Chapter 193

Because he had previously refused to let Fatty Fat Jin Ge act as their guide, Fatty Fat Jin Ge had gifted them a very detailed travel map of Lijiang.

For the past two days, that map had been laid out on the stone table in the center of the guesthouse courtyard. Tan Wenbin had been sitting by the table the entire time, holding a Luo Pan in his left hand and a pen in his right, calculating as he watched.

He then marked the locations of those two trails of corpse Qi on the map.

The two lines were constantly moving, and there were even intersections between them.

It was likely that Zhao Yi and the holder of the first piece of jade fragment were tacitly approaching each other, wanting to create more chaos.

Every time Runsheng, Lin Shu, and Yin Meng passed by here, they would lower their heads to take a peek, as if checking a real-time weather forecast.

Compared to Li Zhuiyuan, who could determine the precise location with a single glance, Tan Wenbin's method was much more cumbersome; it took him half an hour to calculate a single coordinate.

In other words, his calculations had a thirty-minute lag. If one wanted to use this to compete for the jade fragments, there was basically no possibility of success.

Tan Wenbin was well aware of this point; his calculations were not even as practical as letting the two children on his shoulders sense the location of the corpse Qi.

But since he was idle anyway, Tan Wenbin just treated this as practice.

The two little ones on his shoulders would be sent to be reincarnated once enough merit was accumulated, so he had to adapt in advance to a life without their help.

Although this would lead to him losing his sense of positioning within the team once again, that was not a reason for him to lock the two children away and prevent them from reincarnating.

During the journey along the river, one experienced too many storms of blood and gore; some people gradually lost themselves because of this, while others further understood the importance of persistence.

Runsheng was holding a bowl of noodles in his hands, eating.

At his feet sat a basin filled to the brim with noodles, with two thick, burning incense sticks stuck into them.

Runsheng shoveled in two large mouthfuls of noodles, then picked up the burning incense and took a crunchy bite out of it as if it were a scallion.

For him, the fastest way to recover after waking up was to eat his fill.

Unfortunately, this incense had to be made by Liu Yi; it couldn't be sown in the fields like scallions.

Lin Shu preferred to stay on the rooftop, keeping watch while practicing the health-preserving boxing techniques he had secretly learned from Brother Xiaoyuan earlier.

This set of boxing techniques lacked lethality; in daily life, it could be used to promote the flow of Qi and blood, and after an injury, it could also help regulate the body.

However, these movements had been tailor-made by Li Zhuiyuan himself for his own situation after reading many Daoist health-preserving scriptures. When he discovered A-You practicing in secret, Li Zhuiyuan had even specifically corrected his movements and adjusted his Qi circulation.

Then, Li Zhuiyuan discovered that this set of movements was truly useful for Lin Shu.

Fortune and misfortune are interdependent; everything has two sides.

Every time a Yin God descended, it was a heavy burden on the body of the spirit medium, equivalent to draining the water from a canal. Yet, precisely because of this, it provided a better opportunity to adjust and expand the canal.

As long as the coordination was proper and the foundation wasn't destroyed, it was actually a small shortcut to accelerate the development of the body.

It was just that when previous Yin God Lords descended, they wouldn't care about such things, which led to spirit mediums generally having much poorer physical conditions than their peers, shorter average lifespans, and paying a greater price.

Furthermore, the history of the Guan Jiang Shou was short, and they generally followed a fierce and rigid path, lacking in health-preserving and conditioning aspects.

However, these two problems did not exist for Lin Shu; the White Crane Tongzi now cherished his body very much.

The concept of "foundation" was sometimes reflected through such subtle matters. Li Zhuiyuan just flipped through books and learned about health preservation, and he was able to easily add another layer to the Guan Jiang Shou system.

When Lin Shu's Master and grandfather first came to Jin Ling, they performed an extremely exaggerated display of arrogance followed by servility. Outsiders might find it laughable, but in reality, they were the ones with truly long-term vision.

Because she couldn't go out, Yin Meng had no way to search the natural world for raw materials to extract toxins and replenish her stock. She could only sit or lie down all day, fussing over that Gu insect for fun.

She had actually developed quite a few new ways to play with this Gu insect. For example, after discovering a crack on the Gu insect's back, Yin Meng used her fingernails to tear that crack open.

It hurt the Gu insect so much that it shrieked and convulsed, nearly going into shock.

But after being torn open, the Gu insect effectively gained an extra pair of wings, actually able to fly freely like a ladybug.

