Chapter 425: Chapter 419: She Doesn’t Even Spare Little Ghosts
Ghost Baby truly felt wronged and pitiful. She wholeheartedly wanted to be reincarnated as a human, but each time she met with an untimely death. Either she had no chance to be born, or she was drowned in a bucket after birth. Who could have a more tragic cycle of reincarnation than her?
What’s worse, she encountered the Heavenly Master!
"Heavenly Master, my foolishness as a little ghost was momentary. I just don’t want to experience hope only to face disappointment again and again, nor do I wish to be killed anymore," said Ghost Baby, with ghostly tears seeping red from her eyes.
Qin Liuxi frowned and asked, "That Nuwa Temple, how many clay figurines like you, which have been awakened, are there?"
"There might not be a hundred, but there are certainly dozens," Ghost Baby thought for a moment before responding.
"Are they all like you, repeatedly reincarnating? What is the most number of times? What happens to these clay figurines once the family honoring them can no longer become pregnant?" inquired Qin Liuxi.
Ghost Baby was stunned for a moment, then shook her head: "Little ghost does not know." Suddenly she remembered and said, "I once saw someone bring a clay figurine to say they could not conceive and wanted to exchange it. The one exchanged was one without awakened eyes."
Qin Liuxi snorted coldly.
There was a big problem with that Nuwa Temple.
Qin Liuxi looked at the clay figurine in her hand, squeezed it hard, and it shattered into pieces, a yellowed talisman paper floated to the ground.
Deng Cheng exclaimed in shock upon seeing this.
Qin Liuxi picked up the talisman paper and unfolded it. It was covered in runes, but she recognized at a glance what kind of charm it was.
A Soul Summoning Talisman.
No wonder Ghost Baby’s soul returned to the clay figurine every time; it turned out there was a Soul Summoning Talisman inside the figurine. The figure served as its dwelling place; upon its death, it naturally returned to the most familiar place, then waited for another chance to be reincarnated, to experience either another miscarriage or reincarnation.
No one would want to experience the same manner of death and reincarnation over and over again, including a Ghost Baby. And with each experience, its resentful energy would grow deeper, until it reached a breaking point.
So, how many times at most would it go through this?
Qin Liuxi’s mind flashed with a verse.
The ultimate number in the universe starts at one and ends at nine.
Nine is the limit of numbers.
A maximum of nine times, and the resentful energy of the Ghost Baby would become an extremely difficult Yin Evil to deal with.
And the Nuwa Temple, with its thriving incense offerings, like these dozens of clay figurines, if each awakened clay figurine contained a Ghost Baby and they all experience nine failed reincarnations, if they were all combined, wouldn’t the evil energy be even more potent than the Blood Cursed Baby of the Black Witch?
Qin Liuxi shuddered, her face extremely grim.
She thought of the Hundred Ghost Banner.
To make this evil magic artifact, one would need to use a hundred Evil Ghosts. Once the Hundred Ghost Banner was raised, a hundred ghosts would surge forth. A Taoist of average cultivation would not be a match for them.
And these Ghost Babies would be no different. It was unclear what the person behind this ultimately wanted to do with them, but from what this Ghost Baby said, it definitely was nothing good.
Was there a possibility they might not experience it nine times?
No, as long as the ghost within the clay figurine still existed, this woman could not conceive again. By sending it back, ostensibly to exchange it, wasn’t that simply swapping it with another fertile woman seeking children?
In this way, just by cycling through three people, the extremity of nine could be completed.
It seems that a visit to the Nuwa Temple was warranted.
Qin Liuxi looked at Ghost Baby and said: "Since you do not wish to repeatedly go through reincarnations, then obediently enter my Magic Artifact, and I will send you to reincarnate. However, you absorbed the spirit and merit of innocent people in the human world. If you enter the Underworld, you will inevitably have to face the Mirror of Sin. When you truly reincarnate, I fear you won’t be born into a wealthy and kind family."
