"Mom, what's wrong?" Doudou went forward and asked obediently."No… It's nothing, Mom's fine."
Doudou seemed to give Jiang Wenxin enough courage.
She stood up straight, pulled the girl into her arms, and sat down on the Sofa, holding her.
She took out her Mobile Phone, wanting to call her Husband and ask him to come back early, but she hesitated.
Because that old man was lingering outside their door. If Doudou's Dad came back, would he be in danger?
The thought of being haunted by an Evil Spirit from the movies sent a shiver down her spine.
She looked down at Doudou in her arms and asked, "Doudou, tell Mom, after becoming a Ghost, can you… do bad things?"
Hearing this, Doudou scratched her little head, then said, "Mom, I'm a good girl, I don't do bad things."
It seemed asking her wouldn't yield any answers, so she thought for a moment and asked again, "Do you see Grandpa Lu often?"
Doudou nodded at her words and said innocently, "Yeah, Grandpa Lu can't bear to leave Brother Zixu, so he circles around here every day."
Hearing this, Jiang Wenxin pondered for a moment.
She figured if Old Man Lu truly had the ability to harm people, he probably would have done so long ago. She hadn't heard of any family in this building having any trouble.
At this thought, she finally dialed her husband Tao Guangxia's number. Being a woman at home alone, she was truly a bit scared.
Without a man, she felt like she had lost her backbone.
"Husband, where are you now?"
"On my way, I'll be home soon."
Tao Guangxia's voice came from the phone.
Doudou immediately leaned in and called out "Dad," but Tao Guangxia on the other end didn't seem to hear anything.
"Then be careful on the road."
Jiang Wenxin urged him before hanging up.
However, she didn't put down her Mobile Phone, but opened Enterprise WeChat instead.
As an outsourced financial staff member, her position was not high, but her authority was immense.
In the company group chat, from the company's CEO to the ordinary employees, she could see everyone's information at a glance.
Although she didn't even know Shen Siyuan's name, she knew he was an employee of the Operations Department.
She opened the Operations Department group and scrolled down one by one. There were only about ten employees in total, so she quickly found Shen Siyuan's name.
How could she be sure it was him? Naturally, it was because everyone used their personal photos as their profile pictures.
As the largest Game Company in Binhai City, all of Glorious Animation's management was very standardized.
With a name, Jiang Wenxin could directly find Shen Siyuan's contact information and address in the company directory.
After finding Shen Siyuan's contact information, Jiang Wenxin dialed his number without any hesitation.
Meanwhile, Shen Siyuan was eating dinner while studying the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.
Dinner was brought up from downstairs: a serving of beef and egg fried rice and a bottle of iced black tea, a very simple meal.
One hand was shoveling rice from his bowl, while the other was twirling the tattered Ten Thousand Souls Banner.
Because he had devoured the Nine Nether Demon Lord, he didn't need to refine the Ten Thousand Souls Banner from scratch.
Using it was as natural as moving his own limbs, without any hindrance. It grew larger or smaller at his will, changing as he pleased.
The purple banner's surface was riddled with holes big and small, the edges of which were covered in scorch marks. Even the staff had a faint crack in it, looking quite miserable.
Shen Siyuan probed with his Divine Sense, trying to open the space inherent to the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, but it was like touching a black abyss, empty and seemingly wanting to Devour him whole, which scared him into quickly retracting his Divine Sense.
The reason Shen Siyuan had Divine Sense was also a power he obtained after devouring the Remnant Soul of the Nine Nether Lord of the Underworld.
It was similar to mental strength or telekinesis, but it wasn't strong; at most, he could only roll a ballpoint pen on the table.
But it was very useful.
With Divine Sense, he could see everything within a three-foot radius around him in 360 degrees without any blind spots.
With Divine Sense, he could look inside his own body, at his organs, his meridians, and every part of his being.
This would be a great advantage for him in Tempering the Physical Body and walking the path of External Cultivation in the future.
Of course, it wasn't that Shen Siyuan hadn't tried the method of Internal Cultivation.
With the cultivation experience of the Nine Nether Demon Lord, he was quite familiar with the process.
He could quickly enter a meditative state and absorb qi.
But when he took a deep breath, all he inhaled was Mundane Turbid Qi. It was like swallowing a mouthful of shit, nearly making him vomit out his internal organs.
He completely gave up on such a naive idea.
