Chen Ke woke up again in a small Taoist temple.
The moon was high in the sky, and it was pitch black outside the window. A breeze blew in through the window, and a small oil lamp inside swayed precariously.
Chen Ke pulled his thin Taoist robe tighter around himself and realized that his current body wasn't much thicker than the robe.
Looking up at the altar above, one sees not the Three Pure Ones or the Jade Emperor, but a Taoist priest with a sage-like demeanor and kind eyes.
Sitting cross-legged, Chen Ke began to receive the original owner's memories.
The original owner's memories were very simple. Since he could remember, he had lived in this Taoist temple. During the day, his activities were limited to the courtyard of the temple and the hillside behind it. At night, he was confined to his room.
Besides the morning and evening lessons, the most frequent tasks were gathering firewood, carrying water, sweeping the yard, and washing my and my master's robes.
His favorite time was the month when his mother came to visit him.
But since he turned twelve, and now he has turned eighteen, a full six years have passed, and his mother has not come to see him again.
During this time, his biggest wish was for his mother to come see him again.
But his wish changed last month because his master left one night without a sound.
When he went in the next day, he even thought he was meditating.
Since his master left, the original owner's wish became to go down the mountain once, as he wanted to see the outside world.
The Taoist temple in the mountains is too desolate and too lonely.
Unfortunately, the original owner never descended the mountain even once before his death. His life was only eighteen years long, and all he ever saw was this small world within the Taoist temple in the mountains.
"Receive all storylines."
"Yes, Master."
Suddenly, a third-person perspective appeared in Chen Ke's mind, showing a whirlwind view of the original owner's life.
The original owner was born into the Chen family, the largest ghost-catching family at the time. His father was the second son of the Chen family, and his uncle was the head of the Chen family. If the original owner had been an ordinary person in such a family, he would have certainly lived a wealthy and noble life.
However, the original owner was born in a yin year, yin month, and yin hour, a pure yin life, and was also a male. Logically speaking, he should have been destined to attract ghosts and age prematurely, but at birth, the sky was covered with rosy clouds and the light of blessings shone everywhere. The little baby was filled with immeasurable merit.
In this way, he will accumulate merit and be protected. With a pure Yin destiny and the ability to communicate with ghosts and gods, he is simply a born ghost catcher!
Such extraordinary talent should have been nurtured as a prodigy by the Chen family, a family of ghost hunters. However, the problem lies with another peerless prodigy in the Chen family, Chen Daozhi, the son of the original owner's uncle, the head of the Chen family, who has a pure yang destiny that is the natural enemy of ghosts and evil spirits.
For a family to have members with both extremely yin and extremely yang destinies simultaneously is not a blessing, but a curse.
The two are mutually reinforcing and mutually restraining; one grows while the other diminishes, it's a matter of either one dying or the other perishing.
For the sake of the family's future, a choice had to be made between the two, and it was clear that the original owner was the one who was abandoned.
Since the choice had been made, the original owner's merits should naturally be added to Chen Daozhi. Therefore, the original owner's uncle did not hesitate to sacrifice his own lifespan to use a secret technique to seize the original owner's merits.
The moment one loses the protection of merit, what was originally a full and blessed appearance of heavenly grace immediately transforms into a prematurely aged appearance of being haunted by evil spirits.
Perhaps out of guilt towards the original owner, the Chen family used their connections to send him to the current nameless Taoist temple for protection. The Taoist priest there was highly skilled and managed to protect the original owner until he was eighteen years old.
However, the Taoist priest suddenly passed away a month ago. Without his protection, the original owner of this body finally died from the erosion of the evil energy.
If Chen Ke hadn't immediately entered his body and woke up, he would probably have been devoured by the menacing ghosts outside.
This is the original owner's extremely simple life, a nobody who passively sacrificed himself for his family.
The key point is that he sacrificed his life for that so-called family, and the protagonist Chen Daozhi, who received his merit, did not cherish it. Not only did he fail to lead the family to a higher level, but he also gave the merit to the female lead because of his love-struck mind, almost causing his own death. Not to mention, the whole family suffered because of him.
"Cough cough cough cough..." After a long, persistent cough, Chen Ke almost thought he was going to cough up his lungs.
"His body is too weak; he's panting heavily even when he talks." And right now, he feels gusts of cold wind that seem to be blowing into his bones.
The system took out a blanket from its small space and gave it to Chen Ke. "The original owner was invaded by evil spirits and suffered from illness since childhood. His body is a bit weak. Master, just bear with it and activate the system."
"What has been activated this time?"
"Master, this time I gained merit from striking the wooden fish. Shall I activate it?"
Chen Ke: What a simple and brutal system. Could it be designed specifically to counter the protagonist?
"Activate".
"Hello, the Merit System for striking the wooden fish is at your service."
Chen Ke was already used to his strong sense of professionalism with the system, and calmly began to check the system rules.
The rules were quite simple and straightforward: whoever Chen Ke struck the wooden fish at would have their merit gradually added to his account...
"This, this isn't quite right." Looking at the palm-sized wooden fish in front of him, which was covered in a glossy black patina, Chen Ke immediately picked up the wooden fish stick and started striking the dignified statue in front of him.
"Excuse me, Immortal Master, this cold wind is making me so cold. I'll borrow your merit for a while."
This statue has been worshipped for countless years, yet the merit points on its head amount to only one thousand.
"Tap, tap, tap...smack!" Chen Ke was tapping away enthusiastically when, unexpectedly, the whisk on the statue suddenly fell off.
Perhaps the statue never imagined that it would one day have its merits stolen, so it dropped a whisk to remind Chen Ke to stop.
Chen Ke looked up and realized he'd already knocked 749 times. "Thud!" The last stick fell unintentionally, leaving the statue with exactly 250 merit points...
"Ah, I'm so sorry, it was an unintentional mistake by this disciple. I will make amends in the future."
Chen Ke put away the wooden fish, straightened his Taoist robe, and stood up. Well, judging by his appearance, he was no more than 1.7 meters tall.
Looks like I need to hurry down the mountain, have a good meal, and grow stronger, because health is the foundation of everything.
"Immortal Master, this disciple will now descend the mountain. Please take good care of yourself here." Section Chief Chen bowed and turned to open the door without hesitation.
"Huff... huff huff..."
A gust of cold wind swept by, causing Chen Ke's Taoist robe to flutter loudly.
However, Chen Ke, who possessed 750 merits, was no longer afraid of the yin wind, and it could not penetrate him even when it surrounded him.
"Bang!" The courtyard gate was blown open and closed repeatedly, as if something unseen was peering out from the doorway.
Unbeknownst to everyone, the original owner possessed a third eye, which allowed Chen Ke to see clearly that there were two headless ghosts at the door. Their cultivation was too shallow to enter, so they could only bang on the door with a tree trunk to frighten the original owner.
Chen Ke strode over, his face darkening as he shouted, "What are you doing, smashing into the door! You'll have to pay for it if you break it!"
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