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

"Uncle Liu, what's wrong? Are you alright?"

Zhou Yuan opened the door of the coffin shop and saw "Uncle Liu" standing outside, soaking wet, with a fishy smell mixed with water vapor hitting him.

He quickly asked with concern.

"It's nothing. The boat I was on sank in the river outside the city. I swam back. What bad luck," Uncle Liu waved his hand.

"Child, aren't you going to welcome me in? I'm starving!"

"Oh, okay." Zhou Yuan nodded, suddenly feeling something was strange—why did Uncle Liu's tone imply that he needed permission to go back to his own home?

As Zhou Yuan was thinking this, Uncle Liu had already entered the house.

He was soaking wet, having been in the water for who knows how long, leaving a trail of wet footprints wherever he went.

"Kid, I'm starving! Get me some food!" Uncle Liu urged as soon as I sat down.

"Uncle Liu, I'll go get you some rice." Zhou Yuan walked into the kitchen and found that the tiny ghost had disappeared.

Soon, Zhou Yuan brought over hot food.

"Why is the rice so hot? Are you trying to burn me? Get me some cold rice!" Uncle Liu complained again when he saw the table full of hot dishes and rice.

Is the hot food too hot?

Zhou Yuan got up and went back into the kitchen. He knew in his heart that something was wrong with the "Uncle Liu" in front of him.

He quickly entered a meditative state, his soul left his body, and he began to wander in the underworld.

As the soul left the body, the appearance of "Uncle Liu" sitting in the house had changed drastically—his skin was peeling off inch by inch and falling to the ground, revealing a pale, water-swollen body, as white as a fish's belly.

This isn't Uncle Liu at all; he's clearly a drowned ghost.

Zhou Yuan finally understood that something dirty had gotten into his house.

"Kid, you saw everything, didn't you?!" Just then, a sinister voice rang out.

A face the size of a washbasin, pale and fish-belly-like from being soaked in water, slowly peeked in from outside the door. Two pale, pupil-less eyes stared intently at him, and a nauseating fishy stench wafted over, making him want to vomit.

What the hell is this?!

Zhou Yuan forced himself to remain calm and stared at the drowned ghost.

"Want some cold food? No way! Give me something hot!" Zhou Yuan grabbed a piece of firewood that was still burning in the earthen stove and shoved it hard into the drowned ghost's face.

The drowned ghost let out a shrill scream, and a strong, fishy smell wafted over. Its wet hair suddenly grew longer, like countless water plants binding Zhou Ming into a rice dumpling.

Zhou Yuan felt as if he were being dragged into the icy river, a feeling of drowning surged up, and he vomited out foul-smelling river water.

"When the Earth God arrived here, he began to build a fairyland."

With a single stroke of the golden hoe, auspicious omens fill the hillsides.

Ghosts and evil spirits, flee to afar.

Knowing that this was going to happen, Zhou Yuan immediately left his body and began chanting the "Soul-Soothing Incantation." The power of his soul in leaving his body imbued the incantation with supernatural abilities. In an instant, his soul shone brightly with azure light, which shone on the drowned ghost, causing wisps of white smoke to rise.

The blue light was like flames to the drowned ghost.

"Spare me! Spare me! I didn't want to hurt anyone! I was forced, I was forced!" the drowned ghost screamed pitifully, begging for mercy repeatedly.

Zhou Yuan had no intention of letting him off the hook. He continued the Soul-Soothing Incantation without stopping until the blue light completely purified the drowned ghost, causing its soul to dissipate.

You sacrificed a drowned ghost.

[Gained Eight Paths of Yin Energy]

The "Strange Tales of Gods and Monsters" in his mind sent back a series of messages.

Zhou Yuan used his thoughts to turn the pages of the book, and after "vengeful ghosts," a new page was unlocked.

Drowned ghost

[A ghost that drowned, its resentment lingers, searching for a substitute. Influenced by evil spirits, it can come ashore and harm people.]

[Evaluation: A pathetic fellow with very weak cultivation]

Zhou Yuan looked at the newly appeared page in "Strange Tales of Gods and Monsters" and felt a little strange: this time, unlike the last time when he sacrificed the vengeful ghost, he did not unlock any new Taoist techniques.

"Does acquiring Taoist techniques require special conditions?" he wondered to himself.

He quickly noticed the description of the "drowning ghost" in the book—it seemed to be able to come ashore and harm people with the help of other evil spirits. This perfectly corroborated the words of the drowning ghost before its soul was scattered.

When Zhou Yuan finished his journey through the underworld, he saw large water stains inside the house, and the drowned ghost was nowhere to be found.

"What is this?" Zhou Yuan picked up a copper coin from the water stains, but it was different from the copper coins people used. It had a series of hideous ghost faces on it.

This is a ghost money.

