Chapter 65: Funeral Delivery Service

“You’re saying… this is all hell money?” Ou Zhiqin looked at the money on the table and took a few steps back.
In her eyes, they were all red one-hundred-yuan bills.

“Yes, it’s all hell money! And… I think I remember, this is the paper money the police burned for Xia Yubing’s parents yesterday!” I said, looking at the bills.
I had been watching from the side when the police burned the paper money yesterday.
I never expected it to end up on my table.

“Hiss! Then this must be life-buying money from the ghosts. As long as you take it, it means you’ve agreed to let them possess you and exchange lives!” Ou Zhiqin sucked in a cold breath.
Although she had heard of life-buying money, this was the first time she had seen it in person.

“Ah?! Then what should I do? Can I escape this calamity if I don’t accept it?” I asked in a panic.

“I’m not too sure either. We can only ask Senior Sister Mo. Wait a moment, I’ll give her a call,” Ou Zhiqin took out her phone and dialed Mo Qingyan’s number.

Mo Qingyan answered quickly.
Xiao Qing frantically gave her a brief account of what had happened, including our encounter with the ghosts at Fukang Commercial Center, the weasels burning the burial shroud, and the life-buying money that looked like real cash to her.
She told her everything.

Ou Zhiqin switched her phone to speaker mode, and Mo Qingyan’s voice came through, “You’ve encountered so many things? Then, when you went to Xia Yubing’s house earlier, did you touch or take anything else?”

My scalp instantly went numb.
I moved closer to the phone and said, “The police organized their inheritance and handed it over to me, including bank accounts, property deeds, share certificates, and so on. Is there a problem with these things?”

“Tsk! Then it’s no wonder. You’ve accepted their inheritance, which means you’re entangled in karma with them again. It’s useless not to accept this pile of hell money. You’ve essentially already accepted their life-buying money. They will definitely come for you tonight,” Mo Qingyan said.

“So soon?! Then what should I do? I don’t want to die yet! Can Dharma artifacts resist them?” I asked anxiously, clutching the jade pendant in my hand.
Right now, only the jade pendant my grandmother had left me could give me a sliver of security.

“No. You’ve taken their inheritance, which is the same as taking the life-buying money and agreeing to their ‘borrowed corpse resurrection’. It’s equivalent to you owing them. The Dharma artifacts won’t stop them, because they aren’t considered to be coming to take your life,” Mo Qingyan said.

“Then am I just supposed to wait here to die?” I asked anxiously.
Just accepting the inheritance counted as agreeing?
That was too unreasonable.
What kind of forced transaction was this?

“Don’t panic, there are still ways. The simplest way is for you to go to a Daoist or Buddhist temple right now, a church would work too. Give them a lot of money and ask them to shelter you for one night. Two resentful ghosts shouldn’t dare to cause trouble in the territory of gods and buddhas. If you can drag it out until tomorrow, holding a ceremony for them will dissipate some of their resentment,” Mo Qingyan said.

“But, where am I supposed to find a Daoist or Buddhist temple this late at night? They’re all on mountains, and I don’t know them at all. They probably won’t be willing to shelter me, right?” I said, lacking confidence.

“I do go to the nearby Mingwang Temple to worship Buddha and seek scriptures, but I’m not familiar with the monks there either. And Brother Xiao is right, it’s too late now. We can’t possibly go climbing a mountain to find a temple for shelter. I’m afraid we’d be found by the ghosts halfway there,” Ou Zhiqin said.

“You mentioned before that the weasels came to warn you. Are they still around? Perhaps you can make another deal with them. Give them more blood and see if the Yellow Great Immortal is willing to protect you,” Mo Qingyan asked again.

Only then did I begin to understand why the Yellow Great Immortal would send a burial shroud to warn me.
I had accepted Xia Yubing’s parents’ inheritance, which made me owe them more karma.
So, Xia Yubing’s parents sent the life-buying money.
The Yellow Great Immortal was afraid that if I died, it wouldn’t be able to collect the blood I owed, so it sent its kin to warn me.

Now the debtor was the master.
If possible, I certainly wouldn’t mind giving the Yellow Great Immortal more blood in exchange for its protection.
Unfortunately, that group of weasels ran off after burning the shroud, and I couldn’t find them now.

And I had a suspicion that the reason the Yellow Great Immortal only sent its kin to warn me, instead of coming to collect my blood directly, was because its injuries from the fight with the Painted Skin Ghost hadn’t healed yet.
It was still recuperating and couldn’t come in person, let alone protect me from being possessed by malevolent ghosts.

After I told Mo Qingyan that I couldn’t find the weasels, she said, “Then there’s only one last resort. I have a spell that can help you temporarily hold them off, allowing you to escape tonight and drag it out until the ceremony tomorrow to eliminate the resentment. But the disadvantage of doing this is that from now on, it will be very difficult to completely deliver them. They might continue to pester you.”

“What’s the method? I can’t worry about that much right now,” I said, steeling myself.
Surviving was the most important thing now.

Next, under Mo Qingyan’s direction, Xiao Qing and I began a series of preparations.
First, we placed a long table in the very center of the room, right inside the door.
We moved the hotel’s table to the center.

“Cut two paper effigies and write Xia Yubing’s parents’ names on them with blood. Remember to use your blood, Xiao Qing’s won’t work. Then place them on the table,” Mo Qingyan had already hung up and was now directing us via chat messages.

Xiao Qing and I quickly found a piece of white paper.
We didn’t have scissors, so Xiao Qing just folded two paper effigies.
Then she very clumsily drew my blood with a lancet.
The two of us were far from Mo Qingyan’s level of skill; it took us a while to get it done.

Xia Yubing’s parents’ names were on the contracts and documents.
I dipped a water-based pen in my blood and wrote their names on the paper effigies, then placed them on the table.

“The paper effigies must have their backs to a mirror. You need to place fruits and two bowls of rice on either side. Your blood must also be sprinkled on the rice. Then, stick two chopsticks in, separated and pointing upwards,” Mo Qingyan sent another message.

I didn’t have any fruits or rice on hand, but Mo Qingyan told me to just order takeout.
I actually found a delivery service on the platform that sold both fruits and rice at night.

This shop even sold incense, candles, and wreaths.
It was clearly a funeral parlor that sold funerary supplies.
Did funeral parlors even do takeout these days?

My life was on the line, so I couldn’t be bothered with that.
I placed the order directly.
Mo Qingyan told me to buy incense and candles as well, and two bouquets of flowers—yellow and white chrysanthemums.

While waiting for the takeout to arrive, Mo Qingyan told us to first burn all of Xia Yubing’s clothes in front of the paper effigies, especially the two sets that had hung themselves on the wall.

We were here to burn the clothes anyway.
Xiao Qing had even brought a metal basin and a lighter.
The original plan was to burn them in an open space outside, but we couldn’t be bothered with that now.

When the clothes were lit, they didn’t emit black smoke.
Instead, a thick, bloody smell emanated from them.
The flames turned into a greenish will-o’-the-wisp, and I couldn’t even feel any heat.

Blood dripped from the burning clothes, falling into the copper basin, yet it didn’t leave a single trace of ash, nor any scorched marks.
Xiao Qing and I endured immense psychological pressure to finish burning all of Xia Yubing’s remaining clothes.