Chapter 196: No Buddha Dares to Save

"Old Liu, let me explain. There might be some misunderstanding between us." I patiently recounted the origin of the Lacquered Wooden Coffin to Blind Liu, then explained how the Old Master had come to me in a midnight dream, wanting my help to kill Wang Erjun.

"That's the whole story. Wang Erjun is a local tyrant who uses his wealth for evil. He indirectly caused the death of the Old Master's first wife. I couldn't bear it, so I decided to help the Old Master get his revenge."

When I finished, Blind Liu didn't respond immediately. Instead, he stared at me in doubt, as if trying to find guilt or deceit on my face. "Is every word of that true?"

"Absolutely true!" I leaned against the door. I thought about it for a moment, then realized something wasn't right. "I've never mentioned this to any outsiders. I acted cleanly and even managed to fool the police. How did you know?"

"After you killed the man, how did you dispose of the body? Did you put it inside this coffin?" Blind Liu frowned deeply, his fingers forming hand seals as he paced around the room.

"The police took the body. Besides, what use would I have for a corpse?" I followed Blind Liu to the Lacquered Wooden Coffin and noticed a faint smell of blood wafting from inside.

Blind Liu pushed open the coffin lid and grabbed a handful of the red mud inside. "Then it's strange. The soil in this coffin is mixed with flesh and blood, and its Yin energy is pure, naturally forming a Yin Gathering Array. Among all the worldly evil arts, only a blood sacrifice can activate this array in such a short time."

"Old Liu, you keep talking about a blood sacrifice. What exactly does that mean?"

Blind Liu pondered for a moment before dropping the red mud from his hand. "Heaven and earth are the parents of all things, while humanity is the soul of all things. The mysteries within the human body are endless. A blood sacrifice means using a living person as an offering—stealing their life essence, stripping their flesh and blood, and drawing out their brain marrow, taking every drop of their essence to worship ghosts and deities."

As he spoke, he took two outer garments out of the Lacquered Wooden Coffin. One belonged to the Old Master from Guo Village, but the origins of the other black Daoist robe were unknown. "A blood sacrifice requires a living person. You must have buried someone alive in this coffin! The facts are right in front of you. Are you still going to argue?"

He placed the black Daoist robe on the coffin lid, his fingers tracing the colorful venomous snake embroidered at the collar. "Although this person didn't walk the righteous path, their crimes were not worthy of death..."

"Old Liu, if I told you I have no idea how this robe ended up in the coffin, would you believe me?" I stared at the black garment on the lid. Suddenly remembering something, I grabbed Blind Liu and dragged him to the shop next door to check the surveillance footage.

On the footage from a few days ago, a dark shadow was faintly visible. The figure had been prowling maliciously around my little shop.

"This must be the guy the Lacquered Wooden Coffin swallowed. I felt someone sneak into the house that night, but I couldn't find any trace of him no matter how hard I searched. Thinking back on it now, he was probably swallowed alive by the coffin." I explained the events of that night to Old Liu, then pulled out the black ghost talisman I carried on me. "I tried to open the coffin that night, but no matter how much strength I used, the lid wouldn't budge. It wasn't until I helped the Old Master get his revenge that it could be opened normally. Aside from the black Daoist robe, this Talisman Paper was also inside."

"A King Yama Notice?" Blind Liu broke out in a cold sweat the moment he saw the Black Talisman.

"Is this thing very dangerous?" I asked, completely bewildered. I offered the Talisman Paper to Blind Liu, but he refused to take it.

"If King Yama wants you dead at the third watch, who would dare keep you until the fifth? Once this notice is issued, you will be plagued by malicious ghosts and endless bad luck. You might even encounter reapers coming to claim your soul or spectral soldiers crossing your threshold. What's even more terrifying is that this talisman is incredibly difficult to dispel. It won't stop until you're dead." Blind Liu calculated on his fingers for a long time but couldn't deduce a result. "Someone has concealed the heavenly secrets. The other party is also a cultivator, and their Daoist arts are far above yours and mine."

Only then did he finally believe my words. His expression softened significantly. "It seems someone snuck into your room late at night to deliver this notice to you. Because of a series of accidents, they failed to deliver it and lost their own life instead."

Blind Liu's tone grew odd. Standing next to the surveillance monitor, he looked me up and down. "You have an ordinary face, completely unrelated to great wealth or high status, yet you repeatedly turn calamity into fortune. In over a dozen years of fortune-telling, I have never seen anyone like you."

"Maybe my fate is just tough?" I lit a cigarette, knowing the misunderstanding between Blind Liu and me had been resolved.

"Your fate isn't just tough. It's like the edge of a blade—forging ahead with unstoppable force, cleaving through everything in its path." Blind Liu flattened his palm. "People have five physiognomies and five fates, just like five extended fingers, each with its own length. But on you, I only see a clenched fist. All your physiognomies and fates are grasped entirely in your own hands."

