Mysterious Resurrection: What If

Chapter 118 Clues to Antiques

"You, move this thing to the warehouse. You guys, put these in Brother Leg's office."

Yang Jian walked up, looked at the objects covered with burlap on the ground, and patted the person in front of him on the shoulder.

“Ah Wei.”

Zhang Wei turned around and saw that it was Yang Jian, and his face immediately lit up with joy.

"Leg Bro! I was just about to call you!"

"Wei, when did you become so diligent?"

Yang Jian casually lifted a corner of the burlap sack, revealing a pile of bluish-white bottles and jars underneath. These objects looked quite similar to the soul bottles he had seen in Dajing City.

A strange look flashed in his eyes. Logically speaking, these things should only be available through Wandelu.

Zhang Wei stood with his hands on his hips, displaying an expression that seemed perfectly natural.

"Sigh, I've been silent for over a decade, just waiting for an opportunity. It's not to prove how great I am, but to tell everyone that I will definitely take back what I've lost!"

Yang Jian casually picked up a porcelain bottle, and the ghostly shadow silently covered it. He didn't sense anything unusual; it was just an ordinary handicraft.

What have you lost?

Zhang Wei was stunned for a moment, speechless, then said stiffly, "Never mind that, I'm going to get it back."

"Awei! You're causing trouble again! These things are all for General Manager Yang!"

Just then, the rapid sound of high heels approached from afar, and Zhang Liqin jogged over, her name tag on her chest swaying with the waves.

She was clearly taken aback when she saw Yang Jian, and blurted out, "Yang Jian?"

Realizing her lapse in composure, she blushed and quickly changed her words, saying, "Mr. Yang, when did you get back?"

"last night."

Yang Jian pointed to the soul bottles on the ground and asked, "Where did these things come from?"

Zhang Liqin quickly opened the folder in her hand; she was very professional and immediately got into work mode. Since she was in the position of secretary, she believed that she should do her job well.

"Mr. Yang, Wan Delu came to see you a few days ago when you were on a business trip. He said he had made a new discovery. However, you were not in the company at the time, so I received him and briefly learned about the situation."

"Okay." Yang Jian walked ahead and entered the elevator.

"go on."

Yang Jian recalled that the clues to the Soul Bottle had been traced back to Luo Wensong's grandson, Luo Yong, before they went cold. At that time, Yang Jian had given Luo Yong a sum of money.

Zhang Liqin quickly followed and pressed the button for the top floor, which was Yang Jian's private office.

She continued, "According to Wan Delu, there are many prototypes for these bottles, the earliest of which can be traced back to the Song Dynasty."

"Song Dynasty?"

"Yes." Zhang Liqin nodded.

"That's exactly what he said. Those bottles were all replicas he collected from various places. He investigated a lot of historical records and consulted several experts. The prototype of this soul bottle did indeed become popular in the Song Dynasty."

The elevator moved quickly, reaching the top floor in less than a minute. Yang Jian walked to his desk and sat down. The desk was very clean, even though Yang Jian didn't come here often. Yang Jian pondered the information about the Soul Bottle. He had asked Wan Delu to investigate it, but the lead on the Soul Bottle went cold, and Yang Jian's focus shifted to Luo Wensong. As a result, the follow-up to the Soul Bottle was shelved, and Yang Jian had almost forgotten about it.

But to everyone's surprise, Wan Delu continued his investigation and actually found something out.

"continue."

Zhang Liqin handed Yang Jian several sheets of paper containing numerous relevant records and documents.

"He said that the soul bottle you encountered, Mr. Yang, and the ones you found later, were all imitations from the Republican era. These soul bottles were popular in some folk ghost and spirit legends during the Republican era."

"Legends of ghosts and gods?"

Yang Jian looked at the information in his hand, which contained a record about the Soul Bottle.

“In some ancient tombs, two bottles would be placed next to the coffin to house the soul of the deceased, hence the name ‘soul bottle’.”

"But the soul bottle is no longer used in modern burial culture, and has been used for other purposes instead."

"During the Republic of China period, some practitioners in the feng shui or fortune-telling industry believed that soul bottles could imprison some wandering ghosts, and in their jargon, soul bottles had the function of eliminating the resentment of evil spirits."

"Eliminate the resentment of evil spirits?..."

Yang Jian recalled the soul bottle he had broken at Zhongshan Airport in Dajing City.

The Soul Bottle's exterior is merely a disguise, meant to conceal the golden bottle inside. The true imprisonment of the vengeful spirit is actually gold.

Clues gradually began to piece together in my mind.

"Perhaps it was someone who worked in the feng shui or fortune-telling industry during the Republic of China era who, by chance, became a ghost tamer and incorporated his professional habits into the methods of imprisoning evil spirits."

It was the Republic of China again.
Yang Jian's eyes showed a hint of solemnity. Most of the supernatural items he possessed were closely related to the Republic of China era.

The old house in Guanjiang Residential Area, the woodcutter's knife, the ghost dream, the black fire, even his own cousin...
What exactly happened during that era...?
As a result, all the ghost tamers who could create those terrifying and supernatural items went into seclusion. Even if a being of the level of Ghost Painting were to fully unleash its power, Yang Jian did not believe that it would be enough to make an entire generation of ghost tamers disappear.

"puzzle?"

Yang Jian then thought of another possibility.

"If we reason backwards, all the ghosts I've encountered so far are just incomplete pieces of a puzzle..."

"Whether it's a ghost painting or a starving ghost, even if it's highly complete, it still lacks certain crucial pieces of the supernatural puzzle... Could it be that every single vengeful ghost that people faced during the Republic of China era was in its complete form...?"

Yang Jian got up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the desolate city.

"That makes sense. A vengeful ghost with complete supernatural abilities might be even more terrifying than a ghost painting. Once it reaches a certain number, even if every ghost tamer in the Republic of China era was as strong as Elder Qin, they would definitely not be able to stop it."

"So they had no choice but to settle for second best, dismembering the vengeful ghost into jigsaw puzzle pieces, but that was the limit of what they could do."

Of course, this is just Yang Jian's speculation. He knows too little about the Republic of China and can only deduce some reasonable explanations from some fragmentary information.

Seeing Yang Jian frowning in thought, Zhang Liqin didn't interrupt him, but simply stared at his profile. Her eyes remained fixed on Yang Jian, lost in thought.

Zhang Wei crept up to him and said in a lewd tone, "Your expression is so lewd. Do you have some ulterior motives towards Brother Leg?"

"Awei! Don't talk nonsense!" Zhang Liqin's face immediately turned bright red as she covered her face and said, "My relationship with General Manager Yang is purely that of superior and subordinate!"

(End of this chapter)