Having suffered a loss once before, Song Jiangjian didn’t dare to doubt Wang Zhaoming’s words as he had previously.
The main point was that he feared the County Magistrate dying in Song Village, which would bring disaster upon the entire village.
He hurriedly spoke up on Wang Zhaoming’s behalf, “Sirs, please believe this girl’s words; she really possesses abilities in this area.”
“Are you out of your mind?!”
“We beg all the officers to believe my daughter—she won’t do anything to harm the County Magistrate.”
“In any case, the County Magistrate hasn’t woken up yet, so letting my daughter try won’t cause any loss to Master Magistrate.”
Wen Caimei blocked the space behind Wang Zhaoming, preventing these officers from approaching her.
“Mother, find something to cover up the window.”
Without waiting for Wen Caimei to move, Song Jiangjian took action immediately, finding a door plank to cover the window, instantly plunging the room into dimness.
The officers were encountering this kind of situation for the first time and didn’t know how to handle it.
Hu Kaigui thought about it; he had interacted with Village Chief Song, who was not someone who spoke recklessly. Since he dared to guarantee for this girl, it proved that the girl truly had extraordinary abilities.
For the time being, he would hold his ground and see what this girl intended to do.
If she really tried to commit any treacherous act against the Magistrate, it would still be in time to take action then.
Thinking this way, his hand rested on the saber hanging at his waist, his gaze fixed tightly on Wang Zhaoming.
Wang Zhaoming took out a sheet of paper from the basket she had brought. Within a few flicks of her hands, that sheet of paper was folded into the shape of a boat.
She lit three sticks of incense and inserted them into the boat.
Even without any fixed support, the three sticks of incense surprisingly hovered steadily above the paper boat right under everyone’s eyes.
This display of hers stunned everyone present.
The officers subconsciously tightened their grips on their sword hilts.
Wang Zhaoming ignored the reaction of the people present, taking a seat in the chair Doctor Chen had used to examine the Master Magistrate.
She gazed at the black mist gathering around Master Magistrate after the incense was lit.
“What are your names?”
A dead silence fell over the room. Everyone looked at Wang Zhaoming, looking at her calm face infused with compassion, only feeling hair-raising terror.
In the next scene, something that frightened everyone to the point of their legs turning soft occurred.
They saw County Magistrate Gao Zhijie’s tightly shut lips quiver slightly, spitting out a vague syllable in a completely unfamiliar female voice.
“Chun… Chunhua.”
Wang Zhaoming’s heart trembled. Seeing the figure emerging on Gao Zhijie along with the voice, she bit her back teeth before using a gentle voice to lightly clap her hands together, saying, “Chunhua, your name is recorded in this realm.”
“Zhao Di…”
Another name.
“Xiao Cao…”
“Pei Qian Huo…”
“Jian Ya Tou…”
“Pan Di…”
The claps grew denser, each sound seeming to strike the softest part of human hearts.
Every time she heard a name, Wang Zhaoming would repeat it. Those names that had been forgotten, erased, or were merely insulting tags regained their weight amidst Wang Zhaoming’s applause.
Initially, when everyone snapped back from the shocking marvel before their eyes, they would still count how many names had appeared in total.
As they counted, however, they could no longer keep track.
There were too many.
There were truly far too many.
“Shi Tou…”
When the last name fell, thick resentment, condensed almost into physical substance, surged over Gao Zhijie.
This resentment pounced toward Wang Zhaoming all at once.
Wen Caimei let out a cry of alarm, about to rush over to shield Wang Zhaoming from disaster.
Wang Zhaoming turned her back to her and shook her head, “Mother, trust me.”
Wen Caimei’s footsteps were pinned to the spot.
Her eyes stared unblinkingly at Wang Zhaoming, not daring to miss a single moment.
The other people in the room only felt it grow piercingly cold inside, so cold that people’s teeth chattered.
Thoughts of escaping this place arose in their minds.
This was far too terrifying!
What if Wang Zhaoming couldn’t handle this thing? Wouldn’t those present be in for misfortune?
