Zhaozhao hugged Taotie and hid invisibly with Song Yao beside the wall, silently observing Lu Chukong and the so - called Mrs. Chen as they walked in.
The two of them walked in chatting and were stunned when they saw the ghosts floating all over the room.
"This is..." Mrs. Chen looked at the ghosts in surprise, then turned to Lu Chukong. "Master, you should not have come here in advance, right?"
Lu Chukong also looked rather confused. Of course, he hadn't been here before. He scanned the furnishings on the altar table. It was true that everything was well - prepared, but no matter how complete the tools were, without the incantation to activate them, how could they work?
What on earth was going on with these ghosts all over the room?
The wind blew in from outside, making the living - room door creak. Lu Chukong looked at the door and asked Mrs. Chen, "Didn't you close the door when you left, ma'am?"
"The previous master said that when summoning souls, the doors should be wide open. So all the doors in this apartment have been kept open." Mrs. Chen nervously clasped her hands in front of her chest, looking a bit helpless.
Lu Chukong looked around and sighed. Then he said loudly, "Since you're here, why hide and not show yourself?"
In the silent house, apart from the occasional crackling of the candle wicks and the ticking of the clock, only Lu Chukong's voice echoed. There was nothing else. His question added a bit more horror to the atmosphere of the house.
"Come on, no matter who you are, you've come here and used someone else's things to summon so many innocent ghosts. Aren't you curious about why we're doing this?" Lu Chukong put on his usual nonchalant look again and strolled around the living room.
However, two minutes passed, and Zhaozhao didn't respond at all.
She just covered Taotie's eyes that were shining because of seeing the "food" and took a few steps back. Lu Chukong was getting too close.
Song Yao wasn't as calm as Zhaozhao. She stared at Lu Chukong who was rummaging around the room. The more she looked at him, the more suspicious he seemed.
He had left the Xuanmen after the exchange conference and now suddenly showed up in such a strange place and was related to the descendants of the Southern Border. Who on earth was this guy?
"Cousin, let's wait a bit longer. He can't see us. Let's wait and see if he'll say anything else." Seeing Song Yao getting a bit impatient, Zhaozhao patted her cousin's hand and sent her a mental message.
Song Yao let out a long sigh and nodded.
Apart from Lu Chukong's muttering, there was nothing else in the room. Mrs. Chen couldn't help but ask, "Master, did you make a mistake?"
She didn't think there was anyone else in the house.
Lu Chukong stopped in front of a headless ghost holding its own head. He reached out and propped up the head for it, then clapped his hands and let out a soft laugh. He confessed, "Today, I, a humble Taoist priest, and Mrs. Chen are performing a soul - summoning ritual here. We have no intention of harming anyone. We're just trying to find the living soul of a person."
He just said it directly. Mrs. Chen didn't even have time to stop him.
"But what you're using is clearly not a soul - summoning technique. What you've prepared is a 'Asking the Rice' ritual." The figures of the Zhaozhao sisters suddenly appeared out of thin air from beside the wall. Their voices were calm and cold.
Zhaozhao still remembered what Song Yao had said before. Lu Chukong had clearly lied to them.
"It's you?!" Lu Chukong seemed very excited to see Zhaozhao and Song Yao, as if he didn't notice the identical cold looks on the sisters' faces.
"Don't try to get familiar with us. Answer the question quickly." Zhaozhao ignored Lu Chukong's enthusiasm seriously.
"Tsk tsk," Lu Chukong shook his head and sighed. "We were friends before, right? How heartless. Oh dear, the little beauty is no longer a soft glutinous rice cake but a thorny little rose!"
His words had a bit of an ambiguous flavor. Zhaozhao was a bit slow - witted and didn't notice. She just silently retorted in her heart that she was a tree.
However, Taotie in her arms was extremely frightened.
Was the stupid master playing something so exciting? Controlling an ancient Yinglong and having an ambiguous relationship with this tiny human?
