"Furthermore," Yan said, "Considering that you only caused one incident in the mortal realm and it was unintentional, I can indeed go easy on you after criticizing and educating you. However, due to your unique situation, we can only release you back to reincarnate after we determine when and how that misfortune spirit energy invaded your soul."

Liu Erwa understood that Yan's promise not to pursue his crimes further was the greatest leniency he could receive. Therefore, Liu Erwa dared not ask Yan to let him return to Xiaoyong and Xufang.

So, trembling, Liu Erwa thanked Yan, "Thank you, Judge Yan, for your understanding and mercy! Erwa will actively cooperate with the investigation of the misfortune spirit energy in my body and strive to atone for my sins!"

"Good," Yan affirmed Liu Erwa's proactive attitude.

Then, Yan continued, "Next, let's figure out the origin of the misfortune spirit energy invading your body."

"How can we find out where the misfortune spirit energy came from, Judge Yan?" Seeing Yan's peculiar expression when he said this, Haoyun hurriedly asked.

"Uh..." Yan looked at Dao Lao and said, "As usual, we would first kill the target, then capture the misfortune spirit energy and investigate..."

Before Yan could finish, Haoyun anxiously interrupted, "Ah? So, we have to kill Erwa first, don't we?! Judge Yan, didn't we agree before! This operation follows my plan first, and if necessary, then your methods. But my plan hasn't encountered any problems yet, and Erwa hasn't shown any uncontrollable anomalies! Why do you want to kill someone so crudely again?"

"Hey, calm down, Haoyun! I didn't say we would directly kill Liu Erwa!" Yan felt that Haoyun misunderstood his intentions and quickly explained, "Since this mission is entrusted to you, we will respect your approach as long as everything goes smoothly. Besides, I'm very curious now about how the misfortune spirit energy entered Liu Erwa's body."

"According to the information you provided, Liu Erwa successfully escaped from the Soul Management Center's confinement room with the help of the misfortune spirit energy. If that's the case, then the problem is serious. Because the entire Spirit Realm has a more comprehensive defense system. Under this system's protection, it's difficult for the misfortune spirit energy to invade the Upper Realm openly, let alone escape from it."

"It is thanks to this mature and powerful defense system that the Upper Realm has not seen any cases of misfortune spirit energy invasion for a long time. Similarly, for a long time, there have been no cases of misfortune spirit energy under Upper Realm jurisdiction successfully escaping the Upper Realm."

"So, although Liu Erwa's case may seem straightforward, there seems to be a significant hidden danger behind it. Because I must find out how the misfortune spirit energy entered the Spirit Realm and took Liu Erwa to the mortal realm. Moreover, since the misfortune spirit energy seems weak, if it doesn't possess the ability to break through the Upper Realm's defense system itself, then who is helping it come and go freely in the Upper Realm?"

"Judge Yan means someone deliberately helped the misfortune spirit energy in Liu Erwa's body enter and exit the Upper Realm? Does that mean there's a traitor in the Upper Realm?" Haoyun asked seriously.

Yan shook his head in response, "Perhaps there is a traitor among us, or perhaps there is a more powerful misfortune spirit energy helping this weak one. It's also possible that the misfortune spirit energy has found another way to enter the Upper Realm."

"In any case, we must quickly extract the misfortune spirit energy from Liu Erwa's body and carefully investigate the cause. Otherwise, if the misfortune spirit energy takes advantage of this loophole to attack the Upper Realm on a large scale, the Spirit Realm will likely descend into chaos again!"

Seeing Yan looking at him again, Liu Erwa, kneeling on the ground, instinctively crawled back a few steps. His originally grayish face even turned pale due to excessive fear.

"Don't worry, we won't forcibly extract the misfortune spirit energy from your body, at least not for now." Dao Lao stopped Liu Erwa from continuing to retreat and said, "Although our usual approach would quickly force the misfortune spirit energy out of you, in the process, it would not only damage the misfortune spirit energy to varying degrees but also cause memory loss stored in it."

"If it were usual, we wouldn't care much about this. After all, our goal is simply to capture the misfortune spirit energy. But this time is different; I need to gather as much information as possible from the misfortune spirit energy in your body. For this reason, we must ensure its integrity as much as possible. Of course, if you don't cooperate with us, we won't rule out using more aggressive methods to extract the misfortune spirit energy from your body in the end. So, I hope you'll behave."

Upon hearing this, Haoyun finally understood why Yan and the others agreed to deal with Liu Erwa more gently. Besides Haoyun's reason that Liu Erwa was not an extremely wicked ghost, the main reason was to ensure the integrity of the misfortune spirit energy in Liu Erwa's body. Compared to saving Liu Erwa's life, preserving the memories in the misfortune spirit energy was the more critical option.

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Although Haoyun was a little angry that Yan and the others didn't inform him of their true intentions beforehand, upon careful consideration, he could understand why they did so. After all, Haoyun wanted to disarm Liu Erwa through face-to-face communication. If Haoyun knew too much and couldn't hide his other thoughts when facing the ghost Liu Erwa, who had already surpassed ordinary perception, Liu Erwa would soon detect Haoyun's intentions, and this operation would likely fail as a result.