Through the original owner's memories, Zhou Yuan learned about its origin. Some wealthy families would use copper coins during sacrifices and funerals, which were called "yin coins." The origin of these yin coins was probably related to the person behind the scenes who sent drowning ghosts to their door.

"Who could want to harm me?" Zhou Yuan thought for a long time, but the original owner's memories did not show that he had any enemies with anyone.

It makes sense, considering the original owner was just a second-generation earth god engaged in a lowly profession; it was unlikely that he would have offended anyone.

But all of this is just too much of a coincidence.

He had been encountering evil spirits since before he even traveled through time, which clearly cannot be explained by coincidence.

"Could it be that scholar from earlier this day?" Zhou Yuan suddenly recalled the gaze he had noticed during Zhang Yingying's burial earlier that day. Unfortunately, he hadn't even seen the man's face clearly, and with no clues to follow, he put the matter aside for the time being.

……

"That scared me to death! That scared me to death!" Just then, the tiny "homebody ghost" that had just disappeared reappeared from nowhere, jumped onto the dining table, and patted its chest in shock.

"You're a coffin spirit, and you're afraid of ghosts?" Zhou Yuan found it amusing.

"Who says I'm not afraid of ghosts? I'm just a newly enlightened spirit, I don't even know the methods of cultivation, how could I not be afraid of such things! Wait until I've cultivated for a hundred years, and you'll see, I can take down these kinds of creatures with one punch each!" The palm-sized man argued righteously.

"You've really disgraced your kind of spirits." Zhou Yuan found it amusing that a spirit was afraid of ghosts. He then ignored him and began preparing to use the divination techniques from "Strange Tales of Gods and Monsters".

This series of encounters with evil spirits instilled in him a strong sense of crisis. Only by increasing his strength could he find security. Fortunately, he had just sacrificed a drowned ghost and obtained eight streams of Yin energy.

Let's begin the deduction.

Zhou Yuan incorporated eight streams of Yin energy into his deduction.

[In the first month, you continued to practice the Yin-Yang method, constantly exploring its application in conjunction with the Soul-Soothing Incantation. As your soul gradually stabilized and strengthened, you increasingly felt that the Earth God's Soul-Soothing Incantation contained some kind of profound mystery. You wanted to take it a step further, but you always lacked a certain spark of inspiration.]

[In the eighth month, you diligently cultivated, and your soul grew stronger day by day, but that glimmer of inspiration continued to trouble you. One day, you had a sudden inspiration and merged the Soul-Soothing Mantra with the essence of your soul, which ignited a blue lamp within your soul. You increasingly realized that behind this Soul-Soothing Mantra lay some profound and extensive Taoist technique, and you seemed to have entered the first step, but unfortunately, time was running out.]

You have learned the Taoist art: the Azure Lamp.

All eight streams of Yin energy were digested, and the deduction was completed. Countless insights into cultivation surged into Zhou Yuan's mind, and his divine soul became increasingly condensed and strengthened. The stronger his divine soul, the longer he could stay outside his physical body when he left his body to travel through Yin energy.

"It seems this soothing incantation isn't so simple after all; there's a secret behind it. Is it some kind of Taoist technique? Does this mean that if I keep deducing, I can deduce even more profound Taoist techniques?" Zhou Yuan's heart stirred.

With a thought, a faint blue light appeared in his palm. This light seemed to be shrouded in a layer of blue gauze, giving his soul a sense of peace.

These lights are invisible to ordinary people; only those with magical powers or spiritual abilities can glimpse their burning form.

"Get away from me! Take that thing away from me!" The tiny man who was still boasting at the dinner table about his future mastery of cultivation and becoming a great monster suddenly jumped up, flew to a corner in a flash, and pleaded with Zhou Yuan, trembling.

"Are you afraid of it?" Zhou Yuan asked. Seeing the little man nodding vigorously, he quickly realized: this Azure Lamp can ignite souls and is the nemesis of ghosts. No wonder the coffin spirit is afraid of it.

After Zhou Yuan retrieved the Azure Lamp, the room returned to calm.

The tiny figure then climbed back onto the dining table from the corner, still shaken, and said, "Your methods are even scarier than your Uncle Liu's! It scared the ghost to death! It's strange, I've never seen you learn Taoist arts before, how did you suddenly become so skilled?"

Seeing a coffin spirit acting like this, Zhou Yuan found it amusing.

"Do you know where Uncle Liu went?" Zhou Yuan suddenly asked.

"How would I know? He said he had to deal with a troublesome matter before he left, and that's all I know," the little man shrugged.

Zhou Yuan didn't ask any more questions. He had a vague feeling that his series of encounters after his transmigration were not accidental.

"Forget it, I won't think about it anymore. At least I have another trump card. But what level am I in this world now?" Zhou Ming was a little curious, but no one answered his question, so he let it go.

As for asking about the coffin spirit/little man?

Well, forget it then, it knows nothing about it anyway.