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Chapter 50: Taking the Soul
Xu Yuan went back to his room to sleep. After waiting for a while, he listened carefully. There was no sound from his stepmother's side, so she must have fallen asleep. So he quietly got up and slipped out of the yard.

Lin Wanmo stood behind the bed and watched.

There was deep worry in his eyes: How audacious!

Her first reaction was to go out, grab the boy by the scruff of the neck, and drag him back.

But after a change of mind, I decided not to do it.

Xu Yuan left the yard and headed straight for the east entrance of the alley, knocking gently on the door: "Uncle Mao."

Uncle Mao was clearly still awake. He asked in a muffled voice, "Who is it?"

"My fourth uncle is me, Xu Yuan."

Uncle Mao opened the door, and just as Xu Yuan was about to go in, he found a chisel flashing with a cold light pressing against his forehead.

Uncle Mao quickly put the chisel back and said, "It's really you, kid. I thought it was some evil spirit trying to trick me into opening the door by knocking on the door."

Xu Yuan chuckled and walked in: "If the evil spirit uses this method to trick you into opening the door, it will really be courting death."

Uncle Mao closed the door and scolded him, "It's the middle of the night. Why are you running around instead of staying home and sleeping? It's too dangerous."

Xu Yuan said, "I'd like to ask Fourth Uncle for a favor. Lin Wanmo and I just killed someone..."

Uncle Mao glared: "You have to call me mother!"

Xu Yuan curled his lips: "Okay, okay, let's go quickly. If we're any later, I'm afraid my soul will be taken away."

Uncle Mao asked, "Who was killed?"

Xu Yuan: "I just don't know who it is, so I need your help to interrogate the soul."

Uncle Mao was a little hesitant. It was not that he was unwilling to help, but he was worried that Xu Yuan would be involved in danger.

Xu Yuan begged, "Fourth Uncle, you've loved me the most since I was a child. When I was three or four years old, you let me ride on your neck and go to the temple fair."

Fourth Uncle Mao hummed, "It's weird. Every time you ride on my neck, you pee all over it. If it were Uncle Shen or your father, it would be fine..."

Xu Yuan's old face flushed, and he said, "It means that you and I are the closest."

Uncle Mao's face, which was full of sorrow, broke into a smile. He took a few carpentry tools and said, "Let's go."

A moment later, the two men came back, and Uncle Mao was holding a ghost in his hand, which was the "Ghost Ding Money".

Uncle Mao is a spiritual cultivator.

After entering the house, Uncle Mao lit the oil lamp, then blew gently towards the lamp. With a whoosh, the originally orange-red flame turned dark blue.

The whole cabin was filled with gloom and coldness.

Uncle Mao held the ghost in his hand and looked at the light - Lao Qian's ghost had a cold expression on his face, and he didn't seem to care at all about what he had encountered.

Uncle Mao shook his head and said, "Don't ask. This kind of soul is very rare. No matter how much you torture it, it won't say anything."

Xu Yuan nodded: "Then let's do as you say, Fourth Uncle. I just want to know who is behind him."

Uncle Mao nodded, rubbed the ghost's fingers together, and Lao Qian's soul shattered. His vast life memories turned into countless "fragments" and "pictures".

Then it quickly dissipated.

No one can capture such a huge yet fragmented "picture" at the same time.

Uncle Mao just made a quick judgment, then waved his hands and grabbed a few of the closest fragments.

Then show it to Xu Yuan.

Xu Yuan saw a large back garden.

I saw Lao Qian diligently refining ghost souls and making ghost soldiers.

I saw Lao Qian going to Qilipu.

I saw Lao Qian in a remote row of houses. He cooked his own dinner and then went straight to Hegong Lane after eating.

"That's enough." Xu Yuan said.

I have roughly seen where the old money comes from.

Xu Yuan thanked Uncle Mao and said, "I'll go back first."

Uncle Mao waved his hand to disperse all the remaining souls: "I'll take you back."

"It's just such a short distance..."

Uncle Mao didn't give him any explanation, grabbed his arm and sent him back home. Xu Yuan carefully returned to the house, and listened to his stepmother's silence. She must have not noticed his little action, so he took off his clothes and went to sleep.

