Chapter 168

Actually, Jiang Yingxue's ordeal is not uncommon in today's internet age.

Too many people are caught up by capital and cannot free themselves; they thought it was a great opportunity to soar, but it turned into a knife hanging over their own necks.

But the focus of the Jiang Yingxue incident is not on capital; it's on this bronze bell.

I timely spoke up to interrupt Jiang Yingxue's sorrow, bringing the topic back: "When did you first notice something wrong with your body, and how did you come to suspect this bronze bell?"

Jiang Yingxue came to her senses and said: "I'm very busy; when I get busy I might not go home for many days, but since the end of August, whenever I return home to sleep, I definitely dream."

In the dream, I hear the bronze bell's chime; it's almost like instantly returning to Xiangxi, as if I'm still holding the bronze bell driving corpses. I also constantly hear someone calling me, calling until I wake up.

Later the situation worsened; my consciousness became abnormal, I often zoned out, frequently made mistakes while filming, kept losing weight, and my complexion grew worse.

I thought I had contracted some serious illness; I went to the hospital for a checkup but found nothing. Until one day I unintentionally saw the bronze bell on the display rack, vaguely guessing something, I spent a lot of money to find an expert to look at it. The expert said I was possessed by an evil spirit, performed a ritual for me, and took away the bronze bell.

Li Qingying listened intently: "And then?"

After that, my condition did improve somewhat." Jiang Yingxue said, "But the good times didn't last; that expert's health also deteriorated, and he secretly sent the bronze bell back, placing it in my shoe rack. I started having nightmares again, and my condition worsened even faster than before. I no longer dare to believe those so-called experts, and later I met Boss Jin…

Cough cough.

Jin Wuya suddenly covered his mouth with his hand, coughed lightly twice, and interrupted Jiang Yingxue.

I suddenly realized, it turns out my reputation is what he spread abroad.

"Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu, I truly came here because of your reputation." Jiang Yingxue took my hand sincerely, "I ask for nothing else; only please take this bronze bell. As long as it stays away from me, I'll be fine."

I shook my head and doused her with cold water: "Miss Jiang, if I'm not mistaken, your problem is indeed related to this bronze bell, but it's merely a medium. Without the bronze bell, there could still be corpse-suppressing talismans, corpse-wrapping cloths, soul-guiding candles, and so on—too many to guard against."

Jiang Yingxue froze, a mist instantly gathering in her eye sockets: "Then… what should I do? I don't want to die!"

Her emotions were a bit broken, but the will to survive lifted her spirits again; she pleaded: "Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu, where exactly is my problem? Please guide me."

I countered: "Existence like corpse-driving technique—its transmission is no child's play, with many rules. When you initially went to Xiangxi to inherit corpse-driving technique, did your teacher not explain those rules to you?"

"Yes." Jiang Yingxue earnestly recalled, "My teacher said corpse-driving has three dos and three don'ts; these three dos…"

I interrupted her: "That's not it. I want to ask: didn't your teacher tell you that corpse-drivers, in order to better control corpses while driving them, must draw out a wisp of their own soul and inject it into the corpse? That way, when you drive corpses, you can make them go east without going west, and they're less likely to become zombies."

I know these things because when I was thirteen or fourteen, I became obsessed with Ying Shu's movies, watching them over and over, never getting tired.

Back then, Grandma always stayed by my side, folding ingots and making paper money while chatting with me about everything under the sun.

Once, Grandma brought up Xiangxi's corpse-driving technique, roughly mentioning its taboos to me.

"Draw out a soul?" Jiang Yingxue was bewildered, unable to comprehend: "I just went to film a video; I'm not really trying to inherit corpse-driving technique. Everyone just tacitly understands this, right? It's just for show—how could one actually draw out a soul or such?"

I asked: "Before you formally drove corpses, did your teacher require you to do some strange things? Like cutting your hair and nails? Or asking for your fingertip blood, etc."

"Yes!" Jiang Yingxue immediately seized the key: "Before formally starting corpse-driving, my teacher dissolved a talisman in a bowl, then took my middle-finger blood, mixed it, and splashed it onto the corpse's body, saying it was to ward off evil, to prevent zombification during the process… Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu, do you mean my teacher was deceiving me?"

"Miss Jiang, I advise you: not just anything can be casually touched, especially such an ancient, secret, non-transmittable art—how could they let an outsider casually inherit it?" I said, "Since they agreed to let you inherit, nominally they were cooperating with your video shoot, but in fact they had already set their sights on you. Of course, they might also fear that speaking frankly would scare you off, so they adopted a roundabout strategy."

At the moment Jiang Yingxue cut her middle finger, mixed the blood with the talisman water, and splashed it onto the corpse's body, she had already become a true corpse-driver.

"Humans have three hun and seven po; they used this method to draw out a wisp of your soul and inject it into the corpse's body, completing the transmission of corpse-driving technique." I continued analyzing, "But after you finished this job and hurriedly left Xiangxi, unaware that a wisp of your soul had been left there, once everything settled, they sent you the bronze bell with a clever pretext. Miss Jiang, your teacher is summoning you back to Xiangxi."

Jiang Yingxue was so frightened by me that she couldn't speak.

She gripped my hands even tighter, asking: "Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu, what should I do then? I don't want to become some damned corpse-driver! Help me, please."

I shook my head and said: "Xiangxi is too far away; besides corpse-driving technique, that place once also flourished with witchcraft, I…"

What I want to say is, a wisp of Jiang Yingxue's soul is under the control of her teacher; with our abilities, we cannot remotely summon that wisp of her soul back from afar.

The best option would be to make a trip to Xiangxi.

But that's their turf; if we go there, we might very well not return.

The danger factor is too high.

Jiang Yingxue is a living person; this order belongs to Yang duty.

I can directly refuse Yang duty.

Although Jiang Yingxue's situation is pitiful, although I once liked her videos and praised her, but it's a matter of life and death, I won't do it.

But when the words were on the tip of my tongue, I suddenly halted.

The art of witchcraft and gu... the Buddha Eye is related to gu techniques.

Hui Moqiong had said before that Miao Jiang is too far from us; his reach cannot extend that far.

So, if we make a trip to Xiangxi and go deep into Miao Jiang, we could both help Jiang Yingxue and take the chance to gather some information about gu techniques—it would be killing two birds with one stone...