It took me a while to pull myself together after listening to the story of the thirty-six women who had killed themselves to prove their love. I respected and admired them. At the same time, I had to figure out why 

Mr. Big Mole

 wanted to harm Lu Ming. 

Mr. Big Mole

 could be the descendant of one of the thirty-six women

, and h

is family 

might have

 passed the grudge against Lu Yu to the next generations. 

Lu Ming had the same idea

 and asked 

skeptically

,

 “If he wanted to harm me right from the start, why 

did

 he wait until now? Why 

didn't he

 kill me at the time I bought the teapot?” 

“I don’t know. We should remai

n vigilant, ready to

 deal with all changes. I’m sure he will 

make

 the next move soon,” I told him. 

Mr. Big Mole

 was good at casting 

illusion

 spells

, so

 I would just wait for him here. I didn’t think he was powerful enough to make this entire hotel disappear. 

But what happened next proved he could do that… 

Anyway, now that I

 knew the old ghost’s identity, I didn’t want to arrange 

a

 defen

sive

 formation in the hotel room. 

Apart from

illusion

 magic, 

Mr. Big Mole

did not seem

 to have any other skills. 

After discussing the plan

with

 Lu Min

g, we 

decided to wait for him to come to us. At nightfall, we just stayed in the hotel. 

I didn’t set up anything in the room, but I gave Lu Ming a few talismans just to be safe. I also kept the Peach Soul Flower at my waist. 

There weren’t many people in the township

, and things were even quieter at

 night.

 Everything was fine before, b

ut 

now that we 

were waiting, 

I

 felt so 

miserable

 here. 

Fortunately, we 

had

 the teapot with us. We weren’t scared

 and just sat 

quietly

. Still, w

aiting 

didn’t bring us joy. 

After midnight, 

Mr. Big Mole

 still hadn’t come yet. Lu Ming yawned. “It’s so late. I 

don’t think he will

 show up tonight.” 

“

Perhaps

. Anyway, 

y

ou should sleep first. I’m going to wait for him for a little longer.” I glanced at the teapot

, finding nothing

 strange.

I told Lu Ming to rest. He nodded

, 

tucked 

into

 bed,

 and slept

. 

I was the only one

 waiting. Around half an hour later, I also thought that 

Mr. Big Mole

 wouldn’t 

show up

 tonight. I let 

my guard down and relaxed 

by playing Plants vs. Zombies on my phone. 

As I waited

, I heard 

a

 clanging noise that made me turn around to check. Lu Ming had just kicked the teapot. 

I smiled. This grown man didn’t have a 

good

 sleeping posture. I got up

, 

picked up the teapot,

 and put 

it back. Then, I resumed my game. 

I later

became

 tired

. The 

clock 

on

 my phone showed

 that 

it was 2:00 AM. I was sure that 

Mr. Big Mole

 wouldn’t come tonight. I turned to the bed

 and was prepared 

to sleep. Strangely, the bed was empty

—

Lu Ming was gone! 

Both the door to the room and the toilet were in front of me. If he had 

gotten

 up to go there, I 

would

 have seen him. However, he disappeared 

without a sound. It was

 as if he had evaporated into thin air. 

Did 

Mr. Big Mole

drag

 him 

into an illusion

 while he was sleeping? Why didn’t Lu Yu help him?

I turned to the teapot. It was tilted again. The purple clay surface of the teapot now had frightening cracks. I now realized that the clanging noise the teapot made was 

probably

 Lu Yu’s reminder to me. 

Since Lu Yu hadn’t shown up, I had to rely on myself. However, I didn’t know how to deal with the Dai people’s 

illusion

 magic. For the time being, I moved around the room like an ant running on a hot pan. 

I suddenly saw Lu Ming’s coat on the hanger at the corner of the room. I got an idea. 

I burned three joss sticks then opened the window

. Then, I used 

the coat hanger to 

raise

 his coat higher in the air

 and called 

his name loudly. 

It was the most basic soul beckoning technique. People in many rural areas had used this technique for quite a long time. As my voice grew louder, the surroundings seemed colder. After a gust of wind, more shadows appeared at the window. 

There were males

, 

females, elders, and children. They were the wandering

ghosts in this area. They came as I was beckoning the souls. I couldn’t deny them. Otherwise, they would try every means to hinder Lu Ming’s soul. I had to take out a stack of yellow papers from my bag 

and

 burn 

it

 for them. 

Most of the ghosts left after receiving the offering, except for three old ghosts that 

lingered

 by the window

. They smiled 

evilly at me. 

“Want to 

take

 advantage of me, huh?” I sneered. 

I had heard that ghosts c

ould sometimes

commit

 fraud. I didn’t buy it at that time

, but after seeing it for myself, my 

knowledge was widened. 

If they didn’t 

have any dignity

, I wouldn’t be 

polite

with

 them. I made some hand seals and threw a talisman. One of the ghosts got hit, 

screeched, and turned

 into a wisp of black smoke. The other two ghosts were scared

 and quickly fled

. 

