Aunt Yang's sobs and remorse tugged at my heart.
"Auntie, stop crying," I sighed and said to her. "Xiaoshanzi looks really frightening. I'm afraid you'll be heartbroken if you see him. Besides..."
I hesitated slightly before adding, "I'm worried that if he sees you two, his attachment to you will grow stronger, and it might be difficult to send his soul to the afterlife then."
"I... I just want to take a peek secretly!" Aunt Yang's eyes welled up with tears.
Just then, the curtain rustled, and Uncle Yang walked in. He came to stop his wife.
"Xiaoshanzi is gone. Even if you see him, he can't stay! It'll cause trouble for Young Master Du!"
"But..." Unable to hold back any longer, Aunt Yang sat on the floor and burst into tears.
Her remorse and grief finally showed themselves in full.
She hadn't even seen Xiaoshanzi for the last time.
When she heard that the child had drowned, Aunt Yang had fainted.
By the time she woke up, the Taoist priest who had been there before had already buried Xiaoshanzi under a tree on the Yang family's land.
Even now, Aunt Yang still often felt as if Xiaoshanzi had just gone out to play and hadn't come home yet.
Although I didn't have a child, I had my grandfather, Du Wenzhong.
So I understood the deep attachment between relatives. Just as I didn't want to lose my grandfather, the Yangs must be heart - broken over their son's death.
Now that there was a chance to maybe see their son, how could she give it up?
After some thought, I said to Aunt Yang, "Auntie, do you have any baskets woven from willow twigs at home?"
"Yes, we do."
Baskets woven from willow twigs were very common in the countryside. Most of them were used to hold feed or as chicken coops for hatching eggs.
I had seen two of them in the Yang family's yard.
"You two can see Xiaoshanzi if you want," I pointed to the corner, a place out of the candlelight's reach. "You two cover yourselves with two willow - twig baskets. No matter what you see, don't make a sound, okay?"
"Okay! Okay!" Aunt Yang nodded repeatedly, got up from the floor, and rushed out of the door.
Uncle Yang, on the other hand, looked at me worriedly and asked, "Young Master Du, if we see something scary and scream, will it put you in danger?"
Hearing Uncle Yang's words, I couldn't help but smile. "Uncle Yang, I'm a yin - yang master. I'm protected by the Six Ding and Six Jia. It's okay."
Saying that, I stuffed two yellow talismans from the altar into Uncle Yang's hands and said, "If you two are scared, put these two talismans in your mouths. They're ghost - expelling talismans. No ghost can get near you."
Uncle Yang nodded and held the two small yellow triangular talismans tightly in his hand.
At this time, Aunt Yang had come in with two willow - twig baskets almost as tall as a person.
Willow twigs were yin in nature. They could attract ghosts and block the aura of the living.
I asked the Yangs to hide under the two inverted willow - twig baskets respectively to conceal their human auras.
As long as they didn't overturn the baskets or shout loudly, ghosts would hardly notice them.
There was another very important reason why I let them stay in the same room with me.
The little ghost that Uncle Yang had provoked in the town today, I still hadn't found where it was hiding!
As the sky was getting darker and the deathly aura on the old couple was getting stronger, and Xiaoshanzi's soul had been refined by someone and imprisoned on the willow tree for a long time, he wouldn't be as reasonable as Feng Zhenzhen!
Little ghosts were cunning. I was afraid that it would escape from the altar. If the Yang couple was out of my sight, I was afraid they would be hurt by the little ghost.
After the Yangs hid themselves, I shook the soul - guiding bell and summoned Xiaoshanzi's soaking - wet soul out.
He emerged in a daze, still looking as miserable as ever. His body was pale from being soaked in water, and his little face with a blood - filled eye socket wore a venomous expression.
"Ugh!!!"
I could hear a stifled gasp coming from the willow - twig basket in the corner.
I'm afraid Aunt Yang had seen Xiaoshanzi's miserable state before his death and couldn't bear the shock.
"Yang Xiaoshan!"
I shook the bell, and a soul - calming talisman flew out from between my fingers towards Xiaoshanzi's soul body.
My intention was to let him regain some of his poor consciousness with the power of the talisman.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the talisman stuck to Xiaoshanzi's soaking - wet forehead, a sobbing sound came from the willow - twig basket in the corner.
It was the basket where Uncle Yang was hiding. Sure enough, the dirty thing he had brought back was still hiding somewhere in his body.
"Uncle, swallow the talisman!"
I was quite confident in my talismans. As soon as I spoke, I had already made a sword - finger gesture and rushed towards the corner.
"Creak!"
My intention was to hold down the willow - twig basket to prevent Uncle Yang from being exposed to his mindless son. But I never expected that the willow - twig basket would suddenly explode like a lit firecracker, making a series of loud noises. All the willow twigs burst open, revealing Uncle Yang's terrified face and... a hideous little ghost sitting on his neck!
"Is... is it you?!"
Although there was only the faint light of two candles in the room, I clearly saw that the one who emerged from Uncle Yang's chest in a twisted and strange posture, with pupils only as small as a pinprick, staring at me with a sinister smile, was Sitong, the very one I was looking for!
His soul body this time was not as neat as a little gentleman when I first saw him. Instead, he was bare - chested, with strips of flesh hanging on his charred body, looking extremely painful.
His hand was tightly holding Uncle Yang's hand, preventing him from putting the yellow talisman into his mouth.
"The Seven Stars pacify the colorful, the light shines on the netherworld..."
I immediately made a "ghost - suppressing gesture" with my right hand, intending to suppress Sitong's soul first.
Si Jiangchen had said that his son had been seriously injured and had been in a coma.
His living soul had been captured by someone with magic power and was made into a Five - Ghost Fortune - Bringing formation with four other little ghosts to gather wealth and ward off evil for the Kaiyue City in the capital.
According to the little ghost I had captured, Sitong didn't want to harm people, so their "father" had tortured him...
Looking at Sitong's current state, I'm afraid this poor little boy finally couldn't escape the pain of soul - refining and had become a mindless servant ghost!
The moment my finger touched Sitong's soul body, he suddenly opened his mouth wide. His tiny teeth were not afraid of my spell and bit towards my face.
Aunt Yang in the other willow - twig basket beside suddenly lifted the basket on her head and stuffed the yellow talisman in her hand into my mouth.
She could see the figure of the little ghost Sitong through the gaps in the basket. Afraid that something would happen to me, she wanted to stuff the life - saving yellow talisman I had given her back into my mouth.
However, Aunt Yang's kindness didn't work. The ghost - suppressing talisman on Xiaoshanzi's head suddenly fluttered in the air like being blown by the wind and fell to the ground with a rustle. He turned his head, and a string of blood beads spilled from his blood - filled eye socket. In an instant, he pounced on his mother.
"The sky is round and the earth is square, the laws are nine - fold. Yin gives birth and yang follows, all ghosts have nowhere to hide..."
Just at this critical moment, I heard Si Jiangchen's calm voice.
The Yin Five - Thunder Spell?! A spell more terrifying than any thunder spell I knew. If it hit Sitong, I'm afraid it would destroy not only his tiny living soul?!