Lin Chen opened his Sea of Consciousness and gathered his Spiritual Sense.
The power of his soul was already incomparable to what it had been before.
He was absolutely certain that the figure before him was He Yiliang.
"I died... so... miserably..."
As the figure drew closer, its eerie, hollow voice rang in Lin Chen's ears.
The sound made every hair on his body stand on end.
"I wasn't the one who killed you. Why are you coming after me?"
Lin Chen shouted and turned to run.
He was genuinely scared!
It had nothing to do with cultivation. This fear came from the memories of his soul in his previous life.
"I hurt so much... I'm so cold... Help me..."
With a shout, Lin Chen shoved open the door, rushed into his room, and threw himself onto the bed.
He flipped up the covers and burrowed underneath.
"It hurts so much... I'm so cold... Save me..."
Who could have guessed that the voice would come from under the covers?
Lin Chen opened his eyes and immediately saw He Yiliang's soul staring at him from beneath the covers.
"Ghost!"
Lin Chen shrieked. Reacting instinctively, he began circulating the Soul Forging Art and unleashed his Spiritual Sense, slamming it straight into the ghost.
This time, the ghost let out a wail and vanished from beneath the covers.
Lin Chen blinked, looked at his fist, then threw off the covers and sat up.
"Right! I've opened my Sea of Consciousness and gathered my Spiritual Sense. What the hell do I have to be afraid of a ghost for?"
Once he realized that, his courage surged.
He jumped out of bed and rushed outside.
He immediately saw He Yiliang's ghost plastered against the wall he had just been facing.
It writhed in pain, its form much dimmer than before.
Judging by the look of it, it had been hurt and was close to vanishing completely.
"Am I really that strong?"
Lin Chen could hardly believe it. He looked at his fist again, then nervously walked over to the wall.
"You dead ghost, why are you haunting me?"
As if he had heard Lin Chen, He Yiliang's ghost stopped writhing and slowly knelt down.
"Help me..."
His voice was hollow, as though it came from another world.
"We're not related. Why should I help you? You're not trying to trick me so you can possess my body, are you?"
At Lin Chen's words, He Yiliang's ghost raised his head.
His gaze gradually came into focus. At last, he sighed. "Lin Chen, we're in the same boat. Are you really going to watch me be left to rot in the wilderness?"
"You can finally talk properly?"
Lin Chen waved his fist and glared at him. "Speak. Why did you come to scare me in the middle of the night? What are you after?"
He wasn't about to believe a ghost.
He Yiliang stood there, stunned for quite a while. Seeing that Lin Chen wouldn't be swayed, his expression turned vicious.
"Lin Chen, what happened to me will happen to you. We're both grasshoppers tied to the same rope. Neither of us can escape."
A threat!
Lin Chen narrowed his eyes slightly, stepped forward, and reached out to grab him.
With his Spiritual Sense reinforcing his hand, he actually managed to seize He Yiliang's ghost.
"You..."
A look of terror appeared in He Yiliang's eyes. "You can grab me?"
"Heh, heh, heh!"
"Why wouldn't I be able to?" Lin Chen had finally figured it out. Ghosts weren't all that frightening after all.
He could grab one and beat it all the same.
Seeing He Yiliang's shocked expression, Lin Chen sneered. "You were the one who hooked that Iron Box from the deep pool onto my fishing line, weren't you?
"You carefully plotted everything, step by step, to bring things to this point. What exactly are you trying to do?"
Lin Chen saw no panic in He Yiliang's eyes.
Instead, after hearing his questions, the ghost calmed down.
"Lin Chen, I admit I did all this to get your attention. But I can swear to the Heavenly Dao that everything I've told you is true."
He Yiliang's ghost grew even more translucent. "I probably don't have much time left. That Iron Box contains proof that my entire He Family was wiped out. I'm leaving it to you..."
"Wait!"
