Chapter 9: Southern Spirit Crane - Strong Luck
"I need to perform a ritual to find your parents' whereabouts. I need a quiet room, a map of the Tang Dynasty (the more detailed the better), and a dish of red ink. Sister Lan, please prepare these for me."
Seeing Ye Jie's confidence, speaking as if it were real, Sister Lan didn't hesitate and immediately had her maid bring what Ye Jie needed to the quiet room. The red ink was of high quality, ground with cinnabar. The map was three feet long and wide, clearly marking every county and every river in the Tang Dynasty.
"We have found everything you want. Can we start now?" Sister Lan asked patiently.
"No rush, the auspicious time has not yet arrived." Ye Jie waved his hand and then began to close his eyes and rest.
Sister Lan wasn't annoyed, but no matter how she looked at it, this second-level ghost messenger didn't seem like someone with extraordinary skills. She was more afraid of having her hopes dashed once again than wasting time.
Not long after, with the sound of small footsteps, Nan Linghe ran into the quiet room, breathlessly. After standing up, he hunched over, put his hands on his hips, and said breathlessly, "Brother Jie, you're looking for me... I, I haven't finished posting the notice yet."
Seeing her approach, Ye Jie suddenly opened his eyes, his eyes gleaming with light. "The auspicious time has arrived! Look at me, I will begin the ritual. All those who are not involved, please step aside for now."
"Let's see what tricks you can play!" Sister Lan snorted and left the quiet room with the maids.
Nan Linghe was stunned, thinking that Ye Jie had other things to do. He was about to leave with the others, but now it was Ye Jie who was panicking: "Hey, don't leave, what can I do if you leave?"
Being pulled to the spot by Ye Jie, Nan Linghe felt a little dizzy: "Jie, Brother Jie, are you going to do something to me?"
"It's not me who did it, it's you who did it." Ye Jie repeated Sister Lan's experience to Nan Linghe, "So, do you want to help her?"
Nan Linghe nodded repeatedly: "Sister Lan is so pitiful. If, if I can reunite her with her parents, I will definitely be willing to help..."
At the end of the conversation, Nan Linghe pouted, her big eyes filled with confusion: "But...but even if I want to help her, I don't know how to do it..."
"You have a first-class talent: a lucky star in your life. As long as you want to help her, you can help her." Ye Jie seemed confident, "Next, you will do whatever I say."
Ye Jie took the cinnabar red ink and said, "Dip your finger in it."
Nan Linghe stretched out a finger and rubbed the red ink with his fingertips, then listened to Ye Jie say: "Close your eyes, no matter what happens next, don't open them."
Nan Linghe closed her eyes, but felt her shoulders sink. Ye Jie held her shoulders and spun her three times like a top.
"Brother Jie, I...I'm going to faint..."
Under Ye Jie's rotation, Nan Linghe, who was already confused, became even more dizzy and really fainted. Ye Jie pushed the map in front of her and let her waving hands touch the map, leaving a little red mark on it.
"You're doing great. You can open your eyes now."
After taking back the map, Ye Jie smiled. No matter what the result was, Nan Linghe had completed her mission.
"Woo..." Nan Linghe, who had recovered, pouted and stared at Ye Jie with his eyes. Although he didn't understand why Brother Jie did this, it would be great if he could help Sister Lan.
"I have finished the ritual, you can come in!" Ye Jie said loudly.
After Sister Lan came in, Ye Jie presented the map with a little red mark on it: "See? Your parents are there."
"What?" Sister Lan was slightly taken aback. Honghen was in an uninhabited desert north of the Wei River, with no village or shop in sight. How could her parents possibly be there? This also made Sister Lan's eyebrows slightly furrowed. "Are you kidding me?"
"That's not my intention. Just follow me and we'll know once we get there." As he spoke, Ye Jie took out the Shrinking Stone and the Green Nether Branch, ready to go with Sister Lan to find out what was going on.
