“However,” Lu Xiaobai rolled his eyes, “even if you don’t want to move, why don’t you guys move somewhere else in the town?”

After all, the trouble is only in the west of the town, so why stick stubbornly to one place?

“Because they are just representatives among many families affected. Once the town chief opens the door, everyone will want to move. If the arrangements aren’t handled properly, conflicts can easily arise. Moreover, families living elsewhere may not necessarily accept them,” Lin Ji replied.

Besides, moving in the mortal realm requires reporting to the authorities, and only with the court’s approval can they relocate. Ordinary people don’t have the money to bribe the town chief to help them out… As for this wealthy merchant, he has the money to move elsewhere; he’s just being stubborn.

Lu Xiaobai leaned his head to look at him: “There are actually so many twists and turns in this matter. You really think things through.”

“…” Lin Ji became alert and secretly transmitted a message: “Don’t think you can rely on me to solve this!”

Lu Xiaobai turned his head away. A Ji is too cautious; he just wanted to praise him a bit.

After all, this matter is one of the sect’s tasks, and they need to help the townspeople.

After being treated to a meal at the merchant’s house, Lu Xiaobai took a few items for the ritual and was about to leave when the townspeople exchanged concerned glances and asked, “Don’t the Daoists need to choose an auspicious day?”

Lin Ji stood up with his sword: “No need, and you all shouldn’t follow us.”

The two of them walked side by side towards the Weeping Path. Lu Xiaobai was counting the items in the basket when Lin Ji asked him, “Do you have a plan?”

Lu Xiaobai chuckled lightly: “The feng shui here is fine. We just need to summon the female ghost and find a way to help her find peace.”

The female ghost loves to eat; if they set out a feast of fish and meat, she will definitely come out.

Lu Xiaobai looked at him: “Have you noticed that Cui Bao isn’t a local? He must have just moved here.”

Lin Ji: “How do you know?”

Lu Xiaobai: “His accent is different. I also noticed that he doesn’t seem to be mourning his father’s death.”

During their earlier conversation, he had secretly observed everyone. Cui Bao particularly seemed like he was trying hard to concentrate and not show any abnormal behavior, yet he still spaced out.

He even looked sleepy, trying to stifle a yawn.

Lin Ji couldn’t be bothered to pay attention, but it was obvious that Cui Bao had issues. As the only family member whose father was killed by the female ghost, he didn’t rush forward to cry out, which was already very unusual.

It seems that the Cui family has some connection with the female ghost, or perhaps the ghost’s death is related to him, which is why he was the first to suffer retribution.

“Anyway, let’s summon the soul first.”

When they reached the Weeping Path, Lu Xiaobai set up the food offerings he had brought from home, burned paper money, and lit incense. Since he was wearing white, he didn’t need to avoid anything and just went ahead with the ritual.

On the other hand, Lin Ji, dressed in bright red, was a bit eye-catching.

Lu Xiaobai glanced at him but resisted the urge to remind him and began chanting the Daoist incantation to summon the soul.

Lin Ji observed coldly, also keeping an eye on the surroundings.

Suddenly, a chilling wind swept through, breaking wild grass and branches, making it hard for people to open their eyes.

The atmosphere around them changed instantly, the temperature dropped sharply, and a damp, eerie feeling seeped into their hearts, sending chills down their spines.

Lu Xiaobai stood up, shielding his face with his hand: “Wow, the yin energy is so strong!”

Lin Ji glanced at him, feeling a bit mischievous: it turned out to be a vengeful ghost with deep resentment. If it came to a fight, its combat power would probably be quite high…

But after ten breaths, the cold wind suddenly stopped, and everything around returned to calm. The paper money and incense were blown everywhere, and the offerings had vanished— even the apple was left with just the core.

Lin Ji: “…”

Lu Xiaobai muttered, “Could it be that she really just caused trouble because she was hungry?”

After thinking for a moment, Lu Xiaobai took out a bell from his storage bag and held it in his palm, “She doesn’t want to see us, but I insist on seeing her.”

He finally activated his own magical artifact. Lin Ji recognized it as the Soul Summoning Bell; any wandering souls nearby that hadn’t reincarnated would have to come when summoned.

No matter how powerful the ghost was, it couldn’t resist, but the female ghost still didn’t show up.

“…” Lu Xiaobai looked at him helplessly, “Even if my spiritual power is weak, I shouldn’t be unable to use a magical artifact, right? Why don’t you give it a try?”

Suddenly, the Soul Summoning Bell began to vibrate on its own, and the two of them followed its guidance, with Lin Ji silently gripping his sword tightly.

In the end, they found themselves at a collective graveyard in the west of the town, where the female ghost was floating above a grave, her hair disheveled as she turned to look at them.

Lin Ji and Lu Xiaobai finally understood why mortal Daoists always failed to help female ghosts find peace.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t; it was that they didn’t dare.

A bride in a wedding dress, wrongfully dead, dressed in red with heavy resentment— all the elements were too complete.

