Jun Wu Xie inspected the body carefully, and she found no pulse, no heartbeat and the body was icy cold. He was dead, but Jun Wu Xie did notice something strange.
Jun Gu’s flesh was still soft, and his limbs had not stiffened. This did not correlate to his time of death. The condition the body was in, would only be possible if the person had just died.
Ten years, flesh that did not rot, limbs not stiffened, totally illogical.
Jun Gu’s body had nothing else unusual, so…..
Jun Wu Xie’s gaze drifted subconsciously to the piece of Jade in Jun Gu’s mouth. That must be the Soul Jade that was sought after.
It was important enough for the Qing Yun Clan to mobilize a significant force to come to this distant kingdom to personally to retrieve it. There had to be more than meets the eye.
Could it be that, what kept Jun Gu’s body in its untouched condition, was none other than the Soul Jade?
Jun Wu Xie stretched her hand out to the Soul Jade.
The cool clear surface brushed her fingertips. Suddenly, a foreign force shot through Jun Wu XIe’s fingertips and directly to her brain.
She heard an explosion in her head, and all her thoughts and considerations were scattered by the force that hit her.
A strong force was pulling at her soul incessantly, feeling as if a huge vortex that had opened up within her, threatening to suck away her soul!
“MEOW!!” The black beast was in torment as well!
The force surged throughout their bodies, growing stronger and stronger!
“Wu Xie!” Suddenly, Jun Qing saw the pained Jun Wu Xie as she fell backwards, as though all strength had been sucked right out of her.
Jun Qing quickly stretched out his arms and caught her firmly in his embrace.
When her fingertips were detached from the Soul Jade, the pulling force stopped immediately. Jun Wu Xie laid in Jun QIng’s arms, panting heavily. Her eyes were wide with shock at what had just happened, her heart still beating fast.
The total loss of control of her soul that she felt, that sickening feeling that her soul would be sucked out of her in the next second, was something Jun Wu Xie had never experienced before.
It had been just a light and brief touch on the Soul Jade and it had sucked all her strength from her. Sweat soaked through her clothes, her tiny face pale, drained of colour.
Jun Wu Xie’s pale countenance frightened Jun Qian and Jun Qing.
“Wu Xie! Are you alright?” Jun Xian’s heart had cringed when Jun Wu Xie had suddenly fallen and she looked pale as a ghost. He remembered what Jun Wu Xie was doing just now and he turned to look at the coffin, staring fixedly at the Soul Jade in Jun Gu’s mouth.
Wu Xie had touched the Soul Jade just before it happened. Did the Soul Jade possess extraordinary powers?
Jun Xian turned to look at her pale faced granddaughter, then he turned to look at the untouched body of his son in the coffin, and reached out his hand for the Soul Jade.
“Grandfather! NO!” Jun Wu Xie clasped her hands to her chest, and screamed.
Volume 2
Chapter 197: “Unseal the Coffin (4)”
Jun Wu Xie could not stop him, and Jun Xian touched the Soul Jade. It’s cold and smooth surface was felt through his fingers and Jun Xian frowned. He….. did not feel anything unusual.
“Wu Xie, what happened to you? Please don’t frighten us.” Jun Qing held Jun Wu Xie tightly, eyes filled with deep concern. When Jun Wu Xie had been affected earlier, the black beast had shown signs of torment as well, and the beast was still panting heavily, lying on the ground. In that brief moment, Jun Wu Xie and the black beast seemed to have sustained great injuries and they looked to be in rather bad condition.
With Wu Xie and her contractual spirit struck at the same time, it was rather worrying to see.
“I’m fine.” Jun Wu Xie shook her head to clear up the dizziness within and tried to focus on the task at hand. The torment the force inflicted on her earlier was not so much pain on her flesh, but a terrifying strike at her soul. She struggled to stand, and looked at Jun Xian.
“Grandfather, you are fine?” She looked at the hand that was still in contact with the Soul Jade.
Jun Xian turned and walked towards his granddaughter and released his hand from the Soul Jade.
“Of course I am fine, are you feeling better?”
Jun Wu Xie nodded, but was feeling rather puzzled. When she had touched the Soul Jade, it had struck powerfully at her soul, but looking at Jun Xian, he had seemed to be totally unaffected. What could be causing it?
“Meowww.” The black beast had crawled over to her after it saw Jun Wu Xie struggling to stand and lowered its head while it whined pitifully to rub against the back of her hand.
[It was such a terrible feeling, I had thought I would never want to go through it again…..’]
