Chapter 21

"The village isn't filled with yin energy. So many people died back then, so even a hundred years later it wouldn't be like this. Let's go check out the ancestral graves later."

The fact that the Yin energy was not strong should be Chen Shan's doing, but Jing Xiebai didn't expect that he would not even let go of the lonely soul.

"Well, can you find the bride's house?"

If we can find the bride's family, we might be able to find some clues.

Jing Xiebai shook his head and said regretfully, "No. There are about two hundred households here. I went into all of them and took a quick look, but I couldn't tell which one was the bride's."

"Ah?" Xie was a little surprised. "That's not the case. There must be some things related to ghost marriage left behind, right?"

Ghost marriage is considered both a happy and a sad event, and the steps involved are extremely complicated, so it is impossible for no trace to be left behind.

Jing Xiebai affirmed, "Absolutely not. The ghost marriage hasn't been completed yet, so no one would be in such a hurry to clean up everything. If they disturb the dead, it would be more trouble than good. It's probably because the bride's family was very secretive about this wedding from the beginning and left no trace of it at home."

It is not a glorious thing to have your own daughter sold for a ghost marriage, so it is normal to do it in a covert way.

Xie was having a headache. Right now, their biggest problem was the bride, but they couldn't find any clues. What should they do?

"Don't think about it, let's go to the ancestral tomb first. We have to hurry." Jing Xiebai reminded them that their current condition was not good, and even he himself was injured. He could not guarantee whether he could take Xie Que away safely.

"Yeah." Xie nodded, took two steps out, and suddenly stopped, not knowing what he was thinking about.

"What's wrong?" Jing Xiebai frowned and stopped as well.

"Where are the people in this room? Didn't they go to participate in the ghost marriage?" Xie Que grabbed Jing Xiebai's arm and asked anxiously.

Ghost marriages are special in nature. They usually only have banquets but no guests. But why don’t they even invite family members?

Xie recalled the scene of last night. Apart from the two bodies, no other bodies were found. Even the paper figures were servants and could not be the owners of this house.

"Hmm?" Jing Xiebai stopped and looked back at the room.

They lived in the west wing, which was exquisitely decorated and had unfinished embroidery on the table.

"you mean?"

Xie was a little anxious, tilting his head slightly, breathing a little fast: "Could this be the bride's home?"

If the bride and groom were from the same family, that would explain why the bride's home could not be found in the village.

Jing Xiebai was puzzled: "Why didn't he buy a bride? Why did he send his own daughter in?"

He understood what Xie Que meant, but it was obviously cheaper to buy a bride than to kill his own daughter.

"There are so many poor farmers here, it wouldn't cost much to buy one person, but it would be bad for my reputation if I sent my own daughter to die."

"Then...could it be the horoscope?" Xie was a little puzzled, but he really couldn't think of any other reason.

Jing Xiebai's face darkened. If the only criterion for choosing a bride is her horoscope, then it is possible that she would be chosen from among his own family members.

"Go to the ancestral hall and see if there are any marriage compatibility notices."

Jing Xiebai had a clear understanding of the layout of the entire house and chose the shortest route to the ancestral hall.

The marriage certificate is placed on the incense pavilion and can be found as soon as you enter.

Jing Xiebai opened the wedding invitation and found the birth characters of the bride and groom.

Yan Wensong was born on March 16, Yiyou year.

Yan Qingshu was born on May 23rd of the Bingxu year.

"How is it? Are they brother and sister?" Xie Que looked at Jing Xiebai nervously.

"Don't worry, I'll tell you my fortune."

Without a specific time, Jing Xiebai couldn't use the Four Pillars of Destiny to calculate, so he had to take out three coins and start tossing them.

However, Xie didn't know how to tell fortunes, and was afraid of disturbing him, so he held his breath and dared not say a word.

Fortune-telling for the dead is a taboo in feng shui, let alone for two evil spirits. Jing Xiebai's face paled with each hexagram he cast, and cold sweat dripped down his face, hitting the marriage certificate and leaving a mark. By the time he finished the last hexagram, Jing Xiebai was already unsteady.