Having said that, Ye Jie was still unsure in his heart. He didn't know whether the lucky star on Nan Linghe would work or not. Now, for the sake of his apprentice, he only had a thousand good karmas left, so he had no choice but to go all out.
As the black stone hit the ground, Ye Jie, Nan Linghe, Sister Lan, and Guazi moved together and arrived at the desert on the map.
As night fell, everything was dark and quiet. Apart from the whistling north wind and the snow scattered all over the sky, there was not even the sound of an insect.
Ye Jie's heart tightened. This was not what he expected. He hurriedly took out a piece of torn paper from his arms.
【Book of Life and Death:】
In the winter of the twelfth year of the Zhenguan reign, the ghost messenger Jie spent five hundred Yin De to investigate the identities of all mortals within a five-li radius.
【No trace of mortals was found within a five-mile radius.】
Ye Jie put down the torn page in his hand in a daze, with a bitter look on his face.
"There's obviously no one here. I knew you were just good at sweet talk..." Sister Lan sighed, feeling extremely disappointed. Beside her, Guazi still had a shrug on his face, his eyes like a dead fish, as if nothing could catch her attention.
"Yeah……"
Ye Jie also let out a long sigh. No one knew what he was thinking, pinning all his hopes on that illusory luck. Now that things had come to this, he could only accept the loss and stay in the wine country to wash dishes and pay off his debts.
Aside, Nan Linghe said apologetically, "Brother Jie... I'm sorry, I disappointed you."
Ye Jie smiled helplessly: "You didn't disappoint me. You've done very well. This is my own choice. I can't blame anyone else. But for the next few years, I will be imprisoned in the wine country to pay off my debts. I'm afraid I won't be able to guide you on how to be a ghost messenger. I just hope you can remember Brother Jie's lesson. Don't think that just because you have the first-class talent of 'Lucky Star Entering Life', you can really win every gamble."
Nan Linghe lowered his head, his eyes filled with frustration and loss. Ye Jie also took out the Shrinking Stone and the Green Nether Branch, ready to send a few people back to the underworld.
However, his movement was stopped by a powerful force. Guazi only released the aura of the fifth level of the Immortal Realm, which made Ye Jie unable to move.
Guazi, whose eyes had been as dull as a dead fish, finally moved his eyes. A cold light that pierced people's hearts burst out from his triangular eyes. He stared straight at Ye Jie and raised a finger, pointing to the darkness in the distance: "There is a family ten miles to the south. The aura of that family is very similar to Yulan's."
"What?"
Yulan was slightly taken aback. The auras were very similar, so didn't that mean...
"What?"
Even Ye Jie was surprised and delighted. He was surprised by Guazi's incredibly wide range of perception, able to detect every move even ten miles away. He was delighted by the fact that, if Guazi's words were true, then the power of the lucky star had worked. With just a faint finger from Nan Linghe, he had found the location of Sister Lan's parents!
The crowd moved again and came to a house ten miles away. Yulan could no longer suppress her inner feelings. She walked past the crowd and floated in through the slightly open window. She saw two old men sleeping at a glance.
"Dad... Mom... I, your unfilial daughter Yulan, have finally found you."
Seeing her loved ones whom she had been thinking about day and night right in front of her, Yulan fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face.
Only after Yulan calmed down a bit did Ye Jie come to her side and said, "It's midnight. Coincidentally, I happened to have two lamps of Yellow Spring Water with me. Let me guide you into your dream so you can meet your loved ones."
Hearing this, Yulan covered her mouth and exclaimed, "Yellow Spring Water loses its effectiveness within a day. Unless a ghost messenger knew in advance that he was going to lure someone into a dream, there's no way he could carry it with him, let alone carry two at once... You happen to have two on you. Could it be... could it be that you were certain that I would gain something from this?"
"Sister Lan, you're worrying too much. This is just a coincidence." Ye Jie answered truthfully. He prepared the two cups of Yellow Spring Water for Xia Xianshou and Xia Wei and Xia Lin. Unexpectedly, Xia Xianshou didn't use them, but gave them to Sister Lan instead.
