The middle-aged man quickly grasped the safety talisman in his pocket, feeling truly terrified.

An Rugu had already made a guess in her mind, so she didn’t ask again. She thanked the other party and hung up the call.

Shang Yue thought about the three ghosts she just saw, and her eyes curled up in amusement, “Oh, this small place actually has enough yin qi to support three ghosts. It really is a treasure trove of feng shui!”

An Rugu frowned slightly. “And there is also a ghost king who will fetch his bride.”

This small Jiangshui Village could actually hide so many ghosts—it was not an exaggeration to call it a ghost pit.

However, the title ‘Ghost King’ made her expression become more serious.

King Yan was one of the ten ghost kings in the ten halls of the Underworld. There were also four ghost kings among the people, the most famous of which is Zhong Kui. There were also some ghost kings in Buddhism, such as the Thunder Ghost King, the Wolf-Tooth Ghost King, and the Thousand-Eyed Ghost King.

Looking beyond these more famous ghost kings, there were countless other little ghost kings.

Just like the rebellion of ancient times, they could occupy a hilltop and recruit more people under them to become a local emperor.

She didn’t know whether the ghost king of this small Jiangshui Village was a big ghost king with fearsome strength or a small ghost king with middling powers.

If it turned out to be one of the Great Ghost Kings, this could prove difficult to handle.

An Rugu thought for a moment, then shouldered her things and walked into the gates of Jiangshui Village.

She just came here to look for the missing guardian artifact, so she shouldn’t have any conflict with the ghost king.

Moreover, even if he is a Great Ghost King, he could not go against reason. Otherwise, she would invite a yin emissary¹ to come and reason with this ghost king.

An Rugu and Shang Yue walked in the direction the old woman went. After entering Jiangshui Village, they turned right and saw a long road with many houses on both sides.

The figures of the old woman and two children walking in the distance soon came into view. They walked until they reached the door of a house, then opened the door and walked in.

An Rugu followed them and stopped at the door of the house.

This was an old Hui-style house, the same style as her haunted house, but not as luxurious. The green tiles and white walls have turned black due to the wind and sun, making it look a bit eerie.

She stood in front of the door, knocked gently, and said politely, “Hello, grandma, I have something to ask you.”

However, there was no sound from inside the door for a long time. No one seemed to be paying any attention to her.

When she continued to knock on the door repeatedly, the old woman’s familiar hoarse voice finally came from behind the door: “What do you want to ask? I don’t know anything.”

“Did you see a strange woman come here and hide something in your village?”

At this time, the voice of a young woman came, her voice as gentle as could be: “Yes.”

An Rugu was a little happy with this answer. “Then please tell me where she is. I have an urgent matter with her.”

As expected, Fang Ruoshui hid the guardian artifact in Jiangshui Village. As long as she could find Fang Ruoshui, she was confident that she could recover the guardian artifact before she could destroy it.

“It’s you.”

An Rugu: “…”

As soon as the woman finished speaking, there was a burst of laughter inside, including the laughter of children, the laughter of adults, and the laughter of old ladies.

Shang Yue next to her couldn’t help but smile. The joke wasn’t funny but the person who made fun of An Rugu was too brave.

These ghosts were really newborn calves not afraid of tigers.

Unexpectedly, An Rugu was suddenly teased. She frowned slightly. She had no intention of continuing the stalemate with them. She pushed open the door that was shrouded in ghostly qi and stepped inside the house.

She was wearing a black shirt, slightly showing collarbones as smooth as jade, and the golden-hemmed cuffs were embroidered with complicated patterns, exuding a bit of chicness yet high-spirited and imposing.

There was ghostly qi lingering on the door, and ordinary people couldn’t get in at all. How did she suddenly break in?!

The seven or eight ghosts in the room were startled. Seeing An Rugu’s radiant face, they were stunned again, and they all stood there in a daze.

An Rugu glanced at these ghosts. These men and women, old and young, had no blood debts on their bodies and were wearing very modern clothes. They should be new ghosts.

She glanced at everyone and said in a cold voice, “Who spoke to me just now?”

Oops, this mysterious woman was angry ah!

All the ghosts had evasive eyes, wondering whether they should say anything.

Gaze like sharp daggers swept across their forms, making them tremble.

Then, in unison, they all raised their hands and pointed quietly to an urn sitting on top of a table in the living room.

Urn: “…”

There were actually two urns on the table, one was made of golden nanmu wood and was completely golden and black.

Golden nanmu was one of the most precious woods in China. In the past, the tables, chairs and cabinets of the imperial family were basically all made of golden nanmu. These days, it was no longer limited to nobles, but it was still prohibitively expensive.

When An Rugu saw this scene, she suddenly remembered the story the middle-aged man told her: this must be the house where he encountered the two ghosts.

As for the old woman’s voice she heard before, it should be the old woman she saw by the village entrance. Then that young woman’s voice…

An Rugu walked to the golden nanmu urn with a heavy gaze. “I’m really in a hurry. Please tell me what you know.”

After a while, a woman’s gentle voice came from the urn: “I’m sorry, I didn’t lie to you. There hasn’t been a strange woman in the village for a long time. You are the only one.”

An Rugu listened carefully and pondered this answer in silence. She felt that the young woman’s tone did not sound like she was telling lies, so she asked, “Has anything strange happened recently?”

The woman fell silent and didn’t speak for a long time. Who knew what she was thinking.

There was a breath of silence in the air. No one responded for a long time, and it was as quiet as death.

Seeing this, the old woman who was watching from the sidelines cast her eyes on An Rugu. A faint hope suddenly appeared in her eyes. She pursed her lips and said, “Child, you are able to come here safely. You are obviously not an ordinary person. Can you help her, let her come out of the urn?”

“What’s this?”

This woman couldn’t get out of the urn?

An Rugu’s eyes fell on the golden nanmu urn—it was wrapped tightly with thick evil qi and had a strange seal on it.

The old woman gritted her teeth and said, “Actually, she is my grandson’s wife. She was locked in the urn by my grandson. She has been locked up for many years and cannot come out at all. I want to help her come out.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a woman’s crying voice came from the urn: “Grandma Bai, forget it. If he finds out, we will all die.”

“He is my grandson and will not hurt me.”

The old woman put down the basket in her hand and knelt down in front of An Rugu, as if she regarded An Rugu as her only hope, “Please save her!”

I Livestream Divination to the World translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: Here is a nanmu. The colors and graining are natural to the wood, but this mirror-like shine only comes out after the wood has undergone sanding and polishing.

FOOTNOTE:

1. These are agents from the Underworld tasked to go to the human world to guide souls to the Underworld. They are sometimes translated as ‘grim reapers’. ↩︎