"For some reason, I felt restless tonight."
"To shake off that feeling, I decided to cover Brother Tang's shift in the cold storage room for the night, because I'd found it easy to feel calm there."
"Before leaving, I brought some incense, candles, and offerings. After all, someone else would be sharing the same roof with me tonight."
"What had happened to Old Wang and Qian Xiaomei had made me pay more attention to these things."
"I did feel much better after entering the cold storage room. Perhaps it had something to do with the temperature."
"Near midnight, I started feeling cold. Adjusting the air conditioner did nothing, and even turning it off didn't help."
"So I looked toward the room housing the refrigerated cabinets. Could its door have been left open, letting the cold air escape?"
"But when I went over, things weren't quite as I'd imagined. The door was firmly shut, yet I did feel colder as I approached."
"Worried that something was wrong with the cabinets, I hurriedly opened the door and went inside."
"The moment I entered, I saw water spreading across the floor. It was coming from the refrigerated cabinets!"
"In the early hours of the morning, I drowned in that room."
He glanced at the time.
23:51
Nine minutes left!
Chen Miao didn't dwell on why the book hadn't changed earlier, when he and Tang Rui had opened the cabinet together.
There clearly wasn't time to consider that now.
He pushed open the door to the cabinet room.
There was no water on the floor.
Without wasting time setting up a table, Chen Miao placed the incense burner and other offerings directly on the floor beneath Li Shilei's cabinet door.
Two minutes had passed.
Opening the book, Chen Miao didn't check whether the second chapter had changed again.
Right now, there was only one thing he needed to do.
Burn incense!
After taking the four Incense Sticks from the items page, Chen Miao pulled out his matches and lit them.
By the time he had fanned out the flames and smoke rose from the Incense Sticks, it was 23:55.
Five minutes left. Chen Miao relaxed a little.
He rose, bowed, and planted the incense!
This time, Chen Miao didn't wait for the Incense Sticks to burn out as he had with Old Wang.
With only five minutes left, he wasn't sure whether unfinished incense would work, so he could only try another method.
The words he had been memorizing over the past few days surfaced in his mind.
The twins had drowned, which counted as an accidental death, so he should use the "Resolving Grievances with Jiangzhen Incantation": recite it while offering incense to someone who died an unnatural death—through an accident, murder, a traffic collision, and so on—to dispel the departed soul's resentment.
Chen Miao immediately began reciting in a low voice.
"Let the aggrieved soul's obsession now disperse..."
As soon as he began the incantation, the glowing tips of the four Incense Sticks suddenly brightened.
The change steadied Chen Miao's heart a little.
He composed himself and continued reciting!
"Let Jiangzhen's pure fragrance deliver your spirit..."
The Incense Sticks burned visibly faster.
"Resolve injustice, dissolve resentment, dispel karmic burdens..."
The smoke from the half-burned Incense Sticks suddenly gathered from every corner of the room, encircling Chen Miao.
Shrouded in smoke that obscured his face, Chen Miao recited the final line.
"Be reborn in the Eastern Pole Court of Eternal Joy!"
As he completed the "Resolving Grievances with Jiangzhen Incantation," even the final note of Chen Miao's voice took on an ethereal quality.
At that very moment, the four Incense Sticks rapidly burned away.
The sudden burst of smoke mingled with the smoke swirling around Chen Miao, and all of it streamed into Li Shilei's cabinet.
There were no screams, nor any banging.
Only a little water seeped through the cabinet's seams.
Chen Miao desperately wanted to see what had happened to Li Shilei inside, but instead of opening the door, he took out the book and turned to the second chapter.
The contents had changed.
"..."
"Near midnight, I started feeling cold. Adjusting the air conditioner did nothing, and even turning it off didn't help."
"I looked toward the room housing the refrigerated cabinets. Could its door have been left open, letting the cold air escape?"
"Just as I was about to check, I remembered the offerings I'd brought."
"It might be improper to disturb someone so abruptly."
"So I brought the incense, candles, and offerings over with me."
"The cabinet room's door wasn't open. I'd been overthinking it, but I did feel colder as I approached."
"Worried that something was wrong with the cabinets, I hurriedly opened the door and went inside. Finding no equipment problems, I breathed a sigh of relief."
"Perhaps the weather had simply turned colder, and it had nothing to do with the cold storage room."
"Since I was there anyway, I set out the offerings for the one sharing my roof and lit four sticks of fine incense. Just as I was about to leave, I remembered how the deceased had died."
"Drowning was a pitiful fate, so I recited an incantation for her, though I'd forgotten where I had learned it."
"Something miraculous happened. The Incense Sticks burned away in an instant, and all the incense smoke streamed into the refrigerated cabinet!"
"I didn't know whether this was normal, so I hurried away after finishing the recitation."
"I wasn't sure whether I was imagining it, but the temperature in the cold storage room seemed to have returned to normal."
"In the early hours of the following morning, I drowned in bed."
Chen Miao's face stiffened as he read that final sentence.
Would he still die tomorrow night?
And not in the cold storage room, but in his dormitory?
So the "Resolving Grievances with Jiangzhen Incantation" hadn't worked at all!
No, impossible!
Even if the "Resolving Grievances with Jiangzhen Incantation" hadn't worked, the four Incense Sticks redeemed from the book couldn't have been useless too.
Besides, those miraculous phenomena certainly hadn't looked like nothing had happened.
