Pottery Making

It was already getting late when we returned to the residential compound, but Yu Xiaoxue was still watching TV and waiting for us.

I turned on the lights in the yard, carried a pile of pottery-making tools to the open ground, put on my gloves, and began diluting and sifting the clay.

Yu Xiaoxue and Zhao Qian both came over, turning into a pair of curious babies as they watched what I was doing.

"I'm making a teapot." That was the answer I gave them. If I said I was making an urn, they would probably run away.

A Soul Urn for raising ghosts didn't need to be very large. Something flat and round, about the size of a palm, would do. It could even be made to look like a hot-water flask. The key, however, was that the pattern had to be drawn accurately, and it also needed the spell core of a talisman.

Without a spell core, a Soul Urn was useless. It couldn't summon ghosts or spirits.

Selecting and preparing the clay took another hour. Yu Xiaoxue found it boring just watching, but Zhao Qian knew that I had obtained these things at the risk of my life. There was no way I was merely making a teapot.

I switched on the pottery wheel, put on plastic gloves, and began shaping the rough form. Unfortunately, I failed to control the wheel's speed. The moment I applied force with my hands, the shape collapsed into a lump.

"This mud smells kind of bad. Is it from a fish pond?" Yu Xiaoxue asked, pinching her nose.

"Heh heh." I said nothing and continued fiddling with it according to the pottery-making methods I had seen on television. If I told her it contained the blood and chunks of corpses, she would probably be scared unconscious.

Zhao Qian knew where my yin soil had come from. The smell of rotten fish had drifted from the place where I had dug it up. She hadn't known that when we went there, which was understandable. But if she still didn't realize it now, she would truly be an idiot. There had definitely been corpses buried there.

I continued making round bowls, but unfortunately, I failed to shape them three or four times in a row. I had even lowered my standards—so long as I could make something recognizable, crooked and twisted was fine.

The strange thing was that they couldn't even hold their shape.

My hands had grown so cold they were trembling. The yin soil contained resentment and writhed wildly as if it possessed a mind of its own. That was why I kept failing.

"Brother Tian... why don't you let me try? I'm pretty good with my hands." As Yu Xiaoxue spoke, she moved closer and stared at the crimson, foul-smelling mud.

Then, while I was still fiddling with it, she stuck her hand into the bucket holding the clay!

"Don't touch it!" I shouted immediately and tried to pull her back, but it was already too late. Yu Xiaoxue had plunged her hand into the soil, and her skin immediately turned pale.

"It's fun!" Yu Xiaoxue said happily as she kneaded and squeezed it, leaving me completely flustered.

She took the clay, shoved me aside, seized my place at the wheel, and began fiddling with it.

"You all behave, okay? Turn into a teapot for me!" As Yu Xiaoxue spoke, her slender fingers shaped the clay into all kinds of forms. With only a few movements, the vessel I had been completely unable to shape seemed to come alive in her hands and formed itself!

I slapped my forehead. It seemed I truly had no talent for pottery.

"Snow, don't you feel cold?" I asked. Yu Xiaoxue had touched the clay without anything going wrong. She even seemed to enjoy it. I was curious, since I felt awful even while wearing gloves.

"No. It just feels cool and refreshing. It's pretty fun." As she spoke, Yu Xiaoxue took some clay and sawdust, applying them as she worked. This was to keep the finished pieces from cracking during firing, and it was clear she was very practiced.

"You've played with this stuff before?" I asked. It seemed I couldn't touch these things because the yin energy in me was too heavy, while Yu Xiaoxue and Zhao Qian had no problem with them.

"I have. My teacher taught us a little before, and I made things with the others for fun. Later, when adults built houses and fired bricks, we put them in too. It just wasn't as convenient as this." Yu Xiaoxue explained.

"Oh, I see." I understood. People really did have areas they excelled in and areas they didn't.

Grandma's yin energy was actually quite heavy too. Otherwise, she couldn't have inherited the tradition of ghost-raising. So if she had needed to make pottery urns, she probably would have needed someone else to do it for her as well.

"All right. Make several more just like that for me, and remember to make the lids too." I had been foolishly thinking I needed to do everything myself. Since Yu Xiaoxue was clever as ice and snow, I might as well let her handle it.

"I still have to fire and dry them, then carve something on them." After plugging in the electric kiln, I put the two finished urns inside and set them to dry at a low temperature.

While waiting for them to bake, I picked up the white plaster figurines I had bought from a street vendor and tried carving some more advanced runes onto them.

I carved several complicated runes, but every one came out crooked and twisted. My knife often slipped or punched straight through. Even when I was lucky enough to finish one, it looked like a dog had gnawed it. Could this really work?

My heart was doused with cold water. Was this different from drawing talismans? Just how clumsy were my hands?

The crazed me nearly smashed the wretched things, but Zhao Qian picked up one of the plaster figures. The carving knife danced through several beautiful sword flowers in her hand, and with a few gorgeous, casual strokes, she directly copied one of the spells I had completed only after sweating buckets!

At once, tears streamed down my face. Are my hands really that clumsy?

