Chapter 87 Appearance
"Dead, dead?!" Granny Zhang looked at Li Daoxuan in shock, not quite understanding the meaning of his words. It would be fine if her daughter-in-law was an evil spirit, but how come she turned out to be dead?

"Young Master, what is going on?!" Granny Zhang asked in great confusion.

"I have just calculated the fortune for my mother-in-law's son and daughter-in-law. The daughter-in-law was born in the seventh year of Xianfeng, at the hour of Mao in the day of Chou. The lunar calendar is in conflict with each other, and nine out of ten conflicts are unlucky. She also has the fate of twin boys, so she should not have lived past the age of eighteen and is destined to die early. In the first year of Guangxu, her luck was in conflict with the earth, her fortune changed, and her luck came together. She was drowned in a flood and should have been dead for more than two years. She should not have appeared in this world. But now she seems to be still alive." Li Daoxuan calculated and was puzzled by this matter.

He felt that there must be something fishy going on, so he asked Granny Zhang to take him to the couple's room to take a look.

Granny Zhang naturally wanted more than anything, and quickly took Li Daoxuan into the couple's room.

The room is not big, but it is warmly decorated. It has all the necessary dressing tables and furniture, and there are several large mahogany boxes on the cabinets.

When Li Daoxuan entered the house, he smelled a fishy smell similar to that of the old drunkard, but the smell was very faint and was obscured by the sandalwood burning in the house.

He didn't say much, but looked at the boxes on the cabinet.

"What are those things?" Li Daoxuan asked, pointing at the box.

"That's my daughter-in-law's dowry. It's usually locked away and no one can see it. I have never touched those things." said Grandma Zhang.

"There must be something fishy." Li Daoxuan pointed at the box.

Li Daoxuan originally wanted to use the Sky Eye to investigate directly, but he felt something was not right along the way. He didn't know what was in the dark, but he felt that the surrounding area was full of strangeness.

If the third eye is opened directly, ordinary people will naturally not feel anything. However, if there are evil demons or wild monsters nearby, and many of these things have magical powers, some of them may be able to sense the detection of the third eye, and it is possible to alert the snake.

Li Daoxuan thought for a moment, then he and Grandma Zhang carried the box down.

The two men laid the box flat on the ground. Li Daoxuan took a look at the copper reed padlock on the box and sighed. It was just the most common directional lock in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The keyhole was not like the maze keyhole commonly used by the people in Guangdong. It was just a straight in and out keyhole.

As long as you avoid forcibly picking the lock, you can also avoid leaving obvious traces of detection.

As for how to open the lock, this is not a difficult problem for Li Daoxuan.

Li Daoxuan was an engineering student in his previous life. When he was in college, he and his roommates had nothing to do, so they liked to tinker with some small mechanical objects. Naturally, they also learned about various ancient locks from online videos.

This type of copper lock is only used to prevent gentlemen from releasing villains.

But at this moment, the box must not be opened. As to whether he is a villain or a gentleman, let's put this moral entanglement aside for the time being.

Li Daoxuan did not hesitate and turned to ask Granny Zhang, who took out all the keys to the copper locks in the house. Li Daoxuan picked up a relatively thin key, held the lock with his left hand, controlled the key with his right hand, and inserted it upside down into the keyhole of the copper lock. The key was close to one side of the lock stem, slid to the bottom, and then pressed the reed hard toward the side of the lock stem. With a slight sound, Li Daoxuan immediately used his left thumb to hold the lock beam, pulled out the key, inserted it into the keyhole again, and slid it in close to the other side of the lock stem. He repeated the previous action, and heard another "click". The lock beam was pulled out and the lock was opened.

When Granny Zhang saw this, her eyes widened.

Li Daoxuan smiled without saying anything and took off the lock on the box.

After taking off the lock on the box, Li Daoxuan looked at Granny Zhang. After getting her promise, he pushed the box open.

