Chapter 268 Jinjiang (1)
Xie Lin, who was still a teenager, had already walked away holding the ghost baby.
On the ridge of the field, only Yan Shixun and Zheng Shumu were left.
The cold mountain wind blew from not far away, carrying a strong smell of blood.
Yan Shixun turned his head sharply and looked upwind, only to find that that was the direction of the Bai family village.
The woman had experienced the death of her husband and was hunted down herself, and she had a deep understanding of the type of people in the Bai village. In addition to being angry and resentful, she was also worried about the safety of her child, fearing that her child would be harmed by the villagers.
Even in death, the worry about the child is still engraved in the woman's soul.
She did not realize that her child had turned into a ghost baby. Instead, she supported her increasingly weak body and forced herself to walk away, trying to keep the child as far away from the Bai village as possible.
Until she collapsed from exhaustion and turned into a skeleton.
The place where Yan Shixun and the others were standing was a long distance away from the village, but the smell of blood wafting from the Bai village was still strong.
The worst guess emerged in his mind, and he looked down at Zheng Shumu.
After the ghost baby was taken away, the woman seemed to have fulfilled her last obsession. Her body gradually turned into powder and scattered in Zheng Shumu's arms.
No matter how Zheng Shumu stretched out his hand to grab the ashes, they were still blown away by the night wind.
A low whimper was squeezed out from Zheng Shumu's throat.
His eyes were bloodshot and veins bulged on his neck. He cried like a dying animal.
Because he was not present when his mother died in reality, even in the fake shadow play, his mother did not even glance at him, but just stared in the direction of the ghost baby until the last moment.
At that time, Zheng Shumu, who was still a child, was beaten all over by the villagers and was thrown into the woodshed to fend for himself while he was dying.
The mountain wind was very cold at night. Even though the young Zheng Shumu tried hard to hug himself and bury himself in the weeds, and the wounds from the firewood were so painful that he couldn't breathe, he still couldn't find any warmth at all.
At that time, he didn't consider whether he could survive, he was still thinking about his mother.
Young children have innocent fantasies.
What if? What if my mother is still alive?
He desperately begged for this little bit of luck.
But when he staggered out of the woodshed in the cover of night and reached the lake, all his persistence was shattered by the cruel reality.
At that time, Zheng Shumu knelt down by the lake in a daze, unable to even cry.
He heard shouting not far away and lights gradually came on. He just thought someone had discovered his escape.
The young Zheng Shumu looked back at the village with hatred for the last time, then staggered away into the fields.
He swore that when he came back again...
That's when all the villagers in the village are massacred!
Those who participated in the murder of his parents are guilty.
Those who stood by and watched all this happen are equally guilty!
And those who kill their family members knowing that they have committed sins are no different from the murderers of their parents!
He wants everyone to pay with blood.
Zheng Shumu was covered in scars, but even though he was exhausted, he gritted his teeth and persisted, refusing to stop, until he fainted in front of the gate of another village far away, and was rescued by the villagers of that village.
He had been an apprentice, a laborer, and also studied witchcraft in the southwest.
He tried every possible means of revenge, but in the end, it was probably his inherited talent that helped him become an excellent carpenter by teaching himself with the help of several fragments of ancestral books he found.
Even his father's friends, whom he had apprenticed to at that time, exclaimed that the Zheng style had successors, worthy of being the Zheng family who had once teamed up with southwestern exorcists to deceive the underworld.
Many years later, the young man finally fulfilled the oath he had made and laughed happily.
But now, Zheng Shumu, who is already middle-aged, is left with only fatigue in his heart.
And confused.
Everything he has been doing...is it really right?
Zheng Shumu clenched his fists tremblingly, trying desperately to keep the remaining ashes of his mother in his palms.
He stood up slowly and looked at Yan Shixun with empty eyes.
Yan Shixun did not urge Zheng Shumu.
He was waiting for an answer, waiting for... Zheng Shumu to tell him all this in person.
"Mr. Yan..."
Zheng Shumu moved his mouth, and his hoarse vocal cords barely managed to squeeze out a few syllables. Before he could finish his words, he struggled to move the muscles on his face and started laughing, his eyebrows and eyes wrinkled together, twisting more ugly than crying.
"Mr. Chengyun, maybe what you said is right. I...really did something wrong."
"But even if I say this now, what's the point? I've gone too far and for too long. I can't go back."
