Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

Chapter 73 – Second soul communion

The first soul communion had been under urgent circumstances. Wenren È had just wanted to stabilize Yin Hanjiang’s mental state, so didn’t look very deeply into his soul. The soul communion depended on the state of Yin Hanjiang’s soul. If Yin Hanjiang was determined to resist him and not open up, then it would be no use.

The previous time, Yin Hanjiang’s mind was chaotic, and Wenren È had been immediately blocked by the memory of his confession and Yin Hanjiang reading the book. After being treated and having this period of time to calm down, Yin Hanjiang had improved significantly. There were now many points of light in his soul.

Wenren È approached one light and saw within it the scene where he had retrieved the Snow Flame for Yin Hanjiang.

He walked to another, larger one, and saw Yin Hanjiang capturing Hè Wenzhao.

After looking at a few more, Wenren È realized that the many points of light of varying sizes were the memories that brought Yin Hanjiang joy and happiness. If the feeling was weaker, the light was smaller. If it was stronger, the light was bigger.

In the largest light was Yin Hanjiang reading Abusive Romance, seeing Wenren È’s confession through Baili Qingmiao. It hung at the highest point in his sea of consciousness, bright and round like a sun.

There was a bloodstain within the light, however, and when Wenren È extended his consciousness into it, he found a mess of chaotic, dark thoughts, with traces of the inner demons’ interference. It was the things that caused Yin Hanjiang the most pain.

Wenren È realized. The points of light were Yin Hanjiang’s happiest memories, while the bloodstains were the sources of his inner demons.

He walked further and further into Yin Hanjiang’s sea of consciousness, searching for the origin of his deepest pain. Finally, somewhere deep, he found an enormous bloodstain, bigger than the “sun” hanging in the sky.

This must be the root of everything.

Wenren È tried to enter it, but it resisted him, unwilling to let him in.

“Sect Leader Yin,” he said softly. “It’s me, Wenren È.”

When he said his name, the bloodstain shrank even tighter, forbidding him.

Yin Hanjiang was resisting him. This was what he least wanted Wenren È to see.

What should he do, then? Hovering before the bloodstain, Wenren È felt a bit anxious. All the lights and bloodstains were events of the past, which meant this stain before him was something Wenren È didn’t know about, which Yin Hanjiang had sealed off from him.

Even if they were cultivation partners, there should still be some boundaries between them. If Yin Hanjiang didn’t want him to touch something, he wouldn’t force him.

But if he didn’t resolve this bloodstain, he couldn’t treat Yin Hanjiang’s inner demons. He really was trapped in a dilemma.

Wenren È thought for a while, remembering all his interactions with Yin Hanjiang. Thinking that he also had events in his past he didn’t wish for anyone to know, he suddenly realized.

If Yin Hanjiang didn’t want him to probe, then he could allow Yin Hanjiang to understand him.

Wenren È opened his arms. “This Venerable won’t overstep your boundaries. I just wanted to enter your soul and dissolve the walls between us.”

As he spoke, the bloodstain kept shrinking, until it was small enough that Wenren È could encircle it in his arms, and hold it to his chest.

Even if it was Yin Hanjiang’s dark past, Wenren È would use his body to protect it. The bloodstain slowly melded into Wenren È’s consciousness.

“Ah-Wu, Ah-Wu!” A remote and unfamiliar voice that nevertheless brought back memories rang by his ears. A gentle hand was patting his shoulder. Wenren È opened his eyes blearily and saw a beautiful woman standing near him, saying quietly, “Time to get up.”

It was his mother, the heroic woman who, in times of need, could put on armor and lead the militia of the border town to protect it desperately for five days, until reinforcements arrived and she fainted on the city wall.

Wenren È found he now appeared to be a fourteen or fifteen-year-old youth, and suddenly realized that this was his memory.

“Martial arts, literature, calligraphy… you have many lessons today, so don’t keep your teacher waiting.” His mother held a pair of light swords. If Wenren È didn’t get up, they would probably be slicing down on his hair.

“I’m up, mother!” Wenren È leapt out of bed, quickly getting dressed and washing his face.

