I have a ghost diary

At this point, the old man fell into a reverie.

“In my early years, I traveled around, exorcising ghosts and evil spirits. In the process, I saved quite a few people.”

“There was once a scholar who had no money and nothing to thank me, but he insisted on giving me an ancient book that had been collected by his ancestors.”

"This ancient book expounds some theories related to the power of incense and prayer. It also mentions that this power can help people maintain their humanity."

"But there is a major premise: only the dead can enjoy the power of incense and prayers; the living are not qualified."

"After obtaining the ancient book, I thought it over and over again, and finally decided to try it according to the method given in it, although I was not sure if I could succeed."

"The first step is to have a family ancestral hall with a history of at least ten years, and to have incense burning continuously every year."

"The second step: build a shrine for the living person, so that people of the same clan, lineage and bloodline can worship him. This should be done for at least ten years, the longer the better."

"The third step: death. After death, the body is transported back to the ancestral hall and, through a special ritual, the deceased is transformed into a ghost, a true vengeful ghost."

"At this point, without further measures, it will only create a disaster."

"This requires the final step, which is also the most important and crucial step: calling back the soul."

"The so-called 'calling back the soul' is to have a close relative bring back the humanity of the deceased."

"As long as humanity can be restored, it is equivalent to the person being temporarily resurrected. Moreover, due to the blessing of incense and spiritual power, this temporarily restored humanity can be maintained indefinitely, as long as the incense continues in future generations."

After hearing this method, Chu Jiang was amazed. He felt that words like "genius," "eccentric genius," and "prodigy" were insufficient to describe this person. Could a human possibly come up with such a method? And it seemed that it could actually succeed.

The old man continued, "We knew long ago that only the power of ghosts can fight against ghosts."

"Have you ever thought about why the power of incense and prayer can be used to maintain humanity and prevent it from being extinguished?"

Before Chu Jiang could answer, the old man continued, "I speculate that every living person has the potential to become a ghost, and the power of a ghost comes from the thoughts they had in their previous life."

"Of course, this speculation cannot solve a problem: some ghosts clearly do not have the concept of 'previous life'. Let's assume for now that they were entrusted with 'thoughts' by someone before they became ghosts."

"Just like the sealing containers we use, many of them are old objects from the past."

"Wait a minute," Chu Jiang said, somewhat confused. "What do you mean by 'old objects'?"

In Chu Jiang's understanding, sealing a container is almost the same as sealing a pottery jar.

But upon closer inspection, both the pottery jar and the amulet were mass-produced items developed by Research Institute No. 21.

So what kind of containers did the ancient demon slayers use to seal demons?

The old man smiled, a rare occurrence. "I almost forgot, it seems you're all using some kind of jar to contain ghosts these days. Those jars must have been created by your research institute with the help of some ghost's power."

“Back in our time, all old objects were natural seals, and the older they were, the better they were, such as various antiques.”

"Nextly, there are items that embody profound human emotions. For example, heirlooms of loved ones; amulets worn since childhood, etc. In short, the emotions must be deep and not easily dissipated."

"Finally, we'll talk about the various items created using the power of demons."

"Of course, for large organizations, the most convenient and suitable method for mass production will definitely be chosen."

Chu Jiang nodded repeatedly, realizing there was such a saying. He thought, "The 21st Research Institute should know about this."

However, the research institute is very cunning. They don't say anything about it at all, and even mention in the newcomer's manual that ordinary ghost masters and ordinary forces cannot create sealing items, and it is recommended to join the research institute to obtain them.

This isn't exactly a lie, but it's a word game.

Its fundamental purpose is probably to control folk sorcerers.

The old man got back to the main point, "So essentially, the power of incense and the power of ghosts come from the same source, only they manifest in different ways."

"Of course, this is just my speculation, and I dare not presume to say it is the truth."

“Our Lin family is considered a large family in Luohe, so naturally we have an ancestral hall.”

"Moreover, when I acquired the ancient books, I was already quite famous in the area and had an absolute say in the clan. So the matter of building the shrine went very smoothly."

“I not only set up memorial tablets for myself, but also for my son and his wives; even as soon as my grandson and granddaughter were born and their names were chosen, I would place the memorial tablets in the ancestral hall.”

Chapter 180 Sinking into Dreams

Chu Jiang felt somewhat ashamed upon hearing this; indeed, one needed to have some prestige, otherwise the people in the clan would probably not agree at all.

The old man continued in a low voice: "So, when our Lin family was wiped out, everyone actually met the conditions for resurrection."

“Only my wife, her situation is too special, she is half dead and half alive, half human and half ghost, so this method cannot be used at all.”

"And my son, he actually died earlier than everyone else, and he died suddenly from an illness."

“After my son died, I tried to resurrect him, but that attempt failed.”

"To be precise, I failed at the step of 'calling back the soul.' I couldn't bring back his humanity, and he completely became a vengeful ghost devoid of humanity."

"Having no other choice, I had to seal away my own son."

"That failure was very frustrating. I realized that this method wasn't 100% successful."

"So later, after that paranormal event happened, I actually didn't have much confidence; I was even very hesitant about whether or not to do it?"

"In the end, I decided to try resurrecting one more person."

