The next day I went to the heavenly clearing and carved a flute from a piece of bamboo. I was more comfortable with a Dizi than a straight Xiao flute, like Lan Xichen's, so I chose this one.

Besides, I found that this flute gave me a look in accordance with my state of mind.

Grim!

It is true that my appearance since I was here, had changed. My clothes, which already had several snags when I arrived, now looked like rags! But what does it matter, I had no one to please! The fleeting image of Lan Zhan crossed my mind.

In the darkness of my cave, I tried to remember the tunes of the Lan clan that I had heard in YunShen Buzhi! There were not many of them!

The first one I remembered, I heard in the classroom during the presentation ceremony. We had gotten angry at the representatives of the Wen clan. Lan Xichen had played a tune that had calmed us down at first and then disarmed us!

Then there was the water abyss. Zewu Jun had again used his flute to control and put to sleep the angry spirits that were spreading terror!

If I wanted to achieve the goal I had set for myself, I had to work on those tunes I remembered! I had to test them on the spirits of the Burial Ground and see if they had any effect on them.

It would be dangerous, I knew. I would be unprotected during this time.

But again, did I have a choice? If it didn't work... then I would have to do what I had done with the talisman; I would have to invent a new melody... that is, if I was still alive!

I knew that my survival time in Burial Mound was starting to decrease. The celestial glade could not provide for all of my needs. The number of its fruits was diminishing. I knew I had lost a lot of weight and if I could get out of here, it would take me a while to gain it back. I could hear my shijie from here saying, "A-Xian you have lost weight! "

I missed her so much! Her sweetness, her tenderness, her motherly love, her lotus soup.... Jiang Cheng's absence caused a void in me. I hoped that he was doing well and that he was getting used to my golden core! Our fights, our bickering brothers, I wanted to experience them again!

And Lan Zhan... it's strange but I missed him too! I sometimes wondered why? We were so different! And yet... when I was with him, the emptiness I had always felt inside me was filled. I liked to tease him, to talk with him... Finally, I was talking and communicating with him using only one word ! It was quite fun! I liked the relationship we had, I had the impression that he understood me even if I was annoying him three quarters of the time. He didn't know it but I did it on purpose! I liked to see the anger rise in him. His eyes were like mirrors where I could see what his lips were not saying!

We could understand each other with one look. When I first met him, I felt like I was meeting a lifelong friend. Was this what it meant to be soul mates? This impression of having always known each other? I would have to talk to him about it.

Thinking about my loved ones gave me courage and hope. I was going to need it, because I had to make my first exit, my first attempt at control.

I had spent several hours preparing myself to face the damned spirits. I knew that as soon as I left my den, they would come after me like a pack of hungry wolves on a sheep stupid enough to get lost among them!

I had made 2 talismans for a short time that I kept in reserve in case of emergency. I had made them with some shreds of fabric that I had found!

I took a step forward and then a second one. The wisps of black smoke came down on me and enclosed me in a vice of intense pain. My mind was invaded by images of battle, sensations of swords being struck, limbs being torn off. All the pain I had experienced before was nothing compared to this. These spirits were giving me their last feelings, their last sensations just before dying. I collapsed to the ground and curled up on myself. My screams joined those of the damned souls. I clutched my arms to my chest.

Then I saw my Dizi. The pain had made me forget that I was holding her and why I was there. I pulled myself together and laboriously got up to a sitting position. I then brought the flute to my lips. I tested the first tune. I had to determine which part was soothing and which was disarming. But above all I had to know if the music had an effect on these damned souls and what it was!

I began to play. Some minds stopped when the melody came on. It wasn't as perfect as Lan Xichen's, but it was similar enough to what I had heard in the orchid room. The wisps that had stopped formed balls and eventually evaporated. I didn't know what that meant, but it must have been a good omen. The others were hovering around me. They didn't assault me, they seemed to be watching me, sizing me up. Others remained on the sidelines. The melody had to act.

I came to what I thought was the second part of the tune, the disarming part. What effect would it have on these cursed souls?

I did not take my eyes off the black wisps. They seemed to panic, they moved erratically. Then, when the chords twisted, they leapt in my direction. They came back to the attack. I started the melody again to calm them down. They started again their ballet around me. I got up and while continuing to play, I retreated to the protective perimeter of the cave talisman.

Once safely inside, I let myself slide on the ground. My hands, my legs, my whole body was shaking. I began to vomit at the memories of the monstrosities that these souls had shared with me. It took me some time to recover. My mind was troubled. I could not rest. I understood them now. I knew why they were angry! Their pain had become mine.

I wanted to help them, but how? At first, I wanted to use them and even if for some of them, their manipulation left me no remorse, others, innocent, deserved to rest!

How could I tell the difference? It had to be possible!

I had another tune to try. But not now, not today. I had to put my own mind at rest. The irony of my situation hit me hard, I had always hated meditation, but today I owed my salvation to it. I wanted to drag myself to the bed, but I had neither the strength nor the courage. I lay there on the floor of the cave. This was not the first time this had happened to me... and probably not the last. My body was used to sleeping on the stone.

When I woke up, a new day began. I had never taken a marker to determine how many days I had already spent in this cursed place. I didn't know how long I had been there, but I thought it was a long time. After my meditation and refueling at the heavenly clearing. I decided to try a new exit.

Like the day before, as soon as I stepped outside, the black volutes rushed at me. Others were waiting. The same sensations, the same pains, the images more and more precise, each contact with the volutes of the Damned increased the intensity and the precision of what they shared with me! I brought the flute to my lips.

The melody I had heard at the watery abyss rose. The wisps stopped short but I noticed that their black color intensified. That they were becoming more opaque... I didn't know what that meant. I noticed out of the corner of my eye another scroll that until then had kept its distance... it was coming closer. What did it want from me?

The ones around me were getting more and more compact. I felt bad. Before I could change my mind, they all came at me at the same time.

My body was torn apart, I could feel their anger attacking my soul. The pain was so great that I lost consciousness.

My last thought was that I was going to die here.

Lan QiRen was right.

My stubborn belief in a fourth option had been in vain! The energy of resentment was too powerful and uncontrollable!

I had failed!

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)