019. Life
There were only a few people from the Qing family left in the huge ancestral hall. Even the servants who came with them at the beginning were nowhere to be seen. When Qing Congnan and the others thought about it, they felt a chill all over their bodies. They didn't even notice that those servants didn't say a word when they were in the carriage, and after getting off the carriage and entering the ancestral hall, they disappeared without a trace.
Unable to move Qingling, they did not want to wait for death, so they went out again and wanted to drive away. However, when they left the ancestral hall, they found that even the carriage was gone. There was thick fog all around, and the small ancestral hall seemed to have become an isolated island on the sea.
The four of them simply rushed into the thick fog. This time Qingling was not with them, but they still returned to the entrance of the ancestral hall after many twists and turns.
After trying many times and being exhausted, the four had no choice but to go back to the ancestral hall, where they happened to run into Qing Ling in the main house.
Qing Ling also saw the female ghost who had been following Qing Congnan. His gaze paused, and he prepared to leave with the book in his hand as if nothing had happened.
Qing Congnan couldn't help but say: "Wait."
Qingling turned back with an indifferent expression.
"You..." Qing Congnan swallowed and asked, "What did you take?"
He actually wanted to ask what Qingling was looking at just now, but perhaps he was afraid of the answer, so he changed his mind when the words came to his lips.
"Clan History." Qing Ling raised the book in his hand. "You worked so hard to create a corpse-born child with the eight characters and ten gods belonging to the Yin element and gave it to the evil spirit under Zhanlong Mountain. I have to find out why."
Qing Ling was bored for long days in Zhanlong Mountain, so he developed a love for reading. He did not mind reading any official history, unofficial history, miscellaneous notes or short stories. Although he could not remember everything he read, it was better to kill time. Just now he suddenly remembered that the Qing family even had a family tree in the ancestral hall, and their ancestors had been prosperous in the past, so there should be a family record recording the changes of the family. Sure enough, he found it in the ancestral hall.
Qing Congnan's face changed when he heard this, "How...how did you know?"
"It's not hard to guess." Qing Ling's tone was still almost indifferent. "Kill the pregnant woman within a specific time, then take out the child. If the child is not dead, it is a corpse-born child born at a predetermined time. Then let me get engaged to the evil spirit in the ancient tomb, and bring me back after the marriage contract is confirmed. You must have your own plans, maybe for the living corpse underground? But you probably didn't expect that the female ghost who was cut open to take out the child could come back. I'm just very curious. As long as the mother dies, the corpse-born child can be born. Why did you torture her to death?"
Although no one said it explicitly, with so many clues in front of him, how could Qingling not guess that the female ghost was his biological mother.
Judging from the way Shen Qiuxin died, she had clearly suffered inhuman abuse before her death. It was unknown how she was choked to death by water, and then she had a caesarean section to take out the baby. How cruel.
"Of course I wanted to refine the ghost into a demon." It was Qing Conglan who spoke. "The more tragic the death, the heavier the demon spirit. Once it is refined, it can be placed in this corpse-raising formation as nutrients. But I didn't expect that I couldn't capture the soul, and it has become what it is today. If no one helped, she would have died long ago in the human world. How could she wait so many years before starting to seek revenge?"
After that, Qing Conglan's tone softened, "But these really have nothing to do with us. Your mother is also a woman with Yin in her horoscope. Your grandfather said that whoever can give birth to a child with a Yin woman first between him and me will own the Qing family property. I hid your mother for a long time, but he still found her and forced her to be his concubine. After that, I never interfered with this plan again. Qingling, every grievance has its perpetrator and every debt has its creditor!"
Qing Ling was silent for a moment. The truth was pretty much what he thought. After a few breaths, he said calmly, "Maybe, but evil spirits kill people without reason. She has killed people outside of the cause and effect. As for you... you just wanted to kill her own son in front of her."
In fact, the female ghost had lost all her rationality and killed people out of resentment. Qingling was just taking a small revenge on the couple for wanting to kill him just now.
"We were... forced to do so." Zhao Yunrou sighed helplessly, pretending to be weak and kind again, and said softly: "Qingling, you don't know, our business went wrong that year, and the family really had no money to make arrangements, so your grandfather thought of the ancient tomb under Zhanlong Mountain. Our Qing family has guarded that tomb for generations, and originally wanted to hire some people to borrow some things, and then redeem them and return them when they are profitable in the future. But your grandfather was the only one who went there and returned, and he didn't get anything, but some magic weapon, and because of it... he woke up the person under Zhanlong Mountain. Your grandfather went to great lengths to preserve the Qing family's family business, wasn't it all for you, the younger generations?"
Qing Ling said "Oh" and said bluntly: "So you prepared a powerful medicine for the evil spirit under Zhanlong Mountain to calm his anger?"
"Of course not!" Qing Congnan suddenly said, "After the marriage contract is signed, even if he is tied to your side, if he wants to walk in the world of the living, he still has to rely on you! Just like those alchemists who can control ghosts, with a husband like this, let alone this small Lincang City, it is not impossible for the Qing family to move up a level!"
Qing Ling sneered.
