I have a ghost diary

Chen Ke'er obediently agreed, not daring to ask any more questions.

But in her mind, all sorts of thoughts were swirling. Why would someone surnamed Chu come to the Lin Clan Ancestral Hall? Could it be that he was an illegitimate child, whose mother's surname was Chu...?

In an instant, Chen Ke'er imagined a domineering CEO drama: Hmph, Lin family, I, the abandoned pawn, am back today! Those who humiliated me before, you just wait!

Chapter 104 Inside the Ancestral Hall

As Chen Ke'er drove away, she already imagined Chu Jiang gathering the Lin family members in the ancestral hall to prepare for the execution of family discipline.

Chu Jiang, of course, had no idea that his family's accountant was so imaginative. He simply took advantage of the fact that no one was around and easily leaped over the high wall.

If Chu Jiang wanted to be more elegant, he could make his body ghost-like and pass through walls.

But he wasn't stupid; he wanted to use supernatural powers as little as possible. Besides, this ancestral hall was suspected of harboring ancestral spirits, so it was better to enter using a "relatively normal" method.

The moment Chu Jiang climbed over the wall, he didn't think anything of it, but as soon as he entered the ancestral hall area, before he even landed, his expression changed drastically.

As soon as he landed, he immediately took off his backpack and unzipped it.

Two things happened in that brief moment:

First, after entering the ancestral hall, Chu Jiang felt an inexplicable sense of oppression; even more incredibly, the Blood Hand Ghost within him seemed to be affected as well.

The ghost stirred for a moment, seemingly trying to break free from Chu Jiang's body at all costs.

But after Chu Jiang landed, the Blood Hand Ghost became quiet again; in fact, it became docile, not moving at all, as if it were dead.

Originally, Chu Jiang often felt a vengeful ghost stirring within his body, even during the day, due to the deepening of the erosion. But now that feeling has disappeared, and he seems to have become a normal person again.

The second thing is even more serious: the Ghost Diary is moving!

Aside from the time he was on the verge of death at school, Chu Jiang had never seen this thing move, even after he chopped, burned, and soaked it, it didn't react at all.

But at this moment, the pure black diary began to vibrate violently, so much so that Chu Jiang immediately checked it as soon as he landed.

If he doesn't trigger the near-death condition, and the Ghost Diary still tries to devour him, then Chu Jiang will have to find a way to escape.

When the backpack was opened, the diary was indeed vibrating, but as time went on, the vibration gradually weakened and subsided...

In the end, Ghost Diary returned to calm, and the whole process lasted for about a minute.

To be honest, the moment Chu Jiang picked up the Ghost Diary again, he even had the urge to give up. He felt that he had underestimated the Lin Clan Ancestral Hall.

This is a level zero sealed artifact! What's sealed inside could very well be an S-rank vengeful ghost.

Even something as extraordinary as this reacted so strongly upon entering the shrine. Considering the Blood Hand Ghost's reaction, there must be something remarkable or powerful inside this shrine.

As a result, the ghost had to play dead, and the Ghost Diary also produced a kind of stress response.

Now Chu Jiang is increasingly convinced that Wang Lei died because of this ancestral hall; if Chu Jiang doesn't restrain himself, he might be the next one to die.

Should he retreat or not? Chu Jiang held the diary, glancing hesitantly ahead.

He landed in the backyard and looked ahead, where he could only see some artificial hills, potted plants, and a wall.

Had Chu Jiang known the Lin Clan Ancestral Hall was so dangerous, he would have sealed the small theater in his diary first. But now, it seems it's not too late...

But at this moment, Chu Jiang hesitated for a rare moment. Wang Lei had come in so many times, clearly indicating that he believed this place was special and warranted repeated investigations.

Moreover, Wang Lei died four or five months later, so it's impossible for me to be so unlucky as to encounter such great danger as soon as I enter.

Just as he was hesitating, Chu Jiang suddenly heard some faint sounds coming from in front of the ancestral hall.

