After a person died, the heaven soul would return to Heaven, and the earth soul would vanish. Only the human soul would be left floating around the corpse. After a long time, it would gradually vanish.
Occasionally, the earth soul that didn't vanish would combine with the human soul and become what we called ghosts.
Soul summoning had nothing to do with ghosts. Soul summoning was to summon the human soul.
There were two kinds of soul summoning techniques. One was the soul summoning technique I was using to summon the wandering souls in the mortal world. As for the human soul that had vanished, it was believed that it had entered the Netherworld, which required another soul summoning ritual.
According to the Death Scripture, if I wanted to summon a soul from the Netherworld, I had to use a grand formation. I needed to prepare the Soul Summoning Banner and draw the Soul Summoning Talisman. It wasn't something I could do at this moment.
Of course, Chen Tingting had committed suicide, so her resentment was heavy. A human soul wouldn't return to the Netherworld that easily. My method should be enough to summon her.
Things didn't go beyond my expectations. When I started to pull the string in the bowl, I felt a cold wind blowing by my ears. A shadow slowly formed in front of me.
Everything was going smoothly, but I felt something was wrong.
I had only pulled out half of the white string in the bowl, and Chen Tingting's soul was about to take shape. It was too fast.
Indeed, when I was halfway through the white string, a vague shadow of a woman had formed in front of me.
As I continued to pull out the string, the woman's shadow became more solid.
It was a sign that the earth soul still existed. In other words, Chen Tingting's soul had become a ghost.
Judging from how fast she had arrived, the place where her ghost had been after her death should not be far from here.
It was strange. If Chen Tingting had become a ghost and had retained her memories, she should know that her daughter's soul was in this toilet. She shouldn't have come to see her daughter.
After the white string was completely pulled out, a female ghost with disheveled hair appeared in front of me. She looked at me with bloodshot eyes. She looked very scary.
The bloodshot eyes were a sign that she had harmed people. It seemed Chen Tingting wasn't only a ghost, but she had also harmed people.
I didn't dare to be careless. I picked up the peach branch and asked the female ghost, "Are you Chen Tingting?"
The female ghost didn't answer. She ferociously stormed toward me. She opened her bloody mouth and looked extremely terrifying.
I raised the peach branch and waited for the female ghost to reach me. Then, I lashed her with the whip.
The female ghost let out a deafening scream. A cloud of gray mist rose from where the whip hit, and the color of the surroundings dimmed.
However, the female ghost seemed to have gone crazy. She didn't care about me and kept dashing toward me as if she couldn't feel pain.
I squeezed the peach wood branch in my hand and lashed it again and again. Each time I lashed her, a wisp of gray smoke rose from her body. When the ghost finally stopped, the color of her body had dimmed. She retreated far away from me. Her blood-red eyes were filled with fear and malevolence.
Cinnabar and the water of retribution were very harmful to ghosts. Since Chen Tingting could endure so many lashes before retreating, it was enough to prove that her ghost was very powerful.
If a ghost wanted to increase its power, there were only two ways. One was to swallow other ghosts, and the other was to kill people. After they died, it would swallow their souls.
From Chen Tingting's situation, I guessed she had killed many people and swallowed many souls.
It was also the reason why she was so violent and crazy. After swallowing a lot of souls, a ghost would become crazy and instinctively want to kill people.
Chen Tingting finally calmed down after being beaten into submission like a human. She looked at me cautiously and said in a hoarse and unpleasant voice: "Why did you call me over?"
Before I could answer, the little girl's voice came from behind me.
"Mom?"
I sighed and summoned Chen Tingting's soul. At first, I just wanted to confirm whether the little girl was her daughter and fulfill her wish of finding her mother.
However, I didn't expect that I would summon Chen Tingting, who had become a ghost.
The little girl walked out from behind me. She looked at Chen Tingting with puzzled eyes.
At this moment, Chen Tingting was stirred up. She wasn't happy, but angry.
Her shrill voice screamed, "It's you, you little bastard! You've grown so big already!
I had to kill myself because of you, you little bastard! "
While cursing, she struggled to get closer to me. However, I guessed she saw the peach wood branch in my hand. She moved her body a little and then stopped.
The little girl wanted to go to Chen Tingting, but she was so scared that she hid behind me. She peeked her head out and looked at Chen Tingting in fright.
After listening to Chen Tingting, my first question was answered. This little girl should be the baby I had seen that year.
However, Chen Tingting's behavior puzzled me. From what she had said, she had blamed her daughter for her death. She hated her daughter a lot.
However, she had become a ghost and swallowed many souls. If she hated her daughter that much, why didn't she come and swallow this little girl?
I pointed at Chen Tingting with the peach branch and asked her the question in my mind.
Chen Tingting sneered and gazed at the little girl hiding behind me. Her voice was filled with hatred. "Do you think I don't want to?
