Chapter 336

Chapter 336: Remnant Soul, Possession

Jiang Yu Wei saw two silly boys clinging to the doorframe and asked: “What are you doing?”

Jiang Liu Bin said excitedly: “Dad, my sister says I have a talent for drawing talismans. She says I can enter the path through talismans, so I want to cultivate with her!”

Jiang Yu Wei was baffled, thinking: [Aren’t we a martial family?] But when he heard “cultivation,” he felt a little tempted, thinking: [I kind of want to try it too-what should I do?] If not for his steady nature, he might have done something rash on the spot.

He said to Liu Bin: “Go back for now. I have something to discuss with Jin’er.” Liu Bin didn’t want to leave, but he had always feared his own dad, so he could only give in. Jiang Liu Shuang didn’t react as strongly as his brother, since he hadn’t tested out any talent for drawing talismans.

Once the extras had left, Jiang Yu Wei entered the room-and saw it packed with people. He suddenly remembered and thought: [Oh right, Second Brother has three children. With him and his wife, that’s a family of five.] Right now, all five of them were staring straight at him.

He paused before saying: “Second Brother, Jin’er, come over.”

Yu Zhi Yi’s eyes flickered, thinking: [So there’s a result?] Knowing they needed to talk business, Xiao Qing Xuan didn’t make the father and daughter leave; instead, she took the two boys out.

When only three people were left, Jiang Yu Wei shared what he had found: “In recent days, the great powers in the martial world have been fairly quiet. Yes, people now and then get hurt, and sometimes someone even dies, but in the martial world these things can’t be avoided.”

“Only Juxian Manor stands out,” he said more gravely. “The people I sent there didn’t send back a single word.”

“And today, Juxian Manor sent someone over to say that their young lord can’t attend the Earthly Ranking conference this time due to ‘certain reasons.’” The messenger didn’t explain what those reasons were, and it wasn’t proper for him to pry.

Honestly, a force suddenly bowing out of a grand meet isn’t rare. Accidents happen to everyone. If he hadn’t learned in advance that the luck-changing business was real, Jiang Yu Wei would not have suspected anything. But now, the more he thought about Juxian Manor, the more suspicious it felt.

Most important of all, he recalled that a few years ago Juxian Manor was only a small force. The manor lord’s skills were decent, but he had no strong generals under him. His parents, brothers, and nephews also had no special talent. Then, a few years back, the manor lord’s inner strength suddenly surged; he leapt into the top fifty on the Heaven Ranking. After that, more people followed him, and in just a few years Juxian Manor became a known power in the martial world-sometimes even pressing Tianyu Manor down by a head.

Even more important, the time when this manor lord, Ji Guang Dai, rose to fame was exactly when the Martial Alliance began to decline-and that decline started under him as the alliance leader. That year, he had planned a closed-door breakthrough to the seventh layer of the Jiang clan’s Origin Heart Method. He had prepared everything; the success rate was as high as ninety percent. While not perfect, such odds meant a small chance of failure. Yet he somehow failed anyway. Afterward he reviewed the whole thing again and again, but he could not find a reason.

From then on, the Martial Alliance ran into one issue after another. If he wasn’t injured, then Second Brother was running into every kind of bad luck. Even when capturing some not-so-strong thugs from the martial world, little accidents kept popping up. Most of the time, things still went well-but those accidents were truly suspicious.

Pressing down his anger, Jiang Yu Wei added: “Also, just now, Ruo Lan gave me a talisman.” He took out the spatial talisman Chen Ruo Lan had given him.

Jiang Yu Chuan didn’t react much to the Juxian Manor part-Yu Zhi Yi had already hinted at it before, and he knew Ji Guang Dai was a prime suspect. But he hadn’t expected Chen Ruo Lan to produce a talisman. To be exact, he hadn’t expected what that implied. If this spatial talisman really worked, then she must know a very powerful master of the mystic arts.

Turning the last few years over in his mind, Jiang Yu Chuan frowned and asked: “Big Brother, what do you plan to do?”

In his heart, Jiang Yu Wei still held a sliver of hope-that they were wrong: “Should we go ask them? What if it’s a misunderstanding?” Even if they knew a master of mystic arts, that didn’t mean they were the ones doing these things.

Yu Zhi Yi suddenly asked an unrelated question: “Uncle, can I take a look at that talisman?”

Without much thought, Jiang Yu Wei handed it to her.

After studying it for a moment, Yu Zhi Yi smiled and said: “Uncle, you haven’t bonded with this talisman yet, right?”

A spatial talisman isn’t like a protective talisman or a lightning command talisman. It needs a drop of fresh blood as the medium so the owner can form a mental link with the space inside. Only then can ordinary people store and take out items at will. As for cultivators-fresh blood can be used for many things.

Feeling something was off, Jiang Yu Wei didn’t answer and asked in return: “Is there a problem with this talisman?”

Yu Zhi Yi didn’t mind the question. She explained: “It is a spatial talisman. Inside, there’s about one cubic meter of space. After bonding, it can be used normally.”

Jiang Yu Wei let out a breath.

But before he could truly relax, Yu Zhi Yi went on: “However, there’s a trace of remnant soul attached to the talisman paper. The moment you drip blood on it, that remnant soul will bind to you.”

“Even as a remnant, its soul power isn’t weak. If it binds successfully, there’s a very high chance your soul will be devoured.”

“In other words, once you bond with it, not long after, your body will become the remnant soul’s body.”

“And your soul will most likely become the fuel it uses to heal and strengthen itself.”

Jiang Yu Wei was stunned speechless.

Jiang Yu Chuan recovered faster and quickly asked: “If he doesn’t bond with it, will it be fine?”

Yu Zhi Yi shook her head: “A spatial talisman is the lowest grade of talisman. The space inside is unstable and easy to break from within.”

“That remnant soul is likely the leftover will of a very fierce and cruel being. Even a single thread of it isn’t something a low-grade spatial talisman can lock down.”

“Even if Uncle doesn’t bond with it, once it wakes up it will tear open the spatial talisman and escape.”

“When that happens, whether it seizes Uncle or just finds some other person to seize, the results will be impossible to measure.”

She sighed and said: “I think it will most likely choose Uncle. He’s in his prime, strong in martial arts, and the Martial Alliance Leader. There’s no better target.”

A chill ran through Jiang Yu Wei.

Clinging to a tiny hope, he asked: “Could you…could you be mistaken?” He had never believed in ghosts. Even though his worldview kept getting shattered and rebuilt, it was still hard to accept; and he couldn’t believe that the younger sister he had cared for since childhood would be ruthless enough to target him like this, so it was hard to swallow all at once.