Chapter 165: Midnight Coffin Hauling

I waited alone by the grave pit. About ten minutes later, Er Gou arrived in his beat-up van.

"Jian Ge, you didn't sound right on the phone. What happened?" Er Gou led three of his brothers into the sugarcane field. They stood with their backs straight, each with a blade tucked at his waist.

"Can these guys be trusted?"

"Don't worry, they're my own brothers."

"Good." I stepped aside and motioned for them to come over. They swept their flashlights across the dirt pit, and when the beams hit the coffin, every one of them hesitated.

Er Gou also looked baffled. "Jian Ge, digging up someone's ancestral grave damages your karma!"

"Don't ask so many questions. Let's lift the coffin out of here first. The longer we wait, the more things can go wrong."

I jumped into the dirt pit first. Er Gou waved his hand helplessly, calling his men down to help.

"The coffin feels lighter?" With my palms supporting the bottom, I noticed a difference. When I first came down to open it, there must have been something else hidden inside.

"Hurry up!"

It took less than ten minutes from start to finish to shove the coffin into the van.

"Thanks for the hard work, brothers. I'll treat you to drinks once I handle this." I pulled out a hundred-yuan bill and handed it to Er Gou's men. "Sharing a ride with a coffin is bad luck. Do me a favor and take a cab back. Er Gou and I will handle the rest."

I had Er Gou drive while I sat in the back, steadying the coffin. "Er Gou, avoid the cameras. Drive around in a circle first before heading back to Ting Tang Road."

"Jian Ge, is this coffin some kind of cultural relic? Does this count as grave robbing?" Er Gouzi started the van. It was his first time driving around with a coffin, and the feeling left him on pins and needles.

"Real grave robbers are a lot more professional than we are. I have another use for this coffin, but I can't go into the details." I sat sideways in the back; the coffin took up most of the space.

Seeing me chatting away comfortably beside a coffin, Er Gou shivered. "A while ago you asked me for Talisman Paper, and now you're out here digging up coffins in the dead of night. Did you run into something evil?"

"Just focus on driving and don't ask so many questions." I gave him a few more instructions, mostly telling him to keep his mouth shut and not to leak the coffin's whereabouts.

When we arrived at the Pinnacle of Happiness on Ting Tang Road, I got out first, withdrew three thousand yuan, and handed it to Er Gou. Then, the two of us hauled the coffin up to the shop's second floor.

"Just put it here." It lay flat on the floor, parallel to my bed. It looked incredibly eerie.

After sending Er Gouzi off, I locked the shop door, drew the curtains, and sat alone beside the coffin.

"I spent five points to redeem a coffin. If someone sees it sitting in my room like this, how am I supposed to explain it?" I pushed the lid open. A few pieces of the deceased's clothing were still inside, all rotted and emitting a strange odor.

I turned on the lights and examined it thoroughly. Beneath the dead person's clothes, a thin layer of red soil was spread across the bottom of the coffin. It felt a bit damp to the touch. Bringing it to my nose, I caught a faint scent of blood and the stench of a corpse.

"Strange. This is clearly a cenotaph. There was no corpse inside the coffin, so where did the corpse stench come from? Is there something special about this dirt?" I grabbed a handful, sealed it in a plastic bag, and stuffed it in my pocket, planning to ask Blind Liu about it later.

It had taken a huge amount of effort to finally bring the coffin back, but with it sitting in my room, even sleeping became a problem.

The thought of a coffin right next to my bed—and one that was haunted, no less—banished all my sleepiness and left my heart pounding.

"I wonder how this thing is supposed to be used?" I pondered for a moment before slapping my forehead. I grabbed the clothes I had worn on the day I entered the Dream Realm. Right before Zichou died, he had given me a detailed book on array formations, and I remembered shoving it into my pocket.

"It's actually here!" Looking at the thread-bound ancient book in my hands, I couldn't help but doubt the reality of the Dream Realm again. "Guo Junjie's older brother's magazine and Zichou's ancient book were both brought out. Was I really just dreaming that night?"

I harbored my suspicions, but I'd probably only be able to confirm the truth the next time I entered a dream.

Flipping through the ancient book, I found that the entire text only introduced one array formation—the Three Infants Spirit Gathering. It utilized the innate attraction to yin energy possessed by infants born in yin hours and yin moments to gather yin energy and nourish ghost entities.

This was only the most basic type of array formation, but the conditions to set it up were extremely harsh. First, it required three condensed, un-dissipating yin-child Little Ghosts. Then, it needed the flesh and blood of infants born in yin hours and yin moments. Finally, it required a complete set of Nine Palaces Talisman Paper, as well as an array core capable of suppressing all the yin energy.