I've tried so many times over the years, but this little bastard isn't like me. I can't swallow her. She will grow up. She's neither a human nor a ghost. "
Neither a human nor a ghost?
I had a vague idea in my head. However, before I could figure it out, Chen Tingting scolded again. "You have three souls, but you're still an idiot. You've been guarding this toilet for so many years, but you've never swallowed a soul!"
All three souls are there?
A bolt of lightning flashed in my head.
The Death Scripture had mentioned that there was a kind of fetus that died the moment its three souls were formed. After its death, there was a chance that its Heaven soul and Earth soul wouldn't scatter. It would become a ghost with three souls!
Only this kind of ghost with three souls could be like the little girl. After its death, its soul could continue to grow.
When I read about this kind of ghost in the book, I didn't think that I would encounter one. The probability of this kind of ghost forming was so low that the Death Scripture called it a 'heavenly fetus'.
This kind of ghost with three souls was very precious to a geomancer.
Most of the Feng Shui masters have little ghosts that can help them do a lot of things, and this kind of ghost is the most precious kind of ghost. Ordinary ghost, no matter what, is still a ghost, but this kind of ghost, the three souls are no different from people, raised well, for Feng Shui masters, it has endless magical use.
After calming myself down, I didn't think about it anymore. I turned to Chen Tingting and asked, "You've harmed a lot of people these years. I won't ask about the things I don't know, but I want to know what you did with Xu Ziyu."
"Xu Ziyu?" Chen Tingting asked back. It was obvious that she didn't know who Xu Ziyu was.
I pointed at the little girl. "The girl she brought to the toilet a few days ago."
Chen Tingting's ghost laughed. "You're talking about the girl she treated as her mother … It's quite a coincidence. I've been keeping an eye on that little b * stard all these years, trying to find a chance to kill her and make her soul scatter. Who knew that before I could find a chance, she brought me a pregnant girl … She might know that I love pregnant girls the most these years. I'll pester them and make them kill their babies, just like I did back then. Then, I'll swallow the soul of the newborn baby … Tsk tsk, after the baby dies, the adults won't be able to get over it. I'll tell them to kill themselves. That way, they'll be like me back then, and I'll have another serving of food …"
While talking, she smacked her lips as if she was reminiscing about something delicious. She seemed to be in a frenzy.
My heart tightened. I stared at her and asked, "Answer my question. Why was there your blood on Xu Ziyu's bed?"
Chen Tingting's ghost giggled. "Because I gave birth to that little b * stard in the washbasin. That's why I put the washbasin on her bed and waited for her to get the baby out."
When Chen Tingting died, she was trapped in her own obsession. Over time, she formed this kind of crazy thinking. She wanted to kill all pregnant women, and she wanted to be like herself. First, she let others abort the child, and then she regretted it and committed suicide.
Chen Tingting must have been involved in Xu Ziyu's case from the beginning. However, when I arrived, she had already disappeared.
The thick Yin energy in the dormitory wasn't caused by the little girl who had no intentions of harming anyone. It was Chen Tingting.
However, there was one thing I didn't understand. When I saw Xu Ziyu that day, she wasn't covered in Yin energy. I used to think that only the little girl had interacted with her, and that the little girl didn't have any intentions of harming anyone. However, Chen Tingting was also involved. How could Xu Ziyu not have Yin energy?
When I asked Chen Tingting, she giggled and said, "I have to kill the fetus in her stomach before I let her die."
After listening to her, I exhaled in relief. Then, I suddenly thought of something. My face changed, and I glared at Chen Tingting. "You did something to the baby in her belly?"
Chen Tingting licked her lips and sneered. "Her uterus is full of Yin energy. The moment the baby is born is the moment the baby dies."
It had been a week since Xu Ziyu had encountered that strange incident. It was fine if the Yin energy stayed in her body for a short period of time, but it had been a long time. It was hard to get rid of it.
Chen Tingting was still laughing crazily. I didn't want to talk to her anymore. I took out a box made of locust wood and put Chen Tingting's soul inside. Then, I used cinnabar and water to suppress it before closing the lid.
I had seen Old He use paper dolls to preserve souls, but I didn't have that kind of power yet. I could only use the locust wood box to store the soul.
Locust wood was used to hide ghosts, and it was the simplest tool to seal souls.
After dealing with Chen Tingting, I called the little girl and asked her, "Do you want to go with me?"
Although the little girl didn't know much about the world, Chen Tingting's words made her understand a lot. She cocked her head and thought for a long time. Eventually, she nodded and agreed.
She had two big, bright eyes, so I named her 'Tong Tong.'
Tong Tong's remains could be found in the sewer of the toilet. Her body was already there. However, I still had the jade bracelet that Red Shadow had used to possess her, so Tong Tong could temporarily stay there.
The next day, Xu Ziyu came to me and thanked me. "After my talk yesterday, I've made up my mind. I want to talk to my family and keep the baby."