Thirty minutes later, the helicopter landed at a military airport in the capital. He Qi had been waiting on the tarmac with Chen Yu early on. When Chen Yu saw the plane land, she anxiously ran over. But before she could get close, Elder Wu had already gotten off the plane under the conflicting gazes of four soldiers.
“Old man, I knew you weren’t dead.” Chen Yu gave him a scolding while enumerating his mistakes, “You are so old, yet why are you playing fake death? Do you know that you almost got sent to the crematorium?”
“Who do you think I did it for?” First, he was chased and almost died in the Underworld, and then he woke up and was almost shot. Elder Wu was also nursing grievances. He smacked Chen Yu’s head fiercely and scolded back, “Why didn’t you answer your phone when you’re perfectly alright? You dare not answer my call, you dare not answer my call…”
“Ow, ow…” Chen Yu wailed from Elder Wu’s smacks.
Ten minutes later, the two got into the car and drove all the way to the compound. On the way, Chen Yu carefully told her grandfather why she had to use the forbidden technique, and the repercussions caused after using it.
“You can’t use your spiritual power?” Elder Wu frowned.
“Yeah.” Chen Yu added after thinking for a while, “I can feel the spiritual power in my body, but as soon as I use it, my whole body hurts.”
“Serves you right!” Elder Wu couldn’t help but curse.
“…” Chen Yu held back her temper, “You scolded me enough. Is there a solution or not, ah?”
“No!” Elder Wu bluntly shook his head.
“…” Chen Yu looked at Elder Wu incredulously.
“I warned you long ago. The forbidden technique can’t be used indiscriminately.” Elder Wu counted down, “Without that ability, what’s the point of trying to be strong?”
“Even you can’t do anything about it?”
“I have long told you that when recovering vital qi, evil qi will accumulate in the soul. This kind of evil qi that’s accumulated from the inside out is different from the evil qi that stained or contaminated ghosts. Ordinary techniques can’t purify it,” Elder Wu said.
“Then can’t I… exorcise ghosts anymore in the future?” Chen Yu looked at Elder Wu pitifully.
“Not just in the future, it also depends on how far the evil qi in your body has accumulated. If the evil qi is too heavy, I reckon it can’t be dissolved without you reincarnating several lifetimes,” Elder Wu added.
“Will I also carry it through reincarnations?” Chen Yu was shocked.
“Or else, what did you think? Is it that easy to steal people from Yanwang?” Whenever Elder Wu called to mind that dangerous spectacle, he couldn’t resist cursing again, “Fortunately, you’re also familiar with the ghost messenger who was sent. If not, you’d be dead by now.”
“…” Chen Yu lowered her head in defeat. Elder Wu was her last hope. If even he said there was no way to recover her spiritual power, then she really couldn’t be an exorcist anymore.
“You didn’t like exorcising ghosts in the first place. The timing is just right,” Elder Wu comforted her.
“…” Chen Yu’s dejection worsened. She buried her head and picked at her fingers helplessly.
Elder Wu felt quite uncomfortable too. However, she came out all right, so that was better than anything else.
The car drove into the military compound and stopped at the entrance of the small Lou courtyard.
“Miss Chen Yu, Elder Wu, we’re here.” After parking the car, someone already came over to help the two open the car door.
“Is this your home in the capital?” Elder Wu got out of the car and looked at the entrance of the small courtyard and quipped, “No wonder you have enough spiritual power to support the forbidden technique. It turned out that your home is built on a spiritual vein.”
Elder Wu remarked familiarly and strode into the small courtyard, as if he was returning to his own home.
Lou Ming was walking out from the hall, but just as he stepped out the door, he bumped into Elder Wu in the courtyard. He was first stunned, and then greeted him politely: “You must be Shishi’s grandfather, Elder Wu, right? Hello, Elder Wu, I am Lou Ming.”
Elder Wu’s brows wrinkled. His gaze swept around Lou Ming’s body, and then landed on the jade bracelet on his left wrist.
“Third Brother.” Chen Yu also walked in at this time.
