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Wen Wan shook her head and said dejectedly, "But I don't dare go near them. They'll eat me."

Wandering ghosts and stray spirits grew stronger by devouring other ghosts. Vengeful Ghosts with powerful soul force could even command other ghosts to serve them. So unless necessary, a ghost usually would not approach other ghosts. Wen Wan had been a kind person in life. After death, she had never harmed anyone, much less devoured other wandering ghosts or spirits. Her soul force was actually very weak, so it was only natural that she did not dare approach other ghosts.

"It's all right." Feng Yang gently reassured her. "I'll ask."

As Feng Yang spoke, he raised his right hand. The Vengeful Ghost Talisman in his palm released a wave of soul force, summoning all the wandering ghosts hiding nearby. Wen Wan stared at him in astonishment. "You can actually command ghosts? Who exactly are you?"

Feng Yang did not answer Wen Wan's question. He merely asked the wandering ghosts around him whether they knew where the human traffickers had gone. Among them were Earthbound Spirits that ignored worldly affairs and only knew how to repeat their deaths over and over, as well as Grudge Spirits that had only recently transformed into low-level Vengeful Ghosts and were utterly impossible to communicate with.

The only one able to provide Feng Yang with a clue was an old man. As he recalled, the traffickers had left at noon in a van with fake plates. There had been three unconscious little girls in the vehicle, and they had headed toward Peach Blossom Village.

"Do you remember the license plate number?" Feng Yang pressed.

The old ghost shook his head. He had only glanced at it casually; how could he possibly remember the plate number? Still, there was indeed a way he could help Feng Yang.

After hesitating for a moment, the old ghost suddenly charged into Feng Yang's body. Feng Yang felt his whole body shudder, and an image of the traffickers driving away abruptly appeared in his mind. The next second, the old ghost left Feng Yang's body, his entire spirit form noticeably dimmer.

Possession and spirit communication consumed a great deal of soul force, especially for low-level ghosts. If they encountered someone with a particularly strong fate, they could even be forcibly driven out of the host's body. Feng Yang also bore the soul-force talisman left behind by a Vengeful Ghost as retaliation. After possessing him for only a few seconds, the old ghost had nearly been scattered by the Vengeful Ghost Talisman.

Feng Yang hurriedly extended his right hand and transferred some soul force to help stabilize the old ghost's spirit form. Then he asked, "Is there any wish you have yet to fulfill?"

The old ghost shook his head. "I had no children, no family, no property. I was alone and destitute all my life. What unfulfilled wishes could I possibly have?"

He simply felt that the children abducted by traffickers were too pitiful. He had no family of his own, yet he did not want to see other happy, harmonious families destroyed. Nor did he want to see young girls, lovely as flowers, have their lives ruined by traffickers. Hearts were made of flesh. Even if they had become ghosts, they had once been human.

Feng Yang looked at the old ghost. If he truly had no lingering attachments, he should have returned to the Underworld immediately after death to await reincarnation, rather than remaining in the human world year after year as a wandering ghost.

Feng Yang changed his approach. "Then do you have any regrets in this life?"

The old ghost fell silent for a moment before slowly speaking. He said that when he was young, he had been irresponsible. He abandoned his pregnant wife and ran away with another woman. Later, when he could no longer make a living elsewhere, he thought of returning to find his first wife. Only after coming back did he learn that, after finding out he had run off with someone else, she had chased after him to the train station while heavily pregnant. On the way, she was struck by a car, killing both mother and child.

From then on, the old ghost had begged near the train station. He felt guilty toward his wife and child. He could not even allow himself to live peacefully. He anonymously donated all the money he earned collecting scraps to children in impoverished mountain areas so they could attend school. As for himself, he rummaged through trash cans and restaurant slop buckets for food.

The old ghost slowly said, "...Near the train station, there was a little eatery run by a young couple from Warm Prefecture. They were especially kind. When they saw an old man like me begging around all alone, they would cook a couple of dishes for me whenever they weren't busy, so I could have a better meal. Later, the young owner's wife got pregnant and gave birth to a big, chubby boy. That child was fair and plump, especially adorable. He was smart, too. Before he was even two, he could talk. He even called me Grandpa. The couple treasured that child like the apple of their eye. They had planned to take him back to their hometown for the New Year..."

But the child was forcibly snatched away by traffickers right outside the train station. The traffickers had driven a van without plates, gotten out, and grabbed the child. Before the couple could react, they could only watch helplessly as the traffickers carried their son away and sped off in the van. There was no way to catch them.

They called the police afterward, and the traffickers were eventually caught. But the child was never found. Apparently, he had been sold from one person to another, and no one knew where he had ended up. Unable to bear the shock, the young owner's wife went insane. The young owner took his mad wife everywhere in search of their son. Just like that, a perfectly good family fell apart.

The old ghost let out a long sigh. "That winter was especially cold. Back then, A City's train station was nowhere near as grand as it is now. In winter, it didn't even have heating. I froze to death on New Year's Eve that winter."

Before he died, the old man listened to the endless firecrackers and felt that Heaven was too unfair. He had committed sins in his youth, so it was understandable that he would come to no good end. But why did that young couple, so honest and kind, receive no good fortune either?

"If we're talking about regrets, it's probably that I was a bastard when I was young and caused my wife and child to die together. I left no descendants, and after I died, no one burned paper offerings for me. I brought it all upon myself. But when I see other ghosts being worshipped by their families, it hurts. I just hope someone can burn some paper offerings for me too, so I can enjoy a little incense.

"And then there's that young couple. I don't know whether they ever found their child after all these years. If the boy is still alive, he should be eleven or twelve by now. He'd be in elementary school."

The old ghost could not let it go. "That child was especially adorable. He even called me Grandpa. I always feel that if my own child hadn't died, they would have been just as adorable."

So the old ghost's wishes were to receive incense offerings once and to find the child who had been snatched away by traffickers.

Feng Yang wrote down the old ghost's wishes in his notebook. The second wish would not be easy to fulfill. But as for receiving incense offerings...

Feng Yang closed his notebook and asked the nearby shopkeepers where he could buy joss paper and incense candles. A group of wandering ghosts followed behind him, all staring at him eagerly, hoping to tag along for a filling meal.