No wonder Shang Changheng was so angry when he just came out of Zhanlong Mountain. A group of people ran into his grave and took things away, and forced him to marry a man with Qing family blood. Qing Congnan even wanted to use the marriage contract to control ghosts. It was simply a fantasy.
Even Shang Changheng couldn't help but appear beside Qing Ling and laughed out loud, "Sure enough, you are not very skilled. Using a marriage contract to control ghosts is really a joke. If it were someone else, the night you came out of Zhanlong Mountain would be the day you died."
"Third brother." Qing Wenlin also whispered, "Now that things have come to this, our blood is thicker than water."
Qing Ling sneered, now remembering that blood is thicker than water, he did not want to say much, just left a sentence "May you wish me the best" and left in a leisurely manner.
After all, it's not just the female ghost Qiao Lian who wants to kill them, there's also the even more terrifying Shang Changheng. Even he himself is in a difficult situation now, so how can they expect him to save others?
Qing Ling took the clan history back to his own cottage. He was almost sure about his own life experience, but he still didn't know what the cause and effect was between the Qing family and Shang Changheng, who had guarded the ancient tomb of Zhanlong Mountain for generations. Those who could guard the tomb either feared that the tomb would be robbed, or were loyal retainers of kings and princes and were willing to guard the tomb for their masters.
If the Qing family had a grudge against Shang Changheng, then why would they guard the mausoleum? They should just dig up his grave and expose his body in the wilderness.
There are grudges and cause and effect between the tomb keepers and the people in the tomb, which is wrong no matter how you think about it.
Qing Ling opened the family history, and it began with an explanation of an ancestor, saying that the Qing family's ancestors had served as officials in the court and were also a family of sorcerers. However, due to the changes of dynasties and several wars, the original family history and genealogy had been lost several times. The one he had in his hand had been reloaded several times, and many things in the previous ones had been lost, and it was no longer possible to verify them as they had been passed down orally.
The only thing he emphasized was that he must not leave this small town under any circumstances and must guard the thousand-year-old tomb under Shanglong Ridge.
"Go up Long Ridge and kill Long Mountain." Qingling murmured to himself.
Zhanlong Mountain is named after its terrain. It is like a giant dragon with its head chopped off, and Zhanlong Mountain is the severed dragon head. There is a bottomless tiankeng cliff between the mountain range. It seems that it was renamed because of the changes in the years and the change in the direction of the mountains and rivers.
This clan history was written three hundred years ago, and the world has only been peaceful for a hundred years. However, according to subsequent records in the clan history, even during times of war, the Qing clan never left this small town, and successive heads of the Qing clan all had some knowledge of Yi-numerology. However, it was later seen that the Qing clan had become increasingly impoverished, and by the generation of Qing Congnan, they had lost even the talent to be sorcerers.
It seems that since the head of the family recorded the family history again, the Qing family has not been prosperous. They have always been businessmen. Not to mention being an official, there is not even one person who has joined the army.
Shang Changheng leaned close to Qingling's ear and asked, "Did you figure out anything?"
Qing Ling shook his head, folded up the clan history and put it aside, then pushed Shang Changheng away from him.
How can they talk properly when they are so close? It’s not like they are in a relationship where they can be intimate and respectful to each other.
"I didn't see it, but I don't understand." Qing Ling asked, "You said that you have a karmic relationship with the Qing family, and you want to kill the people of the Qing family as soon as possible, but the Qing family has been guarding your tomb for so many years... Well, Mausoleum, why do you still do this?"
Shang Changheng sat down on the couch, still in his proper sitting posture, looking at Qingling with a half-smile.
"Why do you think the Qing clan dares not even leave this city?"
Qingling shook his head.
Shang Changheng stretched out his hand, and the awl on the table fell into his hand. Shang Changheng played with this seemingly old object and said softly: "It's called the Life-Severing Awl. It seems to be able to cut off the life of the living, but in fact it cuts off the rebirth of the dead. Only your grandfather, who is not very skilled, would treat it as a treasure."
Cut off the road to death?
Qingling felt a little chilly.
But what Shang Changheng said next was even more horrifying.
"Nail it into the Baihui acupoint, and the soul will not be able to leave the body. There are Taoist scriptures engraved on it. If the soul does not leave, it will suffer from torture and burning day and night." Shang Changheng's voice was very cold, and it was filled with overwhelming resentment and unwillingness, and finally turned into a sneer, "It's a pity that the zombie only used this thing to suppress the soul. If it pierced itself, it would surely regret taking this thing out of my tomb."
"Then you..." Qing Ling, no matter how calm he was, couldn't imagine that someone could endure the pain of the burning soul for hundreds or thousands of years. He hesitated for a moment before asking, "Why do you need to use this thing?"
Shang Changheng threw the Life-Breaking Awl back, looked at Qingling with deep eyes, and remained silent for a while.
And during this long silence, Qingling thought of another... more terrifying possibility.
What if Shang Changheng didn't stay voluntarily?
This thing... was stabbed into his bones by someone, forcing him to stay in the ancient tomb!
And seeing how much he hates the Qing family, perhaps it was the ancestor of the Qing family who did this!
If this is true...
Qing Ling fell on the couch, covering his face with his hands in despair.
It's over, this grudge is really huge.
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