Chapter 184: Someone Came to the House (Begging for Monthly Passes!)

The Great Wei Wei Huoshi and Wei Yunhua, along with the others, gathered again with furrowed brows, trying to figure out a solution.

Wei Yunhua still felt: "There is absolutely no reason for these two ancestral craft objects to have any connection with those from the Evil Spirit Purification Bureau."

"This line of thinking was wrong from the very beginning!"

The Great Wei Wei Huoshi scratched his head; this was a habitual action he always made when thinking.

The good idea to "report the case" not long ago had been thought up this way.

The Great Wei Wei Huoshi gritted his teeth: "Let's first confirm whether they really have any connection with them."

"It has already escalated to this point; how can we still confirm it?"

"If he refuses to come to our place, then we will take these two ancestors and deliver them to him!" The Great Wei Wei Huoshi said, "If it is proven that it is indeed because of them... Wei Wei Wei Huoshi, you should go and beg Lady Xie Qingman. Xu Yuan must give the Deputy Chief Lawkeeper some face."

The Sister San Society possesses a complete set of rituals for activating the Hundred Diseases Cabinet and the Heart-Weighing Scale.

These two ancestors causing trouble is not simply a matter of refusing to work, diagnose illnesses, or prescribe medicine; the Fate-Bearers have already been replaced five times!

There is not a single person in the Sister San Society whose fate is heavy enough to suppress either of the two craft objects.

Therefore, special means were used, employing the method of "Fate-Bearers" to jointly shoulder the weight of the two craft objects.

Whenever these two ancestors cause trouble, they often bite a Fate-Bearer.

When bitten too many times, a replacement must be found.

The Sister San Society specially keeps some Fate-Bearers.

Their daily food and clothing are worry-free; they even arrange the food, clothing, housing, and transportation for their families.

When it is their turn to step up, they must be "kept in captivity," raised fat and plump; otherwise, they cannot withstand a single bite from the two craft objects.

They cannot be allowed to run away, so they must be covered with cages.

However, to make their fate appear more "precious," this "cage" is also incomparably luxurious.

When one batch of Fate-Bearers can no longer endure it, the second batch steps up.

But the Fate-Bearers at the Zhan Cheng branch have long been exhausted; this current batch consists of disciples from the branch who were selected by lottery to step up.

If these two ancestors return to normal, these disciples will definitely sense it.

So the Great Wei Wei Huoshi waved his hand: "Act immediately! Before Xu Yuan gets off duty, deliver these two ancestors to the entrance of the Nancheng Patrol Station."

In the afternoon, Fu Jingyu sorted through the various "materials" obtained from recent missions.

He then came to ask Xu Yuan: "We are preparing to send the materials back to the Southern Office together for the craft cultivators there to forge craft objects. Do you want to come along?"

Xu Yuan currently has two good materials on hand.

One is the mud face the size of a copper coin that was burned out of the Donation Body Temple.

The other is a coffin nail that was later burned out by the Funeral Assistance Gang.

"What remuneration do the craft cultivators at the office require?"

"You can pay directly in money. The labor fee for a Ninth-Rank craft object is fifty taels, for an Eighth-Rank it is one hundred, and for a Seventh-Rank it is one hundred and fifty."

"For Sixth-Rank and above, it must be negotiated face-to-face."

"Alternatively, you can offset it with merit you have established. Basically, the merit from slaying a Ninth-Rank evil spirit can offset one forging of a Ninth-Rank object."

The Evil Spirit Purification Bureau calculates merit very rigorously, which makes it appear complex.

For instance, one of Old Yan's important tasks is to calculate the merit of all personnel in the Southern Office.

It is not a matter of numerical values, but rather calculating the proportion of merit each participant receives within the same case.

Xu Yuan shook his head: "I don't need to."

His good materials would definitely be sent back to the stepmother.

The result would be better than what the office's craft cultivators produce, and it wouldn't cost any money.

Xu Yuan was just thinking about Lin Wanmo when Lin Wanmo, having asked her way all the way, arrived at the entrance of the Nancheng Patrol Station.

She was not a woman who had never seen the world and felt no fear of government offices.

With an upright posture and a calm expression, she stepped forward and said to the two Captains at the gate: "Trouble you, officers, to announce that someone has come to Xu Yuan's family."