He had grown up at the border. Manpower was tight there, so Wenren È didn’t have a maid, only a servant boy who learned martial arts alongside him. He typically did everything himself, but he was in a hurry now, so yelled, “Hand me a towel!”

A pair of tiny, blackened hands held a white towel out to him. After taking it, Wenren È froze. His servant boy was gone, and in his place was a child who appeared just five or six years old. His skin was covered with purple welts, and half his flesh was rotten. He was dirty and stank, holding up a towel with trembling hands.

It was Yin Hanjiang.

Wenren È had taken in the memories Yin Hanjiang was most unwilling to face, and within his soul, Yin Hanjiang had found a suitable position to take and become his servant boy.

This wasn’t reality, it was Wenren È’s memories.

He accepted the towel, but didn’t use it himself. Picking up the tiny Yin Hanjiang, he wet the towel in warm water and used it to gently wipe Yin Hanjiang’s body.

A swollen and necrotic hand slapped the towel away. “Dirty,” Yin Hanjiang said through gritted teeth.

Yin Hanjiang wasn’t worried that the towel was dirty, but that his own body would dirty it.

“A towel can be washed clean,” Wenren È said. “You need treatment and a change of clothes.”

Changes in his mind could affect the people in his memories. His mother no longer pushed him to go study, instead patting Yin Hanjiang’s head gently. “How did this happen to little Jiang? Ah-Wu, help wash him, then bring him to Doctor Li for treatment.”

Wenren È obediently boiled water in order to clean Yin Hanjiang and dug out his own childhood clothes for him to change into. Carrying him, he used lightness art to get to the town doctor’s house.

In his childhood, Wenren È was a young general-in-training, always dressed in white brocade and a bit of a show-off. As he bounded across rooftops with Yin Hanjiang in his arms, the residents looked up and started complaining about how the Wenren clan’s little general was leaping around again.

Back then, Wenren È was a dazzling youth. His figure appeared brilliant, and even the sky over the border town was a vivid azure.

“Ah-Wu?” Little Yin Hanjiang asked in his arms.

“Before I began cultivating, Wenren Wu was the name my parents gave me. They had also planned to give me the courtesy name Zhige, splitting apart the character for Wu[1],” Wenren È answered. 

Unfortunately, before that day arrived, the Wenren clan was met with disaster, and Wenren Wu renamed himself to Wenren È.

Hopping down from the eaves to before Doctor Li’s door, he gave the man a shock. The elderly but still lively army doctor snatched up a broom beside him and swung it at Wenren È. “Why, you unruly brat! You’ll scare this old man to death! Can you knock properly on the door just once? Every time, you either hop down from the roof or run in from the backyard—my old bones can’t take the shock!”

Before his broom could connect, it was grabbed by a pair of hands. Little Yin Hanjiang glared at Doctor Li with a sullen expression.

Even the dark part of Yin Hanjiang’s soul was very strong. Wenren È, afraid he would fight, was about to stop him when Doctor Li said, “Oh dear, whose kid is this? How did this happen to him? Quick, come in, I’ll get him bandaged.”

“He was picked up in a corpse pile. His parents and relatives were all slaughtered by foreign tribesmen,” Wenren È said quietly.

Doctor Li’s wrinkled face was instantly filled with sympathy. He had Wenren È place little Yin Hanjiang down on a bed as he fetched strong alcohol and a knife, then began to excise the dead flesh.

Back when Wenren È saved Yin Hanjiang, he healed him with just an elixir and some channeling of spiritual energy. The injuries of mortals were really nothing to a cultivator, so Yin Hanjiang had no particular impression of being treated.

This time, Doctor Li painstakingly cut at his flesh, disinfecting with alcohol as he went, making Yin Hanjiang’s face twitch with pain. Wenren È was puzzled as he watched. In the form of a soul, why would he feel pain? What was Yin Hanjiang thinking right now?

Afraid of damaging healthy flesh, Doctor Li worked slowly. Only after ten hours, with the sun having moved from the eastern sky to the west, did he finish applying medicine to and bandaging all of Yin Hanjiang’s wounds.

Little Yin Hanjiang’s face was covered with sweat from the pain. When Doctor Li said, “Done,” Yin Hanjiang fainted on the spot, his brows furrowed.

