Chapter 284 - Home Base

"See~ I told you they would come back on their own...You all worry for nothing~" Doctor Lou dismissively said as he lazily stretched out on a table with a yawn and stared at Qi Yin's back. 

He was currently in a pavilion, situated next to a roaring waterfall situated on the edge of the Qi temple. Doctor Lou had "followed" his sister home after running from the annoying meeting with the troublesome clan heads who were insisting on going to poking their noses where it did not belong.

Especially that annoying bickering trio of Feng, Han, and Long clans...Honestly, they should be thanking him for all his efforts and not questioning him, Doctor Lou thought with a pout. 

Although, Doctor Lou could understand that the disappearance of the four suns was something that affected their own closely so it was natural they were defensive. They seemed even more worried than the three people who were directly affected by this phenomenon - they did not even show up to the meeting.

Then again, for a long time now Doctor Lou has not been able to tell what was going on the heads.

They all changed since that time, even he changed...Only Qi Yin here seemed to have remained the same or perhaps, she remained grounded to hold them all up. After all, she was the one directing things in the background in those early days. 

Although, them not showing up was good because then the Qi siblings were left in charge of things, and so Qi Lou, Doctor Lou technically did not have to answer to anyone. So naturally, Doctor Lou disagreed with anyone going to check things out and told them it would all be fine with some time.

He kept signaling for Qi Yin to chime in and support him since, for some reason beyond him, people seemed to find her more reassuring. But she stubbornly remained silent and just quietly sat there, leaving poor Doctor Lou to sort things out on his own. 

But thankfully mid-meeting, just before things were starting to get rowdier, the uninvited wedding guests returned to their positions, silently and mysteriously as they had left instantly brightening up the dark sky.  

Their return naturally cooled the tension and then the focus shifted to where they went, Qi Yin was nice enough to remain silent and Doctor Lou obviously did not divulge. He simply announced that it was a good sign, nothing to worry about. It was simply the universe doing a bit of...rethinking?

And with that said, Doctor Lou announced they were busy, grabbed his sister, and hightailed it out of there and went to go find Long Jian.

It was normal for the other two, Feng Lifen and Han Shen to be absent from such meetings, in fact, them being present would be abnormal. But Long Jian took his rule very seriously and would never be missing in action in such a chaotic situation. They arrived at his palace, but they were barred from entry by his guards and were informed that he was not seeing anyone right now. 

Other than fighting their way through, there was nothing else they could do and so Doctor Lou followed Qi Yin home, and here they were.

Qi Yin ignored Doctor Lou and continued standing there with her back turned to him observing the four suns, that looked completely normal and "innocent" after causing so much panic with their otherworldly adventures.

Doctor Lou looked up at Qi Yin and grumbled, "...I don't know if you've noticed but your wine cellar is empty..." Qi Yin still did not respond and so he went, "Ah, but you can't blame me for that! You left me alone waiting here for so long with no one to keep me company, naturally I had to entertain myself by myself -"

"And whose fault is it that no one is here?" Qi Yin irritatedly asked, finally turning around, "Also...I never invited you here." She added as she sat down on the table on her side of the pavilion and poured herself a cup of tea.

Doctor Lou sat up and folded his arms and squinted at her, "In case you've forgotten, this is my home too...I don't need your invite."

"A home you abandoned..." Qi Yin calmly responded as she took a sip of tea. 

Doctor Lou frowned and mumbled, "I just needed some space..." 

"Some space from here but not space from Taohua temple..."

Doctor Lou blinked and pouted at the waterfall. After a while, he finally said, "You know I don't stay there anymore. If you paid attention to anything besides yourself, you would know that I handed it over to Xiao Feng and Xiao Han a long time ago. Hmph! You don't even know your own student's history and you call yourself a master -"

"We do not discuss frivolous matters..." Qi Yin loftily responded narrowing her eyes at him.

