Starting with the Earth God, the path to immortality is deduced!

……

Early the next morning.

The news of Zhou Yuanrong's promotion to deputy manager of the charitable estate spread throughout the entire estate.

The staff and coroners at the mortuary had no objections to this.

They had witnessed Zhou Yuan's abilities firsthand.

Whether it was sealing the red-clothed female ghost or purifying the Ren family's old mansion, both were enough to convince people.

Zhou Yuan ignored their flattery and congratulations. The first thing he did upon taking office was to immerse himself in the archives of the mortuary.

This place contains the files and records of all unnatural deaths in Fengzhou City over the past decades.

Ma Ling'er wasn't particularly interested in these moldy piles of old papers, but at Zhou Yuan's insistence, she reluctantly followed him in.

"Ugh, what's that smell here!"

"Steward Zhou, what are you doing? Are you getting addicted to being an official?"

While complaining, she curiously picked up a file and flipped through it.

Zhou Yuan ignored her teasing and focused his gaze on the rows of dusty shelves.

He picked up a five-year-old file and blew away the dust.

In the 242nd year of the Great Ling Dynasty, Li Dafu, a cloth merchant in the south of the city, died suddenly in his home, his family fortune scattered, and he died with a sinister smile on his face.

Zhou Yuan opened it; inside was the coroner's autopsy report.

[...The deceased had no visible injuries, but his yang energy was depleted, and his essence and blood were exhausted, resembling...resembling a living corpse that had been drained dry...]

A strange black coin with a ghost-like face and the character "敕" (imperial decree) was found at the scene, suspected to be an object of evil spirits.

Zhou Yuan's pupils contracted.

Money from the underworld!

He then quickly pulled out another file from three years ago.

In the 244th year of the Great Ling Dynasty, Old Zhao, a night watchman, went missing during his night patrol. Three days later, his body was found behind the City God Temple. His soul had left his body, and of the three souls and seven spirits, only one spirit remained, rendering him mentally impaired.

According to his family, Old Zhao had recently been frequenting mass graves on the outskirts of the city, seemingly gambling and winning back several sums of dirty money...

It's money from the underworld again!

Over the next hour, Zhou Yuan reviewed nearly a hundred volumes of documents.

He discovered a chilling pattern!

Almost every now and then, one or two similar strange things would happen in Fengzhou City.

Or someone might suddenly become rich and then die mysteriously.

Or someone might become addicted to gambling, eventually going insane or disappearing.

These cases, seemingly unrelated and differing in time and place, share a common thread: traces of "ghost money" were found at the crime scenes or among the deceased's belongings.

These files span a period of ten years!

"Oh My God……"

Ma Ling'er also noticed something was wrong. She came closer, her face pale.

"How long has this 'accountant' been operating in Fengzhou City?"

Zhou Yuan did not answer, but simply closed the file heavily.

"Snapped!"

A sharp crack rang out, sounding particularly jarring in the quiet office.

He originally thought that the "accountant" had only recently become active.

Now it seems he was wrong!

Big mistake!

This vast net, woven from yin coins, had already silently enveloped the entire city of Fengzhou ten years ago, or even earlier!

The power hidden behind this is far greater and more terrifying than he imagined!

"How does it feel to be a deputy manager?"

Looking at Zhou Yuan's solemn profile, Ma Ling'er suddenly asked.

Zhou Yuan was taken aback and looked at her.

"fine."

Ma Ling'er chuckled, a hint of slyness in her eyes.

I think so too.

"Although you are quite capable, you are ultimately an outsider and always feel a sense of alienation from this world."

"Now that I've become the deputy manager of this mortuary, I can say that I have a foothold now."

"It will be much more convenient to do things from now on."

"If I want to investigate anything, I might have to borrow your official authority!"

Seeing her feigned ease, Zhou Yuan felt a little less heavy-hearted.

Yes, with a changed identity, there are many more things I can do.

Over the next few days, Zhou Yuan familiarized himself with the various duties of the deputy steward while using this identity to discreetly gather all the information about the "strange disappearances" and the "black copper coins" from the government offices and well-informed people throughout the city.

He discovered that the "accountant's" influence extended far beyond just a ghost market.

Some gangs, casinos, and even seemingly legitimate shops in the city have shadowy connections to illicit money flows.

They are like the tentacles of the ghost market in the mortal world, responsible for finding suitable "prey" and luring them onto that path of no return.

On this day, Zhou Yuan was inspecting the backyard of the mortuary.

Besides storing corpses, the mortuary also shelters some homeless and wandering ghosts.