However, no matter what Ye Jie said, Yulan didn't believe it was a coincidence. How could such a coincidence happen in the world? Finally, she bowed to Ye Jie and said, "I am so lucky to have the help of Brother Jie..."
Ye Jie hurriedly bowed. It was fine for Nan Linghe to call him Brother Jie, but why did Sister Lan also call him Brother Jie? He evaded the question, "I don't deserve it. Sister Lan really flatters me. I just did what I had to do."
Yulan couldn't help but smile and chuckled, "Brother Jie, don't be so modest. Why are you still calling me Sister Lan? That's a bit too distant. My real name is Yulan, and including the ten years I spent in the underworld, I've only lived for thirty years. Unlike Brother Jie, you've been a ghost messenger for sixty years. I naturally deserve the title of Brother Jie."
Ye Jie smiled awkwardly: "So, Yulan, you knew who I was from the beginning."
Yulan nodded slightly. "When I was in the wine country, playing music for the diners, I also heard them talk about how Ghost Messenger Jie hadn't made any progress in sixty years, and how he was the shame of Guangwang Palace and was ranked last..."
"Okay, okay, I understand what you mean." Ye Jie was speechless. He knew without thinking that the ones who were saying bad things about him behind his back must be Gui Chaba's group.
Hearing this, Yulan smiled softly: "But from what I've seen today, Brother Jie is not as bad as they say. On the contrary, he is very stable and reliable, a person worthy of trust."
After the compliments, Ye Jie did not forget his job as a ghost messenger. He took out a cup of Yellow Spring water, asked Yulan to drink a sip, and then poured the rest over the head of the sleeping old man.
The pure and transparent Yellow Spring water seemed to contain some kind of mysterious power. As Ye Jie poured it out, it pulled out a crystal clear glass silk thread in the air. The clear water fell on the old man's face, but it did not moisten his face at all, nor did it wake him up from his deep sleep. Instead, it penetrated his skin and flesh and reached deep into his mind.
Magnolia, who drank the Yellow Spring water, also felt something at this moment. She turned into a colorful stream of light and flowed into the old man's dream along with the falling water.
Ye Jie, who was waiting for Yulan to return from her dream, also relaxed at this moment. He couldn't help but cast his gaze on Nan Linghe beside him. Seeing her eyes wide open, as if savoring the magical and dreamlike scene, he couldn't help but sigh, "I knew that the first-class talent 'Lucky Star Entering Life' would work wonders! This time, I can be said to have benefited from you, my lucky star."
Nan Linghe smiled shyly after receiving Ye Jie's praise. She was also sincerely happy to be able to help the poor Sister Lan.
Soon, Magnolia floated out of the old man's dream, with tears flickering in her crystal clear eyes, like the mist in the morning light, telling of the waves in her heart.
Ye Jie stepped forward again and used the same method to lead Yulan into the dream of the sleeping old woman.
While waiting, Ye Jie accidentally caught a glimpse of Guazi, who had a look of despair on her face, and found that she had been staring at him from beginning to end. Even when he paced left and right, her gaze was always with him like a shadow.
Ye Jie was now puzzled. Being targeted by a fifth-level immortal realm being, he didn't know whether it was a blessing or a curse.
A cup of tea later, Yulan returned from the old woman's dream, with traces of tears on her face. Her white upper teeth were tightly biting her thin lower lip, as if she had reached her limit and could no longer suppress her inner emotions.
"Let's go back to the underworld." Yulan tilted her head slightly and wiped her tears with her hand.
Ye Jie did as he was told. As the sound of the black stone hitting the ground spread, everyone's figures disappeared.
Not until everyone's figures completely disappeared did the old man and the old woman who were sleeping soundly on the kang finally wake up. They looked at each other and saw tears in each other's eyes.
"I seem to... dream about my daughter who died young..."
"Me too... She must have been worried about us and came back to see us."
