Yin Yang Soul Searcher

Following the clerk out of the main hall and into the corridor, soft light streamed down. Bai Jueming looked up; to his right were rows of houses. The clerk led him to one of the simply furnished rooms—a table, chairs, a bed, and a mattress. After leading Bai Jueming there, the clerk took his leave.

Bai Jueming closed the door and sat down at the table, finally having the leisure to think about his own affairs. The original owner's parents were both dead; his mother died shortly after giving birth to his younger sister.

My father was a military doctor who accompanied the army. Eight years ago, the Great Xia attacked Beichen and occupied Leiyun Cave in Beichen. My father, as a military doctor, died in that war.

With both parents deceased, it was a standard protagonist's starting point, and thinking about this made Bai Jueming feel slightly relieved.

There were four siblings in the family. When the original owner was young, his older sister raised him and his younger siblings using their father's pension. When his younger brother was eight years old, he was taken in by a Taoist priest from Wutai Temple to cultivate, and he was away from home most of the time. His older sister did some embroidery work and sold it on the street to support the family. His ten-year-old younger sister also did embroidery with her.

As for the original owner, he was almost never home, instead going to the black market to find business to supplement his family's income. He hadn't been home for four or five days when a deal for 100 taels of silver came along. He planned to go home after finishing the job, but he was caught by the Yin-Yang Palace and imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison.

Thinking back on my past life, it was pretty tough. Because of poor grades, I dropped out of school early and went to work in a restaurant, learning one of the three professions that ensured the poor wouldn't starve: a chef.

That day, the head chef got old and resigned. As the second-in-command in the kitchen, he was promoted to head chef without any obstacles, and was in a great mood. He organized a drinking party for the kitchen staff after work.

After drinking too much, I thought it was close to home, so I didn't hire a designated driver. The result was predictable. I was speeding, and the semi-trailer truck couldn't brake in time. That's how I ended up here. Driving recklessly truly brings tears to your loved ones' eyes.

When he woke up again, he was already in the Heavenly Prison.

If this is how I died in my past life, how did the original owner die? The original owner didn't remember, only that they were imprisoned for two days and suffered some physical pain. There was no fatal wound; they fell asleep, and when they woke up, they were their own soul.

He was unlucky enough to transmigrate into the body of a dying man, and a pathetic rogue cultivator at that. But his most valuable asset was his identity as an Onmyoji, a rare find in this society. That's why he wasn't immediately beheaded.

Sighing deeply, Bai Jueming thought to himself. He would actually prefer to be a powerless prince, a useless figure protected by the court, living a monotonous life of plenty with a harem of wives and concubines...

But since I'm here, I might as well make the best of it. Since fate has arranged for me to be reborn, I'll live well. As for why I don't want to go home, it's probably because the original owner is already dead. Or maybe I'm afraid that by being a criminal, I'll implicate the innocent people in the original owner's family.

However, surviving in this fantasy feudal society is a bit dangerous. There are monsters, Taoists, martial artists, and all sorts of messy cultivation systems. Without a powerful backer, it's easy to be eliminated in the cultivation world... Forget it, I should rest first. Soul searching was too exhausting. Although I'm a cultivator, my physique is no different from an ordinary person's.

Bai Jueming then got up and walked to the bed. Just as he was about to lie down, he noticed some yellowish stains on the sheets. "Whose offspring is this? Don't they have any manners?" he thought. "This is a public guest room." Bai Jueming cursed a couple of times, returned to the table, and fell into a deep sleep.

A gentle breeze blew through the capital city at night, and the moonlight, like water, spilled onto a huge courtyard in the northeast corner of the outer city.

The layout of the courtyard resembles a chessboard, dividing the houses into vertical and horizontal sections. Each house is a single-story building. A three-story pavilion, built against the outermost wall, encloses the numerous houses within the courtyard.

This is the Great Xia Craftsmen's Hall, home to numerous skilled artisans directly responsible for the empire's alchemy, formations, magical artifacts, and other related matters. Any ordinary military supplies, after being refined by the Craftsmen's Hall, gain immense power. Even ordinary people could use them to fight against low-level cultivators.

