Chapter 390: The Sixth of the Ninth Lunar Month

"Do you believe me now?" I shoved the phone into my pocket. "You saved a wanted criminal, fell for his slander, and tried to kill me. You played right into his venomous scheme to do his dirty work for him."

The raft headed back the way it came, and He Bo brought Du Yu out.

"As long as the misunderstanding is cleared up," Du Yu said, sitting on the raft with a smile as he fiddled with the chipped phone Wang Xian had left behind. "Mr. He just wanted to punish evil and promote good, but he ended up doing a bad thing with the best of intentions."

"No profit, no early rise. He went through all this trouble to tie several murderers together, so he definitely has an ulterior motive." I still harbored resentment toward He Bo. That day, Lu Xing and I had fallen from the Lanjiang Dam. Lu Xing had knife wounds; even if he luckily survived the fall, he couldn't have escaped far and would have ultimately been caught by the police. Of all the people he could have run into, he just had to meet He Bo.

As he rowed the raft, He Bo frowned deeply. After a long while, he sighed. "You really can't blame me. Although that Lu Xing has the visage of great evil, he is protected by the light of Buddha and possesses profound fortune. Even if I hadn't saved him, he probably wouldn't have died. You, on the other hand, have the look of an early death. You're entangled in yin energy and severely lacking in merit. No matter how you look at it, you seem like someone guilty of the most heinous crimes."

His words annoyed me, but it was hard to argue back. I couldn't exactly tell him that I was working for a corrupt Live Show that had taken all my merit, and that I had accidentally released a Ghost Mother, plunging my merit straight into the negative five hundreds.

"Excuse me, Mr. He, but what is this merit you just mentioned? Can you see the merit on us?" Du Yu had just returned from abroad. Even if he had heard of things like water ghosts and merit, he wouldn't know much about them.

"Merit can't be seen or touched, but it manifests through a person's essence, qi, and spirit." He Bo's expression softened a bit.

"How should I put it? Merit can be understood as a kind of karmic reward, a protection granted by heaven and earth to those who have done good deeds. For a person, it means their wishes come true, diseases are dispelled, wisdom and enlightenment are gained, and they enjoy health and longevity. For one's destiny, it fills them with true qi, clears their meridians, eliminates karma, and offsets cause and effect. There are millions of ways to use merit, and to this day, no one dares to claim they completely understand it."

After he finished speaking, he sighed again. "To tell the truth, I gathered the eleven of you together precisely for merit. Every single one of you is plagued by karmic obstacles and has negative merit. Killing you is called eliminating a menace. Getting you to repent while killing you is accumulating virtue. Taking it a step further, if your repentance allows the wronged yin souls to pass on, then that is a massive deed of merit."

"So you kidnapped us and brought us to this place?" I glared at He Bo. God only knew how many lives this seemingly honest corpse retriever had on his hands; his appearance was just a disguise.

"Wasn't this all a misunderstanding? We water-suppressing yin officials deal with corpses and yin souls every day. If our Yang Flame isn't vigorous and we don't have merit to protect us, it's very easy to have an accident. I don't have children or apprentices, and I'm the only person living in He Family Village now. With no successor, I absolutely cannot afford to have an accident." He Bo grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth. "Let's say that Out of Blows Grows Friendship. I'll keep your secrets, and you don't leak what's going on here. Once you get out, I'll give you some good treasures as compensation."

The raft rounded the final bend, and a ray of sunlight fell on us, driving away the mist and the cold.

The view ahead suddenly opened up. The water met the sky, and the broad surface of the river reflected the steep green mountains on both sides.

"The government wanted to build the Lanjiang Dam and diverted the river channel. There was nowhere to put the floating corpses, so I sealed them inside this bomb shelter. I suppose it counts as putting waste to good use."

A motorboat was parked next to the cave entrance. He Bo had us all get on it. "We'll be at my place in ten minutes. If you have any questions, ask them quickly. After this, we won't bother each other, and we won't see each other again."

His words reminded me that I actually had a few questions I still couldn't figure out. "Since you're the organizer, you should know the backgrounds of all eleven participants. Tell me, what kind of person is Number Eight?"

"Number Eight?" He Bo's voice paused. As if afraid he wouldn't be able to control his expression, he quickly turned his head to look at the river water. "Out of all you participants, except for you, whom Ah Fu specifically mentioned, the rest were chosen based on the wronged yin souls."

"Wronged yin souls?"