The Captain looked at her and asked, "Who are you to Lord Xu?"

"I am his mother."

Seeing how young she was, the two Captains were about to shout and scold.

Lin Wanmo said, "I truly am his mother. If you don't believe me, you can first call out Yu Yunhang or Fu Jingyu; they have seen me."

The two Captains dared not scold recklessly; one ran inside quickly, while the other politely said to Lin Wanmo, "Please enter the gatehouse and wait for a moment."

Lin Wanmo nodded slightly, entered the gatehouse with a composed demeanor, and sat down elegantly.

Xu Yuan soon received the announcement, and immediately after, Lin Wanmo walked in accompanied by Yu Yunhang.

"Lin..." Xu Yuan was delighted and almost blurted out her name, but finally corrected himself: "Stepmother."

The subordinates understood: So she was the Lord's father's second wife.

"The family is worried, so they sent me to check on things," Lin Wanmo said.

Xu Yuan almost immediately thought of the scene where Aunt Wang angrily rebuked Elder Shen for "not caring about the child" and insisted that the stepmother should come to Zhan Cheng.

He couldn't help but smile.

"You all go down; we... mother and son have matters to discuss."

Yu Yunhang and the others then withdrew.

Lin Wanmo's expression immediately changed, and she said, "Someone has found their way to our home!"

Xu Yuan: "Did Fourth Uncle interrogate the soul?"

"Of course."

Xu Yuan then relaxed his expression: "Then we know both the enemy and ourselves; there is nothing to worry about."

"I originally intended to send someone to deliver a letter and tell you about this, but Aunt Wang and the others were so worried about you that they insisted I come personally..."

Xu Yuan had seen through her long ago.

If you truly didn't want to come, could Aunt Wang have forced you?

"The person behind this is Fu Shuanghui, the Chief Lawkeeper of Zancheng of the Shanhe Office, and she hails from the Fu clan of Songjiang!" Lin Wanmo emphasized the severity of the situation to Xu Yuan: "The Fu clan of Songjiang is a new surname that rose in the last two hundred years, and their power already far surpasses that of ancient great clans like the Fu family of Linzhou."

How did you offend her?"

The female Chief Lawkeeper, Fu Shuanghui, curled up her snake tail, and in her date-pit-shaped vertical pupils, a dark gray-blue surged like clouds and mist.

She slowly put down a piece of intelligence in her hand.

The opportunity has finally arrived!

"Is the intelligence accurate?"

A Shanhe Office patrol inspector kneeling below kowtowed: "Eight brothers were sacrificed before we finally managed to spy this out clearly!"

That thing already took shape two hundred years ago.

Back then, a Taoist priest from the Huangming who was wandering here ambushed it with a sword hanging beneath the bridge, inflicting severe injuries.

So when the canal was opened, it was still recovering from its wounds and dared not cause trouble.

Now that its injuries have largely healed, it can no longer restrain its ambition.

For the past three years, all the abnormal wind and waves in this section of the canal have been related to this thing!"

"This Seat understands," the female Chief Lawkeeper said. "You may go down now. This matter must not be leaked even a little to anyone, do you understand?"

"Your subordinate understands!"

When the time for his shift ended, Xu Yuan said to Lin Wanmo, "Let's go, come back with me first; tonight I want to eat..."

Lin Wanmo gave him a dirty look: "I came all this way to see you, and you still want me to make dinner for you?"

Xu Yuan rubbed his nose and acted shamelessly: "But I haven't tasted your cooking in over ten days."

Lin Wanmo gritted her teeth: "Fine, only this once; tomorrow I absolutely will not cook."

"Good!" Xu Yuan was overjoyed.

At noon, he treated those inspectors to a meal at "Wuwei Lou."

The taste was actually quite good, but for some reason, it made Inspector Xu miss his stepmother's cooking even more.

As the two of them came out, two large carts were parked outside the main gate.

Suddenly, one of the carriage compartments cracked open with a clang, and a weighing pole shot out like a javelin!

Xu Yuan and Lin Wanmo were not frightened, but the Great Wei Wei Huoshi and others squatting by the cart were so scared they leaped up.

(End of this chapter)