Heavenly Inquisition Sword Novel - Chapter 249
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Chapter 249: What Name Should We Give the Bell?
Shanxi Province.
Jiaoyu County.
Mount Fengzhi, Fairy Temple (Seonnyeo Temple)
Noon.
Qing Ryushin, also known as Cheong Ryushin, briefly sat on a rock to rest as she saw her hermitage in the distance.
She had left the Justice Alliance before rumors of her using black magic spread.
Thinking back on the past two months only made her sigh.
She should have been content with her fame in the county.
In trying to gain more fame, she had only ruined the Wind Bell, leading to her downfall.
Now that she could no longer control spirits, she had to start over from scratch.
“Still, I have the Fairy Temple.”
Without the Fairy Temple her master had left her, she would have felt completely lost.
Seeing the Fairy Temple, which remained unchanged on the mountainside, was a great comfort to her.
After a while, Qing Ryushin resumed her ascent up the mountain, but she frowned when she saw that the main door was slightly ajar.
Could a thief have entered this small hermitage in the middle of the mountain?
Qing Ryushin carefully pushed the door open and entered.
At that moment, a soft voice from the inner sanctuary resonated.
“Come in. But why do you enter your own home like a thief?”
“…”
Qing Ryushin stopped abruptly.
It was the voice of her master, the woman who had granted her spiritual powers.
Her heart, which remained unshaken in the face of demons, began to beat wildly.
She moistened her dry lips with her tongue and spoke cautiously.
“Master, when did you arrive?”
“Come in.”
At her master’s call, Qing Ryushin hurried into the sanctuary.
Her master was sitting quietly, just as she had before disappearing.
Seeing her master’s immortal face, forever young like a woman in her thirties, was astonishing.
Her master’s appearance had not changed in the twenty years Qing Ryushin had known her.
Qing Ryushin kneeled before her master, awaiting her words.
To an observer, it might have looked like a daughter kneeling before her mother.
“Where have you been leaving the hermitage empty?”
“Since you left, I couldn’t find work. So I went to seek employment at the Justice Alliance.”
“At the Justice Alliance, huh? Did you join them to learn sorcery?”
“Yes.”
“Did you lose the spiritual energy of the Wind Bell because of that?”
Qing Ryushin quickly bowed her head as her master touched on the key issue.
“I lost its spiritual energy suddenly while trying to understand why it wasn’t effective against demons.”
“Give it to me.”
Her master extended a flawless hand, without a single wrinkle.
Qing Ryushin took the Wind Bell from her chest and handed it over.
Ding, ding-.
Her master examined the bell and murmured.
“Wow! You really lost its spiritual energy. How could you destroy something so valuable?”
“I have committed a grave sin. Please forgive me.”
“It’s not your fault. Just as flowers wither and leaves fall, the Wind Bell lost its spiritual energy because it was its time.”
Surprisingly, her master accepted the loss calmly.
Only then did Qing Ryushin relax a bit.
“Master, at the Justice Alliance, they said the Wind Bell was a demonic bell. Why…?”
Qing Ryushin still couldn’t understand that claim.
She had expelled numerous evil spirits with the Wind Bell before.
How could it be demonic?
With a sad expression, her master stroked the bell as she replied.
“Don’t pay attention to the words of the ignorant. I have told you repeatedly that the spiritual knowledge I teach you is unknown to the world.”
“Yes.”
Qing Ryushin humbly accepted her master’s words. Indeed, all the knowledge her master had taught her was unknown to the world.
Amid the gentle conversation with her master, Qing Ryushin began to regain her peace.
After a while, she wondered why her master had returned after leaving.
“Master.”
“What?”
“I have been at your service for over twenty years.”
“Indeed. You have worked hard.”
“Don’t say that. My life changed by serving you. But where did you go? I was so worried thinking you had gone forever.”
“I had a place to go for a time.”
“Where?”
Qing Ryushin blinked, awaiting a response.
But her master, with a loving expression, changed the subject.
“It’s time to tell you a very old story.”
“Yes.”
Qing Ryushin straightened her posture and paid attention to her master’s words. Her master had always taught spiritual knowledge through stories.
“Forty years ago, a monk was practicing austerities on Mount Shushan. One day, during a hundred-day prayer, he heard a celestial voice. That voice taught him how to infuse spiritual energy into his golden bell, the Jinhuangzi.”
“Ah!”
Qing Ryushin thought that maybe the Wind Bell was actually the Jinhuangzi.
“To infuse spiritual energy into the Jinhuangzi, he needed a young girl. The monk bought the daughter of some peasants and put a small reed in her mouth, leaving her submerged in the stream for three days and nights. Eventually, he managed to capture the girl’s dying breath in the Jinhuangzi.”
Qing Ryushin shuddered upon hearing that.
She knew the bell contained the spirit of a drowned girl, but didn’t know how it was done.
Leaving a girl with a reed in her mouth for three days… though she knew the process to create a demonic bell was cruel, the mere thought made her shiver.