With a few more swishes, Zhao Qian completed another rune and held the plaster figure out in front of me. "Qian, is it okay if I draw it like this?"

"Mm, not bad. It's quite proper. Though it lacks the liveliness of mine, well, since Xiaoxue has already taken over the pottery, I can't favor one of you over the other, can I? You can handle the talismans. Oh, right, I need to teach you a few spell-core incantations. Remember them carefully. While carving, you'll also need to burn incense, burn paper offerings, and chant." I nodded and praised the girl in a very mature tone.

"Oh." Zhao Qian lowered her head and chuckled, looking at me with an expression that was exceptionally lovely.

Without blushing or missing a beat, I took out Grandma's book, pointed out several incantations, then showed her where to draw them and taught her the spell-core incantations.

Zhao Qian recorded everything very seriously and began practicing on the plaster figures. What chilled me was that she needed only a dozen minutes to draw them quite well.

One or two spells would have been understandable, but when a whole mass of incantations was crammed together, their connections and difficulty became clear. I had practiced before too, but I had never drawn them as effortlessly as she did. When it came to carving, I was certainly inferior to her.

I wondered how good she was at making talismans. Later, I would teach her a few advanced talismans and see what happened. Maybe she could make those just as easily.

People often spoke of wealth, magic, companions, and land. Companions were a crucial part of it. If they were interested, I wanted to train both of them into experts. That way, I could abandon the idea of crafting things myself and become a behind-the-scenes coordinator and supporter, while their manual skills could beat me to death over and over.

Complete Soul Urns soon appeared in their hands. Their quality was even better than the ones Grandma had made. Combined with the runes I had selected, they would certainly be enough to raise Xijun.

According to the records in Grandma's book, these runes and this method of manufacture were considered bottom-tier, suitable only for slightly powerful vengeful ghosts. Still, I was very satisfied with this quality. If we had sufficient resources in the future, perhaps they could even make Soul Urns for ghost kings. Of course, that was impossible for now.

When the sixth Soul Urn was finished, all the clay had been used up. The six rough forms were identical. I carried them into the electric kiln as carefully as if they were treasures.

I switched it on, set the temperature and the time for the power to cut off, and only then breathed a sigh of relief. If we were lucky, one or two might succeed by tomorrow morning. Soul Urns bearing talismans didn't have a very high success rate. Far too many things were involved.

I checked my phone. It was half past twelve, so I prepared to drive Zhao Qian to the Zhao Family estate.

"It's about time. Get ready, and bring along everything that might be useful. We're heading to the estate now. Tonight is the final night of keeping vigil. Tomorrow, we'll send the old man up the mountain." I felt the spot between my brows twitch involuntarily. Something would definitely go wrong on the final night. Otherwise, Zhao Qian's second uncle wouldn't let the matter rest—he still hadn't obtained what he wanted.

"Mm, Qian understands." Zhao Qian's expression was somewhat downcast as she looked at me, unsure what to do.

"Zhao Qian, don't worry. If those two old bastards behave themselves tonight, your Brother Tian will let them jump around for two more days. But if they dare make a move tonight, I'll kill them on the spot!" Thinking of how Zhao Qian had nearly died in the hospital the previous night, I ground my teeth in fury.

"Wow, Brother Tian, you're so fierce!" Yu Xiaoxue grabbed my hand and gazed at me with sparkling eyes full of admiration.

"Hmph, of course." I folded my arms and looked up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle.

"Brother Tian... thank you." Zhao Qian's face immediately flushed. She looked at me with deep emotion, as though men were supposed to be like this, and the gloom in her eyes vanished.

Feeling that I had put on enough of an act, I hurried into the car and told Yu Xiaoxue to sleep properly at home. No matter what, she wasn't to sleep on the sofa tonight. If she was afraid, she should call Han Shanshan and ask her to come over and sleep with her.

The feng shui of Zhao Qian's house was quite good. She kept a fixed-star compass in the safe, and ordinary powerful ghosts wouldn't dare approach.

After all, I had my own considerations. When it came to surveying terrain and intimidating powerful ghosts, it had its advantages, but in a real fight, someone like Xijun was still necessary. This thing wasn't meant for driving out ghosts.

This time, Zhao Qian brought her coin sword, peachwood sword, and bell. She had packed a whole suitcase of items. Although she wasn't the one keeping the main vigil, she certainly wouldn't sit around helplessly like she had the previous night.

Once the car started, Zhao Qian took the passenger seat.

Seeing that Zhao Qian's emotions had stabilized, my mood improved considerably as well. I felt that no matter what difficulties we encountered tonight, we could solve them step by step.

But just after the car drove out of the gate, Zhao Qian's phone rang. She lightly furrowed her brows. "It's Dad's."

"Answer it and see. He's probably asking when you'll arrive at the estate." Seeing her worry, I comforted her.

"Dad, it's me." Zhao Qian nodded.

But after that, Zhao Qian fell silent. After a while, her face gradually turned pale.

Something had happened. I knew it from Zhao Qian's expression. Zhao Xi wouldn't call his daughter for no reason, but once he did, it was undoubtedly something serious—perhaps something ordinary people couldn't accept.