Xie helped him sit down beside him, and asked worriedly, "Are you okay?"

Jing Xiebai waved his hands and said, "It's okay." After that, he coughed a few times and continued, "They are not brother and sister. The bride may have been picked up or bought from a poor family."

Judging from the hexagram, their horoscopes are actually not compatible, and there is even a vague tendency for them to clash. I don't know what the person who is looking at this sees it.

Xie fell silent after hearing this. He could never imagine that someone would sacrifice his son and give away his daughter.

"Okay, let's go check out the ancestral tomb." They still hadn't found where the coffin was, so the only thing left to check out was the ancestral tomb.

Xie Que: "Are you recovered?"

"It's okay, let's go." Jing Xiebai got up and walked out, talking to Xie Que about their plans for tonight.

"Normally, the person chosen as the bride would be killed by the groom during the final ceremony. The bride would wait for the groom to finish killing the person before crushing his soul. However, because the groom had just eaten, he did not die. He was tortured day by day."

Xie was a little puzzled: "What about those who were not selected?" He was a little curious about how Jing Xiebai escaped the supervision of the paper people and even joined them.

Upon hearing this, Jing Xiebai looked at Xie Que deeply and said without hiding anything: "When I realized something was wrong, I immediately took a Hidden Soul Pill and used a magic trick to sneak in."

Xie Que: "Hidden Soul Pill?"

"That's right. The Soul Hiding Pill can hide your Yang energy and prevent you from being contaminated by Yin energy. In the eyes of ghosts, you are a being without Yang or Yin."

"Ah? Then if we use this tonight, can we get close to the God of Death without being discovered?" Xie was a little excited. He had never seen the Soul-Hidden Pill in the book. He thought it should be the magic weapon of the Jing family, unknown to outsiders.

Jing Xiebai chuckled softly and said helplessly, "This Hidden Soul Pill is good in every way, except for one thing: you can't use your spiritual power after taking it. Once you do, the pill will lose its effect."

This is also the reason why Jing Xiebai did not take action to rescue Xie Que at the beginning. The Jing family stipulates that one can only bring a maximum of three Hidden Soul Pills on each mission, so he has to use them sparingly.

"Ah? Wouldn't that be like tying our own hands and feet? We wouldn't be able to fight back if we were attacked." Xie was a little discouraged. According to Jing Xiebai, they only had one chance to attack, and if they didn't seize the opportunity, the situation would be critical.

Jing Xiebai: "Oh, by the way, I fed you a Hidden Soul Pill. Be careful and don't use your spiritual power from now on."

Xie Que: "Huh? When did you feed me one?"

Jing Xiebai: "When you were unconscious. From my perspective, if you were chosen as a bride, you would die regardless of whether you had a wedding ceremony or not."

His life-saving pills were a rare elixir. Jing Xiebai had been exorcising ghosts for so many years that he had never seen anyone the pills couldn't save. The only possible explanation was that Xie Que's name had already been written in the Book of Life and Death, forcing Jing Xiebai to use the Soul-Fixing Curse to fight the King of Hell for him. Fortunately, it was the Yincha who first broke the millennia-old rule between Yin and Yang, otherwise Jing Xiebai wouldn't know how to end it.

"The groom will disappear after daybreak, but you haven't recovered yet. Even the life-saving pills can't save your life. I had no choice but to cast a soul-fixing spell on you and feed you a soul-hiding pill to save you."

The groom had been trapped here for over a hundred years, barely hanging on to his life. It was impossible for him to have the strength to kill Xie Que. It could only be the work of the God of Death. However, Jing Xiebai had not expected that the God of Death could not tolerate the existence of the bride and would not be satisfied until she was written in the Book of Life and Death.

"Okay, I'll pay attention." Xie agreed readily. After all, he had no talisman paper left and no way to use his spiritual power.

Jing Xiebai: "Okay, let's hurry up, we have to come back."

Xie Que: "Why did you come back?"

Jing Xiebai: "Neither of us knows if there will be a bride tonight. It would be best if I come back and make a paper doll. Then we can go and hijack the bride and stuff the doll into the sedan chair."

