Chapter 154: Japanese Devils

Upon hearing my words, Li Zheng dropped to his knees with a thud, tears and snot streaming down his face. "Master Li, please save my life! My wife is completely unconscious, and the doctors are utterly helpless..."

I felt a deep sense of disgust toward this fellow. He loved to bully others with his power, had swindled my second uncle, and then tried to swindle me. Thinking of the slap he had given me made my roots ache even now. Looking at his face, it was completely deformed from the beating his wife had given him. It was a mass of blue and purple, swollen like a pig's head, with dried blood still at the corners of his mouth. In this state, I doubted even his own parents would recognize him if he walked down the street.

A man's knees are worth gold; he should only kneel to heaven, earth, and his ancestors. Yet, he was much older than me and was now kneeling right before my eyes. This was hardly appropriate, so I stepped aside and said to Li Jun, "Uncle Li, help your older brother up. I will help treat your sister-in-law. Her soul has been lost, and I can retrieve it. But let's be clear, your family's geomancy has nothing to do with me anymore. Besides, the people in your village smashed my buddy's motorcycle to pieces, and you need to compensate for it."

"My good nephew, don't you worry. That goes without saying. I'll replace the motorcycle with a brand new one. But the matter of my family's geomancy still depends on you. My brother and my son were acting like scoundrels, and I hope you can forgive them," Li Jun said, shaking my hand. To be fair, this fellow had been decent from the very beginning. Regardless of whether the ghost marriage succeeded or not, he had never made things difficult for me.

"Just help your brother up first, and carry your sister-in-law into my house. Let me see if I can retrieve her soul." Matters had reached this point, and there wasn't much else I could say. As detestable as Li Zheng was, he had already suffered severe punishment and taken quite a beating, which balanced the score. Now that I had withdrawn from the Yin-Yang realm, I preferred to avoid trouble whenever possible.

Li Jun hurriedly helped his brother to his feet, and together they carried his sister-in-law into my house. Since Wang Ying was lying in the main room, I couldn't bring them in there, so I led them into the side chamber instead.

Leaving Li Jun and the others waiting outside, I closed the bedroom door and whispered, "Qingting, Qingting, that's enough! Come out now."

I called out twice, but heard no echo from Qingting, nor did I see her crawl out from Li Zheng's wife's body.

"Qingting, Qingting," I called out a couple more times. Still, there was not the slightest sound. A wave of ominous foreboding washed over me. Oh no, could something have happened to her?

I hurriedly called Wan'er over and asked her to check where Qingting was. Wan'er studied the room for a moment, then shook her head, saying that Qingting was not on this woman at all. She added that the woman's primary soul was also gone, leaving only a lingering thread of soul behind to keep the physical body alive and breathing.

Hearing Wan'er's words, my mind went blank with a buzzing sound. I had been worried from the start; in broad daylight like this, Qingting would find it extremely difficult to adapt to the heavy Yang energy. Now that she had vanished along with the woman's primary soul, what was I supposed to do?

Old Man Li had entrusted Qingting to me, and now that he was gone, how could I face him if I lost Qingting? Furthermore, the primary soul of Li Zheng's wife was also missing. If it wasn't found in time, she would die. If she died, things would surely blow up into a massive scandal, and I feared it would be difficult to clean up the mess, especially since she was currently lying on my bed.

Seeing the worried frown on my face, Wan'er comforted me, saying there was no need to panic and that she would accompany me to search for them tonight. Lacking any better options, I asked if we could go looking right now. She replied that we wouldn't find anything during the day; Qingting must have hidden away somewhere with the woman's primary soul.

I walked out of the room and told them that the woman's soul could not be retrieved right now, and we would have to perform the rituals to search for it at night. I caught myself thinking how wonderful it would be if I had Yin-Yang eyes right now. Unfortunately, I didn't. If I had Yin-Yang eyes, I could easily spot those things that shouldn't be seen.

Then I found it rather amusing—I had already quit the Yin-Yang realm, so why was I still yearning for Yin-Yang eyes?

Li Jun and the others were very obedient now and asked what my next move should be. After thinking for a moment, I instructed them to take the woman home first, promising that I would go out to search for the souls at night and deliver them immediately once found.

Li Zheng grabbed my hand tightly. "Little brother, you must bring the mother of my child back safely!"

I nodded in agreement. That went without saying. Not only did I need to find the woman's primary soul, but I also had to find Qingting, especially since I had promised to take her to visit Old Man Li.