The red-clothed ghost who died on her wedding day was one of the strongest types of yin spirits in the world, especially since she had been lingering here for twenty years.

If their cultivation wasn’t sufficient, trying to subdue her would only lead to death. Those who had tried before had all been scared away.

But with such a powerful spirit present, it was strange that only one person had died in the entire town so far.

Lu Xiaobai thought that after two years of training, helping souls find peace and summoning them should be simple enough for him to handle, but he didn’t expect to stumble into a difficult mode right away.

He looked to Lin Ji for help: “I can’t fight her!”

Lin Ji’s lips suddenly curled into a smile as he pushed Lu Xiaobai with his spiritual power: “Senior Brother, go ahead!”

Meeting the bride ghost didn’t even require him to come up with a plan. Lin Ji pushed Lu Xiaobai forward while quickly drawing a protective talisman on Lu Xiaobai’s white sleeve. If attacked, it would trigger and provide one-time protection, but before that… he kept a close watch on Lu Xiaobai, not missing any of his reactions.

Lu Xiaobai, forced to approach, could only grit his teeth and draw his sword in a defensive posture, the spiritual power he activated making the spirit sword flicker without any lethality.

The female ghost’s face darkened, her nails suddenly elongated, and a gust of cold wind swirled around her as she charged at her enemy.

In an instant, Lu Xiaobai opened his eyes and saw the ghost with a crooked nose, collapsed ears, bleeding eyes and tongue, and long nails aimed at his face.

Lu Xiaobai screamed and quickly retreated, and the ghost seemed startled by his reaction, drifting back a couple of inches.

The protective talisman hadn’t been triggered, indicating that the ghost hadn’t made an attack.

Suddenly, the ghost, distressed, scratched her messy hair with her nails and shouted, “Why do you have to come and bother me?!”

Her scream made the wild ghosts summoned by the bell quickly cover their ears.

Lin Ji: “…”

Lu Xiaobai realized that the ghost had no intention to kill. He glanced at the grave where the ghost had been floating earlier, paused, and bowed politely: “I am a wandering cultivator. Miss, you are… an unnamed one?”

The ghost seemed to be provoked again, scratching her head and saying, “I am not!”

Lu Xiaobai: “…”

It turned out that the Soul Summoning Bell couldn’t summon her because she wasn’t a wandering ghost at all.

She had a grave, a headstone, and her bones were buried… it was just that the inscription on the stone read “Unnamed.”

Seeing that she couldn’t scare the visitors, the ghost retracted her terrifying appearance, returning to her original form, which, aside from her pale, lifeless complexion, was quite beautiful.

Lin Ji stepped forward and also bowed, “Miss, if you have any grievances, feel free to speak. Otherwise, even if you stay here for decades, it won’t change your situation, nor will it allow you to reincarnate.”

Lu Xiaobai, feeling indignant, shot Lin Ji a sideways glance and asked, “May I ask your surname, Miss?”

The ghost, seeing humans who didn’t run away or attack her for the first time, decided to answer Lin Ji first: “I want to leave too.”

Then she answered Lu Xiaobai: “My surname is Cui, but I don’t have a given name. My childhood name cannot be told to you.”

She was clear-headed and reasonable, and Lu Xiaobai wiped his sweat and sighed in relief: it turned out to be a false alarm.

“Cui Miss? Then what is your relationship with Cui Fu? The one you killed not long ago.”

Cui Miss replied with annoyance: “He is a servant born in my family and also my accomplice in my murder!”

“When I was alive, I was a well-known official’s daughter.” Cui Miss floated between the two, stroking her face with pride.

Unfortunately, her father married her off far away, and the wedding procession happened to encounter an accident while passing through this town.

She couldn’t remember how she died; the last scene in her vision was a group of bandits rushing towards her, and the terrified steward pointing to the bushes where she was hiding.

That steward was Cui Fu, and she thought she would never see him again. Now that she saw him again, she realized he hadn’t died; he had run away and lived for so long, which made her feel so wronged!

She tortured him for a while, but she wanted to know the cause of her death and where her murderer was, and why her parents didn’t move her remains back. In the end, he panicked and fell into the thorns, scaring himself to death.

“I am not a wild ghost, but I am a guest ghost. I am not from here.”

When she returned to her senses, she only saw the townspeople putting her into a coffin and hastily burying her.

The dead are to be honored, and the townspeople didn’t know her name, so they could only erect a headstone for the unnamed. They were all kind-hearted people, but Cui Miss still felt wronged.

If she had died at home, her family would have dressed her up nicely, chosen many burial items, and the coffin would have been of good quality.

Having lived a wealthy life, she felt so miserable after death. The meager offerings from the townspeople were simply not enough for her, so she had to remind them a little.

“I want to go home, but my remains are here, and I can’t leave. I am truly unwilling. I want to know what happened to my enemies, whether my parents and in-laws can’t find me, which is why they haven’t come to fetch me…”

“If you don’t help me find the answers, I won’t leave even if I die again! I will continue to cause trouble for you, making your lives a living hell!”

