Folk customs begin with the entire funeral procession

Chapter 226 Status - Ancestral Blessing (Part 5)
Around 3 a.m., in a room in a residential area in Shiyang County.

"Grandpa, why didn't he come today?"

Min Jie sat at the table, looking at the dishes on it, and asked a question, feeling a little sleepy.

"Him? Who is he?! He's your dad!"

Min Hua glared angrily at his grandson.

Min Jie lowered his head and murmured, "My father is dead."

Bang!
"Can you say that again!"

Min Hua slammed his fist on the table and stood up, his face contorted with rage.

Min Jie was startled, but then his face turned red and he shouted, "My dad is dead, dead!"

After saying that, Min Jie stood up from the chair, turned around and ran back to his room.

Min Hua pointed at Min Jie, her fingers trembling, and finally slumped into a chair in despair.

He knew perfectly well that his son was dead, but, but these past two days, he's come back!

"Rui, if you come, come out and see me."

Min Hua stared at the empty table and murmured to himself.

Min Hua sat there from four in the morning until dawn, but the person he was waiting for never came.

Min Jie opened the door and walked to Min Hua's side.

"Grandpa, is my dad not coming?"

Min Hua patted Min Jie's head and forced a smile.

"Your dad saw that you and I were doing well, so he went back to his place."

Min Jie lowered his head.

"Grandpa, let's burn some money for Dad. He must have spent a lot of money on this trip."

Min Hua nodded.

"We should burn some more. Let's go, let's go together."

Min Hua stood up, swayed a bit, and then pulled Min Jie away from home.

An hour later, Min Hua brought Min Jie to the cemetery.

There were also several people burning paper money in the cemetery, and they were burning a lot of it.

As she passed by, Min Hua overheard what the young man kneeling on the ground burning paper money was saying.

"Everyone, it was all my fault. I've come to apologize to you."

"If you're short of money, don't bother visiting my dreams."

"For the next three years, I will burn money for you every year."

Min Hua glanced at the young man again, and when she looked away, her eyes met those of a young man standing next to her.

Without saying a word, Minhua led her grandson toward her son's grave.

……

Chen Miao shifted his gaze from the old man and the child, then glanced at Yang Jiuhua kneeling on the ground begging for mercy, and sighed inwardly.

After resolving Yang Jiuhua's issues last night, Chen Miao examined a memory fragment.

The owner of that memory fragment was named Min Rui.

The memories are few and scattered, but rare ones include scenes of what happened after becoming a ghost.

In the scene, after spending the night with Yang Jiuhua, Min Rui couldn't find Yang Jiuhua the next day, so he went to look for his relatives that night, namely the old man and the child that Chen Miao had just seen.

Min Rui was unable to communicate, but his true form, the paper garment that Yang Jiuhua had previously worn, could be seen by the old man and the child.

After Min Rui appeared, the old man recognized him; those were the clothes he had burned for his son.

The old man immediately prepared a table full of food for Min Rui.

Min Rui instinctively attached himself to his son's body and ate that meal through his son's body.

That night, some of the obsession in Min Rui's heart dissipated.

If Yang Jiuhua doesn't come, it probably won't be long before Min Rui's obsession dissipates and he leaves on his own.

Chen Miao didn't initially have many feelings about this matter.

But just now, looking at the old man and the child, and then at Yang Jiuhua, Chen Miao's feelings became complicated.

The ghosts that some people avoid at all costs are the loved ones that others miss the most.

This contrast left Chen Miao somewhat silent.

"Brother Shui, is it ready now?"

"Brother Shui" is a term Yang Jiuhua suddenly changed his way of addressing this morning.

"Okay, let's go."

After leaving the cemetery, Chen Miao and Xie Songde parted ways.

Xie Songde returned to Shannan City, while Chen Miao and Yang Jiuhua returned to Lao Yang's breeding base.

Over the next four days, Chen Miao examined all four remaining memory fragments, and each time he did, he was deeply moved.

At the same time, a new state has been added to the book.

【Status - Ancestral Blessing (5)】: When burning paper money to worship ancestors, you can gain one layer of blessing power.

Five memory fragments, all of which give the same state.

Each time a fragment is used, the status increases by one level.

When Chen Miao first obtained this state, he tried burning paper money.

One or two pieces of yellow paper are not enough to trigger the blessing; at least a stack of yellow paper five centimeters thick is required to activate the ancestral protection.

After the protective power emerged, Chen Miao examined it once with his Yin-Yang Eyes. It was a pale golden yellow, similar to the color of Yang energy during the day, but with a better effect.

When the protective power appeared, Chen Miao tried to absorb the Yin energy.

When the Yin energy gathered around him, it was unable to break through the protective power of his ancestors and enter Chen Miao's body.

Chen Miao would not feel any change in temperature after the concentration of Yin energy increased.

As for the duration, without external interference, it can probably last for one night.

If external factors, such as yin energy, are present, the duration will be shortened depending on the intensity of the external factors.

Chen Miao tested it out and found that at the highest concentration of Yin energy that could be gathered, the ancestral blessing could last for one minute. Without the ancestral blessing, Chen Miao could only withstand it for ten seconds on his own; any longer and his body would suffer.