Zheng Shumu cried and laughed, looking like a madman.
But his voice gradually became lower.
He wasn't talking to Yan Shixun.
Rather, it was like facing one's own soul, asking oneself questions after years of confusion and repression.
——What am I doing?
Obviously, at the beginning, he just wanted revenge, but how did it end up like this today?
Zheng Shumu recalled that Li Chengyun did not blame him for what he had done, but just told him calmly that everything has its cause and effect.
If you choose that path, you will have to bear the consequences of that path, whether good or bad.
But at that time, Li Chengyun looked at Master Bai, the only one left after the massacre in the village, and reminded Zheng Shumu that his karma had gone too far, and if he did not stop in time, the evil consequences would eventually backfire.
The consequences that Master Bai paid for were greater than the causes he owed.
It was not Master Bai who killed people, nor was it Master Bai who stood by and watched. From beginning to end, he did not participate in the tragedy of Carpenter Zheng and his wife.
The only thing he did wrong was that he chose to become a craftsman and study skills instead of managing the villagers. As a result, he lived a naive and pure life and was unable to see that the thoughts of the villagers around him had long since changed.
He thought he was inviting Carpenter Zheng to work together to complete a significant contribution to the history of shadow puppetry and to push the development of shadow puppetry one step further.
But he never imagined that that would be the beginning of tragedy for Carpenter Zheng's family.
The murderer and the bystander were villagers with the surname Bai.
Since their ancestors, all other villagers with the surname Bai have been relying on the ancestor of the surname Bai for survival, receiving gifts from the ghost catcher and learning shadow puppetry skills from him to make a living.
No matter how many generations go back, Master Bai has never made more mistakes.
But Zheng Shumu always hated him, thinking that if Master Bai had not existed from the beginning, then all the things that happened later would not have happened.
Therefore, he did not kill Master Bai, but he did not let Master Bai go either. Instead, he kept Master Bai in the village and helped him replace the entire village with the shadow play, deceiving the world and making Master Bai relive the scene of that year day and night, suffering from pain and torture.
Every midnight, in the deserted village, the erhu would be played and gongs and drums would be heard.
The shadow play begins.
Master Bai, who exists as a medium in both the shadow play and reality, has to watch everything happen.
day to day.
Zheng Shumu stood beside a bush as tall as a man, with his head lowered and a gloomy expression. He was shrouded in the shadow cast by the plants, gloomy and cold. He was mumbling something vague, so Yan Shixun couldn't hear clearly that he was talking about the water surface.
But Yan Shixun no longer had time to carefully understand what Zheng Shumu said.
Sparks rose from a distance and quickly burned the entire field.
Thick smoke billowed, and the air was filled with the smell of blood and fire, mixed with screams and howls coming from afar. A human tragedy was unfolding.
The smoke and dust that filled the air was like a curtain, and the shadows of those people were projected onto the curtain, like a huge shadow play. Everything was played out before Yan Shixun's eyes, reenacting what happened that year.
The villagers were crying and running away, their houses were engulfed in flames, and some were crying and shouting in the sea of fire while trying to save their property.
But the figure of the young man has already appeared.
He is laughing.
Someone recognized the young man, wiped his tears and shouted, "Carpenter, come and help me."
But the young man just turned around and asked them softly if they remembered that many years ago, in this village where everyone was learning shadow puppetry, there was also a carpenter.
Last name: Zheng.
The young man smiled and introduced himself to everyone again.
He said, my name is Zheng Shumu, and I am the son of Zheng Carpenter.
What you owed me and my family back then...it's time to pay it back.
You made me see with my own eyes my father's rotting and maggot-infested body after his sudden death, and watched my mother sink to the bottom of the lake with her unborn child. Now, you and your children have to experience the same pain again.
Your children will see your tragically dead bodies, the death that is everywhere in the village and cannot be escaped. They will be hunted and killed in fear, just like my mother was, and then die of fear.
And you, you will see your children die in front of you, but you are powerless, crying and wailing but unable to save their lives.
The villagers were stunned.
No one expected that the skinny little boy would escape from the village, survive, and come back for revenge.
The shadow puppet master burst into tears and knelt on the ground begging that he could not die. He had just achieved success and had a bright future and money waiting for him. If he died here, wouldn't all his hard work in this life, even killing people for money, be in vain?
