Chapter 71 of 100

Chapter 71

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After Uncle Jiu and the others left, only Jiang Chen, Qiu Sheng, and Wen Cai remained on the grave site. Of course, there were also the numerous graves and the many people—or rather, ghosts—from another world.

The three of them each lit a large bundle of incense and then split up to work. Wen Cai was responsible for setting up a plum blossom incense array in front of Old Master Ren's tomb, while Jiang Chen and Qiu Sheng went to offer incense at each grave.

The plum blossom incense array involved placing five points around the tomb, with three incense sticks at each point, arranged in a semicircle. From above the tomb, it looked like a plum blossom.

In comparison, Jiang Chen and Qiu Sheng's task was simpler; they just needed to place one incense stick at each grave, with no other special requirements.

In terms of Daoist skills, Jiang Chen, who was still in the foundation-building stage and hadn't even crossed the threshold, naturally couldn't match Qiu Sheng. But in terms of physical prowess, Jiang Chen was more than a match for a hundred Qiu Shengs. His movements were very quick, and before long, he had only one incense stick left.

"Dong Xiaoyu..." Jiang Chen held the last incense stick, stopped in front of the tombstone, and subconsciously glanced at the inscription. He was immediately taken aback.

Although the plot of the cycle didn't transfer all the information to him, he remembered clearly that Qiu Sheng had gained the favor of Dong Xiaoyu, the tomb's owner, by offering incense at this grave, leading to a romantic entanglement. Now it was his turn, and he hesitated, unsure whether to offer the incense or not.

"Hey, are you going to offer incense or not?" Just as Jiang Chen was hesitating in front of the grave, a girl's angry voice suddenly rang in his ear.

"Offer, offer, right away." Jiang Chen instinctively responded and bent down to place the last incense stick in front of the grave. But soon, he realized something was wrong. Ren Tingting had already gone home; who could be talking to him in this desolate mountain?

Slowly raising his head, Jiang Chen saw that Dong Xiaoyu's black-and-white photo on the tombstone was smiling shyly at him.

"Mother of mercy!" Jiang Chen let out a scream and instinctively took several steps back, almost falling on his butt.

Before he could regain his composure, a shy and alluring voice came from behind him: "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Although he was a martial arts grandmaster, this was Jiang Chen's first time encountering a ghost. The instinctive fear made him crawl back, but before he could run far, he collided with Wen Cai, who was walking towards him.

"Ouch!" Although Wen Cai had some skills, he was unlucky to collide with Jiang Chen's protective aura, which felt like hitting a wall of steel, leaving half his body numb.

However, Wen Cai didn't have time to worry about that. He quickly stood up, holding his waist in pain, and handed the incense to Jiang Chen, panicking: "Little Uncle, look, what's wrong with this incense?!"

Two short, one long?! Jiang Chen took the incense from Wen Cai and immediately felt a chill run down his spine, making him shiver.

"How could this happen? Hurry, go tell the Master!" Qiu Sheng, who had just finished the last incense stick, was shocked when he saw the incense in Wen Cai's hand.

The three of them quickly rushed to the ancestral hall, not even pausing to catch their breath, and showed the incense to Uncle Jiu.

"Human life fears three long and two short; incense most abhors two short and one long! Yet it burned like this! If this incense appears in a home, someone will surely die! Sigh..." In the ancestral hall, Uncle Jiu, who was guarding Old Master Ren's coffin, took the incense from Jiang Chen and sighed.

Wen Cai couldn't help but ask, "Master, are you talking about the Ren family?"

"Who else?" Uncle Jiu glared at him.

Wen Cai let out a sigh of relief and patted his chest, saying, "If it doesn't concern you, don't worry about it."

Seeing this, Jiang Chen shook his head and turned to Uncle Jiu, asking, "Brother, does anyone related to Old Master Ren have trouble?"

"Anyone with the surname Ren will be in trouble!" Wen Cai, stuffing something in his mouth, interrupted, but then he suddenly realized something and exclaimed, "Tingting!"

"Why should you care about the Ren family's affairs? Isn't it said that everyone has their own fate?" Qiu Sheng, with a teasing smile, stopped Wen Cai from asking for help from the Master.

Wen Cai glanced at him and pushed his hand away, saying, "That's not how it works. Haven't you heard that saving your loved one's life means no problem with marriage?" He tried to go around Qiu Sheng, but Qiu Sheng held him back.

"Fair competition!" Qiu Sheng wagged his finger, indicating that he also had feelings for Ren Tingting.

"Fine!" Wen Cai agreed and, together with Qiu Sheng, pushed Jiang Chen aside and approached Uncle Jiu, saying in unison, "Master, you must think of a way!"

"I already have a plan." Uncle Jiu glanced at his two disciples with a helpless look and then focused on Old Master Ren's coffin. "Why else would we bring the coffin back?"

Wen Cai asked curiously, "Is there something wrong with the coffin?"

"It's not the coffin, but the corpse inside!" Jiang Chen felt sorry for having such disciples. "Think about it, a corpse buried for twenty years, how could it not have rotted? If my guess is correct, the corpse has already started to change!" As he spoke, he walked to the coffin, grabbed the lid, and pulled it back, revealing the corpse inside.

"Wow! It's plump!" As soon as Qiu Sheng and Wen Cai approached, they exclaimed in surprise. Uncle Jiu, startled, quickly came over and saw that Old Master Ren's face was now full of wrinkles, and the nails on his ten fingers, which had been pressing on the abacus, had grown to about three inches long, each nail glowing with a faint blue light!

"Quick, close the coffin!" Uncle Jiu's face changed, and he urgently instructed, "Prepare yellow paper, red pen, black ink, a kitchen knife, and a wooden sword!"

"Yes, Brother!" Jiang Chen immediately went to get the items, while Qiu Sheng and Wen Cai stood there, dumbfounded.

"What?!" They asked stupidly, "Master, what are yellow paper, red pen, black ink, kitchen knife, and wooden sword?"

"Yellow paper, red pen, black ink, kitchen knife, wooden sword!" Their ignorance made Uncle Jiu furious, and he hit their heads, saying, "When will you two learn from your little uncle? You entered the door earlier than him, but you know less than him!"

Qiu Sheng and Wen Cai, holding their heads in pain, didn't dare to argue, looking aggrieved.

"Never mind, go get the inkwell and catch a chicken; I'll need them later!" Uncle Jiu sighed, not wanting to blame his disciples too much. After all, people have different innate qualities, and there's no point in comparing. He then instructed them to do other tasks.

"Everything is ready!" In a short while, Jiang Chen and the others had prepared everything and set up an altar next to the coffin, standing respectfully to wait for Uncle Jiu's next instructions.

"Good." Uncle Jiu nodded, went to the altar, grabbed the live chicken, and Jiang Chen quickly cut its neck with a knife, causing fresh blood to spurt into a porcelain bowl on the table.

Uncle Jiu handed the chicken to Wen Cai, stepped into the Bagua formation, sank his waist, and gathered his energy. With one hand, he quickly formed a talisman, and with the other, he dipped his finger into a bowl of glutinous rice. He shook his finger, and only a grain of rice remained. He then held it over the candle flame, and the rice grain burst into a foot-high flame, which he threw into the bowl of chicken blood. There was a soft "boom," and the flame shot up!

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