Chapter 9: The Ghost Immortal Xu Bo

  As I was summarizing and refining the mind-reading technique, my father suddenly started coughing violently. Unconsciously, I took a step forward, pushed aside his iron clothes with my hand, stood beside him, bent down and gently patted his back until he finally calmed down. Then, he looked up at me and smiled.

  I looked at my father, feeling the thoughts he wanted to convey to me in his mind. "Between life and death, I can only choose this way to let you live. Dying is not hard, but living is not easy. Living like this, every day is torture, pain, and unbearable memories. But I can only do it this way! This is our fate, the Cui family of Fengdu! However, fortunately, our ancestors protected us, and by chance, you chose to commit suicide, which ignited the Xuanwu blood and found an opportunity to break the curse. You solved the ancient mystery left behind by Li Shunfeng's 'Pushing Back Diagram'." The blue eyes were full of admiration, making me feel a bit embarrassed, but I didn't do anything, just what a person who had lost love should do.

  Maybe too many words made Father feel a bit strenuous, I saw his forehead sweating slightly, and I saw a silk handkerchief on the table next to him, so I picked it up and went over to help him wipe away the sweat. I saw him smiling, even laughing out tears. "Curse of Ten Souls, Curse of Ten Souls" The four big words that kept appearing in my mind, fulfilled the ancestors' reputation for a lifetime, but also led to the tragic source of the Cui family era. I was originally an official second-generation rich second-generation, but because of this thing's existence, I became a pure second-generation silk now.

  I recall this thing and my teeth ache with hatred, this group of damned ghosts actually came up with such a vicious method to torture us, it's really too sinister. I didn't expect that our ancestors' heroic deeds for the people and the country would lead their own family to fall to such a state, I really don't know if it's their glory or shame, if I have the chance, I will definitely ask our ancestors about their thought process in person. At that time, this casual idea, unexpectedly came true soon after, it's really "reckless thinking has risks, wild thoughts need caution"!!!

  After understanding my own life and the background of the Cui family, I understood my identity and current situation. The Cui family is indeed a wealthy and influential family after being a ghost official. The Cui family's industry in Fengdu is also among the best. According to my father's words, I have now reached the point where I can buy things without asking for prices, eat without paying, and live without saving money. At this moment, I am also a rich young master of a wealthy family. The Cui Group Building in the city center is also a property of the Cui family. If only I had known my identity earlier, maybe I could have stayed with Zhou Cheng and lived with Zhou Mei. But after thinking about it, I gave up. As long as she can be happy, other things are not important anymore.

  At this moment, I looked up at the Xu Bo in front of me. That strange skin color, pure black paper umbrella, and eyeless eyes were actually Yuan Tianpeng, who was famous for shaking heaven and earth back then. I curiously sized up this "vitiligo" messenger, wondering if he was human or ghost.

  Of course, I'm no stranger to Yuan Tiangang. The reason I've heard of him is that his portrait was in our middle school history textbook. Those black and white portraits of historical figures in the textbook were often turned into sexy women by my pen, and Yuan Tiangang was no exception, so I had some impression of him. Looking back, I think I drew a bikini on him - if only I knew that would make him so famous! Another reason is that when I read about "The Bone-Calling Song", I was curious and looked up the book with the expectation of reading a horror story, but it turned out to be incomprehensible. As a result, I still have some complaints about his sensational title. However, there are many legends about him, saying he understood "wind divination", which could predict good or bad luck by listening to the wind direction. He also had titles like astronomer, astrologist, and predictor, which sounded cool but were hard to understand. His most famous feat was

  It was actually during Wu Zetian's infancy that the prophecy of her dragon eyes and phoenix neck, with an emperor's appearance, was made! At that time, after hearing about such a bold prediction, I also had the mindset of learning to buy lottery tickets and looked through his "Six Ren Jue" and "Wu Xing Xiang Shu" two books in the school library. As a result, I was greatly disappointed, my liberal arts eyes couldn't understand this science thinking at all, and after almost being heartbroken, I gave up and abandoned the idea of buying lottery tickets. It can be said that this guy was once my earliest mentor who wanted to change my fate by buying lottery tickets!

  My father looked at me and smiled, probably because he had read my mind. "The Xu Bo you see is always in a dormant state. He will only wake up when the black umbrella leaves his hand. As for when he wakes up or falls asleep, I'm not sure either. There doesn't seem to be any pattern, maybe it's due to this earthy soul physique. I once asked him about the reason, but he just said that sleeping and using the black umbrella is to prevent sunburn and maintain his skin's youthfulness. However, you can't take this old rascal's words seriously. The real reason, he won't say. But when something happens in the Cui family, he will definitely wake up." When I heard my father's words, I finally understood why Xu Bo was like that. I nodded slowly.

