Chapter 163: Living Burial (2)

I lacked the bleeding-heart compassion of orthodox cultivators, nor was I as deranged and bloodthirsty as the wicked ones. I merely sought the simplest, most effective means to achieve my goals.

The Fate Ghost crawled out of the Black Eyeball and lunged at the foreman. Terrified speechless, he could only tremble, his lips quivering as he scrambled desperately backward.

"Didn't you just say you wanted to see a ghost?" I clamped a hand around his neck and drove my knee against his thigh, pinning him in place.

The foreman's face turned ashen. The Fate Ghost was plundering his life force, tainting him with threads of yin energy. This was only because my Fate Ghost had not yet reached the Mahayana tier; if it had been Lu Xing's Fate Ghost, releasing it would have guaranteed the reaping of souls, demanding the lives of the living for a blood sacrifice.

"I don't want to see it anymore! I don't want to see it! I'll never look again!"

The foreman screamed like a madman. Seeing that my intended effect had more or less been achieved, I released his neck and stepped aside.

Covered in cold sweat, the foreman collapsed to the ground the moment I let go, unable to get back up for a long time.

"Foreman Zhang, are you alright?"

"What did you just see, Brother Zhang?"

Several workers gathered around with shovels and iron rods. Two of them struggled to haul the foreman up, supporting him until he sat on a brick by the fire to rest.

"Do any of you want to take a look too?" I retied the opening of the Black Embroidered Cloth Bag, my gaze sweeping over the construction workers.

They exchanged uncertain glances, unsure of what to do, before finally looking at Foreman Zhang, who had nearly been frightened out of his wits.

"What are you all looking at me for?" The foreman's voice still trembled. He sat by the fire but couldn't feel the slightest bit of warmth. His spine tingled as if something had crawled onto his back. Knowing something was there but being unable to see it—it was an agonizing feeling.

"Erdan, tell him about what happened these past few days," the foreman said, pointing to a shrewd-looking short man among them.

"Brother Zhang, didn't the boss say to keep a lid on this? If you tell an outsider and word gets out, who's going to dare buy a house from us later?"

"Just talk when I tell you to. Why do you have to spout so much damn nonsense?"

The short man reluctantly walked over to me. He snuck a glance at me and asked, "Are you really a Taoist priest?"

"Divination and fortune-telling, feng shui and geomancy, slaying demons and vanquishing devils—I am proficient in them all," I bragged without blushing or skipping a beat. Likely intimidated by my aura, the men put away their shovels and iron rods, sitting down by the fire with me.

"Actually, this whole thing is incredibly bizarre." Seeing that none of his fellow workers wanted to speak, Erdan had no choice but to bite the bullet and recount the strange events of the past few days.

"Last month, we got the job to bulldoze Guo Village and construct a new rural development. The original plan was a one-week schedule, but one household refused to relocate, no matter what. Rushing to meet the deadline, we had no choice but to demolish the other houses first. We never expected things to go wrong on just the third day."

I noticed Erdan's complexion pale and pressed, "What happened? Be specific."

"Someone died." Not only Erdan, but even the reactions of the surrounding workers turned strange. "When our bulldozer was leveling a building, the driver made a mistake and crashed straight into the occupied house. The old woman living inside was crushed to death on the spot."

"Why haven't I seen this in the news?"

"The developers paid everyone off to smooth things over. Besides, that old woman had no sons or daughters, not a single relative to her name. According to our boss, dead is dead—it even relieved the country of an elderly care burden."

"What kind of bastard logic is that?" I frowned. A human life had been lost, yet they brushed it off so lightly. No wonder accidents kept happening.

"We also felt it went a bit too far, but our boss is in a partnership with the Jiang family. No one dares to offend them, and the villagers kept their mouths shut after taking the money. So the outside world doesn't know about this."

His voice gradually lowered. "We originally thought that was the end of it, but who could've known that ever since the old woman died, accidents would strike the construction site every other day."

"Spraining an ankle or smashing a hand were minor issues. Just two weeks ago, while we were digging the foundation, one of our brothers suddenly went mad and jumped into the cement mixer. Everyone was scared out of their wits. By the time we pulled him out, he was already gone."

"Then even more bizarre things started happening. Especially at night, the brothers guarding the steel rebars and building materials would constantly see a dark shadow wandering the construction site, as if it were looking for something."

