The feng shui of the swallow's nest was auspicious, and Lv Xiulin secured the twenty billion order.

Without hesitation, Lv Xiulin immediately transferred ten million to me and invited me to a banquet, treating me as an honored guest.

I do love money, but I declined the banquet because my troubles were not yet resolved.

"Mr. Lv, I want to go to the Huangnigu Mass Grave to take a look. Can you arrange it for me?" As we were descending the mountain, I noticed that it was still early and made my request.

Lv Xiulin's expression became serious. "No problem. Shijin Mining has agreed to suspend work, and I've found the person who dug up the Wanling Evil for Huang Yawen. Do you want to deal with him?"

"No, let him guide me to the Mass Grave." I had an idea, and it would be best to have a guide.

Lv Xiulin nodded and added, "That person is Deng Quan. He used to be a group leader at the Shijin branch factory. After digging up the Wanling Evil, he fell ill and has been confined to his home. I heard he's gone mad."

I understood. Deng Quan had worked for Huang Yawen, digging in the Mass Grave for money, and most likely came into contact with something unclean.

I asked for Deng Quan's address and then bid farewell to Lv Xiulin, taking Wang Dong and Zhao Man with me.

"Brother Li, are we going to capture Deng Quan? With me, he won't be able to escape!" Wang Dong was eager to take action.

"Relax, I'm looking for a guide, not to beat someone up," I reminded him. Then I turned to Zhao Man. "Zhao Man, you can go home now. The rest is none of your business."

"What? You don't need me anymore? But I can..." Zhao Man started to protest but couldn't think of anything useful she could do.

I chuckled. "You should quickly return the small villa and not delay."

"Alright, I'll return the house first. Let me know if you need anything," Zhao Man agreed and bid us a reluctant farewell.

Wang Dong didn't try to persuade her to stay because he had already moved on to someone else.

Wang Dong and I went to the old district of Dongjiang and found Deng Quan's home in a residential building.

Surprisingly, only he remained in the residential building, and the other tenants had moved out, making the building look like a dangerous structure.

Looking at Deng Quan's home, the rusty iron door was tightly locked, and the windows were covered so securely that there wasn't even a gap.

Wang Dong knocked on the window and guessed, "This guy has nailed the windows shut. He probably installed iron nets. What is he afraid of?"

This behavior suggested that he was afraid of something breaking in.

I knocked on the door directly and called out, "Deng Quan, the company is looking for you!"

After a while, the door opened a crack, and a gaunt man with red eyes and dark eyelids peeked out.

At first glance, I was shocked because this man looked completely lifeless, as if he had been sucked dry. His face had a deadly pallor that was quite scary.

Wang Dong was also startled and scolded, "What the hell is wrong with you? Why do you look like this?"

"Why is the company looking for me?" Deng Quan seemed a bit dazed, and his eyes couldn't focus.

I signaled Wang Dong to keep quiet and said, "The company plans to fill in Huangnigu. I heard you've been there before, so I want to ask if you have any opinions."

This was obviously a lie. Why would they ask a low-level group leader for his opinion?

But as soon as he heard it, he started shouting hysterically, "Don't go to Huangnigu! Don't go! Don't go!"

With a bang, he slammed the door shut and refused to open it again.

Wang Dong was left with a face full of dust and cursed, "What the hell is wrong with this guy? Did he see a ghost in Huangnigu?"

I pondered for a moment and said, "Wang Dong, go buy three sheets of large yellow paper, two liang of cinnabar, and a Qingxuan seal. Also, fetch a bucket of water. It needs to be mountain spring water."

Wang Dong was confused. "Mountain spring water? That's hard to find. And what is a Qingxuan seal? Where can I buy it?"

"Ask Mr. Lv for help. A Qingxuan seal is just a talisman, similar to a peach wood seal. You can ask at a shop."

"Alright, I'll be right back," Wang Dong immediately left.

I walked around Deng Quan's door a few times, circulating my Taiqing Qi, and using my eyes to see the unseen. I discovered a faint trace of ember fire in the air, which corresponded to Deng Quan's appearance.

Deng Quan's emaciated look seemed to be caused by starvation, but in reality, it was due to the ember fire burning him. The ember fire was an intangible substance that would torment ghosts endlessly.

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According to my speculation, many people in that Mass Grave were burned to death before being buried, so there was a lot of ember fire. Deng Quan had come into contact with the ember fire and was being "burned" every day. His blood would eventually dry up, and when he died, he would turn into a charred skeleton, becoming an unsolved mystery.

I moved away from the residential building and waited for Wang Dong downstairs.

About two hours later, he returned with everything prepared.

"Brother Li, I'm exhausted. I had to go to Mr. Lv's villa to fetch mountain spring water and then ran all over the city to find the Qingxuan seal. In the end, a taoist from the City God Temple sold it to me for 300 yuan, ripping me off!" Wang Dong complained bitterly.

I sniffed the bucket of mountain spring water and then held the Qingxuan seal in my hand, feeling it. It was good.

"Spread out the three sheets of large yellow paper and mix the cinnabar with the mountain spring water," I said, not wasting any time. We needed to finish before it got dark because dealing with evil spirits would be more difficult when the Yin energy was heavy.

Wang Dong wiped his sweat, spread three large yellow papers on the ground, and mixed mountain spring water with cinnabar to grind, like a book boy.

I waited for him to finish grinding, grabbed the brush, dipped it in cinnabar water, and drew a thunder talisman on the yellow paper. Then I channeled Taiqing Qi and infused it into the cinnabar water stain.

The thunder talisman was the nemesis of all evil beings. As long as the talisman drawer was strong enough, it could suppress anything.

The Fire of Destruction was an intangible evil being, so naturally, it could also be suppressed.

