Everything happened too quickly.
Yan Shouyi and Long Feicheng were unable to help.
By the time everyone recovered, both the fox spirit and Meng Guohui had been stabbed by the dagger.
However, due to the fox spirit's resistance, the dagger only slightly injured Meng Guohui and did not strike his heart.
"Damn it!"
Long Feicheng, having regained his senses, grabbed a piece of rotten wood from the ground and beat Ding Li with it.
The wood snapped, but Ding Li remained standing, unmoving. He stiffly turned his head, staring at Long Feicheng with an eerie gaze.
Long Feicheng, refusing to believe it, found a shovel in the corner of the courtyard. He picked it up and swung it at Ding Li's head!
*Bang!*
Ding Li's head split open, blood gushing out. Long Feicheng felt his hands go numb.
Such force was more than enough to kill someone!
But what was terrifying was that Ding Li was still standing there, unmoving!
Yan Shouyi, standing at the second-floor window, suddenly sensed something was wrong.
Ding Li had no trace of a living person about him!
He was already dead!
But how could a dead person move as freely as a living one?
Yan Shouyi had only one answer in his mind: a corpse-driver.
Corpse-drivers, mainly distributed in the Xiangxi region, could control corpses through special methods, allowing the dead to walk like the living.
Ding Li had been in a critical state at the car accident scene. He must have died on the ambulance.
Immediately afterward, a corpse-driver controlled him to kill Meng Guohui.
This indicated that even Ding Li was not the true mastermind; behind him was a corpse-driver!
Meng Guohui had provoked not the fox spirit, but this corpse-driver…
Yan Shouyi shouted down, "Sanyuan, Little Long, you two cooperate. Listen to my commands. First, break Ding Li's legs!"
Long Feicheng weighed the shovel in his hand. "Brother Yan, we don't get charged for beating a dead person, right?"
"He's already dead. You'd be charged at most with desecration of a corpse…"
"But I'm a good citizen!"
"But if you don't break his legs, you'll have him bite off your neck!"
Hearing Yan Shouyi's words, Long Feicheng knew exactly what to do.
Sanyuan flapped its wings and lunged forward, drawing Ding Li's attention. Long Feicheng seized the opportunity for a sweeping strike, knocking Ding Li to the ground.
Then, Long Feicheng smashed Ding Li's knees repeatedly, dislocating his bones and rendering him unable to stand.
After all, Ding Li was just a corpse. If his legs could no longer support him, he would be reduced to crawling on his hands, posing no threat to Long Feicheng and the others.
Even with his legs broken, Ding Li was still struggling. Long Feicheng looked around, found a rope, and tied Ding Li to a tree.
At this moment, the seal in front of Yan Shouyi vanished. Freed, he quickly climbed out of the window and jumped down from the second floor.
"Brother Yan, what's going on?" Long Feicheng ran over, still shaken.
Yan Shouyi said grimly, "A corpse-driver controlled Ding Li to kill President Meng… Call Officer Xia Zhi first! And call an ambulance for President Meng!"
Long Feicheng glanced at the fox spirit and timidly asked, "Should we contact a veterinary hospital?"
"You're asking for a beating!" Yan Shouyi glared at Long Feicheng.
Long Feicheng quickly made the calls. Besides the police and ambulance, he also contacted Old Jin.
The fox spirit was seriously injured. Ordinary doctors might not be able to help, but Old Jin might have a way.
To their pleasant surprise, Old Jin was nearby and said he would ride his motorcycle over immediately.
Yan Shouyi approached Meng Guohui and the fox spirit.
Man and fox, pierced by the dagger, were pressed tightly together. Their bodies were covered in blood, making it impossible to tell whose it was.
The fox spirit's once snow-white fur was now stained crimson. The smell of fox was gone, replaced by the pungent scent of blood.
She was so weak that it was difficult for her to even keep her eyes open.
"Xiaoting… Xiaoting, don't leave me!" Meng Guohui cried, holding the fox spirit and enduring the pain.
Compared to the physical pain, the grief of losing a beloved once again was truly heart-wrenching.
The fox spirit weakly licked the tears on Meng Guohui's cheek, as if comforting him.
I'm also reluctant to leave you.
Meeting you, falling in love with you, is a destiny earned through countless past lives.
Yet, our rare love together lasted only twenty years.
I am truly… so reluctant.
Although the fox spirit could not speak, all her reluctance was written in her eyes. Yan Shouyi watched from the side, feeling his throat tighten, his cheeks ache, and his eyes water involuntarily.
Meng Guohui held the fox spirit and pleaded with Yan Shouyi, "Mr. Yan, please, help me save my wife!"
Yan Shouyi sighed. "It's not that I won't help. Although your wife has cultivated into a fox immortal, she is currently in the stage of merging her physical body with her soul. In other words, her physical body is her soul. Ding Li's stab was a fatal wound, and her soul might even dissipate… I am truly powerless."
Neither the ultimate techniques of the Qihuang School nor the Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate could help a fox spirit, even if they were effective on humans.
"Why is this happening…"
To comfort Meng Guohui, Yan Shouyi summoned Sanyuan, whispered a few words in its ear, and then said,
"Sanyuan can understand the fox spirit's language and can imitate human voices. Xiaoting, if you have anything you want to say to President Meng, please let Sanyuan convey it."
The fox spirit nodded gratefully at Yan Shouyi and, with great effort, uttered a few syllables.
Sanyuan imitated a woman's voice, speaking each word clearly: "I love you."
"I love you too," Meng Guohui said anxiously. "Even in the next life, and the life after that, I will find you!"
The fox spirit suddenly smiled, "In the last life, you said the same thing."