“Shishi.” Hearing Chen Yu’s voice, Lou Ming’s eyes lit up, and then he couldn’t help but frown after noticing the little girl’s low spirit. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
“I…” Chen Yu pitifully tugged at Lou Ming’s sleeve. She was about to tell him her grievances when her grandfather suddenly swept her to his side.
Lou Ming froze and watched as Elder Wu dragged Chen Yu away, but he stood still.
“Is this not your home?” Elder Wu asked.
“No.”
“I’ve had a trying time coming to the capital, so if you don’t take me back to your own home, why are you taking me to a strange man’s home?” Elder Wu poked Chen Yu’s head and scolded.
“He’s not a strange man,” Chen Yu retorted
“Not…” Elder Wu froze for a moment and quickly recalled, “You told me you had your eye on a man. Is he the one?”
Chen Yu blushed and nodded somewhat embarrassed.
Elder Wu turned back and examined Lou Ming again, and then suggested to Chen Yu in a serious tone, “Girl ah, why don’t you change him?”
“Why?”
“This one won’t last long,” Elder Wu replied in a whisper.
“Grandpa…” Chen Yu looked up suddenly and said anxiously, “Can’t you help him?”
Elder Wu shook his head.
“I can’t change him.” Chen Yu said with a taut face, “I’ve kissed and slept with him.”
“You…” Elder Wu smacked Chen Yu on the forehead again with anger. This wicked girl, who did you learn these things from? You’re driving this old man crazy.
Chen Yu screamed in pain.
Lou Ming heard the crisp slap on Chen Yu’s forehead from a long distance away. He almost ran to her in distress.
“Elder Wu, you must be tired after flying on the plane for such a long time. You’d better get inside for a bite and rest,” Lou Ming said aloud in a timely manner.
Elder Wu looked back at Lou Ming, proudly raised his head, and walked leisurely to the house with his hands behind his back. He seemed to have forgotten that he had asked his granddaughter to change her man just now.
Lou Ming motioned Cheng Peng with his eyes to follow and entertain him, while he himself walked up to Chen Yu. He looked down and saw that her forehead was red. He asked in distress, “Does it hurt?”
“It hurts!” Chen Yu nodded, aggrieved.
“Let me see…” Lou Ming said and reached out to brush Chen Yu’s bangs aside.
“What are you waiting for? Come here.” Elder Wu stood at the entrance of the hall and shouted.
Lou Ming’s hand stiffened. He instantly straightened up and awkwardly took two steps backward.
Since it was exactly lunch time, the three of them ate lunch together first. After lunch, Chen Yu pestered Elder Wu to help Lou Ming do a checkup. Although he just said he had no way to cure Lou Ming, Chen Yu had a hunch that even if he couldn’t cure Lou Ming, he must know a way to extend Lou Ming’s life span.
After all, her own half a bucket of skill could seal Lou Ming’s evil spirit.
Elder Wu narrowed his eyes but didn’t talk. In the end, Lou Ming couldn’t stand watching anymore. On the grounds that Elder Wu was tired, he arranged a room for him to rest.
Because of Elder Wu’s trip to the Underworld, his body’s spiritual power consumption was also relatively large. Hearing that Lou Ming had arranged his room, he nonchalantly ran off to bed.
His cheek on accepting benefits without working irked Chen Yu so much she wanted to pull his beard.
“Don’t be angry.” Elder Wu had been napping for half an hour, but Chen Yu was still sitting on the sofa in anger. Knowing that it was all for his own sake, Lou Ming was both touched and amused.
“Third Brother, don’t worry. I will definitely let my grandfather help you,” Chen Yu assured Lou Ming.
“If Elder Wu had a way, he would not stand idly by.” Although Lou Ming didn’t hear what Chen Yu and her grandpa talked about in the yard, he noticed when Elder Wu looked at him and shook his head.
“He didn’t even check and said there was no way. I don’t believe him.” Chen Yu said, “If Grandpa can’t solve the evil spirit on you, then at least let him help you seal the evil spirit. I can no longer use my spiritual power. If you don’t take advantage of Grandpa’s presence here and let him find a way, it will be hard to find him when he runs away.”
As long as Lou Ming’s evil spirit was completely sealed so that it no longer riots, then his life span would naturally be extended. As long as his life span was extended, there would be more time for them to figure out what to do.