Although it couldn't fly very high or very far, this was still a huge improvement.

Yin Meng followed Runsheng's suggestion and never gave it a name, so she wouldn't feel heartache if she raised it to death.

This was indeed the correct approach. If Yin Meng had really raised it as a pet, she wouldn't have been able to bear treating it that way. Then, if its wings never opened, it would have "bound itself in a cocoon," and its life would not have lasted long.

To put it bluntly, things like Gu insects were not meant to be treated with tenderness. The better you treated it, the more it was actually a suppression and persecution of its growth and development.

For the past two days, Li Zhuiyuan had been recuperating his body while simultaneously patching up the guesthouse's formation.

That night, the "pack of wolves" on the periphery had attempted to break the formation together. Although he had Zhao Yi, the mole, on the other side helping to share some of the pressure, the damage Li Zhuiyuan received from the formation's backlash was truly not light.

Without the inherent Feng Shui layout of famous mountains and rivers to provide momentum, and without the manpower to carve out buildings to set the scene, this temporary formation built on flat ground naturally required more control and maintenance from the formation setter.

Once his physical state was adjusted back, Li Zhuiyuan finally had the opportunity to take out that red broken porcelain shard and formally conduct research.

The youth first drew two curse patterns on his right wrist and forearm as a safeguard.

Then he moved the copper coin on the red broken porcelain shard away. Having lost its suppression, the red broken porcelain shard began to tremble.

The luster on its body had faded, and its thirst for blood-food was even more urgent.

Thinking about it, Xu Yijin used to offer it sacrifices daily without interruption, but after Xu Yijin died and it got a new owner, this new owner truly didn't take it very seriously.

Li Zhuiyuan had carefully inspected it. Unlike the "Evil Book," this red broken porcelain shard had no self-consciousness. What it presented now was an instinct, similar to eating when hungry and sleeping when tired.

The youth began to adjust his breathing frequency, preparing to let it enter his own flesh and blood.

Xu Yijin should have had a secret manual for using this red broken porcelain shard specifically, or her family's cultivation technique had a high compatibility with this red broken porcelain shard.

However, Li Zhuiyuan did not find these things on Xu Yijin's corpse.

This was also normal. Who would carry the cultivation techniques they had practiced with them when going out?

If one really did that, it would be as if they knew they were going to die upon leaving, so they specifically brought them along to make it convenient for others to loot them after death.

Therefore, Li Zhuiyuan could only adopt the simplest and crudest method to create his own.

He spread his right palm open and placed it on the red broken porcelain shard.

The porcelain shard immediately stuck to his palm, and what followed was a sharp pain; it was burrowing into his flesh.

The sensation of pain did not cause much change in Li Zhuiyuan's expression. The youth just stared at the wound on his palm. If it left a scar when he went back, he would have to explain it well to A-Li; this was not a mark made by self-harm.

After the porcelain shard completely submerged into his palm, a wave of violent emotion began to launch an assault toward him.

Accompanying this assault was the madness of the broken porcelain shard actively wanting to burrow toward the main trunk of his body.

He didn't know if its target was his heart or his head.

But because Li Zhuiyuan had set up a blockade in advance, it couldn't even break through his wrist.

As for that violent emotional assault, Li Zhuiyuan not only did not go mad, but instead felt as if a light rain had suddenly fallen in a parched desert. Although it couldn't store moisture, at least for the moment, it was a little enjoyable.

Controlling the host was also its instinct.

However, Li Zhuiyuan did not reject this directness; it was unlike that "Evil Book," which was insidiously evil.

After the broken porcelain shard tired itself out from fussing, it began to prepare to absorb the blood Qi within Li Zhuiyuan's body.

Li Zhuiyuan's gaze sank slightly. You've finished your fussing; next, it's my turn.

The youth began to draw a seal on his palm. After the last finger fell, the broken porcelain shard became quiet. Although it was still inside the youth's body, it could no longer actively absorb blood Qi.

Li Zhuiyuan closed his eyes and began to attempt to transport a portion of blood Qi through the seal and into it.

Suddenly, the broken porcelain shard became active again.

Li Zhuiyuan initiated the Yin Walk.

In his palm, he saw a red halo of light.

The porcelain shard was broken, and this halo also had a mottled feeling.

Li Zhuiyuan used his other hand to grab toward this mass of red halo.

In an instant, a sense of the world spinning hit him. The youth felt as if he were constantly flipping and drifting downward, and the images flickered at a very high frequency.

