No one understood what Black Impermanence said just before he went in.
But his sudden confidence somehow infected everyone.
The small jail was still as dark as before.
Upstairs, the master's wife, who was almost turning into a ghost king, had calmed down. Her eyes were tightly closed, and her face was full of intoxication.
There were three people standing beside her.
To be precise, it was a man and two paper figures.
The appearance of those two paper figures was so familiar.
Shen Weixun recognized at a glance that these two paper figures must have been made by the same person as the ones they had encountered in Taoyuan Village before.
Both Taoist Qingyun and Shen Weixun were ready for the upcoming fierce battle.
But at this moment, Black Impermanence took a step forward, looking confident and in control. People couldn't help but calm down and see what he was going to do.
He didn't even bother to take out his magical weapon. Standing upright on the spot, he said with a smile, "I wonder if your seniority in the Holy Cult is high enough. Let me tell you something. The nutrients that old geezer downstairs provided for the ghost king were obtained from a little girl. Her name is Nian Nian, Yu Niannian."
The man standing beside the master's wife was wearing a black robe, and his face couldn't be seen clearly.
But when he heard Black Impermanence's introduction of Niannian, he obviously paused for a moment.
He suddenly reached out his hand to check the aura on the ghost king, as if testing the truth of what Black Impermanence said.
"Damn it!"
The next second, he suddenly cursed under his breath and took out a brocade box from his bosom.
He opened the brocade box, and inside was a beating heart.
It was bright red but transparent in appearance.
It was a ghost heart.
Taoist Qingyun recognized almost instantly that this was his wife's ghost heart.
No wonder the other side was so fearless, not afraid of losing control of the ghost king they were raising and constantly using other people's lifespans to prolong its life.
It turned out that they had taken out his wife's ghost heart from the very beginning.
Taoist Qingyun's wife died an unnatural death.
An unnatural death means a person who dies in various accidental ways before reaching the destined end of their lifespan.
Generally, ghost messengers won't take the initiative to fetch the souls of those who died an unnatural death.
Most of the souls that ghost messengers fetch are those who are destined to die.
If the family of a soul that died an unnatural death doesn't collect the body and the soul itself doesn't go to the City God's Temple to cancel the household registration, it can only become a wandering ghost in this world.
Only when the date in the Book of Life and Death finally arrives will a ghost messenger come to fetch the soul and take it to the underworld to go through the normal process.
When Taoist Qingyun first noticed that his wife's soul was missing, he did consider asking the ghost messengers for help.
But rules are rules.
His wife's lifespan hadn't ended yet. Even the ghost messengers in the underworld had no right to search everywhere for a soul that died an unnatural death, unless it caused trouble and disrupted the order of the human world. Only then could the ghost messengers go out to look for it.
Gu Huan stealing other people's lifespans and giving them to his wife was probably to avoid the ghost messengers.
As long as his wife's lifespan in the mortal world was infinitely extended, the underworld, which abided by the rules, would be helpless.
A ghost that loses its ghost heart will naturally obey the person who controls the ghost heart.
But a ghost will also die if it loses its ghost heart.
They must use secret arts and forbidden spells to stabilize the soul the moment they take out his wife's ghost heart.
A ghost that has lost its ghost heart will definitely practice much slower than other ghosts.
So in order to cultivate a ghost king as soon as possible, they must not have taken out the ghost heart right after they captured his wife.
The shrill screams his wife let out just now were probably when her ghost heart was taken out.
Taoist Qingyun guessed that Gu Huan didn't have time to steal other people's lifespans and cultivation bases, so he had to use his own to make up for the loss after his wife lost her ghost heart, which was why he ended up looking like that.
Logically speaking, shouldn't they have hidden the ghost heart?
What did it mean to take it out at this time?
Taoist Qingyun was eager to act.
He wanted to rush up and snatch it.
But unfortunately, the Black and White Impermanence beside him didn't make any move. They even gave him a look, telling him not to act rashly.
No matter how anxious he was in his heart, Taoist Qingyun couldn't be so reckless because of his own selfish desires.
He could only suppress his eagerness and wait and see what would happen.
They saw the man in the black robe bite his fingertip and draw one complicated rune after another on the ghost heart.
Lines of words also appeared on it.
They were all special words of the Witch Clan.
This man was actually a witchcraft master.
When the words appeared, the black-robed man continued to draw neatly with the blood from his fingertip, carefully making every stroke.
These seemed to be the runes to break the spell.
The black words that originally appeared on the ghost heart gradually faded away under the black-robed man's strokes.
The heart became more and more bright red and beat more and more violently.
At the same time, Taoist Qingyun saw the rows of spells engraved on his wife's soul disappearing at a visible speed.
"This..."
Taoist Qingyun really didn't understand what the other side was up to.
Whether it was cultivating the ghost king, building this temple, or the eighteen arhats outside.
All of these took a lot of effort.
They were almost there, and it was unlikely that they could break the spell before his wife advanced to become a ghost king.
The people of the Holy Cult were actually breaking the spell themselves?
It was a bit surreal...
Not sure yet. Let's wait and see.
Since someone was willing to break the spell for his wife, Taoist Qingyun wasn't in a hurry anymore. He calmly stood there and watched the black-robed man's operation.
After the last rune faded away, the black-robed man suddenly spat out a large mouthful of blood with a groan.
His body swayed slightly, and then he threw the brocade box at them.
"Take it. I have no grudges against you. Deal with that useless old man downstairs by yourselves. The spells are all broken. That little girl won't be in danger. I'm just unlucky this time."
After saying that, the two paper figures beside the black-robed man turned into a pile of ashes.
He didn't hesitate to turn around, open a window, and jump from the second floor.
In the blink of an eye, he disappeared without a trace.
Was it over just like that?
Both Taoist Qingyun and Shen Weixun were completely confused.
They originally thought they would have a fierce battle, but unexpectedly, the opponent just gave up and left.
It was really beyond their expectations.
But... the result was good.
Why bother thinking so much?
"Wanwan!"
Taoist Qingyun quickly picked up the brocade box and rushed to the female ghost.
He put the ghost heart back into the female ghost's chest. Watching her eyes gradually regain clarity, he took out the gourd from his waist and temporarily stored his wife's soul in it.