Normally, these wandering ghosts just stay there in a daze, waiting for reincarnation.

But today, as soon as Zhou Yuan stepped into the backyard, his newly mastered [Spirit Observation Technique] made him immediately sense something was amiss.

He saw that several wandering ghosts had a faint black aura wrapped around their spirits.

That aura was cold, greedy, and filled with the scent of desire.

It shares the same origin as the atmosphere in the ghost market!

These wandering souls have all been corrupted by the evil aura of the ghost market!

Zhou Yuan's heart stirred, and his gaze locked onto the soul of an old man curled up in a corner.

The old man's soul was the weakest, and the black aura around him was the faintest, as if he had only stayed at the edge of the ghost market for a short while.

This is an excellent opportunity to break through!

Zhou Yuan took a deep breath and slowly walked over.

He wanted to test his newly acquired supernatural power.

[Spirit-Seeking Technique]!

He wants to dig out the secrets about the ghost market and the "accountant" from these shattered souls!

Zhou Yuan walked up to the old man's spirit and squatted down.

He reached out, a wisp of almost imperceptible soul power swirling around his fingertips, and gently touched the illusory forehead.

It lacks a sense of physical presence.

It's like walking through a thin, cool mist.

But the instant his fingertips touched the old man's illusory forehead, a cold, chaotic torrent, mixed with endless greed and fear, rushed into Zhou Yuan's soul!

hum!

In Zhou Yuan's mind, it felt as if thousands of steel needles were piercing him at the same time!

[Spirit-Seeking Technique]! Activate!

The backyard of the mortuary in front of us vanished in an instant.

Instead, there are countless broken, upside-down, bizarre and grotesque images!

"Come on! Come play!"

"Just one gamble! If you win, you get everything!"

"Mine... all mine! Hahaha!"

Sharp screams and frantic babbling rang in Zhou Yuan's ears.

He "saw" a bustling underground market.

A blue-faced, fanged demon and a pale-faced living person were crammed together at the same gambling table, frantically throwing dice.

The dice were made of human bones.

The stakes were coins exuding an ominous aura.

And... the yang energy of the living! Lifespan!

The loser's body will instantly wither away, turning into a skin and bones of a dried corpse, while their soul will be hooked away by an iron chain extending from the void.

These were the old man's last memories before his death.

He was originally a destitute gambler in the city, who was lured into this place of no return by the lure of ill-gotten gains.

Despite the excruciating pain of his soul being torn apart, Zhou Yuan forced himself to calm his mind and tried to salvage useful information from this chaotic sea of ​​memories.

What he was looking for was that "accountant"!

The screen flickered rapidly.

Finally, in a corner of a pawnshop with a sign that read "Always Responseable," Zhou Yuan spotted a figure.

That was a man.

He was wearing a faded blue long gown, looking like a down-on-his-luck scholar.

Unlike other evil spirits, he didn't have a blue face and fangs; his appearance could even be described as handsome, though his face was deathly pale.

In his hand, instead of a brush and ledger, he held an ebony abacus.

His fingers moved lightly across the abacus, making a crisp "crackling" sound.

With each sound, a hapless bettor who lost the bet was utterly terrified.

The yang energy and souls that were won were transformed into wisps of black energy, which were completely absorbed by the ebony abacus.

His face was always shrouded in a thin mist, making it difficult to see clearly.

But Zhou Yuan could sense that beneath that thin mist were a pair of eyes that were utterly indifferent.

They treat all living beings as worthless weeds and souls as bargaining chips!

He is the accountant!

Just as Zhou Yuan was trying to see more clearly, the scholar seemed to sense something and, through his fragmented memories, glanced slightly in Zhou Yuan's direction!

boom!

Zhou Yuan's soul was struck as if by lightning, and was suddenly ejected from the torrent of memories!

He staggered back a step, his face deathly pale, panting heavily.

The old man's soul, under the impact of Zhou Yuan's [Spirit-Seeking Technique], became even dimmer in its already weakened state. It let out an unconscious whimper, curled up into a ball, and trembled.

"Hey! What's wrong with you?"

Ma Ling'er's voice came from behind, tinged with anxiety.

She quickly stepped forward to help Zhou Yuan.

"Why is your face as white as paper? Did something go wrong with the spell?"

Zhou Yuan waved his hand to indicate that he was alright, but the shock in his eyes lingered for a long time.

"I saw him."

"That 'accountant'."

Ma Ling'er's expression hardened: "What does he look like? What kind of old ghost is he?"

Zhou Yuan shook his head, his voice somewhat hoarse.

"Doesn't look like a ghost."