So he listened intently, and it sounded like someone was praying. The voice belonged to an elderly woman, "Father and Mother, bless me, ancestors, and Grandfather, may my dear grandson Xiaofan get into a good university this year..."

The rest of the text is mostly similar, very down-to-earth, just ordinary people praying to their ancestral tablets.

However, one thing puzzled Chu Jiang: why was this "Old Master" listed after the ancestors? Shouldn't the ancestors be placed last?

Could it be that the old man was an official in the past? But even officials can't break the rules, right?

Driven by curiosity, Chu Jiang wanted to go and take a look.

He was quite nervous at first, but the old woman's words, "My good grandson Xiaofan got into a good university," made him relax a lot.

If it really is a ghost, then a ghost that can still listen to the rambling of its descendants for hundreds of years can't be too evil, right?

Of course, Chu Jiang did not act rashly. He stood still and waited for a while.

He smelled the incense and heard the sound of the Holy Grail being tossed. Only when all the sounds ceased and the old woman's footsteps faded into the distance did Chu Jiang take action.

The so-called "Holy Grail" is not the same thing as the Holy Grail in the Fate series of anime that can grant wishes.

The Holy Grail, also known as the Cup of Fortune, was an ancient divination tool used to predict good and bad fortune. Han Yu of the Tang Dynasty wrote a poem about it: "The temple elder knew the will of the gods, and with keen observation, he bowed respectfully. Holding the Cup of Fortune, he guided me to throw it, saying that this was the most auspicious, and none could compare."

In modern times, divination cups are rarely seen anymore, and only in some regions where there is still a strong belief in gods and Buddhas do people maintain the tradition of using divination cups.

In places like Luohe and Luoxi, the older generation still uses what is commonly known as the "Holy Grail" when worshipping gods and ancestors.

The Holy Grail is shaped like two clam shells, and modern grails are mostly made of bamboo or wood. The person offering incense puts the two grails together in prayer, and after finishing the prayer, throws them to the ground.

If you roll heads and tails, it means you have a very good fortune.

If the incense burner cannot get a result, he/she will often throw the divination stick several times until he/she gets a result that is both positive and negative, or yin and yang, before he/she is satisfied.

Of course, Chu Jiang remembered that if the Holy Grail did not appear four or five times in a row, the adults would think that he was not sincere enough, and would often let the ancestors eat more incense and throw it again after a period of time.

Chu Jiang ultimately decided not to seal the small theater. It's best not to use supernatural powers inside the ancestral hall; just wander around a couple of times and leave.

Walking forward step by step, and going around the back wall, Chu Jiang entered the main hall of the ancestral hall.

The layout here is also antique. Directly in front is a large, rectangular shrine made of half wood and half stone, with three gilded seal characters above it: "Shunde Hall".

The upper part of the shrine is made of wood, with six steps inside, and the base color is mahogany; on each step, there are ancestral tablets of different sizes.

The lower half of the shrine is made of stone and covered with red bricks. Directly below it is a colorful carving depicting landscapes, plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, chrysanthemums, two flying cranes, and two fire lions playing with an embroidered ball on the left and right.

In front of the shrine are incense burners and candle holders, and further in front are four long, rectangular mahogany offering tables.

At this moment, there were only a few sticks of incense burning in the incense burner; a red candle was lit on each side; the offering table was clean and there were no offerings.

Chapter 105 The Old Master

Chu Jiang was not surprised. Today was not the day for the Lin clan to worship their ancestors; it was just that someone had come to pay their respects privately.

The shrine has six tiers of steps, each with a memorial tablet. The bottom tier has nine tablets, all of which are wide and each tablet has the name of a person with the five elements written on it from top to bottom.

The fifth layer has twelve, the fourth layer has nine, the third layer has six, the second layer has three, and the first layer has one.

At first glance, it doesn't seem right, but it's not. Only the sixth layer has wide memorial tablets with names side by side; the five layers above are narrow memorial tablets, with only one line of names on each tablet.

Therefore, in reality, the sixth floor enshrines forty-five people, the fifth floor enshrines twelve people, and so on.