“Then, according to celestial instructions, he recited the six-character spell in a quiet place. ‘Om nanen kaya nevata de hum.’”
“…”
Qing Ryushin shivered at the six-character spell.
Her master had taught her that reciting this spell was good for calming the mind and preparing for important events.
Why would she have taught her such a spell?
Qing Ryushin was pulled from her thoughts by her master’s next words.
“By reciting the spell three times, once aloud and twice softly, the girl’s voice began to emerge from the bell. The girl was trapped between this world and the afterlife, unable to pass on. The monk took advantage of this to ask her the secrets of the underworld.”
“Oh!”
Qing Ryushin understood what her master was saying.
She had asked the girl to expel evil spirits. But the monk had inquired into the secrets of the underworld.
“The girl revealed the secrets of the underworld, including how to summon King Yama and his followers.”
“Heavens! Master, isn’t that part of the teachings of the Yoomyung Cult?”
“Yes, it is. That monk became the first Demon Warrior, then the first Great Demon General, and finally the first Heavenly Demon King.”
“What an astonishing story! It’s incredible that you know a secret that no one else knows!”
Qing Ryushin thought her master must have discovered all this with her divine vision.
Her master looked at her with a gentle expression.
“Then, it could be said that the Jinhuangzi is the origin of the Yoomyung Cult. Do you now understand the gravity of your mistake?”
“…”
Qing Ryushin couldn’t say anything.
She thought the Jinhuangzi might be the Wind Bell.
But she never imagined it was related to the Yoomyung Cult. Despite hearing that the monk became a Heavenly Demon King.
“Master, are you also part of the Yoomyung Cult?”
Her master smiled ambiguously and continued speaking.
“Ten years later, the girl promised the monk to reveal an even greater secret. In exchange, she asked him to release her.”
“A greater secret than those of the underworld?”
Qing Ryushin, though she suspected her master might be connected to the Yoomyung Cult, was intrigued by what would follow.
What could be greater than the secrets of the underworld?
“The monk was also curious and agreed to the girl’s proposal.”
“Did the monk discover that secret?”
“Not yet.”
“Why? Did the girl lie?”
“No. Whether the girl lied or not, we will know soon.”
“But the bell is destroyed. How?”
“The monk made a promise with the girl. Wouldn’t you like to know what that promise was?”
“What promise?”
“The girl said that her spiritual energy was insufficient to reach the great secret. To achieve that, someone with greater spiritual energy was needed. So the monk adopted a daughter and made her recite a spell day and night for twenty years.”
“Could it be…?”
Qing Ryushin’s face turned pale.
She was the adopted daughter of her master, having recited spells for twenty years.
Her master, with a low voice, told the trembling Qing Ryushin.
“Yes, it’s you. The girl requested that you be given the Wind Bell. She didn’t explain why, but said that only this way could she achieve enlightenment. Her name was Xiaochun, so now you understand why the Wind Bell is also called Xiaochun.”
“Please, master, forgive me. I will find another woman with high spiritual energy.”
Qing Ryushin thought the destruction of the bell had led to this.
“Qing Ryushin, twenty years have passed. I have stayed on Mount Fengzhi for you for twenty years. Do you expect me to stay here for another twenty?”
Although her master had disappeared to become the Heavenly Demon King, she said it as if it were for Qing Ryushin.
“Please… Forgive me. I beg you.”
Qing Ryushin cried inconsolably, but her master was unmoved.
“What name should we give the new bell? Qing Ryushin Bell? Or perhaps Ryushin Bell? I like how Qing Ryushin Bell sounds. Does that sound good to you?”
“Master, please forgive me.”
“You have a pure wish that even I admire. That’s why Xiaochun chose you, despite being so young. With that spiritual energy and your pure wish, where could one find someone like you?”
“Please… Please…”
Qing Ryushin, with a blank mind, could only repeat the word “please.”
“Let’s go.”
Her master stood up, and Qing Ryushin’s body began to float in the air.
Carrying Qing Ryushin with her, her master ran toward the stream of Mount Fengzhi.
When they reached a clear stream, eight warriors appeared.
“Nobody should approach Mount Fengzhi while I perform this great ritual. Kill any living being you see.”
“Understood.”
The eight warriors disappeared as silently as they had arrived.
Soon, her master took a small reed from her chest.
As forty years ago, she placed the reed in Qing Ryushin’s mouth.
Paralyzed, Qing Ryushin could not resist.
With a sad expression, her master stroked Qing Ryushin’s head.
“Qing Ryushin, it will be difficult, but endure for me. I hope you can last seven days and nights, not just three like Xiaochun. Can you do it?”
Qing Ryushin’s eyes widened and she shook her head violently.
But her body was already stiff and did not move at all.
Carrying Qing Ryushin, her master walked slowly toward the stream.
Soon, Qing Ryushin’s body was submerged in the water.
Ding, ding, ding-.
Shaking the Jinhuangzi over the reed, her master began reciting the heavenly reunification spell.
“Om amrita sabaha…”
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