"I don't fully understand, but you're complimenting me, right?" I couldn't quite grasp Blind Liu's meaning.

"The matter of the King Yama Notice seemed like a gentle breeze causing no ripples, but it was actually extremely perilous, surging with hidden undercurrents. You were just one step away from eternal damnation." Seeing that I didn't care, Blind Liu shook his head and sighed. "The mark of violent death on the bridge of your nose hasn't faded. You could meet a fatal disaster at any moment. Furthermore, every time I divine your fortune, the hexagram shows either great calamity or absolute ruin. Your fate is truly treacherous. I have never seen anything like it in my life, so I cannot say much more. I only ask that you act with a clear conscience and retain a sliver of kindness. Otherwise, if you become a demon, no Buddha in this world would dare to save you."

"No one would be able to grant me salvation?" My fingers trembled slightly around the cigarette. "I'm just a self-employed guy running an Adult Shop. It's not as dramatic as you make it sound."

"I hope I'm just overthinking it. Still, it would be best for you to limit your contact with these Ghost Dao evil arts. Aside from the Fate Ghost, absolutely do not take in any other sinister entities, lest your mind be bewitched."

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." Steering away from the heavy topic, I pointed at the surveillance footage on the computer. "Look, what is this guy doing? He came out of the back alley, but why is he sprinkling white rice all around the shop?"

"He was summoning spirits and drawing ghosts." Blind Liu understood what the man was doing just by looking at his gestures and movements. "He wanted to drive wandering ghosts and wild spirits to murder you. It's just a pity that you are raising a Fate Ghost inside your house. All those ghosts were drawn to the Lacquered Wooden Coffin and ended up as nourishment for the Fate Ghost. This is what they call trying to steal a chicken but losing your rice."

The sequence of events was mostly cleared up. Blind Liu had known me for more than a day or two, so he had a fairly good grasp of my character. He knew I was incapable of committing murder just to refine an array.

We bought some food along the way and returned to the shop. After a few cups of liquor, any lingering misunderstandings vanished into thin air.

Seeing that the time was right, I copied down the Underworld Live Show's newly added item catalog for Blind Liu to look at, just as I had done last time. I originally just wanted him to look it over and give some advice, but who would have guessed that reading the first line would shock him completely sober.

"Dragon-Capturing Technique!"

"Old Liu, calm down. How many times has it been now? You should be used to it by now." I buried my head in my food, occasionally tossing two pieces of meat to Bai Qi. "Look closely, that's just a catalog. Besides, it remains to be seen whether dragons even exist in this world."

In my eyes, that Dragon-Capturing Technique Catalog, worth fifty-five points, was the most meaningless thing there. Dragons were illusory and ethereal, likely just a totem conjured by human imagination. If they didn't exist in the first place, how could there be talk of capturing them?

I shook my head with a smile and continued eating, but Blind Liu's reaction was the complete opposite of mine.

He put down his chopsticks and spoke to me with utmost solemnity. "Gao Jian, if you ever get the chance, you absolutely must learn this Dragon-Capturing Technique!"

Blind Liu's tone was strange. Hearing the hidden meaning in his words, I asked in confusion, "Out of everything, this book is the most expensive. The price to obtain it far exceeds what I can afford."

Just a single catalog required fifty-five points. To redeem the full set, I estimated I would have to survive another six or seven live broadcasts.

The further the Underworld Live Show live broadcasts progressed, the higher the danger level became. Whether or not I could even survive that many broadcasts was an unknown.

"I wouldn't deceive you. Once this technique is cultivated to completion, it will open the door to the Pre-Heaven Stage." Blind Liu downed the liquor in his cup in one gulp and removed his black blindfold, as if recalling a very distant story.

"The talk of capturing dragons is like pure fantasy. The world has only ever heard of horned dragons, flood dragons, coiled dragons, and mirage dragons, yet no one has ever seen a true dragon."

"If it were any other cultivator or Daoist master, they would likely scoff at the Dragon-Capturing Technique. But my Liu family is different."

Halfway through his sentence, Blind Liu suddenly stopped. This deliberate cliffhanger was truly annoying. I picked up my liquor cup. "Old Liu, you better speak clearly. If I really exchanged for this thing, I'm afraid I'd face a life-or-death calamity in three days."

I naturally had to be cautious about using all my points to redeem an item I couldn't even use.

"I didn't tell you to exchange for it right now, I meant in the future." Blind Liu placed his black blindfold on the table and cradled his cup with both hands. "If you can successfully cultivate this technique, my Liu family will finally be able to extricate ourselves from this massive tomb known as Jiangcheng!"