This push was not a big deal, but it frightened Granny Zhang on the spot. Inside the box, there were hundreds of women's skins piled up. These skins were all vivid and lively, and except for the lack of eyeballs, they were all very real.

"This! This is!" Granny Zhang covered her chest with her hands. She felt that it was difficult to breathe, her breathing was blocked, her vision went dark, and she fell straight backwards.

"Be careful." Li Daoxuan said it quickly. He supported Grandma Zhang and quickly turned his left hand into a sword finger, pressing the Shendao point between her shoulder blades on her back. He sent a breath of Dan Qi to her, which relieved her emotions and brought Grandma Zhang back to life.

"I never expected it, I really never expected it. My daughter-in-law is such an inhuman thing. The boxes are filled with human faces!" Granny Zhang sobbed and told Li Daoxuan about her distress. After all, no matter who it happened to, it would be an unbearable result.

Li Daoxuan understood the difficulties of Granny Zhang and couldn't help but sigh in his heart. He vaguely knew that the identities of Granny Zhang and her daughter-in-law were probably related to this face.

Li Daoxuan looked at the box, and his scalp tingled. He squatted down and wanted to take a closer look. How could there be so many human faces? Is this evil beast so cruel?
But upon closer inspection, Li Daoxuan was surprised to find that the human faces in this box were not real human skin masks, but "painted skins", which were so lifelike!

Li Daoxuan breathed a sigh of relief.

When Li Daoxuan came, he divined a hexagram, which was the Mountain Peeling hexagram with Kun below and Gen above. One Yang is on the top and five Yin are on the bottom. Yin is strong and Yang is lonely. Evil spirits are becoming more and more rampant. This is a very bad sign, which corresponds to the situation of Zhang Po Po's family at that time. This hexagram also has a high mountain attached to the ground, which means that villains are in power and gentlemen are in trouble. If this hexagram is applied to Li Daoxuan, then Li Daoxuan will fall into such a deep cause and effect, which is a difficult situation. On the contrary, the problem of Zhang Po Po's family is not easy to solve. Both are peeling.

Looking at the change of this hexagram again, it is very strange. Four of the six lines move, and it becomes the Tianfeng Gou hexagram with Xun below and Qian above. The reunion is happy but not long-lasting, and the host and guest are reversed. The weak host meets the strong guest. Li Daoxuan is the guest and the one from Grandma Zhang's family is the host. The hexagram seems good, but the fourth line just represents the fourth person in this matter of Grandma Zhang's family. It is a yang line in a yin position, which is out of place, and Li Daoxuan happens to be the fourth person. If Li Daoxuan forcibly interferes in the affairs of Grandma Zhang's family, it will be counterproductive. In this way, the changed hexagram is consistent with the main hexagram.

The sky outside was gloomy, and Li Daoxuan and Granny Zhang tidied up the sundries in the room.

Li Daoxuan walked out of the door and looked around the courtyard. He said to Granny Zhang, "If I get too involved in this matter, it might lead to heresy and backfire. So I can only assist you in this matter. In the end, you have to settle it yourself."

As he said this, he took out three yellow talismans from his waist and handed them to Granny Zhang. "I think your daughter-in-law is probably a dead thing possessing a living person. Her face is decaying every day because she cannot stay in the world as a punishment from heaven, so she needs to change her face every once in a while. This kind of evil spirit is the most difficult to deal with, and your son may have been bewitched by her. Granny, you have to be careful of your son and don't let him hurt you."

"And carry this first yellow talisman close to your body, it will be enough to protect your mother-in-law from evil spirits. Then mix this second yellow talisman into the wine, and let the evil spirit drink it, it will be able to reveal its true form on the spot. Then use this third talisman with black dog blood to stick on the evil spirit's head, it will surely be able to resolve the disaster in your mother-in-law's family."

"I will set up a camp in this courtyard. Then you only need your son to hold the torch and your mother-in-law to hold the peach wood sword and stand at two different places. When the evil spirit appears in the courtyard, we will insert the peach wood sword into its body and then light it with fire. It will surely destroy its true body. After that, the family will be safe."

