Chapter 39: Body Retrieval

"Oh, right, tell me about Qingguan Pond." I wanted to shift the topic to this; once I resolved the matter here, I had to rush back to school immediately. I couldn't afford to fall too far behind in my studies. After all, I couldn't deal with ghosts and spirits for the rest of my life; I still had to support my parents, and Huang Ying as well.

Hearing the mention of Qingguan Pond, they immediately became interested, speaking up one after another.

"Qingguan Pond used to be fine, but a few days ago, three old women went there to do laundry. By evening, they hadn't returned. When we went to look for them, all the clothes they were washing were floating on the surface, but the people were nowhere to be found."

"Did you ever find them?" Such things were common; mass drownings happened often. I assumed they had simply fallen into the pond.

"No. Two of our young men went into the water to search, but once they went in, they never climbed back out. After that, no one dared to enter the water. Those five people still haven't been found."

"Oh..." I nodded thoughtfully. It seemed it wasn't as simple as drowning. If it were that simple, my grandfather wouldn't have made me travel such a long distance to return.

"Who will take me to see Qingguan Pond? I went by a different route last time; I don't know the way from this side." As soon as I finished speaking, they all responded, wanting to go with me. In the end, they decided to all tag along to see what would happen.

For the first time having followers, the feeling was incredibly satisfying. I suddenly understood why celebrities looked so different from ordinary people; it was all about their presence.

I didn't stop them, and so, our group of over ten people marched grandly toward Qingguan Pond. Along the way, the farmers working in the fields put down their hoes and joined our ranks. Before long, our group had grown to twenty people.

They clearly treated Huang Ying and me as master ghost-catchers. In truth, most of this credit belonged to Huang Ying, due to her special state.

Qingguan Pond was about a ten-minute walk from the village, located at its very edge. According to what they said along the way, they used to wash clothes there all the time, but after this incident, no one dared to come anymore.

Upon reaching the destination, Huang Ying and I immediately frowned. The place was too peculiar; the yin energy was extremely thick, denser than in most graveyards.

"This is the place," an old man said. The pond had only one channel for water to enter, while the other three sides were covered in weeds and trees.

"There are dead bodies under the water," I said. "It must be the old women and those two young men!" This was their consensus, but I smiled without speaking; it certainly wouldn't be that simple.

Afterward, I walked around Qingguan Pond and said to everyone, "That's it for today. Let's head back first."

As soon as I spoke, they all looked disappointed. Some looked at me with different eyes—the look of suspicion, suspecting that I was a fraud.

I had anticipated this scenario long ago. I smiled slightly and said, "Now, I am going to show you something else. Everyone, step back!"

Originally, I had planned to do this at night, but I realized there was no need. I had been used to catching ghosts secretly by myself; it was just a habit.

They retreated one after another, surrounding me and leaving an empty circular space with a diameter of about five meters. This pond was located in a place with heavy malevolent energy.

It was afflicted by sharp corner maleficence, blade-cutting maleficence, and encroaching water... Because the malevolent energy was heavy, yin energy gathered here. Once those who fell in entered such a place, they could never come back up. The yin energy on the corpses would become nourishment for this place; even the bodies themselves became food.

What I had to do now was to suppress the maleficence. Of course, it was only temporary. With such heavy malevolent energy, I had no way to eliminate it entirely; I could only temporarily halt it to get the bodies out first.

I took out eight copper coins. In the Eight Trigrams, Qian, Kun, Kan, Li, Zhen, Gen, Xun, and Dui each represent something: Qian for heaven, Kun for earth, Kan for water, Li for fire, Zhen for thunder, Gen for mountain, Xun for wind, and Dui for marsh. Since all things in the universe grow and clash with one another, there is always something that can restrain malevolent energy.

Among the Eight Trigrams, Qian, Li, Zhen, and Xun could all suppress the malevolent energy. If I worked on these four hexagrams, I should be able to temporarily restrain the energy.