The black beast was feeling rather depressed and melancholy.
Jun Wu Xie was startled. She looked down at the black beast and asked: “Again?”
Black beast nodded.
“Meorrrw”
[Before I merged with you, when my soul was detaching from my body, it was the very same feeling.]
Having heard from the black beast, Jun Wu Xie finally understood what they had experienced earlier. If her guess was right, the Soul Jade was capable of drawing out the soul of a being, but its capabilities were somehow limited.
She was not the original soul that inhabited this body, hence her soul was not entirely stable and complete in it. Jun Xian’s soul was complete in his own body thus the Soul Jade had no effect on him.
This piece of Soul Jade here, was capable of absorbing incomplete and unstable souls, and Jun Wu Xie did not like that one tiny bit.
But, the Soul Jade’s capability to absorb unstable souls did not explain why Jun Gu’s body did not decompose.
Can it be that, the Soul Jade held more untold secrets?
Jun Wu Xie frowned in consternation, she was certain that Jun Gu’s body, having been preserved in such a good condition, definitely had something to do with the Soul Jade. If the Soul Jade was taken out, Jun Gu’s body would rot and decompose in time.
Staring at the the perfectly preserved body of Jun Gu in the coffin, Jun Wu Xie was reluctant to disturb his peace.
“Grandfather, I have something to discuss with you.” And Jun Wu Xie walked towards Jun Xian.
“I do not intend to hand the Soul Jade over to the Qing Yun Clan. Moreover, my father’s body could very possibly be preserved in perfect condition by the Soul Jade. If we remove the Soul Jade, I’m afraid…..” Jun Wu Xie did not have to finish her sentence and Jun Xian understood the consequences.
Something that could preserve a dead body perfectly for a decade, it must definitely be one of a kind.
If he had not seen the body perfectly preserved, he might still give up the Soul Jade. But having seen his beloved eldest son’s face in his peace, he did not have the heart to defile it.
Volume 2
Chapter 198: “Unseal the Coffin (5)”
Jun Wu Xie saw the look on Jun Xian’s face and knew he was conflicted. Jun Xian did not want the Qing Yun Clan to lay their hands on Jun Family.
That thought had gone through Jun Wu Xie’s mind. Although the matter with Bai Yun Xian had been suppressed and kept hidden, Jun Wu Xie believed every wall has its cracks. Qing Yun Clan would find out the truth of the matter in time.
When that time came, the Qing Yun Clan would come after the Jun Family all the same.
In that case, offence was often the best defence!
“Alright.” Jun Xian sighed heavily. He could not make himself say it, to ask them to give up the Soul Jade.
Jun Wu Xie nodded, and spoke to Long Qi standing by their side: “Secretly move my father’s body back, and do not be seen.”
“Send it back?” Jun Wu Xie’s words had shocked the father and son and they looked at Jun Wu Xie, their eyes wide in surprise. “Wu Xie, don’t tell me you know of a way to let
your father…..” Nobody could blame the Jun Family father and son for harbouring hopes in their wishful thinking, as Jun Gu’s body had been preserved in such a perfect condition, and Jun Wu Xie had performed such miraculous feats repeatedly, surprising them all.
Jun Qing’s legs, Mo Qian Yuan’s poison…..
The Jun Family father and son could not help but wished, Wu Xie had a way to resurrect Jun Gu!
“I….. do not know of any ways now.” Jun Wu Xie’s mind was filled with ways to revive a person who had just died, as at the moment when people breathe their last, most were in a state of suspended animation and the organs in their bodies start to deteriorate before they die. But Jun Gu had been dead for ten years, and even if the Soul Jade had preserved the body in perfect condition, they had passed the critical time period that resuscitation techniques required.
A person dies when the soul leaves the body, even if Jun Wu Xie could restore Jun Gu’s body to be like one who was alive, what about his soul?
Without a soul, Jun Gu will remain a perfectly preserved body.
Jun Gu had been dead for ten years, his soul should have reincarnated.
There was one more thing that Jun Wu Xie wondered about.
The Soul Jade was capable of drawing in and absorbing the soul of a person. When Jun Gu had died, and before his soul left the body, did the Soul Jade absorb his soul?
If Jun Gu’s soul was really trapped in the Soul Jade, a resurrection might just be possible.
It was too bold an assumption and Jun Wu Xie did not dare share it with Jun Xian and Jun Qing.
Before she ascertained the facts of the matter, she did not want the father and son to suffer any more disappointment.
The Jun Family father and son looked rather crestfallen, but thinking back on it, they accepted it as reality. No one under the heavens had ever heard that resurrections were possible.
