The night was silent.

Chapter 73 The Details

After nailing the coffin nails, I removed the hairpin from the bark and rewound the small red thread on it.

Seeing me rewind the red thread, Mo Ting spoke up from the side:

"Brother Qin, you wouldn't know.

The moment I saw the wood spirit dragging a small red thread back, I guessed that a fellow practitioner had arrived.

So I waited in the bamboo grove.

I just didn't expect that you, being around my age, are so young..."

As I rewound the red thread, I smiled.

I asked Mo Ting how old he was and where he learned his craft.

Mo Ting answered without hesitation:

"Oh! I'm exactly twenty. My master is Tang Lin of the Ten Thousand Longevity Hall, located on the Yellow Springs Road at the foot of Old Huang Mountain."

Upon hearing this, my face suddenly changed color, and I looked at him in surprise.

Yellow Springs Road at the foot of Old Huang Mountain, Ten Thousand Longevity Hall?

Isn't that directly opposite our Wanfu Hall?

The words blurted out of my mouth:

"You, you're the apprentice of that old man with the black gourd on his waist from the Ten Thousand Longevity Hall?"

I was so astonished, I could hardly believe it.

Mo Ting was also taken aback when I said that.

But then he quickly reacted:

"Brother Qin, you couldn't be the apprentice of that old man who's always puffing on a pipe from Wanfu Hall, could you?"

As he said this, Mo Ting and I stared at each other in disbelief.

But then, we both nodded.

With this nod, Mo Ting and I felt a sense of speechless amusement.

Because after we were accepted as disciples, the first rule we received was not to interact with the shop opposite ours.

It was truly unexpected that the apprentices of our two shops would meet by such a coincidence.

After chatting, we both discovered something.

Our masters had given nicknames to each other.

My master, Gu Hui, called Mo Ting's master "old trash, mentally challenged dog."

Mo Ting's master, Tang Lin, called my master "old garbage, stupid dog."

What kind of grudge or feud could there be? Commercial competition?

But Mo Ting and I had formed a life-and-death bond tonight.

There was no ill will between us.

Finally, we exchanged a smile and stopped dwelling on these matters.

After I put away the small red thread, I left the small park directly.

I found a barbecue stall outside and started eating.

We talked about the entire experience of discovering the wood spirit.

It turned out that Mo Ting encountered the wood spirit in a similar situation to mine.

Their Ten Thousand Longevity Hall had received a plea for help from a severely emaciated person three days ago.

Similar to Wang Kai, their body was covered in old tree bark.

After Mo Ting's master examined him, he gave Mo Ting three talismans.

He told Mo Ting to practice his skills by eliminating the wood spirit.

Since Mo Ting didn't have a small red thread, it took him two nights to find this location.

He had also engaged in one confrontation with the wood spirit, which managed to escape.

Tonight, he was trying to figure out how to deal with the wood spirit alone, to nail the talisman.

Then, he noticed the wood spirit's essence, which had gone out, returning with a red thread.

Upon closer inspection, he realized the small red thread was very unique, believing it must have been made by someone in the industry.

So he waited in the bamboo grove, hoping to encounter another person from the industry and find a helper.

Before long, I jumped into the small park.

This led to Mo Ting and me meeting and getting into a scuffle.

Mo Ting had only been a disciple for a month longer than me.

However, he wasn't forced into this line of work due to being haunted by ghosts.

Instead, he was obsessed with anime and manga, and over time, his chuunibyou spirit exploded.

He always wanted to protect the world and be a mysterious guardian in the darkness.

From the age of eighteen, he aspired to become an exorcist, slaying ghosts and demons in the dark.

Moreover, he was wealthy and had no worries about food or clothing.

So he enjoyed delving into this area, apprenticing under several masters.

But he discovered they were all superficial, deceitful old frauds with no real skills.

They took him on as a disciple just to scam him out of money.

Six months ago, because his friend's family was afflicted by an evil spirit, he learned that Tang Lin, the master of Ten Thousand Longevity Hall, possessed true abilities.

This is when he came to the Ten Thousand Longevity Hall to become a disciple.

Through persistent pleas and financial incentives,

Mo Ting indeed managed to become a disciple of the Ten Thousand Longevity Hall, becoming an inner disciple.

After two months of apprenticeship, he had learned some genuine skills.

After hearing Mo Ting's apprenticeship story, I secretly chuckled.

Mo Ting and I, despite our vastly different lives, had ended up on the exact same path.

Compared to my forced circumstances, Mo Ting was a willing participant.

He truly enjoyed this kind of work, steadfastly wanting to subdue demons and exorcise monsters, and become an exorcist Taoist.

As for me, it was to survive.

I had to deal with malevolent entities to live, by stealing the lifespan of ghosts.

This led me to pass my master's trials and become a disciple.

Although I felt a good rapport with Mo Ting and we got along well,

my situation was rather unique, and since this was our first meeting, I hadn't told him the whole truth.

I only said that I was being haunted by a ghost.

After my master helped me exorcise the spirits, he saw my good physique and took me as a disciple.

I didn't mention that my fate was of an yin nature, nor that my "great fortune" was almost entirely consumed by malevolent entities, and I could only survive by stealing yin life spans.

Currently, only about twenty days remained...

After finishing the barbecue, it was already three in the morning.

Mo Ting and I exchanged contact information, agreeing to assist each other in future endeavors.

Then, we parted ways and went home.

After leaving, I called Wang Kai.

Wang Kai was clearly terrified; he hadn't slept this late.

As soon as my call connected, Wang Kai answered:

"Hello, Qin, Brother Qin, how is it?"

His voice was filled with apprehension and nervousness.

"Don't worry! It's all handled.

For the next few days, just follow what my master said.

Get plenty of sun, and the bark on your body will fall off..."

I said calmly.

Upon hearing this, Wang Kai became extremely excited and let out a sigh of relief.

On the phone, he kept calling me "brother" and thanking me, almost excitedly calling me "dad."

Wang Kai used to target me at work and was very snobbish; I didn't have a good impression of him.

After telling him the matter was resolved, I hung up.

Simultaneously, I sent a WeChat message to my master.

I informed him that the matter was settled and that I would be coming to work later tomorrow.

Unexpectedly, my master was also staying up late, and he replied within a minute.

The reply was just one word.

"En."

Seeing my master's reply, I couldn't help but smile.

It was already three in the morning, and that old fellow was probably still burning the midnight oil, having eaten himself into a "snake king" again...