Lanke Chess Edge

Chapter 406: The Mystery of Reincarnation

Song Shichang entered Ju’an Pavilion and subconsciously glanced at the well in the courtyard. He couldn’t help but recall the evil spirit that had once dwelled in the well, before he turned to look at the trunk of the jujube tree in the courtyard.“This jujube tree is surrounded by spiritual energy and wind all year round, and it can also cleanse impurities. Your Ju’an Pavilion is truly extraordinary, sir.”

Ji Yuan closed the courtyard gate and answered with a smile.

“It is this jujube tree that is extraordinary, not my humble Ju’an Pavilion. Old City God, please sit down. Let us drink together with the stars and moon.”

“Haha, Mr. Ji’s invitation is an honor I cannot refuse!”

Song Shichang stood in front of the stone table, waiting for Ji Yuan to close the door and return, before naturally sitting down at the table with him. Ji Yuan had already set out wine cups for Song Shichang and poured him a cup of fragrant Shaoxing wine.

“Please do not hold back, City God Song!”

“Cheers, Mr. Ji!”

After sharing a drink, Song Shichang’s slight nervousness disappeared. Ji Yuan was still the same as ever; it was Song Shichang who had become a little preoccupied by reputation.

“Ning’an County has been peaceful for decades. In addition to the stability in the mortal world, the care of the underworld is also crucial. The Old City God made great contributions as well.”

“Not at all. Neither yang nor yin can grow alone; they have always complemented each other.”

The Old City God modestly replied, picking up a piece of pastry to taste.

Ji Yuan wasn’t quite sure why the Old City God had come to visit today. After all, he wasn’t an ordinary person, and his concept of time was different. It wouldn’t matter if they hadn’t seen each other for ten or twenty years. But he wasn’t in a hurry; the deity would eventually explain his purpose. Maybe he really was just casually visiting.

The two chatted casually for a few minutes. Song Shichang talked about the smaller changes in Ning’an County, while Ji Yuan picked out some of casual observations to recount.

Before he knew it, it was almost midnight. Song Shichang looked up at the sky and could vaguely feel the power of the stars descending upon him. In a daze, he even felt a few points of starlight surrounding Ji Yuan, but upon closer inspection with his supernatural vision, he could see nothing special about them.

“Mr. Ji, Ning’an County is a remote corner of land. As the city god of the county, I, Song, have a narrow vision and limited knowledge. I know very little about the vastness of the world and have only seen a small part of its splendor. You are the most powerful person I know.”

Ji Yuan did not refute this statement; there was no need for modesty, because it was indeed the truth.

“The reason I’ve come here, Mr. Ji, is actually to ask you a question.”

“Please speak, City God Song.”

“Hmm!”

Song Shichang nodded and slowly began to speak.

“I, Song Shichang, have been the City God of Ning’an County for quite some time. I was fortunate enough to survive the fall of the previous dynasty, and it has been more than three hundred years since then. Although my cultivation is shallow, I am content with what I have and happy. Protecting the Yin and Yang of Ning’an County is my duty.”

“Your Excellency City God is truly virtuous!”

Ji Yuan cupped his hands in a gesture of respect. Song Shichang did not dare to accept the gesture,and immediately returned it in kind.

“Sir, you flatter me. This my duty as the City God. I am not saying this to boast of my abilities, but rather to give context to the years. Over the past few hundred years as the City God, I have witnessed countless lives and deaths, and the dissipation of countless ghosts. Gradually, I have also developed some doubts in my heart.”

Seeing Ji Yuan’s increasingly serious expression, Song Shichang organized his thoughts and continued.

“When ordinary people die, they enter the underworld. If they have family members who can offer sacrifices, they can live out their remaining lifespan comfortably in the underworld. If they have no family members to take care of them, it would be a bit desolate. But unless there are special circumstances, their souls will eventually dissipate. When their lifespan in the underworld ends, their spirit dissipates first, and then their three souls separate. The human soul is annihilated, while the earthly soul and the heavenly soul respectively enter the earth and ascend to heaven, disappearing into the world.”

“Mhm.”

Ji Yuan nodded in agreement to show that he was listening, but he was listening more attentively than he let on. In terms of this kind of specialized knowledge, City God Song Shichang was definitely more knowledgeable than him.

Instead of asking the question directly, Song Shichang carefully recounted the stories of some representative souls recorded in the underworld over the years as examples to Ji Yuan.

