Bang!
With a tremendous crash, the wooden door of the side hall was violently flung open.
Lu Yuan had his back to the door, crouching on the cold stone bricks.
Holding a brush in one hand and dipping it in cinnabar with the other, his brush moved like dragons and snakes as he sketched intricate runes on the ground.
The night's cold air poured into the hall, yet he didn't even lift his head.
"The things Zhao Qiao'er gave, you're the one who told them to accept them?"
His voice was calm, yet carried a questioning tone.
"Something worth over a hundred thousand, you actually dared to nod your head?"
"How am I supposed to face people in the future? How am I supposed to repay this favor!"
A slovenly figure flashed inside. It was that alcohol-reeking old man.
He completely ignored Lu Yuan's complaints and walked straight past him.
A pair of turbid yet gleaming eyes locked firmly onto the black lacquered coffin in the center of the hall.
"If I didn't accept it for you, that steward surnamed Wang would have stood at the mountain gate for three days and nights. You believe that or not?"
The old man snorted. While speaking, he quickly walked to the side of the coffin.
"If you don't want it, just return it to her yourself later."
"You'll have to go to Fengtian City sooner or later anyway to break her delusion."
Before his words fell, his rough, calloused hand was already pressing on the coffin lid.
The instant his fingertips contacted the coffin wood, his brow furrowed sharply.
"This thing... what's the situation?"
Only then did Lu Yuan stop his brush, raise his head, and look toward the old man by the coffin, speaking concisely, "A Ghost Bride subjected to a ghost marriage."
"Had her eyes gouged out alive, tongue severed, legs cut off, and was nailed into the coffin using sinister techniques."
"I can't undo it. You do it."
After speaking, he lowered his head, preparing to continue drawing the formation.
"Ugh!"
The old man curled his lip in disgust and let out a strange cry.
"You think I'm some kind of immortal!"
"What kind of thing have you brought back for me to deal with!!"
Though his mouth was full of complaints, his actions didn't stop. His shoulder suddenly exerted force, forcibly pushing against the coffin lid.
"Creak—"
After a teeth-grating friction sound, the heavy coffin lid was pushed open halfway by him.
Borrowing the flickering candlelight and oil lamps in the hall, the old man stretched his neck and glanced into the pitch-black coffin.
Just one glance.
He straightened up, looked toward Lu Yuan crouching not far away, and resolutely spat out three words.
"Can't do it."
Lu Yuan seemed completely unsurprised.
Last night, he had personally experienced how troublesome that curse was.
He turned his head, stared into the old man's eyes, and asked again, "Then looking across the entire region beyond the pass, who can do it?"
"Would a Great Celestial Master work?"
The old man shook his head decisively and cleanly.
"Even if a Great Celestial Master came, they'd just be able to stare helplessly."
Lu Yuan's brow instantly locked tight.
"Even a Great Celestial Master can't do it?"
"Then the person who laid this technique back then, what kind of heaven-reaching methods must they have had..."
Regarding this statement, the old man shook his head and looked at Gu Qingwan inside the coffin, saying, "The person who laid this technique back then didn't necessarily have high cultivation. In my view, at most they were just a newly initiated One-Star Celestial Master."
Huh?
Lu Yuan was completely dumbfounded.
Celestial Masters were divided into five stars, with one star being the lowest.
"A One-Star Celestial Master could set up this kind of arrangement?"
"She's incredibly fierce now. A curse laid by a One-Star Celestial Master, and she can't break it herself?"
The old man shook his head and spoke mysteriously, "Not so, not so."
"This is what they call one thing restraining another."
"A greenhorn who just studied for three years, the corpse-suppressing talisman he draws can still pin a jiangshi that's cultivated for a hundred years in place, unable to move."
He paused, his tone becoming heavier.
"What's more, these sinister techniques on her body have long been like maggots on bone, clinging to her and absorbing a hundred years of malevolent qi."
"Over a hundred years, the fiercer she became, the more firmly established these techniques became."
"Now this thing has already grown into one with her."
"No one can deal with this now. Even if we invited that old bull-nose Shen Jizhou from Wuqing Temple, he could only stare helplessly."
Hearing this, Lu Yuan fell silent, lowering his head without saying a word.
The old man closed the coffin lid again with a muffled thud.
"Send it back to wherever you brought it from."
"This thing is extremely sinister. Don't get involved, you hear me?"
Lu Yuan still kept his head lowered, not making a sound. Only the cinnabar brush in his hand moved faster.
