"I can tell this coffin is more formidable than we imagined," Ye Huohuo said, rubbing her thumb and index finger together after touching the lid. "The chill isn't just from a common vengeful spirit wearing bloody clothes. It's highly possible, as Junior Uncle mentioned, that several vengeful spirits are sealed within this coffin."
"We're all injured now, and even Junior Uncle is gravely wounded, his strength reduced to less than half. If we provoke whatever is inside, none of us will be able to subdue it, unless..." Lu Yao subtly glanced towards Li Mohan, her meaning clear: only Li Mohan had the capability to control them.
Ye Huohuo shook her head. "He can't!"
"Why? He defeated Miaofeng with a single move just now. Isn't whatever's in the coffin a piece of cake for him?"
"You don't understand, and we don't have time to discuss it now. Junior Uncle seems to be in trouble; we need to help him." Ye Huohuo noticed the cold thread on Zuo Qingya's hand was rapidly spreading towards his wrist, and half his hand was already covered in frost. It was evident Zuo Qingya's spiritual power couldn't withstand the malevolent aura any longer.
"Damn it, how could this happen? If Junior Uncle can't handle it, what can we two do? Your soul consciousness is fractured, and my spiritual power is less than a third of my usual. We'll fare worse than Junior Uncle if we go up there," Lu Yao was flustered and unsure what to do, wanting to help but afraid of making things worse.
Both fell into despair. Zuo Qingya's situation was also dire; his hand was frozen, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead.
"What are you doing? Do you want him to let go?" Li Mohan stepped forward and pulled Zuo Qingya's hand away from the coffin. To Ye Huohuo and Lu Yao's surprise, he looked at them strangely. "What's the big deal? Just pull him away."
He didn't understand the affairs of the Xuanmen among Ye Huohuo and the others. Seeing their prolonged indecision, which seemed to revolve around just pulling Zuo Qingya away from the coffin, he couldn't comprehend why such a simple matter was being made so complicated.
After his hand was pulled away, Zuo Qingya quickly sealed several acupoints on his arm with his other hand, simultaneously channeling spiritual power to expel the cold. The frost on his hand visibly melted into water, dripping onto the ground, where it instantly turned back into frost that remained unmelted for a long time.
Having done this, Zuo Qingya, gasping for breath, said, "Thank you, Mr. Li. I underestimated this coffin and almost got my malevolent aura corrupted and my cultivation going astray. Fortunately, you pulled me away."
Ye Huohuo quickly grabbed Li Mohan's hand and examined him from head to toe. Finding nothing amiss, she let out a long sigh of relief. "Fortunately, you weren't corrupted by the malevolent aura."
"I really don't understand what you were worrying about. There's nothing to be afraid of," Li Mohan became increasingly bewildered by their tense atmosphere.
"You're fine because you have true energy protecting you. Just touching the coffin with my fingertips nearly froze me. If it had been us pulling Junior Uncle away instead of you, we would have been frozen together. You... are truly lucky!" Ye Huohuo sighed with a wry smile.
What would be the outcome if the luckiest person and the unluckiest person were together?
Lu Yao became even more curious about Li Mohan. She stared at him with wide eyes, scrutinizing him from head to toe. "It's truly strange. I can't sense any fluctuation of spiritual power from you, yet you possess incredibly powerful spiritual energy and profound cultivation. This... is too strange!" She repeated the word "strange" twice.
Zuo Qingya regained his composure, took out a talisman from his怀, chanted a few words, and threw it towards the coffin. The talisman stuck firmly to the coffin, and the entire coffin began to vibrate violently. This time, Zuo Qingya didn't touch the coffin again but channeled spiritual power into the talisman from a distance. After a struggle between the person and the coffin, the coffin finally calmed down.
Zuo Qingya let out a heavy sigh of relief.
"I've temporarily stabilized the entities within the coffin using the Soul-Shaking Talisman. We can't open it now; we need to find another way." He glanced at his watch. "It's almost dawn. I have to leave. After all, my arrival was unannounced, and if discovered, things will become complicated. You two should return to where you came from."
He then looked at Li Mohan. "Mr. Li, I presume it's inconvenient for you to return as well!"
