Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 234 Danger and Opportunity Coexist

Ran Qing was surprised to learn that her grandmother was a skilled doctor who had even saved people involved in shady dealings.

But upon closer reflection, it makes sense.

The Ran family is a family of corpse refiners, skilled in feng shui and corpse refining for generations. This shady line of work makes it easy for them to come into contact with all walks of life and all sorts of people.

It's perfectly reasonable for Grandma to have a skill.

Ran Qing asked, "One last question, why did the mastermind give you the Ghost Luo Ancient Coin? Since this thing is an important life-saving coin, shouldn't you keep it?"

The female ghost said that the Ghost Luo Ancient Coin is an important life-saving coin. When the evil spirits of the Ancient Luo Kingdom come to your door, you can use the Ghost Luo Ancient Coin to buy your life once.

If it's so useful, why would the mastermind distribute the Ghost Luo Ancient Coins?

Ran Qing was confused.

The female ghost replied, "I don't know about that. That person only told me to die on Longchang Street with the Ghost Luo Ancient Coin, and said nothing else."

"That's all I have to say. Do you have any other questions? If not, let me rest in peace and give me a quick end."

The female ghost spoke coldly, her world-weary weariness returning.

Ran Qing had assumed the female ghost would have some requests. As a spirit medium, Ran Qing was able to use paper figures to provide the female ghost with a body, allowing her to live for a while longer.

But the female ghost only wanted to rest in peace and made no other requests.

Even though Ran Qing offered to make it a paper doll and let it remain a paper doll for a while, the female ghost still refused.

"There's nothing wrong with being alive, but death is the end of it all."

“Child, I have no more desires in this world. Letting me rest in peace is the greatest help you can give me.”

After the female ghost became disillusioned and depressed, she regained her sanity and eliminated all her resentment, and all she wanted was to rest in peace.

Ran Qing chatted with her briefly for a while, and finally granted the female ghost's request, throwing her into the large vat belonging to the spirit medium.

As the dead faces in the jar wriggled and tore at each other, soon a new, blank, and lifeless face appeared among them.

Its consciousness has been completely erased; now all that remains is a dead face in the jar.

Ran Qing drank the medicinal wine from the clay pot. The wine, which had been infused with the aura of death and yin energy, was bitter at first taste, but had a slightly sweet aftertaste.

The medicinal wine brewed from each vengeful ghost tastes completely different.

The complex and strange flavors of these medicinal wines are like their past lives; the wine seems to be imbued with their emotions, obsessions, resentments, joys, and anger.

The female ghost on Longchang Street, however, has a bittersweet taste in her wine, and a hint of happiness amidst her sorrow.

Ran Qing didn't know much about her life, but that house on Longchang Street was her home.

The family that sells cold noodles are all its relatives.

But those relatives all turned into ghosts, living among the living like the other ghosts in Longchang Street, unable to distinguish between their own life and death.

Ran Qing was very curious about the details of the deal between the female ghost and the mysterious mastermind.

But the female ghost didn't want to say too much about this matter, only that it was related to her family.

For the sake of her family, the female ghost willingly died in her own home, becoming a vengeful spirit to guard the Ghost Altar for the mastermind behind the scenes.

This is the only vengeful ghost Ran Qing has encountered so far that actively committed suicide to become a ghost.

Ran Qing sighed and walked out of the house.

The midday sun shone on him as Mo Li stood on the cement courtyard by the door, holding a water hose from inside the house, and spraying water onto his motorcycle to wash it.

Seeing Ran Qing come out, Mo Li raised an eyebrow and asked, "All done?"

Ran Qing nodded: "It's done."

Mo Li looked Ran Qing up and down and said, "Your aura seems colder... How many incense sticks have passed since this wine was brewed?"

The more powerful a person is in the spirit world, the more pronounced their chilling and sinister aura becomes. Someone as powerful as Aunt Liu exudes a sinister and deathly aura, making her look like a ghost.

Ran Qing didn't have the skills of his sixth aunt, but he already possessed a somewhat sinister and menacing aura.

Standing under the blazing midday sun, his gaunt face was as pale as if devoid of color, and a cold glint flickered in his slightly sunken, deep eyes. Even his shadow in the sunlight gave off an ominous and eerie sense of distortion.

If a stranger were to encounter Ran Qing like this in the dead of night on a street, they might think they'd seen a ghost...

Ran Qing said, "Fifteen sticks of incense have already been burned."

Before going to Longchang Street, ten sticks of incense were burned in the Yin Altar.

Now, with the addition of five sticks of incense, the ghosts captured become increasingly powerful, and the Yin energy gained from soaking in alcohol also grows stronger.

The incense for the spirits of those who seek the dead is offered in ten sticks, one threshold at a time.

Aunt Liu's master, Aunt Shen, devoted her life to her work, and when she passed away, there were a total of seventy-three sticks of incense burning in her spirit.

The exact number of incense sticks used by Sixth Aunt is unclear, but it is definitely more than that used by Second Aunt.

Mo Li exclaimed, "You really are a promising talent. It's only been a few days and you've already collected fifteen sticks of soul incense... Tsk tsk... Indeed, danger and opportunity go hand in hand."

"If there wasn't a mastermind raising ghosts all over Zangke, where would we find so many fierce and powerful ghosts to make wine?"

Now, Ran Qing has established himself as a spirit medium; all he lacks is experience.

He hasn't used even the most important ritual implement for spirit mediums, the Nuo opera mask, for a long time.

The danger he is currently facing has not yet reached the point where he must use a Nuo opera mask.

In just one month, he transformed from a poor student who had to rely on Nuo opera masks and would die without them into a spirit medium who could stand on his own without them.

Ran Qing told Mo Li what the female ghost had said to him.

The two were comrades who had faced life and death together several times, so they naturally had to share this important information.

After hearing this, Mo Li was extremely surprised: "This ancient bronze coin can actually be used to buy the life of an evil spirit? I must verify this next time I have the chance."

This is truly extraordinary.

In theory, evil spirits don't reason with you.

What's that sentence called?

Even if I kill you, all this money is mine...

Ran Qing shook her head: "It's best to avoid running into those evil spirits."

Of all the ancient evil spirits in the ancient Luo Kingdom, the only one Ran Qing had ever encountered was that pale procession that appeared while banging gongs and drums and playing various eerie musical instruments.

Those pale, ghostly figures alone were enough to frighten Aunt Liu and Ran Jianfei, two older generation practitioners of unorthodox cultivation, into fleeing in a sorry state.

Ran Qing strongly suspected that something even more terrifying and sinister than those pale ghostly figures existed deep within the ghost realm of the Wujiang River.

Those things don't seem like something a living person could mess with.

That evening, Zong Shu was invited to her home for dinner. Ran Qing personally cooked two simple home-style dishes, and the three of them shared information.

Ran Qing then took out the Ghost Luo Ancient Coin and gave one to each of Mo Li and Zong Shu.

Hopefully, this ancient coin can protect them in a critical moment.

Now that no demon-faced creature is harming Ran Qing, Ran Qing no longer needs the four Ghost Luo Ancient Coins on her person.

Keep two with you as a warning.

These ancient bronze coins seem to have the ability to warn of danger.

(End of this chapter)