That box is now placed under the Three Purity statue in the Taoist temple where Li Yunfeng was born, it's been a week since then. Li Yunfeng's 49th day after death has also passed, and his ashes have been brought here together with him. I and Cha Wenbin are staying here too.

  Zhu Zihao has made a lot of money these days, and he knows that the money is not entirely clean. He comes here every day, spending lavishly as usual, with all sorts of delicacies covering the offering table. However, he also brought some news: after staying in the old mansion for a night, there were no more ghost disturbances, and he also learned some things about his grandmother from one of his grandfather's former subordinates.

  His grandmother's full name is Jiang Yu, and her ancestral home is in Yangguan, Gansu Province, which was an important pass on the ancient Silk Road and a significant military stronghold in ancient times, and has been a place of strategic importance since ancient times, close to the famous Dunhuang.

  The Jiang family was a local renowned family, with a large business mainly engaged in the trade of horses, stone materials and spices. He and Zhu Zihao's grandfather knew each other also because of a business deal, when Zhu Zihao's grandfather wanted to purchase a batch of military horses but had no money to pay for them. The Jiang family had once donated over 100 batches of war horses to the government without compensation to show their support for the resistance against Japan and was praised by Chiang Kai-shek.

  Jiang Yu was the only woman in the Jiang family of that generation, and also the only descendant. Zhu Zi Hao's grandfather was a handsome man back then, who was good at literature and martial arts, and had a good mouth, so he married Jiang Yu as his wife. Jiang Yu was an only daughter, and when she got married, her dowry was very rich, it is said that eight large horse-drawn carriages were loaded, among which was the painting of the general.

  It is said that this painting was the heirloom of the Jiang family, passed down from generation to generation. By the time it reached Jiang Yu's generation, there was only one vine left, and since there was no other way, it was included in the dowry as well. At the time of the dowry, Zhu Zihao's grandfather's subordinate was responsible for carrying the sedan chair, and when the bride got into the sedan chair, she was holding that thing in her hands. If you want to find out more, you can only go back to Gansu Yangguan and ask if there are any other people left in the Jiang family.

  "This is already the third generation for me, I heard that my grandmother was an only child, so there probably aren't many relatives on that side either. That painting, I'll give it to you, consider it a token of appreciation for helping your brother out with this big favor."

  Cha Wenbin turned around and said coldly: "For the sake of your little copper-smelling thing, so many people have died. How can you explain to them?"

  I know that Cha Wenbin is unhappy in his heart, but this matter is all to blame on Zhu Zihao, who can't be excused. After all, he's just a prodigal son, and still belongs to the kind who values loyalty. I also explained: "No one wants it to be like this, even if we didn't find those things left behind by the old masters, we wouldn't have helped clean up the mansion anyway?"

  Zha Wenbin suddenly stood up, seemingly uncomfortable, and shouted at me: "Cleaning? If I had known it was like this, I would have burned it to ashes! Do you know what's inside this box?"

  I shook my head, and he yelled even louder: "Ghost fetus! That damned ancestor of his did something with a lack of virtue!"

  There are many interpretations of this ghost fetus, and the usual explanation is that a woman's pregnancy period is full but she does not give birth, exceeding the expected delivery date by half a year or even more than a year, yet it is not a stillbirth. This type of fetus is also known as a "ghost fetus" in folklore.

  The formation of this "ghost fetus" is due to many reasons, the most widely spread being that a person and a ghost have a relationship and become pregnant. Because yin and yang are not in harmony, the child conceived cannot be born and cannot see the light of day. The final outcome for such pregnant women is often death together with the unborn fetus, but what's inside this coffin? It's four fully-grown ghost fetuses!

  In the Mao Shan sect familiar to Cha Wenbin, there is a wicked technique that is said to have been invented by a third-generation disciple named Liu Zhonghe. This person's Taoist skills are very high, and he is naturally intelligent. One day, he went down the mountain to help a peasant family handle a funeral, and the deceased was a pregnant woman who died in childbirth. The baby had already fallen to the ground but could not be saved. This tragic event of one death and two lives caused great sorrow for the host family, so they handed it over to Liu Zhonghe to deal with.

