Yuan Ying took half a tortoise shell from the offering table.

"Do you know that in the records of the underworld, a mortal's fetal soul must undergo ten reincarnations to repay its karmic debts?"

As she spoke, she turned the tortoise shell over and gently rubbed the patterns on it with her fingers.

"The third bald man used his own blood to draw the contract, but in reality, he used the fetal light soul from ten lifetimes as collateral. The fetal light soul of each lifetime is the remnant of the previous lifetime, layered on the blood contract, forming this wheel-like appearance."

I stared at the faces on the paper money and suddenly realized that each outline had clothing features from different eras.

There were young children with their hair in two buns, scholars in blue robes, and women with bound feet.

"Are these all the 'treasured souls' of Bald Old Man San from his previous incarnations?"

"more than."

Yuan Ying immersed the tortoise shell in a cinnabar bowl, and the divination result rippled with dark red: "The underworld stipulates that every time the fetal light soul is reincarnated, a wisp of its remnant soul must be separated and left in the netherworld as a 'toll' for reincarnation."

"The third bald man used evil magic to refine the remnants of his ten lifetimes into a reincarnation soul, which is equivalent to tearing his own Book of Life and Death into pieces and using the Yin power of the ghost infant to reshape his destiny and accumulate wealth!"

She suddenly slammed the tortoise shell on the table, and the divination image shattered instantly: "But he didn't know that the Reincarnation Soul needs the fetal light soul of a close relative as a guide, otherwise it will backfire on itself."

I remembered the seven red vests hanging in Bald Old Third's room, with Xiuxiu's and my birth dates stuffed in the vest pockets.

Yuan Ying noticed my confusion and sneered, "He wanted Xiu Xiu's fetal soul to take away his tenth life's karmic debt, but little did he know that the underworld had already assigned his tenth reincarnation soul to the ghost infant."

She grabbed a handful of paper money and threw it into the brazier. The faces on the paper suddenly twisted and struggled: "These remnants of souls should have suffered ten lifetimes of torment in the underworld, but Baldy Third refined them into scapegoats. Now, what the ghost infant wants is the lifeblood of his ten lifetimes of reincarnation."

I stared at the flickering faces on the paper money, and a chill ran down my spine.

"Yingniang, if we burn this money, will they be able to reincarnate?" I touched the paper bag, and my cries seemed to weaken, as if they had been crushed by the night wind.

Yuan Ying carefully packed the paper money back together and tied it tightly with a red string: "Whether they can be reincarnated depends on whether they have let go of their obsessions."

She looked out at the deep night: "But at least, it will let Ji Yunfei's soul know that her children were not stolen, but that someone wanted to lead them on a clean path, even if that path had to pass through a mass grave gnawed by hundreds of ghosts."

The paper money rustled again in the paper bag, and this time, there seemed to be an extra, very soft sigh, as if being comforted, in the crying.

I suddenly understood.

The bag full of cries was both the accusations of wronged souls and the last bit of warmth Yuan Ying offered to these lonely spirits.

In this crevices between Yin and Yang, there must always be someone who remembers that they once came into this world, even in the most wretched way.

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[I was a bit busy yesterday and took a day off. I'll make it up to you later. Sorry about that.]