Lin Ji asked, “Then why do you want to scare the other townspeople?”

Cui Miss pouted: “I just wanted to force Cui Fu to come out; it wasn’t intentional…”

She was also a pitiful girl. Lu Xiaobai tugged at Lin Ji: “Alright, we will help you. Please wait here and don’t go out to scare people. Let’s set a deadline of three days, and we will come back to find you.”

Before that, they still needed to perform a ritual to help the wild ghosts they accidentally summoned find peace.

As the two walked back, they were silent, and Lin Ji felt a bit guilty.

Lu Xiaobai suddenly stopped and looked at him: “Why did you push me?”

Lin Ji feigned calmness and shrugged: “Didn’t you say you wanted to take the lead? I just didn’t expect you couldn’t even use one move.”

Lu Xiaobai raised his eyes and smiled, seemingly convinced by his words: “Let’s go back.”

Lin Ji felt a chill for no reason. Lu Xiaobai didn’t pursue the matter further and even gave him a half-smile, making him wonder what he was plotting.

…Although this time, it was Lu Xiaobai who was the one in a bind.

The two returned and recounted Cui Miss’s story, shocking the townspeople, who then set off in groups to the Cui family.

Cui Bao was still asleep when he was abruptly woken up. After being scolded, he held his head and wailed, “I didn’t know!”

This matter had little to do with Cui Bao; he was simply happy that his father was dead, and the inheritance left behind was now his.

Lu Xiaobai looked around, and the Cui family indeed seemed to be well-off. Lin Ji directly took out a piece of handkerchief that Cui Niang had given them and infused it with spiritual power.

The handkerchief, carrying Cui Niang’s resentment, quickly flew to a large box.

The townspeople disregarded Cui Bao’s attempts to stop them and rummaged through the box, with the handkerchief stopping at a gold and silver hairpin.

Next to the main hairpin was a notebook.

Three days had passed, and Cui Niang was waiting calmly at the grave.

Lu Xiaobai and Lin Ji exchanged glances, unsure of how to speak.

After a moment, Lin Ji took out the hairpin, while Lu Xiaobai burned the notebook for her.

This saved them the time of verifying the truth; the answer was in the notebook.

Cui Niang was excited: “This is the dowry my mother personally placed on my head!”

She quickly looked at the notebook, and after a long time, tears of blood fell from her eyes, neither crying nor laughing.

The official’s daughter had a congenital deficiency and suffered from asthma. Her parents were troubled until she was fifteen, finally arranging a marriage for her, but the groom was also a sickly young master.

However, to marry far away, according to the rules, her parents had to host the guests at home, so they had to entrust the wedding procession to the most trusted steward and relatives.

But the dowry they prepared was too lavish, attracting the greed of the steward and relatives.

They wanted to bribe bandits to scare the bride, rob her dowry, and keep it for themselves, and even the steward was in on it.

But what are bandits? Why would they want to share the spoils with their employer? Wouldn’t it be better to kill them?

Thus, when they reached the narrow path outside the west of the town, the relatives scattered and were caught and killed by the bandits, while the steward secretly pocketed the money and pretended to be dead, even causing trouble before dying.

The official’s daughter was left unattended.

When the bandits tried to capture her, she didn’t want to be humiliated, and her asthma flared up, leading to her death. That’s why Cui Niang had no memory of her cause of death.

The bandits felt unlucky and, after thinking it over, handled the scene, dragging the bride back and placing her in a proud position, as if to provoke something.

When the townspeople discovered this scene the next day, they could only bury her.

The steward returned home, exaggerating the story, and reported to the authorities, shifting all the blame onto the bandits. The government arrested them, and none of the bandits escaped; they were all executed.

However, after Cui Niang’s death, she was seen as an ill omen, and many relatives died in the process. The clan leader forbade her parents from moving her remains back.

At the same time, since the incident occurred on her wedding journey, her in-laws felt it was unlucky and would never take her back for burial, treating the marriage as if it never happened.

This was the fate of the official’s daughter—neither her in-laws nor her family would accept her. No one worshipped her, and no one cared.

Lu Xiaobai sighed; her parents were truly strange. Even if they couldn’t resist the clan elders, they could at least have moved their daughter to another place for worship. How could they never come to see her for so many years?

They had loved her in life, but for the sake of that damned ancestral etiquette and customs, it was truly…

Lin Ji sneered, truly reflecting the malice of human hearts and the thinness of worldly feelings.

If it weren’t for the steward suddenly fearing death in his old age and writing the notebook, the truth would never have been known.

Cui Niang raised her hand to wipe her eyes, “Forget it, so many years have passed; I can actually think of it.”

It turned out she had long lost her home, long been abandoned.

Cui Niang realized that after her death, she had lost many human emotions. Aside from shedding tears when she first learned of her death, she actually felt nothing inside; she didn’t even remember what her parents looked like.

After thinking for a moment, she suddenly floated around shyly, tidying her hair and putting on a bashful expression: “So, can any of you marry me?”

Lu Xiaobai: “…”

Lin Ji: “…”