Chapter 228

I and Yao Wenju studied carefully for a long time, discovering that Yang Shouyi had a serious problem. Yao Wenju suggested going together to the Yang family, I had no objection, thinking it was a good suggestion. A face-to-face confrontation might just bring the truth to light.

I did not drive back the car borrowed from the Yang family, but instead got into the car prepared by Yao Wenju.

In the car, Yao Wenju received a phone call; it was his subordinate calling him, likely having found background information on Ye Qi.

After hanging up, Yao Wenju told me Ye Qi's background in full. He said, this woman Ye Qi was met by Yang Shouren during his trip to Malaysia; she had been orphaned since childhood, with only a foster mother. However, that foster mother died not long after Ye Qi married Yang Shouren. Worth mentioning is that Yao Wenju's subordinates, while investigating the foster mother's pre‑death bank transfer records, discovered several large sums of money sent from abroad.

Following this lead and investigating carefully, the first remitter's account holder was Yang Shouyi. To conceal the trail, Yang Shouyi would transfer the money several times before finally sending it to Ye Qi's foster mother. Moreover, this money was sent before Ye Qi even knew Yang Shouren.

"In that case, Yang Shouyi knew Ye Qi even before she married into the Yang family—this person really is cautious in his actions!" The focus of suspicion once again pointed to Yang Shouyi and Ye Qi.

"No matter how cunning the fox, it will eventually show its tail! However, I have no interest in the Yang family's internal squabbles; my purpose in accompanying you to the Yang family is solely to recover the losses owed to my Yao family," Yao Wenju said.

I gave him a sideways glance, saying, "Do you really need to be so petty? After all, we are both orthodox inheritors of the Plowshare Witch Sect."

Yao Wenju snorted, retorting: "You talk as if not eating or drinking could let you fly to immortality. Nowadays, living in this society, where doesn't one need money? Besides, the foundation of my Yao family was built by our ancestors; you say discard it and it's discarded."

Just as we were speaking, the car suddenly jolted, making me and Yao Wenju in the back seat shake twice. The cigarette Yao Wenju had been holding in his mouth fell onto the car floor.

"Xiao Zhang, what's going on?" Yao Wenju looked at the young driver.

Xiao Zhang in the front seat gave an apologetic smile and said, "No problem, no problem; maybe there was a stone on the road just now, causing the car to bump when it rolled over it."

This minor hiccup didn't bother us much; I and Yao Wenju continued sitting in the car, chatting about everything, occasionally talking about the Plowshare Witch Sect and also about folk Daoist lineages. It's rare that I and Yao Wenju get a chance to sit together.

"By the way, Elder Brother Wen, since we still have a little time before reaching the Yang family, why don't you take this opportunity to tell me about the witch families? I'm curious why some call the witch clan the Zhu You Witch Sect while others call it the Plowshare Witch Sect. Is there any connection between the two?"

"Have you heard of white witchcraft and black witchcraft?" Yao Wenju asked me with a smile.

I nodded, saying I had heard of them, but I didn't know the specific differences between white and black witchcraft.

Yao Wenju spread his hands and gave an analogy: "You can regard the Zhu You Witch Sect as white witchcraft and the Plowshare Witch Sect as black witchcraft, because our two families have different emphases. The Zhu You Witch Sect focuses on using talismans and medical theory, plus the Thirteen Needles, to cure disease and save people. The Plowshare Witch Sect, meanwhile, masters various subterranean suppression secret arts, using the Plowshare Talisman to ruin the feng shui qi flow of yin and yang dwellings, and employs talismans to punish evildoers."

"Of course… you can't therefore conclude that the Zhu You Witch Sect is white witchcraft and the Plowshare Witch Sect is black witchcraft. The names of black and white witchcraft are merely labels laid on by laypeople forcing a distinction; they call the good arts white witchcraft and the poisonous arts black witchcraft. However, within both the Plowshare Witch Sect and the Zhu You Witch Sect, both black and white witchcraft are studied, only the two families' emphases differ."

Yao Wenju held nothing back, leisurely recounting the origins of the witch families.

He said the origin of the witch sect can be traced back to antiquity. In antiquity, doctors were witches, the people closest to spirits and gods. Pretty much all ethnic groups worldwide were the same. Witches used their magic to command spirits, to relieve disasters, rescue people, and cure illnesses. They could even raise the dead. Therefore, in ancient times the two words "witch" and "doctor" were always linked. Later, when medical treatment using drugs was invented, doctors who did not use witchcraft appeared, and only then did "witch" and "doctor" separate.

