wither. Over three thousand years, there has been no generation or transformation."Even at the banks of Huangquan River and the grand Hall of the Underworld, Lord Yama's palace in the Six Heavens of...I came to the room filled with incense smoke and saw a female disciple tending to her. She was massaging her eyes with an eye mask and using Chinese medicine to steam her acupoints.

"Chenyan, how are you" I whispered.

She seemed to hear my voice, turning her head towards me and mumbling, "Headache... it's fine..."

A female disciple beside him chuckled, “You said you were fine just now You mumbled and rambled like a confused fool.”

"Chenyan, if you find anything suspicious, tell me... don't keep it to yourself." I patted her hand.

She lifted her hand to remove her blindfold, squinting at me before speaking seriously, “Lord Patriarch… I think my mind was preoccupied with the person we have under house arrest.”

Who is the person we're keeping under house arrest

I came to my senses and patted my head in a hurry. How could I have forgotten! There was also someone we brought back!

"Chenyan, you rest well. I'm going to take care of some things."

"Huh" Chenyan was startled.

I rushed to the side courtyard with my two disciples. It was right next to the burned-out back yard, and I almost forgot that someone was still imprisoned here.

Old Yan, who was brought back from an underground casino by us.

The disciple pushed open the door. A simple wooden fence separated the inside from the outside. Inside was a spartan bedroom. I wouldn't dare confine him to such a room in silence, not only would it be ineffective, but it would also make him resentful.

Lao Yan stared at me with a fierce look. After days of confinement, the illusions that had once clung to him had faded considerably.

"Do you know who I am" I ventured.

“...According to the person who brought me food, it was the Shen family.” He replied in a hoarse voice.

"I have some things I want to ask you."

"About my dad" he wasn't surprised.

Many of the causes and conditions in the world are sown unconsciously. They then take root and sprout in certain places, and when we discover them, they have already had a profound impact on others.

Mr. Yan, if it weren't for his daughter hearing rumors from her classmates, she wouldn't have come to our house.

I suspect my father has almost forgotten about such a teacher from his past.

The spaces between realms are usually marked by liminal zones, chaotic and unknowable places. Without sufficient guidance, one can become eternally lost within them until their very essence is consumed.

Mr. Yan just happened to enter this crevice while chasing after my mother's departing figure. My mother probably didn't know that someone was trapped in the gap between spaces, until she lifted the barrier.

"...He saw a scene like in a movie, with rotting corpses and skeletons, all dealt with by talismans. The woman seemed injured and hurried away, not noticing him hiding in the distance." Lao Yan frowned and said, "Those talismans were collected by him after he went to the ground. Some unused ones scattered on the ground."

After that, my father became a different person. He was quiet and withdrawn, and gradually became obsessed with making specimens.

"When I was young, I didn't quite understand. When I grew up, I realized something was wrong. Once again, I went upstairs and found him dissecting a small animal... I asked him for money, and his eyes turned red when he looked at me!" Lao Yan put his hands between his legs and huddled into a ball.

“I want to leave that house, but my dad won’t give me any money! I asked him, and he said money is just paper and worthless. He exchanged it for valuable items... That old man's so-called valuables are nothing but a bunch of old coins!” Lao Yan growled angrily: “I'm struggling so much! He took all the family's money and turned it into junk, spending his days researching how to make specimens! How to drive and burn zombies, these ridiculous spells aren't they just made up There's a limit to this charlatan act!”

I pinched a seal with one hand, grasped an invisible thunder, shaking the window frame clanging and rattling a few times.

"...Hogwash" I smiled.

Lao Yan nervously looked at me, his lips trembling: "…you, you're not fooling me."

"As for what you said about playing tricks..." I was just thinking how to scare him, when Jiang Qiyun appeared behind me as if floating.

Help me, big shot. I signaled with my eyes.

Jiang Qiyun gave me a glance, as if saying I was being childish, but he didn't beat around the bush and directly taught me the incantation.

A soul-calling lantern appeared, swirling around me.

The light was initially a soft warm glow, but as gusts of cold wind swept through, it gradually turned green.

A face emerged from the emerald light, floating eerily.

I don't recognize this face, but Lao Yan should have seen the apparition.

"Ah——!!!" He was so scared that he fell from the bed corner to the ground, trembling like chaff: "Dad…"

With a snap of his fingers, Jiang Qiyun vanished the ghost and the soul lamp.

"It's not good for an ordinary person like you to see too much... In short, the Shen family you are in now is a Taoist family. Don't talk nonsense here, be careful that your father's ghost comes back to discipline you."

Lao Yan probably believed it in his heart, but he wouldn't admit it.

"...You, you are also a sorcerer"

I nodded.

Old Yan touched his chest, took a deep breath and calmed himself: "Does the master still care about catching gamblers"

"If you were gambling, I wouldn't bother. But you're already under control, haven't you noticed What was going through your mind when you pushed your mother off the balcony—your mom's dead, all the money and the house are yours, to keep gambling with" I asked.

Elder Yan's face turned pale, and he nodded helplessly: "I... I got married, had children... they didn't give me any money. I owe a lot of debts, and I could only go to gamble... Once I entered the casino, I felt that all my worries disappeared... It seemed like as long as I gambled, I could win a lot of money!"

"Have you actually won any money"

"It seems like I won...but every time I leave, I'm not clearheaded, and I don't remember if I lost again." Lao Yan's gaze was somewhat vacant.

Jiang Qiyun gave him a cold glance, then turned to me and said, “This is all nonsense. Ask him about your family.”

What Why is Jiang Qiyun interested in my parents

Most of what Lao Yan knows about my parents' past, he heard from his father when he was a child.

In Mr. Yan's description, my mother was very beautiful and elegant, but her temperament was gentle and not aggressive at all.

My dad, on the other hand, was a troublemaker and a climbing wall king. He was the kind of person used as a negative example.

Mr. Yan's obsession with living beings and corpses grew stronger with age. As people get older, they start thinking about life and death, and Mr. Yan became consumed by it.

“The entire rooftop was filled with the stench of blood! The soil on the rooftop was buried with failed specimens and extracted viscera! He's like a madman, it's all your fault! If it weren't for you sorcerers and charlatans, he wouldn't have seen these ghosts and zombies…” Lao Yan wailed, his nose running and tears streaming down his face, looking like an addict having a seizure.

"...Go home, don't go back to that casino. There are things there that if ordinary people go too often, they might get into trouble." I said kindly.

"No, no... I won't go back! There’s a woman at that casino, I owe her money… If I don't pay her, she'll… eat me—" Lao Yan said, his voice bordering on madness.

"Huh What woman"

The mysterious figure who returned from abroad, is he the same person Old Yan was talking about

"What's her name, what does she look like"

"It should be Du... A lost gambling buddy of mine once told me over drinks, 'Miss Du lent him money to turn a profit…'"

"Last name Du I have a strange feeling that I know someone with the last name Du."ng up the stairs."I glared at him, exasperated. Did he have to be so perceptiveHe sneered, "I haven't seen you walk like this for ages. Well well, looks like you've really gotten him to do what you w...