"This person is Xu Lan, also known as the fifth concubine of the Lin family."

"The procedure was exactly the same as before, but the soul-calling went very smoothly. I only called out once, and Xu Lan's humanity returned."

"But Xu Lan seems to have lost part of her memory. She doesn't know that she is dead, and she is still a little confused when she sees herself in the ancestral hall."

Overjoyed, I told her the truth myself.

"But to everyone's surprise, Xu Lan was terrified and could hardly accept that she was dead. This doubt even shook her humanity, allowing her ghostly nature to take over."

"So, I had no choice but to use a special method to erase a small part of her memory, so that she would forget about this incident and return to the state she was in when she first woke up."

"In short, although there are flaws, at least it was a success."

"I made up a lie and told Xu Lan to rest in the backyard of the ancestral hall first, and then I started to resurrect the second person."

"Perhaps it's because I left such a deep impression on the younger generation that they were all afraid of me, which is why they succeeded one after another."

"The reason they were only resurrected when they were the two youngest might be because their memorial tablets hadn't been worshipped long enough, so both of them were a bit unstable."

“Especially the youngest, Xinghe, who struggled repeatedly between humanity and demonic nature after his resurrection.”

"It took me a long time to get this little kid back to normal after I took care of him alone."

"It seems that the fortune teller was right all along; the youngest grandson will face many hardships. That's why I listened to him and deliberately saved the character '和' (harmony) from the phrase '天和风雨顺' (heaven and wind are favorable) for this little one last time."

"In short, the way of incense and prayer is not only subject to harsh conditions for implementation, but also has its own shortcomings."

"After I resurrected my family members, I didn't dare tell them the truth."

"Moreover, during the first ten years after their resurrection, they could not leave the ancestral hall and had to stay there to continue receiving offerings and consolidate their power."

"Taking advantage of this opportunity, I built the ghost realm world we are in now based on these special ghosts who carry ghosts within them."

"This is the idea I mentioned earlier: to use the Lin family as nails to suppress all the evil spirits!"

"Correspondingly, even after the first ten years, the Lin family will not be able to leave this place."

"Because they are one of the foundations of this ghost realm. If they leave, this place will collapse, and a bunch of evil spirits will escape, making it impossible to seal them away."

Upon hearing this, Chu Jiang fell silent.

Seeing his expression, the old man asked, "Do you think I'm cruel? Forcibly binding them here just to suppress the evil spirits."

“But my thoughts are very simple. The reason they were able to be resurrected and continue to live is not because of themselves, nor because of me, but because of the countless Lin clan members who have offered incense and sacrifices generation after generation.”

"Since you have enjoyed the blessings of your descendants, you should naturally make contributions to them; how can you take all the benefits for nothing and bear no responsibility at all?"

"And it's not just them who are locked up here, I'm locked up here too."

“After I died, I arranged for a close friend to oversee my resurrection; and I also had my grandson come blindfolded to call back my soul.”

"But calling out once didn't work, calling out twice didn't work, and it looked like something terrible was about to happen; in the end, Xinghe ran back and made the unsuspecting crowd shout loudly, which finally brought my humanity back."

"When I woke up, I did lose a small part of my memory, but that was insignificant. I knew all along that I could be resurrected in this way, and I did succeed in doing so."

"So at that time, I had no doubts whatsoever that I had indeed died and become a ghost that retained humanity."

"Because there is no doubt, my humanity will not waver."

"As for the rest, even if I don't go into details, you can probably guess."

"I constructed a loop within the Ghost Realm, making the Lin family believe they were still alive and living the normal life that living people should have."

“Every three years, I erase their memories and make them start over.”

"Although it's a deception, at least it won't cause them too much pain. As long as they don't realize they're living in a false world, it's better than them sleeping underground forever, isn't it?"

"And I, year after year, day after day, accompany them, watching them celebrate my birthday and prepare gifts for me year after year..."

The old man's voice grew lower and lower as he spoke, until it was completely inaudible.

Chu Jiang thought for a moment and then said, "I can't judge right or wrong, nor am I qualified to do so, after all, this is a family matter of your Lin family."

"However, there is one thing that the Lin family may not have noticed at first, but after so many cycles, some people have already discovered the clues."

“I believe you are also very clear about this. Xu Lan, the first person you resurrected, had already noticed something was wrong; she had been trying to escape from here, and even found her way to me.”

The old man nodded slightly. "Yes, Xu Lan was the first to notice. Although others subconsciously felt that something was not right, none of them were able to step back and look at the whole thing like Xu Lan did."

“I suspect it’s related to me telling her the truth. Deep down, she knows she’s dead, which is why she was able to tell something was wrong.”

Just as the two were talking, a shadow that had appeared out of nowhere silently left the side room...

Chapter 181 The Hidden Dangers of Ghost Diaries

“But Xu Lan didn’t dare to come to me to question the truth. She was even afraid that I would completely eliminate her and silence her, so this matter has been dragged on until now.”

The old man spoke of it with some emotion.

"So what do you plan to do with her?" Chu Jiang asked.

"Should we continue erasing her memories, forcing her to repeat the cycle again and again?"

The old man shook his head. "This method will become ineffective if used too often. She didn't only realize something was wrong in this cycle of reincarnation."