Some shadow puppet craftsmen angrily searched for Master Bai in the crowd, loudly asking him if he knew Zheng Shuli's identity, and scolding him for not telling them earlier so that everyone could work together to kill this wolf cub in advance.
Master Bai stood at the edge of the crowd and closed his eyes.
He said, I failed to save Carpenter Zheng's family back then, so now I should close my eyes and pretend I didn't see your call for help, that would be fair.
The young Zheng Shumu quietly watched the farce in front of him, looking at those faces that he remembered with hatred, and found that they had not changed at all from before, ugly and mercenary, able to hurt others at will for fame and fortune, arrogant and conceited.
It makes one want to laugh.
His parents died because of these people...
Some villagers noticed that Zheng Shumu was in a daze, so they wanted to pounce on him and kill him by surprise.
Many villagers have experienced what happened many years ago. After the young men who took the lead killed Carpenter Zheng and his wife, and Zheng Shumu disappeared, they took all the wealth accumulated by Carpenter Zheng's family for generations for themselves. Even the villagers who did not participate at the time got some change.
Some people felt very uneasy. After all, Carpenter Zheng's wife was still a pregnant woman when she died. After hearing about what happened to Carpenter Zheng's wife, many young women felt somewhat sympathetic towards her and had a big quarrel with their husbands.
There were also older people who, after hearing the young people say that Carpenter Zheng’s wife floated to the surface of the lake immediately after her death, immediately became nervous and wanted to ask an exorcist to perform a ritual, muttering that floating corpses were very ominous, and that the resentment was still there, and they were afraid that the corpse would turn into a fierce ghost and come back to seek revenge on them.
But the young people don't care at all. They mock the older people for being timid and conservative. What era is it still talking about ghosts and gods? Just hang a shotgun at home and see which ghost dares to come.
If they could kill Carpenter Zheng’s wife once, they would dare to kill her a second time.
Having said this, the young people who took the lead were still concerned about the atmosphere in the village, and they divided some of Carpenter Zheng's property to those villagers who did not participate.
Carpenter Zheng's family tradition is long and it is said that he once dealt with people who eat food from the underworld. The wealth and gold and silver he has accumulated over several lifetimes have blinded everyone's eyes.
The people who got the money kept silent and returned to peace. Even though some women were uneasy, they were still scolded by their families, saying, "Isn't it good to make money?" This is just a woman's kindness.
The five young men were regarded by the villagers as brave and resourceful backbones. They gradually gained a say in the village, and even their families were respected.
On the contrary, Master Bai's family was hated by the villagers because of Master Bai's anger and scolding, and was gradually excluded and isolated to the edge.
Those five young men later became famous masters of southwestern shadow puppetry, appearing on television and in magazines. They were so popular that they even opened their own graves to tourists and charged high admission fees.
The whole village made a lot of money, and naturally they gradually forgot what reverence was.
Even when faced with Zheng Shumu who came back for revenge, many people still didn't take it to heart.
In their impression, Zheng Shumu is still the little boy with no ability to resist many years ago.
But what they don’t know is…
The young Zheng Shumu lowered his eyes. He heard the sound of a sneak attack coming from behind, but he was still smiling happily.
Yan Shixun stared at the scene, and suddenly he realized what those wooden puppets in Zheng Shumu's yard were used for.
Before he could ask Zheng Shumu next to him, the shadow play started again.
Wooden puppets came out of every house.
Although their movements are still a bit stiff, their facial features are lifelike and they look exactly like real people when they put on clothes.
But what made the villagers even more horrified was that each of those wooden puppets looked like a villager.
When the puppets and the villagers stand together, it is even difficult to tell who is the real person and who is the wooden carving.
Screams echoed through the night sky.
Large patches of blood were splattered on the ground, and flames and thick smoke billowed.
The flames also danced in Yan Shixun's eyes.
He pursed his lips tightly, did not take a step forward, and did not try to save the villagers.
Yan Shixun sighed softly in his heart and said to himself, "It is just as expected."
His guess was confirmed.
The name Baizhi Lake comes from the series of deaths in nearby villages many years ago, referring to Zheng Shumu's revenge.
But the truth goes far beyond that.
Since no one noticed anything strange about the villagers' deaths, and even allowed Zhang Wubing to choose this location for filming, it means that the deaths of all people at that time were, at least on the surface, normal and can be explained by scientific theories.
In this way, the ghost exorcists in the southwest did not notice this place, and the news did not reach the official person in charge or Haiyun Temple.
