Chapter 28 Returning to the Underworld: "The living have villages, the dead have hometowns..."

Zhou Yaren analyzed logically that Lu Bing had invited him from all the way to Chang'an precisely because of this case. As long as the murder case was bizarre enough, it might attract all sorts of strange people and thus discover the Taiyin/Daoist body hidden in the Ghost Bureau.

After hearing his reasoning and accusations, Bai Yuan asked doubtfully, "What kind of 'gui'?"

Zhou Yaren: "..." There was no clue on that face covered with torture scars, so it was hard to determine whether Bai Yuan really didn't know or was pretending not to know.

Whether she genuinely didn't know or was pretending not to, Zhou Yaren patiently explained to Bai Yuan what "痋引" (a type of magical artifact) was and recounted the series of tragedies it had triggered.

Bai Yuan silently reviewed the other party's so-called "Gu technique" in his mind, and then recalled Sun Xiuniang's almost frantic chanting in the Ghost Yamen's formation: "Go to hell, let them all go to hell, all of them go to hell, I want them to die without a burial place, die without a burial place."

His mouth was full of such curse-like, venomous prayers.

"Her father was wronged by the Shen family twelve years ago, so Sun Xiuniang kidnapped the eldest son of the Shen family and planted a Gu poison in him, aiming to avenge her father." After all, it was Master Shen who bribed the jailers to torture him in prison, causing his tragic death. The truth behind the exoneration was cleared, but something felt off: "She avenged herself with the Gu poison, so what use is she to me?"

Zhou Yaren was taken aback: "You think she went to unnecessary lengths?"

Therefore, according to Bai Yuan's statement, the incantation was done by Sun Xiuniang and had nothing to do with her.

“Yes, this woman is so capable, she may not necessarily need me.” Bai Yuan even suspected that Sun Xiuniang might have stumbled upon this by accident. Because Sun Xiuniang sacrificed herself on the great formation that originally sealed her, and she was filled with hatred and injustice for her father, she accidentally managed to release a wisp of her divine consciousness.

“You’re innocent,” Zhou Yaren said. “What she wants is, of course, to clear her father’s name. For example, how exactly did the youngest son of the Shen family die? The truth is still unknown.”

Bai Yuan replied, "Now that everyone connected to them is dead, who cares anymore?"

“Those who died with their eyes wide open in disbelief,” Zhou Yaren said, looking at her with a deep gaze. “Those wronged souls you carried on your shoulders.”

Bai Yuan's hand, hanging by his side, suddenly clenched.

Zhou Yaren asked, "You are controlled by them, aren't you?"

At this moment, he finally understood what Bai Yuan had said before: "You said that what can trap you is the injustice, so you are controlled by them, controlled by these injustices."

Zhou Yaren said with certainty, "It is they that prevent you from being freed, that imprison you in the Taiyin/Dao Body, this Daoist prison of injustice. I really want to ask, how long have you been trapped?"

There is no sun or moon underground, and Bai Yuan can no longer remember exactly how long he has been trapped. He can only estimate it from the perspective of the wronged dead who have sunk into the Taiyin/Dao body one after another: "It must have been at least a thousand years."

Zhou Yaren was shocked, unable to describe the shock in his heart. He found it unbelievable, even hard to believe. It took him a while to suppress the turbulent emotions in his heart and sort out a few clues: "The Qin Dynasty?"

“Yes, it was the Great Qin.” Bai Yuan recalled, “After surviving the chaos and bloodshed, the King of Qin conquered the six states, unified the world, and ended the situation of warring states vying for supremacy.”

"you……"

Are you surprised?

He was extremely surprised and found it hard to digest; he had never seen such an ancient "person" before.

Zhou Yaren could hardly believe it, but the Taiyin/Dao Body at the bottom of the water was indeed dropped during the Qin Dynasty, as were the three hexagram arrays made of Qin coins. Moreover, "The Ghost Yamen was built later on top of the Qin prison, so the bones buried in the foundation array were all prisoners who had been imprisoned in the Qin prison, right?"