Li Jun left with his older brother and sister-in-law, leaving me filled with melancholy. Scarcely had I returned home than misfortune struck, and now Qingting was missing.

With great difficulty, I waited until nightfall. Wan'er and I settled Wang Ying into the bed inside, gathered the equipment I needed, and set off toward Huangjiahe Village.

Along the way, because we were searching for Qingting's soul, we couldn't ride the Zijin Steed and had to travel on foot. In the pitch-black night, I held Wan'er's hand—or rather, she led me by the hand—as we pressed forward. To my eyes, the world was an impenetrable expanse of darkness, but Wan'er could see clearly. After searching for the better part of the night, Wan'er stopped in a mountain ravine.

"Wan'er, what's going on?" Seeing her intense, focused expression, I hurriedly asked.

"I can smell Qingting's scent, but I can't see her. Besides, there seem to be many ghosts gathered here," Wan'er said.

I was stunned, and a memory suddenly surfaced. Many years ago, this place was known as the Murder Ravine. The so-called Murder Ravine meant that countless people had been slaughtered here. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Chinese Eighth Route Army had trapped Japanese soldiers here and killed dozens of them, earning it the name Murder Ravine. Sometimes, travelers walking by at night would hear sounds of wailing ghosts and howling spirits. Could there really be ghosts here?

"Wan'er, are there really ghosts here?" I could only feel chilling gusts of wind blowing past, while seeing nothing at all. Unless a ghost manifested its form, ordinary people couldn't see them. Once they manifested, however, anyone could see them.

"There should be, and quite a few of them. Let's go in and take a look," Wan'er said, pulling me along as we stepped inside.

"Older brother, I see Qingting!" After rounding the mouth of the ravine, just as everything before me remained pitch black, Wan'er pointed in a certain direction and spoke. At that moment, I saw it too: tied to a tree over there was Qingting.

Good grief, Qingting had actually been tied up here. I rushed forward to untie her, and the little female ghost immediately burst into tears and threw herself into my arms.

"Don't cry, what happened?" I asked Qingting. Because she had manifested her form, I could see her, but I still couldn't see Li Zheng's wife.

"The Yang energy was too overwhelming at noon today, and the physical exertion was too much, so I passed out. When I woke up, I was already here," Qingting said.

"Who brought you here?"

"A group of Japanese ghosts. They wanted to enslave the two of us, but just as they tried, you arrived."

"It's alright, don't be afraid. I'm here!" Seeing Qingting's exhausted state, I had Wan'er safely store away Li Zheng's wife's primary soul, and we prepared to head back. Our top priority right now was not to punish these Japanese ghosts, but to send Li Zheng's wife's soul back first.

Noticing how utterly exhausted Qingting was, I bit my finger and gently placed it near her mouth, letting her drink a little of my blood to regain her strength.

"Older brother, look behind us." Just as Qingting was drinking my blood while walking forward, Wan'er nudged my arm and pointed backward.

When I turned around, I was nearly scared to death. Oh, sweet mother of mine! A whole group of ghosts was standing behind us—a pack of Japanese ghosts in tattered uniforms, caps tilted crookedly, with ashen-gray faces and drool dripping from the corners of their mouths. Some of them were even sucking on their fingers with a slurping sound.

It seemed my Yin-heavy blood had attracted them all out.

"What do you want?" I asked coldly, staring at the group of Japanese ghosts.

They didn't speak; instead, they fixed their greedy, hollow gazes entirely on my finger. Realizing these ghosts were after my blood, I quickly handed Qingting over to Wan'er and drew the Fengchi Sword with a swift *whoosh*. "Don't mess with me, and I won't mess with you!" With my current abilities, dealing with a few ghosts wasn't too difficult. Yet, one shouldn't indiscriminately slaughter innocent spirits. They had already paid the price for invading China by leaving their lives on this soil, unable to cross the Bridge of Helplessness or drink Meng Po's soup. They were pitiful enough as it was; if I were to scatter their souls completely, it would be rather inhumane.

However, they had no intention of backing down. Several ghosts leeringly crept closer toward Wan'er, drool dripping from their jaws, their eyes locked on us. It seemed that maintaining a peaceful coexistence was out of the question. Dammit, I had wanted to leave them alone, but it was clear now that I couldn't avoid a fight.

I raised the Fengchi divine blade in my hand and chanted a quick incantation. With a sharp flash, the sword's snowy aura illuminated the entire night sky.