Chapter 51: This place has some pretty hardcore feng shui!

The candlelight flickered in the back hall of the county government office. The magistrate, a haggard middle-aged scholar with dark circles under his eyes, trembled slightly as he gripped his teacup. "My lord, please be wise! This matter... this matter is truly bizarre!" The magistrate's voice trembled. "The crying mostly comes around midnight. The affected children are all between one and three years old. When they are not crying or making a fuss, they seem normal, but they grow thinner and thinner day by day, their spirits weaken, and their eyes become dull. We have consulted several renowned doctors in and around the city, but none of them can find the cause. The medicine they are given has no effect. It is truly strange!"

Tongzi muttered in Fang Li's mind: "Midnight? The time when yin energy is at its strongest. Absorbing the doll's essence? I know this plot inside and out!"

Mo Yun asked gently, "Have you invited a Buddhist monk or a wandering Taoist priest to come and take a look?"

The magistrate shook his head: "We've invited two people and performed several rituals, but it's all been to no avail. We've spent money, but the child still cries and gets thin. The people are full of complaints, and I... I really have no other choice but to beg the higher authorities to send someone."

After leaving the county government office, the group decided to visit several of the victims' homes in person.

The Zhang family's courtyard was brightly lit, and a chubby boy was fast asleep on the bed, his face unusually pale.

Madam Zhang sat on the edge of the bed wiping away tears, while Butcher Zhang paced anxiously around the room.

“The child sleeps soundly during the day and can’t be woken up, but after crying at night, he sleeps all day the next day.” Butcher Zhang’s voice was rough and hoarse, and his bloodshot eyes were full of worry: “He’s getting thinner and thinner.”

Fang Li held her breath and carefully tried to probe her divine sense into the boy's body.

When one's divine sense passes by, one can perceive that the child's innate vital energy is weak, and the light of the soul is indeed slightly dimmer than that of an ordinary child, as if covered with a thin layer of dust.

But when she tried to delve deeper into the source of the damage, she felt a cold, sticky force hindering her perception and cleverly concealing the traces.

"Host, have you discovered anything?" the system asked.

“Something is blocking the probe.” She withdrew her divine sense, her expression grim. “The soul is indeed damaged, but it has been cleaned up very well.” She looked up at the child’s mother. “Has the child come into contact with any unfamiliar objects recently?”

The woman choked up and said, "How could that be? Ever since this happened, we haven't even let her leave the courtyard."

Shen Yunzhou stood in the courtyard, closed his eyes for a moment, and a slight ripple of sword energy spread around him. He opened his eyes, looked at Fang Li, and shook his head almost imperceptibly, showing no signs of any lingering evil.

Xie Chen took out three jade talismans from his sleeve, and spiritual light flowed from his fingertips as the talismans silently disappeared into the corner of the room. "The small array has been set up and can monitor fluctuations in spiritual energy." He smiled and explained to the anxious parents of the children, "Let's wait until midnight."

Ji Qianqiu grew impatient and scratched his head. "Nothing works! If you ask me, let's just drag that culprit out and beat them up! Or..." His eyes lit up as he looked at the chubby baby on the bed who seemed a little more awake. "Shall I try making him cry? Cry loudly, maybe that will lure that bastard out?"

The chubby baby seemed to understand, his lips trembled, and he looked like he was about to burst into tears.

Fang Li immediately glared at him: "Senior Brother Ji! Shut up!" She quickly moved to the bedside and clumsily coaxed the child for a couple of minutes before he stopped sobbing.

"...Is he here to help or to cause trouble?!" Fang Li thought to herself, speechless.

As midnight approached, everyone waited quietly in the side room.

The water clock dripped slowly, and the moonlight outside the window gradually dimmed.

Suddenly, a cry came from inside the room.

The crying was initially faint, but then suddenly became sharp and piercing, unlike the sound of a child.

Fang Li suddenly extended her divine sense and saw that the child on the bed was surrounded by a very faint white light, which flowed out of the window in wisps.

However, it was blocked and concealed by an invisible force, which would have been almost impossible to detect if she had not had a keen sense of perception.

The array plate in Xie Chen's hand shimmered with light, revealing a faint trail of spiritual energy that pointed northwest: "There's definitely something strange about this."

Shen Yunzhou probed with his sword energy again, but still found nothing: "Neither demon nor monster, nor ghostly energy."

Seeing this, Mo Yun took out a sect-standard magic artifact, the Spirit-Seeking Compass, from his storage bag.

The compass was bronze in color and covered with fine runes. He infused it with spiritual power, and the compass needle first swung erratically a few times. Then, as if drawn by something, it began to tremble and stubbornly point to the northwest of the county town!

"The compass is responding." Mo Yun's expression was solemn: "It's pointing to the northwest outskirts."

"Northwest..." Xie Chen tapped the array plate with his fingertip, and a burst of spiritual light appeared: "Let's go!"

The group sped out of the county town, following the trail of spiritual energy.

The weeds in the suburbs were knee-high, and the night wind rustled through the treetops.

As Ji Qianqiu ran, he muttered, "This place is so gloomy, there isn't even a firefly..." Before he could finish speaking, the compass in Mo Yun's hand suddenly vibrated violently, and the pointer spun wildly.

In the desolate woods ahead, the outline of a building could be vaguely seen. The black tiles and white walls were already mottled, half of the courtyard wall had collapsed, and a crooked plaque hung above the door, the characters illegible.

The system continued to report the scan results: [Spiritual energy loss is slowly increasing...flow direction is stable, northwest...source approaching...]

An abandoned mortuary, its walls crumbling and dilapidated. The wooden door leans askew, revealing a dark, gloomy hall inside.

Several thin-skinned coffins were scattered in a corner, covered with a thick layer of dust.

The weeds in the courtyard were waist-high, rustling in the wind and adding to the eeriness. The closer one got, the more frantically the compass needle spun, until it almost became a blur.

The spiritual energy in the air becomes exceptionally thin here, and exhibits an unnatural tendency to dissipate, as if it is being greedily devoured by some invisible force deep within the mortuary.

【This is it!】Tongzi is certain it's the right place.

[The sense of spiritual energy loss is strongest there! The source is inside!]

Fang Li swallowed hard as she looked at the dilapidated door of the mortuary, which was filled with a chilling wind.

"Tongzi... I'm a little scared. This place looks like a scene from a horror movie..."

[Host, stay calm! You're a cultivator! What are you afraid of... Okay, I have a bad feeling... This place has pretty hardcore feng shui... What if it's not a ghost but something else? But we outnumber each other! With the big boss protecting us! Charge!] The system tried to encourage itself.

Shen Yunzhou stepped forward, blocking Fang Li's path, a chill emanating from his sword sheath.

Xie Chen put away the jade fan, his fingertips holding several talismans that shimmered with spiritual light.

Mo Yun held a compass, cautiously observing his surroundings.

Tiepan silently placed the heavy shield in front of him.

Ji Qianqiu crouched down and scurried to the base of the wall, picking up a bit of soil with his fingertips and sniffing it: "It smells of saltpeter and cinnabar, it's a newly set up array..."

Suddenly, a slight noise came from deep within the mortuary.

It looked like something had been dragged across the ground.

A cold wind swept through the ruins, whistling like a mournful cry, causing clothes to flutter and a chill to seep into one's bones.