Chapter 11: Unwilling (Please Collect)

Fang and the two little kids floated to a distance of one step from the Sword and Sword Double Kill and stopped, probably because people with vigorous blood and qi would hurt ghosts like them. The three ghosts stopped there and did not move. After a while, Shi Xuan could feel some slightly flowing gas floating from the Sword and Sword Double Kill towards them, and then the soul became clearer in Shi Xuan's senses.

Shi Xuan seemed not to care much, but in fact he had been paying close attention to Fang and her two children's actions of absorbing yang energy, hoping to judge whether they really did not hurt people's lives based on the subtleties of their actions. Although this can be seen from the rumors outside and Fang's self-report, Shi Xuan is not a child. People have never blindly followed or believed, so he prepared to observe independently and then judge based on rumors and self-reports. This is not like the previous life. If you blindly follow and believe, most of the time there is no loss, a small part of the time you lose some money, and in extreme cases your life will be in danger. In this world, dealing with ghosts, if you blindly follow and believe, most of the time you are playing with your life.

After just a few breaths, Fang and the two children stopped floating back, looking satisfied. At this time, Shi Xuan combined the fact that they had no evil spirits and no smell of blood food, rumors and self-reports, and could basically confirm that they were indeed only in the state of absorbing a small amount of yang energy and were harmless to people.

Fang signaled to the two children, Yingying bowed down and saluted Shi Xuan, and the two children clumsily imitated their mother and saluted Shi Xuan.

Seeing De Lin saluting himself in the way women salute, Shi Xuan couldn't help but move the corners of his mouth. Shi Xuan said to Fang: "Okay, those two have redeemed themselves for their past sins. Now can you tell me why they linger here?" Fang used magic to conjure a chair, sat down in a realistic manner, and recalled: "When the fire happened, my husband was out doing business and had not returned, so there was a shortage of manpower in the yard. The small kitchen in Hongfeng Garden where I, Delin, and Hanling were staying caught fire in the middle of the night. The weather was dry and the fire spread quickly. When I woke up, the surrounding area was already filled with fire. Delin and Hanling slept with me that night. I and the maid each held one and tried to rush out, but the beam collapsed and we were completely trapped inside. I watched them being woken up by the smoke and unable to shout for their mother. Although the fire was burning my body and it was extremely painful, my heart was even more painful. I was so unwilling. My two children were only three years old." This kind of pain was indeed unimaginable. Shi Xuan did not interrupt and raised his hand to signal Fang to continue. After a pause, Fang calmed down and continued, "When I felt it again, I found myself in the small well in the yard. De Lin and Han Ling were also beside me. When they saw me wake up, they cried and complained about how uncomfortable they were just now. I wanted to go out, but I found that I was instinctively afraid of the sun. Then I realized that I and my two children were already ghosts." "After I came out in the middle of the night, I found that there were many ghosts of maids and servants wandering around the house, but as the days passed, I found that the ghosts of those maids and servants began to forget. What's scary is that De Lin and Han Ling were also forgetful. I was at a loss, and suddenly, I instinctively understood many rules between heaven and earth. After seven days, ghosts will slowly lose their memories, and even their own existence will slowly dissipate after ten days." "Well, I have also read this in Taoist books." Shi Xuan nodded affirmatively. "But I am unwilling to give up. I haven't had time to look at my husband again, and Delin and Hanling haven't had time to call me daddy again. These are actually not bad. Although I am unwilling to give up, I also understand that humans and ghosts have different paths. But what I am most unwilling to give up is that Delin and Hanling are only three years old. They haven't experienced anything, haven't tasted anything, haven't read books, haven't written characters, haven't embroidered flowers, haven't painted red, haven't caught birds, haven't picked flowers, haven't played around, haven't drunk tea, haven't tasted all kinds of food, haven't made friends, haven't passed the imperial examination, haven't ridden a horse in the streets, haven't tried the red veil wedding candle, and haven't had children to enjoy the joy of family..." Fang was already mumbling to herself when she spoke, she was so sad that it was inaudible.

Shi Xuan was silent. Even though he kept his thoughts in check and his mind was clear, he felt compassion in his heart.

Fang paused for a long time this time, until De Lin and Han Ling behind her curiously stretched their heads forward to see what happened to their mother, Fang came back to her senses.

