Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 364 Seeing me is like an ant seeing the blue sky
Inside the tin box, three handwritten books lay quietly.

The red cover of the passbook was inexplicably jarring.

These are the relics left behind by Ran Jianfei.

Did he foresee the possibility of being killed before he went to the ghost town of Laro?
So these relics were left behind in advance...

Based on the timeline, if he hadn't been killed in the ghost town of Laro, he could have returned to the dam yesterday to retrieve the items from Old Sheepskin.

His failure to retrieve the items meant he was dead. These items would then be delivered to Ran Qing by Old Sheepskin…

Looking at the contents of the iron box, Ran Qing's expression was indifferent, devoid of joy or sorrow.

He opened the passbook, looked at the numbers on it, and then at the note with the password written on it tucked inside.

I also looked at three handwritten books. The old covers were covered with handwritten penmanship, and the characters were strong and beautiful.

The covers of the three books clearly state "Ran's Secret Techniques of Star-Tracing Feng Shui", "Essential Techniques of Exorcising Ghosts and Refining Corpses", and "Complete Guide to Exorcising Evil Spirits and Suppressing Evil".

Such family-inherited secret manuals could not possibly be printed copies; they were all handwritten by Ran Jianfei, word by word.

Ran Qing accepted the iron box and thanked the old sheepskin with a smile.

He politely asked Old Sheepskin to stay for breakfast, but Old Sheepskin declined and he didn't insist.

Although Old Sheepskin was half a practitioner of Yin-Yang Taoism, he was ultimately just an ordinary person. Old Sheepskin still carefully kept his distance from Ran Qing and his group of true Xuanxiu unorthodox practitioners.

If they get too close, and something goes wrong, Ran Qing and the others can handle it, but Old Sheepskin, an ordinary person, can't.

After watching Old Sheepskin leave, Mo Li looked at the small iron box in Ran Qing's hand with a strange expression and said, "Uncle Ran left his inheritance to you..."

Ran Qing nodded and said, "Perfect. We need money to buy him land and a coffin, so let's use his inheritance to arrange his funeral."

As she spoke, Ran Qing sat down at the doorway, opened the book "Ran's Secret Techniques of Star-Tracing Feng Shui," and began to read it.

Mo Li was somewhat surprised to see this.

Previously, Ran Qing hated her father to the bone and loathed the Ran clan's corpse-driving technique, repeatedly saying that she didn't care for it.

Given Ran Qing's personality, if he says he doesn't care, even if feng shui techniques were actually presented to him, he would probably just throw them in the trash.

But at this moment, Ran Qing not only calmly accepted her father's belongings, but even calmly opened the Ran family's feng shui manual to take a look.

The relationship between the father and son finally eased last night.

But this easing of tension felt more like a sense of relief, as if death had ended all debts and Ran Qing had let go of everything.

He flipped through "Ran's Secret Techniques of Star-Tracing Feng Shui," his fingers moving rapidly.

The book contains a wide variety of content, with occasional rough line drawings, and mainly explains the art of Feng Shui.

Ran Qing, being a complete novice in feng shui, was utterly bewildered by what she saw.

There are so many technical terms that I can't understand them at all.

But when Ran Jianfei copied this family secret manual, he may have already realized that he could not pass on the feng shui techniques step by step.

Therefore, in many paragraphs and chapters of the book, there are annotations in red pen by him, explaining those feng shui terms and related allusions.

Ran Qing flipped through the pages rapidly, reading almost ten lines at a glance.

I flipped through more than a hundred pages before finally finding the content I was interested in.

"A red coffin on top, a place to nurture evil spirits..."

"Blood corpse..."

Ran Qing looked at the opening of this page with a somewhat solemn expression.

He remained uninterested in the Ran family's corpse-refining techniques and feng shui. The "Witchcraft and Ghostly Arts" of the Yin-Yang lineage were already too profound and difficult for him to learn.

Ran Qing has only learned a few of the most common and ordinary techniques in a superficial way. He has not studied the many exquisite techniques in "Witchcraft and Ghostly Arts" carefully, let alone had time to study any Feng Shui secrets.

But to rescue Li Hongye, uncover the mystery of her death, and learn the truth about the ghost-raiser, one must confront the two blood corpses.

And to try to resolve the negative influences of a place that is prone to causing harm.

At times like these, the feng shui techniques found in Ran Jianfei's belongings become very important to Ran Qing.

He flipped through the book "Ran's Secret Techniques of Feng Shui and Star Observation" in his hands. The book contained five pages about the nurturing site of the red coffin lid, which was quite lengthy.

Ran Qing read the book back and forth, frowning in deep thought.

Then, he opened the book "Complete Guide to Exorcising Evil Spirits" and quickly found the relevant content.

As Ran Qing cross-referenced and consulted the two books, her brows furrowed even more.

Mo Li sat to the side, not coming over to look at Ran Qing's family heirloom manual.

But seeing Ran Qing put down the book with a furrowed brow, she became somewhat curious.

"...Didn't the book say how to deal with the Nourishing Fiend?"

Ran Qing shook her head and slowly said, "No, I told you, but..."

Ran Qing sighed, put the two books into the iron box, and said, "This place of nurturing evil spirits is more dangerous than I expected."

No wonder those ghost-raising people didn't bother Li Hongye even though they knew something was wrong after her death.

According to the book, this red coffin-topped burial site is extremely evil and is one of the three most dangerous burial methods.

Ran Qing was completely misled because of her sixth aunt, mistakenly believing that Li Hongye was not so terrible.

Back then, Aunt Liu casually led him to Plum Blossom Mountain, dug up the red coffin in the pine forest, and did not back down when he saw the red coffin. After casually instructing Ran Qing to do something, Aunt Liu directly led Ran Qing into the Ghost Realm of Wujiang to find Li Hongye.

And they succeeded easily.

Although Li Hongye was partly responsible for turning a blind eye.

However, Aunt Liu's nonchalant attitude did indeed make Ran Qing underestimate the danger posed by the red coffin lid.

Now, after reviewing the Ran family's feng shui secrets, carefully understanding the dangers of blood corpses, and gaining some knowledge of the Yin-Yang Dao, Ran Qing belatedly realized that his sixth aunt was even more powerful and terrifying than he had imagined.

Moreover, the more he learned about the spirit mediums, the more impressive Aunt Liu's image became in his eyes.

The reason why Aunt Liu was able to easily deal with Li Hongye was not only because of her immense Yin power as a Yin cultivator, but also because her evil mastery and her use of evil magic were beyond Ran Qing's imagination.

With the help of his predecessors, Ran Qing now possesses the Yin energy of two hundred sticks of soul incense.

Compared to Sixth Aunt, she's not that much worse.

After reading the contents of this feng shui text and gaining a deeper understanding of the terrifying nature of the red coffin lid, he realized that if he were in that situation, he would never dare to casually and easily enter the place where evil spirits are nurtured, just like his sixth aunt.

They probably evacuated immediately after the red coffin lid was unearthed, and went back to make further plans.

"Li Hongye's matter can't be rushed; we need to prepare for a while longer."

As Ran Qing spoke, he closed the iron box containing the inheritance left to him by Ran Jianfei and took it into the house to put away.

He then returned to the doorway, sat in the sunlight, and took out the book on witchcraft and magic that he hadn't touched in a long time, and began to read it again.

This time, however, he went straight to the second half of "Witchcraft and Magic" and began to ponder the most profound, powerful, and dangerous evil magic within.

(End of this chapter)