I didn’t have time to mind them and continued to call Lu Ming’s name. Soon, I found a strange phenomenon 

happening

 to the three joss sticks I had burned. Two of them were burning fast

. O

ne was burning much slower. 

The three joss sticks represented Lu Ming’s three ethereal souls. 

Because

 the three joss sticks were burning at different speeds, it meant that Lu Ming had heard my calling. He wanted to return but he was trapped in 

Mr. Big Mole

’s 

illusion

 magic. Under the two pulling forces, his three ethereal souls were parting!

If one of the three joss sticks burned down and Lu Ming hadn’t come back, my soul beckoning ritual would fail. It 

would mean that he wouldn’t return t

onight

. 

One more second in the illus

ory world

was

 one more second he was in danger. I became tense

.

At

 this moment, the teapot behind me clanged again. I 

lowered

 my hea

d 

to 

look at it

. The teapot tilted to one side

. T

he lid 

had broken

 into a few pieces. 

It seemed Lu Yu wasn’t in a better situation than I was. I couldn’t rely on him. I turned around

 and called 

for Lu Ming. When 

my gaze fell to

 the teapot without the lid, I suddenly got an idea. 

This teapot was where Yu Lu dwelled. Even a small wisp of energy from this teapot was enough to subdue those ghosts outside

.

Since

 Lu Ming was Lu Yu’s descendant, he 

had to

 be familiar with his aura. 

I thought it over then brought the teapot to the window. I brought 

it

 to my mouth

 and used 

my best voice to scream as loud as possible. The sound echoed through the body of the teapot and escaped through the spout

. It traveled 

far in the air. 

After screaming for a while, I 

saw

 that the three joss sticks now had the same burning rate. It meant my method had worked! 

A gust of cold wind came from a far distance. I then saw a black dot flying toward the window. It was moving 

so fast

 that it became clearer in my vision. In the end, it turned into a dark shadow. 

When I saw the shadow, I heaved a sigh of relief. It was Lu Ming’s soul. 

However, 

since

 his soul was forced to leave his body, he looked a little bewildered

. He gazed at me with his 

dull eyes. 

I 

had gotten

 what I wanted. After everything was settled, I put out 

the 

three joss sticks.

Lu Ming’s soul would return to his body now, so I hurried to 

stick

 a talisman 

to

the soul’s

 forehead. The talisman would slow down 

the

 soul

 without

 hurting 

it

. 

I

t was a really good chance for me to follow his soul 

back to

 the illusional magic formation. 

I followed Lu Ming’s soul and recognized that it was heading in the opposite direction

 of

 Lu Yu’s fortified village. Since I wasn’t familiar with the place, I became extra careful. When 

I

arrived

at the

 small pavilion, Lu Ming’s soul disappeared. 

This small pavilion seemed to be the

 entrance of the

 magic formation. I took out a handful of black beans

 and sprinkled 

them onto the ground 

as

I advanced

. 

Indeed, after entering the pavilion, my surroundings turned into a labyrinth. Fortunately, Lu Ming’s soul hadn’t gone too far. I rushed after him and eventually, I found Lu Ming’s body in the center of the formation. 

When his soul saw his body, 

it

 was excited

 and quickly headed to the body. 

I had to make a few hand seals 

to stop it. Then

, I 

lifted and supported

 Lu Ming’s body

. 

I grabbed his soul and walked to 

a

 place where I could see the black beans. I tore the yellow talisman 

off

 the soul’s forehead.

B

lack beans had thick Yang energy

, and a

lthough they couldn’t 

destroy

Mr. Big Mole

’s illusional magic formation, 

they

 could damage Lu Ming’s soul. When the soul saw the black beans, 

it

 subconsciously

wanted to run away. I had to hold 

it

 tightly. 

The most powerful feature of the formation was that it could change continuously

. We may not be able to 

find the exit. However, no matter how much this labyrinth changed, the black beans I had sprinkled on the ground wouldn’t disappear. 

Thus, I stopped after every step and waited for Lu Ming’s soul to become nervous. 

I just followed

 the black beans

 and

 advanced 

without

 hesitation. 

I kept walking for half an hour before I 

got

 rid of the illusional magic formation.

Lu Ming’s soul was weak because of the black beans. I made him return to 

his

 body and slapped him to wake him up. 

Since Lu Ming’s soul was damaged, he needed to rest. However, the old ghost was in trouble and needed my help. I was afraid that if I left alone now, Lu Ming 

w

ould be trapped again. That’s why I had to wake him up. 

“Master Zhang, you’re here…”

Lu Ming knew 

that

 I had rescued him. He gave me a thumbs-up but his voice was so feeble. 

“That old ghost must be in trouble now. We have to save him. Can you put up with this a little 

longer

?” I was worried that he would fall 

apart

 at 

a

 critical moment like this

.