“We cannot leave my father here. The Qing Yun Clan knows that the other half of the Soul Jade is with us, they will just have to ask around a little, and they will know that the Soul Jade had been buried together with my father. It’s a matter of time for them to come straight to the grave to dig it up.” Jun Wu Xie reasoned.
Jun Gu’s coffin had been dug up and there was no point in putting in back.
Jun Xian understood Jun Wu Xie’s concerns and the reasons behind them, moreover after seeing Jun Gu’s body in that condition, he fully agreed with Jun Wu Xie’s decision.
The Rui Lin Army soldiers in the graveyard moved, silent as wraiths, loading the coffin onto the horse carriage. They then moved more earth from the surrounding areas to fill up the grave and made it look like the grave had been undisturbed for a decade.
Jun Wu Xie climbed back up atop the black beast, and allowed her thoughts to drift afar. If the Soul Jade can really bring Jun Gu back to life, she would keep not just the half the Jun Family possessed with them, she would not hand over the Soul Jade in Mo Qian Yuan’s hands to the Qing Yun Clan as well!
Volume 2
Chapter 199: “Soul Calming Jade (1)”
Jun Wu Xie had asked to leave Jun Gu’s body in her courtyard. As she was unable to touch the Soul Jade, Jun Wu Xie could only inspect Jun Gu’s physical body.
Her findings were beyond her expectations. Jun Gu’s body seemed as though it had been frozen when he died, and all his organs were still completely intact, with no signs of organ failure.
Ten years, not ten days, it could only be due to the Soul Jade. Jun Wu Xie could not think of any other reason that Jun Gu’s body could be so well preserved.
She knew from having touched the Soul Jade that it would exert an immense force to draw in unstable souls. When Jun Gu died, his body had been sent back to the Lin Palace immediately and was laid to rest the very next morning. That half of the Soul Jade had been placed in his mouth then and had stayed there ever since.
Jun Wu Xie had good reason to believe, that Jun Gu’s soul had not completely dispersed, and could very well be trapped within the Soul Jade.
If she could locate Jun Gu’s soul, and with his body in such a perfect condition, resurrection might not be an impossibility.
But she was faced with one big obstacle.
She could not initiate any contact with the Soul Jade, if she were to touch it, the Soul Jade would pull hard at her soul. A thorough inspection aside, she could not even see the back of the Soul Jade.
In regards to the Soul Jade, Jun Wu Xie could only look at it and the exasperation of only being able to guess was depriving her of much needed sleep.
Little Lotus toddled unsteadily on bare feet and came beside the coffin. He tiptoed and stretched his tiny form fully to peer in to look at Jun Gu’s face. He looked at Jun Gu and then he turned to look at Jun Wu Xie, his doleful eyes filled with amazement.
“Mistress! This big brother over here looks just like you!”
Little Lotus had seen Jun Xian, Jun Qing and Jun Wu Yao. He had seen all those that had blood relations to Jun Wu Xie, but this was the first time he saw someone that so closely resembled Jun Wu Xie.
Big brother….. Jun Wu Xie looked at the innocent faced Little Lotus and stretched out her hand to ruffle his hair and said: “He is my father.”
Big brother….. One was enough…..
“Father?” Little Lotus asked with his head tilted.
“Why does Mistress’ father have things from my Spirit World?”
Jun Wu Xie sat up, “Things from your Spirit World?”
Jun Wu Xie was not hearing Little Lotus mention of the Spirit World for the first time. She did not know what kind of place it was, but from what she heard from Little Lotus, it was not difficult to deduce that was where contractual spirits lived.
About this place that contractual spirits lived in, she had asked Jun Xian and Jun Qing about it when she first heard about it from Little Lotus, but they had never heard anything about it.
It was to be expected. Although many people had contractual spirits, they were usually either spirits of weapons, or spirits of animals. They were able to establish a form of bond through their link, but they very not able to communicate verbally. Little Lotus might have been a plant spirit, but he had the ability to transform into a human. This ability, had enabled Jun Wu Xie to be privy to information not known by others, from a contractual spirit.
“Isn’t that the Soul Calming Jade?” Little Lotus clambered clumsily up the coffin, needing all four of his limbs. His little finger pointed at the Soul Jade in Jun Gu’s mouth. “Ehh….. this Soul Calming Jade is broken. Why is it broken in half?” Little Lotus scratched his tiny head, baffled.
Genius Doctor: Black Belly Miss Volume 2 Page 22