Jing Xiebai had just found the tools for making a paper betrothal gift in the house. Although the materials were few, they were enough for him to make a paper figurine. The way up the mountain was difficult to walk, and bringing a paper figurine with him would only add to the burden. It would be better to wait until he returned to make it.

"Oh, by the way, when the paper man cut you, did you see your blood flowing onto the paper man?" Jing Xiebai still had some doubts. Why didn't the paper man disappear with the groom, but stayed where he was?

Xie recalled the scene and said with certainty: "No, my blood can't flow on them."

The situation was critical at the time, but Xie didn't think there was anything strange about it. Now thinking about it, it was really abnormal.

Jing Xiebai: "The paper figure was not taken away. It may have been reborn by borrowing your blood."

Xie Que: "Ah?"

Jing Xiebai explained, "The paper figures absorb your yang energy, which not only weakens you but also allows them to regenerate. This way, there will be an endless supply of paper figures."

Moreover, the paper man's strength increases every time he is reborn. After such a long time, his strength can no longer be underestimated.

What a good trick.

Jing Xiebai was extremely angry but laughed: "But we are in the dark now, we won't let the God of Death succeed this time."

When they walked out of the house, they didn't know the location of their ancestral home, so they could only move forward while tossing coins to calculate the direction.

Tongjinggou was originally a wild village. The Yan family chose the wrong side, but fortunately they stopped the loss in time and fled here with their family overnight, living the life of a local emperor.

Uninhabited for a long time, this place exudes a natural beauty. The warm sun shines on the leaves, causing a glint of light. The wildly growing flowers and plants are full of vitality, and even the old house has a sense of life.

The ancestral tomb was not easy to find. The mountain that looked full of life on the outside was actually filled with dangers. Even though they were very careful, they were still scratched by the messy branches when they finally arrived at the tomb.

"Fortunately, you helped me change my clothes, otherwise I really don't know what to do." Xie simply treated the wounds on his body. He didn't feel much pain because he took the life-saving pills.

Jing Xiebai followed him up the mountain. He didn't have any new injuries. He said, "Hurry up and find the groom's coffin."

It took them an hour to find this place, so they had to hurry and get back before dark.

Since the ghost marriage is not completed, the groom is not allowed to enter the ancestral tomb, and the coffin can only be placed at the door of the ancestral tomb, which is very conspicuous.

"Should we open it?" Xie hesitated, looking at the black double coffin before him. What if he opened it and came face to face with the groom? Could they win?

Jing Xiebai: "Don't touch it. The bride hasn't come in yet and the coffin door hasn't closed yet."

"Huh?" Xie unconsciously took two steps back, moving further away from the coffin. Fortunately, he had asked in advance, otherwise he would have run into the groom head-on. Xie thought of the groom's water-soaked corpse and seemed to smell that indescribable smell again, causing a wave of nausea.

Jing Xiebai: "Look for the tablet. The groom's soul is trapped there."

The lonely souls that have not entered the ancestral tomb can only live in the memorial tablet. The groom has been trapped for many years, and only by destroying the memorial tablet can he truly dissipate his soul.

Xie bent down and rummaged through the pile of burial objects, and soon found the groom's tablet.

He picked up the tablet and handed it to Jing Xiebai: "How do we deal with it? Should we just use a spell?"

Jing Xiebai shook his head: "No, if we attack the groom now, it will definitely alert the enemy. We can take the tablet away, find a board and cast a sleight of hand to deceive the paper figurine, and then find a way to destroy the tablet when the God of Death appears."

Before leaving, Jing Xiebai picked up an empty tablet from the incense pavilion. He caught a wandering soul nearby and sealed it in. He took out a knife and carved the groom's horoscope on it, then performed a trick to ensure safety.

"Okay, let's go back." They had been busy for a long time and the sun was starting to set, so they had to hurry back.

Xie looked at the setting sun with some worry: "Is it too late?"

Jing Xiebai walked in front, his tone calm: "Yes, there is still time."

The way down the mountain was easier than going up, so they didn't care if they would be scratched by branches and rushed down, finally returning to the house before dark.