The two hugged each other and cried, holding each other's heads and crying bitterly. In the midst of their sadness, there was an unspeakable emotion.
Returning to the magnificent Aunt Meng Winery, Yulan's expression improved. The knot that had been lingering in her heart for nearly ten years was resolved. She also looked much more cheerful. She leaned over and smiled at Ye Jie:
"Brother Jie, thanks to you, I was able to fulfill this wish. Now my mind is as clear as a mirror. Even the bottleneck of the second level that I couldn't break through in my lifetime has shown signs of loosening. In a few days, I will be able to break through to the third level."
Ye Jie clasped his fists and congratulated: "Then I would like to congratulate you in advance. Since your wish has been fulfilled, Yulan, as for the reward..."
Yulan raised her finger, covering her lips with a smile. "Of course I won't treat Brother Jie unfairly. Ten thousand Yin De can only be exchanged for a mid-grade human-level technique in the underworld. The best technique in my collection is a low-grade earth-level technique. I wonder if it will satisfy Brother Jie?"
"Satisfied, satisfied..." Ye Jie was overjoyed. A low-grade local martial arts technique would require at least 200,000 good deeds to obtain in the underworld. This reward was far beyond Ye Jie's expectations.
As the saying goes, "If you give a peach, you should get a plum in return." Yulan saw all the help Ye Jie gave her along the way. In return for Ye Jie helping her resolve the depression in her heart, Yulan also gave her the best reward.
Taking the lower-grade local technique from Yulan's hand, Ye Jie was slightly stunned by the name of the technique. "Elephant Turtle Hand... Is this a technique for the way of the Earth Immortal?"
Yulan nodded slightly. "That's right. I played a piece of music for a ghost messenger from the Western Beast Hall who came to exchange ideas. It won the whole room's applause. This lower-grade local-grade elephant tortoise hand was a reward from a ghost messenger from the Beast Hall. I specialize in the way of the immortals, so this technique isn't very useful to me, but it's certainly the highest-grade technique I possess. If Brother Jie isn't satisfied, the rest of my techniques are yours to choose from."
Ye Jie thought for a moment, then took back the tortoise hand and said, "Ghost Jie, I would like to thank you. It's getting late, so I'll go ahead."
"Don't forget to come to Aunt Meng's Winery often and listen to my music."
Yulan waved goodbye, the corners of her mouth slightly raised, revealing her neat, white teeth. Her smile was like a spring breeze, warming people's hearts. She stared at Ye Jie's departing back, as if she wanted to carve his figure into the depths of her eyes.
In response to Sister Lan's instructions, Ye Jie coughed dryly. Only a ghost would listen to a song of eight thousand eight hundred good deeds.
"Brother Jie, what should we do now..." After leaving, Nan Linghe blinked and said a little at a loss.
"Go and post the notice. If everything goes well, in a few days, you will be able to become an official ghost messenger like me." Ye Jie smiled at her.
After Ye Jie and the others left, Yulan, overjoyed at having fulfilled her wish, couldn't help but hum a ballad. She glanced at Guazi beside her and said, "Do you think Brother Jie is the destined person Aunt Meng has been looking for?"
"He's just lucky. If there's anyone with special abilities, it's the first-level wandering soul next to him."
Guazi shrugged and said that no matter how thick the walls of the quiet room were, they could not block her perception ability as a fifth-level immortal realm cultivator. Even through the wall, she knew what Ye Jie's so-called "method" was.
What astonished Guazi was that this seemingly random "method" actually helped Yulan find her long-lost parents. How could such good luck happen in the world? It must be that the first-level wandering soul possessed extremely special innate magical powers.
However, Yulan didn't think so. "If that's the case, why didn't that first-level wandering soul come to me, but Brother Jie? Everything must have its own destiny. I need to report this matter to Aunt Meng and let her make the decision personally."
Thinking of Ye Jie's embarrassment when he left, Yulan smiled slightly. That second-level ghost messenger really left a good impression on her.