The so-called Ten Families referred to ten mysterious clans possessing special "techniques."
Disaster Relief, Shadow Carrying, Shadow Manipulation, Fortune Handling, Lamp Continuation, Netherworld Punishment, Life Severing, Ghost Commanding, Poison Refining, Scapegoat Shifting.
Each one was elusive like a dragon, rarely revealing their traces in the mortal world.
They couldn't be simply judged as good or evil.
For example, the Disaster Relief Chen Family specialized in "resolution," calming calamities and the Life-Severing Wang Family specialized in curse killings, severing life threads!
They excelled at using evil arts and curse shadows to cut their target's "life line" or creating various "accidental" deaths that seemed coincidental but were inevitable.
At this moment, the thing on the beam was undoubtedly the handiwork of the Life-Severing Wang Family!
This vicious method involved taking the purulent phlegm of a severely consumptive ghost and wrapping it in talisman paper.
It was hidden in a concealed spot where the target frequently stayed, then catalyzed day and night with a "Disease-Drawing Talisman."
Within seven days, the target would contract similar symptoms, but with bizarre pulse readings, immune to medicine and treatment, until their lamp oil ran dry.
Lu Yuan didn't care what commercial disputes the Life-Severing Wang Family had with Auntie Qiao'er but harming people was not acceptable!
Harming Auntie Qiao'er was even more unacceptable!
Lu Yuan didn't care about the Ten Families or their imposing reputation but they better not let Lu Yuan catch them!
When ghosts harmed people, they were evil spirits.
When people harmed people, they were beasts!
Lu Yuan looked at the materialized manifestation of the "disease source" and "Disease-Drawing Talisman" in the bagua copper mirror.
The urgent task was to extract the "source"!
This object was extremely filthy and absolutely couldn't be touched directly with hands.
Lu Yuan had prepared early. From the box he took out a pair of long-handled yin-patterned tweezers carved from lightning-struck peach wood.
He also took out a clay jar with the inside walls thickly coated with quicklime.
Left hand holding the tweezers, right hand forming the "Leaving Fire Incantation," pressing it against the tweezer body.
He softly recited the "Purifying Heaven and Earth Divine Incantation":
"Heaven and earth are natural, foul qi disperses..."
Before the incantation finished, the tweezer tip had already touched that dark green qi mass!
"Tssss—!"
A crisp sound, like red-hot branding iron suddenly plunged into cold water.
That qi mass violently contracted and roiled, actually emitting an extremely faint wail like an old person's final gasp before death!
The thunder patterns on the tweezers suddenly lit up with a faint glow, firmly clamping onto the talisman paper soaked in foul blood at the core of the qi mass.
Lu Yuan flicked his wrist, swiftly lifting it and precisely tossing it into the quicklime jar.
"Seal!"
He backhanded a "Filth-Suppressing Yellow Talisman" onto the jar opening.
Inside the jar immediately came a "sizzling" corrosion sound.
Accompanied by denser, teeth-aching tiny shrieks, but soon it completely fell silent.
The dark green disease qi on the beam lost its core. Like rootless duckweed, it began to scatter chaotically throughout the room.
Though the disease source was extracted, the disease qi had been connected to Zhao Qiao'er's blood and qi for many days.
Lu Yuan didn't dare delay. He immediately took seven small oil lamps and arranged them around Zhao Qiao'er's bed in the positions of the Big Dipper.
The lamp oil was no ordinary product either. It was pine resin collected during the winter solstice mixed with willow leaf dew from the Clear Brightness festival.
Lu Yuan took Auntie Qiao'er's boneless jade hand.
"Mm~"
Auntie Qiao'er let out a charming soft exclamation.
Lu Yuan's expression didn't change. He pricked her middle finger and squeezed out three drops of heart blood to drip into the lamp oil.
The "Life Destiny Seven Star Lamp" was complete!
When the lamp fire ignited, the flame core was actually a ghostly blue.
Lu Yuan stood outside the lamp array, his feet treading the Yu Steps, his hand shaking the "Awakening of Insects Bell."
The bell sound was no longer crisp but low and solemn, like spring thunder rolling deep underground.