Immediately after, it ended.

Li Zhuiyuan ended the Yin Walk state and used his left hand to support his forehead. He was very dizzy now, nauseous, and wanted to vomit, like a severe motion-sickness patient who had just experienced a long-distance car ride.

He knew that this was actually very dangerous, because if a normal person experienced that kind of perspective, their consciousness would immediately fall into a faint.

The youth not only didn't, but instead, after adjusting, retrieved the images that had been constantly flipping in his mind earlier and began to piece them together.

Very quickly, the image appeared. To make it easier to read, Li Zhuiyuan began to re-plan, filling in the blind spots of the perspective, and detaching himself from the first-person view.

The new image appeared again.

In the image, he was a flaking piece of broken porcelain, falling, spinning, and entering the water.

No, it wasn't water. Judging from the thick, splashing liquid after falling in, this should be blood; this was a river of blood.

On the river of blood was a raised sacrificial altar, on which a naked woman was kneeling. Her long hair covered her body, and she held a vase above her head.

Standing on the high ground all around were densely packed people. Their faces could not be seen clearly, but their gazes were like substance; this was a collective hatred.

And this piece of broken porcelain was the one that had just flaked off from the vase in the woman's hands at this moment.

This seemed to be intentional on her part, because the moment this piece of broken porcelain entered the water, the woman's gaze seemed to glance here for an instant.

In her cold gaze, there was no emotion at all.

Clearly, she was already a sacrificial offering in some kind of punishment, yet she seemed to be performing a final "release."

The porcelain shard had no self-consciousness, but this was a memory inscribed within its body.

Li Zhuiyuan picked up the teacup on the table and took several gulps.

Influenced by the nature of Li Lan's work since childhood, he had a relatively broad understanding of ancient artifacts, but in the previous image, there really wasn't any useful information.

The woman was naked, the crowd above and around could not be seen clearly, and even that vase was a blurry red, so there was no way to obtain information such as the era.

Evil objects are feared and spurned by people, so the person who created the evil object naturally wouldn't be any better.

Li Zhuiyuan believed that the person who made the "Evil Book" was definitely not a good thing, or rather, the one who wrote the "Evil Book" might be inside the "Evil Book" itself.

Then the marvelous nature of this broken porcelain shard, while seemingly born from that vase, should actually come from that woman who was about to be punished and die.

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. Things without a clue that couldn't be verified for the time being were not worth wasting mental energy on.

His focus should still be placed on the practicality of this broken porcelain shard.

He attempted to treat the broken porcelain shard in his palm as a part of his own body, continued to peel back a corner of the seal, and poured his own blood Qi into it.

"Hum!"

A ceramic dagger slowly emerged from Li Zhuiyuan's palm.

But it had only emerged less than halfway before Li Zhuiyuan began to feel flustered and short of breath; this was a sign of excessive blood loss.

Li Zhuiyuan hurriedly stopped. In an instant, the half-dagger in his palm solidified, then turned into dust like dry mud and drifted away.

"This shouldn't be..."

When Xu Yijin fought, that ceramic would pour out with a "whoosh." She could not only mold ceramic dolls but also deploy them for defense.

How come when it got to him, just such a small half-dagger was about to make him unable to hold on?

Li Zhuiyuan spread his right hand out in front of him. While staring at it carefully, images of Xu Yijin using this ability constantly surfaced in his mind.

Very quickly, he had some clues.

First, unlike himself, Xu Yijin's offering and use of it were accompanied by wariness and suppression.

Because Xu Yijin was not sick like him and could not fully withstand the violence brought by the broken porcelain shard.

Because of this, he could more comprehensively stimulate the broken porcelain shard's ability, and the ceramic objects catalyzed were made of more solid materials.

But the problem was, this material was his own blood.

Fighting required paying attention to cost-effectiveness, even if it meant trading injuries. One couldn't just create a dagger to stab someone, only to faint from excessive blood loss before even getting the chance to stab them.

Furthermore, when he had just imagined the shape of the dagger, it was too detailed. This was his instinct; he had a lot on his mind and a good memory, but he couldn't use it in this aspect.

Li Zhuiyuan shook his right hand, intending to try one more time, repeatedly admonishing himself in his heart: be perfunctory, cut corners.

The next moment, a long strip condensed from his palm. The exterior was smooth, like ceramic, but the interior was actually hollow, with only this surface layer being smooth.

