The low-key prince summons trainees from the Imperial Household Department at the start of the game.

The abandoned ancestral hall in Ganquan Town is located at the end of a barren mulberry field in the west of the town, and has stood on this land for who knows how many years.

The lintel of the ancestral hall has long since collapsed, revealing the dark main hall inside. The outer walls are covered with vines, and from a distance it looks like a green tomb.

The magistrate of Gaoyou County stood on the ridge of a field a hundred paces away from the ancestral hall, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, followed by a group of yamen runners who dared not go any further.

Three days ago, he received a report from the village headman that three empty bowls had appeared out of thin air on the offering table in the ancestral hall, with grayish-white powder at the bottom of the bowls, and the night watchman heard crying in the middle of the night.

He didn't take it too seriously at the time, thinking it was just a prank by a homeless man who spent the night in the ancestral hall, and sent two constables to investigate.

The two constables climbed over the wall and came running out in less than an incense stick's time.

One of them was pale-faced and said that as soon as he entered the main hall, he felt short of breath and his chest felt like something was pressing down on it.

There was a layer of grayish-white powder in the three empty bowls on the offering table.

Another constable was even more bizarre; after he was released, he developed a fever and lay in his cell that night talking nonsense.

He kept repeating a person's name, saying that the person was sitting in the ancestral hall, wearing the official robes of a previous dynasty, and had no face.

The magistrate of Gaoyou County panicked and quickly reported the incident to the Yangzhou Prefecture government.

He had thought the government office would send a clerk to ask a few questions and that would be the end of it, but he didn't expect that it would be the Vice Magistrate himself who came.

Lu Zhi stood thirty steps in front of the main gate of the ancestral hall, holding in his hands the official seal of the fourth-rank Yangzhou Assistant Magistrate.

The official seal felt slightly warm in my palm, and the rust on the seal knob gleamed faintly with a pale golden light in the twilight.

That was the blessing of fortune bestowed by the Great Zhou Dynasty, which was automatically activated in this place filled with yin energy.

Behind him stood Han Tie, a sixth-rank martial artist and captain of the Yangzhou camp. He held a sword at his waist and stared at the main entrance of the ancestral hall with wide eyes, but dared not take another step forward.

Although he was a sixth-rank official, and his qi and blood power was enough to split stone tablets, his qi and blood power was completely useless in the face of this strange phenomenon of yin qi overflowing.

Yin energy is not a living thing and is not afraid of being cut by knives or axes. His skills were like punching cotton in front of this ancestral hall, and he could not use his strength, which made him quite frustrated.

Lu Zhi did not turn around. He simply placed the official seal gently on the threshold of the ancestral hall, then lifted the hem of his official robe and sat down cross-legged.

Place your hands together over your lower abdomen, close your eyes, and begin to circulate your vital energy.

Using the Five Paths of Enlightenment as a guide, he slowly channeled the righteous energy he had cultivated in his chest from his dantian, allowing it to travel along the meridians to his hands, and then into the official seal through his hands.

The pale golden light on the official seal grew brighter and brighter, eventually transforming into a visible golden ripple that spread outwards from the seal.

When the golden ripples touched the main gate of the ancestral hall, the layer of grayish yin energy on the lintel suddenly surged violently.

It made a hissing sound, like snow being splashed with boiling oil.

The constables were so frightened that they took several steps back, but stopped awkwardly when Han Tiehu glared at them.

Lu Zhi ignored the commotion behind him, slowly stood up, and walked toward the main gate of the ancestral hall, holding the official seal in his hands.

With each step taken, the golden light on the official seal shone brighter, and the yin energy in the ancestral hall receded a little.

As he stepped into the main gate of the ancestral hall, the grayish-white yin energy that had been lying around the offering table, piled up in the corners of the walls, and lingered on the roof beams seemed to have encountered its nemesis, and all of it shrank into the ground, emitting a faint, indistinct muttering sound.

This is not human language, yet it sends chills down one's spine.

He walked to the offering table and looked down at the three empty bowls.

Sure enough, there was grayish-white powder at the bottom of the bowl.

Yin Jin!

Kong Yan mentioned this kind of thing in the Grand Tutor's mansion; it is the dregs left after the yin energy was suppressed by the righteous energy.

This yin energy was not generated naturally, but was condensed by someone using some kind of formation.

There's probably something unclean buried beneath this ancestral hall.

He raised his hand to signal everyone to step outside the ancestral hall, then carried the official seal and walked around the offering table.

When they reached the corner of the wall behind the ancestral hall, which was covered with vines, the golden light on the official seal suddenly flickered violently.

He stopped and reached out to push aside the vines, discovering a very thin crack at the base of the wall, from which wisps of grayish-white yin energy were seeping out.

The cracks had jagged edges, unlike naturally formed cracks in the wall; they looked more like they had been chiseled open from underground by someone using something.

He crouched down, gently pressed the official seal onto the crack, and channeled his righteous energy into the seal, causing it to emit a clear, resonant hum.

A beam of golden light, as thick as an arm, shot out from the seal knob, traveled down the crack, and plunged straight into the ground.

A muffled thud came from underground, as if something had collapsed deep inside.

The entire ancestral hall shook a few times, and dust fell from the beams.

The three empty bowls on the offering table tumbled to the ground amidst the tremors, and the grayish-white powder at the bottom of the bowls turned into wisps of smoke when illuminated by the golden light.

The yin energy no longer seeped from the cracks, and the chill in the ancestral hall dissipated in an instant.

Moonlight streamed back in from above the collapsed doorway, falling on the altar that had been empty for who knows how many years.

He slowly stood up, the golden light on his official seal had dimmed by seven-tenths.

However, the righteous aura emanating from him was even more solid than when he arrived.

The righteous spirit of a fifth-rank scholar, coupled with the auspicious influence of the official seal, is enough to suppress a nascent evil spirit.

He walked out of the ancestral hall and nodded to Han Tie.

Han Tie clasped his hands in a respectful bow, saying that he truly had no way to deal with these supernatural and bizarre things, and that it was Lord Lu who had a solution.

Lu Zhi put his official seal back into his sleeve and said that different professions are like different mountains.

A martial artist's vital energy is used to deal with visible enemies, while a scholar's righteous energy is used to deal with invisible evil spirits; each has its own strengths.

He then instructed the magistrate of Gaoyou County to have people completely seal the crack in the ancestral hall with glutinous rice mortar.

After sealing it up, peach trees were planted around the ancestral hall, and the ancestral hall was enclosed within the town's watchman patrol route. People were sent to check it once on the first and fifteenth of each month.

The magistrate of Gaoyou County wrote everything down, wiping his sweat as he said, "I understand, I'll get on it right away."

Lu Zhi didn't say anything more, he just stood at the entrance of the ancestral hall, looking at the desolate mulberry field under the moonlight.

I recalled similar events that occurred simultaneously in various parts of Yangzhou Prefecture that night.

Some people saw flickering phosphorescent lights near abandoned ancient tombs, while others drew bitter well water from an old well in a deserted village.

Someone found an empty bowl and grayish-white powder on the altar of a dilapidated temple.

These things have happened occasionally before, but never as frequently as this year.

He sensed that this was probably just the beginning, and all he could do was protect the land beneath his feet.