Chapter 538: Chapter 274: The Last Man of Dayong
The elderly woman was touched in her heart, but couldn’t find the words to say. In the end, she gently rubbed Su’e’s head with her hand and smiled, "What would you do if one day you couldn’t see me?"
Seeing Su’e’s eyes welling up with tears again, the elderly woman quickly added, "You are like a goddaughter to me. Even if I see no one, I cannot not see you.
But then again, there is no feast in this world that never ends. If you come by one day and don’t see me under this tree, take out that willow whip and bring it here, to the base of this old willow tree. There’s something I’ve left for my goddaughter underneath."
Having said that, the elderly woman patted Su’e’s hand and fell silent.
Afterwards, Su’e spent half a month going to the bank of the Tanggu River to chat and relieve the elderly woman’s boredom, gradually forgetting the woman’s words from before.
Until one day, after a mostly sunny month, the weather suddenly changed, and torrents of rain fell for seven or eight consecutive days, causing the river to swell and flood the banks.
Su’e was worried about the elderly woman, but she couldn’t get over, making her anxious like nothing else. Finally, when the weather cleared and the river receded, she hurried to the old spot.
The rows of willow trees by the riverbank were still there, but the place where the elderly woman often sat was empty. Looking carefully again, the once lush and verdant old willow tree was now charred black!
The trunk, thick enough to require three to five people to encircle it, had been split by a lightning fire, burned to leave only half a charred stump, standing lonely in the middle of the willow grove.
Su’e, for some reason, felt a thud in her heart, as if she had lost something of utmost importance.
She asked around, and someone said the willow tree had been struck by a lightning bolt a few days ago, killing this tree that had lived for who knows how many years.
But as for the elderly woman? She was nowhere to be seen alive, nor was there a trace of her dead. Su’e inquired throughout the city, but no one recognized such a person, as if evaporated into thin air.
Since then, Su’e seemed to have lost her soul, and had no mood to practice until a month later when she felt a little better and returned to the Tanggu Riverbank to restart her practice life.
After warming up her voice and performing half a play, when it came time to practice the martial arts roles, she found she didn’t have a suitable horse whip.
It was only then that Su’e suddenly remembered what the elderly woman had instructed her.
The Pear Garden Theater was on the long street south of Tanggu River, and in her anxiety, Su’e ran all the way back to the theater, opened her performance box, and took out the willow whip she had kept in good condition.
Holding that same well-preserved willow horse whip, Su’e returned to the charred willow stump.
Her heart felt empty, and she couldn’t help but cry out, "Auntie, where did you really go?"
Su’e’s voice had a crying tone, pitiful and frantic.
Before she could sink deeper into sorrow, a faint fist-sized green light emerged softly from beneath the burnt stump, glistening with a kind of ineffable spiritual charm.
Su’e didn’t quite understand, but in an instant, the green light flashed and shot straight into the willow whip in her hand.
Immediately, before Su’e could react, the willow whip that had accompanied her for so long suddenly started crumbling away, like wind blowing across a desert, its fresh green light scattered through her fingers, disappearing completely.
Su’e looked at her empty hands, then at the charred stump. The wind blew, leaving not a trace behind.
It was at this moment that she suddenly understood something, and the haze that had shrouded her heart cleared.
From that day on, on the performance roster of the theater troupe, before ’Su’e’, she neatly added a character of her own—’Liu’, Liu Su’e.
In this name, there was a root, her old godmother, and a feeling of home she had never experienced before.
After hearing about Liu Su’e’s past, Xu Qing roughly understood what the shadow of the willow tree around her was.
It was likely a remnant spirit left after a willow demon failed its tribulation.
Xu Qing had learned a guardian spirit technique from Baiyun Daoist, a method named after the ’remnant spirit’ of a branch of family ancestors.
Within the family spirits, there are the Tombstone Immortals, also known as the Sad Immortals or Qingfeng Ghost Immortals.
These family spirits are the heads of ghost immortals in the horse whip hall, usually played by an ancestor who died with some cultivation.
Some ancestors, uneasy about the future of their descendants after their death, might even use a special method to form a remnant spirit to watch over and protect their progeny.
Some descendants may remain unaware, only seeing the manifestation of the remnant spirit when faced with demons or crises.
Liu Su’e’s ability to study opera in the old theater in the Western Market without being affected by dark energies was probably because the willow remnant spirit shielded her.
As for why Liu Su’e was unaware of this...
Xu Qing, being familiar with matters of life and death, naturally knew the reason.
It’s said that in the Netherworld, there are other shore flowers, whose leaves fall when flowers bloom, and flowers fall when leaves grow, but leaves nourish the flowers, akin to the human world and the Netherworld.
The remnant spirit has perished, like the fallen leaves of other shore flowers, while Liu Su’e, living in the human world, is like the blooming flower, and so cannot perceive the willow tree’s presence during this time.
"Brother Xu, I always feel like Aunt Liu is with me. Did you ask about the willow tree because you know something?"
"..."
I don’t know, don’t ask me!
Xu Qing underestimated a woman’s intuition or the bond between Boss Liu and the willow tree demon.
"Boss Liu..."
"As long as Brother Xu tells me the truth, I am willing to promise anything."
"..."
Xu Qing raised an eyebrow and changed his approach, "Are you sure you’re willing to promise anything?"
"Brother Xu has a great kindness to me, naturally different." Liu Su’e bit her lip lightly, placing her hands by her skirt and twisting her fingers, saying a phrase full of meaning.