As soon as the youth waved his hand, it immediately withered and dissipated.

The consumption this time was much less than the last, estimated to be about the amount of a nosebleed.

But how could this kind of quality be used to defend against an enemy?

Li Zhuiyuan stood up and waved his palm again. The long strip with a ceramic luster appeared again. This time it extended even longer, even forming curves in front of the youth, like a dancing ribbon.

Then, Li Zhuiyuan picked up the pillow on the bed and smashed it toward it.

"Clatter..." It all shattered into pieces and dissipated into the air.

This thing couldn't even withstand a fatal blow from a pillow.

No, that wasn't it; it was that he had made a mistake in his direction.

Li Zhuiyuan sat down by the bed, recalled Xu Yijin's fighting style again, and after thinking for a while, he opened the bedside cabinet. Inside, there was still a ceramic bracelet.

Xu Yijin had once controlled a dummy puppet to come into his room to talk to him.

After the conversation ended, the puppet disintegrated on its own, and he had even deliberately crushed it with his foot, making a loud noise. And this ceramic bracelet had been preserved until now and had not dissipated.

Recalling the extremely heavy suitcase Xu Yijin had mentioned when she first checked into this guesthouse.

Li Zhuiyuan realized.

"Heh..."

Sure enough, how could such a bizarre and magical technique exist in this world, and one that used one's own Qi and blood as raw material? How could it withstand such waste?

Those puppet dummies and ceramic dolls that Xu Yijin made were things she had brought with her.

What was placed in her suitcase should have been the raw materials she had prepared in advance.

The puppet dummy that came in to communicate with him was empty inside; there should have been a formation set up inside.

Therefore, the puppet required real, specially made ceramic raw materials; Xu Yijin only used the power of the broken porcelain shard to control its details.

This also explained why Xu Yijin's ceramic dolls had distance limitations when used.

During the fight that night, it was also because she had gone to the fields herself, and then deployed the ceramic dolls underground to set up the formation.

Logically speaking, she could have secretly dispatched her puppets to do these things while she was in the guesthouse.

As for the ceramic used when fighting, it was indeed stimulated at the cost of her own Qi and blood, almost exactly the same as what he had produced earlier. The difference was...

Li Zhuiyuan flicked his hand, and a ribbon with a ceramic luster floated out.

The youth's gaze condensed. In this instant, he immediately applied his knowledge of formations into it.

"Hum!"

The originally thin and brittle ribbon immediately condensed, becoming immensely hard in a short time. But this wasn't its own material; it was the effect of the formation.

Back then, Xu Yijin had even used it to set up seven layers of defense to block Runsheng's impact.

The youth picked up a wrench, picked up a bottle of soda on the table, opened it, inserted a straw, sent it into his mouth, and began to drink the beverage.

The beverage was taken from Fatty Fat Jin Ge's counter, and Tan Wenbin had recorded the money in the drawer.

Fatty Fat Jin Ge had taken his parents to the hospital to visit his prospective father-in-law. He had been gone for several days and hadn't returned yet.

"Sigh..."

After finishing half the bottle, the youth sighed.

Mysterious things are indeed only interesting when looking at flowers in a dream. Once you really strip them clean, they become meaningless instead.

Using fresh blood as a carrier to condense formation effects—it wasn't as if he couldn't do it.

Back at the bottom of the lake of the Old Hag, when facing the attack of the "eight-year-old self," he had used fresh blood to form a formation for defense.

The role of this broken porcelain shard was similar to a catalyst; it didn't participate in the reaction, it only increased the reaction rate.

Admittedly, having it could indeed improve the efficiency of his spellcasting and formation setting using his own fresh blood... but as long as conditions allowed, he wouldn't be so cruel to himself, squeezing his own blood for no reason.

As for the ceramic puppets, they were indeed a bit useful.

But firstly, he would have to return to his hometown, build a kiln, and research how to fire this special ceramic. After firing it, he would still have to carve formation patterns in advance.

Secondly, every time he went out in the future, he would need a companion to help him carry a large suitcase of specially made ceramic, which was dead heavy, carrying it wherever he went.

The role of the ceramic puppet was equivalent to giving him an extra clone.

But the problem was, he had companions... What things could a puppet do that his companions couldn't?

Xu Yijin relied on the broken porcelain shard to achieve the effect of rapid formation setting and spellcasting, barely reaching his level.

Relying on ceramic puppets enriched her manpower, but she was a lone wolf, while he had a team.