  Although this curse of the ten thousand souls is a family mission, thinking about the fuse that set it off makes me angry - it was this guy's drinking before his death that made the Cui family suffer for thousands of years. It must be the worst case of drunken consequences in the world. If only he had drunk a little less, or not pushed that one time, or waited a few seconds longer to push... the current situation would probably have changed fundamentally. I would definitely be living a life of luxury and happiness - just thinking about it is wonderful. Unfortunately, if onlys are useless, and there's no use in regretting what happened except to endure it. All I can do is complain: what bad luck!

  Through the trial just now, I have basically mastered the technique of reading minds, but this feeling is still a bit strange when communicating with family members. It's not close, and I'm better off speaking directly. Looking at my father, I said: "What's going on with this earth soul? Is Xu Bo a human or a ghost?" I don't know if Father was also tired of the trouble of reading minds or if he wanted to respond to my communication, but he answered my question directly: "This person has three souls, and the essence of the heart is called the soul. The three souls are: heavenly soul, earthly soul, and mortal soul, also known as fetal light, spirit, and ghostly energy. Although their forms and energies are different, they all belong to the same category. The three souls exist in the spiritual realm, so when a person dies, each of the three souls goes to a different place. The heavenly soul returns to the heavenly path, either ascending to immortality or falling into the heavenly prison, unable to return to its ancestral home; the earthly soul returns to the underworld, also known as the yin soul or ghost, either reincarnating or falling into the Avīci hell; and the mortal soul disappears into space along with the death of the body. Xu Bo is an earthly soul, so in a strict sense, he can be called a ghost, but since he is the earthly soul of a celestial immortal, Yuan Tian Gang, and has a connection to our Cui family, it's more accurate to call him a ghostly immortal. Moreover, eating, drinking, defecating, sleeping, and other things are no different from ordinary people."

  The "white leprosy" patient in front of me, Yuan Tiangeng's ghost, is actually a celestial being? My father told me that although he was a terrestrial spirit, he had a physical body and could eat, drink, defecate, and sleep. This piqued my curiosity, and I was about to reach out and touch him to see what it felt like when I heard a strange voice coming from the room, "Don't touch! Don't touch! You haven't washed your hands, don't come near me! If you take one more step closer, I'll beat you up! Even if your father is here, I won't give you face!" This was a very thick and rich voice, with a hint of opera singing training. But then I thought, this doesn't sound right... There are only a few people in the room, so I shifted my attention to the source of the voice, and it was actually him! Looking at the black paper umbrella that had slowly fallen, yes, the one speaking was indeed the ghostly celestial being Xu Bo, Yuan Tiangeng's terrestrial spirit.

  As my gaze focused, I found that at this moment, Xu Bo's pure white eye sockets actually appeared with black pupils, shining brightly, and the feeling was completely different from before. Perhaps it was the strong contrast between black and white that gave me a shocking feeling. As he slowly put down the black paper umbrella in his hand, he also winked at me and said loudly: "Ah, my waist hurts, my back hurts, my legs cramp, I'm getting older and can't sleep well, this lack of calcium is getting more and more serious, looking at this food supplement and medicine supplement, but the effect is really not good. I say Cui Ming, you are the only one in the Cui family who has the soul-reading technique, the Xuanwu bloodline of the Cui family, because it needs to be passed down through generations, protecting the name, so the power of Xuanwu cannot be fully displayed. Your suicidal move unintentionally solved the problem that I had been thinking about for thousands of years and couldn't figure out - how to ignite the Xuanwu bloodline. It's really 'the blue is better than the blue', 'the later waves push the earlier waves', 'the younger generation is to be feared', 'bravery is commendable'!

  Back then, if I hadn't gotten drunk and lost control, and Ma had not slipped up, even giving Chunfeng one more minute or second to hold on, perhaps the Cui family would have been able to break this thousand-year curse. It's all my fault, getting drunk so easily, unknowingly brewing this great disaster. It's all my fault, trouble caused by drinking! Listening to this guy speak with such rhythm, I feel like I've heard it somewhere before, a bit like song lyrics. Xu Bo Wen's language is really not bad, very cultured, and I couldn't help but feel moved in my heart. A cultured person is indeed a cultured person.

  At this time, Xu Bo thought for a moment with his 45-degree profile. "You are the only one in the Cui family who has sought to end your own life, and you are also the key to unlocking the Cui family's fate. You can read minds and examine people, read souls and look at ghosts. Ah, congratulations, it's been a long time coming, finally waiting for today, finally realizing my dream, it's really been too long! If only you had been born a few decades earlier, if only you had committed suicide earlier, that would have been great! Alas, even I, with my divine calculations, did not expect this method to be self-destruction! It's too pitiful! The gods do not know such things, and heroes are left to cry in vain!" As he spoke, Xu Bo actually shed two black tears. This scene almost shocked me into prostrating myself on the ground in worship. These emotions, this writing style... the ancestor of pretentiousness, a god-like existence! At this moment, I forgot my resentment and was left with only deep admiration.