Seeing that the man was about to turn into specks of light and disappear, Lin Chen changed his mind. "How do I save you?"
He had only been testing him, and the result was clear: He Yiliang hadn't lied.
Besides, the man had already met with disaster.
Would he be next?
A sense of danger welled up inside him.
Ever since he began cultivating the Soul Forging Art, he hadn't seen those Purple Eyes again.
He had thought the problem was solved.
Now it seemed that wasn't the case at all.
That made He Yiliang's ghost crucial. Lin Chen absolutely couldn't let him die.
"My body is beneath the Heavy Mountain Path. It was sucked into a cave entrance. Inside, there's..."
Before He Yiliang could finish, he could hold on no longer. He turned into a cloud of light and flew back into the Mirror inside the Iron Box.
Lin Chen hurried over. He could still sense fluctuations of soul power inside.
The man probably wasn't quite dead yet.
Lin Chen breathed a little easier and left the Iron Box and Mirror out to bask in the moonlight.
He also took out the Iron Box from his own family and opened it on the table.
Then he watched the Token and Envelope.
He waited a long time, but nothing changed.
"No use!"
Lin Chen felt a little disheartened.
He took out the black Iron Box from Lord Qin's Treasure Vault as well.
When he had first obtained the Iron Box, it had contained ten Spirit Stones and a Hairpin.
He opened that one too and placed it beneath the moonlight.
To his delight, the ordinary-looking Hairpin began to glow with tiny specks of light.
The Hairpin, Mirror, and Token. These three items had to represent something.
Though they had looked utterly ordinary, they now shimmered beneath the moonlight.
They definitely weren't ordinary objects.
Lin Chen even suspected that the Iron Box from Lord Qin's Treasure Vault had been stolen from someone else's home.
There was no way to find out whose home it had come from now.
"He Yiliang should know, right?"
Lin Chen pondered. "We've already found three families that were attacked. This matter is getting more and more complicated."
Lin Chen lay back in his chair and slowly drifted off to sleep.
He slept soundly that night.
The Iron Boxes on the table glowed the entire time.
Even the dragons and phoenixes carved on them seemed to come alive.
As he slept, faint beams of light rose from the three Iron Boxes and intertwined in midair.
They shimmered like stars, forming what looked like an incomplete map...
Lin Chen knew nothing about it.
He had no idea that the Cloth Rabbit at his waist had climbed onto the table while he slept.
Basking in the glow, it sparkled.
It was as if it were charging up.
The next morning, when Lin Chen opened his eyes, he saw Third Senior Brother Qi Ruming sitting at the table, examining the three Iron Boxes.
"Third Senior Brother, why are you up so early?" Lin Chen asked, rubbing his eyes and yawning.
Qi Ruming wasn't his usual joking self. He nodded, his expression grave.
"Little Junior Brother, where did you get these three boxes?"
At the question, Lin Chen sat up and looked toward the boxes on the table.
"Third Senior Brother, one of them belonged to my family, another to the He Family, and I don't know whose family the last one came from."
Lin Chen answered honestly, then asked in surprise, "Third Senior Brother, do you recognize these boxes?"
If anyone knew where these Iron Boxes came from, it would save him a great deal of time investigating and keep him from going down the wrong path.
Besides, he really wanted to know what these boxes meant.
Unexpectedly, Third Senior Brother shook his head, brows furrowed. "I don't recognize them."
Lin Chen wasn't surprised by that answer.
But Qi Ruming continued, "They're crafted so seamlessly, so flawlessly, that even the carvings are completely identical. The smithing skill behind them is definitely superior to mine."
Qi Ruming assessed them from a craftsman's perspective.
"More importantly, these Iron Boxes look simple, but they're full of hidden intricacies. They have a double layer inside."
"What?"
Lin Chen hurried to his feet and went to the table. "Third Senior Brother, can you open it?
"This Iron Box is connected to the massacre of my family."
Before you continue