Chapter 116: Refining Souls with Nine Corpses

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Xiao Qingwan frowned and looked around. “There must be more than one grave mound here! There are others!”

I carried the iron shovel to the side, parted the grass, and searched. Sure enough, there were more grave mounds—just like the first one, small and without tombstones.

“There’s one here!” Gao Sheng called from the other side.

“There’s one here too!” Zhang Haozi shouted.

I quickly dug it open. Inside was another rotting coffin. When I pried off the lid, I found another decayed corpse of a young girl, dressed in a red summer dress that had itself already begun to rot.

By the time I finished digging, everyone had found seven more grave mounds. Together with the two we had opened, there were nine in all. They had been arranged in a deliberate pattern, with Li Song’er’s grave in the middle and the other eight surrounding it. The graves likely contained the corpses of young girls as well.

This was more than enough to call the police. Nine times out of ten, these girls had all been reported “missing.”

The task of calling the police was left to Uncle Wei. I had dug open two graves in succession and was exhausted, so I squatted down to rest. Looking at Li Song’er’s corpse in her red winter dress, I felt an indescribable ache and sorrow. She had been only eight years old—how could anyone have brought themselves to do such a thing? No wonder her cries had been so heartbroken. She had treasured that embroidered ball so deeply and insisted on taking it back at any cost. It must have been something precious to her.

The thought of the embroidered ball suddenly reminded me of something. I turned to Gao Shan and asked, “Where did you find that embroidered ball?”

“I don’t know. A-Hua was the one who found it,” he said.

“Someone’s here!” Uncle Wei suddenly cried.

She immediately ran toward a certain direction and darted into the trees.

Before I could react, Xiao Qingwan had already chased after her. Gao Sheng quickly followed as well.

I stood there, iron shovel in hand, stunned by how quickly they had reacted. Even Su Yi ran after them.

Seeing Tu’e and Zhang Haozi preparing to give chase too, I said, “Don’t go. Let’s stay here and keep watch.”

With so many people, was there really any need to worry about being unable to subdue that person? Besides, if everyone left, no one would be watching this place. It would be troublesome if anything unexpected happened.

I glanced at the arrangement of the grave mounds and asked Tu’e, “Does this arrangement mean anything? How are they refining ghosts?”

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“I don’t know,” Tu’e said.

His answer was both honest and direct, delivered without the slightest hesitation.

He tilted his head, as though thinking hard, then added, “It does seem vaguely familiar… I think it’s called the Nine-Corpse Soul Refining Art. It wasn’t a sorcery passed down from ancient times. I think someone invented it himself. Strange—I can’t remember. Who was it that created it?”

“Who created it isn’t important. What purpose do the arrangement of the graves and the girls in the coffins serve?” I asked.

Tu’e frowned, apparently still trying to recall. After thinking for a while, he finally gave up.

He examined the surrounding layout and the two child corpses we had dug up. “This place is saturated with yin energy. It is already an ideal site for nourishing yin and cultivating ghosts. The eight surrounding graves are meant to gather sinister yin energy and create an absolutely yin site, providing nourishment for the central subject. The reason they chose young girls is that young girls possess especially heavy yin energy. Moreover, all of them were wearing red when they died. Dying in red is a grave taboo—their baleful energy would be at its strongest, and death would inevitably turn them into ghosts. I suspect they were buried alive. Their resentment could never be appeased, and their grievances would reach the heavens. This grave itself is a yin grave!”

If Tu’e had not pointed it out, I would not have noticed that both corpses were dressed in red. In other words, Li Song’er, buried in the middle, was the true subject. The others were merely “nourishment” used to create the proper environment for her.

Why did this method feel so similar to the bone-burial ghost refinement we had encountered before? The victims were children again, and there was likewise only one true subject. But this time, the technique was clearly more advanced. Li Song’er’s ghost could speak and weep, and she possessed a consciousness of her own.

I stared at the coffin and pondered for a while before stepping forward to examine it. It was an entirely ordinary coffin, with nothing unusual about it. I told myself I had simply been overthinking things. The method of ghost refinement was only somewhat similar; that did not necessarily mean the two were connected.

“Ah!” Xiao Qingwan’s cry drifted from far away.

I jolted and turned toward the sound. What had happened? Could that person really be too much for even Uncle Wei to handle?

“Not good! There’s something there!” Tu’e immediately ran toward the source of the voice and vanished into the woods.

Zhang Haozi started to follow, but when he saw me standing motionless, with no intention of chasing after them, he asked in confusion, “Aren’t you going?”

“They have the ability and the skill. I wouldn’t be able to help even if I went. I might as well wait here,” I said.

“But what if they can’t defeat it?” Zhang Haozi asked.

“If even Tu’e can’t defeat it, there’s nothing we could do by going over.”

Zhang Haozi paused, then said, “You should still go and take a look. I’ll keep watch here.”

When had this fellow become so eager to help? On the bus earlier, he had acted as though he had never seen a ghost before. Now he dared to guard nine yin graves all by himself?

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I said nothing and looked up at him.

He gazed at me in silence, then suddenly sighed. “It would be better if you went after them. Why are you so incapable of taking a hint?”

Someone who could torment me to death would certainly not be a coward. All this time, he had merely been putting on an act. Had he finally reached the point where he could no longer keep pretending?

I calmly asked, “What does this have to do with you? Are you involved as well?”

He gave a contemptuous laugh. “If I were involved, would I have let you find this place? I merely discovered that someone was refining ghosts and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. I searched for this place for a long time, only for you to find it first. I have no wish to make things difficult for anyone. Go after them now and pretend you know nothing. All I want are the little ghosts in these eight graves, along with that little red-clad girl ghost. It doesn’t conflict with what you’re here to do.”

I reached into my pocket. “Want a cigarette? I don’t usually smoke, but I happened to bring a pack.”

“Don’t try to stall for time. You have considerable potential, but unfortunately, you’ve only trained in the art of exorcism. You’re no match for me. Think carefully. If you leave now and pretend you know nothing, you can spare yourself some suffering,” he said.

I withdrew my hand, uninterested. “We each take what we need, and our goals don’t conflict. It sounds harmless enough. But why do you want to take them?”

“That’s none of your concern. Once you’ve thought it through, leave,” he said, already growing impatient.

“You’re already a third-year student. If you usually spend your time studying honestly, what use could you possibly have for these little ghosts?” I asked.

He let out a cold laugh. “You really are new to this. Do you think that whenever I go out, I’m doing odd jobs for pocket money? It seems you truly have no intention of leaving.”

“These girls are pitiful enough as it is. They suffered horrible deaths, and I cannot bear to see them controlled and exploited even after death,” I said.

“So you’ve chosen to suffer,” he replied.

He waved both hands and began muttering an incantation. Several Mao Lang creatures flew out and struck toward me.

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