Wang Huazhong swallowed hard.
He never would have imagined that what Yun Mojiu meant by “digging something up” would turn out to be human remains!
The others were also tense, their faces pale.
Didn’t the boss say they were just digging up something random?
So why were there dead people’s bones?
Wuwuwu, this is terrifying!
Yun Mojiu calmly walked toward the coffin at the bottom of the pit.
Inside the black coffin, talismans were plastered everywhere. A golden Bagua disk lay over the corpse’s chest, while red threads were wrapped around its wrists and ankles, each leading to flint stones placed at the four corners of the coffin.
Seeing this, she frowned slightly and then walked over to the coffin lid that had been flung aside.
When she saw the metal-associated birth characters engraved inside the lid, along with a bronze mirror pressed tightly against it, she instantly understood.
Just as she had suspected.
“Damn it! Who would do this to me? They must have wanted me to suffer eternally, right?”
Gu Ling floated over to Yun Mojiu’s side, his aura seething with anger.
Yun Mojiu glanced at him and shook her head.
“On the contrary, the person who did this likely wanted to save you.”
Gu Ling: ???
He pointed at the coffin, squinting skeptically.
“You’re telling me that being tied up like some kind of monster, with all that weird stuff plastered inside the coffin, was actually someone trying to save me?”
“Exactly,” Yun Mojiu nodded. “This is a very ancient method of suppressing evil. The birth characters here belong to the metal element, while the flint stones also called firestones, belong to fire. In the Five Elements, fire overcomes metal. The bronze mirror and Bagua disk form an array, combined with exorcism talismans, to suppress extreme evil.”
“So, you’re saying I was the evil one?” Gu Ling was even more confused.
He had always been a good person, how could he suddenly be some kind of malevolent entity?
“Not exactly. It’s more likely that you were possessed by a powerful evil spirit. At the time, there was no way to completely expel it from your body, so this method was used to kill the spirit and preserve your soul.”
As she spoke, Yun Mojiu lifted a string of sandalwood prayer beads from around the skeleton’s neck.
“There are twenty-four beads in total, each one full and carved with soul-gathering talismans. Not only do they purify the mind and calm the spirit, but they also help stabilize your soul. Because your soul was being devoured by the evil entity, your consciousness remained in a dormant state until the entity was completely destroyed. That’s why, despite having died a thousand years ago, you only woke up a century ago.”
She hadn’t been able to figure it out before, but seeing this array made everything clear.
“So… you’re saying my family put me in this coffin to protect my soul?” Gu Ling furrowed his brow.
“Yes. It was a case of sacrificing the pawn to save the king,” Yun Mojiu affirmed.
“At the time, your body was beyond saving. If they had insisted on preserving it, your soul would have been completely consumed by the evil entity, and you would have ceased to exist. But by abandoning your body and using it as a vessel to trap the entity, they turned the tables. When the entity was finally destroyed, your soul was freed.”
Hearing this, Gu Ling’s eyes trembled slightly.
He had always believed he had been murdered.
But the truth turned out to be something else entirely.
Suddenly, another question occurred to him.
“Why am I confined here, unable to stray too far?”
“This is also a way to protect you. After all, you’re a ghost, and before the evil spirit was eliminated, you were in a comatose state, naturally unable to cultivate as a ghost. In short, your spiritual power is very weak. If you wander too far from this formation, your soul will be affected.”
“Of course, there’s also the intention of the person who set up the formation, they didn’t want you to harm others. They knew that once the evil spirit died, your soul would be free. Worried you might go out and cause harm, they secretly placed this restriction, limiting your movement to this area.”
So, the formation both protected and restrained him.
This time, Gu Ling finally understood everything.
“Now that the cause of your death is clear, I’ll send you off for reincarnation,” she said calmly.
Hearing this, Gu Ling immediately floated over to her like an eager lackey.
“Please, no! Have mercy and let me stay in the human world a little longer. Look how pitiful I am, I died without knowing why, trapped here for so many years, never getting to see this beautiful world. I promise I won’t cause trouble or hurt anyone, okay?”
He blinked, looking at Yun Mojiu with hopeful eyes.
Yun Mojiu fell silent for a moment.
“Fine. But I’ll place a formation on you. If you ever harbor the intent to harm others, your soul will instantly scatter.”
Gu Ling solemnly vowed, “No problem!”
“Alright, I’ll give you three months. During that time, you can only go out at night. After three months, you must report to the underworld.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Gu Ling nodded eagerly, acting utterly obedient.
Yun Mojiu took out a Soul-Locking Talisman, waved her hand, and Gu Ling’s figure instantly vanished.
“Who… who is she talking to?”
The workers Wang Huazhong had called huddled together, trembling, their eyes wide with terror as they watched Yun Mojiu converse with thin air.
“There’s no one around, is there?”
“I heard her mention a ghost!”
Their teeth chattered, and they fought the urge to bolt.
The waiter who had first discovered Gu Ling quietly sidled over and “kindly” informed them, “That’s right, she really is talking to a ghost. Let me tell you, that ghost…”
He embellished Gu Ling’s terrifying appearance, scaring the group so badly they shook like sieves.
Instantly, he felt much better.
Well, he was just being “helpful.” After all, misery loves company.
Such important news ought to be shared with everyone.
Once the matter was settled, Wang Huazhong dutifully paid Yun Mojiu her fee.
Yun Mojiu and Xiao Junhe then returned to the private room and enjoyed a lavish lunch.
After the meal, Xiao Junhe excused himself to the restroom while Yun Mojiu went ahead to wait for him at the entrance.
Unexpectedly, as soon as she stepped outside, she ran into a familiar face.
“Well, well… if it isn’t the disgraced Miss Yun?”
Wu Minyi stood with his hands in his pockets, deliberately drawing out his words as he tilted his head and smirked.
His tone dripped with mockery.
This man was Xie Jingling’s rival and had once pursued Yun Mojiu.
But Yun Mojiu had only ever had eyes for Xie Jingling, never sparing him a glance.
As a result, he held a grudge.
Every time they met, he never had a kind word for her, always speaking in veiled barbs and never missing a chance to sneer.
“I heard that Xie Jingling has already brought his first love back home. Tsk tsk, look at that. Didn’t I tell you? That Xie Jingling is no good. And you treated him like treasure, now you see how foolish that was? You were never in his heart to begin with. He just used you as a distraction when he was lonely and bored. The moment his first love returned, he kicked you to the curb without a second thought.”