  Liu Zhonghe was then devoted to studying an ancient secret method: Soul Transference, which was said to have been created by the Heavenly Master, but was too sinister and was listed as a forbidden technique. Perhaps it was a coincidence, Liu Zhonghe discovered that although the infant had stopped breathing, he had already died in his mother's womb and had not yet taken in any air from the mortal world. From the perspective of alchemy, such an infant could be considered a purely yin body, with only two of the three souls present, lacking a life soul, with the heavenly and earthly souls gathered together, and the seven po spirits not yet dispersed.

  Liu Zhonghe thought that such an infant, even if he had done the Buddhist rituals to help him attain a higher rebirth, would still be unable to escape the three realms of suffering and could only continue to drift with the wind and rain until his corpse rotted away into dust. He thought that if he could transfer the infant's soul into that plant, it would be wonderful, for then it could continue to live in another form, and also give his family something to hold onto.

  Then, after burying the woman's body, he added another layer of soil to the grave and built a small pit for the child. After covering it with yellow earth, he took a section of rattan and inserted it into the soil, using the soul-transferring technique to cast spells every day, burning incense in the morning and burning paper at night. Seven days later, the rattan had come to life, its branches and leaves lush and flourishing.

  After several years, the vine had grown up, and Liu Zhonghe's research also made a major breakthrough. He moved the infant's soul into the vine, cut off a section of the vine with a knife, took it back to the Taoist temple, carved it into a small wooden puppet, and used cinnabar and ink to draw its internal organs on the puppet. Then, he engraved the birth date of the child on the back of the puppet, secretly put it in a jar, and hid it under his bed.

  Every day, Liu Zhonghe would prick his middle finger and drip three drops of blood into the jar, as if making an offering to the incense, candles, and paper money. After forty-nine days, the small ghost that had formed from the wood in the jar could communicate with him and was at his beck and call.

  Liu Zhonghe invented this technique but did not spread it widely. He knew that if the technique was used by those with evil intentions, it would bring harm to humanity, so he ultimately burned the wooden board himself. However, he also recorded the method in the Mao Shan techniques and named it: Hook Soul Technique, considering it one of the forbidden techniques of Mao Shan.

  Later on, it is unknown which disciple stole the forbidden technique and passed it to Southeast Asia, where this kind of magic later became popular as a way to raise small ghosts.

  This ghost fetus technique and soul hooking technique have a similar yet different approach, both taking an unborn child who has not been exposed to yang energy and casting spells on them. This method is extremely vicious. The ghost fetus that has not yet developed consciousness surpasses the small ghosts in every way, it treats the mother's body as a vessel, feeding on her blood to grow, and those who cultivate it will inevitably end up with one corpse and two lives, with resentment increasing several times over. When the child is fully cultivated into a ghost fetus, they are taken out of the abdomen and worshipped, their power exceeding that of the Mao Shan soul hooking technique by dozens of times.

  It seems that Cha Wenbin suspected Zhu Zihao's grandfather the most. He took four wives but none of them gave birth to a child, and those who did give birth had their children turned into ghost fetuses by someone else. On that day, Cha Wenbin opened the box intending to use Taoist magic to resolve the situation, but unexpectedly four ghosts emerged at once, directly breaking his life seal and injuring him with their ghostly energy. He almost lost his life; if we hadn't arrived in time, he would probably have died on the spot.

  "This evil spirit is extremely powerful, even if our master were here, he might not be able to defeat it. Luckily, Li Yunfeng used his own life as a guide and performed the 'Return of the Soul' technique, allowing me to escape with my life. This thing has been taking shape for decades, all of them are evil spirits that have become ghosts. The person who was raising these ghost fetuses is probably long dead, without their master, they lost control and started harming people indiscriminately. Zhu Zihao, your grandfather was truly a wicked man, even a tiger wouldn't eat its own son, yet he used his own children to cultivate this evil spirit."

  Zhu Zihao disagreed with Cha Wenbin's statement, saying: "Is Mr. Cha so sure that it was my grandfather who did it? From what I know, my grandfather loved those concubines very much. He was a military man, graduated from the second class of Huangpu Military Academy, and studied in Germany in his early years. I have never heard of him having any dealings with such Jianghu masters."

  "I said: 'That doesn't rule out the possibility that someone was hired to do it, Hong Kong is close to Southeast Asia, this kind of evil sorcery once flourished, and even now there are still people raising little ghosts.'"

  Zhū Zǐháo said: "It's just a pity, my family members are all gone, and there is no way to verify this. However, Mr. Zhā, since this matter has also been resolved satisfactorily, as an apology, I plan to donate money to expand this Taoist temple, in order to pay respects to those who died because of this matter. What do you think?"