Xu Yijin's strength lay in her personal hard power; the broken porcelain shard brought her a significant boost, but it wasn't the main reason.

In summary, this broken porcelain shard was indeed magical, and its origin was mysterious, but its current role for him was a bit of a "chicken rib" (tasteless to eat, a pity to discard).

The youth felt a bit bored.

It was just that Xu Yijin was dead and had dissolved in the fields outside. If she could see with her own eyes that the youth had restored her trump card technique with just this simple attempt, she would definitely be stunned.

Li Zhuiyuan pressed his left finger against his right wrist, preparing to force that broken porcelain shard out.

Keeping it in his palm didn't seem to have much effect other than being annoying.

But the youth's movements soon stopped again.

He had only restored Xu Yijin's understanding and operation earlier, so could he conduct new developments on this basis?

Li Zhuiyuan walked out of the room door. Tan Wenbin was still sitting there calculating coordinates.

"Brother Xiaoyuan, this auxiliary brigade of ours can really run."

"Maybe it's already changed people."

"Oh..." Tan Wenbin licked his lips. "Although that's possible, I still don't hope for Zhao Yi to die just like that. Maybe I'll be counting on him to deliver supplies in the future."

Tan Wenbin's impression of Zhao Yi was still quite good; a gentleman judges by actions, not by heart.

"Brother Binbin, cooperate with me."

"Okay." Tan Wenbin stood up.

"Stand further away. I'll stand at this end, you stand at that end."

"Fine."

The guesthouse courtyard was very spacious, and the two stood at each end.

Runsheng, who was eating, moved the noodle basin to the corner and sat down with Yin Meng, who was playing with insects.

"Brother Binbin, call those two out."

"Got it."

Tan Wenbin patted his shoulders.

They couldn't be seen in reality, but if one used the Yin Walk, one could see two dolls sitting on Tan Wenbin's shoulders, swinging their legs. The two children were very happy.

Li Zhuiyuan formed a seal with his palm, and borrowing the power of the broken porcelain shard, shallow mists of blood formed in front of him.

{Fengdu Twelve Decrees—Ten Thousand Ghosts Silent}

The spell was launched.

The two dolls on Tan Wenbin's shoulders immediately revealed terror in their eyes. Then, their eyes, ears, mouths, and noses all became gray, losing all perception of the outside world.

"Uh..."

Mother and child are connected at heart.

Tan Wenbin could perceive the panic in the two children's hearts, but he knew that Brother Xiaoyuan was just doing an experiment and wouldn't hurt them.

The fact was indeed so. It was mainly inconvenient to go out now, and there was no way to catch wandering ghosts, so only Tan Wenbin had two here.

Li Zhuiyuan withdrew the spell. The two children recovered, turned their heads toward Tan Wenbin, and began to wail while hugging Tan Wenbin's neck.

They already had great fear toward that big brother, and now they were even more afraid.

Tan Wenbin comforted them with a wry smile.

Li Zhuiyuan nodded silently. Sure enough, once the train of thought was opened, new effects appeared. Relying on the broken porcelain shard, his spellcasting range had been improved by a large margin.

On the terrace, Lin Shu was also curiously lying on the railing, looking down.

His injuries hadn't healed yet, but he could also quietly open his vertical pupils a little, so he saw the previous process.

In the past, those wandering ghosts couldn't run around in front of Brother Xiaoyuan, and now they couldn't even do it if they weren't far enough away.

Li Zhuiyuan raised his head and looked at Lin Shu.

Lin Shu raised his hand: "Brother Xiaoyuan."

Li Zhuiyuan took out two Mind-Clearing Talismans, placed them in his right palm, and a faint blood mist wrapped around the talisman paper.

The youth pointed his left fingertips at the talisman paper and shouted softly:

"Go!"

"Hum!"

The two talisman papers were activated one after another and flew toward the roof.

"Slap!" "Slap!"

One stuck to Lin Shu's forehead, and the other stuck to Lin Shu's chest.

Lin Shu: "..."

Fortunately, it was a Mind-Clearing Talisman. If it had been a Curse-Breaking Talisman, given his state of secretly opening his vertical pupils to watch the show earlier, he feared his body would have exploded again.

Li Zhuiyuan had a crossbow in his backpack; in the future, he wouldn't need to wear it anymore.

