked about the same age as Duan Qinghuai.
Seeing the door open, Lu Anguo staggered inside and plopped down on the sofa, not moving a muscle.
As soon as the door opened, a pungent smell of rotting corpses hit their noses. But seeing that they were all used to it, Ning Yitao silently followed him in as if nothing had happened.
"Qinghuai, you're here. Just in time. Come and have breakfast," a kind - faced woman said with a smile as she walked out with a spatula in her hand.
She should be Lu Anguo's wife. After noticing Ning Yitao, she even joked that she thought Duan Qinghuai had brought his girlfriend to introduce to them.
After Ning Yitao explained her purpose, the room fell silent. Everyone had their own thoughts, but they were all reluctant to bear the pain of separating from their loved ones again.
Heaven is impartial and treats all things as straw dogs. The Heavenly Dao is without partiality or emotion, but the Human Dao is full of selfish desires and feelings. Even though Lu Anguo had become like this, in the eyes of his close ones, they were still selfishly reluctant to let him disappear.
Although the woman didn't say a word, her tears couldn't stop flowing.
Looking at the solemn - faced people in front of her, Ning Yitao still spoke up and gave them some advice.
"The way he exists now is consuming his own soul. Although he has Duan Qinghuai's help for now, it won't last long.
It's not a good thing for him to be able to talk and have the five senses. He has to endure the pain of his soul breaking apart every day. Having emotions is even worse for him. He'd rather stay with you for a while longer, even if it means vanishing into thin air.
You've been getting along with him day and night, so you must have noticed that his body has been rotting and his movements have become stiffer and stiffer.
If his soul is reduced to a certain extent, I won't be able to help him either, and he'll have to disappear from this world."
After hearing this, Lu Anguo's wife, Xu Hong, couldn't help covering her face and crying out. The Heavenly Dao allows you to survive in another form, but it will surely take a corresponding price from you.
Duan Qinghuai and Lu Xia's expressions were also far from relaxed. After hearing this, even though they were reluctant, they knew what to choose. In the end, they decided to let him reincarnate.
Lu Xia kept hugging his mother to comfort her. Even though he was very reluctant, he was even more reluctant to see the one he loved suffer.
Just then, the bag of things they had bought came in handy. Ning Yitao picked up the bag and asked Lu Xia to clear out Lu Anguo's bedroom to set up the formation.
"Don't come in until later," Ning Yitao said, then went in alone and closed the door.
"Are you really going to help him? We don't have to go to so much trouble for a Chosen One. It's not that easy for you to help someone transcend with your current physical condition. You might easily go mad if you're not careful," Zhao Cai said, his voice filled with deep concern.
Zhao Cai knew very well that Ning Yitao, who now had very weak spiritual power, could only rely on entering Lu Anguo's sea of consciousness and reaching an agreement with him to be transcended and reincarnated.
But the most dangerous thing was entering someone else's sea of consciousness. If Lu Anguo disagreed and suddenly attacked, Ning Yitao, who was inside his sea of consciousness, would have nowhere to escape and would have to endure the pain of soul damage.
But after thinking for a long time, Ning Yitao still reached into the bag and took out the things one by one, started to arrange them, and said,
"For now, we still have to seize this opportunity to gain Duan Qinghuai's trust. You know, it's very difficult to find such pure energy and merits as his in this world.
This risk is worth taking." Ning Yitao's eyes were full of an unfathomable light.
The rest of the time was left for them to say their goodbyes. The atmosphere in the living room suddenly became heavy, mixed with sobs. Duan Qinghuai stood aside, looking out of place.
For their family, apart from Lu Anguo, the other two were more grateful to him than having a deep family bond. A trace of loneliness flashed across Duan Qinghuai's eyes.
After all, he was still alone.
Inside the room, Ning Yitao took out the yellow paper and put it in the small tripod furnace she had bought. She used the fire conjured by Zhao Cai to heat the furnace until the paper burned to ashes. Then she spread out the clothes of Lu Anguo that she had just asked for on the ground and poured the ashes from the furnace onto the clothes.
She cut a long strip from the clothes and then cut off a corner and threw it into the air. The clothes actually caught fire by themselves, and a wisp of black smoke with the burned ashes slowly drifted towards the position of the furnace, paving the way for him in the Underworld in advance.
Ning Yitao then took out a writing brush, dipped it in the pile of mixed ashes, and when she started to draw the formation on the floor, surprisingly, the ink was white.
