The Tycoon's Enchanted Mermaid-Chapter 64 - : Merfolk

Chapter 64: Chapter 64: Merfolk

The young girl’s palm was as white and tender as snow, her fingers slender like top-grade suet jade, her nails neatly rounded, soft and adorable—an undoubtedly gorgeous hand.

Master Ting Chan took only one glance and said unhurriedly, “The lines are blurred and unclear, the life line breaks right at the start, your palm line suggests an early demise. When did you die?”

Ah Da’s heart tightened slightly, she shook her head and replied, “I don’t know, I only remember being in the incense burner for about a thousand years or so.”

“A thousand years, in a sense, you’ve also achieved longevity,” Master Ting Chan said half-jokingly.

“Longevity?” Ah Da’s brow furrowed slightly, confusion evident on her stunningly beautiful face, that word seemed familiar to her.

“In ancient times, people’s pursuit of everlasting life almost reached the point of madness, especially emperors and generals. They would use their power to summon all the world’s talented individuals, gathering exotic treasures and creatures from the four seas. Countless emperors died from so-called Elixirs of Immortality; little did they know that everlasting life is but a delusion—with death certain for all, dust returns to dust, and earth to earth.”

...

Master Ting Chan, speaking with a hint of irony, extended two wrinkled fingers, lightly touching Ah Da’s palm, tracing something as if the tips were a brush flowing lightly as a cloud in the breeze.

Ah Da’s eyes widened as Master Ting Chan’s fingers moved like a divine brush, effortlessly leaving behind a faint gold trace on her skin that vanished in an instant.

After a while, Master Ting Chan withdrew his hand, picked up the tea on the table, and drained it in one gulp, pondering before saying to Qin Yu, “As I suspected, this young girl’s soul is fragmented, the situation is quite complex, not very promising at all.”

Qin Yu looked up and said, “Others have said as much.”

Master Ting Chan stroked his white beard and added, “There could be two reasons for this. First, her soul might have suffered persecution causing a loss of some part. Second, after death, her body wasn’t intact, like missing arms or legs. I’m inclined to believe the latter because her currently fragmented soul also appears to have signs of having been pieced together…”

Master Ting Chan did not continue and looked at Ah Da with a somewhat indecipherable gaze.

“Such a soul should have dissipated long ago. That incense burner both a blessing and a curse for you. Now that you’re out of it, using the incense burner to burn incense and absorb Spiritual Power is just a drop in the bucket. Over time, maintaining a human form will likely become impossible.”

Qin Yu frowned, “How do we solve this?”

Could she really only live in the incense burner forever? Besides, with the seal broken, even returning would be of no help.

“Of course, you have to find all the missing pieces,” Ting Chan brought together two pieces of broken jade on the tea table, “Like this.”

Piece the whole together.

Qin Yu turned to look at Ah Da, and their eyes met. The young girl’s eyes, clear as day with stark black and white, sat quietly and obediently listening. From the first time he saw her in a dream, she had always been pure and innocent, almost without a trace of darkness.

It was hard to imagine what could have happened to her.

The deep meaning behind the phrase ‘body not intact’ made Qin Yu somewhat fearful to even think about it. He merely took her small hand, “We can’t just be searching for a needle in a haystack, right? What specifically are we looking for? Incense burner pieces?”

Ting Chan stood up, stretched toward the window, and sighed, “Hard to say. It could be pieces of the incense burner, or perhaps a vase, or buried under the sea or in the earth. If you ask me, searching for a needle in the ocean would be simpler—at least the needle is in the sea, but for her, it’s uncertain if the pieces even exist.”

“Unless, she can remember the past.”

Remember the past?

Ah Da’s eyes brightened then dimmed again. As for the past, she wasn’t without effort in trying to recall; it was just futile, as if those memories had been completely excised from her mind.

She had no idea why she was in the incense burner, nor how she came by her little treasury. For a long time, it seemed she had been living in a haze.

“Time stretches on endlessly, the sea changes to mulberry fields, all things are illusions, what truly remains unchanged?” Master Ting Chan sighed deeply.

Ah Da was in a daze, never before had she so clearly felt she had spent too long in the incense burner, far too long.

Indeed, as the saying goes, “seas change into mulberry fields”—could it be that she had simply forgotten a period of her memory? Could there be important people she had forgotten as well?

Master Ting Chan suddenly turned his head, his gaze sharp as a hawk’s, “I hear from the Qin family lad that you can shed tears that turn into pearls?”

Ah Da snapped back to reality and nodded, “Yes, they turn into pearls.”

“That’s it, then,” chuckled Master Ting Chan. “Humans cannot shed tears that turn into pearls, not in life and not in death either.”

Ah Da felt as if a heavy stone was pressing on her heart, overwhelmed by too much information to sort through at once.

“I… Qingtong Jianyi also said before that I am some kind of mermaid, but I don’t have a fish tail.”

Subconsciously, Ah Da had always seen herself as human; she was identical to humans in every way, except that her tears could turn into pearls.

Master Ting Chan poured tea with a raised hand and said with a smile, “That sword was not wrong. However, ‘mermaid’ is a term from foreign lands. Here, we call them ‘Merfolk.’”

Ah Da muttered softly, “Merfolk? Am I a Merfolk?”

“The ancients say, ‘Merfolk dwell in the South Sea, with fish tails and human torsos, beautiful in appearance and skilled in weaving thin silk. They enter the water without getting wet, and their tears can turn into pearls,’” recounted Master Ting Chan. “However, whether you are a Merfolk now is not important. The moment you stepped out of the incense burner and the seal was lifted, there was no turning back. So, what’s important is, do you want to live on?”

“Not relying on the incense burner, nor dependent on it, but to live freely and at will, just like Qingtong Jianyi.”

Each word struck Ah Da’s heart. She looked at him, and after a long while, she nodded gravely:

“I do.”

She had lived in the incense burner for far too long; having finally seen the light of day, she did not want to simply vanish.

Had she never come out, perhaps she could have continued to curl up inside that space of the incense burner, like a bird trapped in a cage, listening to and observing the outside world every day.

But she had come out, met many people, and experienced much; she did not want to go back, nor did she want to die.

Master Ting Chan clapped his hands together and said, “Then you’ll need to find the other items that contain pieces of your soul. Since you can’t remember, perhaps it’s time to try a different approach.”

“Speaking of which, this incense burner really is a treasure.”

Master Ting Chan tapped the wooden box placed under the tea table, which held the Green Jade Incense Burner brought by Qin Yu.

“It’s made of pure jade; should be quite valuable.”

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“How about gifting the incense burner to me? Every ten days or so, I’ll channel Spiritual Power into the little girl to sustain her body. What do you think?” Master Ting Chan’s eyes darted around as his mind raced with calculations.

“Alright.” Qin Yu, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke up, a faint smile on his handsome, composed face. He gently parted his lips, “Choose one or the other.”

Master Ting Chan was not pleased and began to mutter and grumble.

“Can’t I have both? Has the Qin Family gone bankrupt? Let me divine—no, it has not.”

Qin Yu said, “You can have both, if you come down from the mountain and stand by 24 hours a day until her soul is whole.”

“You want me to work for you? And for 24 hours at that; even beasts of burden have it better as they can rest at night, you, you, you…”

Master Ting Chan struggled to find the words, and finally, his frustration bubbled over. He flopped back into his seat and waved his hands dismissively, “Forget it. I cannot accept rewards without merit. Take the incense burner and go, all of you, just leave. I find it irritating to even look at you.”