Chapter 218: The Weight of Unpaid Debts

Zhang Yusong was a businessman with some family wealth.

Ten years prior, he had taken out a high-interest loan when his capital flow became stagnant.

The exorbitant interest rates, coupled with his struggling business, quickly made the debt unbearable.

Not long after, Zhang Yusong heard that the moneylender had perished in a fire.

He even muttered, ‘Good riddance!’ The usurer had shattered countless families, leaving them ruined and dead, and had finally met his retribution.

Yet, ever since that day, it was as if some malevolent entity had latched onto him.

He dreamed of the moneylender coming to collect debts, and during his waking hours, at work and in life, he would frequently hear the insistent calls for repayment.

This constant torment eroded his mental health, leaving him utterly overwhelmed.

Later, guided by a revered master, he visited a Buddhist temple to offer incense and prayers.

He even spent several nights sleeping in the meditation hall and placed various Dharma artifacts in his bedroom.

He also enshrined a Guanyin statue, and only then did the auditory hallucinations and nightmares cease.

Even so, he still felt as if he were constantly being watched.

The sensation of daggers piercing his back was ever-present, never fading, though over the years, Zhang Yusong had grown accustomed to it, even learning to completely ignore it.

But just moments ago, he suddenly looked up.

The chilling discomfort of being watched had vanished. At this moment, he felt incredibly light, as if a hundred pounds of pressure had been lifted from his shoulders.

The same scene unfolded across the country. Many who had taken out high-interest loans ten years ago suddenly felt the burden on their shoulders disappear, the dark clouds looming over them finally dispersing.

Some were elderly, nearing the end of their lives. Others were patients clinging to a thread of life, or impoverished individuals struggling at the bottom of society.

The vast majority of them had lived difficult lives.

Since the fire a decade ago, they had been relentlessly pursued by debt.

That pressure had been an inescapable shadow.

But now, they discovered that the gloom that enveloped them had completely vanished. The aged felt as if they had suddenly grown ten years younger, the sick felt their ailments disappear, and the poor rekindled their hope for life.

In a room of the burnt-out building, we were tossing one IOU after another into a brazier.

The flames burning within were ignited by Mo Qingyan using a Fire Talisman; they were not the vengeful fires of resentment from the scene of the blaze itself.

Furthermore, Mo Qingyan instructed us to burn them one by one, separately.

Each time an IOU was thrown into the brazier, the bright red flames would turn an eerie green.

As the IOU disintegrated into ash within the fire, a surge of resentment would dissipate along with it.

Every time we burned an IOU, it signified that a person’s karmic debt was severed once and for all.

Regrettably, however, many of the IOUs thrown into the fire did not emit any resentment; only the flames turned an eerie green.

This indicated that the owner of that IOU had already passed away, and the karmic debt they owed in life naturally dissipated with their death.

Of course, it was also highly probable that they had been cursed to death by these very life-claiming IOUs.

There was also a type of IOU where nothing at all happened when it was thrown into the fire.

Neither resentment nor ghost fire appeared. According to Mo Qingyan, this meant the owner of the IOU had already repaid their debt.

While we didn’t know if they had performed a ritual or summoned the creditor’s spirit through a medium, they had, in any case, settled their debts through various means.

Even a vengeful ghost could no longer continue to entangle them.

“Speaking of which, these people were truly lucky,” Mo Qingyan remarked. “Not long after the fire, the windows managed to seal this fire scene.

Though there was no template, at least it left a mark. Otherwise, they might have been directly claimed by the creditor’s malevolent spirit and died.”

“And we helped them burn the IOUs,” Geng Cheng sighed. “Otherwise, how could ordinary people possibly open the seals of the specters and find these IOUs?

Though for them, it’s a little too late—ten years have already passed.”

“Their fate upon entering would likely be to be directly found by the creditor and become another sacrifice here,” Xushan chuckled. “Unless they commissioned a master to come in and help them settle their karma.

But masters generally wouldn’t risk their lives for such trivial matters; at most, they would help them repay the debt through some other means.”

Finally, we tossed the notebook filled with the names of debtors into the brazier.

Immediately, a cacophony of piercing ghostly wails and howls erupted. The notebook writhed and shrieked in the flames like a living creature.

After spewing countless resentments, it turned to ashes.

This demonstrated that the Jade Guardian Palace could, at most, temporarily purify the superficial resentment, allowing us to handle these items without harm.

However, the notebook and the IOUs themselves were formed from resentment, and it wouldn’t be long before they emitted even more.

“What a pity,” Xushan said regretfully, watching the notebook gradually turn to ash in the flames. “This notebook had the potential to become a cursed artifact. It’s a shame to burn it just like this.”

“The function of a debt-collecting notebook like this is too limited,” Mo Qingyan stated. “Unless you plan to become a moneylender yourself in the future, it’s basically useless to you.

Keeping it also poses hidden dangers. It’s better to burn it all and accumulate some karmic merit for everyone.”

Karmic merit—many elders spoke of this. I had only ever listened before, and even after encountering the supernatural, many books and people I’d heard from said that accumulating karmic merit could benefit one’s descendants.

They all said that things like merit and karmic merit truly existed, but I couldn’t see them or perceive them.

Supposedly, karmic merit could make a person less prone to attracting ghosts or simply improve their luck, though it didn’t seem to have much practical use.

I wondered why Mo Qingyan valued it so highly.

Regardless, we had indeed done a good deed, settling these old debts of the past decade.

After the notebook and IOUs were burned, only the gold bars remained.

“We can’t take these gold bars either, can we?” Xiao Qing said, looking at the gold bars scattered on the ground. “They’ve also been in this ghost domain for ten years, stained with malevolent energy.

Taking them might bring about some misfortune.”

“Indeed. While I do have methods to temporarily purify the resentment on the gold bars, and if we sold them quickly, the remaining misfortune wouldn’t concern us, doing so would greatly harm our karmic merit.

Moreover, trying to sell a pile of gold bars would be incredibly suspicious. If others discovered a trap, they could trace it back to us. It’s best not to take them out.”

Mo Qingyan pondered for a moment, then her eyes suddenly lit up. “I’ve got it! These gold bars have an excellent alternative use. Xushan, what do you think of this creditor’s skill level?”

“The creditor? Based on the state of these IOUs, he’s already killed quite a few people, hasn’t he? He should be a formidable malevolent ghost,” Xushan replied, his tone slowly rising as he, too, considered a possibility.

“Does it meet your requirements?” Mo Qingyan asked directly.

Xushan thought for a moment and nodded. “It certainly meets the conditions. And with these gold bars, I should be able to subdue him more smoothly. If we can capture this malevolent ghost, we can leave.”

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