Quick Travel to the Clouds

Chapter 462 Ghost Catcher 23

Yun Chu held the compass, the needle trembling wildly. "Master Wang, Captain Liu, I sense two auras within the tomb: one is the escaping dark shadow of the vengeful spirit, and the other is... the remaining wisp of Chen Hao's soul. After being corrupted by evil thoughts, part of his consciousness became the 'bait' that guides the way."

Liu Huajun nodded and ordered the special police team to guard the perimeter, and only took Yun Chu, Wang Lao and two assistants into the tomb.

The tomb passage is narrow, damp and has a pungent stench.

Under the flashlight, the tomb wall was engraved with twisted runes - it turned out to be an incomplete "Soul Casting" formation diagram!

Elder Wang stroked the inscribed mark, a cold glint in his eyes. "Sure enough! This technique requires the integration of three items: the Soul-Suppressing Incense Burner, the Bone-Burial Base, and the Coin-Accepting Seal. The Tang family used this technique to amass ill-gotten gains, but it backfired and wiped out the entire family."

Deep in the main tomb chamber, the scene was horrifying: a half-human, half-beast monster (about two meters tall, with limbs like dead branches and a head like a swollen skull) made of resentment and bone fragments was lying on the sarcophagus.

Rusty ancient coins were scattered inside the coffin, and in the center was a dark gold coin with the word "Tang" on it, flashing an evil light.

The monster sensed the intruder, let out a tearing scream, and pounced!

"Back off!" Yun Chu raised his hand and threw out a red rope and copper coin formation, trapping the monster for a moment.

Old Wang pinched his fingers and chanted an incantation, and the talisman turned into a net of fire that burned away the resentment.

Liu Huajun was quick-eyed and quick-handed, shooting the "Tang" coin held by the monster - that was the key medium for the fusion of evil creatures.

The monster wailed and dispersed, but the remaining resentment surged towards Yun Chu like a tide!

At the critical moment, the unconscious Chen Hao regained consciousness (resonance of the living soul), and he shouted: "Grandpa... stop! The sins of the Tang family... are enough!" This confession mixed with blood ties actually suppressed the vengeful spirit for a short time.

Yun Chu took the opportunity to use the talisman to lock the core of the resentment like a cage.

A few days later, black shadows and corpses appeared and were killed by Old Wang and Yun Chu.

After the dust settled, clues converged and the truth surfaced:

1. The root cause of the Tang family’s extermination: 40 years ago, in order to monopolize wealth, the Tang family’s shopkeeper secretly learned the evil Nanyang magic of “casting souls into coins”.

This technique requires extracting the soul of a living person and sealing it in an incense burner (called the "soul"), burying the corpse in an extremely cold place as a "base" (called the "bones"), and then using special coins as a "seal" to carry the power.

On the night of the massacre, the magic went out of control and the resentment backfired on all 23 members of the family.

The only surviving old shopkeeper (Grandpa Chen Hao) hid the secret map, and before his death, his obsession was still not over, so he engraved the secret into the family tree.

2. Chen Hao's Fall: Chen Hao accidentally discovered the secret text of the family tree. Bewitched by the power of the "Soul-Forging Coin", he believed that reappearing the evil creature could control the lost wealth of the Tang family.

He stole the incense burner and pried open the jade seal, and used the Tang family's "bone burial map" to find the base of the mass grave.

But the vengeful spirit had already eroded his mind, turning him into a tool for transporting "corpses".

3. The nature of the evil object: After analyzing the remaining coins and incense burner data, Wang Lao confirmed that the "Soul Casting Coin" is a resentment amplifier:

The incense burner imprisons the resentful souls and provides energy, the corpse base stabilizes the shape, and the coins serve as the medium of control.

Once complete, it can deceive people and cause them to commit self-harm (such as the Jinxiu Huating case), recreating the tragedy of the Tang family's annihilation.

Case aftermath:

Physical ending: Wang Lao's team used Taoist magic to purify the mass grave, and the incense burner was melted and resealed; Chen Hao regained consciousness under Yun Chu's rune treatment and was prosecuted for tomb robbery and assisting in evil magic, but a mental evaluation showed that some of his actions were controlled by external evil, and his sentence was lighter.