This ancestral hall houses a total of seventy-six ancestral tablets, each representing a Lin family ancestor, who has been worshipped by descendants for hundreds of years.

The memorial tablets are all black with gold lettering, but the higher the tablets are, the more intricate and elaborate they become, with gold carvings on the edges and corners, as well as patterns such as bats and longevity seals.

The bottommost memorial tablet reads: "The spirit tablet of the 18th generation ancestor, Mr. Lin, or the spirit tablet of the 18th generation ancestor, Mrs. Lin."

The former is male, and the latter is female.

But something else that Chu Jiang found utterly unbelievable appeared. The correct order from bottom to top should be: 18th generation ancestor, 17th generation ancestor, 16th generation ancestor, 15th generation ancestor, 14th generation ancestor, and 13th generation ancestor.

The order in front of them was still neat, but on the topmost level, where the thirteenth generation ancestor should have been, there was a tablet for the sixteenth generation ancestor.

Starting from the fifth layer, various posthumous titles appear on the memorial tablets, so this tablet of the sixteenth ancestor has a total of twenty-three characters.

Leaving aside praise and honorifics like "Gao De" and "Lord Fu," this gentleman should be called: Lin Daosheng.

Could this be the old man? Chu Jiang wondered to himself.

This confirmed the old woman's earlier prayer; the ancestral tablet was indeed placed above all the previous ancestors. Clearly, his status within this branch of the Lin clan was exceptionally high, even defying common sense.

Keeping this in mind, Chu Jiang decided to investigate it thoroughly when he got back.

Everything was normal after that. Chu Jiang didn't go crazy enough to disturb the memorial tablet. He just wandered around inside the ancestral hall, trying to see if there was anything special or any clues.

Unfortunately, just as Luo Yifeng reported, Wang Lei came in three or four times but found nothing, and Chu Jiang naturally couldn't find anything either.

Besides the main hall, there were some locked side rooms, but Chu Jiang peeked through the crack in the door and saw that they were filled with old wooden tables and chairs, as well as wooden windmills and rice milling machines used to remove rice husks, all of which were almost abandoned.

......

After realizing that it was impossible to find the source of the supernatural phenomenon in a short period of time, Chu Jiang decisively retreated and climbed over the wall back the way he came.

This trip wasn't entirely fruitless. First, Chu Jiang realized that this ancestral hall was no ordinary place, and that it needed to be treated with extreme caution.

Secondly, this old patriarch of the Lin family is likely the key to all the problems. Perhaps he, or it, is still lingering in the Lin family ancestral hall, just not usually coming out.

Chu Jiang could only hope that this man would stay quietly in the ancestral hall, enjoying the offerings of his descendants, and never come out again.

Otherwise, the day it steps out of the ancestral hall will likely be the day the entire Luohe City is destroyed, and Chu Jiang will die in this city...

When he climbed out, Chu Jiang would naturally not be seen by anyone.

He examined himself and found nothing wrong or cursed. He felt much more relaxed, as if he had just emerged from a bottomless abyss.

As for Wang Lei's death... that needs to be investigated. We can't just say, based on intuition, that he was killed by Old Master Lin.

......

Back in Chen Ke'er's car, the girl wasted no time and started looking through her phone's photo album, hoping to make one last big profit off her boss before resigning.

Upon seeing Chu Jiang return, Chen Ke'er immediately put away her phone and cautiously asked, "Boss, how many people did you deal with?"

Moreover, her eyes were darting towards Chu Jiang, as if trying to see where there was blood on him.

Chu Jiang was taken aback. "Deal with? Whom do I need to deal with?"

Chen Ke'er nodded immediately, "I understand, I won't ask anymore, it's not something I should know. Where do we go next?"

Chu Jiang was speechless. What kind of show was this now?

"Let's go somewhere deserted. Teach me how to drive, and I'll treat you to lunch. We'll go back to the company in the afternoon."

"Good boss."

And so, Chen Ke'er drove her dusty car, taking Chu Jiang with her, into the distance.