"At first, everyone thought it was a thief or a passing villager. But a few days ago, when I was on duty, I got curious and followed it around the site. Guess where that shadow finally stopped?"

"Where?"

"Inside the old house where that crushed old woman used to live!" Erdan's eyes flickered with anxiety, the firelight beside him barely enough to dispel his fear. "The shadow was right in the middle of those ruins, its hands scraping at the bricks and tiles, digging and digging!"

"I didn't think much of it at the time, just thought it was weird. Only when I got closer did I realize the shadow was wearing an old-fashioned yellowish-brown coat from twenty or thirty years ago, bundled up tight in the sweltering heat. Just as I prepared to take another step closer, the shadow vanished in a flash."

Erdan gestured animatedly, speaking with utmost gravity. "Later, I reported this to Brother Zhang. We asked the former villagers and found out that the old woman adamantly refused to relocate because she was watching over her husband, who had passed away more than twenty years ago."

My eyes narrowed. From what Erdan was saying, there seemed to be a hidden chain of karma behind this.

"Over twenty years ago, the old woman's husband died of illness and was buried right beneath Guo Village."

"So that's how it is. Your forced demolition indirectly killed the old woman. As a result, the Old Master she guarded for over twenty years harbored resentment, turning into a fierce ghost to demand your lives as repayment." I deliberately put on a troubled expression, while internally, I was actually thinking about how to take the Lacquered Wooden Coffin away.

"Do you know of any way to break this? If you can send that fierce ghost away, money is not an issue." Foreman Zhang threw a few more pieces of wood into the fire, but no matter how brightly it burned, it couldn't dispel the chill in his heart.

"This isn't about money. Provoking a fierce ghost is a major taboo for us cultivators. Furthermore, you were in the wrong first. A life for a life—even if you go to the Netherworld, they are the ones in the right."

"Are you actually capable or not? You keep rambling on and on, even bringing up the Netherworld now."

"I don't believe in this supernatural crap. You're all just scaring yourselves."

"Little Li, Huzi, don't speak nonsense," Foreman Zhang scolded them. He had seen the Fate Ghost with his own eyes. Forcing a smile, he handed me a cigarette. "Brother, if you really have the skills, then show us what you can do."

My eyes shifted, and I feigned reluctance. "It won't be easy. I just used Ziwei astrology to do a reading for you all. If you want to break this curse, I'm afraid we have to solve the problem at its root."

"Just say the word. As long as we can deal with the fierce ghost and stop delaying our construction, whatever you need in the future, just give the order," Foreman Zhang guaranteed, patting his chest.

"Alright then, but let me be blunt up front. Later, you do exactly what I tell you to do. Don't ask questions, and don't look around too much. Otherwise, beware of vengeful spirits possessing you and ruining your families!" I brushed the dust off my clothes and stood up from the brick, looking up at the sky while counting on my fingers. "The star map has shifted tonight. I fear something major is about to happen."

I stepped the seven-star footwork, walking in a circle around the fire before returning to my original spot. "Did Guo Village ever have a sugarcane field?"

"Sugarcane? Guo Village didn't grow sugarcane. There used to be some rice paddies, but we filled them in."

Before Foreman Zhang could finish, Erdan grabbed his arm. "Brother Zhang, about a hundred meters behind those two rice paddies, there really is a sugarcane field. It seems only the locals of Guo Village know about it. I only found out because they accidentally let it slip when I was asking about the old woman's family situation."

"There really is?" Foreman Zhang was somewhat surprised. He hadn't expected me to know something that even he, the foreman, didn't know.

"How could my tomb-exploring and dragon-seeking arts possibly be wrong?" I waved the men over. "Get up and grab your tools! That fierce ghost is hiding in the sugarcane field!"

Lighting our lamps, the workers and I stumbled our way over to the sugarcane field. The sugarcane hadn't ripened yet. Tall and lanky in a patch of green and yellow, the stalks swayed with the wind in the dark night, looking rather eerie.

"Taoist Brother, the fierce ghost you mentioned is hiding in here?"

"That's right." Holding a talisman, I pretended to chant a few incantations. "There should be a stone stele in this sugarcane field. The stele is neither big nor small, neither tall nor short. As long as we find this stele, the fierce ghost will have nowhere to hide."

"You aren't messing with us, are you?"

The sugarcane grew densely packed, and it was nighttime. Let alone a stone stele, you couldn't even see a person from a short distance away.

"Just go look for it. Every word I speak is a heavenly secret."