  "Alright." Zhang Wenbin took out a lighter, looked up at the sky again and sighed: "The elder is above, accept my bow!"

  A great fire suddenly surrounded the small Taoist temple, and later a new Taoist temple was built on the original site, named "Xuangu Temple". Nowadays, in Xuangu Temple, you can still see a person, whose name is Tong Hetu.

  After leaving Hong Kong, Zhu Zihao also followed us back. This trip was a waste of time and energy. The painting was brought back together with them. No matter how I look at the person in the painting, he looks like a fatty to me. Even if he wears armor or is veiled like an Arabian woman, I can still recognize those beady eyes and that sly brow.

  So, in order to get to the bottom of this painting's origins, we decided to head straight for Gansu Province, under the guise of "visiting relatives"!

  Zhu Zihao had transformed into a Hong Kong businessman, and in that era when GDP was just starting to rise, wherever Hong Kong businessmen went, county-level secretaries would personally come to invite them to dinner. As long as they could attract investment from Hong Kong and earn foreign exchange, it would be equivalent to having political capital. With him around, this journey to find relatives might become much simpler.

  The so-called Yangguan is actually in the southwest of Dunhuang County, about 60 or 70 kilometers away from the county seat. There is a Nanhu Township there, located on the north side of the desert, and now it's desolate with no grass growing. The whole township has only around a thousand households, making a living by herding. I heard that the county leaders are going to accompany some Hong Kong businessmen to seek their ancestral roots, and who knows if they will invest here too. The atmosphere is quite lively with sheep being slaughtered and cows being butchered. The place we arrived at is actually the local township government office.

  Northwestern people are so straightforward and sincere. As soon as they heard that Old Lady Zhu was from Yangguan, the township secretary was overjoyed. The deputy county magistrate of Dunhuang, who was in charge of attracting investment, accompanied us. Several people took turns drinking from large bowls, and Zhu couldn't handle it. After a few bowls, he started bragging, talking about how his grandfather slept in the same bed as Chiang Kai-shek. I really couldn't listen to it anymore...

  However, Jiang Yu's matter soon came to an end. In the Nanhu Township that year, there was a place called "Gudongtan". Before liberation, there was a village here called "Yangguan" Village. This place is strategically located by the water, and it is said that one man can guard the pass and thousands of men cannot open it, echoing with Yumenguan to the north and south.

  This place is often referred to as "Antique Beach" due to the large number of artifacts that have been exposed on its surface, such as copper arrowheads, ancient coins, stone mills, and ceramic cups. In the past, there was indeed a prominent family named Jiang who lived here for generations. However, now that preparations are underway to establish a cultural relic protection zone, not even half a person's shadow can be seen. The older generation of Yangguan people are mostly no longer around, and those who can be found have long since moved away with their families. In short, the environment here is no longer suitable for human habitation.

  "What a great place Yangguan is!" The wine was getting high, and the county head also started to brag: "This place was built in the Yuanding period of Emperor Wu of Han, and it was listed as one of the four counties in Hexi, with two passes, responding to Yumenguan in the north and south. It was a fortress on the Silk Road, and tens of thousands of troops were stationed here. In the Han Dynasty, it was the residence of Yangguan's governor, during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Yangguan County was set up here, and in the Tang Dynasty, Shouchang County was also established. It can be said that things were prosperous to the peak, and Dunhuang County also developed together with it. Until the Song Dynasty, when maritime trade flourished, Yangguan gradually declined, and the population decreased one after another. When I took over here, there were only 700 households, not even comparable to a village in the south."

  He picked up the teacup in his hand and gently raised it to the village elder, saying: "The rain of Wei City moistens the light dust, the guest house is green with willow trees in spring. I advise you to have another cup of wine, going west out of Yangguan there are no familiar people. As for myself, I don't drink wine, but having arrived at Yangguan, I must borrow flowers to worship Buddha, and use tea instead of wine to toast each of you a cup."

  "What a cultured man!" The village head was overjoyed, raising his wine cup and saying: "Come on, everyone, let's have another drink! To welcome this good friend, let's finish off a bowl!"

  That day, I vomited a lot and don't know how I was carried to bed. It's said that Zhu Zihao was directly sent to the county hospital for an IV drip and only returned the next day. The leaders of the county were so scared that their legs were shaking. If this happened in Hong Kong, it would be a big loss for the business.