However, since it was Zheng Shumu who was manipulating the shadow play, he didn't need to use false scenes to deceive Yan Shixun. All of this must be the truth that only Zheng Shumu and Master Bai knew.
That's why they can use shadow puppetry to recreate the scene of that night.
The death seems peaceful on the surface, and the completely different truth hidden underneath.
The two sides of the contradiction can only make Yan Shixun think of one possibility -
Before the villagers died, their souls had already been replaced into wooden puppets by Zheng Shumu using the bone-replacing technique, and then sealed into the shadow play.
Later, when the death became known to the outside world, the remaining villagers were probably left with only empty shells.
Anyway, the southwest is a special place for all exorcists, because neither the underworld nor Fengdu has ever set foot here, so the souls are in a wandering state for a long time, and nothing is surprising no matter what happens.
As for the fact that no souls of the villagers were seen after their death, it could also be regarded as a new rumor that made everyone fear the southwest, so that exorcists dared not come to take a closer look.
The bodies were hastily buried, and their souls remained in the shadow play. The villagers did not die completely, and they were not even qualified to have the peace of death. They could only be killed by "themselves" over and over again in the shadow play, enduring the pain of the death of all their relatives and friends.
Just as Zheng Shumu had once endured and resented, he returned his experience to all the villagers.
Therefore, because those villagers were already dead in the eyes of heaven and earth, they did not notice that there was anything wrong with their souls, and were successfully deceived by Zheng Shuli and Master Bai. Only the shadow play next to Baizhi Lake was of dead objects.
Rather than the real world that is truly imprisoned outside of heaven and earth.
If Zhang Wubing had not accidentally chosen Baizhi Lake this time, perhaps no one would have discovered this place until the new world was completely formed, threatening or even replacing the original world. All the ghost exorcists in the world, even the ghosts and gods, would be unable to save anything.
This is……
A new cycle of life and death begins, the Tai Chi Yin and Yang start to operate again, and a new world and avenue will be born from falsehood, turning falsehood into reality.
The moment Yan Shixun figured out everything, his mind was filled with horror, and his heart sank into the cold White Paper Lake along with the deceased.
The hands hanging by his side trembled slightly. After a long time, he managed to clench them into fists to suppress the turbulent waves beneath the calm surface.
Yan Shixun had already realized that this was not something that could be easily resolved, but he still had not expected that he would be facing a whole new world.
He couldn't help but think of Li Chengyun.
Did his master realize this when he was at Baizhi Lake? Did he know that a new world would be born here? Or was it even scarier... Was his master's death related to this place?
Zheng Tiantian...
Yan Shixun's eyes darkened and his hands clenched tightly.
Zheng Shumu, who was standing next to Yan Shixun, raised his head gloomily and saw Yan Shixun's reaction.
With the help of the mountain wind, the raging fire spread from the village to where they stood in an instant.
The two stood in a sea of fire, and all they could hear was the crackling sound, and no one spoke.
But the flames seemed to have eyes and did not hurt the two men at all. Instead, they burned around them and formed a safe vacuum zone around them.
Yan Shixun noticed the fact that Zheng Shumu was not burned, and he suddenly realized that Zheng Shumu and Zheng Tiantian were the people who manipulated everything behind the scenes.
Zheng Shumu also took Yan Shixun's safety into consideration. He smiled bitterly, knowing that Master Bai trusted Yan Shixun more than he did.
That's right. After all, they are disciples of Mr. Chengyun. They are bright and handsome, and have extraordinary aura. How could anyone not admire their awe-inspiring righteousness?
Zheng Shumu sighed deeply and finally made up his mind because of this scene.
"Mr. Yan."
When he spoke again, Zheng Shumu had regained his composure.
He looked directly at Yan Shixun who turned to look at him, and said word by word: "Please, take Master Bai away."
After hearing clearly what Zheng Shumu said, Yan Shixun widened his eyes slightly, surprised that Zheng Shumu would actually let his "enemy" go.
"I know Mr. Yan is much smarter than ordinary people, but there is one thing that Mr. Yan may not have guessed."
Zheng Shumu said: "Each of the wood carvings that Mr. Yan saw in the yard corresponds to the life they replaced. The human figures replaced the villagers, and the animal statues replaced the corresponding animals. Every time a person is killed, a new wood carving will appear."