Oh my god! Was this something a fierce beast could hear? If Su Yuan knew, he would probably kill the beast to keep it quiet and then stage a forced takeover!
Taotie, who knew well that the more one knew, the sooner one would die, drooped its ears and kept brainwashing itself: I don't know, I don't know. I'm just a foodie. I don't know anything.
While Taotie chose to brainwash itself to survive, Song Yao was different.
What glutinous rice cake, what thorny little rose?! Song Yao was furious. How dare he flirt with Zhaozhao right in front of her! He simply didn't want to live anymore!
The more Song Yao thought about it, the angrier she got. She mercilessly kicked Lu Chukong and warned him, "You lecherous scoundrel! Stay away from my sister!"
Protective Song Yao was on the scene, and Lu Chukong was completely dumbfounded.
"Hey, I... Oh well! Fine, fine. I'll go, I'll go." Lu Chukong took a few steps back with a green face. It was just a little joke.
He felt quite wronged.
However, there was someone more wronged. Mrs. Chen, who had been ignored for a long time, finally couldn't bear it anymore. She looked at Zhaozhao and said, "Are you the girl I met in the elevator before? Why are you in my house?"
Mrs. Chen was very young and beautiful, with the gentle charm unique to a Jiangnan woman. Her voice was soft and gentle.
"One of the ghosts from your 'Asking the Rice' ritual went into our house. There's blood seeping from the southwest corner of your house, so we came here." Zhaozhao told the truth.
After hearing this, Mrs. Chen immediately showed a very apologetic expression to Zhaozhao and Song Yao. "I'm really sorry. I didn't expect it to affect you. I'm really sorry. I'm willing to make compensation."
"Don't talk about all this nonsense first. What on earth are you trying to do by turning this room into such a Yin - energy - filled place?" Song Yao impatiently interrupted Mrs. Chen. She had never been very patient.
"This... I can't tell you. I also hope that the two of you will keep this matter a secret. The Chen family will surely offer a great - "
"Heh... What a 'I can't tell you'. Since you can't tell us, then wait for the people from the Xuanmen to come and investigate. With such a grand - scale operation, it seems that you've even taken over the work of the judges in the Underworld. Lu Chukong, you'd better think it through." Song Yao threatened Lu Chukong. Zhaozhao, who couldn't get a word in, kept nodding admiringly.
She suddenly had the urge to study hard. It was really cool to be able to render others speechless like her cousin!
Little tree spirit Zhaozhao had a strong sense of responsibility and firmly believed that she would surely be able to use such "composed" skills in the future.
With the situation like this, Lu Chukong had no other choice.
He forced a smile. It was hard to tell his emotions from his downcast eyes. "The young lady of the Song family in the Xuanmen. Tsk! People with power and influence really live up to their reputation."
His words were a bit sarcastic, as if Song Yao and Zhaozhao were bullying others by relying on their power. But in fact, it was they who had acted wrongly first.
If they had just used some minor magic arts, it would have been okay. But this method of creating a Yin - filled house out of thin air had clearly affected the fortune of the whole apartment building. In the future, evil ghosts would gather here, and who knew how many bad things would happen.
Zhaozhao rarely caught the hidden meaning in Lu Chukong's words. She said seriously, "It's your fault. Don't make it sound like it's my cousin's and my fault."
She was just like this. Right was right, and wrong was wrong. She clearly distinguished between black and white, looking innocent as if she had never experienced the hardships of the world.
"Hahaha, you're really interesting." Lu Chukong was amused by Zhaozhao. His smile had a bit of an indescribable meaning, which made Zhaozhao very uncomfortable.
Just as she was about to say something else, Lu Chukong turned to Mrs. Chen and said, "We can't hide it anymore. Mrs. Chen, just tell them. Maybe they can help you. These two are much more useful than me."