Li Daoxuan spoke seriously, and Granny Zhang controlled her fear. She trusted the young man very much, and as a mother, for her son, what could she do if she was afraid? At this time, she was more courageous and determined, and listened carefully.

After Li Daoxuan finished speaking, he stepped into the courtyard and re-arranged the five elements of the courtyard building. Then he used the Nine Palaces and Eight Diagrams to set up a formation to exorcise demons and drive away evil spirits.

He also gave his peach wood sword to Granny Zhang to activate the formation.

With the elixir energy he had accumulated over the past few days, this sword could be used by an ordinary person with magical powers. It would be easy to kill evil spirits with the help of formations.

After doing all this, Li Daoxuan pointed out the center of the formation to Granny Zhang. As long as Granny Zhang stood in the center of the formation with the peach wood sword, even if the young master of the Zhang family did not have time to return to his position, he could still kill the evil, it would just take a little longer.

Before leaving, Li Daoxuan repeatedly reminded Granny Zhang to distinguish the three talismans and act according to the steps she said. Only by revealing the true face of the evil spirit first could he prevent his possessed Erlang from aiding and abetting evil and causing trouble.

But he had a hunch that something unexpected might happen to the Zhang family.

But no matter how Li Daoxuan divined, the hexagrams were always stable.

"What's the problem? Why do I feel uneasy?" Li Daoxuan was confused.

After leaving Zhang's house, Li Daoxuan put on his bamboo hat and walked away slowly. Under the gaze of Granny Zhang, he slowly left the sight.

After Li Daoxuan left, Granny Zhang put the three talismans in order. She put the life-saving talisman in her upper armpit, the manifestation talisman in the right pocket of her jacket, and the last talisman in the left pocket of her jacket.

When the Zhangs came back, they heard from Granny Zhang that the guest had left for something. The young man looked at the restaurant delicacies in his hands with a happy look on his face.

"That's great, let's eat it at home."

Granny Zhang naturally agreed. She said with a smile on her old face, "Mom will get you some wine from home. The wine from Yuzhen Tower will be temporarily stored for entertaining guests in the future."

After saying that, he left the house, went to the kitchen, took out a jar of wine, opened the lid, and took out a yellow talisman.

After stuffing the yellow talisman into the wine jar, Granny Zhang shook it vigorously. Seeing that the talisman dissolved in the wine, she finally felt relieved.

He carried the jar of wine into the hall and poured a glass for each of his son and daughter-in-law.

Looking at her daughter-in-law's pretty face, Grandma Zhang remembered the face in the box and her hands couldn't help shaking.

"This glass of wine is for mother. Mother has been busy with our affairs all the time. It's her son's fault." The young man of the Zhang family said with some shame, raised the wine glass to salute to mother-in-law Zhang and drank it in one gulp.

Granny Zhang smiled awkwardly and glanced at her daughter-in-law.

Seeing that she had also drunk it, he smiled and said, "Mom is willing to do so, as long as you are healthy, this is Mom's greatest wish."

Just as he finished speaking, he suddenly heard his daughter-in-law screaming. The sound was like pebbles rubbing against each other, extremely unpleasant.

"Husband, husband! I feel so uncomfortable, I feel so uncomfortable!" Zhang's daughter-in-law suddenly screamed, and white smoke came out of her whole body.

Her skin peeled off like paint, falling to the ground in pieces.

Soon, the fair and tender face lost all its color, and a dark and rotten face appeared in front of Zhang's mother and son.

Mr. Zhang was frightened by this change and stood there in a daze.

Granny Zhang was mentally prepared. Although she was also extremely frightened, she still hurriedly took out a yellow talisman from her pocket.

"Hurry up and obey the order!" Granny Zhang shouted, and stuck the yellow talisman on her daughter-in-law's head. Then she dragged her son outside.

"Hurry up and follow me to the yard and stand there! Your wife is a monster!"

(End of this chapter)