I arranged the copper coins, then dripped fresh blood and mucus onto Qian, Li, Zhen, and Xun to enhance the yang energy. I also dripped these substances onto the other positions to restrain the malevolent energy.

In fact, malevolent energy is a type of yin energy. Everything under heaven can be divided into yin and yang; the malevolent energy and righteous energy we speak of are both contained within this.

After dripping these on, I shouted to the crowd outside, "Does anyone have a rooster?"

"Yes, we do!" They were very proactive, running straight into the fields to grab a rooster—no one knew whose it was—and handed it to me.

"A knife!"

"Here!" They handed me a sickle for cutting grass.

Whatever the knife, as long as it could draw blood, it was a good knife.

I took the knife and slit the rooster's throat without a moment's hesitation. I was intentionally imitating my grandfather, though I still felt he was more imposing when he did it.

I dripped rooster blood onto every position and then stepped aside.

"Huang Ying, you should leave for now!" I walked over to Huang Ying and said to her. Suppressing the malevolent energy would also cause her harm.

"Okay!" Huang Ying nodded and retreated to the very edge of the crowd.

After Huang Ying left, I began to mutter under my breath.

The surrounding villagers all stared at me with wide eyes. People in China are like that: when they are alone, they are terrified, but when there are many, they would even dare to bomb an embassy if prompted. Before coming to the tea garden, my grandfather had spent the night teaching me many things, including this.

When I started muttering, there was no movement around Qingguan Pond. The villagers began to whisper again.

I ignored them and focused my mind on continuing the incantation. Three minutes later, the substances dripped onto the Eight Trigrams diagram began to emit thick white smoke.

The eight wisps of white smoke rising straight up formed a circle. After rising to a certain height, the smoke scattered and diffused across the entire pond surface. As the white smoke spread, it was clear to see that the color of the water in the pond had changed; it was clearer than before.

"Hey... the water is turning clear!" the onlookers shouted.

"It really is..." But when the clear area on the pond surface spread to ten meters, it suddenly stopped.

"Not good!" My eyes narrowed, and I shouted loudly.

The clear area was shrinking rapidly. I quickly took out the mucus and, enduring the heartbreak, poured nearly half of it onto the Eight Trigrams. These were all treasures.

Once the mucus was added, the output of white smoke became even more intense, and the clear area finally stabilized at a diameter of one meter.

Gurgle, gurgle... the water within that one-meter area began to bubble.

I recited the incantation faster, but the sweat on my face increased as well.

A minute later, a white shirt floated up from within.

"Look, that's the Chen family's old woman's clothes!" a villager pointed and shouted.

Thirty seconds later, a bloated, water-logged corpse floated to the surface.

"Quick, bring a bamboo pole!" I turned and shouted as fast as I could.

They quickly brought a bamboo pole, pushed the corpse to the shore, and fished it out. Soon after, two more bodies came up.

Just as I was preparing to retrieve the fourth body, I found that I had no strength left to recite the incantation. Every time I tried, my head felt as if it were being torn apart.

I rested for ten seconds and prepared to recite again, but looking down, I saw that the white smoke on the Eight Trigrams diagram had basically disappeared.

My head swam, and I nearly collapsed. With so many people watching, I couldn't afford to lose face.

I wanted to drip some more rooster blood on it when suddenly, a figure appeared before me and caught me. It was Huang Ying. After supporting me, she gave a light tap on the ground and floated onto the surface of the water.

This scene was very much like the scene of the Little Dragon Maiden flying over the water, and coincidentally, Huang Ying was also wearing white. As Huang Ying moved, everyone around was astonished. This scene, which should only appear on television, was actually happening before their eyes.

The clear patch on the water had shrunk until only a small opening of about ten centimeters remained.

Huang Ying floated above that opening, as weightless as if she had no mass at all.

Huang Ying closed her eyes, and wisps of clear energy drifted toward her, slowly injecting into her body. At the same time, she herself began to slowly turn into clear energy and vanish.