Chapter 29: The Second Reincarnated Soul
Chapter 29: The Second Reincarnated Soul
"Hmm?"
At the sound, Hu Ma jolted awake. Or rather, he was still asleep, but he had suddenly emerged from his dazed state and found himself in the dream with the peculiar little temple.
Looking up, he saw the incense in the brazier before him burning faintly.
In the distant, dark red mist, a faint wisp of smoke was drifting through the fog, gently spiraling around him.
"White Wine calling from the Old Yin Mountain..."
The voice called out again, a raspy yet magnetic tone.
"Found someone else?"
Hu Ma steadied himself, confirming that this wasn't a hallucination, and a wave of excitement surged through him.
After so long without finding anyone, he had suddenly encountered the second reincarnated soul in this world?
"You..."
He opened his mouth but hesitated, his mind racing. "Old Bai Gan received the call. Who are you?"
At Hu Ma's response, the wisp of smoke that had drifted in from the blood mist seemed to find its target and suddenly wrapped around his incense.
The voice that had been calling fell silent for a moment, then spoke again, sounding surprised:
"Are you the kid from that village?"
"..."
"?"
Hu Ma was taken aback, exclaiming, "How do you know that?"
"Your voice."
The raspy voice paused, then whispered, "You don't change your voice when you connect with others?"
This left Hu Ma momentarily confused. "How do you change your voice?"
The voice fell silent again, then replied after a moment, "There are too many ways. I don't even know where to start."
"However, the fact that you don't know how to change your voice suggests that you haven't connected with other reincarnated souls very often."
"..."
The other person's quick thinking had deduced a lot from their brief exchange, even revealing Hu Ma's identity, which left him somewhat uneasy.
But encountering the second reincarnated soul in this world filled Hu Ma with excitement. He had so many questions he wanted to ask his fellow survivors, and they were all piling up in his throat. He decided to ask them all at once.
He paused for a moment, then hurriedly asked, "What was your identity in your past life?"
"..."
The raspy voice fell silent, then sighed, "Your opening line is quite unique."
"Once we've fallen into this world, what use is there in caring about our past lives?"
"Regardless of who we were in our past lives, in this strange world, we are all just pitiful souls struggling to survive."
"..."
"Are you very pitiful?"
Hu Ma said, "I think your conditions are quite good. You even have a sedan chair to carry you into the forest."
The other person suddenly fell silent, then spoke again, sounding surprised, "You guessed who I am?"
"It's not hard to guess..."
Hu Ma sighed softly, "There are very few reincarnated souls in the Old Yin Mountain. If one suddenly appears, it's likely an outsider."
"Today, a group of outsiders just arrived in the village, and the ones I saw were all men."
"Your voice, though you tried to make it raspy and unpleasant, clearly belongs to a woman. It's not hard to guess who you are."
"..."
"Can you tell that my voice is a woman's?"
The other person was taken aback for a moment, then her voice became clear and pleasant as she reverted to her original tone, whispering, "It seems my skills aren't as refined as they should be. Normally, it shouldn't be detectable."
"..."
"..."
Hu Ma was also momentarily stunned. Her voice had indeed been raspy and hard to distinguish, and if he thought about it carefully, it sounded more like an old man's.
But for some reason, he had immediately sensed it was a woman's voice. It wasn't something he had deduced; it was more like an instinct.
Could it be...
He suddenly remembered that his fire pit burned so brightly that it made him crave women.
Could this be some kind of instinct brought on by that characteristic?
Sigh...
How strange...
"Never mind."
Though the woman was surprised that Hu Ma had discovered her identity, she didn't say much more. She spoke calmly, "Discovering each other's identities isn't a bad thing."
"We both know who we are, which makes exchanging information more reassuring."
"From the looks of it, you grew up in the Old Yin Mountain. You must know quite a bit about this place. Have you heard of the 'Hundred Corpses Tomb'?"
"Hundred Corpses Tomb?"
Hu Ma was initially taken aback, feeling a vague sense of familiarity, then his mind suddenly cleared.
The first reincarnated soul he had spoken to had mentioned the 'Hundred Corpses Tomb,' hadn't he?
When he encountered this second reincarnated soul, he had been remembering that person's request.
Even if she hadn't asked, he would have told her about it and begged her to save that person.
He hadn't expected that the thing she was looking for was the same thing the other person had found?
While he was recalling this, the woman's voice continued:
"As a reward, you can ask me for an equal piece of information, or three pieces of lesser value in exchange."
