Chapter Thirty-Six: The Ultimate Yin Vein

The Taoist nun hardly exerted any effort before snatching me away and, in a tone bordering on madness, declared, “I wasted so much time, but in the end, the Nine Yin Fate has fallen into my hands. However, the yin energy of those who died in East Gate Village has dispersed, so blood sacrifice is no longer possible. It seems I’ll have to start with White Street instead!”

“You, after killing more than three hundred people in East Gate Village, isn’t that enough? Do you intend to bring disaster upon the people of White Street as well?”

At that moment, my grandfather, who had been holding his head and wailing, suddenly stopped. He looked at the Taoist nun with a twisted expression as black veins began to spread across his face.

The Taoist nun’s face changed drastically. She clutched me and repeatedly retreated, questioning in disbelief, “How could this be?”

“The Book of the Underworld records forbidden arts unknown to the world,” my grandfather said darkly. “Yet not just anyone can learn these forbidden arts, for they themselves carry a curse. Only someone with the Nine Yin Fate can learn them without being damned, isn’t that so?”

“But don’t forget, my grandson has the Nine Yin Fate.”

The Taoist nun seemed to realize something, retreating in terror. “Could it be that you…”

“That’s right. My grandson has the Nine Yin Fate, my son has the Nine Yin Fate, and so do I. The Wu family, coffin makers for generations, all bear the Nine Yin Fate!”

With these words, my grandfather let out a beast-like roar. The black veins spread across his entire body, and moving with unnatural speed, he seized the Taoist nun by the throat and lifted her high into the air.

Terrified, the Taoist nun stammered out that the Nine Yin Fate could not survive a hundred days. How then had the Wu family’s line, generation after generation, endured?

“Is it so strange? Who told you the Nine Yin Fate cannot survive a hundred days? If my grandson does not change his fate, it’s true he cannot live past a hundred days—born with the Nine Yin Fate, conceived of a corpse, born in a coffin for a ghost marriage on a yin year, yin month, yin day. He is not merely Nine Yin Fate, but a Nine Yin Severed Vein!”

“Nine Yin Severed Vein?” The Taoist nun was dumbfounded. “A fate that appears only once in a millennium, spoken of in legend! Since ancient times, the Daoists have said there are Three Yin, Six Yin, and Nine Yin Severed Veins—all supreme fates cursed by the heavens. Three Yin dies before eighteen, Six Yin before nine, Nine Yin before a hundred days. But if any of these severed veins can change their fate, their future will be nothing short of miraculous!”

She had never expected, through her own miscalculation, to have created a Nine Yin Severed Vein, rare as a blue moon!

At this point, my grandfather, now covered in black veins and utterly deranged, fixed his blood-red eyes on the Taoist nun and demanded, “Tell me, what is the secret of the Book of the Underworld? You orchestrated a blood sacrifice at such cost—what are you really after? What is hidden beneath the East Gate Reservoir?”

Although the Taoist nun was completely at his mercy, she showed no fear in the face of his threats. She laughed shrilly, taunting, “Wu Zhenlong, you cannot destroy me; you never will. Even if you kill me, I will find a way to annihilate all of White Street and complete my blood sacrifice!”

My grandfather frowned and, in that instant, snapped her neck. At the same moment, a yellow talisman appeared in his hand, which he immediately pressed upon her forehead.

After killing the Taoist nun, my grandfather used a method from the Book of the Underworld to break the curse on Zuo Daoyin and the others. However, none of them showed any relief. Instead, anxiety was written across their faces as they stared at the Taoist nun’s corpse, confusion in their eyes.

“We don’t know what evil arts this Taoist nun practiced. Even in death, her yin spirit remains. With our current ability, we cannot eradicate her spirit completely,” Zuo Daoyin said.

The medium, Luo Xiu, sighed repeatedly. “This talisman can only seal her yin spirit within her body for twenty-four hours. If we cannot destroy it within that time, her spirit will become a vengeful ghost, her power tenfold greater. Then not just us, but all of White Street will die at her hands.”

