On the Opera Stage, "Li Yunxiu," controlled by the Five-Headed Vengeful Ghost, sang the [Yellow Springs Opera]. Below it, his reincarnation a hundred years later, "Mei Sijun," sang the [Pure Heaven and Earth Divine Mantra]. An icy wind and a warm wind met over the river, stirring up waves that rippled outward in widening circles.
Qin Manjiang, Yang, Yan Xiao, and Shen Hai had initially been ready to help Mei Sijun at any moment.
But once that wondrous mantra rang out, the four had no room to think of anything else. They listened quietly, as though their bodies and souls had been purified.
On the Opera Stage, "Li Yunxiu" had the Ghost Opera Troupe accompanying her [Yellow Springs Opera], while Mei Sijun answered with the [Pure Heaven and Earth Divine Mantra] sung unaccompanied, relying on his voice alone.
Yet his voice was like a spring breeze. Though neither fierce nor soaring, it reached everywhere, light and deft, flying high over people's hearts, then thinning into a wisp of smoke, drifting in the wind and rippling over the water, unhurried and unbroken.
He sang it over and over, all alone, and the more he sang, the brighter Mei Sijun's eyes became.
He no longer agonized over who he was, nor wondered whether he could overpower his former "self" in this contest of rival performances. He simply wanted to sing.
Soon, his voice was all that remained over the vast river.
The cold and warm winds over the river seemed bewitched, entwining with each other and whipping up surging waves. Water splashed onto everyone's shoulders and faces. Qin Manjiang and the other three did their best to shield themselves, but they soon discovered that after all that turbulence, the river was actually receding!
The water that had reached their waists moments earlier