Ita Era

Chapter 163 Forcing the Evil to Become Good
Ding Shi suspected ghost possession because of Sha Bi's bold idea and the basic characteristics of evil ghosts in ghost theories. Feng Qiniang's house had two extremely ferocious evil ghosts that would kill even during the day. How did Feng Qiniang survive? Furthermore, he only saw the old woman ghost at Feng Qiniang's house; what about the old man ghost?
The ghostly aura is so strong and the yin energy so intense, it must be because they don't raise chickens and ducks, since they simply can't keep them alive.

The good news is that Cuihua believes there is no danger living at Tiezhu's house.

However, Ding Shi was unsure whether Cuihua was an honest person.

What is certain is that besides coffin-making, Tianmen Village also possesses the skill of forcing evil spirits to possess people. What a pitiful evil spirit.

Hmm? Is being possessed by an evil spirit the hallucination and dream mentioned in the village rules?

"Ding Shi, Ding Shi." A woman's voice came.

Ding Shi left the kitchen and walked to the vicinity of the courtyard gate, only to find that the person who called him was a Taoist nun.

"We're not acquainted, are we?" Ding Shi asked doubtfully. "Taoist nun, is there something you need?"

The Taoist nun said, "Ji Yue asked me to inform the players that Ji Shan has gone missing and to ask everyone to help find him."

Ji Shan and his wife were a thoughtful couple. Instead of asking the villagers for lodging, they stayed in an empty house. They spent the morning washing pots and pans, tidying up the room, and even buying rice, vegetables, and seasonings from the villagers next door for 5 dollars.

Shuanzi died, and the couple, who lived nearby, came over to watch the commotion. Ji Shan watched for a while, then lost interest and told Ji Yue he would go back and take the bedding out to air it. Five minutes later, Ji Yue returned home, but couldn't find Ji Shan anywhere.

Ji Yue was anxious, so she found the players who were still watching the commotion and asked them to help find Ji Shan. She also asked the Taoist nun to inform Ding Shi, in order to inquire whether Ding Shi had seen Ji Shan.

Ten minutes later, the 11 players gathered in Ji Yue's living room. Of course, not everyone was there to find Ji Shan. They wanted to know the reason for Ji Shan's disappearance, and they also hoped to get some information from the other players.

But the conversation was rather pointless: How long have you been apart? Are you sure he's going home? Have you noticed anything suspicious?
Among the 11, the couple Yuanshan and Yuanyue stood out. They sat on a bench, heads down, lost in thought, occasionally whispering something in each other's ears. Yuanshan looked serious, while Yuanyue seemed a little scared. Their hands remained clasped together.

Their unusual behavior caught everyone's attention. Someone reminded Yuan Yue, and Ji Yue stepped forward and pleaded, "My husband and I have been married for five years and have always been very loving. If you have any discoveries or clues, please be sure to tell me."

Yuan Shan and Yuan Yue exchanged a glance. Yuan Yue nodded slightly, and Yuan Shan looked at Ji Yue and said, "I am a forensic doctor, or more precisely, I am pursuing a master's degree in forensic medicine, and I haven't graduated yet."

People were puzzled; what was the connection?

Yuanshan continued, "Shuanzi didn't just die; his time of death should be more than 24 hours."

Some people were puzzled, while Ding Shi, Sha Bi, the monk, and the Taoist nun showed changes in their expressions.

Seeing that Ji Yue didn't understand, the monk explained, "Tianmen Village has a rule that a person must be buried within 24 hours of death, otherwise the deceased will turn into an evil ghost. If Shuanzi becomes an evil ghost, then Shuanzi's house will become the evil ghost's territory."

Ji Yue was still puzzled: "I've heard of the existence of evil spirits."

Yuan Shan continued, "My wife and I's temporary landlord has a very strange personality, like he has schizophrenia. His first personality is taciturn, while his second personality is very active and arrogant. We learned some information from the second personality: he doesn't have multiple personality disorder, but rather has two souls inside him."

Ding Shi concluded, "Shuanzi has become an evil spirit. His family doesn't want to be killed by it, so they can only indirectly eliminate it. That is, force the evil spirit to possess someone. This is a very risky act. It's best to transfer the risk, for example, by knocking out a stranger."

The idiot's summary: "Your husband has been kidnapped, and the other party is going to force the evil spirit into his body."

The Confucian men and women were completely bewildered, unable to understand anything, and had no idea what the Confucianists had been doing that morning, nor could they find any relevant information.

Ji Yue and her husband were tidying up their residence and did not inquire about any news.

Others have gathered relevant information to varying degrees. Even though they've only been playing regular dungeons, the players who have survived this long are all quite skilled.

Ji Yue asked, "Shall we go to Shuanzi's house to find him?"

Ding Shi shook his head: "He's most likely not at Shuanzi's house now. Before your husband disappeared, there were still many players at Shuanzi's house."

Sha Bi looked at Ding Shi and asked, "If you were a villager, where would you hide Ji Shan?"

