Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 388 Pond Fish
The corpse coldly uttered the name Kawamasu Tankichi.

And the so-called living soul...

Ran Qing's eyelids twitched slightly: "Kawazō Dankichi is a living soul?"

The living soul is a strange phenomenon recorded in the book "Witchcraft and Ghostly Arts".

Some unorthodox practitioners, after their lifespan ends, rely on special evil methods to extract their remaining lifespan in the underworld, allowing themselves to continue existing in the human world in a bizarre form that is neither human nor ghost.

It is said that such a living soul can use evil magic such as possession to take over the body of a living person and live another life.

But such things basically exist only in legends.

The specific process of how it transforms into a living soul is not recorded in "Witchcraft and Spiritual Arts".

Legend has it that there are similar spells in the snowy region that can enable highly skilled mages to be reincarnated.

But Kawamasu Tōkichi was definitely not a reincarnation; rather, he was transformed into a living soul through evil magic.

No wonder this guy wanted to use Ran Jianfei to refine corpses and nourish evil spirits; he probably wanted to recreate a body and prolong his life.

The fact that Kawamata Tōkichi is a living spirit is beyond imagination.

But what truly made Ran Qing's eyelids twitch was...

"Why use a living soul to deal with a corpse thief?" Ran Qing asked. "Is that corpse thief an inanimate object?"

As Ran Qing spoke, she stared intently at the corpse in front of her.

The corpse wearing the bronze mask nodded blankly and replied, "...Yes, the corpse thief...is an inanimate object..."

The corpse did not avoid the question, but answered it honestly.

It stood up and said, "Tonight... we will go and capture Kawasaki Tankichi."

"If all goes well... as early as tomorrow night... at the latest the day after tomorrow..."

"I'll be back... Please open the door..."

After the corpse finished explaining the plan, it stood up from the chair, bowed calmly to Ran Qing, and gave a strange salute.

Its voice was still dry and hoarse, but its attitude seemed much more intimate.

"...Well then... farewell for now..."

"The High Priest's...successor..."

The corpse calmly finished its bow and then ignored Ran Qing and the other two, as well as the restless faces of the evil masters behind Ran Qing.

It dragged its stiff, sluggish body into the fog.

Just as silently as it came.

Now, his departure is just as abrupt and silent.

Mo Li and Long Zongshu stood in the main room, looking at Ran Qing and waiting for her decision.

This corpse stepping into the spirit medium's altar was an excellent opportunity.

This evil spirit is the mastermind behind the ghost-raising man.

Many of the things they had encountered before could be traced back to the corpse in front of them.

Even the deaths of Li Hongye's family are closely related to this group of ghost breeders and this corpse.

Li Hongye's death, in a sense, was the source of all the trouble.

As someone implicated, Ran Qing harbors an irreconcilable hatred for this group of ghost breeders and for this evil spirit.

But in the end, even after the corpse walked out of the concrete building and disappeared into the fog, Ran Qing did not react at all.

He simply stood at the entrance of the main room, watching the corpse depart.

His expression was calmer than expected. Only after the corpse had completely disappeared into the distance did Ran Qing slowly say, "...If this ghost wasn't lying, then there is indeed a mastermind behind everything, manipulating everything."

The news brought by this corpse was too shocking.

Two years ago, someone opened the coffin of the Ghost King and released him.

That is the source of everything.

But who exactly opened the Ghost King's coffin?
The departure of the Ghost King is the reason why the evil spirits of the Ancient Luo Kingdom awakened prematurely.

And this ancient corpse, the so-called first warrior of the ancient Luo Kingdom, probably only awoke because of the Ghost King's departure.

Ran Qing guessed that it might be an insurance policy left behind by the evil spirits of the ancient Luo Kingdom.

The ghost spoke vaguely about the past events of the ancient Luo Kingdom, but from its fragmentary words, one can roughly glean what happened back then.

An unknown disaster swept through the entire ancient Luo Kingdom. In order to escape the calamity, the people of the kingdom sacrificed the Ghost King and sank the entire ancient Luo Kingdom into the depths of the Wujiang Ghost Realm.

The evil spirits in the Ghost Kingdom, sustained by the curse of the Ghost King's Coffin, have continued to exist within the ancient kingdom of Luo.

They emerge every few decades to hunt and kill living beings in the mortal realm, thus prolonging their own lifespan in the underworld.

If someone obtains the Ancient Ghost Money and buys a life from the Ghost King's Coffin, these evil spirits can even return to the human world openly and become living people like Lord Shou.

But after thousands of years, someone opened the Ghost King's coffin.

The Ghost King, the core of the entire curse, has departed.

She fled the land of ghosts and disappeared without a trace.

The ancient kingdom of Guro, having lost its Demon King, began to collapse.

The greatest warrior of the ancient Luo Kingdom awakens at this moment.

It bewitched a group of unorthodox practitioners to dig it up and instructed these ghost breeders to kill and raise ghosts, and to make offerings to the Ghost Altar, in order to use the Ghost Money of Ancient Luo Kingdom to save more relatives and friends before the kingdom collapsed.

However, the evil spirit did not expect that after the Ghost King escaped, someone else opened the Ghost King's coffin and stole the Ghost King's remains from inside.

The Ghost King's remains were stolen, and the pale ghostly figures awoke one after another, falling into a final frenzy and slaughtering the human world like madmen.

Ran Qing opened the Ghost King's Coffin and returned the ancestral tablets of the lineage of Yin-Yang practitioners. While this action liberated the ancestors of the past generations, it also clearly caused some kind of destruction to the curse on the Ghost King's Coffin.

So much so that as soon as Ran Qing returned to the human world, a dense ghostly mist enveloped the entire Zangke region. The pale, ghostly figures that usually only appeared at night were now killing people in Zangke day and night...

After listening to Ran Qing's analysis, Mo Li and Long Zongshu looked at each other in bewilderment.

Indeed, the time when the ghostly mist appeared and enveloped the earth was exactly the same day that Ran Qing returned from the Ghost Realm of Wujiang!

“But…” Mo Li hesitated for a moment, then said, “Even if you don’t return the ancestral tablet, those evil spirits will eventually flood into the human world to kill people. Those who died in this disaster were not killed by you.”

Mo Li was worried that Ran Qing was under pressure, so he offered some words of comfort.

Ran Qing shook her head and said, "...I'm not that arrogant. I won't take the blame if it's not my fault."

Ran Qing said, "What I want to say is that the corpse thief... he is the root of all evil."

"These ghost breeders are indeed as that evil spirit said; they are harmful, but they don't harm many people. At most, they are just petty villains."

"The real threat was the corpse thief, who caused riots and killings throughout the ancient kingdom of Guro."

Ran Qing squinted and said, "I even suspect that the corpse thief could use the Ghost King's remains to interfere with or influence the actions of the Ancient Luo Ghost Soldiers to some extent."

"Otherwise, given the knowledge the ghost breeders have of the ancient Luo Kingdom, as well as their caution and abilities, it would have been impossible for half of them to die in just two days."

"Those pale, ghostly figures might not be searching for unorthodox cultivators, but rather for ghost breeders... They're specifically targeting ghost breeders!"

"The unfortunate cultivators of the unorthodox path who died in it were merely innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire..."

(End of this chapter)