Finally, I raised the Qingxuan Seal and stamped it heavily onto the thunder talisman.

"Wang Dong, let's go find Deng Quan again. When he opens the door, you just rush in and wrap the thunder talisman around him, making sure it's tight." The three large yellow papers were enough to cover an adult.

Wang Dong grinned. "This is fun. Watch me wrap him up!"

We prepared ourselves and knocked on the door again.

But this time, Deng Quan refused to open the door no matter what, constantly shouting at us to go away.

Wang Dong got angry and grabbed the thunder talisman, using his back to bang on the iron door. "You little shit, my Li bro is here to save you!"

He banged on it a few times, shaking the old and rusty iron door, scaring Deng Quan into screaming like a ghost.

I covered my ears and told Wang Dong to bang harder.

Wang Dong gathered his strength and gave it one final bang. "Damn it, that hurt!"

With a bang, the door was knocked open, and Deng Quan inside was so scared that he was running around like a headless chicken. Wang Dong pounced on him and wrapped the thunder talisman around him like a zongzi.

I took two steps forward and slapped Deng Quan on the back. "Open your mouth!"

The slap made Deng Quan open his mouth wide, releasing a large breath of qi.

Visibly, the thunder talisman was ignited by the qi, scaring Wang Dong into jumping backwards. "What the hell, how did it catch fire?"

"It's the illusionary fire, not real fire." I held my hand over the flame, unharmed.

Wang Dong wanted to try it too, but I told him not to mess around and to keep patting Deng Quan's back until he expelled all the Fire of Destruction.

Wang Dong didn't quite understand, but he happily started patting Deng Quan's back, not holding back his strength, patting Deng Quan like his skeleton was about to fall apart.

Finally, the thunder talisman was completely burned, and Deng Quan lay on the ground with a rosy complexion, still thin but now looking like a real living person.

Actually, if a powerful expert was here to exorcise the evil, they could just use the thunder talisman to strike, but my cultivation was shallow, so I couldn't summon real thunder.

"That feels so good... What happened to me?" Deng Quan climbed up, still thin but rosy and lively, looking like a real person again.

Wang Dong humphed and explained everything that had happened.

Deng Quan looked at me with excitement. "Thank you, Master, for saving me. I've been having nightmares for the past eleven years, feeling like I'm neither alive nor dead. It's been torture!"

It was impressive that he had persevered for eleven years, mainly because he hadn't been contaminated with much Fire of Destruction.

"Deng Quan, where did you dig up the Evil of Ten Thousand Souls?" I asked about the main issue.

Deng Quan looked confused. "What's Evil of Ten Thousand Souls?"

"It's the skeleton you dug up after listening to Huang Yawen." I said sternly.

Deng Quan shuddered, recalling the past and saying in fear, "I don't remember... I went into the Yellow Mud Valley as Huang Madam told me, and then a man used a walkie-talkie to guide me where to go. I dug half a meter deep and found the skeleton."

"Take us there!" Wang Dong demanded.

Deng Quan's face turned pale at the thought of it, shaking his head and shouting, "No, I won't go! I'd rather die than go there again!"

I furrowed my brows, trying to comfort him. "Deng Quan, just tell me everything you remember. I won't force you to go."

Deng Quan shook his head repeatedly, saying he couldn't remember anything. But then he suddenly ran back into his room and started rummaging through things.

Wang Dong and I watched curiously. After a while, Deng Quan emerged holding a pocket watch and handed it to me, trembling. "This... belonged to that skeleton. I secretly kept it, intending to sell it..."

I took it and felt the cold, textured metal. The appearance was simple and rust-free, and the watch chain was made of pure silver, showing exquisite craftsmanship from a skilled artisan.

When I opened the pocket watch, the hands inside had stopped moving, but there was a photo of a girl inside the cover. She was leaning slightly to the side, supporting her cheek with her right hand, her hair tied in a bun, and she was wearing a cheongsam.

"Wow, what a beautiful sister in a cheongsam!" Wang Dong exclaimed. "Looks like I have another love interest."

This was indeed a girl in a cheongsam, beautiful and refined. She must have been a highly sought-after beauty during the Republic of China era.

Below the photo, there were also two characters: Tang Xi.

"Who's Tang Xi?" Wang Dong scratched his head.

Deng Quan explained, sweating. "Tang Xi is probably that skeleton. She was the second young lady of the Tang family in the Republic of China era. Her older sister was the renowned socialite Tang Ying, while the two most famous socialites of that time were Tang Ying in the south and Lu Xiaoman in the north."

"How do you know?"

"After I hid the pocket watch, I went around asking people to appraise it, so I learned about it. But they all said that the younger sister of a famous socialite wasn't worth much, only if it was Tang Ying's pocket watch would it be valuable. So I didn't sell it, as no one was willing to give me a high price." Deng Quan recounted everything truthfully.

I nodded, realizing that the Evil of Ten Thousand Souls was the younger sister of a famous socialite, Tang Xi.

Why did she leave the prosperity of Shanghai and come to the southwest? And why did she end up in the Valley of Ten Thousand Corpses, cursed to death?

"Brother Li, what should we do now? Should we take the pocket watch to Lake Qiansi and try to make a love connection with Tang Xi?" Wang Dong suggested playfully.

"We can try." I nodded, then calculated the time. "Tomorrow night, the Dog Star will be bright, which can suppress evil qi. I'll summon her tomorrow night. Before that, we need to appease the grievances of the ten thousand ghosts, so let's go to the Valley of Ten Thousand Corpses now."

Wang Dong backed down. "Brother Li, I was just joking. You're not really going to summon Tang Xi, right?"

"I am."

"Oh no, my stomach suddenly hurts. Brother Li, I need to take a leave and see a doctor tomorrow!"