……

Uncle Mao came back from sending someone off and just walked to the door when he suddenly realized something. He turned around and found Lin Wanmo standing beside him.

Uncle Mao grinned, feeling a little embarrassed.

After all, I just helped Xu Yuan do something without telling Xiao Mo.

Lin Wanmo did have some complaints about him, with a stern face, but he wasn't here to accuse him: "Mr. Shen wants everyone to come over."

Uncle Mao nodded and followed Lin Wanmo to Uncle Shen's house.

There is a well at the corner.

As the two men passed by, something crawled out of the well, suddenly opened a pair of blood-red eyes - then quickly closed them, loosened its claws, and fell back into the well with a plop.

The two of them didn't bother to pay attention.

When I got to Uncle Shen's place, Aunt Wang was there as expected.

Uncle Shen was leaning against the bed, smoking his pipe. When he saw the two men come in, he said, "Everyone is here, let's get started."

Lin Wanmo rushed to say, "Master, let me ask you something first."

Then he turned to Uncle Mao and asked, "Did you help Xu Yuan get the soul of that divine cultivator just now?"

Fourth Uncle Mao hummed, thinking to himself, "Yuan boy, it's not that I won't help you hide it. You're afraid of your stepmother, and I'm a little afraid of this fierce little girl too..."

Uncle Mao explained the situation, and Lin Wanmo's eyebrows stood up: "He wants to..."

Uncle Shen waved his hand and said, "It's the same thing we're going to discuss next."

Lin Wanmo stopped talking and sat back with his arms folded.

Uncle Shen said, "Someone from the Extermination Bureau just came and wanted to have Yuan join the Extermination Bureau. This is a big deal, and I, an old man, dare not make the decision on my own, so I asked everyone to come and discuss it together."

Aunt Wang kept shaking her head, her head almost flying off: "It's too dangerous, I don't agree!"

Fourth Uncle Mao hesitated and said, "Boy Yuan's life cultivation and pill cultivation were not inherited from our alley."

Aunt Wang glared: "What do you mean?"

"Since he didn't inherit our legacy, he can actually be considered not a member of our alley. He has a chance to jump out..."

"You don't treat Ayuan as your own!" Aunt Wang was really angry.

Fourth Uncle Mao stepped back a bit. "When did I stop treating him as one of my own? I mean, what's so good about being a member of this alley? We've been trapped here for generations. It's risky, but this is an opportunity for Yuan. The Exorcism Department is actually a good place. If he can get an official position in the future, he can completely escape his status as a criminal in Hegong Alley."

Aunt Wang snorted coldly, "That's easy for you to say. With our status, what good future can we have if we join the Extermination Bureau?"

Uncle Mao didn't argue with her, as he had already made his thoughts clear.

"Uncle Shen," Aunt Wang asked, "what do you think?"

Uncle Shen puffed away on his cigarette. Aunt Wang waved her hand to disperse the smoke drifting towards Lin Wanmo: "You're suffocating the child—why don't you say something?"

Uncle Shen stopped smoking. "When Ma Tianshou first brought it up, I subconsciously refused. But after thinking about it carefully, since Ayuan has become a life cultivator...it seems to be God's will. I have to give it a try."

What he said was vague and unclear, but everyone present understood what he meant by "give it a try".

Lin Wanmo blurted out, "I asked him to go to Qihetai Town to keep him away from family matters, not to let him shoulder such a heavy burden! I actually didn't expect him to become a life cultivator at all!"

Uncle Shen sighed and said, "What a coincidence, Yuan boy succeeded."

Everyone fell silent.

Xu Yuan's trip to Qihetai Town was actually arranged by Xu Huanyang before his death.

Lin Wanmo is just an executor.

Could a few grains of "old year's grain" really attract June bugs to the vast Ghost Witch Mountain? Xu Huanyang probably didn't expect this to work.

But it just happened to be such a coincidence.

It is inevitable to remind people of...the Xu family's "destiny"!
After a while, Mr. Shen spoke again: "Two people support, two people oppose, then it's still the old rules:
Please let the elders decide."

All three of them nodded.

　Asking for a monthly ticket!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)