"And Master Bai's wood carvings..."
Zheng Shumu lowered his head weakly, as if he was completely crushed by the heaviness of life and hatred, and instantly looked much more mature.
But before Zheng Shuli could finish, Yan Shixun suddenly remembered that when he had decorated Zheng Shuli's house before, in addition to the wood carvings all over the yard, there was also an unfinished wood carving in the workshop.
Zheng Shumu thought that Yan Shixun had not guessed it, but he didn't know that under the Great Dao, there was the existence of evil ghosts entering the bones. That was the last resort left by the Great Dao to save itself. It could be a miracle that could find life from any dead end. How could it be confined to Zheng Shumu's understanding of ordinary exorcists?
He underestimated Yan Shixun.
Yan Shixun also underestimated Zheng Shumu's cruelty.
That wooden statue of an old man with only the upper body... was actually prepared for Master Bai!
According to Zheng Shumu's actions, when the wood carving is completed, the corresponding living person dies.
In other words, Master Bai will die tonight!
Yan Shixun recalled the previous time when he visited Master Bai's home. The expression on Master Bai's face was so complicated that he couldn't understand it. Even his words seemed to imply that he was entrusting his son to his care.
Master Bai knew very well that Zheng Shumu would complete the wood carving tonight, and he would die.
But even though he knew all this, he still calmly prepared to face his death, without any thoughts of escape or fear.
What Master Bai was most worried about in the end was still Zheng Shumu.
He told all the secrets he knew and the bargaining chips he held, just so that Yan Shixun could rescue Zheng Shumu.
Master Bai knew very well that although Zheng Shumu had succeeded in his revenge, he was not living a happy life.
Because Zheng Shumu was still brooding over his mother's death and feeling guilty towards Zheng Tiantian, he lived in hell every moment.
Zheng Tiantian repeatedly mentioned what happened in the past, watching Zheng Shuli's suffering coldly, and repeatedly uncovering Zheng Shuli's scars and not allowing them to heal, which deepened Zheng Shuli's pain.
Master Bai felt very sorry for Zheng Shumu.
Although he felt guilty towards Zheng Tiantian, Zheng Shumu was the child he watched grow up after all.
Before the accident, he and Carpenter Zheng became close friends because they had the same interests.
Even Zheng Shumu fell in love with shadow puppetry after watching his performances. He happily told Zheng Mujiang that he wanted to be a shadow puppet maker instead of a carpenter.
How could Master Bai bear to watch the son of his best friend suffer?
After Zheng Shumu returned to the village, Master Bai and Zheng Shumu have been together for many years. To Master Bai, Zheng Shumu is no different from his own child.
He would rather die than let Zheng Shumu suffer any more.
Yan Shixun also understood who the person behind the scenes Master Bai was talking about was—Zheng Tiantian.
Master Bai clearly wanted him to take Zheng Shumu away from Zheng Tiantian.
And now...
Yan Shixun looked quietly at Zheng Shumu in front of him, then suddenly smiled and shook his head gently.
Zheng Shumu actually asked him to rescue Master Bai from Zheng Tiantian.
Each of these two people forgot about themselves at the last moment and only considered a way out for the other.
But for so many years, they lived like mortal enemies.
"Mr. Yan?"
Zheng Shumu was surprised by Yan Shixun's smile and asked carefully, "Mr. Yan, do you disagree?"
He suddenly became anxious: "Back then, Mr. Chengyun, your master, also reminded me about Master Bai, but I just figured it out now! I admit that I was wrong about this, and I was a few years late, but Master Bai can still be saved! Mr. Yan, please believe me!"
"Master Bai's wood carving..."
Zheng Shumu paused as he was talking, and then he spoke again: "When I was carving to the end, the carving knife suddenly broke, and the wood carving was not completed. I think this is Master Chengyun reminding me to think twice before acting. So, I did not continue carving, but came to find Mr. Yan, and wanted to ask you to take Master Bai away from here."
"It's not that I don't believe you, it's just that the relationship between you two is really..."
Yan Shixun looked at Zheng Shumu with a smile in his eyes and asked softly, "Do you know what Master Bai said to me last?"
"He said, let me save you from Zheng Tiantian."
Zheng Shumu's eyes widened slowly in disbelief.
He stared at Yan Shixun, trying to find evidence that he was lying.
