Parents' Shrine (5)

Yan Fei was roughly shaken awake from his daze. Opening his eyes, he saw the firelight illuminating Tan Yangzi's stern face from below, making him look as hideous as a Rakshasa ghost. What little sleepiness Yan Fei had left immediately vanished beyond the nine clouds. He shot up and shrank back to the foot of the bed. "Master? What are you doing!"

Seeing that he was scared awake, Tan Yangzi lowered the candle slightly in satisfaction. "Get up and cultivate."

"Cultivate? Cultivate what?"

"It is almost dawn. The moment day and night alternate is a good time to practice the Emotion Observation Technique." With a ring, Tan Yangzi took out the Soul-Crossing Bell and stuffed it into the still-confused Yan Fei's hands. "Don't waste time, sit down cross-legged quickly!"

Yan Fei had to sit in meditation as told, but he didn't know what this Mind Observation Technique was, nor did he remember seeing it in any book before. "Master, what is the Emotion Observation Technique?"

"Did you think a Red Impermanence only needed to look at people's dreams and distort them? Dreams are just a place where a Red Impermanence casts spells. A Red Impermanence's true ability comes from seeing through the emotional changes of sentient beings in this world. The Emotion Observation Technique is a spell that allows you to see those emotions. After practicing this technique, you can observe the fluctuations and changes of the sentient beings' Emotion Strings in a state of meditation, just like looking at a person's facial expressions. The difference is that expressions can be faked, but Emotion Strings cannot."

"Emotion Strings..." Yan Fei's eyes suddenly lit up. "Does that mean I can see other people's feelings? What about a ghost's feelings?"

"Equally visible." Seeing him suddenly become excited, Tan Yangzi didn't know what this boy was pondering over again. Tan Yangzi had also learned the Emotion Observation Technique over these three hundred years to make ghost-catching easier, but he was a Green Impermanence after all and lacked talent in this area. He only had a chance of success during those few hours when dawn and dusk alternated, so he had hardly ever used it later on.

"Then Master, what are you waiting for! Let's start!"

Tan Yangzi rolled his eyes and said, "I'll chant a line, and you repeat it after me. Be careful not to recite it wrong."

Immediately, Tan Yangzi began to chant an incantation in the language of the Sanjiva Hell. The Sanjiva Hell was the one with the lightest suffering among the Eight Great Hells, and its language was more convoluted and rich compared to other hells, with some pronunciations being very awkward. But Yan Fei knew more or less of the languages of the Eight Great Hells, so chanting it was not a problem.

Tan Yangzi led him to recite it a few times until he barely memorized it, then he closed his eyes and began to silently chant it in his heart. Those hellish characters transformed into twisted symbols in his mind, constantly flipping and changing, forming all sorts of deformed shadows. But when he tried to grasp those shifting shapes, he only caught nothingness. Yan Fei knew that the texts from hell inherently carried an indescribable evil. If looked at for too long, all sorts of strange and wicked thoughts would rise in one's mind. Sometimes one would want to destroy something, sometimes kill something, like little claws scratching at the heart, restlessly tempting. One careless moment and a person could lose their sanity and turn into a madman.

"There is no need to resist those characters, let nature take its course," Tan Yangzi said from the side.

Yan Fei's brows furrowed slightly. "But..."

"No buts. Don't you want to be a Red Impermanence? Do you not even have this bit of courage?" Tan Yangzi said. "Put down your guard. With me here, even if you go mad, you won't hurt anyone."

Hearing him say this, Yan Fei gritted his teeth and chanted it again. Those characters transformed into numerous nameless colors and shapes in the darkness before his eyes, spinning piece by piece like a vortex pulling him down. Yan Fei tried to let go of the invisible hand in his mind that was gripping the edge of reason, but he had barely loosened three fingers before the fear of weightlessness made him forcefully grab back on. His entire body shuddered, and just as he was about to open his eyes, he suddenly felt his hand being held by another warm, slightly rough, large hand.

"Don't be afraid, I'm holding onto you." Tan Yangzi's voice sounded by his ear, carrying a reassuring steadiness.

Yan Fei swallowed his saliva, took a deep breath, and once again tried to let go of the hand resting on the edge of reason in his mind.