Faced with a scene that terrified everyone, Wang Zhaoming showed no fear whatsoever.
She clenched her right hand into a fist and held it up to her heart, lightly opening her lips as a chant that seemed to come from beyond the heavens leaked from her mouth.
“No birth, no gate, yet there is a homeland…”
Though deprived of the right to live, in this vast world, there is always a place that is your true home.
“Do not cry, do not fear, do not look back…”
Do not cry, do not fear.
“The sky is high, the earth is wide—roam freely…”
“Resentful debts and blood feuds shall be settled in the mortal realm…”
I promise that your hatred and blood feuds will be settled by the local magistrate of the mortal realm, returning justice to you.
“The grievances of this life are erased in one stroke…”
Once matters are resolved, be liberated into rebirth.
The black energy pouncing toward Wang Zhaoming shrank back during her very first line of chanting, wrapping around Gao Zhijie instead.
Following the chanting, the black mist knotted, twisted, and churned.
As the chant ended, all the black mist instantly collapsed and dispersed, turning into countless tiny specks of light absorbed by the paper boat Wang Zhaoming had lit.
Without any external interference, the lit incense naturally went out.
Everything returned to tranquility.
Gao Zhijie, who had been unconscious for a whole night, slowly opened his eyes.
What met his vision was Wang Zhaoming spitting blood.
Before falling unconscious, Wang Zhaoming even thought: *A massive loss…*
She seemed to hear Wen Caimei’s anxious cries calling her name, but her eyelids were very heavy, and she couldn’t open her eyes no matter what.
Her thoughts slowly sank into an abyss, and her body grew lighter and lighter.
When she opened her eyes again, she was lying in bed at home.
Guarding beside her was Wen Caimei.
Wang Zhaoming sat up, her chest burning with a fiery pain. Under circumstances where her soul was not fully fused, using the method of guiding spirits was extremely damaging to the body.
On the surface, it looked fine, but the internal injury was severe.
In the past, watching Master do this kind of thing seemed clearly very simple; why did it turn out so miserable when it came to her?
So annoying—she really wanted to become an octopus and slap eight people in a single second.
The movement of her getting up woke Wen Caimei.
“My youngest, you’re finally awake! How are you? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”
Wen Caimei stared at Wang Zhaoming’s face, deathly afraid that Wang Zhaoming would conceal her physical condition just to comfort her.
“Not too good. Mother, where is my boat?”
That boat contained so many wronged spirits; later, after their matters were resolved, she would still have to deliver them to where they belonged.
“It’s still at Doctor Chen’s house. No one dared to touch it.”
“You scared Mother to death! You were unconscious for a full day and night. If Mother had known that saving people would get you injured, Mother wouldn’t have let you go no matter what.”
During the day and night Wen Caimei spent guarding Wang Zhaoming, regret had almost completely consumed her.
She couldn’t hear other people’s voices, only tightly holding Wang Zhaoming’s hand.
Wang Zhaoming felt helpless. “Mother, I didn’t want to go either, but with so many human lives, I had no way to stand by and watch their grievances remain unknown, discarded in a dark place with no daylight for their whole lives, never obtaining eternal life, never finding peace—when they clearly did nothing wrong.”
“The County Magistrate is the local official of the mortal realm. If they killed the local official, they would suffer severe punishment and lose any chance at rebirth forever.”
Furthermore, a karma line had already formed between her and Gao Zhijie; even if she didn’t bother with it now, these matters would fall into her hands later.
Intervening late would lead to even more serious consequences and make things harder to handle.
It was better to nip the difficulty in the bud from the very beginning.
When entangled, Gao Zhijie had already seen the past experiences of those who generated the resentment; when sending them to the ferry boat, he had promised in his dream that he would seek justice for them.
If he hadn’t made that promise, those resentful souls wouldn’t have left him so easily.
“Mother, Master Magistrate sent someone to see Little Sister.”
Zhao Guizhi spoke with her lips pouted, coming in very reluctantly.