Zhu Zizai walked ahead to lead the way.
Walking along the corridor, they arrived at the backyard.
The corridor was adorned with many ancient paintings.
All depicted beautiful won, with one very obvious characteristic.
The won in these paintings were all headless.
Whenever Mo Lin saw the figures in the paintings, without exception, there were no heads.
"Why are all these paintings headless?" Yun Xue'xue looked around at the ancient paintings and asked in confusion.
"Have you ever heard of the story of 'Adding Eyes to a Dragon'?" Zhu Zizai asked Mo Lin and Yun Xue'xue in return.
"I know it." Yun Xue'xue nodded and replied.
The story of adding eyes to a dragon is about an artist nad Zhang Sengyou.
He painted four dragons without eyes at Jinling Anle Temple and told everyone that if he added eyes, the dragons would fly away.
The crowd didn't believe him, so Zhang Sengyou added the eyes, and then the dragons broke through the wall and soared into the sky.
Yun Xue'xue understood the implication.
"Are you saying that if you paint heads on these, they will co to life?" Yun Xue'xue questioned Zhu Zizai in confusion.
"That's pretty much the idea. After they are resurrected, they will exist as spirit bodies, with abilities even greater than mine," Zhu Zizai truthfully replied to Yun Xue'xue.
"These people in the paintings have existed for hundreds of years. Reviving any one of them would be catastrophic."
Zhu Zizai discussed these paintings while leading the way.
"Who painted these?" Yun Xue'xue asked in confusion.
"So of the paintings were left by Zhang Sengyou.
Our Zhu family's ancestors were Zhang Sengyou's servants and left these paintings behind," Zhu Zizai explained candidly to Yun Xue'xue.
As they spoke, they finally reached the backyard.
In the backyard, there was a pond with lotus leaves floating on the surface of the water.
They followed Zhu Zizai into the distant wooden building.
In the center of the wooden building stood a large red coffin.
A painting adorned the coffin, depicting a fierce-looking person with a long beard.
The Celestial Master of demon hunting, Zhong Kui.
This person, Mo Lin was very familiar with.
Mo Lin's master, the one who taught him the Five Viscera Concealing Ghost Skill.
The Nvwa was given to Mo Lin by him.
This painting exuded the ferocity of Zhong Kui, with the power to ward off evil spirits.
It had to be said that the Zhu family was truly skilled in painting arts.
Just one painting could embody the strength of the original figure.
The red wooden coffin painted with Zhong Kui was ant to suppress sothing.
Upon seeing this coffin, Mo Lin already had a hunch, though he wasn't entirely sure.
"Inside here is my son, Zhu Ci." Zhu Zizai pointed to the coffin and slowly said to Mo Lin.
Mo Lin took a deep breath, it was just as he thought.
Zhu Zizai had been investigating Mo Lin's whereabouts to save his son and later heard that Mo Lin had escaped from Jingming Daoism, so he quickly had people use Zhu Ci's na to bring Mo Lin to the Zhu family.
Mo Lin slowly pushed open the coffin.
As the coffin lid was pushed open, black smoke poured out through the gap.
Next, Mo Lin saw a cadaverously pale body lying inside the coffin.
The corpse appeared as if soaked in water, with a color resembling white paper.
A black mist enveloped his body.
At first glance at Zhu Ci, one got the imdiate impression of a corpse.
"Resentnt?" Mo Lin muttered to himself, staring at the black mist surrounding Zhu Ci.
"My son used a feigned death technique to hide his fate and escape the pursuit of Huang Shang.
When I found him three months ago, he was already like this."
Zhu Zizai had thought of many ways to save his son, using every possible and impossible thod.
To no avail.
The only thing he could confirm now was that his son wasn't dead.
But waking his son up would be very difficult.
Mo Lin remained silent and touched Zhu Ci's wrist.
He could feel Zhu Ci's faint heartbeat.
Mo Lin's body suddenly trembled, his brows furrowing slightly, "Only a shell?"
Mo Lin understood Zhu Ci's situation almost entirely.