Before his eyes was a bottomless vortex of countless chaotic colors and shapes swirling and twisting together. The deepest part of that hollow seemed like a lifeless eye, gazing at him from afar, seeing through the secrets hidden deep in his heart. Yan Fei suddenly felt a burst of fear and wanted to retreat, but he was also afraid of disappointing Tan Yangzi. He steeled his heart and entirely let go.

At this moment, Yan Fei, sitting cross-legged on the bed with his eyes closed, suddenly opened his mouth and screamed silently.

He was falling downwards, rapidly passing through those bizarre and twisted forms. Looking closely, he realized that those forms were all mutated human figures, their limbs and torsos entangled and coiled, with eyes growing in impossible places. He felt like he was falling into the abyss of a nightmare, endlessly.

Suddenly, the falling seemed to stop. Yan Fei lifted his head, only to see a bizarrely beautiful sight.

In front of him was a strange picture. On the picture was a thin line emitting a faint azure light, coiled into several small, fragmented spirals, with a largest spiral in the middle. The strange thing was that this picture was not static; the spirals were constantly coiling and intertwining, occasionally expanding and contracting.

Yan Fei watched in astonishment and reached out his hand to touch it, but suddenly he heard Tan Yangzi's voice coming from far away. "What do you see?"

Yan Fei said, "A greenish-blue line, it seems to be a single continuous string, coiled into many loops."

After quite a while, he finally heard Tan Yangzi say, "Do not touch it."

In this fleeting moment, the picture had completely changed. The line rapidly and eagerly opened up and twisted together again, forming several sharp angles, though it generally remained spiral-shaped.

Yan Fei suddenly understood something. "Master! Could what I'm seeing be your..."

The sharp angles on the spiral became even more numerous, looking somewhat cute. "Alright! Don't just stare at mine! You can look a bit further away!"

'So, do these sharp angles mean Master is embarrassed? Or is he shy?'

'And the spiral, is it worry for me? Or concern? Or annoyance? Seeing how smooth the lines are, it feels like it should be a positive emotion.'

'So this is an Emotion String! It looks so interesting!' Yan Fei smiled like a cat that stole a fish in the world of emotions. He observed Tan Yangzi's Emotion String for a while longer, and seeing the sharp angles multiplying, he quickly backed away.

In the darkness, he could only see Tan Yangzi's Emotion String at first, but after narrowing his eyes and carefully discerning for a moment, he could see a faint blue halo far away. He approached it and saw that the faint blue line was also coiled into several spirals, but within these spirals there were some lovely variations and flips, like a cloud pattern.

'This must be Dasamara's Emotion String, right? He should be dreaming at this moment. Could Sister Kumamara be in this dream? Is he worried about her? Or missing her? Does the spiral mean worry? Or something else...'

Just as he wanted to walk further away, he suddenly heard Tan Yangzi's voice drifting from afar. "That's enough for today, come back. It's almost dawn."

Yan Fei obediently turned back, arriving at the place where he had previously seen Tan Yangzi's Emotion String. Just as he was about to ask how to return, he heard Tan Yangzi say, "Just open your eyes, and you will naturally return."

Yan Fei only then realized that the reason everything he saw was floating in darkness was because he had his eyes closed the entire time...

Yan Fei forcefully opened his eyes, looking extremely excited. "Master! What would happen if I touched those Emotion Strings? Can I control other people's emotions?"

Tan Yangzi sneered. "How could controlling others' emotions be that easy? With your current cultivation, I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to touch them at all, only grasping at empty air. Even a Red Impermanence with some level of cultivation who can touch them wouldn't dare to do so. Because unless it is a Red Impermanence with extremely strong willpower, not only would they fail to change others' emotions, but they would also be greatly affected by the emotions they touch, and might end up going mad. Throughout the countless ages past and present, there are no more than twenty Red Impermanences who can truly alter others' emotions by touching Emotion Strings."

Despite what was said, Yan Fei only heard the part about "a Red Impermanence with extremely strong willpower" being able to change other people's emotions.

'If one could really do that, what a terrifying power it would be?'

Seeing Yan Fei deep in thought, Tan Yangzi assumed he was a little disappointed, so he consoled him, "However, Emotion Strings have other uses. A Red Impermanence can fathom the hearts of sentient beings from their Emotion Strings, and can also draw energy from them to cast spells. Many Red Impermanence spells are cast on this foundation. But you still need to be careful when cultivating daily. Do not go too far in the realm of emotions, otherwise you might lose your way back and never wake up."