Chapter 67: A Matter of Great Importance

No matter what I yearned for or desired, my wife always gave me more—perhaps without a word, perhaps inadvertently. In my childhood, she gave me a sense of security; as I grew older, she extended my life; and now, she guarded me every step of the way.

Acting as both wife and elder sister, she always managed to take care of me impeccably.

Yet I remained that same reckless child, daring to boast that I would gladly be shattered to pieces for her, while she had never once spoken of it, nor made any oaths or declarations of resolve to me. Without excessive explanations, she silently did everything I could not do, and always did it surpassingly well.

The dream had just ceased, but its echoes lingered endlessly.

I did not know what my wife-sister lacked, for she had never made any demands of me, whereas I only knew how to ask her to give me more. Whenever I encountered danger, she was always the first person I thought of, crying out to demand where she was now. When she manifested, my blood would surge, completely oblivious to the fact that she was always silently enduring the burden behind the scenes...

Could it be that the next time I crashed against a southern wall and broke my head bleeding, I would merely shout her name again and let her appear to clean up the mess for me?

The dried blood caked on my fingertips left me silent. I had to find a way to release my wife-sister from the soul urn, rather than merely waiting and expecting.

"What is going on with the Zhang family?"

There had been a missed call from Zhang Xiaofei among my logs, but I deliberately refrained from calling back, wanting instead to ask Jiang Han what had truly transpired.

The ghost general Jiang Han immediately fetched a prepared cup of tea and began writing rapidly on the floor to recount the process of what he had witnessed after going to the Zhang family.

It turned out that after Liu Fengyi was captured, she indeed suffered the agonizing torment of having her soul extracted and torn apart. The shrill, piercing ghost wails were so terrifying that even the living in the vicinity dared not approach. However, Liu Fengyi was not an ordinary malevolent spirit; she possessed spiritual intelligence and knew deeply that if she called the ghost child back, her fate would be far more horrifying than her current plight.

Therefore, despite being tortured in every imaginable way by the Zhang family, she had no intention of letting that ghost child emerge from Zhang Dafei's belly.

With the matter at an impasse, the Zhang family did not dare to perform a cesarean section to claim the child, for any such incision would trigger the ghost child's fury. Consequently, the situation had remained deadlocked.

Jiang Han had tried several times to rescue Liu Fengyi, but the external reinforcements hired by the opposing side were formidable indeed. He could only watch from afar, utterly lacking the capability to break in.

He was a strategist of considerable native intellect—otherwise, he would not have come seeking me out. This was already his fifth time coming to implore my help, of course, discounting the time I had spent sleeping.

"Seeing how you risked your life for your beloved, I won't make excessive demands of you either. While I can't guarantee I'll successfully rescue her, I promise I will do my utmost," I told him.

"If you give your utmost, the reward promised need not wait for another day; it can be fulfilled right now. If you require jade and jewels, they can be obtained instantly." Seeing me give a nod of assent, Jiang Han immediately wrote these words.

"Very well, you are certainly decisive. If you didn't already have a beloved to protect, I'd genuinely want to recruit you into my ranks to battle by my side." I felt that this ghost general possessed the same integrity he had in life—bold and willing to bear the consequences of his actions.

Jiang Han felt a slight stirring as well. After all, having witnessed the unblemished, pure vital essence I had forced out—a single drop of which could elevate one's power to the threshold of their current realm—how could anyone not be tempted?

Yet, the thought of Liu Fengyi instantly dispelled any notion of joining my ranks.

"Yin-yang eyes opened, is this matter settled?" Jiang Han wrote. Actually, he wrote without any punctuation, so I understood the end of his sentence to be a question.

Therefore, I nodded. "I only promise you that I will attempt the rescue with all my might under the premise of preserving my own life. As for whether she can actually be saved, that can only be left to fate."

Jiang Han gave a resolute nod and, without any hesitation, drifted forward.