Meng Guohui's tears flowed uncontrollably. Recalling their past moments together, his heart was like a knife twisting, causing him unbearable pain, and he even cried out in agony.
Long Feicheng returned after finishing his calls. Seeing Meng Guohui wailing so miserably, he also felt sad.
"Damn corpse-driver, Brother Yan, we must find that bastard and make him experience President Meng's suffering!"
"Wait a minute… President Meng?"
Yan Shouyi suddenly realized that Meng Guohui's cries seemed a bit too painful, not from sorrow, but from agony!
The dagger!
The dagger that pierced them both had a talisman wrapped around its hilt. The talisman was now burning without fire, consuming Meng Guohui's soul!
The corpse-driver's methods were so malicious, intending to scatter Meng Guohui's soul!
Yan Shouyi rushed forward and pulled out the dagger, but it was too late. Meng Guohui's soul was already severely damaged, and his soul was in danger of dissipating at any moment!
Sanyuan, speaking for the fox spirit, asked, "What happened to him?!"
Yan Shouyi explained, "His soul is damaged. His condition is even worse than yours. His soul is in danger of dissipating at any moment!"
At this moment, the sound of a motorcycle was heard outside. Old Jin quickly ran in.
"Old Jin! You're here at the right time, come take a look!" Yan Shouyi, as if having found a savior, urgently called Old Jin over.
After understanding the situation, Old Jin's expression became grave. "President Meng is too severely injured. Even I cannot save him. The only way now is to send his soul to the underworld. Perhaps there it can be nourished by the waters of the River Styx, allowing his soul to recover… But not everyone can enter the River Styx, and the probability is almost negligible!"
In other words, Meng Guohui had no hope of survival.
Originally, it was the fox spirit who was supposed to die, but in the blink of an eye, Meng Guohui was about to die before her.
Accepting reality, Meng Guohui calmed down, forcing a smile through his sweat-covered face. "It's fine. We'll die together, reincarnate together, and perhaps in the next life, we'll have a chance to meet again."
The fox spirit lay on Meng Guohui, unable to stop her tears.
With her soul gone, what afterlife could there be?
Yan Shouyi and the others fell silent. Meng Guohui and the fox spirit were a pair of ill-fated lovers. Why couldn't they have a happy ending?
Fate played cruel tricks… Fate played cruel tricks!
Just then, Old Jin suddenly said, "There is one more way to save President Meng!"
Everyone's eyes snapped open. "What way?"
"A fox immortal loves only one person in her life. They can sacrifice their soul to save their beloved…" Old Jin said softly. "This is not a skill of our Qihuang School, but a legend I have heard."
Long Feicheng asked, "Is this legend true?"
Everyone looked at the fox spirit.
And indeed, the fox spirit, lying on Meng Guohui, began to emit strands of light.
These lights wiped away the bloodstains on her body, and she transformed back into the pristine, snow-white fox.
The legend was true.
The fox spirit was indeed going to sacrifice herself to save Meng Guohui!
Meng Guohui, realizing the fox spirit's intention, shouted, "Xiaoting, no!"
The fox spirit slowly said, "I am also about to dissipate. Let me do one last thing for you."
Yan Shouyi also tried to persuade her. "We'll send President Meng's soul to the underworld, and perhaps there will be a chance. You should reincarnate peacefully, and perhaps you can meet again in the next life… No, you will definitely meet! This is your destiny. You have endured so many lifetimes, and you are just one lifetime away from being together forever!"
The fox spirit shook her head. "Will the me of the next life still be me? The next life is too far away. I seize the day. I only wish that in this life, I leave no regrets…"
Hearing this, Yan Shouyi stopped trying to persuade her.
His heart seemed to be touched.
The next life is too far away. I seize the day.
Loving someone for twenty years is not enough; a lifetime is too short…
If it were her, she might do the same.
But Yan Shouyi himself, only now, seemed to understand this feeling.
"Don't go… don't go… Xiaoting…"
Meng Guohui tried desperately to stop her, but he was already on the verge of losing consciousness and could not move.
Everyone watched helplessly as the fox spirit's soul left her body, then transformed into starlight, and little by little, merged into Meng Guohui's body, repairing his soul.
Meng Guohui cried and shouted, but was powerless to stop it, only able to watch as the person he loved disappeared before his eyes.
The fox spirit closed her eyes, a smile on her face. It was a smile free of regret, full of contentment and happiness.
Her soul finally vanished.
Meng Guohui was able to live.
But for some reason, the outcome was not something anyone could be happy about.
From then on, for the rest of his life, Meng Guohui would be alone.
Moreover, no matter how many cycles of reincarnation they went through, they would never meet again.
Meng Guohui held the fox spirit's corpse, sobbing uncontrollably, repeatedly saying: We will meet again in the next life.
But everyone knew, they would never meet again.
Sanyuan stood on Yan Shouyi's shoulder and slowly spoke:
In past lives, I often looked back,
My waving handkerchief floated into a cloud.
So much longing, so much sorrow,
Finally became a watery trace to send me away.
In this life, I search for the lost footprints of past lives,
Trekking mountains and wading rivers, entering your eyes.
Five hundred glances back in past lives, exchanged for a fleeting encounter in this life.
I used a thousand glances back to earn a moment's pause before you in this life.
I asked Buddha: How many glances back does it take to truly enter your heart?
The Buddha was silent, and I could only look back repeatedly,
Like a moth flying into a flame,
Unconcerned with consequences, unconcerned with reasons.
Looking back, and looking back again,
Thousands of times, tens of thousands of times, you are in my eyes, and in my heart.
I look back repeatedly, anticipating your tenderness.
I look back repeatedly, longing for everlasting companionship.
…