Zhu Ci beca this living dead because he lost his soul.
That's why he was immobilized like a vegetative person.
To be precise, soone had stolen his soul.
"My son's soul was likely stolen," Zhu Zizai shared the sa view as Mo Lin.
Mo Lin knew about soul capturing,
But soul stealing was rare for Mo Lin to witness.
"Little brother, I know you excel in ghost techniques. I beg you to save my son.
As long as he wakes up, I'll give you anything you want; all my prior promises will be fulfilled."
This was also why Zhu Zizai sought Mo Lin to save his son.
Only soone like Mo Lin, who was adept in ghost techniques, could rescue his son.
Coincidentally, Mo Lin was skilled in soul capturing techniques.
"Let's set up an altar tonight, and I'll see what's happening," Mo Lin said slowly to Zhu Zizai.
Zhu Zizai nodded in agreent.
Mo Lin instructed Zhu Zizai to prepare so items for the ritual.
Mo Lin wasn't actually going to perform a ritual; he was going to seek the soul.
Rather than seeking the soul, it was more of a soul search.
In the backyard, a table for the ritual was set up.
The table was covered in yellow talismans.
These were all soul-searching talismans drawn by Mo Lin.
Zhu Ci's body was placed in the center, and Mo Lin drew the Soul-Seeking Map on Zhu Ci with a pen.
After completing these, Mo Lin began his soul-seeking thod.
As Mo Lin lit the incense, a fierce wind suddenly blew around.
The wind rustled the leaves loudly.
"Zhu Ci!" Mo Lin shouted toward Zhu Ci's body.
No response at all.
Then Mo Lin shouted again, "Zhu Ci... co ho..."
It seed sothing was responding to Mo Lin.
Soon after, the black mist covering Zhu Ci started to float up bit by bit.
Mo Lin waved his hand, tightly grasping the black mist.
"Zhu Ci..." Mo Lin called out to the black mist.
"Sob... sob... I don't want to die... I don't want to die...
Why is it ...
I shouldn't have taken that Yellow Springs Book... I was wrong... I know I was wrong."
A sharp, mournful wail echoed throughout the courtyard.
In the distance, Zhu Zizai's body shuddered; he heard clearly, it was his son Zhu Ci's voice.
"Zhu Ci, where are you?" Mo Lin asked the black mist.
Zhu Ci's voice suddenly disappeared, and everything fell silent.
As if nothing had happened.
"Zhu Ci... where are you?" Mo Lin asked again.
Still no response.
Mo Lin raised his right hand, and the burning yellow paper on the ground suddenly flew up, dancing in the air following Mo Lin's motion.
"Soul-seeking."
He called out.
The flas from the yellow paper gathered into a pattern in front.
The center of the pattern was where Zhu Ci's soul was located.
Through the flas, Mo Lin saw Zhu Ci's soul, trapped in an iron cage.
Zhu Ci hid in the corner, emitting a wretched, crying sound.
A large hand appeared in the view, a yellow ghost shadow appeared in Mo Lin's sight.
This ghost shadow was clad in yellow clothes, pupils dilated, with dead eyes.
The ghost shadow showed a sinister smile to Mo Lin, revealing two rows of razor-sharp teeth like a shark's.
"Kekeke... Mo Lin, you're still alive..."
This female ghost eerily laughed at Mo Lin.
This female ghost was Huang Shang... she once captured Mo Lin into the Yellow Springs Realm.
If not for Wu Wei letting Mo Lin go, Mo Lin might have perished at her hands.
"Zhu Ci is dead, and you're next." Huang Shang's eerie smile sent chills down one's spine.
"This is the price you pay for using the Yellow Springs Book.
The things you owe can only be repaid with your lives.
This is fate, inescapable."
The fire dispersed in the air, leaving a deathly silence.
Rather than saying Zhu Ci was dead, it was more accurate to say Huang Shang had stolen his soul.
How Huang Shang managed this was unclear.
To wake Zhu Ci, there was only one solution — go to Huang Shang and retrieve Zhu Ci's soul.
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