Ding Shi pondered for a moment: "I suspect the possession ritual will be quite complicated, and accidents might happen during it. As a villager, I don't want to cause too much trouble, so I'll choose a public place. For example..."

Sha Bi asked, "Ancestral hall?"

Ding Shi said, "Don't you find this ancestral hall strange? The surnames here are very mixed. Even the four major surnames, Zhang, Wang, Li, and Zhao, only number five or six households here. What is the purpose of this ancestral hall?"

The monk interjected, "I've heard that because of the war, refugees have been pouring into Tianmen Village over the years and settling down there."

Xiao Ni said, "We should take a count of how many original inhabitants are still living in Tianmen Village."

Ji Yue said hurriedly, "The most urgent thing right now is to find Ji Shan."

The monk instructed, "Ding Shi, Duan Pi, and Ji Yue, the three of you search the house again to make sure you don't miss anything. Xiao Ni and I will go check the ancestral hall. The rest of you will help gather information and keep an eye on Shuanzi's house. We'll meet here in an hour."

No one objected, and everyone dispersed.

The houses in the village are mostly similarly structured, in an n-shape. The central part of the top of the n is the main hall, with the main house on the left and the kitchen on the right. The two sides of the n are side rooms, also called ear rooms or guest rooms. Most main houses have attics, while the side rooms do not. Wealthy families have two-story main houses, but most houses do not.

"I really admire you two; you dare to live in a house that no one else lives in," said Sha Bi, who was inspecting the water tank.

Looking around aimlessly, unsure where to begin, Ji Yue explained, "Sometimes people are scarier than ghosts. Ghosts, after all, have rules governing their killings; they are limited. But people don't."

"Someone come here." Ding Shi's voice came from behind the main house.

The two went over and saw a black coffin. Sha Bi asked, "Ji Yue, didn't you open it to take a look?"

Ji Yue shook her head repeatedly: "I'm scared."

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. Every household prepares a coffin.” Sha Bi approached and asked, “Is anyone there?” The coffin lid was moved open a crack, and a person could be seen inside. However, the passageway behind the main house was very narrow; after the coffin was placed there, a person could barely pass through.

Ding Shi: "Yes, move out."

The two men lifted the coffin, moved it to the front hall, and then together opened the coffin lid.

There was indeed a person inside the coffin, but not from the era; it was a woman. The woman was around thirty years old, neither particularly beautiful nor unattractive, and dressed like a village woman.

The three of them exchanged glances. Ding Shi then poked the woman's cheek with a finger and said, "Alive."

The three people had three question marks above their heads: What's going on?
Ding looked around, picked up a small twig from the ground, sharpened one end with his fingernail, and poked it into the woman's philtrum. The woman cried out and sat up.

The woman was surprised and frightened when she saw the three people: "You?"

Ding Shi and the other two: "Us?"

How awkward! Are there any other lines? Suddenly, the woman shouted at the top of her lungs, "Father, Mother, Brother!"

Ding Shi: "Hey."

Sha Bi looked at Ding Shi, who pointed to himself and said, "Father." He pointed to Sha Bi and said, "Brother." He pointed to Ji Yue and said, "Mother."

While the four were still bewildered, two men ran into the courtyard. The woman was overjoyed to see them: "Father, brother!" she exclaimed. As she spoke, she struggled to climb out of the coffin, nearly falling over. Ding Shi kindly reached out to help her up.

Ji Yue whispered, "Isn't this my neighbor?" She had bought rice, vegetables, and seasonings from her neighbor that morning.

The woman walked up to her father, still looking a little aggrieved. She glanced back at Ding Shi and the other two, then turned to her father. Just as she was about to speak, her father slapped her across the face: "Useless thing."

"Father," the woman said, sounding aggrieved.

The young man said angrily, "I'll teach you a lesson when we get home." He then dragged the woman outside.

Without even glancing at Ding Shi and the other two, they dragged the woman away amidst their fighting and cursing.

Ji Yue was baffled: "What's going on? Where's my husband?"

Sha Bi squinted at Ding Shi: "You're not being fair."

Ding Shi unfolded the yellow talisman he had stolen from the woman. It was clear at a glance that this talisman was not simple. Most talismans had words like metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, and thunder on them, but the most important word on this talisman was the word "slave" written in blood.

Silly Bite started speculating: "Could this be a master-servant contract? There are rumors of master-servant contracts, equal contracts, and the like."

Ding Shi assigned the task: "Silly Bi, put away your wild ideas and go check out the neighbors next door."

Foolish Dagger: "Why me?"

Ding Shi: "That's all you're capable of."

Foolish Dagger: "You should say that I'm better than you at covert eavesdropping."

Ding Shi nodded impatiently, "Yes, yes, yes."

The idiot has gone.

Ding Shi and Ji Yue searched the house thoroughly but found nothing. When the time came, everyone except the Confucian man and Yuan Yue and her husband returned to Ji Yue's house, all having found nothing. The three who hadn't returned had their own matters to attend to.

Ding Shi handed the talisman to the monk, who glanced at it and then handed it to the nun. The nun glanced at it and then handed it to the male Taoist idol. The male Taoist idol glanced at it and then handed it to the nun.