“How many days had this child been hurt by the time you picked him up?” Doctor Li asked quietly, pulling Wenren È aside.

“About three to five days before I dug him out of the corpse pile,” Wenren È said in a low voice. He didn’t know whether Yin Hanjiang could hear, and they couldn’t transmit each other messages within his consciousness.

“This child’s a bit odd,” said Doctor Li. “He’s so young that I didn’t want to use anesthetic, afraid it would damage his brain, so I had to work without. Some of the necrotic flesh could be cut off with no sensation, but some flesh that was not yet dead but couldn’t be saved would cause agony just by touching. He’s such a small child, but after that long a treatment, with me wiping his wounds with alcohol now and then, he didn’t even make a sound. If it was a braggart like you, I’d believe it if you grit your teeth and didn’t scream, but for such a young child to not even cry, I’m worried there’s something wrong with him here.”

Doctor Li tapped Wenren È’s chest, over his heart.

His heart? Doctor Li had noticed something was wrong in an instant, yet Wenren È back then just abandoned Yin Hanjiang on a mountain without a second thought. He thought it would be enough if he just gave him good food, new clothes, a cultivation method, and the power for revenge. A man didn’t need weakness. But Wenren È hadn’t realized that Yin Hanjiang wasn’t a man. He was only a five-year-old little boy, still at the age where he could cry.

“This child was saved a little late,” Doctor Li said, shaking his head. “His left leg will probably be crippled, and there’ll be scars left all over his face and body. I know you’re busy and Marshal and Madam Wenren are very strict with you, but you need to find the time to look after him once in a while. While I was doing the excision, he looked at you every time the pain was too much. He obviously thinks of you as his savior, so take care of him.”

“Your junior understands,” Wenren È said with a low sigh.

“What junior?” Doctor Li slapped him on the head. “Don’t be so formal with me, you’re practically my grandson!”

“Ah-Wu understands,” Wenren È said, having no choice but to pick up the name he had abandoned for so long.

When Doctor Li slapped Wenren È’s forehead, Yin Hanjiang had already woken up, and glared bitterly at the hand he used.

After having observed him for so long, Wenren È understood Yin Hanjiang’s looks and thoughts, and realized he was currently angry that Doctor Li had hit him.

He sat on the bed, picking up little Yin Hanjiang and letting him rest his head on his thigh. “This man is Doctor Li,” he introduced. “He was once an imperial doctor.”

“Upstanding men don’t mention their past accomplishments,” Doctor Li said. “I’m just a rotten old man who was chased away for misconduct while treating the imperial concubines and exiled to the army!” He turned his back, his figure seeming a bit glum.

Wenren È smiled. “Then let’s not mention that. Doctor Li’s medical skills are incredible, and after coming to the border town, he’s saved the lives of six thousand one hundred and forty-eight soldiers. A few years ago, he accompanied the army to the battlefield and saved dozens of soldiers within three days, finally collapsing behind the lines from exhaustion. Many times, he’s brought my father and elder brother back from the brink of death, and even I…”

He saw that Doctor Li’s ears were red and decided not to mention his accomplishments anymore. He said quietly by Yin Hanjiang’s ear, “At the time, the town was in a state of emergency and my nine-months pregnant mother donned armor and joined the army on the walls. When reinforcements arrived and she was carried down, she was already bleeding. If it weren’t for Doctor Li’s skills, I would’ve died in the womb.”

Little Yin Hanjiang blinked up at him.

“Actually,” Wenren È said, lowering his voice, “I’m his adoptive grandson.”

Yin Hanjiang’s eyes brightened and he spoke for the first time to someone besides Wenren È. “Grandpa!” he called Doctor Li.

His voice was still hoarse and weak. Hearing it, Doctor Li grinned so hard his mustache trembled. Turning around, he bent down by the bed. “Oh, good child!”

Yin Hanjiang grabbed his mustache and grinned, pulling the bandaged wounds on his face. He instantly hissed in pain.

Doctor Li snatched back his whiskers and gave Wenren È a look, saying that this child was finally showing some life, so keep it up.

Little Yin Hanjiang was tired, so after some messing around, he rested his head against Wenren È’s hard and muscular thigh and slept.

Before falling asleep, he thought, so these were the people his Venerable wanted to protect.