Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 361 Memorial Tablet
In the hot and stuffy main room, the incense burning in the large vat was dense and numerous.

Ran Qing roughly counted, and there were nearly two hundred sticks of soul incense...

Before that, he was only 50 sticks of incense.

Auntie Shen toiled her whole life, but only 72 sticks of incense were burned.

Aunt Liu was exceptionally gifted; she spent her entire life catching ghosts, and the jar was almost overflowing with incense, reaching the pinnacle that a spirit medium could achieve.

But now, with the blessing of her predecessors, Ran Qing is almost catching up with Sixth Aunt.

Ran Qing's feelings were somewhat complicated.

He fulfilled the long-cherished wish of his predecessors and lifted their curses, but in doing so, he lost the most powerful ritual artifact of the spirit medium lineage—the memorial tablets of his predecessors.

However, before they disappeared, the great masters of the past generations still managed to give him, their junior, a final bit of support.

Even though none of them had ever seen Ran Qing, this grand-disciple, except for Sixth Aunt.

But they still care about Ran Qing.

This... is the legacy of our sect.

Ran Qing was filled with mixed emotions. After sighing, he respectfully lit three incense sticks and bowed three times to the ancestral tablets of Heaven, Earth, Ruler, Parents, and Teacher.

The memorial tablets of the past masters of the Yin-Yang pilgrimage have been returned to the Ghost King's coffin.

However, Ran Qing plans to erect a memorial tablet for his predecessors and continue to offer daily sacrifices to them as before.

If he takes on apprentices in the future, he will also require them to make offerings to him daily.

Ran Qing pondered this as she looked at the stuffy, sweltering main room before her.

He took out the bell and shook it gently.

Soon, the dead faces that had been wriggling and crowding at his feet rushed out of the door excitedly and happily.

The technique of refining ghosts in a vat transformed these evil spirits into mindless, dead faces.

Now that they have fulfilled their role as guides, they will break free from the constraints of the "ghost-refining magic in the vat" and return to their most primal state.

Although at this point they have lost their memories and personalities, they are merely the most confused wandering souls.

But wandering spirits also have their own instincts.

As Ran Qing's door to the Yin Altar of the Yin Walkers opened, a chilling wind swept in from the eerie and terrifying Wujiang Ghost Realm outside.

The writhing, dead faces rushed excitedly outwards, transforming into wandering ghosts and disappearing into the eerie winds of the Wujiang Ghost Realm.

Like other wandering spirits, they will attempt to pass through the Gate of Hell and reach the depths of the Wujiang Ghost Realm.

But no one knows where they ended up after passing through the Gate of Hell.

Moreover, the Ghost Realm of Wujiang is now filled with danger.

Perhaps these confused wandering souls cannot pass through the gates of hell...

But none of this mattered to Ran Qing anymore.

Releasing wandering souls and letting them go freely is the only act of kindness Ran Qing, a spirit medium, can do.

He watched as the last dead face wriggled and jumped out of the gate, then rang the bell.

With a crisp ringing sound, the main hall door closed tightly, and this hall, which was connected to the ghost realm of Wujiang, returned to its closed and dark state once again.

Only the little red rope figures wriggled back to the ceiling, rustling and shaking above Ran Qing's head.

Ran Qing didn't stay long. He stood in the center of the main room and shook a bell.

Gradually, a feeling of weightlessness came over me.

The hall, filled with incense and candles, gradually receded from his sight.

Instead, there are cement buildings on Park Road.

Although it was still the same main room, the air was just as stuffy and hot.

But the large vat here is empty.

The jar contained only cold, hard incense ash.

The two rooms, one on the left and one on the right, were empty, dark, and deserted.

Mo Li and Long Zongshu, who should have been waiting here, were nowhere to be seen. Ran Qing checked the time; it was four in the morning, and there was still time before dawn.

He pushed open Mo Li's door and found the room slightly messy. Although the lights were off, the television was still on and hadn't been turned off yet.

The television screen is frozen on the disc clipping screen after the disc playback has ended.

Mo Li seemed to leave in a hurry; he only had time to turn off the lights, not the TV.

Ran Qing frowned, turned around, walked through the main room, and went to their respective bedrooms.

The bedroom where he and Zongshu rested was also empty, with no one on the bed.

But when the light was turned on, a note could be seen left on the old table.

It must be Zong Shu's handwriting; it's written in a somewhat hurried and messy manner.

"...We took Uncle Ran to the city hospital for emergency treatment!"

Upon seeing this message, Ran Qing's furrowed brows slowly relaxed.

Zongshu and the others had no idea what was happening in the underworld.

But at the moment Ran Jianfei's remnant soul vanished in the underworld, his incomplete body left in the mortal realm must have also undergone some kind of illness.

Unaware of the situation, Zong Shu and the others could only rush Ran Jianfei to the hospital.

But actually, it's already beyond saving...

Fortunately, the city hospital was not far from Park Road where he was, and Ran Qing quickly ran outside.

However, fearing the lurking dangers of Moonlit City in the darkness, Ran Qing brought his head-shaped staff.

Because of the horrifying and bizarre shape of the mandible, Ran Qing covered the head of the mandible with a towel to avoid causing a disturbance.

Then, dragging his cane and carrying a small cotton ball, he rushed towards the city hospital.

The city hospital under the cover of night is dilapidated and deserted.

Although the area is crowded during the day, it becomes deserted at night.

Inside the brightly lit emergency room, Ran Qing found Mo Li and Long Zongshu in the corridor.

The two of them sat there, looking somewhat lost and bewildered.

Behind them lay a middle-aged man with his eyes closed, silent and still.

That simpleton, who loved watching animal documentaries, has now fallen silent as the spirit of the underworld departed.

The three teenagers reunited, and Long Zongshu hurriedly stood up, saying, "Something bad has happened, Ran Qing..."

Mo Li, however, looked at Ran Qing's calm expression and guessed what was going on.

"...You saw Uncle Ran down there?"

Ran Qing nodded, and without keeping him in suspense, said, "His main soul perished down there, so his body up there will also die."

This answer was clearly within Mo Li and Long Zongshu's expectations.

After all, they were also people of the Yin-Yang School, and they had guesses about the reason why the middle-aged man with dementia suddenly fell ill.

Now that Ran Qing has confirmed it, Long Zongshu is not surprised, but rather feels a sense of melancholy and sadness.

"...When we brought him here, Uncle Ran had already passed away. The doctor told us to carry him back ourselves."

"He was watching TV perfectly fine, then suddenly he started convulsing and rolling his eyes... He kept saying, 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...'"

Then there was silence.

"Mo Li and I rushed him here, but we couldn't save him..."

Long Zongshu spoke softly, for this was not the first time he had witnessed the death of someone close to him.

But with his strong empathy, seeing Ran Qing's father die reminded him of his own father who died young, and he couldn't help but feel sad.

Ran Qing glanced at Ran Jianfei's corpse and shook her head: "Go back quickly, don't stay here any longer."

Ran Qing's cold gaze swept calmly around her, carrying a hint of vigilance.

"Don't forget, there are red gates open everywhere in Moonlit City now, and danger could be lurking at any moment..."

(End of this chapter)