Among them were evil people, good people, and ordinary people, and even quite a few ghost soldiers and officials who ultimately could not survive in the yin world for long.

This was the first time that Ji Yuan had talked in such detail with a ghost god about the fate of ordinary souls in the underworld. Although people had died, the underworld was still a society, and they still depended on the mortal world to function, even though their final destination was still the same.

The deity had spoken at length, but Ji Yuan showed no impatience whatsoever. After listening for a while, he could even vaguely sense the question the Old City God wanted to ask.

“When the soul disappears, it’s like a lamp going out. When the human soul dies, the earthy and heavenly souls are inherently disconnected, so it tis normal for them to ascend to Heaven and descend into the earth. However, I have discovered by chance that at certain moments, the heavenly soul can also carry the remnants of a human soul along with it!”

Ji Yuan sat upright and interrupted him for the very first time.

“May I ask, Old City God, how many times have you witnessed such a thing?”

Song Shichang recalled for a moment and said.

“Such things are extremely rare. Since I accidentally discovered it more than two hundred years ago, I have been paying attention to the dissipation of ghosts in the underworld. After seeing it again, I sent two officials to be stationed in the Ghost City specifically to monitor this matter. Including the first time, there have been seven such instances in over two hundred years. Of course, we dare not claim not to have missed any.”

“Seven times.”

Ji Yuan frowned in thought. Over two hundred years, countless people and ghosts must have died. With such a massive number of cases, for there to only have been seven cases observed under the deliberate scrutiny of the underworld meant that this phenomenon was indeed extremely rare.

“Actually, that’s not all.”

Song Shichang sipped the wine in his cup again, the alcohol absorbing the moisture in the air and dissipating as if it had been drunk, before he continued to speak.

“About six years ago, I met someone at the City God Temple.”

“A cultivator?”

Hearing Ji Yuan’s question, Song Shichang shook his head in response.

“No, he was just an ordinary person, a shrewd merchant seeking his own wealth. He was nothing special in and of himself, but this individual’s soul bore a striking resemblance to that of a special case whose soul vanished decades ago…”

Song Shichang paused for a moment and looked at Ji Yuan, who had already guessed it.

As expected, what Song Shichang said next was exactly what Ji Yuan had predicted.

“They are eight or nine parts similar; rather, if it weren’t for the age difference, they would possibly be perfectly identical!”

People had both a face and a soul. The former could be disguised and changed, and children might inherit their father’s appearance, so it would not be surprising for them to resemble each other. However, the soul was unique, and it was one of the methods ghosts and gods used to judge people, somewhat similar to the art of observing aura, but without the predictive deductions and analysis.

Song Shichang recalled his initial shock, but seeing no great surprise in Ji Yuan’s expression, he paused slightly, thinking that perhaps Mr. Ji truly did already know.

“Back then, the merchant stayed at an inn in the county town. To verify my suspicions, I even appeared in his dream that night to confirm that he was not related to the dead man from back then, but was instead a person from the capital who had come to my Ning’an County to collect documents. But this ghostly appearance… This matter shocked me greatly. I also took the opportunity to ask the Great City God of Desheng Prefecture, but he didn’t know either.”

Song Shichang looked at Ji Yuan, who had been listening quietly without showing much surprise.

“Mr. Ji is a man of great supernatural powers. When you woke up from your dream all those years ago, unaware of the passage of time… could you please enlighten me on what happened?”

There was no such thing as reincarnation in this world, but this speculation was not without a certain basis in reality. In fact, it was possible for those with profound cultivation to do such things, but it was extremely difficult and dangerous even for them, let alone for ordinary ghosts.

So Ji Yuan wasn’t as calm as he seemed on the surface. It’s just that he’d heard so much about reincarnation and the like in his previous life, so he had some resistance to the sudden surprise topic.

After thinking it over and considering it carefully, Ji Yuan finally spoke.

“I wonder if Old City God Song has ever heard of the two types of water-travel among dragons?”

“Water-travel? Two types?”

Song Shichang frowned.

“If a dragon or flood dragon cultivates to the point of transforming into a true dragon, it will choose the right waterway at the right time, taking advantage of the favorable weather and terrain to stir up storms and travel by water. This is called water-travel. The other method I am not aware of.”

“Hmm, that’s true. The other method is considered a secret among the dragon race, but of course, this is not a secret that absolutely must be kept.”