The old man stood by the coffin, looking at his stubborn disciple. He sighed helplessly and changed the subject.
"Almost at the Celestial Master realm?"
Lu Yuan nodded sullenly.
"Mm, just one step away."
"Alright." The old man nodded. "Don't waste these two days fooling around with this broken coffin. I've prepared two pieces of pink spirit meat for you in the storeroom. Eat them and hurry up and break through to Celestial Master."
Hearing this, Lu Yuan replied without lifting his head, "What's the rush? It'll happen sooner or later."
"Over twenty thousand coins, wouldn't it be better to save it to buy you wine?"
Using spirit meat to break through was purely wasteful. He had the system. He could just randomly perform transcendence on some evil spirit and level up. There was no need to waste this money.
He wasn't competing for some empty title of "youngest Celestial Master beyond the pass." However, the old man was uncharacteristically serious this time.
"This time is different."
"For this trip into the muddy waters of the Zhao family, you must go with the status of a Celestial Master."
Oh?
These words finally made Lu Yuan willing to raise his head. He glanced at the old man questioningly, then lowered his head to continue drawing talismans.
"What do you mean?"
The old man's voice lowered a few notches.
"When Wang Fu came the other day, I smelled something wrong on him."
Lu Yuan's hand holding the talisman brush paused, and he suddenly raised his head.
"There's a problem with the person?"
"The person is fine." The old man shook his head. "But on him, there was 'disease qi.'"
Disease qi?
Before Lu Yuan could ask further, the old man threw out another unfamiliar term.
"It's like the unique technique of the 'Life-Severing Wang Family' among the Ten Families: Disease Qi Induced Illness."
The Ten Families?
Life-Severing Wang Family?
What were all these things?
Seeing Lu Yuan's bewildered expression, the old man fumbled in his chest for a while, pulled out a yellowed handwritten book, and directly tossed it over.
"Before you go to Zhao Qiao'er's house, finish reading this."
"Focus on the 'Life-Severing Wang Family' section."
Lu Yuan instinctively caught it. It felt heavy in his hand. He didn't open it since the work at hand wasn't finished yet then the old man looked at Lu Yuan and raised an eyebrow, saying, "So these next two days, don't busy yourself with anything else. Hurry up and break through to Celestial Master first."
"Then hurry and go to Zhao Qiao'er's house."
"That Wang Fu has been affected by the Wang family's disease qi induced illness. Zhao Qiao'er probably can't escape it either."
"If you go late, or if you go without sufficient strength, your Auntie Qiao'er probably won't survive past the new year."
Hearing the old man's words, Lu Yuan nodded solemnly and placed the handwritten book in his chest.
It was rare for the old man to be serious. He had to treat this as a proper matter!
It seemed that tonight he must settle Gu Qingwan's situation, and tomorrow he'd have to work on breaking through.
After putting away the handwritten book, Lu Yuan looked at the old man with a somewhat strange expression and raised eyebrow, saying, "You're quite concerned about the Zhao family, huh?"
This old man spent all day either drinking or sleeping. He was usually too lazy to even glance at other people's business.
Today he not only cared, but was urging him to go. The sun must be rising from the west. However, the old man answered off-topic, shaking his head and muttering a sentence.
"Song Meiqin won't do."
Lu Yuan: "?"
What do you mean Auntie Qin won't do?
The old man smacked his lips and said again, "At the very least, she can't be the main wife."
"Your zodiac signs don't match, your eight characters clash."
"She'd be quite suitable as a concubine."
Lu Yuan: "???"
The old man remained oblivious and continued shaking his head, even revealing a satisfied smile on his face.
"But Zhao Qiao'er will do."
"The zodiac signs are suitable, the eight characters also match. She'll bring prosperity to her husband!"
"I looked at that woman from afar last year. Good for childbearing, that big rear end, she'll give you at least ten sons in the future!"
"She also has money and can afford to raise them!"
Lu Yuan: "?????"
Immediately after, the old man mysteriously leaned over, lowered his voice, as if sharing some earth-shattering secret.
"I also checked."
"Don't look at how she's a dozen years older than you, but she's a virgin, hasn't been through that sort of thing~"
"Boy, you won't be at a loss~"
BOOM!!
A thunderous explosion suddenly erupted between the two!
The heavy coffin lid that the old man had just closed was actually sent flying by a tremendous force from inside!
A blood-red figure, carrying bone-chilling coldness, eerily rose from the coffin.
[NEXT CHAPTER]