Yan Shixun just smiled and said, "Master Bai hopes that you can live like a normal person, not trapped in the hell of hatred every day, but the most ordinary and peaceful happiness. He would rather die himself, and he hopes that you can be saved."
At that moment, Zheng Shumu felt that everything in front of him disappeared, and only the gradually lengthening white noise remained in his ears.
Apart from that, he could not feel anything. In his mind, the only thing left was what Yan Shixun said.
Because the mind of the person manipulating the shadow play was severely shaken, the entire scene shook and collapsed.
The spreading flames were extinguished inch by inch, and the mountains, fields, villages and lakes in the distance all fell into darkness.
There was only one candle left in the village, swaying back and forth in the cold wind, but stubbornly refusing to go out.
I want to leave a light on for the children who have gone far away and never come back.
Leave a way home.
Yan Shixun looked back and saw an old man's hunched and thin figure standing by the candlelight.
He understood and knew that it was Master Bai.
If Zheng Shumu told his plan to any exorcist, including Yan Shixun, no one would think that he could succeed.
But it was Zheng Shumu who accomplished all this.
Yan Shixun knew clearly that this was possible only because of the powerful ghost energy of the ghost baby, Master Bai's unconditional trust and control, and because he took out all his souls and lives, and because of his guilt and remorse, he was helping Zheng Shuli with all his strength.
Master Bai is like the candlelight behind the shadow play.
Guarding the heritage of shadow puppetry.
Also guarding Zheng Shumu.
No matter how much Zheng Shumu hated him, as long as Zheng Shumu looked back, he would always be able to see the lit candlelight and would not forget the way home because he had walked too far.
When Yan Shixun figured out everything, he did not feel the joy of grasping the truth, but only let out a light sigh.
There are always more things in life than what we want to say... When Master Bai invited Carpenter Zheng with great enthusiasm, he certainly could not have imagined that the situation would end up like this.
Yan Shixun glanced sideways at Zheng Shumu.
Zheng Shumu had not yet recovered from his shock, but they had already returned from the fields to the courtyard where Yan Shixun first pushed open the door and discovered the truth.
Yan Shixun looked at the dead silence surrounding him, with no human figures in sight. Only the wooden mechanism behind the window was left, still diligently projecting the shadows of the puppet figures onto the window, moving around and waving its hands, as if there were people at home.
But the moment he saw the wooden mechanism, he suddenly remembered what Zheng Shumu had just said about wood carving.
There is also Zheng Tiantian, who is regarded by both Zheng Shumu and Master Bai as the one who dominated all this.
Xie Lin’s sister Xie Jiaojiao...is Zheng Tiantian.
"Zheng Tiantian!"
Yan Shixun turned around abruptly and looked at Zheng Shumu, his eyebrows and eyes sharp: "Can she carve wood?"
Zheng Shumu, who had not yet fully recovered from his shock, was confused but nodded: "Mr. Yan has also seen that Tiantian is a ghost baby. She is originally more talented than me. Compared to me, she is the one who truly inherited the Zheng family's woodcarving."
As soon as Zheng Shumu finished speaking, Yan Shixun ran away and pushed open the gate of the yard. He didn't bother to explain to Zheng Shumu and immediately ran to Uncle Bai's house where everyone lived.
Even though Yan Shixun and Xie Lin were not familiar with each other, he understood Xie Lin's deep feelings for his sister because of Song Ci's existence.
Besides, when Xie Lin saw Zheng Tiantian before, he also said that she was like his sister.
The only thing that made Xie Lin hesitate was Zheng Tiantian’s age.
It was exactly the same as when Xie Jiaojiao disappeared.
And now, after seeing everything that had happened before, Yan Shixun finally understood why Xie Lin had such feelings.
——Because Xie Jiaojiao or Zheng Tiantian are basically ghost babies!
She had been dead before she was born, so she should not have had the chance to grow up.
Just like Jing Xiaobao, even though he had the appearance of an evil spirit, decades after his death, he still remained almost the same age as when he died.
Even though he later acquired terrifyingly powerful strength and even became the King of Hell, he was not able to grow up much. At most, he was one or two years older than when he died.
Yan Shixun didn’t know why Xie Jiaojiao had grown from a baby to this point, but just the guess was enough to make him frightened.
How powerful a force would be needed to support Xie Jiaojiao's soul from a baby to a little girl?
If this is true... then Xie Jiaojiao is even more terrifying than Jing Xiaobao.