Haoyun sighed helplessly, thinking to himself: There's no way around it. After all, I'm just a pure rookie now. Being used as a pawn by these three old hands is unavoidable and reasonable. Moreover, the actions of the three old hands may also be out of a form of protection towards him.

After realizing these truths, Haoyun no longer dwelled on the issue but curiously asked, "So, how do we force the misfortune spirit energy out of Liu Erwa's body?"

Dao Lao and the others couldn't help but ponder upon hearing this. It seemed that even for three experienced priests like them, figuring out how to expel the misfortune spirit energy from the host without using violence was challenging.

"Could it be... the only way now is to use love to influence Liu Erwa, to make him voluntarily expel the misfortune spirit energy from his body?" After pondering for a while, Dao Lao tentatively proposed his idea.

"Love? How do you use love to influence? Are you joking or serious?" Haoyun asked uncertainly.

"Of course, I'm speaking seriously!" Dao Lao rolled his eyes at Haoyun and said, "The reason why the misfortune spirit energy remains in his body despite not merging with Liu Erwa's soul is mainly because the misfortune spirit energy senses Liu Erwa's strong resentment. He resents his misfortune, resents the injustice his family and he suffered in this world."

"It is these negative emotions that provided the conditions and opportunities for the misfortune spirit energy to invade Liu Erwa's soul. If we can remove Liu Erwa's inner demons, help him dispel his resentment, and free his soul, all the negative emotions in his heart will dissipate. A pure soul will naturally repel the misfortune spirit energy full of negative energy. Moreover, a liberated soul will make the misfortune spirit energy lose its host. In this case, even if Liu Erwa's soul does not actively expel the misfortune spirit energy, the misfortune spirit energy will leave his soul voluntarily to avoid being harmed by the holy power."

"Exactly." Master Gu nodded beside Dao Lao, echoing his words, "In usual cases, because the strength of the misfortune spirit energy invading the host is formidable, under its influence, the host will also exhibit strong negative energy and deep resentment. Faced with such a host, it's challenging for us to expel the misfortune spirit energy from their body by removing their inner demons."

"However, due to Liu Erwa's fundamentally good nature and his weak spiritual power, coupled with the fact that the misfortune spirit energy invading him is also weak, it allows us to attempt to help Liu Erwa expel the misfortune spirit energy from his body by removing his inner demons."

"So, we need to find out what is troubling Liu Erwa's heart?" Haoyun asked.

"Exactly." Master Gu replied.

"But Liu Erwa's trouble is that he can't return to his parents, right? Obviously, we can't let him return to Xiaoyong and Xufang. Even if Judge Yan and Master Gu can find a way for Liu Erwa to become his parents' child again in the next life, he still needs to qualify for reincarnation. However, if we don't remove the misfortune spirit energy from Liu Erwa's body, he won't qualify for reincarnation. This—" Haoyun analyzed the current situation and helplessly shrugged, indicating that Liu Erwa's situation seemed to have entered an unsolvable dead end.

So, at a loss, everyone turned their gaze to Judge Yan, hoping he could find a solution to this dilemma.

After some thought, Judge Yan glanced at Liu Erwa, who was eagerly waiting for his words, and then said, "In my opinion, although Liu Erwa's trouble seems to stem from losing his parents prematurely and wanting to regain the lost love of his parents, it's actually because, from the final moments of his previous life, he has always believed that he was very unlucky. In reality, what Liu Erwa can't understand the most is why he encountered such a disaster at such a young age. It's precisely because of this that the misfortune spirit energy found an opportunity to invade his body and transformed him into a jinx ghost who can impose misfortune on others."

"So I think, perhaps the best way now is to let Liu Erwa go back to that time and, from the perspective of an observer, re-examine what happened in the final moments of his previous life, dispel his mistaken belief that he was the unluckiest person in the world, and accept the outcome of his previous life calmly."

"Judge Yan, are you suggesting that we should go back to Liu Erwa's previous life timeline and review what happened in his last moments?" Haoyun asked.

"No." Judge Yan replied, "Since those are events that have already happened, we can't go back to that period."

"Why not?" Haoyun asked, disappointedly. "I've read in other people's novels that they can freely shuttle between the past and the future."

"That's just fiction. But in the Spirit Realm, such behavior is taboo." Judge Yan explained.

"Why?" Haoyun asked puzzledly.

"Because frequent time travel to the past or future will burden the timelines of the Spirit Realm greatly. In severe cases, it may even cause instability in the timelines or temporal distortions. Therefore, unless encountering extremely special circumstances, we can only synchronize and jump to different timelines at the same standard time points based on the standard time of the Spirit Realm." Judge Yan replied.

Although Haoyun didn't understand what Judge Yan meant, he still made an "Oh" gesture with his mouth, indicating his acknowledgment, and then asked, "So what should we do now?"

"Our Archives in the Underworld will record all the experiences of a soul from the previous life after it returns to the Upper Realm. We can directly retrieve Liu Erwa's previous life information from there and recall the last moments of Liu Erwa's life." Master Gu said.

Seeing the four adults discussing the exploration of his previous life memories, Liu Erwa cautiously interjected, "The four adults may not know that although I feel unjust about myself and my parents, and indeed think we are very unlucky and have been transformed into a jinx ghost by the misfortune spirit energy after death, deep down in my heart, there is another emotion that fills me with resentment and negativity."