Characters' Destiny: Liu Huajun reports the truth to his superiors, and the Tang family case is filed as a "supernatural criminal case," forbidding public dissemination to prevent future instances. Yun Chu quietly departs, leaving behind a message: "Resentment is easy to dispel, but the human heart is hard to seal. Science and metaphysics both hold the key to solving the mystery."

A few months later, Liu Huajun visited Chen Hao in prison, who burst into tears: "If wealth is stained with blood, it will eventually become shackles... Grandpa was wrong, and I was wrong too." In the setting sun, the fragments of the incense burner were displayed in the evidence room of the police station, silent as history.

The fire of resentment ignited by greed will eventually burn the hand holding the torch. And light comes from the courage to face darkness.

***

Three years later, City B, Qixiaju

Over the past three years, this place has become a quiet and holy place in the Xuanmen of City B, without any noise.

The courtyard is deep and filled with spiritual energy. Several spiritual plants cultivated by Yun Chu himself are breathing in the morning light.

Yun Chu stood quietly in the corridor. He was wearing a modified moon-white Taoist robe that made him look more elegant and refined. The ghost bell on his waist did not move at all, as if it were an ordinary ornament.

The dangerous accident at the mass grave in the west of the city three years ago completely solved the hidden dangers of the Lin Chao and Tang family's evil creatures, but it also gave her a deeper understanding of power and cause and effect.

In the past three years, she is no longer the young and immature master who is eager for revenge and presses forward step by step, but the "Master Yun" with a solid foundation and increasingly sophisticated methods.

Fame brings more complicated people and things.

Some sincerely seek guidance, some plot secret techniques, and some harbor tentative hopes. She uses her strength as a barrier and rules as a guide, remaining aloof from the world, accepting only those she approves of and saving only those she recognizes.

The ambition to "steal business from the male protagonist" has been restrained into a calmness as strong as a mountain, and the goal remains firm - to complete the system tasks, accumulate strength, and finally settle the old debt with Fang Jie (Master Lin Chao).

Yun Chu has been investigating Fang Jie for three years but has never been able to find his whereabouts. This person is very good at hiding his traces.

I don’t know if it’s because I have too many enemies or for some other reason.

An inconspicuous dark red talisman on the desk suddenly ignited without wind, turning into a wisp of green smoke, which condensed into a few tiny words:

Report from the underworld·Class C warning: City C·Mingguang District·Huaiyin Road Apartment·Midnight resentment gathering·Quick reinforcement·Li Pan.

It was a message from her "old friend" in the underworld - Judge Li.

"Class C Warning" usually means that evil spirits have appeared and are hurting people, and the situation is at risk of spreading or getting out of control. The power of the underworld is inconvenient to handle in the world of the living, and requires the assistance of a powerful heavenly master.

"Mingguang District, Huaiyin Road..." Yun Chu's fingertips brushed across the table...

Yun Chu was preparing to go to City C. After nightfall, Yun Chu passed through Yinsi Road and arrived at City C in just over ten minutes.

The city's magnetic field carries a distinctly uncoordinated, stagnant feeling. An invisible fatigue and anxiety hangs in the air, not simply the pressure of a fast-paced life, but rather a general malaise resulting from a slight erosion of yang energy.

At midnight, Huaiyin Road was filled with gloomy air, the dim light of the street lamps was swallowed by the thick fog, and the air was as thick as ink.

Yun Chu stood at the entrance of the alley, his spiritual awareness spreading out like a tide, instantly locking onto the target - a vengeful little girl in tattered clothes floating in the corner of an apartment building.

The figure was illusory but full of resentment, his eyes were as empty as deep wells, and a hint of struggle could be seen. It was obvious that he had no intention of doing evil.

Yun Chu lightly moved, her moon-white Taoist robe rippling in the night breeze. She formed a seal with her sleeve and whispered, "Stop!"

Three golden talismans flew out of the air, forming a triangular net that trapped the girl like a cage.

The girl curled up inside, whimpering heart-wrenchingly, like a wail and a plea for mercy.

Yun Chu's expression softened, but he didn't relax: "Before I save you, let me see your karma."