Yan Shixun just thought about it and felt a cold wind whistling through his chest, making his hands and feet cold.
What worries him even more is that given Xie Lin's obsession with Xie Jiaojiao's disappearance, he is likely to go to Zheng Shumu's house again to try to confirm the relationship between Xie Jiaojiao and Zheng Tiantian.
But what Xie Lin didn't know was that the one he was about to face was not a cute sister at all.
But it is a ghost baby that is more terrifying and powerful than the King of Hell.
Not to mention, Xie Jiaojiao also knows Zheng's woodworking skills, and can use wood carvings to replace the identities of living people just like Zheng Shumu.
If Xie Jiaojiao had any ill will towards Xie Lin, Xie Lin would never be able to resist it.
Yan Shixun's heart was beating like a drum. He ran back to the outside of Uncle Bai's yard as fast as he could. He glanced at the still closed door of Zheng Shumu's house next door and rushed to the gate of Uncle Bai's yard.
As soon as he opened the door, Ye Li saw his beloved ghost exorcist coming back. Before he could even smile, Yan Shixun grabbed his arm.
"Where's Xie Lin?"
Yan Shixun didn't even take a breath, he stared at Ye Li and asked: "Tell me, he is still here."
Ye Li retracted the smile that was about to be revealed. He pursed his pale lips, sighed and said to Yan Shixun: "Shixun, you have to know that mortals can beg for everything they want. No matter what they want, it doesn't matter whether it is happiness or suffering in the eyes of others."
"The living choose their own karma, suffering or joy, and they will bear the consequences for themselves."
Ye Li half-lowered his long eyelashes, stared at Yan Shixun seriously, and said word by word: "It's nothing more than that, the cause and effect are your own responsibility."
As a ghost god, Yeli has heard countless prayers and pleas from the human world over the past thousands of years. Not only those from exorcists, but also the urgent pleas of ordinary people's souls, which arrived at Fengdu along with the souls and fell into Yeli's ears.
Yeli has heard requests for wealth and power, but has also heard pleas for death.
As the ghost god in charge of death and judgment, what Ye Li sees is far beyond that of all other ghosts, gods or living people.
He saw the pleas of humans, gods and ghosts buried in the deepest part of their souls. For many people, death is the happiness they long for. Ordinary people think it is a tragic thing, but those people cry out to gods and ghosts day and night for it.
Just like Xie Lin.
In Ye Li's opinion, Xie Lin is already an adult and he should bear the consequences of his own choices. He knows that he will have to take risks after leaving this courtyard.
Ye Li tried to dissuade him.
But he is by no means a kind God, and he will not blindly stop the other party from doing something unwillingly, thinking "for the other party's safety."
Even the long and silent obstruction was a compromise that the ghosts and gods had to make helplessly because of their beloved ones.
After Yan Shixun listened to what Ye Li finished saying, the hand that was pulling Ye Li's arm gradually tightened, with such great force that it even left obvious and bright red marks on Ye Li's pale and bloodless arm.
Ye Li noticed this, but didn't care.
He simply stretched out his arms and embraced Yan Shixun, who was still in a daze, without caring at all that his most vulnerable throat and chest were exposed to Yan Shixun.
Perhaps his beloved ghost hunter would be angry at his indifference or would not understand the judgment he made.
After all, strangers are most likely to be soft-hearted and emotional.
Ye Li was very clear about this, and he had seen many people make irrational, emotional decisions in critical moments. He knew that if a stranger were faced with Xie Lin's situation, he might choose to desperately stop Xie Lin for the sake of his own safety and life.
For Xie Lin's own good.
But as the lord of Fengdu, Ye Li was not prepared to deny his judgment.
However, he would not be wary or alienated from Yan Shixun just because he might have different ideas from himself.
Therefore, Ye Li gave the right of choice to Yan Shixun.
Dadao had knocked on the central door of Fengdu several times but was coldly rejected. Even the ghosts and gods who had to bow to heaven and earth before them, now bowed their heads to their beloved exorcist.
The throat of Yeli was within Yan Shixun’s reach.
He was quietly waiting for Yan Shixun to make a judgment.
But to Ye Li's surprise, Yan Shixun quickly came to his senses, but did not blame his choice. Instead, he asked about Lu Xingxing's situation at a rapid pace.
"Is Lu Xingxing awake? Can he handle this place if I leave it to him?"
Yan
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