As for External Cultivation, Shen Siyuan also found a Method in the memories of the Nine Nether Lord of the Underworld called The Great Arhat Eighteen Forms.
This was a cultivation Method obtained after the Nine Nether Demon Lord destroyed a Buddhist sect called Xiaonalantu Temple.
This cultivation Method was somewhat similar to modern yoga.
It consisted of eighteen sets of movements. With sufficient food, diligent practice without stopping could lead to physical transcendence.
And in modern society, the one thing not lacking was food, especially high-energy foods. So this technique was, for now, the most suitable for Shen Siyuan.
However, this technique could only be cultivated to the Marrow Cleansing realm. But for modern society, that was more than enough.
And these realms were also divided according to the cultivation realms of The Great Wilderness. The path of External Cultivation was divided into Whole Force, Muscle Growth, Tendon Refining, Bone Forging, Marrow Cleansing, Blood Replacement, Orifice Opening, and Earthly Immortal.
However, according to the realm divisions of The Great Wilderness, with the resources of the modern world, the last three levels were basically impossible to achieve. So for Shen Siyuan, it didn't matter whether he had the subsequent techniques or not.
Shen Siyuan tried the first movement, and sweat poured down him like rain. His whole body trembled, and he could barely catch his breath.
This body was simply too weak; he couldn't even perform the first movement.
There were two options now.
One was to persist with Exercise Training and improve his physical fitness. This would be a very long process, and the results might not be good.
The other method was to repair the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, open its internal space, and obtain the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures plundered by the Nine Nether Demon Lord.
As Shen Siyuan was thinking, his Mobile Phone rang.
He picked it up and saw it was a call from his Mom.
"Xiaoyuan, have you eaten dinner yet?"
As soon as the call connected, his Mom, Huang Huijuan's, booming voice came through.
This was his Mom's habit; she always spoke very loudly on the phone, as if afraid the person on the other end couldn't hear.
"I'm eating now.
What's up?"
Shen Siyuan knew that if his Mom had nothing important to say, she would definitely not call him.
"Are you free this weekend? Can you come back for a trip?" Huang Huijuan said.
"Is something wrong?" Shen Siyuan asked with some surprise.
Shen Siyuan's Hometown was not far from Binhai City, just over an hour's drive.
So Shen Siyuan often went back home. Therefore, it was unlikely that Huang Huijuan was asking him to come home just because she missed him.
"I pickled some salted long beans. Come back and take some to eat," Huang Huijuan said.
"You're lying, Mom. Tell me the truth."
With his Mom's stingy nature, there was no way she would make him make a special trip for some pickles; it wouldn't even cover the travel fare.
"Is that how you talk to your mother? Would I lie to you?"
Huang Huijuan got agitated on the other end of the line, her voice rising an octave, making Shen Siyuan's ears buzz. She really had a strong voice.
"Tch~, the last time I came back, you tricked me by saying the milk in the Refrigerator was freshly bought. I drank it and got diarrhea, only to find out later it was already expired."
"I just didn't want it to go to waste.
It was only one day past the expiration date. How was I to know it had spoiled? You can't blame me," Huang Huijuan said.
"Then why didn't you let Dad drink it?"
"I was afraid he'd get a stomachache."
"You're really… Am I your biological son?" Shen Siyuan was speechless.
"I don't know, you'll have to ask your grandma about that."
"You don't know if I'm your son, and you have to ask my grandma?"
"Because when I gave birth to you, it was your grandma who delivered you.
I've always suspected I gave birth to a girl, but your grandma likes boys, saying she wanted a successor for the Shen family line. I suspect she might have swapped you…"
"Why would you think you gave birth to a girl?"
"Because of the saying 'sour for a boy, spicy for a girl.' When I was pregnant, I loved to eat spicy food."
"That's because you always like to eat spicy food.
Don't give me that, just be honest with…"
Before Shen Siyuan could finish speaking, the line on the other end went dead with a click.
Obviously, Huang Huijuan didn't want to say, and was too lazy to find another excuse, so she chose to just hang up.
Staring at the disconnected call, Shen Siyuan was speechless.
His Mom, Huang Huijuan, was an elementary school teacher, so her personality had a bit of a childish streak.
Even in her fifties, she could sometimes be flighty. At home, it was always he and his father who had to coax her.
Just then, the phone rang again. Shen Siyuan thought it was his Mom calling back to "repent," but he'd thought too much.
It was an unfamiliar number.