Doctor Lou rolled his eyes, "Of course...if you were a tad bit more fun, I would naturally visit here more often..." He finished pulling at his long beard. 

Qi Yin let out a breath in annoyance and put down her cup loudly, "Why are you here?"

"To talk." Doctor Lou said with a pout, "I told you I've been patiently waiting to for you for a long time - Twice now I've come here and you ignored me. Hmph! I always make time for you...You're unfair."

Qi Yin rolled her eyes and then went, "Fine...what do you want?"

Doctor Lou snickered, "I knew you would be interested...So I've come across a few things recently that have left me confused so -"

"Something besides what happened today?" Qi Yin asked with a frown.

Doctor Lou pouted again and swiftly waved his hand, "Forget today..." He then leaned forward on his table and tentatively asked, "Have you ever handled a person's soul essence before?"  

Qi Yin looked at him skeptically, hesitated for a long time before finally admitting, "A time or two..."

"You have?" Doctor Lou exclaimed, eyes widening in surprise, "Why didn't you tell me? And here I thought you never did anything fu-"

"It's nothing for you to know! I - I just had a few...accidents." Qi Yin admitted with difficulty. 

Doctor Lou immediately fell over laughing, "So you can have accidents?! Here I thought you were perfect and would never dab-

"If you have nothing more to say then leave, I'm busy!" Qi Yin cut in, glaring at the Doctor Lou.

Doctor Lou promptly stopped laughing and sat up, "Fine...so stingy!" Squinting at her

"Says the one actively doing things behind my back..." Qi Yin said squinting back at him.

"Let's not get sidetracked!" Doctor Lou swiftly said, not wanting to talk about today's strangeness at all. "Soooo...have you ever cleansed someone's soul essence before?"

"Cleansed?" Qi Yin exclaimed with a frown, "Don't tell you're actually thinking ab-"

"I'm not thinking about anything!" Doctor Lou swiftly defended, pulling his beard, "Don't make any false assumptions...It's just a - a research project...I'm theorizing." 

"Does this have anything to do with the issue with your hand?" Qi Yin asked narrowing her eyes.

"Not important!... Anyway, here's the theory...So say, I- You or someone else were to get some soul essence of a certain unimportant other individual...say, the soul essence was somewhat, maybe a little bit corrupted... so say you, for example, cleanse the soul essence with your own soul essence and it became brilliant and bright so you sent it along..."

Qi Yin knit her brows as she listened to her explain his "theory". Doctor Lou squinted and then went, "Pay attention, here's the tricky part...If, and I say if because this is all theory based, don't make an-" 

"Just get to your point..." Qi Yin said with an irritated breath.  

Doctor Lou pursed his lips and then cleared his throat and continued, "So if...just if, that same soul essence starts to become a bit, just a bit corrupted again...In this case, is it the same corruption that was cleansed before? - which would mean it actually wasn't completely cleansed before and in this case, does that mean that it is impossible to fully cleanse another person's soul essence or did I mi - do you know of a way for me or you or someone else to do that....theoretically." He added for clarification.

"....Or is it a new corruption setting in? - in which case, does it mean that the fact that the core soul was once or maybe still is corrupted makes it more susceptible to a new corruption or -? What do you think?..." Doctor Lou asked expectantly looking at Qi Yin as he stroked his beard.

Qi Yin frowned, "What are you - Forget it." Qi Yin finished with a sigh, "I will just respond to your inquiry. A soul is cleansed from the inside out, from within and not the other way around that is why it is not exactly something someone else can do for you..."

"...Your soul essence remains connected to your core soul, if the source of a river is contaminated, whatever water flows from it will forever remain contaminated unless you can isolate the part from the whole. But physical links are easy to detach, the invisible links of the soul are impossible to detach. With a river, it's as simple as taking a bowl of water but I'm not sure it's possible with a soul. No, it's impossible ..."