Ji Yuan smiled and explained.

“In fact, when a dragon is about to die, most would not want their dragon souls to become ghosts. The vast majority of dragons and flood dragons would choose to perform a final water-travel technique, the last of their lives, dissolving their essence and vital energy before departing…”

Ji Yuan combined his experience witnessing the black flood dragon returning his essence to the river with the Old Dragon,and recounted the whole story to Song Shichang. The latter looked enlightened.

“Therefore, if a dragon is really fortunate and talented, it is still possible for it to reappear in the future. Although its body may be different, it will retain its original personality and most of its memories, which can be considered a kind of reincarnation.”

“Reincarnation, reincarnation…”

Song Shichang repeated the new term twice, while Ji Yuan continued.

“In fact, those with high cultivation levels may also have even more heinous methods. I will not speculate on the immortal cultivators for now, but some demons are skilled at this. They call it ‘bewitching the mind and becoming a demon,’ but in fact only in some cases does this name apply. As for other cases… it should actually be called ‘possession’.”

Although Song Shichang was hearing these two terms, ‘recinarnation’ and ‘possession,’ for the first time,1 they were very concise and to the point. Combined with the preceding explanation, he understood their meaning almost immediately.

“So the situations I’ve seen are similar?”

“Yes, if the soul and appearance are really that similar, then it can indeed be considered a reincarnation.”

Ji Yuan didn’t say “rebirth,”2 because that was an occasional event, whereas “reincarnation”3 was an event with active choice.

This matter had puzzled Song Shichang for a long time, but upon hearing Ji Yuan’s explanation, he realized it was a “normal phenomenon.”

“Does that mean that those Heavenly souls that carried the aura of the human soul can all have an afterlife?”

Ji Yuan shook his head.

“Even dragons and flood dragons can only gain a sliver of opportunity by relying on their entire lives’ cultivation. Does the Old City God really think that an ordinary ghost, at the moment of its dying breath, can have a guaranteed chance?”

Song Shichang suddenly realized.

“Indeed, thank you for your explanation, Mr. Ji.”

With Ji Yuan’s explanation, Song Shichang felt much better, and the subsequent conversation took a more casual and relaxed turn.

Just before dawn, the Old City God got up to take his leave, and Ji Yuan saw him to the door.

After exchanging bows, Ji Yuan remained standing in front of the courtyard gate, lost in thought, until the Old City God’s figure was out of sight.

A ghost, its life force exhausted, clinging to a wisp of its remaining human soul, returning to heaven carrying its original fate… could it have continued life? This was no ordinary story of reincarnation; the dangers involved were extraordinary. Even dragons and flood dragons had only a sliver of a chance, let alone a human ghost.

T/n: Once again running to the chapter notes to dissect this juicy but mildly confusing chapter! Here’s my take at the putting this chapter’s conversation in layman’s terms:

SS: Heyyyy, JY, you’re super powerful right?

JY: yep

SS: So you ever heard of this weird thing going on called reincarnation?

JY, a reincarnated transmigrated individual, sweating bullets but very much pretending to be calm: um. Nope. Never. Couldn’t be me. Just out of curiosity, why do you ask?

SS: ‘Cause it’s been happening to some of my ghosts. Rarely. But I’m trying to figure out why.

JY: so based on what I know about the dragons, you be able to reincarnate if you dissipate your soul into the elements before the pieces of your spirit separate.

SS: … oh interesting. So if the heavenly soul carries the human soul to the heavens, then that’s like dissipating your soul into the heavenly element…

JY: which can potentially let you carry your remaining fate along with you and be reborn, yes.

SS: Huh. Is that what’s happening?

JY: nope. It’s just some lingering aura that got accidentally dragged along, there’s no way the memories and fate go alongside it. Heck, the dragons have to be insanely powerful for even the smallest sliver of chance at reincarnation, and they’re

SS: so no chance of that happening with ordinary souls, got it.

JY, whose soul has been reincarnated with all of its memories and has a mysterious fate clinging to him and is mysteriously connected to the Heavens: nope. Definitely not.

Technically speaking he should definitely have heard of “reincarnation” from any local Buddhist temple before, but we can assume it’s a modern slang version of the word with different connotations. 投胎 (tóutāi): reincarnation 转世 (zhuǎnshì) which is reincarnation or transmigration as it relates to Buddhism, implies more active decision