"Ghosts and monsters with heavy grievances possess considerable power themselves. As long as you can fulfill their wishes, they will listen to you. Number Eight is from out of province, so no information on him could be found in Jiangcheng. I didn't know his name either; I just found him by following the guidance of a yin soul. Thinking back on it now, that yin soul was indeed a bit strange. It had already developed sentience, and after I tied up Number Eight, it disappeared."

He Bo's words were ambiguous, and I couldn't glean any useful clues from them. "Why did you have to choose this specific day to hold the game? Is there some special meaning?"

"In the I Ching, 'six' is designated as a yin number, and 'nine' is designated as a yang number. On the ninth day of the ninth month, the sun and moon are both yang, and the two nines overlap. Thus, the ninth day of the ninth lunar month is called Double Ninth, which is the Double Ninth Festival we celebrate in the Yang Realm. On the day of Double Ninth, Yang Qi is at its peak. Lonely souls and wild ghosts don't dare to run rampant; they hide in deep mountains and old pools, not daring to show their faces until the sixteenth of the ninth month."

He Bo looked at the rolling waves and spoke casually.

"Yesterday was the fifth day of the ninth lunar month. The Yang Qi in the human world rises, and the yin energy sinks. Lonely souls and wild ghosts begin to look for hiding places. There is a Yin Meridian at the bottom of the great river, coursing with yin energy, making it the best hiding place for ghosts and monsters. We water-suppressing yin officials have guarded this place for generations to prevent massive numbers of ghostly creatures from drilling into the Yin Meridian and triggering immeasurable disasters. I picked out some of the most powerful ghostly creatures to pacify first.

When the night of the sixth arrives and all yin goes into hiding, it will save me a great deal of effort."

"That makes some sense, but aren't you afraid they'll collectively riot since you sank all those corpses and yin souls into the bomb shelter?" I thought of the massive number of corpses inside the bomb shelter and rolled my eyes. "There are at least a few hundred corpses in there. If they all undergo corpse reanimation and turn into water ghosts, you wouldn't be able to suppress them even if you were immensely capable."

"They won't. The black ropes around the waists of those floating corpses are stained with the He family's demon-subduing blood. The river-sinking stones used are all mountain rocks that have been bathed in sunlight for a thousand years, making them heavy, solid, and full of yang. On top of that, I have the River God Water Seal. On this great river, my word is law." He Bo steered the motorboat with one hand, letting the river breeze tousle his hair.

This should have been a very imposing statement, but contrasted with his dark, skinny physique and the filthy set of work clothes he wore, it felt highly unconvincing.

"Let's hope so." I took off the Brooch, pulled out the Underworld Live Show's Large-Screen Phone to switch the viewing angle, and suddenly realized the broadcast was still running. "This is my first time shooting from a third-person perspective. I wonder if the livestream viewers are used to it."

This broadcast was rather unique. I had zero interaction with the livestream viewers the entire time, yet my popularity hadn't dropped too severely, and the bullet comments hadn't decreased at all.

Although the livestream viewers couldn't communicate with me, they were having a great time on their own. I didn't know what they had been saying earlier. Right now, with the live stream about to end, some livestream viewers were discussing relationship issues.

"Streamer, I went through a breakup. I originally wanted to watch your stream to learn some advanced ways to die so I wouldn't be mocked by other ghosts after death, but I'm very disappointed."

My Surname Is Chen From Next Door: "Young man, a breakup is nothing! Don't go looking for death all day long; you need to be strong! Let your big bro tell you, just a week ago, I caught my wife cheating with my own eyes! Can you understand that feeling? We were in love for five years! A full five years! The affection I gave with all my heart and soul was exchanged only for deceit! I couldn't even numb myself with alcohol. Even when I realized I was drunk, I would still subconsciously call out her name. I can't leave her, so I can only swallow my anger!"

"My heart aches for you for one second."

"What happened to the supernatural broadcast we were promised..."

"Of course you have to choose to forgive her!"

My Surname Is Chen From Next Door: "You guys won't understand. Not only did she ignore my pleas, but she even wanted to bring her lover home to live with us. Could you endure that?! She not only brought her lover home to live with us, but she also made me cook and wash clothes for the two of them. Could you accept that?! Damn it! After being together for so long, I just found out that my wife's lover was actually my first love goddess from high school!!"

Master Tieling Biao tipped the Super Thriller Live Broadcast Room 1 Yuanbao: "Caught off guard!"

Jiangcheng Veteran Driver: "Comrade Traffic Police, I'd like to report someone overtaking on a curve."

"This plot twist... Even Hunan TV wouldn't dare to shoot it like this..."

Socrates Paradox: "I just logged on. What happened?"