Cheng Yanbing, with an unremarkable face, wore a white long robe with embroidered alchemy furnaces on the wide sleeves. He stepped onto the third floor of the pavilion, where there was only one room. Without knocking, Cheng Yanbing pushed the door open and entered.

What comes into view is a golden alchemy furnace that occupies a third of the room, with dragons and phoenixes carved on it.

Cheng Yanbing walked around the alchemy furnace and looked at an old man sitting cross-legged on a futon. The old man had white hair and wore a black robe, which covered his body and limbs. A whisk was placed in the crook of his arm. This man was Qiao Shou, the head of the Craftsmen's Hall and the number one weapon refiner of the Great Xia Dynasty.

Cheng Yanbing bowed first, then said, "Master, the case is solved. Today, the Yin-Yang Palace sent people to meet me at Chen's Pharmacy. I didn't expect that an eighth-rank Yin-Yang Master could find the loopholes in the case with just a few soul searches."

The old man didn't open his eyes, but simply said, "You haven't told me exactly how you lost the pills."

"Oh, I thought you already knew." Cheng Yanbing then gave a brief summary: first, she was lured to buy herbs, then she was trapped by an array, and even a soul search yielded no specific information. Finally, she realized something was wrong based on the time difference on the sundial, and that it was an array.

After speaking, he asked with a puzzled look, "Master, what kind of formation is this? It allows me to lose track of time while I'm inside it, and I haven't even seen how the mastermind behind it all made their move."

Qiao Shou said sternly, "How many times have I told you to study formations and weapon crafting more, but you only ever focus on your alchemy. If all you know is how to refine pills, how will you inherit the position of Palace Master in the future?"

Cheng Yanbing shrugged indifferently: "Then you can let the second brother and junior sister inherit it. I have no interest in the position of Palace Master."

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw his master's expression darken, and the whisk in his arm flew up on its own, striking Cheng Yanbing hard on the back. Cheng Yanbing then ran while shouting, "Master, spare me!" A moment later, Qiao Shou sighed and put away the whisk. He didn't want to say anything more about the matter.

Cheng Yanbing, with one hand behind his back and grinning, said, "Master, what kind of formation is that? I only know it's a type of illusion formation. There probably aren't many people who can set up such a formation."

Qiao Shou stared at the alchemy furnace before him, his gaze grave. "This formation is called the Heavenly Net Illusion Formation, a complex array. As far as I know, within the Great Xia Dynasty, there are no more than a handful of people capable of setting up such a formation. Other countries combined have no more than a handful as well, and they treat it like a precious treasure. To frame that person from the Yin-Yang Palace, would a formation master of this level need to personally come to the capital, such a dangerous place? Although that person is injured, who can guarantee that framing him in the capital will be successful?"

Cheng Yanbing analyzed, "Master, perhaps the mastermind behind this has other motives?"

Qiao Shou nodded after listening: "Maybe so. Let's not worry about these things and let the Yin Yang Palace people deal with them."

Then, as if remembering something, she said, "Go to that pharmacy again tomorrow. The ordinary people there experienced this illusion array, and their bodies were affected by the spiritual energy. Go and see if there are any aftereffects, and help them resolve them." After saying that, she closed her eyes and pretended to sleep.

"Master, surely I don't need to handle such a small matter?" Cheng Yanbing looked troubled. "I still need to refine the pills again..."

Before he could finish speaking, he saw the whisk at the back of Qiao's arm float up on its own. Then Cheng Yanbing changed the subject: "But before refining the pills, I'll go to the pharmacy again." After saying that, he quickly left the room and closed the door.

The moonlight was cold and clear. Cheng Yanbing leaned on the railing and looked down. She noticed that the window of her junior sister's room on the second floor was still open, and wisps of black smoke were billowing out of the window and blending into the night.

Cheng Yanbing's face lit up with joy; his junior sister had made another mistake in refining the weapon. It was obvious that she hadn't controlled the fire temperature properly.

Master assigned Junior Sister a weapon-forging task, and the deadline is in two days. She failed again! If she doesn't succeed within two days, Master will put her in solitary confinement again. I'll secretly help her control the fire temperature later, and have Junior Sister run errands with me tomorrow so she can check each item.

Thinking of this, Cheng Yanbing quickened her pace downstairs.