The youth often saw A-Li drawing talismans. Sometimes, for the sake of convenience in tidying up, after A-Li finished drawing a talisman, she would wave her left hand, and that talisman would fly up on its own and stick to the wall. After all were drawn, she would point back at them one by one, and these talismans would fall back to their original positions, stacked very neatly.

Li Zhuiyuan had an innate deficiency in the way of talismans, but now, he had achieved the same effect in this clever way.

Lin Shu tore the talisman paper off his body, and he laughed "hehehe."

In the future, after he started the spirit possession, he wouldn't need to pause halfway to pull out and insert needles for himself. He could continue fighting, and at critical moments, let Brother Xiaoyuan give him a shot.

Li Zhuiyuan raised his head; above was the coverage range of his formation.

He raised his right hand and began to wave.

The blood mist in his palm drifted, and the weather changed accordingly. His guidance and control over the Feng Shui layout were thus improved by a large margin.

It wasn't at the level of understanding, but purely in terms of technique.

He then spread his right hand open, and the blood mist condensed a very crude ceramic formation flag from his palm. As his heart turned, the formation was mobilized.

You must know, the real formation flag was still in his pocket and hadn't been taken out, yet it had already achieved the same effect.

Although its duration was very short, his control over the formation was originally an instantaneous command.

"Heh..."

It was indeed a good thing.

It could provide a boost to Xu Yijin, and it could do the same for him. If one set aside the aspect of martial arts, the boost to him was obviously greater.

Looking at it this way, it was permissible to let it continue to stay in his palm.

It was just that he would have to pay attention to eating more food that nourished Qi and blood in the future.

Li Zhuiyuan returned to his room to bandage the wound on his right hand.

After Tan Wenbin comforted the two children, he walked back to the stone table and sat down.

Yin Meng made a "slap" sound, flicked the Gu insect away, and then raised a finger. The Gu insect flew back quickly and landed steadily on her fingertip.

"Why can't this insect grow up?"

Tan Wenbin said with a smile: "Why, how big were you expecting to raise it?"

Yin Meng said helplessly: "It's too small, and the toxicity when biting people isn't enough."

It could bite a normal person to death in one bite, but for those existences that weren't normal people, it didn't pose much of a threat.

Runsheng: "It needs to eat."

Yin Meng: "I'm feeding it with the rations left by the Corpse Gu Sect."

Runsheng: "It needs to eat its own kind, fresh ones."

When saying these words, Runsheng took another bite of incense and then shoveled in large mouthfuls of noodles.

Yin Meng: "Where is that easy to find? Gu insects are also divided into many categories. Actually, I could research how to produce seeds."

Hearing this, Runsheng suddenly felt that the noodles in his bowl weren't as fragrant.

Tan Wenbin's hand also shook, making the Luo Pan data crooked.

"I say, Mengmeng," Tan Wenbin turned around and reminded her very seriously, "If you want to research this, wait until we return to the village. I'll find you a secluded place alone. Don't just blindly research it by yourself after we get home."

Eating a fly in your meal can be treated as supplementing protein, but if you eat a Gu insect, there won't be a next meal.

Yin Meng smiled: "That's for sure, I'm not stupid. By the way, why hasn't Fatty Fat Jin Ge returned yet?"

Tan Wenbin shrugged: "The phone line was cut after that night, and it's inconvenient for us to go out now. But I think that when it's time for him to return, he should return."

Night fell.

Because it was only Li Zhuiyuan's group in the guesthouse, it was immensely quiet.

Although there was formation protection, someone still kept watch every night. The one keeping watch tonight was Lin Shu.

In fact, there were people who would bring books when going out.

Lin Shu had brought some.

But what he brought weren't cultivation books, but textbooks.

Although there was Xue Liangliang who could keep issuing certificates, they didn't need to worry about problems like exams, but they would still have to go to construction sites or meetings in the future.

One couldn't just have superiors ask you to analyze a blueprint or calculate data, and then have you say: Don't worry, let me perform a spirit possession for you.

Mainly, Brother Xiaoyuan had already learned these things long ago, and Brother Bin had been sleeping during the day at school and secretly reading books hard at night.

This put Lin Shu under a lot of pressure.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, Lin Shu sensed something wrong. His eyelids began to twitch, and immediately, his vertical pupils opened.

He walked to the edge of the terrace and looked toward the fields where he had fought Xu Yijin that night. There, there was a special movement.

Could it be a corpse transformation?

No, that shouldn't be. Those five corpses had all been turned into water by Brother Bin; how could there be a corpse transformation?

