Chapter 160 Chapter 160: A Crowd of Ghosts with Numb Expressions

The female ghost was surnamed Bai and called Yuanniang. Her entire family were tenant farmers of the wealthy Xu family in Qingshan County.

Back in those days, the Xu family was wealthy and powerful. Most of the farmland in the entire Qingshan County belonged to them, and tenant families like the female ghost's were numerous.

Although being a tenant farmer was bitter, it at least provided a morsel of food. While it was not enough to eat one's fill, as long as there was no famine, starving to death could indeed be avoided.

Thinking that such a bitter life would drag on for a lifetime, she never expected that one day the Xu family's steward would suddenly come looking for them, along with five other honest and submissive tenant families.

The steward told them that the master of the house appreciated their honesty and diligence, and wanted to promote their families by having them guard an important treasure belonging to the Xu family.

As long as they were willing, not only would they no longer have to live that bitter life, but they would also receive the master's care and never have to worry about food and clothing again.

Without much thought, the families dazedly followed the steward to this place.

Upon arrival, they learned from the steward's mouth that what they were to guard was the Xu family's treasure.

At that time, the families even felt that the master was holding them in high regard.

They kept muttering words of gratitude for the master's trust, vowing that they would surely guard the treasure well for him.

At that time, they truly harbored no selfish motives whatsoever, even fantasizing that one day the master would come to retrieve the treasure, and in view of their dedicated service, would heavily employ them and elevate their children and grandchildren.

Even if they could not be as glorious as the steward, managing to secure a position as a foreman would not be bad either.

Recalling that emotional journey, the female ghost could not help but weep bitterly once more.

She thought about how she and her family had never harmed a soul throughout their lives, and even when slaughtering a chicken, they would perform rituals and chant scriptures for it—why on earth had they met with such an end?

This world was truly unfair.

Hearing the female ghost veer off topic, Xu Lin did not rush her to get back to the point, acting instead as a very good listener.

Qin Fang on the other end did not enjoy such treatment; she was so terrified that the roots of her hair stood on end.

What left Qin Fang most speechless was that when a major crisis struck, her system acted as if it were dead, offering no response at all.

Wasn't that infuriating?

Anyway, Qin Fang was furious. In her anger, she let loose a torrent of abuse, cursing the system for being utterly useless and a sheer scam.

Yet no matter how Qin Fang cursed, the system remained completely unresponsive, playing dead right to the end.

Fortunately, the little ghost harbored no malicious intent and simply kept playing with Qin Fang, finding her panic-stricken expression highly amusing.

The female ghost was not disturbed by Qin Fang's screams; she remained immersed in her own memories.

Amidst their profuse expressions of gratitude, the steward had servants carry over several tables of fine wine and delicious food, claiming it was specially prepared by the master to thank them.

The tenant families, who had never laid eyes on such magnificent food in their lives, were overjoyed. Someone even asked the steward if they would be able to eat meals of this caliber regularly from then on.

That steward was no good person either, actually lying to them by saying they could eat like this every day.

Good grief, not a single smart person could be found among those families; they all swarmed forward like a flock of birds, rolling up their sleeves to gorge themselves.

As a result, before they had even eaten half the food, they began to clutch their bellies and wail, soon bleeding from all seven orifices and dying in a heap.

That truly was all six families, fifty-eight mouths in total, with not a single survivor.

The scene was nothing short of tragic.

Yet this was not the end, but merely the beginning. Soon, masters draped in Taoist robes appeared on the scene.

After those masters busied themselves for a while, the female ghost discovered that she could no longer leave and was actually trapped here.

Naturally, the other wandering souls were similarly unable to leave and were all trapped here, with not a single soul going to report to the netherworld.

The place, which originally possessed fine scenery, became gloomy and chilling because of their presence.

From the conversations between the steward and the masters, they finally learned what kind of "guarding the treasure" they were actually responsible for.

Their purpose was to utilize their ghostly yin energy to prevent the treasure's aura from leaking out and to stop any masters skilled in geomancy from locating the treasure.

So in a sense, they were indeed guarding the treasure, but the price paid for guarding this treasure was simply too high.

The female ghost's speech was somewhat disjointed, and she probably did not even realize what she was talking about.

Xu Lin, however, successfully extracted the key points from it: namely, that there indeed was a treasure here, and furthermore, it was a treasure hidden by the Xu family before the founding of the nation.

This Xu family was truly cunning and possessed exceptionally deep pockets, hiding batches of treasures one after another.

Still, using yin energy to block the leakage of the treasure's aura—the Xu family possessed quite ruthless methods and a sufficient degree of cruelty.

They certainly had no fear of accumulating bad karma.

Who could have invited the masters who appeared later? They had actually wanted to obliterate this group of wandering souls, engaging in a back-and-forth battle for several rounds, until finally those so-called masters were scared out of their wits and fled in panic.

Of course, whoever invited them had nothing to do with Xu Lin. Since she had run into it, there was no reason to let this batch of treasures go.

Xu Lin looked in the direction of Qin Fang and shouted to the little ghost, who was playing happily: "That's about enough. Let her go."

The little ghost immediately glared furiously at Xu Lin, but under one murderous gaze from Xu Lin, it shrank its neck in fright, and the ghost maze instantly vanished.

Qin Fang screamed and ran wildly all the way down the mountain without looking back.

She appeared to have been frightened quite severely.

Rolling her eyes in disdain, Xu Lin turned her gaze back to the female ghost. "Take me to see your family and the other wandering souls. I will send you all off to reincarnation."

"Will you truly not harm us, and only send us to reincarnation?" the female ghost asked joyfully.

"I am not so devoid of character as to lie to a group of ghosts. Besides, if I wanted to kill you all, could you possibly escape?"

As Xu Lin spoke, a formidable aura emanated from her body, pressing down on the female ghost so heavily that she collapsed to the ground with a thud, flattening out like a dough cake and unable to get back up.

It scared the female ghost almost out of her wits, finally making her realize that the young girl before her was not only a master, but an extraordinarily powerful one.

As Xu Lin withdrew her aura, the female ghost, holding the little ghost's hand, trembled as she took the lead in walking ahead.

To ease the tension, the female ghost softly explained that this little ghost was her younger brother, who was a bit mischievous at ordinary times but harbored no malicious intentions.

His teasing of that young woman was actually out of kindness; after all, that young woman was merely an ordinary person, and walking into an area with chaotic magnetic fields would do her no good.

She might even end up tainted by yin energy and suffer a period of bad luck.

Xu Lin believed the female ghost's words, having sensed no malice from the little ghost either.

The mortal and the two ghosts quickly arrived at the center of the chaotic magnetic field, which was also the entrance to the treasure.

Looking at the surrounding ghosts floating about with numb expressions, Xu Lin admired how adept the Xu family was at choosing people.

These individuals had been weak and easily bullied in life, and their numbness persisted even after death; they had never once thought about how unfair the world was, or that they should transform into vengeful spirits to retaliate against society.

Tsk, Xu Lin hardly knew what to say.

The female ghost drifted over to her parents and whispered softly, casting furtive glances toward Xu Lin as she spoke.

Watching expressions of pleasant surprise bloom across the faces of that pair of numb spirits, Xu Lin curled her lips.

Originally, she had intended to console them with a few words of chicken-soup philosophy, but now Xu Lin felt that could be omitted.

This group of ghosts was truly too honest, lacking the slightest intention of resistance. As long as one did not intend to exterminate them entirely, they would never fight back.

Things turned out just as Xu Lin had anticipated. Hearing that Xu Lin had come to deliver them to salvation, the family surrounded her in joyous excitement.