"..."
"Exchange?"
Hu Ma remained silent for a moment, his mind racing.
This was only the second time he had spoken to a reincarnated soul, and the first one had been in a dire situation, leaving no time for much conversation.
Thus, he was not only unfamiliar with this world but also with the community of reincarnated souls.
From the woman’s words, he sensed that even among reincarnated souls, they did not automatically come to each other’s aid in times of crisis. Information, it seemed, was a commodity to be traded.
"Your silence suggests that you do have some information on this topic?"
But as he remained quiet, the woman’s voice came softly, "This saves me a lot of trouble."
"If you have any questions or requests, feel free to ask. After all, when it comes to knowledge of this world, I have a slight advantage over you."
"If you want any other form of compensation, you can also mention it, though the terms will need to be discussed."
"..."
"..."
"Alright!"
Hu Ma hadn’t expected that his silence could reveal so much to her. But regardless, if she was willing to trade, that was a good thing.
Since he had arrived in this world, he had accumulated countless questions, carefully preparing them for when he encountered other reincarnated souls.
He immediately asked, "First question: What kind of world is this?"
"An Age of Evil, an Age of Demons, an Age of Chaos."
Her voice was light, yet carried a heavy, oppressive weight. She continued, "The specifics of what has happened are unknown even to the people of this world, let alone to us."
"All we know is that this world was once part of an era called the Yi Dynasty. But at some point, a great calamity descended, and since then, the world has been in turmoil, with strange phenomena and demons appearing frequently. The boundary between the living and the dead is marked by dusk, and the world is divided between the two."
"Right now, it is a time of widespread war and rising chaos. You are in the Old Yin Mountains, a remote and barren place, but it offers a semblance of peace."
"Outside the Old Yin Mountains, the world is in chaos, with strange and powerful forces making even the simplest act of survival a luxury."
"..."
Hu Ma found it hard to imagine what the world outside the Old Yin Mountains must be like.
He fell silent for a moment, processing the information, then slowly asked, "Second question: What’s the deal with us... these reincarnated souls?"
"Ha..."
To his surprise, the woman chuckled lightly at his question.
"You’re indeed wasting a valuable opportunity on such a trivial question, but it’s a common mistake."
"All I can tell you is that we don’t know what’s happening either."
"I regained my memories from my past life when I was three years old. I’ve met a few other reincarnated souls, and they are like me."
"We all mysteriously reincarnated here, and after discussing among ourselves, we found that our common traits are that we all have the same names and birth dates as in our past lives, and we can find and connect with each other through our life-bound spirit temples."
"But why we are here and what will happen in the future, no one knows."
"Most of us just keep our secrets and try to survive, exchanging information with other reincarnated souls to improve our chances of living well."
"..."
"Awakening at three years old?"
Hu Ma listened carefully to every word she said, and then he realized a crucial point.
From her tone, it seemed they were all born and raised in this world.
But I’m different. I died in my previous life and was mistakenly brought back by my grandmother.
A sense of unease crept over him, and he suddenly understood, "It sounds like..."
"...While others are just reincarnated, I seem to be a malevolent spirit who has taken over a body?"
"..."
His heart was filled with doubt, but he held back from voicing this question. In the brief time he had spent with this woman, he sensed that each reincarnated soul had their own secrets.
And since he had woken up, keeping his own secrets had been his top priority, a habit he had already formed.
"It’s time for the third question."
The woman’s voice sounded again, "But I must warn you, your first two questions were a waste of opportunities."
"I don’t intend to take advantage of you. Think carefully about your third question."
"..."
"Understood."
Hu Ma realized that while his first two questions were crucial for him, a recent arrival, they seemed trivial to those who had been in this world for a long time.
He took a deep breath and slowly spoke, "For the third question, can I make a request instead?"
The woman was silent for a moment, then replied, "Go on."
"I need you to help me find someone."
Hu Ma immediately added, "She is very important to me, and I know she is somewhere in these woods, but I don’t know if she is alive or dead."
"I need to find her as soon as possible..."
"..."
He held his breath, waiting for her response.
The woman paused for a moment, then asked, "The person you are looking for is a relative in this world?"
Hu Ma thought for a moment and said, "Yes, you could say that. She has been very good to me!"
"It’s rare."
Her response was slow, as if she was reflecting on something. Then she said, "This is not a difficult task for me. I can help you."
(End of Chapter)
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