Mrs. Chen nodded and began to confess, "We have no malicious intentions. Creating this Yin - filled house for the 'Asking the Rice' and soul - summoning rituals is not to harm people but to save them."
The Chen family was a wealthy and powerful family in the local area. Every generation's head of the Chen family was a well - known philanthropist, having invested countless amounts in various public - welfare and charity undertakings.
Such a family was envied by countless common people. However, something strange had happened to the Chen family recently.
First, the previous head of the Chen family, Mrs. Chen's father - in - law, Chen Ting, had fallen into a coma for no reason. No matter how many medical experts had examined him, they couldn't find the cause, and he had remained in a coma ever since.
Later, Chen Jin, the current head of the Chen family who had taken over the power from his father, also lost consciousness three months after taking office, just like his father.
"The Chen family is a large and powerful family, and it has been a single - heir family for generations. Now that both Dad and A Jin are in this situation, the company is also in a bad state." Mrs. Chen's eyes were red as she said this.
"But what does this have to do with what you're doing now?" Song Yao asked.
Mrs. Chen wiped away her tears and choked out, "We've tried many methods at home, but none of them worked. A nanny from the countryside said that they might be possessed by evil spirits. I was at my wit's end at that time and didn't care if it was feudal superstition or not. So I invited a master to take a look. The result was that Dad and A Jin's living souls had been taken away, and only the soul - summoning technique could..."
"Calculated by the master?" Zhaozhao murmured this sentence and slowly turned her gaze to Lu Chukong.
"Don't look at me. It wasn't calculated by me. I'm just in charge of summoning the souls." Lu Chukong waved his hands repeatedly when he received Zhaozhao's gaze.
Song Yao took over the conversation unceremoniously and mocked, "I don't think you have that kind of ability."
Lu Chukong: "..." Just talk about the matter. Why make personal attacks?
"Then why are you here?" Although Zhaozhao wasn't very proficient in ghost - related arts, she understood the basics. Even if one wanted to find a living soul, it should be in a place the soul was most familiar with.
However, in this apartment, except for the altar table in the middle of the living room, everything else was covered in dust. It was obvious that no one had lived here for a long time. Why come here?
"Because this is the last place Dad and A Jin came to before they fell into a coma." Mrs. Chen looked at the circle of ghosts opposite. There was neither fear nor curiosity in her eyes. Instead, she looked very calm.
"However, it seems that this attempt has failed again. Their souls aren't here."
The dazed ghosts either had missing limbs, or their tongues were sticking out long, and some even had no heads. It was obvious that they couldn't be the living souls Mrs. Chen was looking for.
Perhaps Mrs. Chen's lonely and miserable expression was too obvious. Zhaozhao felt pity for her and wanted to help her.
She tugged at Song Yao's sleeve and softly called out to her, "Cousin..."
Song Yao knew what she was thinking. She patted Zhaozhao's hand to comfort her. Looking at the bracelet on Mrs. Chen's hand, she asked calmly, "What's the name of the master who examined your husband and father - in - law?"
"The master didn't say. I only know..." A smile appeared on Mrs. Chen's lips. She still looked gentle and soft. "His surname is Song, and everyone calls him Master Song."
"Humph... Good for him. A guy like that dares to call himself a master?" Song Yao's face was very gloomy. Zhaozhao beside her knew that she was very angry now.
Zhaozhao wanted to say something, but Song Yao pulled her hand down first. After making sure that the jade pendant was still safely on Zhaozhao, she turned around and left. "Zhaozhao, I'm going back to the Xuanmen. I'll be back tomorrow."
"Cousin..."
Zhaozhao was left there inexplicably. Master Song? Why was her cousin so angry when she heard this name? Was he from the Song family?
She was a bit worried and wanted to chase after her, but the next moment, Zhaozhao suddenly stopped in her tracks.
The dragon scale of Su Yuan on her body suddenly started to burn. It was so hot that the skin it touched felt like it was about to be burned.
Oh no! Could something have happened to Su Yuan?!