Niu Bao's eyes were slightly red as he said, "After I woke up, my grandpa was gone. The villagers said he went up the mountain holding a soul-attracting banner and carrying eight clay figures. He never came back."

"Wei Daqiang built a cenotaph for my grandpa, crying and saying he owed him his life. He said that from then on, I would be the benefactor of his family, and they would take good care of me even if it meant the whole family went hungry."

"The villagers all said I was lucky, that I would never have to worry about food and clothing."

"But I was very confused! I was only ten years old back then. Before, when I lived with my dad and grandpa, I didn't have to think about anything or worry about anything."

"But they all left at once, leaving me alone. I didn't even know how they left."

"I didn't even know who would come looking for me, to drag me into the mountains like they did with my grandpa and dad."

"At that time, all I knew was fear. I cried all day long, guarding the house and afraid to go anywhere."

"Wei Daqiang came to take me to his house, but I refused to leave the old house no matter what. The villagers said I was crazy, and Wei Daqiang thought so too. He would bring me some food and necessities from time to time, but he stopped coming after a while."

"I wasn't crazy. The reason I wouldn't leave was that I felt my grandpa would come back."

"On the seventh day after my grandpa went up the mountain, he really did come back. He was just standing in the shadows outside the door. No matter how much I called out to him, he wouldn't come inside."

"After he taught me the Soul-Shifting Life-Replacement Technique, he told me to cultivate diligently according to what I had memorized that day, so I could protect myself in the future. Then he never came back."

"After that, I stopped going to school and stayed in this house for everything. I've been cultivating until today. That's all I know."

After Niu Bao finished speaking, he poured more wine into his mouth.

I asked back, "The Soul-Shifting Life-Replacement Technique requires using someone who has just died to replace your life. Where did the corpse beside you come from?"

"My grandpa brought it back!" Niu Bao said, "In the past few years, Wei Daqiang has been sending me pig blood to nourish the corpse."

Ye Yang suddenly said, "Didn't you say that Wei Daqiang was supporting you? How come you're in such a state?"

Niu Bao laughed and said, "People's hearts always fade over time. Wei Daqiang has been visiting me less and less in recent years, and the things he brings me are getting worse and worse each time. That's just how it is!"

I pointed to the coffins outside, "Have those eight coffins outside been unclaimed all this time?"

Niu Bao said, "Those coffins were left by my grandpa for those eight people on the mountain. He said that those eight people would all have to be placed in coffins in the future."

I gave Ye Yang a look, and the latter went out and looked around the coffins for a while before shaking his head, meaning that he couldn't see anything wrong with the coffins.

I asked again, "Where is Wei Daqiang?"

"I don't know!" Niu Bao said, "After the accident at the mine, Wei Daqiang no longer lived in the village. Who knows where he is?"

I took out my phone and called Zhao Ci, "Investigate a man named Wei Daqiang, who used to live in the same village as Niu Bao. Let me know immediately if you have any news."

Niu Bao stared at the phone in my hand for a long time before finally asking, "Brother, what is that thing you're holding?"

"A phone!" I threw the phone to Niu Bao and walked into the courtyard, "Gouzi, what do you think is going on with that old Niu head wanting to find someone from the Coffin Gate?"

Ye Yang rolled his eyes at me, "If I'm not mistaken, the Niu family should be descendants of the Money lineage of the Coffin Gate."

I couldn't help but wonder, "Are there many branches of the Coffin Gate?"

"As far as I know, there should be eight branches, including the Yin-Yang lineage, collectively known as the Eight Veins of the Ghost Coffin." Ye Yang explained, "Apart from the Yin-Yang lineage, the secret techniques of the other seven lineages cannot be separated from coffins."

"These eight coffins should be magical artifacts left by the old Niu head. It's a pity that none of us know how to use coffins."

"These eight coffins are a bit useless!" I frowned, "Even if we knew how to use them, how could we drag eight coffins up the mountain?"

Just as I was talking to Ye Yang, Niu Bao came out of the house and reluctantly handed the phone back to me, "Brother, shall we go up the mountain?"

I waved my hand and said, "My name is Li Po, and I can only be considered a disciple of a branch of the Coffin Gate. You can call me by my name. Let's skip the brother part!"

"Alright!" Niu Bao nodded in agreement, "Brother Li, if we want to go, we have to go up the mountain at night, it won't be easy to go during the day."

Before I could figure out what Niu Bao meant, I saw him take out a flute and play it a few times. The snow under the coffin vibrated violently with the sound of the flute.

After a while, I saw a hand伸伸 out of the snow.

Corpse manipulation?

My first reaction was that Niu Bao was manipulating corpses.

Sure enough, within a few seconds, eight corpses emerged from Niu Bao's courtyard.

The eight corpses were of different ages, and each person was wearing different burial clothes. Some were wearing suits, and some were wearing mandarin jackets. Judging from their clothes alone, these eight corpses should belong to dead people from different eras.

Ye Yang glanced into the eyes of the corpses, "These corpses have Yang souls in them."