"As this unwilling thought became stronger and stronger, I could feel myself starting to stabilize my body, and even De Lin and Han Ling in my arms began to stop dissipating. Days passed, and later I was able to absorb Yin Qi instinctively, but De Lin and Han Ling's souls were not strong. Although they stopped dissipating, they also lost many memories, and the speed of absorbing Yin Qi was quite slow. More than ten years have passed, and I often teach them when I have time, but De Lin and Han Ling, in fact, you have seen that they are only three or four years old. Well, at the beginning, they couldn't even leave me ten feet away." Fang's tone was both happy and sad.

"Later, someone built a new house here. I didn't want anyone to disturb us, so I planned to scare them away, haha. At the beginning, those who built the house came during the day and left at night. Only the gatehouse was guarded to prevent people from coming in to steal things. I was trapped in a place of yin energy. I didn't dare to come out during the day, and I couldn't leave at night. I basically couldn't go to the front yard, so I didn't find a chance to scare people. It wasn't until the house was built and someone moved in that I started to scare people in the middle of the night. Later, that family also found a lot of monks and Taoists to catch ghosts, haha, but they were all swindling. None of them had magical powers like you, Taoist Shi, and I easily scared them away. However, from the monks and Taoists, I learned that my husband died of anger because of the bad news at home. The servants who followed him divided the money and dispersed. No wonder no one came to sacrifice to us." "Well, when did you start to absorb yang energy?" Shi Xuan asked a more concerned question. "As I absorbed Yin Qi to cultivate, my cultivation became deeper. One year after that family moved away, I began to feel hungry. I wanted to eat something, but I didn't know what to eat. Once, a drunk idler came in here. I was so hungry that I started to absorb Yang Qi. Three years ago, Delin and Hanling also began to feel hungry. But basically, one absorption can last for several months, but there are only a few people coming here every year. Haha, if I had known this, I would not have scared that family away." Fang smiled with her mouth covered.

Shi Xuan thought that this ghost had a sense of humor, and said, "This feeling of hunger is actually the consequence of practicing with pure Yin Qi. The deeper the cultivation, the more things containing Yang Qi are needed to neutralize it. The Yang Qi of human beings is the most gentle and least harmful to the ghosts. After reaching a certain level of cultivation, you even have to start eating blood to maintain it." Fang asked in confusion, "Is blood food similar to the pig heads and sheep heads used for sacrifice?" "Well, because the ghosts being sacrificed are mainly maintained by the power of the sacrifice, blood food can only be obtained from livestock at most, and it is often only available during the annual grand sacrifice. For people like you now, if you practice to the point where you must eat blood food, you can still use livestock in the initial stage, but you can only use humans or monsters as your cultivation progresses." Shi Xuan answered seriously. Fang was silent for a long time after hearing this, and the two little brothers and sisters behind him made faces at Shi Xuan out of boredom, sometimes only eyes, sometimes only mouths, sometimes green faces and fangs, and sometimes Shi Xuan's appearance. "Master, is there no other way?" Fang looked at Shi Xuan with tears in her eyes.

Shi Xuan sighed and said, "It is the way of heaven and earth. Unless you can advance to the Qi-inducing stage quickly, so as to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to neutralize the Yin Qi, you must also practice the method of not relying on devouring human flesh and souls to improve your cultivation. Unfortunately, even if you have the true teachings, I don't think you can break through to the Qi-inducing stage within half a year to a year after entering the realm of cultivation where you must eat humans or monsters."

Fang was silent, and after a moment, she stood up and said hysterically, "What about the others, borrowing a corpse to revive the soul, and reincarnation of the soul, even if De Lin and Han Ling don't recognize me in the future, as long as they have a chance to come back again, it's fine!" The two siblings heard their mother mention their names and quickly put away their faces.

Hey, you have watched too many storybooks and operas. There is no such thing as reincarnation of the soul in this world. Although I came here to revive the soul, I am still far from helping your child to revive the soul. Although Shi Xuan couldn't bear to break Fang's hope, he still said, "It's a pity that my cultivation is shallow and I can't help you, Madam Fang." Fang sat down dejectedly, but soon she lowered her head, stared at the ground, and said firmly, "When the time comes, just coax De Lin and Han Ling into giving them pork and mutton." The two siblings looked at Fang in confusion when they heard their mother mention their names again. After that, Fang slowly raised her head, looked at Shi Xuan, and said word by word, "Master, are you going to eliminate harm for the people and destroy this evil ghost of mine?"