The sound of the bell not only caused the corpse to open its bloodshot eyes, but it also bared its teeth at me. Even more terrifying, after sitting up, it tried to leap out of the coffin.

I didn’t know what gave me the courage, but instinctively, I tried to push the corpse back down because if it jumped out of the coffin, all my hard work in the Dai family’s ancestral tomb would be ruined. The corpse had immense strength, and I couldn’t hold it for long. If it bit me, it would be disastrous.

No matter how much I shouted, no one came to help, as if everyone had disappeared. Was this another hallucination? I pinched myself, and the sharp pain was enough to make my eyes water—this wasn’t a hallucination. Someone was definitely sabotaging me from the outside.

"Who is it? Who is causing trouble?" I shouted out toward the edge of the coffin.

At that moment, the bell stopped ringing, and someone’s head poked out, speaking to me in a cold tone: "Kid, I didn’t want to kill the innocent, but your greed and interference have led to your death tonight."

Just as I had suspected, the speaker was the housekeeper, and he was the one shaking the bell.

"It’s you again? Were you the one causing trouble last time as well?" I asked.

The housekeeper nodded, "Looks like you’ve already figured it out."

"Of course, when I was tattooing the Vermilion Bird, you were the one who entered the coffin pit. Who else but you could have thrown the cat's paw inside? Who exactly are you? What do you want to do now? What's going on with the others outside?" I asked in rapid succession.

The housekeeper reassured me that I had nothing to worry about—he only wanted to remove me since I was the one in his way. As for the others, I could ask Yama when I went down.

After saying this, the housekeeper shook the bell again, and the corpse immediately became more violent. It no longer only tried to jump out of the coffin; now it attacked me.

The corpse’s icy cold hand gripped my neck with such force that I soon began to feel suffocated, unable to break free.

"Ah..."

Suddenly, the corpse let out a terrifying scream, throwing its head back and spitting out a breath of corpse gas, then its two long fangs lunged at my throat.

At that moment, a shadow flashed in the coffin pit, and the corpse immediately froze in place. No matter how wildly the bell was shaken, the corpse no longer reacted.

I cursed under my breath, quickly pushing the corpse off me. As it lay back in the coffin, I noticed a yellow talisman had been placed on its forehead.

No wonder the corpse had stopped its transformation. The talisman had subdued it.

In addition to that, someone else had entered the coffin pit—Old Master Tian stood beside me, smiling at the housekeeper above.

"You really couldn't resist, and finally jumped out," Old Master Tian said, as if he had been expecting this all along.

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Taking advantage of the situation, I quickly climbed out of the coffin pit, only to find that everyone else—Xiao Zixing and Dai Jieying—had all passed out. There was a lingering scent of medicine in the air, indicating that they had been drugged by the housekeeper.

Aside from Old Master Tian, a group of people emerged from the shadows—Dai Laoye and other members of the Dai family, surrounding the housekeeper tightly.

It seemed that Old Master Tian had been working with the Dai family all along, waiting for the housekeeper to "reveal himself."

"Housekeeper, my Dai family has treated you well. Why did you harm us?" Dai Laoye questioned.

At that moment, Old Master Tian lightly hopped and immediately left the coffin pit.

"Everyone, be careful! He's not the housekeeper. The real housekeeper has been dead for a long time. He’s just an evil spirit," Old Master Tian warned everyone.

"An evil spirit...?"

Everyone gasped, their faces turning pale, and they quickly retreated three meters away. Even Dai Laoye didn’t dare to get any closer.

These people were truly afraid of ghosts! As the saying goes, those who have no guilty conscience don’t fear ghost knocks, but I, on the other hand, retreated four meters away.

"Using the dead body of the housekeeper to carry out harmful deeds, mastering all kinds of evil techniques like wind and water, and necromancy—able to move freely, as if living normally—if I’m not mistaken, you must have been a ghost breeder in life, right?" Old Master Tian boldly speculated.

The housekeeper performed a gesture of respect and replied, "Old Master Tian, you are indeed impressive. My practice in life was ghost breeding."

My grandfather had once said that corpse crafting and ghost breeding were evil practices of the occult. This person had taken it to such an extreme that he had turned himself into a ghost—he was truly a rare breed.

"I see your skills are remarkable, but why, after death, have you become an evil spirit, wreaking havoc on the Dai family?" Old Master Tian asked.

The housekeeper snorted coldly, "Old Master Tian, evil comes back to bite you. The Dai family planted evil seeds, and now it's time to pay the price. You can’t stop this, and you can’t kill me. I can abandon this body and find another, but as long as the Dai family doesn’t perish, my resentment will never dissipate. No one can kill me."

Dai Laoye immediately asked, "What do you have against our Dai family? Why do you hate us so much?"

At the mention of this, the housekeeper’s face grew grim. He cursed, "Dai Xian, that bastard. My young lady saved his life and gave him food to keep him from starving to death on his way to the exam. But what did he do? He repaid kindness with harm. He brought bandits to defile my young lady, and then killed her. Heaven has no eyes! How could someone like him rise to power while my young lady perished? I, Xiao Shan, cannot accept this. I will not rest until the Dai family falls, until your line is cut off!"

Dai Xian was the ancestor of the Dai family whom Dai Laoye had mentioned earlier. It turned out he was no good. He had fainted from hunger on his way to the exam, but when my young lady saved him, he repaid her kindness with cruelty. He brought bandits to ravage her, and she was murdered by them. Who could bear such a thing? It was an unjust fate.

I couldn’t help but feel curious about Xiao Shan. His "young lady"—did that mean he was a ghost from hundreds of years ago?

Upon hearing Xiao Shan’s words, Old Master Tian’s face turned pale. In ancient times, debts were repaid, and lives were paid for by lives. There was cause and effect. Even if Xiao Shan was an evil spirit, Old Master Tian couldn’t interfere with this matter.

"Your young lady? Who exactly is she?" Dai Laoye frowned, finding it hard to believe. If Xiao Shan was a ghost from hundreds of years ago, why hadn’t he reincarnated? Why would he suffer in the mortal realm for so long just for revenge?

Xiao Shan answered, "Her name was Li Shiyin, the only daughter of Li Yuanwai, a wealthy merchant from Fucheng. Li Yuanwai was a kind and benevolent man, and his daughter inherited his goodness. My young lady saved Dai Xian’s life, allowing him to go to the exam. But after meeting this scoundrel, Dai Xian, the fate of the Li family was sealed. I was a servant in the Li household, taken in as an orphan when I was young. The Li family treated me well, and I will never forget their kindness. But when Li Shiyin encountered Dai Xian, it was the beginning of the Li family's tragic end."