With each step he took, he recited a line of the "Breaking Draw Incantation" at the disease qi floating in the air:
"The curse that feeds disease, its law has been violated, the Disease-Drawing Talisman, its path should be destroyed!"
"With your disease form, return it to that medium, with your disease momentum, reverse and return home!"
During the incantation, those gray-green disease qi seemed gripped by an invisible giant hand.
Thread by thread, they were forcibly absorbed into the seven ghostly blue lamp flames!
The lamp fire swallowed the disease qi, the color changing from blue to green, the flames jumping wildly.
Next came the most critical and most dangerous step.
Extract the disease root that had invaded Zhao Qiao'er's body, and through the "disease source's" common origin connection!
Guide it in reverse, trace it to the source, and cause backlash on the spell caster!
Lu Yuan finally understood.
From the little ghost in Ningyuan Town to the current "disease qi drawing," the Life-Severing Wang Family was determined to put Auntie Qiao'er to death.
He couldn't guard Fengtian City every day.
He must dig out these beasts hiding in the gutters and solve this once and for all!
However, this final step required a basin of "zi hour well water" just drawn from a deep well that hadn't seen the light of day.
zi hour was from eleven at night to one in the morning.
It was only afternoon now, so he could only wait.
Lu Yuan moved a stool and sat down beside the soft couch.
He turned to look at Zhao Qiao'er lying flat on the soft couch.
From the first moment she saw Lu Yuan enter the room, Zhao Qiao'er's soul-stealing beautiful eyes hadn't left Lu Yuan's body.
Those seductive eyes held autumn waters, as if she wanted to say many things. However, since Lu Yuan had just told her not to speak, she was forcibly holding it in then Lu Yuan pointed two fingers at Auntie Qiao'er's sexy collarbone and said, "You can talk, you can move, but you can't get off the soft couch, can't leave the Soul-Stabilizing Circle."
After speaking, Lu Yuan took out the old man's yellowed handwritten book, preparing to study the Life-Severing Wang Family's methods again.
During the two-day journey, he had only read most of it. The things recorded inside were scattered here and there, completely without organization, giving him a headache reading it.
Especially combined with the old man's terrible handwriting, it was really awful!
"Dear boy~"
A bone-numbingly soft voice sounded faintly in his ear.
"Auntie's hand hurts~"
"Blow on it for Auntie~"
Auntie Qiao'er's coquettish tone was truly seductive to the bone.
Especially such a sexy and beautiful top-tier mature beauty speaking to you in such an alluring manner.
An ordinary person hearing this would probably turn into a thoroughly fried small yellow croaker on the spot.
One touch and they'd shed crispy flakes.
Even Lu Yuan, an old hand with 3.0TB of Little White Bird content fully loaded.
Facing this ripe, top-quality honey peach before him that seemed to drip nectar with a squeeze, his mind swayed somewhat.
After all, those in Little White Bird were all acting, not directed at you and their looks were far inferior to Auntie Qiao'er's but now such an extremely sexy, peerless mature beauty was acting coquettish toward you right in front of you.
In the end, Lu Yuan was only high school age.
For a moment, a thought inexplicably popped into Lu Yuan's mind.
Was Zhao Qiao'er... really inexperienced?
Could the old man have been wrong!
She was way too good at seducing people!
Before he could think further, a pair of slender, fair hands with bright red nail polish were already extended before him.
On her middle finger, that spot of blood he had pricked was particularly eye-catching.
Whether Zhao Qiao'er was inexperienced or not could be discussed later but anyway, Lu Yuan really was...
For a moment Lu Yuan couldn't handle it and could only forcibly put on a stern face, eyes on nose, nose on heart, pretending not to care.
"It won't hurt in a bit."
As soon as the words fell, Auntie Qiao'er immediately cooed with extreme charm, "Dear boy~~"
"Feel sorry for Auntie~"
"Auntie's bottom still hurts~"
Her eyes were seductive as silk, her voice so soft it could wring out water.
"Be gentler when you spank next time~"
Lu Yuan: "..."
Lu Yuan didn't know how to respond when a cold woman's voice suddenly came from the doorway, carrying undisguised mockery, "I think your bottom doesn't hurt, your bottom is itchy and you want my dear nephew to poke around in there for you!"