He turned his back to the pond, breaking and extinguishing the incense in the incense burner in his hand.
Little Huang Ying did not let go, still clutching his arm.
She didn’t want to leave.
At this moment, the situation truly exemplified the difficulty of sending away a spirit after inviting it in.
Run Sheng had already picked up the Soul Returning Basket, ready to cover the Corpse with it and plunge into the water, embracing it.
Li Zhiyuan rubbed a bell against his face, smearing it with fresh blood, and then swung it behind him. The crisp sound of the bell rang out in the air before plummeting into the fish pond.
Little Huang Ying let go of his hand, turned around, and walked towards the pond.
The water gradually covered her body, and she reached for the bell floating on the surface.
Li Zhiyuan quickly pulled out two pieces of yellow paper, lit them with a candle, opened his arms, and then slapped them hard with the burning papers in his hands!
Sparks shot from the yellow papers, which extinguished immediately.
And the flames at the hearts of the two candles on the ground turned green.
Li Zhiyuan stamped out the candles completely with his foot.
After doing all this, he looked at Little Huang Ying in the fish pond who had now turned around, the water reaching over her chest but leaving her neck and head above, staring at him.
"The gate to life is now closed, after three offerings, I bid thee return!"
Finally, Little Huang Ying slowly submerged, her black hair spreading until she disappeared entirely beneath the surface and was no longer visible.
Li Zhiyuan collapsed to the ground with a "plop," tilting his head back, but the nosebleed continued.
"Brother Runsheng, help me roll up a couple of paper balls."
Run Sheng immediately took some yellow paper, rolled two balls, but the first attempt was too big to fit in the nostrils, so he had to roll them again.
After stuffing them in, the nosebleeds didn’t stop, seeping into the paper balls and continuing to flow until he replaced them with two new ones, finally bringing the bleeding under control.
Li Zhiyuan breathed heavily, feeling an obvious chest tightness and weakness, a symptom of excessive blood loss.
Run Sheng was carefully taking care of him, showing no concern for the Corpse in the pond, scooping up plenty of water to cool his forehead and clean the blood from his cheeks.
"Breath...Breath...Breath..."
After resting for a while, Li Zhiyuan finally recovered.
Run Sheng, relieved, patted his chest and said fearfully: "Xiao Yuan, she was really fierce."
Li Zhiyuan shook his head: "She’s good, it’s my fault."
Little Huang Ying had already shown considerable restraint; it was indeed his own fault this time. Who would have thought that a Feng Shui consultation could so deplete one’s physical strength?
Even the gentlest lion, if teased when injured and bleeding, could end up eating you, and it would be your own fault.
But this is the price of attempting to apply theory to practice; unfortunately, it was Little Huang Ying. If it had been another Corpse, even if Run Sheng could have saved him, there would still have been an inevitable clash with the corpse.
"Xiao Yuan, what exactly were you doing tonight?"
Li Zhiyuan pointed towards the fish pond: "Brother Runsheng, there’s a tomb underneath."
Upon hearing this, Run Sheng’s face lit up with excitement, clutching the Yellow River Shovel once again.
"Xiao Yuan, I’ll go dig it up!"
"Brother Runsheng, have you watched any movies recently?"
"Raiders of the Lost Ark, there are three parts. They were all shown on the county channel."
"Brother Runsheng, tomb raiding is illegal."
"Also, I suggest you might want to watch ’News Network’ after dinner from now on."
"Okay, I will. So, what do we do with this place?"
"If the water ghosts haven’t found this place, then let’s just leave it be, since it’s buried underground."
Due to Li Lan’s work, Li Zhiyuan also had a certain understanding of archaeology.
Nowadays, a tomb is excavated only if there’s major construction work, or if a tomb has been robbed or naturally damaged and needs protective investigation; otherwise, active excavation is not pursued.
Water Burial, due to its uniqueness, has its chambers buried much deeper than land burials, making excavation more difficult. Since Little Huang Ying remains here and has not dissipated, this indicates the main chamber’s preservation is in good condition. Therefore, it shall be left to continue its preservation.
"Brother Runsheng, we need to keep tonight’s events a secret."
Li Zhiyuan slowly got up, took another deep glance at the fish pond; it truly was a good place for preserving a corpse.
If the gang of water ghosts hadn’t been entirely caught and still coveted the main chamber here, he was actually quite looking forward to them finding this place. Because what awaited them here was not simply a landbound spirit of Yin and evil.
When he got back home, Li Zhiyuan took another bath, then realized that his clothes were beyond cleaning—after all, they were bloodied, and haphazard disposal could frighten others.
He had to fold them up and plan to throw them into the stove and burn them the next day.
After cleaning himself up, Li Zhiyuan went to bed, hoping to catch a little more sleep before the dawn.
But his body must have been seriously overdrawn, and he had bled a lot. Once asleep, he didn’t wake up until noon.
Upon waking, before even opening his eyes, he felt the intense midday sunlight.
Li Zhiyuan opened his eyes, staring at the carving above the bed, even carefully distinguishing the patterns on it.
Finally unable to avoid reality any longer, he turned his head to look towards the door.
The girl was sitting in the chair.
She wore a pale green ruqun today, evoking a sense of both dignity and new beginnings.
To wake up to her presence every day was truly a pleasure.
Without having to say much, without needing to make any gesture, just one look from her could cheer you up.
Li Zhiyuan got out of bed, walked over to the snack cabinet, and took out three bottles of Jianlibao, following the old rule: handing her two bottles, one of which he opened for her.