Indeed, Li Mohan didn't know how he had arrived here. If he left through the main entrance, how would he explain it to the police officers at the detention center?
"I..."
"It's rare for something to stump you!" Ye Huohuo teased him, seeing his awkwardness. "Then I'll have to trouble Junior Uncle. Only you can find a way to get him out now."
Zuo Qingya nodded. "Mr. Li, I'll use the Earth Evasion technique to bring you outside the detention center." He drew a circle on the ground with his foot. "Stand inside the circle."
Li Mohan looked at the circle, then at Ye Huohuo.
"Don't worry. With Junior Uncle's cultivation, he can take all of us out, let alone just you," Ye Huohuo assumed Li Mohan was worried about Zuo Qingya's insufficient power and potential accidents during the journey.
"That's not what I'm worried about. Don't get hurt again. Wait for me a few hours. Once I've handled the procedures, I can take you out!" Li Mohan stepped into the circle without hesitation.
Upon hearing his words, Ye Huohuo couldn't quite decipher her feelings. Was it sweetness? After all, he wasn't completely indifferent to her; he looked concerned when he saw she was injured. Was it bitterness? His concern was merely that of a friend; if any member of the Li family were the one imprisoned now, he would surely be concerned, perhaps even more so.
If it were Mei Yingxue, he probably wouldn't even let her come here.
Therefore, her heart was filled with a sourness, perhaps jealousy.
All emotions dissolved into a bitter smile from the bottom of her heart. She didn't reply to Li Mohan, lacking the strength or desire. She didn't even look at him directly, only giving a perfunctory nod.
A flash of golden light flickered, and both Zuo Qingya and Li Mohan vanished simultaneously, as if they had never been there.
"Hey, what's going on with that guy surnamed Li? I can tell that you and Junior Uncle know what's happening, and only I'm being kept in the dark like an idiot!" Lu Yao asked Ye Huohuo as she was about to leave.
"Didn't you hear? It's almost dawn. If we don't go back to the small dark room soon, we'll be discovered. I don't want to get injured further! Let's go back first, and I'll tell you slowly later!" Ye Huohuo ignored her and walked towards the steps.
Lu Yao didn't pester her upon hearing this. The two of them returned to the small dark room unnoticed. Lu Yao cast a small spell to lock the door from the outside.
"Now you can tell me. What's going on with that Li Mohan? How come sometimes he's a Xuanmen master who even surpasses our master, and other times he seems like an outsider? Don't tell me he's possessed. I observed him, and he doesn't seem to be possessed by any ghosts or demons. You'd better tell me the truth, or we can't be friends anymore." Lu Yao finally seized an opportunity and was determined to resolve her doubts.
Ye Huohuo didn't intend to hide it from her any longer and recounted the situation of Li Mohan's past life frequently possessing him.
"Past life? So, in his past life, he was a Xuanmen master with extremely high cultivation? But that doesn't make sense either. Since it was a past life, it should be a soul reincarnation. Now that he's a normal person, it means the reincarnation was successful. Then his past life should be himself. How can his past life and present life coexist?" Lu Yao was filled with doubt, finding it all nonsensical.
Ye Huohuo sighed softly. "I'm not sure how his situation came about, but this is the reality of his current state. If he encounters danger, his past life will emerge to resolve it. But why his past life still exists, and why he retained the spiritual power and cultivation from his previous life, I also don't know.
I haven't even figured out who his past life was. I feel like his past life is deliberately hiding things, just like today. That Miaofeng was killed to silence him just as he was about to reveal his past life's identity. I mentioned to you that the millennium charm I encountered before must have also seen his past life, but no matter how I asked, she refused to tell me.
I also really want to know who his past life was and why these impossible things are happening to him."
"Do you really want to know who his past life was?" Lu Yao asked.
"Of course, why else would I tell you all this," Ye Huohuo, now out of danger, felt her heart relax, and the pain and weakness surged through her like a tide. She collapsed weakly onto a tattered blanket laid on the floor of the small dark room and said feebly.
"Alright, when we get out of here, I'll take you to see someone. Perhaps he can shed some light on what you need to know," Lu Yao said with certainty.