The vertical pupils condensed, and Lin Shu saw several illusory human figures appearing above the original burial ground.

"What is this thing?"

Just as Lin Shu was curious, he sensed movement behind him. Looking back, it was Brother Xiaoyuan who had walked up.

But at this moment, Brother Xiaoyuan's body was semi-transparent, clearly in a Yin Walk state. He should have also sensed that aura and specifically came up to check.

"Brother Xiaoyuan, that is..."

"I don't know." Li Zhuiyuan was also looking there.

Several illusory human figures, they didn't look like ghosts, yet they were definitely not living people.

If it were usual times, he wouldn't mind running over to check right now, but now, until his companions' injuries were fully recuperated, he wouldn't leave here.

"What are you looking at?"

Tan Wenbin had also come up, also in a Yin Walk state. He was holding the two dolls in his hands.

A primary Yin Walk is seeing images that cannot be seen in reality. A more advanced one allows for leaving the body. But generally speaking, the time for leaving the body cannot be too long, and the distance cannot be too far.

Many "soul out-of-body" experiences in strange tales are actually another descriptive presentation of the Yin Walk.

Tan Wenbin himself was still lying on the bed downstairs; it was only by relying on the two children that he could walk onto the terrace to gather.

Of course, only he dared to trust like this. After all, his current situation was actually what the elderly called: having one's soul hooked by a ghost.

When the two children saw Li Zhuiyuan, they began to tremble, and Tan Wenbin trembled along with them.

Tan Wenbin, lying on the bed downstairs, began to convulse, foaming at the mouth.

"Don't shake, don't shake, I'm about to fall apart..."

Tan Wenbin could only speak to comfort them.

"Hey-yo, hey-yo, hey-yo!"

At the stairwell, dull footsteps came. This was Yin Meng coming up.

In the entire team, only Runsheng couldn't perform the Yin Walk. He was currently still lying on the bed, fast asleep, snoring.

However, when Xu Yijin killed those four people on the second floor that night, Runsheng had also been startled awake.

But it wasn't because he sensed some kind of warning, but because when the corpse Qi briefly erupted, he smelled an intoxicating fragrance.

When that piece of jade fragment in Xiaoyuan's hand erupted, on the terrace, he, with his pale face, swallowed his saliva more than once. This taste was fragrant, so fragrant.

Yin Meng finally managed to step one foot onto the rooftop, and then she couldn't hold on anymore, her figure quickly retreating back.

This was reaching the limit; there was no way to continue supporting the Yin Walk state.

In the room on the ground floor, Yin Meng opened her eyes on the bed, sat up, first retched continuously, and then covered her hot face with both hands.

It felt like she had tried hard to squeeze up there, only to make a fool of herself.

However, the people on the rooftop didn't pay too much attention to this detail, because everyone saw that the place where those illusory shadows were located suddenly erupted.

It was as if something had rushed over at high speed and delivered a fierce punch.

Lin Shu: "Fist Qi, such heavy Fist Qi."

It was just that those illusory shadows only twisted but did not dissipate.

It seemed they had finished what they wanted to do, and they turned and left. After walking a long way, they gradually disappeared.

Li Zhuiyuan paid more attention to the person who had attacked earlier.

He had long known that after that night, there were still people lurking on the periphery of the guesthouse. Just now, it could be considered confirmed.

Tan Wenbin asked curiously: "What were they doing?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "It might be related to 'attending the banquet'."

Tan Wenbin: "Hmm?"

In the Yin Walk state, Tan Wenbin felt his brain thinking a bit slowly. Using his brain a little too much made him feel a headache, with a tearing sensation.

Li Zhuiyuan: "Three jade fragments, they are like invitations, but I suspect that the slaughter triggered by this is not just to compete for this admission ticket; it is very likely the preparation for the banquet."

Enough people must die to open the banquet. The location where those unbreakable illusory shadows stood earlier was where Xu Yijin and the other five people died and were buried.

The whole clan ascends to immortality.

Li Zhuiyuan didn't believe this. He believed this was absolutely impossible to succeed, but just like in Baijia Town, even if they were dreaming the dream of ascension, it didn't change the fact that they were the largest unstable link in the Nantong region.

Perhaps, a group of lunatics was also hidden here, dreaming a dream destined not to succeed, yet still able to attract the attention of the Heavenly Dao.

Even at the cost of opening a banquet for it, using the power of the river to push it forward—this was truly adding fuel to the fire.

