With Si Jiangchen's help, I felt that I was much more successful in performing the ritual.
Officer Xue's wife opened her mouth wide, and black air kept pouring out. Every time she exhaled a puff of black air, I quickly stuffed a handful of raw glutinous rice into her mouth. The glutinous rice was soaked through with the evil qi in her body and immediately turned pitch - black. It was spat out on the ground with a stinky and rotten smell...
After stuffing more than a dozen handfuls of glutinous rice in this way, the rice that was spat out finally returned to its normal color. Officer Xue's wife finally let out a long sigh of relief, rolled her eyes, and collapsed on the ground.
Si Jiangchen didn't even wait for my order. He reached out and dragged over the crazy little monk. I did the same thing. After the little monk also returned to normal, the ground was covered with black and stinky glutinous rice grains.
Du Peilin called in a few police officers from outside to carry the two unconscious people out.
I took a look at the glutinous rice that Ji Chen had brought. The ten - pound rice bag was already more than half empty, but there were still several police officers lying on the ground whose souls had been extracted. Black air was faintly rising from their wounds. It was just that since their souls were not in their bodies and their spiritual veins were blocked, the corpse poison couldn't spread throughout their bodies.
In the current situation, it was probably too late to ask Ji Chen to go and get more rice.
I could only silently pray in my heart while pressing small handfuls of rice onto the wounds of those police officers. By the time I had applied the rice to all the police officers' wounds, the rice in the bag was all used up.
After I brushed off the glutinous rice that was as black as charcoal from the wounds, the black air still lingered. This was a sign that the corpse poison had not been completely cleaned up...
"Sigh..."
I let out a soft sigh. Just as I was about to look up and ask Du Peilin to figure out where we could get more glutinous rice, I saw a long and handsome hand reaching out from behind me and placing it on the blood - stained wound of a police officer.
"Let me try."
It was Si Jiangchen's voice in my ear.
I quickly turned my head to look at him. All I could see was his good - looking profile, solemn with a slight frown as he looked at the bitten wound with a hint of disgust.
"Thank you."
I knew he had a cleanliness fetish. Touching those bloody and mangled wounds with his hands now was to help me.
The words of thanks seemed insufficient, so I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
Although Si Jiangchen's expression remained unchanged, the corner of his mouth lifted slightly. His fingers were very nice. As he placed them on the wound, I could see the lingering black air being quickly absorbed into his fingertips as if attracted by a magnet.
"... It's done!"
I saw that the black air had been completely absorbed, so I quickly spoke up to stop him. If I let Si Jiangchen continue, this police officer might end up like those two unlucky guys we met in the ghost - market parking lot before, turning into just a pile of clothes!
Although the corpse poison was not deliberately spread by Si Jiangchen, it was still caused by him.
After he had cleaned up all the remaining poison on those police officers, his face turned a bit pale.
"Are you tired?"
I quickly supported him. I saw him take out a handkerchief from his pocket, wipe the blood on his hands clean, and then shake his head. "Now you can return their souls."
It was easy for Du Peilin to extract the souls, but it was not easy for me to put them back.
The human soul was the memory of a person in the mortal world. Without special means, they probably wouldn't be willing to return to their clumsy physical bodies. I had to come up with a perfect way to make them voluntarily return to their bodies!
"All worlds in the ten directions, the upper and lower voids, the laws of the underworld, omnipotent. I respectfully invite the great messenger of the underworld to appear..."
As I chanted the incantation in a low voice, I lit several yellow papers and threw them on the ground. The yellow papers quickly burned into black ashes, which rose into the air like lotus flowers. They turned into ashes when they reached as high as a person. Then I heard an arrogant voice coming from the void. "Who is this mortal who dares to summon me?"
A whirlwind swept by, and a faint mist rose in front of the altar. Suddenly, a big, blank - faced head emerged from the hazy mist.
"Hey... Oh! It's Miss Du!"
When the blank - faced head "saw" me, the sinister and tyrannical aura on it immediately disappeared without a trace.
"What do you want from the messenger of the underworld?"
For some reason, I could clearly see a flattering expression on his faceless face.
"There are several living souls here. I'd like to trouble you to scare them so that they'll return to their own bodies."
I knew quite well about the messengers of the underworld.
Although these guys were called immortals, they were actually ghosts with grudges who had been dead for years. Usually, after ghosts had completed their underworldly lifespan, they would immediately be taken to the Naihe Bridge under Meng Po's control to drink a bowl of the forgetful soup.
These ghosts who served in the underworld had escaped the cycle of reincarnation. They had obtained positions in the underworld through their own cultivation, and each of them had special abilities...
"Really? Miss Du, how dare you extract so many living souls?"
The faceless messenger took a look at the dazed living souls tied beside their physical bodies, and cold sweat broke out on his head.
"I..."
I was just about to explain to the faceless messenger when Si Jiangchen had already thrown away the handkerchief and picked up my words. "What's the big deal about extracting a few living souls? I did it. If the Ten Kings of Hell have any complaints, let them come and find me themselves!"
Si Jiangchen's imposing manner made the faceless messenger shrink his neck in fear. He didn't dare to say another word. He awkwardly turned his head, and when facing the living souls of those police officers, he immediately became haughty again. With a "clatter" sound, he took out a black chain from the void.
"Let me see who still dares to linger outside their bodies. I'll surely take them to the underworld and punish them for the serious crime of suicide!"
...
Sure enough, everyone had their own expertise. The faceless messenger only needed one chain to drive those hesitant living souls back into their bodies. Hearing the police officers groan one after another, an extreme sense of fatigue swept over me. I staggered a bit, and Si Jiangchen pulled me back into his arms.
"Xiao He, I didn't expect your Taoist magic to be so orthodox."
Du Peilin was directing the police officers to send everyone onto the ambulances. I was also being supported by Si Jiangchen as we slowly walked out of the underground passage. Now the sunlight was shining through the towering trees in the yard. The blinding sunlight made me squint my eyes.
Du Peilin came over and asked in confusion, "I always see you using the Thunder Magic of our Qingwei School. I didn't expect you to be so proficient in the ghost - catching techniques of the Maoshan School. With your constitution, how could the Taoists resist the temptation to do something to you?"
Du Peilin's words made me think of the first time I met Master Lu Tianchang. He was the kind of tough guy who wanted to seal me in a bottle and suppress me as soon as he saw me...
But why did he start to treat me well later on? Why was he willing to teach me the skills of the Qingwei School and even give me the soul bottle he had painstakingly refined when I had no memory at all?
I frowned and thought carefully. Suddenly, I found that the kind - looking masters in my memory were all blurred. I couldn't even remember their names!