"Mr. Du, shall we still open that jar?" Uncle Yang, after hearing his wife's description, knew that he might have had his soul taken by the soul - reaper. Strangely calm, he pointed at the jar on the altar and asked me, "It seems I'm not going to make it. Just keep my wife alive!"
"Don't open it!" I quickly shook my head. A Jian was a ghost that had escaped the soul - reaping of the Yin messengers. If discovered, it would surely be captured and severely punished!
"Hehe! Little witch, you've finally shown your true colors!" Suddenly, from the wide - open courtyard gate, a voice with a bit of a Henan accent came in. "The reason for this family's unrest is none other than you!"
I frowned tightly and involuntarily took a step back, shielding Si Jiangchen and the completely immobile Si Tong behind me.
With a soft sound of footsteps, the bamboo curtain was "snapped" open, and a gray figure emerged in the flickering candlelight.
"Daoist priest?!" Aunt Yang exclaimed in surprise.
Standing in front of us was a Taoist priest in a light - gray robe, with a small bun on his head and a bone hairpin. He looked to be in his forties or fifties, standing by the door looking all sanctimonious.
"Daoist priest, save us!!" Aunt Yang immediately rushed forward and grabbed the Taoist priest's robe sleeve, crying. "It's all my fault for not listening to you. That's why Xiaoshanzi died. You're so merciful. Please, please save my old man. Our family can't live without him!!"
I then remembered what Aunt Yang had said about the Taoist priest who claimed that their Xiaoshanzi had a "child - star fate".
Moreover, he was also the evil Taoist priest I saw in the magic mirror spell at the stream head... the one who dug out Xiaoshanzi's eye!
"Auntie, don't go over. He's a villain!" I knew that "seeking any remedy in desperation" was people's common reaction, but this stinky Taoist priest was clearly malicious, yet pretended to be a compassionate savior. It was really disgusting!
Aunt Yang was stunned for a moment. She looked at the Taoist priest and then at me, shaking her head. "Mr. Du, this is the very Taoist priest I told you about... He said we should spend some money to break Xiaoshanzi's 'child - star fate', but it's all my fault! It's all my fault!"
Looking at Aunt Yang's regretful face, I pointed at the Taoist priest angrily. "You old hag - haired, heartless thing. You killed Xiaoshanzi!"
"Little witch, you raise ghosts to cause harm and still dare to shift the blame!" The Taoist priest waved his whisk and pointed at the soul - storing jars and soul bottles on the altar, sneering. "You dare to say that you traveled all the way to this mountain village just to capture and refine ghosts for your own use?! Dare you open those jars and bottles and let us take a look?!"
Then, without waiting for me to speak, he pointed at Si Tong, who was floating motionless in mid - air like he had been immobilized by a spell. "God have mercy. This poor child, only five or six years old, has been refined into a little ghost by you!! You got close to the Yang family just to capture their youngest son's soul, right?"
"Slandering!" I was trembling with anger at the Taoist priest's blatant lies. "I saw clearly with the magic mirror spell that you dug out Xiaoshanzi's eye, and he was drowned in the water by the soulless Feng Xiaobao!"
"The magic mirror spell..." The Taoist priest squinted his eyes and said disdainfully, "Why use the magic mirror spell? You have a compass. Just ask where the Yang family's misfortune originated from!"
"You!!" I was about to continue refuting when I suddenly remembered the strange rotation of my compass that morning. At that time, I only felt that the compass needle was always pointing behind me...
Could it be that it wasn't pointing behind me, but at me?!
I reached out to get the compass on the altar, but unexpectedly, the Taoist priest wouldn't let me touch anything on it. With a wave of his whisk, two cold chills rushed towards my back. Without turning around, I knew they must be two ferocious little ghosts biting at my neck.
This scoundrel was the one who used little ghosts as weapons to harm people!
I tilted my head slightly and pointed my sword at the forehead of a little ghost that pounced towards me. The little ghost seemed extremely afraid of me and immediately darted past me and up to the beam.
"It's you?!!" I recognized at a glance that this little ghost was the one I captured in Kaiyue City.
At this moment, there was an invisible thread connecting all the things I had encountered recently...
This stinky Taoist priest used evil magic to raise little ghosts, and he was the one who set up the Feng Shui pattern of "Five Ghosts Transporting Wealth" in the Kaiyue Building.
The Kaiyue Building was Wei Wenzhao's property. He had also captured Si Tong's living soul!!
Could this stinky Taoist priest be targeting Si Jiangchen instead of me? Was I just an incidental target?
"What's your relation with the Du family in northern Henan?" I took advantage of the two little ghosts fleeing to the beam and sternly questioned the Taoist priest.
The Taoist priest sneered and said, "I'm Li Chengxian, the sixteenth - generation disciple of the Qingwei School. Du Peiyun, the head of the Du family, is my junior - uncle. You little witch, together with Du Wenzhong, stole the Du family's precious treasure and fled everywhere to do evil. Today, I've caught you red - handed!"
Then, he said to the bewildered Uncle Yang and Aunt Yang, "Don't be deceived by this little witch. How could she be kind - hearted enough to save your child? She just wants to capture him and refine him into a little ghost, just like that child, never to be reincarnated!"
He shook his whisk, and it twined towards Si Tong, who had revealed his form in mid - air. At the same time, he compassionately chanted, "Poor thing, let the Taoist priest save you..."
"Stop!" I now knew that it was impossible to get any help!
Uncle Yang and Aunt Yang were ordinary people and couldn't see through the stinky Taoist priest's plot to frame me!
I couldn't release A Jian or Wang Yingxiu either!
Right now, the two soul - reapers who were in cahoots with Li Chengxian were probably hiding somewhere nearby. As long as A Jian appeared, they would surely use their duty of capturing souls from the underworld and righteously capture A Jian and the others back to the netherworld...
This stinky Taoist priest must have thought it through carefully, making me instantly feel restricted!
I could only rely on myself!
A golden - sword talisman in my hand flew out and hit the top of the soft whisk. The white threads that had twined around Si Tong immediately fell to the ground as if cut by a knife.
Si Tong's eyes opened a little.
The blood in them was gone. My ghost - suppressing talisman must have had some effect. When he saw me, a faint, difficult smile appeared on his face. "Sister... save, save my dad..."
"You little brat! You can't even save yourself, and you still care about your dad?!" Frustrated, I sent out another evil - expelling talisman. This little brat had trapped me in Si Jiangchen's scheme and made me almost lose everything!
I used to secretly swear that as soon as I found him, I would beat him up. But now, seeing how pitifully he had been tortured, all I wanted was to quickly save him from this misery...