This kind of thing, the Heavenly Dao could really do.

Therefore, never try to talk about feelings with the Heavenly Dao.

"Alright, go back to sleep."

The next morning.

Li Zhuiyuan woke up early.

Two strangers had just stood at the entrance, and the formation consciously reacted, thereby giving the youth a sense.

Li Zhuiyuan suspected that it should be that group of people who had been lurking nearby for the past few days.

He first notified his companions to keep them alert, but Li Zhuiyuan didn't let them accompany him to the entrance.

He didn't want outsiders to see the current reality of his team. After all, not everyone had such strong paranoia as Zhao Yi. It was possible that the one visiting today was just some reckless youth.

Li Zhuiyuan walked to the entrance of the front room, not stepping over the line of the floor tile seam.

At the entrance were two people, a thin, tall one carrying a young girl.

The girl's age looked about the same as his.

It was rare to see a peer while traveling along the river.

But perhaps the only similarity was age. The girl had a feeling of being "tiger-headed and tiger-brained," counting as the kind of chubby granddaughter that grandparents were very fond of.

It was just that when Li Zhuiyuan probed her with the method of physiognomy, his first perception wasn't how her face looked, but amazement at her terrifying bone and muscle density.

Is this still a human!

Carrying her was a thin, tall man with his head lowered, but one could still see the thick, dense beard on his face.

He wore black gloves and cloth shoes, but his fingers were curled inward, and the front ends of his cloth shoes were protruding, as if to facilitate gripping the ground.

After the girl saw Li Zhuiyuan, she let out a bell-like laugh:

"Ya-hahaha, you are so young. This is your real age, right?"

Very clearly, the girl, like Li Zhuiyuan, was also very surprised and curious to see a peer traveling along the river.

Li Zhuiyuan asked: "Come in and have some tea."

The girl shook her head: "The formation you set up is very powerful, and you are not alone. Going in to fight is a bit risky."

As she spoke, the girl patted the head of the person carrying her and asked: "Right, A-Yuan?"

The thin, tall man called A-Yuan nodded.

Li Zhuiyuan: "Then what is the meaning of your friend being here?"

The girl: "Hey, aren't you curious about my name? Do you know how hard it is to see a peer while traveling along the river?"

Traveling along the river?

The girl's speech habits exposed her family background.

Zhao Yi sometimes felt embarrassed to explicitly state that he was traveling along the river, because his family had only produced one Long Wang in history. Strictly speaking, the Nine Rivers Zhao did not belong to the recognized Long Wang families.

The girl: "My surname is Yu, called Yu Miaomiao. You?"

Surname Yu, Long Wang family.

Li Zhuiyuan knew the Yu family. Their ancestral home was in Luoyang, and they were a Long Wang family that could stand alongside the Qin and Liu families in history.

During the last Dream Ghost incident, when the Fengdu Great Emperor poured out his anger, it was the Yu family that passed the letter to Grandma Liu, pointing out that the aura came from the direction of Fengdu in the southwest.

However, the Yu family had an incident seventy years ago, which led to them sealing their gates for sixty years. It was only in the last ten years that there was news of their clansmen walking the rivers and lakes again.

The Yu family was skilled in raising beasts and nurturing demons. Then, was the man carrying this girl still a human?

"My surname is Li, called Li Zhuiyuan."

The other party didn't perform the sect salute, so he didn't return the salute.

"Li Zhuiyuan, Zhuiyuan, what a nice name. Your family is more cultured than mine. My family calls me as if they are calling a cat demon, meow-meow here, meow-meow there."

Li Zhuiyuan really wanted to know what the other party's true intention was.

Zhao Yi was just a half-baked Long Wang family, but the one in front of him could be considered the first descendant of a proper Long Wang family he had come into contact with since traveling along the river.

Most importantly, although she wasn't old, it was impossible for her to be swept in by the river water like him. Her traveling along the river at a young age should be an active move after being well-prepared.

Li Zhuiyuan: "What are you doing staying here?"

Yu Miaomiao: "Waiting for someone."

"Waiting for whom?"

"Waiting for that group of people who 'snatched' the jade fragment from your hands. Waiting for him to be forced to the point where he really can't escape anymore, then turn back to beg for your protection, and then I will..."

Yu Miaomiao struggled to lift her head, revealing a rare bit of neck, placed her hand in front, and made a cutting motion:

"... slaughter him and snatch the jade, hee-hee."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 194 =====