Doctor Lou frowned and pulled at his beard and did not say anything. Qi Yin quietly observed him for a while and then sighed, "Get that idea out of your mind. If it were simple as a cleanse, then father - we would have done so already...Just let it go."

"As I said, it's just a theory...You should pay attention." Doctor Lou indignantly responded, "I have always warned you to stop making assumptions. Not goo-"

"My assumptions have never been wrong..." Qi Yin flatly said.

"Well, there's a first time for everything!" Doctor Lou folding his arms on the table to rest his head and stared at the rapidly flowing water heading down into the waterfall.

Qi Yin sighed again and then said, "Be sure to tell your Xiao Ying to be sure to return here...I've decided to leave things alone but if I go back there, I can't be sure what I'll do." 

"I can't talk to Xiao Ying if I'm here...She doesn't have the bracelet." Doctor Lou quietly responded without looking up.

Qi Yin frowned, "What happened to the bracelet?"

Doctor Lou did not respond. After a while of quiet, he repositioned his head and pouted at Qi Yin, "I want to eat." 

"There's no food here." Qi Yin irritatedly responded, unhappy at being ignored.

"Wine then"

"You emptied my cellar."

"Fine...tea."

"There's only enough for one here."

Doctor Lou sat up, glaring at Qi Yin, "Hmph! You should naturally cater to your guest and should naturally, at least hand over your tea!" 

Qi Yin leisurely refilled her cup of tea and offhandedly said, "As I did not invite you and as you so brilliantly stated earlier, you are no guest here...if you want something, go get it yourself~" She said as she blew over her cup of tea and took a sip, ignoring her brother.

Doctor Lou frowned at her and then looked down at the kettle and it suddenly flew over to him and he grabbed it before Qi Yin could react. 

"Hah!" Doctor Lou went as he poured the tea straight into his mouth and then hugged the kettle so she could not get it back, "Next time, share~" He smugly said with a snicker. 

Qi Yin frowned at him and then let out an irritated breath, "Rather than worrying about tea and about cleansing someone else's corruption, you should be worrying about getting rid of the one on your arm before it gets worse..."

Doctor Lou blinked at her and his eyes shifted oddly, "It'll be fine...It's something small..." 

"Small or not, deal with it." Qi Yin said, standing up with a sigh, "As for Xiao Ying, I can already imagine what she is trying to achieve with her actions. But even if you want to spoil a child, there should still be boundaries in her actions, taking over someone else's life to gain love is not acceptable...If one was to gain the love of another, it should be for who they are and not for a facade..."

Doctor Lou suspiciously looked up at her, "Why do I get the sense that you also talking to me?" He asked squinting at her.

"Because I am..." She said squinting back at him

"Hmph! What do you know? It's not like you've ever been in love before..." Doctor Lou indignantly responded pouting, looking away from her. 

Qi Yin froze and simply blinked at Doctor Lou. When he did not hear a comeback, Doctor Lou cast a side glance and then his eyes went wide as he came to a realization. He promptly turned to her and went, "You have? With who?" He never heard anything about anyone in her life, ever!

"None of your business!" She loudly responded, shocking both her and Doctor Lou, she blinked and then cleared her throat, "I'm giving Xiao Ying three days to report here...You...You can stay as long as you like to take care of yourself." She finished and then swiftly turned and scurried out the pavilion and disappeared into the surrounding trees. 

Doctor Lou sat there blinking after her. He c.o.c.ked his head and stroked his long beard as he thought hard about who this "love" of his sister's could be. "Forget that..." Doctor Lou said with a sigh. 

He put down the teapot and looked down at his hand, at the black vines still wiggling about. It was not the first time, so he was not at all worried about it. He was feeling more anxious about other things more important than himself.

He stood up and walked to the edge of the pavilion and stared at their colorful sky brightened by the three celestial bodies. His eyes fixated on the dark one, which seemingly gave off no light of its own like the other three.

{...It will all be fine...soon...I'm sure of it...}