His thoughts tangled, Chen Miao immediately sat cross-legged on the floor to sort through what had happened.
He entered the iceheart state!
First, the Incense Sticks and the "Resolving Grievances with Jiangzhen Incantation" definitely took effect. Otherwise, the book's contents wouldn't have changed.
But my death didn't change. It was merely delayed by a day.
I still drowned. The method of killing was the same, which means the same thing probably killed me. That would still tie it to the girl in this cabinet.
In that case, there seems to be only one explanation I can deduce: the Incense Sticks and the "Resolving Grievances with Jiangzhen Incantation" weren't powerful enough to destroy that thing completely, allowing it to reappear the following day!
If that's true, would waiting until tomorrow to do the same thing still fail to solve the problem, merely pushing my death back another day?
I only have two qian of yin virtue left, enough to redeem eight Incense Sticks. If this keeps up, my death is only a matter of time.
So even if I'm going to keep trying to deliver the soul, I shouldn't wait until tomorrow. I should do it now and press the advantage!
If one dose wasn't enough, I'll give it another!
Chen Miao turned the book to the redemption page.
Four Incense Sticks appeared on the page, but Chen Miao didn't reach for them. He placed the book on the floor and stood up.
Since he was no longer in danger tonight, whatever he did should be safe.
Walking to the cabinet, he released the latch.
Clack...
He pulled out the tray.
Chen Miao wanted to see exactly what had changed about Li Shilei!
As the tray slid slowly outward, Chen Miao saw the first half of Li Shirui's face emerge, along with her open, hollow eyes, utterly devoid of focus!
Chen Miao's heart stopped for an instant.
For a moment, he thought the book had lied to him.
Only after sensation returned to his rigid body, with nothing happening, did he realize he had merely frightened himself.
He let out a long breath and looked away.
Chen Miao had no desire to investigate why her eyes had opened.
Ghosts existed. What was so strange about open eyes?
He pulled out the tray, leaving half the girl's body exposed.
After observing her for a while, Chen Miao didn't push her back into the cabinet.
He moved the incense burner up from the floor and placed it beside her head, preparing to perform the next round of offerings just like this.
Perhaps being closer would make it more effective.
This time, however, Chen Miao no longer bowed.
Courtesy first, force afterward.
The courtesies were over.
He lit the incense and planted it.
Once smoke began rising again, Chen Miao started a new recitation.
This time, instead of the "Resolving Grievances with Jiangzhen Incantation," he used a different incantation.
"Descending the True Evil-Subduing Incantation": when evil spirits cause trouble or yin energy clings to you, hold Jiangzhen Incense to drive out evil and subdue malevolent forces!
Inside the Yin-Yang Divination Shop.
Zhong Fa frowned at the burned-up Yin-Gathering Talisman on Li Shirui's chest.
"Why did this happen?"
Just now, as he watched the yin energy gathered by the Yin-Gathering Talisman stream into the Heart-Linked Talisman, a scorching power had suddenly surged out of the Heart-Linked Talisman.
That power seemed to have treated the yin energy as a fuse, igniting the Yin-Gathering Talisman directly!
Zhong Fa had never encountered anything like it.
"Did something happen at the Tianmen Funeral Home?"
Zhong Fa stared at the talisman's ashes, pondering.
As far as he knew, the Tianmen Funeral Home had no members of the Yin Gate like him.
"Did I misjudge things?"
Zhong Fa recalled Qian Xiaomei.
Perhaps only one person had died that time not because Qian Xiaomei's resentment had been insufficient, but because someone had stopped her, just as they had this time.
With that thought, Zhong Fa decided against taking out the remaining Yin-Gathering Talismans.
He planned to visit the Tianmen Funeral Home tomorrow and find out which fellow practitioner was interfering.
Only by knowing both himself and his opponent could he keep his methods from being thwarted.
Thinking this, Zhong Fa prepared to remove the Heart-Linked Talisman from Li Shirui's mouth first.
He had taken only two steps when his nose twitched twice.
"Incense smoke?"
Zhong Fa frowned. Something felt wrong.
The incense smoke from the offering table in the living room shouldn't have been this strong in the side room. There was something wrong with this scent.
Sensing trouble, Zhong Fa immediately reached toward Li Shirui's mouth.
But just then, he saw great billows of smoke pour out of her mouth.
The instant he touched the smoke, his fingers felt as though they had touched a branding iron.
He jerked his hand back and staggered several steps away.
At that moment, he paid no attention to his hand. His eyes remained fixed on the smoke pouring out of Li Shirui's mouth.
Suddenly, Zhong Fa seemed to hear something.
He took two steps forward.
The faint sound gradually grew clearer.
"Radiant and blazing, the sun rises in the east... where Jiangzhen burns, myriad ghosts bow and hide... any who dare transgress shall turn to dust and frost... with one sweep of divine might, ill fortune is subdued forever!"
Before Zhong Fa could make out exactly what the indistinct voice was reciting, the smoke suddenly reversed direction and streamed into Li Shirui's body.
A hissing sound rang out.
In an instant, the yin energy lingering on Li Shirui's corpse dissipated completely.
Amid his horror, Zhong Fa saw the little smoke that remained drift out of the side room toward the bedroom.
His expression changed, and he immediately rushed out after it.
But before he had run more than a few steps, he heard a miserable howl.
Pfft!
A mouthful of blood sprayed onto the floor outside the bedroom door.
Zhong Fa's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the floor.
Before you continue