"The three yin-child Little Ghosts can be redeemed with points, and I have the Earth God Clay Statue for the array core. But the infants' flesh and blood and the Nine Palaces Talisman Paper are going to be difficult." My expression right now was probably no different from those evil cultivators, showing raw greed. If this array could be successfully set up, not only would the Fate Ghost benefit, but the Blood Fox inside my body would also recover faster.

"There isn't much time left until the next stream. I need to hurry up and study this."

In the latter half of the night, I placed the ancient book on the floor and fetched Lu Jin's Carved Dragon Jade Pen. Mimicking the diagrams in the book, I sketched the general array patterns on the floor of my room.

When the final stroke was completed—whether because Lu Jin's pen was truly extraordinary or because I possessed an innate talent for studying array formations—gusts of yin wind blew through the room. The temperature hadn't dropped, but a chilling cold seeped up from the bottom of my heart.

"The array formation is already showing initial results, but to absorb yin energy the way Zichou drew it, I'm afraid I still need more sinister yin items to fill it." I was just about to put away the Dragon-Carving Brush when the Black Embroidered Cloth Bag in my pocket suddenly dropped to the floor. The tightly tied mouth of the bag was now open, and a pitch-black eyeball rolled out, only coming to a stop when it bumped against the Lacquered Wooden Coffin.

"Could the Fate Ghost be getting impatient?" I picked up the Black Eyeball and cupped it in my palms. The scrawny Fate Ghost inside was screeching in excitement.

"Alright, then I'll do as you wish. I hope you don't disappoint me." I placed the Black Eyeball inside the coffin. The moment it touched the pale red dirt, it began to sink. In no time at all, it was completely submerged in the soil, leaving no trace on the surface.

After finishing all the work, I checked my watch. It was already past two in the morning. I closed the coffin lid, grabbed my sheets and blankets, and went down to the first floor.

"I'll sleep on the first floor for now. Once the Fate Ghost reaches the Mahayana stage, I'll move the coffin out." I scratched the fur on Bai Qi's neck and set up a bed on the floor next to him.

The lights in the shop went out, and the night reached its darkest hour.

At three in the morning, not a single car was driving outside on Ting Tang Road. It was excessively quiet.

The bars that usually stayed loud and bustling until late were all closed, creating an eerie atmosphere around the small shop.

Whoosh! A black cat darted through the pitch-black back alley. A moment later, a man walked out from the deep alleyway.

He wore black clothes with a colorful, venomous snake embroidered on his collar. This person was none other than the Ghost Friend sent by Jiang Chen and the fortune-telling old man.

Casually tossing aside the black cat's severed tail, he licked his bright red lips, keeping most of his body leaning in the shadows. "Dark clouds covering the moon—Heaven is helping me!"

He sat in the back alley, and after confirming that no one was around, he took out a packet of bone powder and sprinkled it around the Pinnacle of Happiness.

"If King Yama tells you to die at the third watch, who would dare keep you alive until the fifth? Is Jiang Shao someone you can afford to offend?" Ghost Friend was an expert cultivator of the Ghost Dao. This time of night was when the yin energy was at its heaviest, and it was also when his ghost arts were at their strongest.

"I'm only dealing with an ordinary person. There's no need to use this precious ghost talisman; an ordinary Talisman Paper will be enough." Brimming with confidence, he didn't use the black talisman the old man had given him. Instead, he pulled out over a dozen Lower Vehicle Talismans, then reached into his robes for a handful of wet rice soaked in some unknown liquid, and scattered it around the small shop.

"All ye ghosts and spirits, I offer you this tribute today. This food shall spread across the Ten Directions, for all ghosts and spirits to share."

Having finished his incantation, he formed hand seals and slapped the Talisman Papers onto the outer walls of the building, one by one.

Inside the shop, Bai Qi, who had been resting on the blanket, suddenly opened his eyes. His ears pricked up, and he bared his teeth at the surroundings, snarling.

A yin wind swept through. Without anyone knowing when they had arrived, several disheveled figures with lowered heads were now standing in the small confines of the room.

They didn't dare get too close to Bai Qi. After lingering in the room for a while, they slowly made their way upstairs, as if something up there was drawing them in.

The door creaked open. The disheveled shadows all gathered around the coffin in the room. They hesitated, indecisive, but just then, a narrow crack actually slid open on the Lacquered Wooden Coffin.

Ghost Friend waited outside the shop for a long time, but the ghosts he had sent out seemed to vanish like stones dropped into the ocean, failing to stir up a single ripple.

"What's going on?"