Xijun bared her fangs and blocked my path, but I picked her up and set her aside. Song Wanyi, on the other hand, harbored no guard at all. She had known Jiang Han for quite some time, and she still trusted his integrity.

Possession by a ghost is extremely perilous; the slightest lapse in attention can result in the loss of bodily control. However, I harbored no such concern. With two ghost protectors of equal rank to the opponent, who had just been fed vital blood and possessed a formidable vigor incomparable to ordinary wandering spirits, and given that Jiang Han had drifted back and forth so many times that his stored energy was long since depleted, asking him to face either Xijun or Song Wanyi now—even in a desperate struggle—would leave his escape in question.

Even if a mishap occurred, Xijun and Wanyi could swiftly eliminate the adversary. Though my vital energy and blood would undoubtedly suffer a severe drain, my life would not be lost.

Furthermore, my wife-sister had issued no early warning, which meant Jiang Han remained trustworthy.

Jiang Han's possession was achieved with ease. Rendering his hand completely transparent, he passed directly into my body. He did not dare to seize control of my physical form, merely taking over the function of my eyes.

I felt my vision go completely black, rendering everything in front of me invisible. After the span of about a cup of tea, my sight finally recovered.

The moment my vision returned, I circulated my visual focus, and the world suddenly blossomed with vibrant colors. The wonder of the yin-yang eyes was their ability to perceive things previously invisible, including the unique energy emanating from ghosts.

Take Xijun, for instance: her body was suffused with a crimson energy field, flickering just like burning flames—quite a magnificent sight.

Song Wanyi, on the other hand, glowed with a cyan-blue hue, resembling water. Her energy was likewise formidable, appearing even denser than Xijun's.

As for the ghost general Jiang Han, although a faint green aura was still visible about him, he undeniably appeared frail and exhausted, his strength spent. Without needing him to engage in combat, a mere gust of wind would likely cause him to collapse completely. It was evident that over the past two days, he had truly depleted his vital energies, and opening the yin-yang eyes for me had pushed him to the very end of his tether.

I introspected and observed my own condition, discerning a layer of dark-blue energy circulating around my body as well. The energy was remarkably abundant. I did not understand why Zhao Qian had previously described it as pale blue, but what I saw now was evidently different.

Could it be because I had inherited not only the Daoist orthodoxy of the Ghost-Rearing Lineage, but also that of the Yin-Yang Family?

And what about the layer of golden light she had mentioned? I immediately looked behind my back, only to find the golden light so faint it was nearly imperceptible. Could it be that my wife-sister had returned to her dormant state?

It seemed that after imparting the orthodoxy to me, she had retreated to rest.

Seeing me constantly looking around, Song Wanyi wrote a few words for me to read. Upon finishing them, I hurriedly reined in my visual focus and closed the yin-yang eyes. Song Wanyi noted that the consumption of the yin-yang eyes was by no means negligible; given my current level of strength, I could not afford to use them recklessly at any moment.

I deduced that the differentiation of colors stemmed from the varying elemental attributes of the energy fields manifested by humans and ghosts, roughly corresponding to the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Whichever element the energy leaned toward dictated the resulting color.

Xijun burned with the passion of fire, hence her red hue; Wanyi possessed the gentleness of water, hence blue; while Jiang Han embodied the wood attribute through his green tint. Their elemental natures were relatively pure.

Only I was somewhat peculiar, registering as a deep-blue shade, presumably the byproduct of cross-breeding orthodoxies. I had no idea what attribute it represented, so I would have to ask Senior Brother later. Having just inherited the Ghost-Rearing Lineage's orthodoxy, there was no telling whether the convergence of two separate traditions might have triggered some unforeseen mutation.

Possessing yin-yang eyes was not enough; one had to understand arcane arts as well. Without methods to break spells and seals, everything else was idle talk.