Ning Yitao wrote like a dragon and snake, finishing the formation in one go without a single break. The formation was as big as a bed. From a distance, one could vaguely see the outline of the Bagua formation. When the formation was drawn, the ashes disappeared on their own.
Ning Yitao stood up and clapped her hands. Zhao Cai obediently stayed at the eye of the formation to guard it. She opened the door and asked them to help Lu Anguo sit in the formation. The others were asked to go out and wait. "No matter what happens, don't open this door," Ning Yitao told the people in front of her. Only after getting the answer she wanted did she close the door with confidence.
Lu Anguo, sitting blankly in the formation, still kept a strange smile on his face as he looked at Ning Yitao. She tied the long strip of cloth she had just cut from the clothes over his eyes and sat down opposite him. Ning Yitao nodded at Zhao Cai. The next second, the whole room was filled with white light, but it dimmed in an instant.
At this moment, the environment around Ning Yitao changed rapidly. In the blink of an eye, she was in a hospital. It should have been autumn, but the sky was a deep blue, and the sun hung like a fiery ball in the sky. At noon, there was not a single cloud in the sky and not a breath of wind. All the trees stood there listlessly and lazily.
Ning Yitao, wearing a thick coat, didn't feel the heat. She was just experiencing the most memorable moments of Lu Anguo's life in the state of a soul. The people around her couldn't see her, except for Lu Anguo.
And in her soul form, Ning Yitao naturally returned to her former appearance. Looking at her reflection in the glass, Ning Yitao was a little absent - minded. She hadn't seen herself like this for a long time.
The summer rain always came down in torrents. People began to scatter everywhere to take shelter. Ning Yitao slowly walked towards Lu Anguo's funeral parlor.
Just as she was halfway there, a little boy suddenly rushed over in the rain, running forward with his head down. He quickly passed Ning Yitao.
Ning Yitao frowned slightly. "Are today's kids so reckless?"
When Ning Yitao reached the funeral parlor, she found that the little boy was actually Duan Qinghuai.
She watched as Lu Anguo lovingly hugged the frightened little Duan Qinghuai in his arms and comforted him softly.
The young Duan Qinghuai pursed his lips. Although he tried his best not to cry, tears kept streaming down his face. And there was a group of bullying kids following behind little Duan Qinghuai. So that's why he had run so fast just now, to avoid these kids.
Ning Yitao was still wondering when the scene in front of her began to slowly change, just like a movie playing continuously.
As time passed, Ning Yitao found that there was only Lu Anguo around Duan Qinghuai. There were no kids of his age to play with him. In fact, in all these years, even the figure of his elder brother was rarely seen.
The scene changed, and finally, from Lu Anguo's perspective, she found out why he had no playmates.
When some little devils were bullying other kids, he summoned up his courage and ran over to drive them away. But that kid called him a freak and said that he had caused the death of his parents. There was a leader among the kids who led the others to isolate and bully Duan Qinghuai.
Duan Qinghuai had clearly helped that kid to prevent the little devils from possessing him, but that kid led the other kids to bully him instead.
The little Duan Qinghuai's eyes were full of panic and helplessness. He opened his mouth to explain, but was scolded even more severely. Human nature is inherently evil. Duan Qinghuai felt deeply powerless. He lowered his head dejectedly and gave up explaining. He even began to doubt himself from that day on, wondering if he really was a freak, if he really had caused the death of his parents and made himself different from others.
The little Duan Qinghuai curled himself up, covering his head, and was surrounded by a group of kids in the corner, being pelted with stones. He was covered in mud. It was too much. Ning Yitao's eyebrows and eyes turned a bit colder.
Just then, Lu Anguo noticed. He drove away those kids, pulled little Duan Qinghuai up from the corner, and comforted him gently. It was Lu Anguo who made him realize that he was not wrong, that he shouldn't allow others to bully him, and that he should make himself stronger.
Following Lu Anguo's perspective, Ning Yitao basically saw Duan Qinghuai's growth trajectory. From Lu Anguo's perspective, she watched as Duan Qinghuai grew up bit by bit, got taller, and secretly called Lu Anguo "Dad". Undoubtedly, Lu Anguo was Duan Qinghuai's spiritual pillar.
And in Lu Anguo's heart, Duan Qinghuai was his own child. In his world, there were his beloved wife and his sensible children. By choosing to show these to Ning Yitao, he was silently refusing her. He didn't want to leave his family.