Bai Yuan said calmly, "Yes, a bunch of unlucky bastards."

“It’s obvious that this is a prison specifically built for you,” Zhou Yaren said. “Just to set up this formation, they went so far as to fabricate false cases, disregard the law, and wrongfully kill all the prisoners in Qin Prison? Who would do such a thing? Who would go to such lengths to deal with you?”

Just how deep is the grudge between them?

"Is that even a question? Throughout history, those self-proclaimed righteous hypocrites have always claimed to be irreconcilable with evil and heretics," Bai Yuan said lightly. "For example, when you look at me, don't you also want to eliminate evil and defend the righteous path?"

This was a roundabout way of calling him a hypocrite, Zhou Yaren thought again. He had also harbored murderous intent towards Bai Yuan while in his Taiyin/Dao Body state. Those sharp sword winds, carrying wind-borne incantations meant to kill, were aimed at Bai Yuan. He hadn't shown any mercy then, so he couldn't really refute Bai Yuan's words.

“But it’s not entirely as you think,” Bai Yuan said. “Most of those buried under the foundation of the Ghost Office were sorcerers from the Qin Dynasty.”

"A sorcerer?" Zhou Yaren was quite surprised. He felt that Bai Yuan had gotten it backwards. "Shouldn't the one who set up this formation be the sorcerer?"

Bai Yuan coldly said, "They're all birds of a feather, and in the end they'll reap what they sow."

"What do you mean?" Zhou Yaren didn't understand. "What happened back then? How could these sorcerers..."

At this point, Zhou Yaren suddenly stopped talking, because he suddenly remembered the record in the "Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Confucian Scholars": "When the Qin Dynasty came to an end, books were burned and scholars were buried alive, and the Six Arts were lost from then on."

The text mentions "pitting out warlocks," could it be related to this?

Sure enough, Bai Yuan said, "King Qin... no, he should be called the First Emperor."

After unifying the six states, the King of Qin believed that his virtues surpassed those of the Three Sovereigns and his achievements exceeded those of the Five Emperors. Therefore, he combined the "Sovereign" of the Three Sovereigns and the "Emperor" of the Five Emperors into the title of Emperor, and called himself "First Emperor".

Bai Yuan readily changed his story, briefly stating: "The First Emperor, fearing death, heavily relied on numerous sorcerers to search for immortal mountains and the elixir of life, but to no avail. Fearing punishment, these sorcerers plotted to escape and launch a scathing attack on the First Emperor, ultimately leading to their execution and imprisonment in the Qin prison. Their remains became the foundation beneath this Northern Ghost Office."

Zhou Yaren immediately retorted after hearing this: "That's not right."

"What's wrong?"

"The foundation of the Ghost Office was built with the array of people who died unjustly, so they were wronged to death."

"When the city gate catches fire, the fish in the moat suffer as well. So they are a bunch of unlucky people. Who knows how many people have been criticizing the First Emperor behind his back?"

That is to say, he was implicated, but the matter is far more complicated than Bai Yuan described in just a few words; there must have been many twists and turns involved.

Zhou Yaren remained silent for a moment: "If you don't want to talk about it, then fine. There's no need to beat around the bush and fool me."

Bai Yuan found it amusing: "Instead of admitting that you came to trick me into telling you the truth, you're blaming others for fooling you. What? Just because I suffered a great loss from you, does that make me seem stupid? You actually expect me to answer all your questions and tell you everything?"

Zhou Yaren was speechless after being rebuked, and then said, "I just want to find out what happened back then, who it was, why the Taiyin/Dao Body fell in Beiqu, and how you were imprisoned in this formation?"

Bai Yuan had exchanged a few witty remarks with him and knew very well that the man before her was meticulous and always eager to get to the bottom of things; she couldn't just brush him off with a few words. Bai Yuan was too lazy to deal with him; after all, she could say whatever she wanted.