I retrieved Senior Brother's pile of texts belonging to the Yin-Yang Family and spread them out one by one. There were fully a dozen of them—an unimaginably eclectic collection of traditions encompassing yin-yang astrometry, esoteric calculation, and various arcane and Daoist arts. The majority of the pages I flipped through consisted entirely of ancient script devoid of punctuation marks, save for two volumes dedicated specifically to ghost-script talismans. I picked out those two spell-and-art manuals and returned all the rest into Grandmother's chest.

The ghost mask still lay inside the chest, radiating an eerie and terrifying aura.

I closed the lid of the chest, went out to my car, and used a navigation map to locate the Xiaoxuanxuan Teahouse.

"Your matter will have to be postponed for a moment. I must first meet with my senior brother; perhaps we can use his prestige to resolve this conflict without bloodshed. If that fails, I shall devise another plan," I told Jiang Han, who was seated in the back row.

Although it was currently daytime, it did not heavily impact ghost entities like Jiang Han. Even if it felt uncomfortable, he would endure it until the matter reached its conclusion.

With no alternative, Jiang Han placed all his reliance on me.

The car quickly drove to the destination specified by the navigation system. I searched around the area, which belonged to the old district, but stubbornly failed to find the Xiaoxuanxuan Teahouse, leaving me no choice but to call Senior Brother.

After enduring a round of his scolding, he personally ran out to guide me in.

Only after we navigated half a circle and turned into a small alley did I find myself curling my lip in disdain upon finally spotting the Xiaoxuanxuan Teahouse.

The teahouse was difficult to locate, and there were very few people inside, though private compartments seemed to exist.

When Senior Brother led me in, only two tables of patrons occupied the outer area. One table seated four men and a woman, mostly in their fifties or sixties, alongside one person who appeared to be in their seventies or eighties. Some of these individuals radiated a healthy glow, while others had complexions starkly devoid of color, or possessed piercingly bright gazes; none of them were ordinary.

Senior Brother was naturally no exception in this gathering. Despite his mediocre appearance, he possessed a distinct duck-like honking voice.

I glanced toward the other table, where only two people sat, and felt a jolt of surprise upon scanning them—they were acquaintances.

Lin Feiyu and Wang Cheng.

Lin Feiyu could be discounted; he was an old acquaintance with whom I had previously joined forces to combat Wu Zhenghua, forging a bond of life and death.

Wang Cheng, however, was far from friendly. I had previously exorcised the malevolent spirit haunting his son in the morgue, yet he still harbored hostility toward me due to my association with the Zhao family faction. Coupled with the recent release of Zhao He, the mere sight of me prompted him to emit a cold hum of displeasure.

Presumably unwilling to share a table with me, he had taken a table of his own. As for Lin Feiyu, it went without saying that he was surely there to smooth things over on my behalf, or Wang Cheng would have turned hostile on the spot.

I chose to ignore Wang Cheng. If I were to provoke his high blood pressure and land him back in the hospital, the Wang family would undoubtedly fight me to the death.

"Elder Lin, Elder Wang, esteemed seniors," I greeted them with a smile. Aside from Wang Cheng, the others returned courteous smiles and hurriedly motioned for me to take a seat.

"Old fellows! This is the junior brother I've been telling you about—Xia Yitian! Ha ha! Ha ha ha!" Senior Brother was overjoyed, grabbing me by the arm to pull me down beside him before roaring with laughter as he introduced me, paying no heed to the expressions of those opposite us.

"Good, young and promising. The orthodoxy of the Yin-Yang Family has finally found a proper successor," the oldest and thinnest elder among them nodded and spoke first, evidently holding the greatest authority at the table.

"Old Li, you must look out for him from now on! He is my junior brother, not some casual disciple or grand-disciple!" Senior Brother immediately declared, before turning to introduce him to me: "This is Li Ruizhong, of the West City Li family."

Upon hearing the name of the Li family, a hidden shock rippled through me. No wonder Senior Brother had claimed this was a major affair; he had not deceived me.