“Your spiritual power…” Chen Yu’s miserable crying on the phone yesterday was quite vivid. Lou Ming asked, “Didn’t you tell Elder Wu that you can no longer mobilize your spiritual power?”
“I told him earlier. When I was recovering vital qi, I accumulated evil qi deep in my soul. Grandpa said that this kind of evil qi that’s generated from the inside out can’t be purified at all.” When Chen Yu noticed Lou Ming’s wrinkled brow and worry, she smiled and reassured him, “I just can’t use my spiritual power in the future. It actually has no effect on my body.”
Lou Ming listened to Chen Yu’s comforting words, but his ears were still ringing with her cries yesterday:
“Third Brother, it seems that I can’t use my spiritual power anymore. Can I no longer exorcise ghosts ever again? Waaah…”
Elder Wu took a long nap, and no one dared to wake him up. Chen Yu and Lou Ming sat in the living room and chatted with each other. Gradually, Chen Yu also felt somewhat sleepy. She lay crookedly on the sofa and fell asleep.
Lou Ming took the blanket handed over by his assistant, gently covered Chen Yu, and picked up the little girl’s arm that hung outside of the sofa and stuffed it into the blanket.
The moment Lou Ming was about to withdraw his hand, he suddenly stopped. He stiffened for a moment before moving his hand away from Chen Yu’s arm, and then spreading it out in front of his eyes.
Just now… He seemed to have felt a wisp of evil qi in Chen Yu. This feeling was the same as when he first touched the Bronze Sword and when he absorbed that zombie in Pingcheng recently. He felt as if he could absorb it.
Can I absorb the evil qi from Chen Yu?
With this conjecture, Lou Ming barely gave it a second thought as he reached out and grasped Chen Yu’s arm again. He closed his eyes and felt the evil qi flowing in Chen Yu’s body.
Found it!
……
On the second floor, the napping Elder Wu suddenly opened his eyes. He pushed the door open and jumped down from the second floor. At a speed where Cheng Peng couldn’t react, he pulled Lou Ming pulled away from Chen Yu.
“Elder Wu…” Lou Ming was astounded to see Elder Wu who suddenly appeared.
“What are you doing?” Elder Wu asked sternly.
“I…” Lou Ming thought Elder Wu had misunderstood and hurriedly explained, “I-I’m not doing anything. I’m just…”
“The reason you can’t purify the evil spirit in your body is because it comes from your soul. Your current spirit is already extremely unstable. If you encounter a malevolent ghost with even a slightly higher cultivation, your evil spirit may be affected and riot. Yet, you dare to directly absorb the evil qi in Chen Yu’s soul?” Elder Wu asked.
“I just…” Lou Ming didn’t think further at the time.
“Do you want to make that girl feel guilty for the rest of her life?” Elder Wu asked again.
Lou Ming was petrified and he shook his head vigorously. “I didn’t… I just wanted to…”
Lou Ming was halfway through his sentence when he felt a sudden change. He and Elder Wu turned their heads toward Chen Yu at the same time, only to see a wisp of red evil qi coming from the sleeping Chen Yu. The reddish evil qi was drifting towards Lou Ming’s end.
Seeing the disfavorable situation, Elder Wu immediately blocked Lou Ming in the front. He took out a talisman from his pocket, and collected the red evil qi.
After making sure that there was no more excess of the evil qi, Elder Wu turned to look at Lou Ming in doubt: “Why are you still able to absorb evil qi even without contact?”
Lou Ming shook his head blankly.
Elder Wu narrowed his eyes, and a trace of doubt sprouted in his heart. Chen Yu only accumulated some external evil qi when retrieving vital qi, so this evil qi… It shouldn’t be something so fiendish it turned into red evil qi, ah.
The author has something to say:
After failing to capture Elder Wu, Ma Mian and Niu Tou called Black and White Impermanence indignantly.
Niu Tou and Ma Mian: You guys were clearly in the River of Forgetfulness yesterday. Why didn’t you come to catch Wu Li?
Black Impermanence: Lao Niu ah… when are you going to pay the 10 million joss paper you owe me?