Ding Shi couldn't help but ask, "Gentlemen, are you playing a game of musical chairs?"

Xiao Ni looked around and said, "Don't you know each other?"

The three experts shook their heads in unison. Little Ni said, "This is an evil art. Legend has it that a thousand years ago, a genius traitor emerged from Longhu Mountain and founded the Nine Nether Sect. The Nine Nether Sect's motto is simply to harm others for their own benefit. They can steal luck, lifespan, essence, and destiny."

Xiao Ni said, “This talisman is called the Soul Slave Talisman. Carrying this talisman allows one to voluntarily open their body and let wandering ghosts enter their body. But there is something different about it. Look at the last stroke of the character ‘slave’. It extends and connects to the character ‘array’ in the nine-character tantric scripture. The nine-character tantric scripture was derived by the Tang Dynasty Tantric Buddhism from the nine-character tantric scripture of the Eastern Jin Dynasty Taoism. In the nine-character tantric scripture, ‘array’ represents ‘trapping’ or ‘imprisonment’.”

No wonder he has a PhD; his theory is so solid.

Ding Shi tried to understand: "Use a living person to lure the ghost into your body, and then trap the ghost inside."

Xiao Ni nodded repeatedly: "That's right, apart from the word 'slave,' it's all Sanskrit. I only have a superficial understanding of Sanskrit."

Ding Shi asked, "Suppose someone doesn't understand Sanskrit, could they draw such a talisman?"

Xiao Ni: "That's just copying blindly. It's not that it won't work, but the effect will be much worse, and there may be various side effects. For example, he didn't draw the Sanskrit character '阵' well. This stroke wasn't completely connected. This stroke is the core of the character '阵'. If it's not connected, it means that it may not be able to trap this evil spirit."

Xiao Ni asked, "Why would that woman volunteer to become a soul slave? That's a very dangerous thing."

Sha Bi said, "I know."

Everyone looked at Sha Bi, who said, "The woman's name is Zhao Di. She has three older sisters, two younger sisters, and one younger brother. Zhao Di was originally married to someone from another village, but because she had no children, she violated one of the seven grounds for divorce and was abandoned by her husband's family, returning to her parents' home. Her husband's family took a liking to this house, but they knew that the house was haunted by evil spirits. So they made Zhao Di a soul slave to trap the evil spirits within her body."

Ji Yue asked, puzzled, "Is Zhao Di really that stupid?"

Sha Bi explained, "Firstly, it was out of desperation, and secondly, Zhao Di isn't stupid. If she can trap the evil spirit, her status in the family will improve. At the very least, the family will take her in, because if she dies and isn't buried within 24 hours, the evil spirit will return to the family."

Sha Bi said, "I also overheard that the soul slaves must wait quietly in the place with the strongest yin energy, waiting for the evil spirits to take the bait. In order to prevent the soul slaves from being afraid and triggering the killing rules, the soul slaves will drink a kind of medicine that can make them fall asleep for up to 12 hours."

Ding Shi said, "Isn't this just fishing for ghosts? Soul slaves are the bait, talismans are used to create a feeding area, and the array characters are the hooks."

Sha Bi said, "That's about the gist of it. There's another thing. There's a local ruffian in the village named Wang Wu. He idles away his days doing no work, but every month someone gives him money so he has no worries about food and clothing."

The monk asked, "Could he be the one who draws the talismans?"

Sha Bi said, "No, he has four evil spirits inside him, and he is supported by three families."

Ding Shi asked, "Three or four?"

The fool scoffed, "Doesn't he need to live in his own house?"

Sha Bi added, "Soul slavery is like gambling. If you gamble well, nothing will happen; if you gamble poorly, anything can happen. They talked about Ji Shan's disappearance, saying that this outsider must have been kidnapped by Shuanzi's family to be Shuanzi's soul slave."

The monk sighed, "Amitabha, without a pair of wise eyes, one cannot distinguish between a human and a ghost. Ji Yue, there's nothing I can do to help you now. Come find me again if you have any news."

Ding Shi said, "Ji Yue, don't worry too much. They won't kill Ji Shan. Even if there are aftereffects, everything will be fine once Ji Shan is on the bus and leaves the instance. I'm leaving now. Call me if you need anything." He nodded to everyone and left. He had already wasted a lot of time on this matter. Since he couldn't find Ji Shan, he could only deal with it later.

After everyone left, Ji Yue had no heart to prepare lunch. She was afraid to stay at home alone, so she left home one after the other and mustered up her courage to go to the ancestral hall to look for clues.

Ding Shi and Sha Bi returned to Tie Zhu's house at two o'clock in the afternoon. Cui Hua gestured for them to go to lunch, while she herself sat outside in the yard, holding a cup of hot water and basking in the sun.

Sha Bi said, "I want to go and take a look at those four households."

Ding Shiju said with rice: "To the heroes."

Foolish Bone: "Hey, I paid you, so just say what you have to say."

(End of this chapter)