? The Prayer-and-Incantation Witch Sect are descendants of witches; their origins are ancient. In the Eastern Han, Zhang Lu established the Ghost Dao Sect, which served ghosts and was an offshoot of the witch tradition. In the Northern Wei, Kou Qianzhi advocated Daoism, removing the "ghost" character to indicate they served gods not ghosts, and also adopted Laozi's philosophical foundation, thus becoming a new religion. After the Tang and Song dynasties, the Prayer-and-Incantation Witch Sect has always been considered heretical by the Daoist orthodoxy and excluded, yet in many Daoist traditions, the witch sect's talismanic arts are actually blended in.

The Plowshare Witch Sect is a school that formed only later. Its emblem is the plowshare talisman. Don't look down on this tiny plowshare talisman; its effect can be great enough to cause the foundations of a yin residence to collapse, or small enough to bring a person relentless misfortune, making life worse than death.

Of course, there is no inherent good or evil in the law; every school's existence is justified. Although most of the effects produced by the plowshare talisman are negative, I believe that our ancestors created this school not to teach disciples to harm people. Initially, the Plowshare Witch Sect punished only those who committed the ten unforgivable evils that ordinary human power could not punish.

Yao Wenju's explanation greatly broadened my horizons and also refuted some of my previous mistaken beliefs. However, we did not delve deeper into the various talismanic witchcraft of the witch sect. It wasn't because Yao Wenju was hiding it; rather, we all discovered something very strange.

When Yao Wenju and I set out, it was just after four in the morning; we had walked for over an hour, and by rights the sky should have been light. Yet Xiao Zhang kept the car lights on, and the sky not only failed to show any dawn, it grew darker and darker.

I was in the back seat, looking through the windshield at the road ahead; I saw that everything ahead was pitch black, the road itself vanished, the air filled with thick fog, a hazy expanse with no visible edge.

"Wen Ge, look? Our cars are gone." I glanced back unintentionally and was startled again. When we arrived, Yao Wenju had brought two carloads of people; before we set off, two Hondas followed steadily behind us. But… now those two Hondas have vanished.

The image cast by the rear‑compartment lights remained a murky blackness, revealing nothing at all.

"Stop!" Yao Wenju frowned and shouted at Xiao Zhang in the front seat.

"Boss Yao, what's happening?" Xiao Zhang turned his head, puzzled and bewildered.

"Are you a pig or what? You've been driving so long and still can't see the road at all." Yao Wenju snapped at Xiao Zhang impatiently.

After being scolded like that, Xiao Zhang finally came to his senses. Still a bit dazed, he said, "I thought it was just because it was dark, so I couldn't see anything."

I have to say, Xiao Zhang is indeed overly muddled. From his face you can tell he must have overindulged in sensual pleasures last night, leaving him spiritually listless, listless in his actions, unable to notice even this simple yet strange thing. We left after midnight; even if the sky didn't brighten, it would never be this gloomy.

"Get out, let's see what's going on." Yao Wenju said coldly, opening the car door and preparing to step out. I also opened the door on the other side, getting ready to get out with him.

"Wait, don't get out that side—follow behind me!" Yao Wenju grabbed my arm, making me release my hold on the door latch; he was doing this out of concern for my safety.

"Oh, okay…" Yao Wenju did this to look out for my safety, not wanting me to come to harm. This small gesture shows even more that he is not a bad person.

Yao Wenju opened the car door first; I followed him out, and Xiao Zhang also got out from the front seat.

As soon as we stepped out, I immediately felt gusts of yin wind; at that moment we fully sensed the eeriness of our surroundings. This was certainly no highway, more like a desolate mountain wilderness, all around a murky blackness with no visible horizon.

Yao Wenju took out a flashlight and shone it; even the powerful beam failed to reach the ground, and he could find no obstacle—the strong light plunged into a bottomless abyss, never reflecting back.

Sensing something wrong, I immediately chanted a spell to open my spiritual eye. In my vision, the drifting strands of black qi in the air became clearer, yet I saw no trace of any ghostly beings.

Just then, Yao Wenju swiftly grabbed my left hand and glanced at the watch on my wrist. I wondered why he was looking at the watch, but when I lowered my head I saw that my watch had stopped, frozen at five o'clock in the morning.

"Strange, is the watch broken?" I tapped the watch.

"Don't bother tapping it!" Yao Wenju lit a cigarette, glanced around solemnly, and said gravely, "If nothing unexpected has happened, we must have entered a confusion‑casting trap set by someone else."

No sooner had Yao Wenju finished speaking than a strange hand shot out of the air; I sensed a yin wind lunging at my back and jerked aside, but Xiao Zhang wasn't so lucky—the strange hand seized his collar and dragged him backward.

By the time Yao Wenju and I reacted, the strange hand and Xiao Zhang had vanished without a trace, and the air echoed with the anguished scream Xiao Zhang had let out as he was pulled away.

In that voice lay a fear that made one's heart tremble; this ill‑omened place exuded a weirdness that made the scalp tingle.

This time, just where have Yao Wenju and I ended up?.