My grandfather said nothing. He picked me up and left at once, giving a glance at the unconscious Yang Li as he turned to Zuo Daoyin. “Yang Li was born with the Purple Star Fate. I had intended to use her to change my grandson’s destiny. Now, I have changed my mind. I will take twenty years of her lifespan in exchange for twenty years for my grandson. After twenty years, fate will decide the rest. As for the Taoist nun, I will return here at this time tomorrow night and seek out a method from the Book of the Underworld to seal her spirit.”

Reading up to this point, I felt a chill sweep over me. I realized that I was not merely of the Nine Yin Fate, but a Nine Yin Severed Vein. Now, twenty years had passed—was I about to die?

The scene shifted to the following night.

My grandfather had found a method in the Book of the Underworld to seal the Taoist nun, but it was an exceedingly cruel one: the Living Sacrifice.

The Living Sacrifice meant using the blood of a living person as a vessel for the seal, imprisoning the Taoist nun’s yin spirit within a living body. Before this, another forbidden ritual from the Book of the Underworld was required to extract the nun’s Dao body and seal it elsewhere.

For the sake of the greater good, the medium Luo Xiu volunteered to become the vessel. My grandfather and the others extracted the Taoist nun’s Dao body and sealed it inside a large red coffin, affixing sixteen yellow talismans to the coffin and nailing it shut with seven iron spikes each a finger’s length.

After sealing the Dao body, my grandfather then imprisoned the Taoist nun’s yin spirit within Luo Xiu’s blood-sacrificed body.

At this point, everything became clear. No wonder Zuo Daoyin always insisted that the woman imprisoned in his attic was not his wife, Luo Xiu. In truth, Luo Xiu had committed suicide on the night of the Living Sacrifice, and the Taoist nun’s yin spirit had been sealed within her body ever since.

I also understood why Zuo Daoyin kept his wife Luo Xiu locked away, gouged out her eyes, cut out her tongue, and turned her into a living corpse. It was to prevent the Taoist nun from committing suicide. Luo Xiu’s soul, after leaving her body, hung by a single breath at her throat, keeping her in a state between life and death. As long as this breath remained, her body would not decay and could suppress the Taoist nun’s spirit.

If this breath ever dissipated, the formation of the Living Sacrifice would be broken, and the Taoist nun would escape from Luo Xiu’s body.

A cold sweat broke out down my back. By now, I understood all that had transpired.

Twenty years ago, my grandfather and the others sealed the Taoist nun’s spirit. Twenty years later, she intended to rise again. I recalled hearing Zuo Daoyin say that the most common way for a ghost to kill is through spiritual illusion, driving people to commit suicide under its influence. By now, the Taoist nun, having become a vengeful ghost over two decades, must have developed formidable powers of spiritual control.

The woman who first came to my family’s coffin shop never existed at all; she was a phantom conjured by the Taoist nun’s mental illusion. Her power was so great that it had spread over all of White Street.

When I visited Zuo Daoyin’s house and was sent to make a paper coffin for the Wang family, it wasn’t Zuo Daoyin I met, but the Taoist nun making me hallucinate, her goal being the extermination of the Wang family.

She wanted the Wang family dead so that Wang Feiyang would be driven by hallucinations and, upon his grandmother’s dying instructions, would lead us to Zuo Daoyin’s attic.

Having successfully lured us there, she then fed us a false truth, tricking Wang Feiyang into slashing Luo Xiu’s throat. When the breath at Luo Xiu’s throat dissipated, the Taoist nun’s spirit escaped her body. At that moment, she realized the first step of her plan, and the true vengeful ghost appeared.

Meanwhile, the Taoist nun concocted the story that the female ghost was Yang Li, the Purple Star Fate, seeking revenge, and revealed to us a supposed method to break the curse, all to drive Wang Feiyang and me to unearth the coffin and retrieve her Dao body.

Zuo Daoyin tried to stop us, but failed to explain. One reason was that we were already too deeply enchanted to believe anything he said; another was that he himself had fallen under the Taoist nun’s spell. He didn’t have time to tell us the truth before he was burned to death by the nun, who had just escaped from Luo Xiu’s body.

In the end, Wang Feiyang and I, two naive fools, were completely manipulated by the Taoist nun, not only releasing her spirit from Luo Xiu’s body but also retrieving her Dao body for her.

At this point, my heart was in utter turmoil. As my thoughts raced, darkness fell before my eyes and I once more heard the voices of Wang Feiyang and Lu Li!