"He seems like a living person, a scholar."

"But the feeling he gave me was ten thousand times more terrifying than all the evil spirits I've ever seen in the ghost market combined!"

"and……"

Zhou Yuan paused, recalling those fleeting fragments of memory.

"In that old man's memory, I also saw something else."

"The accountant seems to frequently send his underlings to gather information in several places in Fengzhou City."

"When those kids were talking, they mentioned things like 'dragon vein,' 'qi eye,' and 'feng shui treasure land.'"

"A place with excellent feng shui?"

Ma Ling'er frowned slightly, her impetuous nature subdued at this moment, revealing the keen insight unique to a successor of the witchcraft sect.

"Underworld money, ghost markets, evil spirits... and now they're dragging in auspicious feng shui locations..."

Her little face became extremely serious.

"My family's shamanistic scriptures record that some extremely vicious evil spells require the use of the feng shui of heaven and earth to set them up."

She lowered her voice and said, word by word:

"He...he wouldn't be planning to set up a massive evil formation that covers the entire city, would he?"

Zhou Yuan's heart sank suddenly.

An evil formation!

Using all living beings and the energy of Fengzhou City as offerings?

This speculation is too crazy, and too terrifying!

But for some reason, Zhou Yuan felt that this was very likely the truth!

"Walk!"

Zhou Yuan made a quick decision, grabbed Ma Ling'er, and ran towards the archives.

"Go check the map of Fengzhou City!"

The archives of the mortuary contain not only death records, but also maps of Fengzhou City drawn by the government over the years.

These maps detailed the mountains, rivers, and geological formations within the city.

As the deputy manager, Zhou Yuan has the authority to review all of this!

The two plunged once again into the musty pile of old papers.

Zhou Yuan quickly pulled out a map of Fengzhou Prefecture, about half the size of a door panel, drawn on yellowed Xuan paper.

He spread the map out on the table.

"What are the characteristics of those auspicious feng shui locations you mentioned?"

Ma Ling'er came over and pointed to several places on the map.

"Generally speaking, the place where mountains and rivers converge is the node of the dragon vein."

"The bend in a river is the eye of destiny."

"Furthermore, government offices, city god temples, and ancestral halls of wealthy families throughout history have all been built in places with the most prosperous fortune."

Her little hands were tracing patterns on the map.

"Look, there's the iron ox guarding the river in the south of the city, the Wenchang Pagoda in the west, and that abandoned tomb of a former general in the north..."

"These are all top-tier locations with excellent feng shui!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yuan immediately pulled out several files he had previously reviewed from the shelf next to him.

It is precisely those cases that record bizarre deaths and are related to ghost money!

He opened the files one by one and compared them with the locations on the map.

Five years ago, cloth merchant Li Dafu died suddenly; his home was right under the Wenchang Pagoda!

"Three years ago, Old Zhao, the night watchman, went missing. The last place he was last seen was near the General's Tomb in the north of the city!"

"And a year ago, three out-of-town merchants went mad at the Yuelai Inn. Just three hundred steps from the inn was the Iron Ox that guarded the river!"

Zhou Yuan pointed out each location one by one.

Each one perfectly matches the auspicious feng shui location that Ma Ling'er described!

"Snapped!"

Zhou Yuan closed the last file.

The truth is self-evident.

That accountant was indeed setting things up!

He used money from the underworld as bait to lure people into depravity, reaping their souls and vital energy. At the same time, he used these deaths as "nails," hammering them one by one into the key points of Fengzhou City's destiny!

What exactly is he trying to do?!

"We can't wait any longer."

Zhou Yuan's eyes sharpened.

"We must go and see these places!"

"You'll never guess the answer sitting here!"

Ma Ling'er nodded heavily, her little face full of fighting spirit.

"Fine! I'd like to see what he's up to!"

The two of them got right to work.

Their first target was the abandoned tombs of former generals in the north of the city.

It was a desolate place, with the heaviest yin energy, and where traces were most easily left.

Half an hour later, the two stood in front of a mass grave.

As the sun set, it cast long shadows of the two of them.

A cold wind blew by, swirling up a few pieces of withered yellow paper money, making a "whooshing" sound, much like the wailing of ghosts.

"This is it."

Ma Ling'er took out a round, black and white ball of fur from her small cloth bag.

It was her immortal abode, the Iron-Eating Beast.

The little creature yawned sleepily, seemingly quite dissatisfied with its surroundings.

Zhou Yuan did not hesitate.

He sat down cross-legged and made a hand seal.

"The soul leaves the body, communicating with the spirits and traversing the underworld!"