Although he hadn't tried using the ghostly attacks, Chen Miao speculated that, similar to the ghosts on Yang Jiuhua, he should be able to hold off the opponent for more than ten minutes if he stood still.

Most importantly, when Chen Miao is protected by the power of his ancestors, ordinary ghosts and spirits should not dare to get close.

Because ghosts and spirits are likely similar to yin energy; when they consume the power of the ancestors' protection, their own power is also consumed.

And this is still the blessing of our ancestors from the very beginning.

Now that five layers have been added, Chen Miao even believes that before a ghost can break through the protective power of his ancestors, he himself will probably be obliterated.

But every advantage has its disadvantages.

Once the ancestral blessing is activated, Chen Miao is unable to absorb Yin energy and can only use the remaining Yin energy within his body.

This still has an impact on Chen Miao.

However, when Chen Miao thought about this issue, he also thought of another scenario where the blessing of ancestors could be used.

That means activating the blessing effect of ancestors and engaging in close-quarters combat!

Originally, Chen Miao only had the peach wood sword as his method of close combat against ghosts. Now, with the blessing of his ancestors, his fists and feet are actually imbued with the power to harm ghosts.

Then it won't be ghosts chasing him anymore, but him chasing ghosts.

From this perspective, although Chen Miao was somewhat restricted in some areas, overall, his means of dealing with the enemy have increased.

This was an unexpected bonus for Chen Miao on this trip.

As for the main purpose of this trip, Chen Miao has also selected eighty scorpions in the past few days!
These past few days, he has only slept five or six hours a day, and the rest of the time he goes to pick out a scorpion every hour.

He now has eighty selected scorpions in his hands, and Chen Miao believes that at least half of these eighty scorpions are of higher quality than those in the second stage.

If you feed these eighty scorpions to his Ghost Pattern Scorpion, it might not take more than a month for the Ghost Pattern Scorpion to advance to the Ghost Face Scorpion.

When it reaches the Ghost-Faced Scorpion stage, it can truly help Chen Miao.

Moreover, Chen Miao was also looking forward to seeing what kind of special abilities the Ghost-Faced Scorpion he had been feeding would develop.

With this expectation, Chen Miao left Hongye City.

As for the eighty scorpions, Chen Miao needs to have Lao Yang mail them back to him.

The day after returning to Tianmen County, Yang Jiuhua proposed to leave.

Chen Miao wasn't surprised. After all, the matter was resolved, and Yang Jiuhua still needed to explore his future path; he couldn't stay with him forever.

Before leaving, Chen Miao gave Yang Jiuhua another peach charm.

This was the third peachwood charm Chen Miao had used on Yang Jiuhua. Compared to the good karma he gained from Yang Jiuhua's actions, it was certainly worthwhile.

But Yang Jiuhua felt rather heavy-hearted.

Xie Songde inadvertently revealed that a peach charm plus a talisman costs 50,000 yuan!

He now happens to have three peach charms and three talismans, which together amount to 150,000.

Even though he has been doing better and better in live streaming in the past year, 150,000 is still a considerable sum.

He wanted to generously give Chen Miao 150,000 yuan, but he didn't; all his money went to his family.

A paralyzed father, a mother with a tragic fate, a younger sister going to school, and a broken man.

This kind of anecdote happened to him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have racked his brains and started this type of live streaming a year after graduation.

They also won't act out of character or create unnecessary entertainment for the show.

Do you think he's afraid?

He was terrified at first.

But even if I'm afraid, isn't the muffled groans of pain from my father not being able to take his medicine really scary?

Even if he's scared, is it really that scary when his mother can wipe away his tears behind his back?

Even if you're worried, isn't it scary if a girl secretly goes out to work part-time and gets laughed at by her classmates?

No!

So he persevered, and that's why he changed.

So he needs to keep looking for new live streaming programs to continue making money.

As for Chen Miao's 150,000, he can only keep it to himself and pretend he doesn't know.

"Brother Shui, thank you."

"It's nothing, just something I could do. Just be more careful during your live streams later."

Chen Miao thought for a moment and then added, "If you encounter any suspected paranormal events, or if any of your fans have such needs, you can contact me, and I can help."

Yang Jiuhua's eyes suddenly lit up!

"Really?"

"Ah."

"Brother Shui, how much do you charge for each job?"

Chen Miao wanted to say no money was needed, but then felt it was inappropriate.

People aren't stupid these days; they all know that what's free is the most expensive. Even if something is truly free, it's still bound to attract suspicion.

"Twenty thousand, depending on the situation."

"Okay! I'll mention it during my live stream and also send a message to my loyal fans."

Chen Miao was surprised.

"If I send them messages, won't they think I'm a scammer and unfollow me?"

Yang Jiuhua shook his head.

"It's okay. Those who trust me won't unfollow, and those who don't trust me will unfollow, and it's fine too."

"Alright, I'm leaving now."

Watching Yang Jiuhua stride away, Chen Miao called out helplessly.

"It takes more than half an hour to get to the county town. Let me take you there."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yang Jiuhua turned around 180 degrees.

……

(End of this chapter)