Chapter 646: Right Before Your Eyes, Far Away in the Sky
Sherris’s face lit up with surprise and a bright smile. She immediately bowed, performing a rather clumsy curtsy, as if imitating something she’d learned from somewhere. “Yes, Miss… uh, Eldest Miss!”
“Hehehe~” Lorna chuckled at Sherris’s flustered demeanor. For the little ghost who had been so lonely for so long, making a new friend was indeed a good thing.
Putting aside other matters, her agitated expression from seeing the remains just now had calmed down due to her conversation with Sherris. Her mental state now seemed suitable for the ritual.
“Lorna, excuse me for interrupting, but do you remember what we were going to do today?” I asked casually, probing.
“Huh? Oh, right! We’re going to get Mother’s remains!” Lorna instantly recalled. However, because the remains were no longer in this room, she had no stimuli to agitate her and was currently relatively normal.
“Just now, in a daze, I think I sensed a familiar aura, and I heard Mother calling me. Could it be…!” Lorna looked at me excitedly as she recalled the events.
“Yes, I retrieved them. Your remains and your mother’s. But I must emphasize again that you need to adjust your mood before seeing her. I don’t want to see you bound by the past and turn into a wraith again, and your mother certainly wouldn’t want that either,” I said.
“Mm!” I had already clearly explained the stakes to her before, including the ritual process and the meeting location. Therefore, Lorna had been psychologically preparing herself all these days.
Combined with the calming incense for the undead in the censer, Lorna had been able to control herself quite well until now.
“Little Via has already gone to your room with Older Brother Jayad to set up the scene. Once they’re done, you can go over. But this is the last time, okay? After you say goodbye to your mother, we’ll proceed with her burial,” I said.
“Mm, but later, can I still visit her at the cemetery?” Lorna’s eyes seemed to well up with tears. Although her body, being a ghost, was a hazy white, she must have been crying with red eyes.
“Of course, you can. We’ll go together,” I nodded.
“Eldest Miss, your Mother was a very kind person. She was always thinking of you and often mentioned your name beside me. She always wanted to come back to find you, so please be happy. Seeing you today, Mother must be very happy too,” Sherris advised.
Unexpectedly, her persuasion actually worked. Lorna adjusted her expression and managed a strained smile.
At this moment, Older Brother Jayad phased through the wall again. “The scene is set. We can proceed anytime.”
“Then let’s go, Lorna. Let’s go see your long-lost mother,” I said. Everything that needed to be done had been done. I couldn’t expect Lorna to restrain herself any further. From now on, it would be up to the ritual site.
We also phased through the wall and entered this vacant room. It was the place where Older Brother Jayad and I had first stayed, a room that had never been rented out due to it being haunted.
It seemed that now that Lorna had become more active recently, the accumulated dust and cobwebs in the room had all been cleared. I was surprised that the little ghost could actually clean a room.
A complex magic circle was drawn on the floor of the room. Several lit candles, along with some special spices and herbs, were also placed there.
According to Via, these items were all bought cheaply from the night market. Candles, ox blood, night-blooming jasmine, orchid, sophora root, and black peppercorns – all were inexpensive materials available in the market.
These materials were laid out on the floor and arranged into a magic circle, looking quite impressive. The two coffins were placed side-by-side in the center of the magic circle.
As soon as Lorna entered, her gaze was once again drawn to one of the coffins. She stared intently, completely oblivious to her surroundings.
I could also feel a faint aura in that coffin becoming active with Lorna’s arrival. It seemed eager to break free from the coffin and reunite with the daughter it had longed for day and night.
Even though Lady Shirley had died in a small village and was buried in a completely sealed tomb, her longing had traveled dozens of miles to Cando City, her former residence, to search for her daughter. Now that her daughter was right in front of her eyes, she naturally reacted.
I squatted down and slowly opened the coffin. A dried-up set of remains was neatly arranged inside. Because only bones were left, a large coffin wasn’t necessary. Moreover, a smaller coffin had the advantage of keeping the remains fixed in a relatively complete form, allowing them to be brought back while maintaining their human form.
Lorna could no longer hold back. The moment she saw her mother’s remains, tears streamed down her face. She reached out as if to touch her mother, but the five eerie pupils on the skull unnerved and made her feel a sense of unfamiliarity, preventing her from touching them.
Simultaneously, I clearly felt intense emotions emanating from the remains. A soul wanted to break free from its bone structure and hug its daughter.
Via placed a dark green stone, which looked like jade yet also like crystal, into the embrace of the remains. This was the most commonly used material in Undead Magic, a soul stone, a mineral that could also serve as hard currency in the black market and had the effect of strengthening the spirit body.
In addition, this entire magic circle had the effect of enhancing spirit bodies. This was Via’s purpose in setting it up in advance. We already knew that Lorna’s mother’s soul body was quite weak. She was now just a remnant soul. If we didn’t supplement her soul body, she might not even be able to manifest.
Fortunately, the progress was smooth. A large amount of soul energy flowed into the coffin. The soul stone in the middle of the remains also emanated a dark green light. A faint figure sat up, so faint that one might overlook it if not looking closely.
It was a kind and ordinary old woman, just like the one I had seen before. Her face was not mutated either. She looked at Lorna affectionately and reached out to embrace her daughter.
This scene was truly moving. The mother and daughter, separated by the realms of life and death, were finally reunited.
However, Lorna’s expression was strange. She was looking at her mother, but her gaze was lowered, focused on the remains, not on Lady Shirley’s face at all.
When her mother embraced her, Lorna opened her eyes in surprise and looked around. “Mom! Is that you? Mom!”
“Lorna, Mother is here.” Lady Shirley embraced Lorna, her eyes brimming with tears. I could hear her voice.
Yet, Lorna couldn’t hear her. She continued to look around blankly. “Mom, is that you? Mom, are you by my side?”
Via and Sherris both wore looks of slight confusion. Older Brother Jayad continued to gaze at the coffin. I understood – they couldn’t see Lady Shirley.