Seeing that the other party remained silent, Zhou Yaren wisely stopped asking questions. She turned around, placed the clothes and curtains by the bed, told her to change, and then left the room, closing the door behind her, to thank Qin San and say goodbye.

They checked into a rather quiet inn and booked two guest rooms. Zhou Yaren asked Bai Yuan, "Would you like something to eat?"

"No need."

Zhou Yaren guessed that she didn't eat human food, so he gave up on the idea.

He had planned to go back to the Lu family to check on Lu Bing's injuries, but as soon as he got up, he felt a wave of dizziness. Zhou Yaren quickly steadied herself by holding onto the table and chair, and only after the dizziness subsided did she slowly sit down. She took her own pulse, wrote out a prescription, and asked the waiter to help her prepare and brew the medicine.

Due to severe deficiency of qi and blood, resulting in a lack of energy, Zhou Yaren slowly fell into a deep sleep after taking the herbal decoction, but his sleep was not very restful. He actually needed time to recuperate, but he did not dare to add the few herbs used to calm his mind. One ear was always subconsciously "eavesdropping".

There was no movement in the room next door, which was separated by a wall. Bai Yuan didn't even turn over. As a result, Zhou Yaren's tense nerves gradually relaxed.

Da da da.

Knock knock knock.

Even the quietest inn will still have voices, footsteps, and knocking sounds, and whispers will occasionally seep in through the cracks in the door.

Most of the time, it was the waiters who greeted the guests who came to stay: "This way, sir. You must be hungry after your journey. Would you like us to prepare a meal for you?"

The sounds came from afar and then drew near, then receded again, but not enough to disturb him.

Ring ring... Ring ring...

A crisp bell rang in the still night, accompanied by an eerie chant: "The living ascend to the yang, the dead descend to the yin; the living ascend to the high platform, the dead hide deep within..."

The air was filled with the soft sobbing of women; whose family was holding a funeral procession in the middle of the night?

At the end of the deserted street, a funeral procession, dressed in mourning clothes, slowly approached, carrying white lanterns, lifting coffins, scattering paper money, and chanting incantations: "Heaven is vast, earth is boundless, the dead return to the underworld, the living return to the mortal realm..."

The cold wind swirled the paper money everywhere, and a piece of joss paper slowly drifted into the inn's still-open window and landed beside the sleeping person's bed.

"The living have villages, the dead have hometowns..."

Zhou Yaren frowned in her nightmare, vaguely hearing the clanging of iron locks in the darkness, as if she were bound and unable to move.

The voice outside the window was still chanting softly: "Life and death are different paths, they must not collide, so be it!"

He was trapped in a nightmare, barely surviving in a dark and hopeless prison, and then he heard that thunderous judgment again, as if it came from the highest heavens.

You are guilty!

"You are a sinner!"

"You are a sinner!"

"Your sins are unforgivable, and you deserve to die a thousand deaths!"

"Even death cannot atone for it!"

No one would listen to his grievances. Zhou Yaren raised his head, which was covered by heavy shackles, and saw the guillotine hanging above his head countless times, which suddenly came crashing down.

Zhou Yaren suddenly opened her eyes, raised her hand to touch her neck, and found her palm covered in cold sweat. She had not been decapitated.

Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he heard screams coming from outside. They were quite far away, but his hearing allowed him to make out a few relatively clear shouts: "Help! Someone's been killed!"

Zhou Yaren suddenly leaped out of the window, her movements as swift as the wind, arriving at the scene just as the first rooster crowed in the morning.

The man was barefoot, having apparently lost one of his straw sandals while running. He didn't bother to pick it up, and ran frantically, shouting until his voice was hoarse: "Someone's dead... Help! Someone help me..."

Finally, the man saw a figure appear on the empty and silent street. He almost lunged at it and nearly lost his footing.

Zhou Yaren raised her hand to support him: "What happened?"

The man, his face filled with terror and anxiety, ran breathlessly, panting, "Quick... the Yellow River... I saw... a group of funeral people carrying a coffin, they all jumped into the Yellow River!"