Ghost Baby exclaimed and hesitated for a moment.
"I won’t come; then I have no choice but to scatter you," Qin Liuxi brandished the willow branch in her hand.
The Ghost Baby shivered.
So fierce, she is an Evil Ghost, not even sparing the little ghosts who couldn’t become human!
"Heavenly Master, I am willing," the Ghost Baby chose to submit under someone’s oppression.
Qin Liuxi snorted, took out the Jade Gourd from her waist, and removed the stopper: "Come."
The Ghost Baby transformed into a wisp of blue smoke and entered the Jade Gourd.
Qin Liuxi put away the Jade Gourd and hung it back at her waist, then looked at Teng Zhao: "Was there any problem just now?"
Teng Zhao’s face was somewhat pale, and upon hearing her, he shook his head and pulled out a red rope from around his neck, with an Exorcism Jade Token given by Qin Liuxi hanging from it.
Qin Liuxi rubbed his head before turning to face Deng Fucai and his wife, walking towards them, but the couple was so frightened that they hurriedly backed away.
She paused and said, "It’s alright now."
Deng Fucai glanced at the clay figurine fragments on the ground and swallowed, asking: "Master, what is that?"
"This clay figurine had a Ghost Baby residing inside it; do you know Yuan Er’s wife?"
Deng Fucai and his wife looked at each other and said, "She is from our Zaozi Village."
"How is her family’s conduct?"
Deng Cheng shook his head and sighed, "Not good. Yuan Er’s wife had three daughters in succession, and her mother-in-law cursed at her every day, saying she couldn’t bear a son. Every time I saw her, her eyes looking at me were full of envy and jealousy, it was quite frightening."
Deng Fucai, kind-hearted and intelligent, pondered for a moment then guessed something, saying, "Master, could it be that Yuan Er’s wife went to the Nuwa Temple to pray for a child and this clay figurine is what she got from the temple to worship?"
Qin Liuxi nodded, "It was her!"
Deng Cheng was startled and said, "How could the item she worshipped end up with my Nannan? And hidden so deeply."
Qin Liuxi repeated what the Ghost Baby had said.
Hearing about the Ghost Baby’s repeated attempts to be reborn, only to be beaten or drowned each time, Deng Cheng’s legs weakened, and she nearly collapsed, luckily supported by Deng Fucai.
"Why did it come to this, why did she do this?" Deng Cheng, also a woman, knew that aborting at such a late stage was like going through childbirth, no, it was even more damaging than natural childbirth.
And for Yuan Er’s wife, after having an abortion less than half a year later, she became pregnant again prematurely, and now that the child was gone, she probably could not recover well and it would be even more difficult later.
"No wonder I haven’t seen Yuan Er’s wife recently; turns out it’s because..." Deng Cheng’s face turned pale as a sheet.
Deng Fucai shook his head, "Even daughters are her own flesh and blood, to harm like this is no different from personally killing her child; no wonder the Yuan Family is getting poorer, they are cutting off their own blessings. Yuan Er and them, they are also foolish."
Deng Cheng wiped the corners of her eyes; indeed, who could say it wasn’t so.
She felt both angry at Yuan Er’s wife’s misfortune and pitied her lack of resistance.
Deng Fucai’s eyes caught sight of the fragments of the clay figurine and exclaimed, "Master, according to what you said, isn’t that Nuwa Temple harming people?"
The fact that the clay figurine housed a ghost itself was terrifying; the temple also let people take it home to worship, wasn’t that nurturing the little ghost? This cycle of reincarnation, aborting if it’s a girl and then repeatedly trying to reincarnate; it harms both the baby soul and the adult’s body.
Deng Cheng was also shocked.
"So I ask you, do you know from Zaozi Village any others like Yuan Er’s wife who went to Nuwa to pray for children, and how are they now?" Qin Liuxi asked.
Yuan Er’s wife wasn’t the first one; unless the Nuwa Temple is destroyed, the Evil Path isn’t exterminated, she will not be the last one.