Carrying the unconscious Da Shan, a group of people walked briskly towards the dark place not far ahead. As their silhouettes gradually disappeared behind the burning copper basin, the fire in it also went out, turning into a few strands of cyan smoke that entwined each other and rose upwards.

  "With a creak, the person who had been sitting for thousands of years suddenly changed, and his head, which had originally been looking straight ahead, suddenly lowered. After a moment, this corpse, which had been preserved for unknown years, finally collapsed completely, leaving only the thin green gauze lightly covering the ground, leaving behind perhaps an unknown story, or perhaps a secret that would never be revealed."

  What will it be like after experiencing life and death?

  The answer is rebirth!

  On a round giant gate, the flames of fire are painted, dyeing this door into a volcanic mouth. A bird with very beautiful feathers flies out of these flames, spreading its wings as if it is about to take off. The direction of the bird's head is eastward. On the eastern side of this disk, a large sea is faintly drawn, and on the sea, there is a small mountain. At the top of the mountain, a tree with nine branches rises from the ground, called Fusang...

  "Phoenix Nirvana reborn, I believe that once you leave this door, everyone's life may change a bit." Cha Wenbin kept pinching his fingers, various mnemonics and calculations flying rapidly in his mind. He was eager to know the answer. If it is said that a person's fate is determined by the heavenly book from the beginning, then each person has their own destiny, and then follows this destiny to complete one life. But if you pass through this gate of life and death, equivalent to being reborn once, will a person's fate have the possibility of being rewritten?

  If this answer has such a possibility, then it will be the first time in human history to find a way to change one's fate. How can Zhao Wenbin not be excited?

  "According to what you said, is this really the underworld, and does reincarnation really exist?" In a sense, Chaozi, who had received socialist atheist education since childhood, had also seen some strange things like ghosts. However, he only understood these mysteries at the level of investigating paranormal phenomena, and never thought that there were actually places in the world that people passed down as true.

  "This is not the underworld, but rather an array set up in the style of the underworld. The ancients, through their grasp of feng shui and geography, used special positions to place certain things, thereby creating a similar environment. It's like the front door of a house - although it faces a certain direction, it doesn't affect the use of the house itself, but it can influence the fate of the family living there. This is the subtlety of mysticism. Fate is an elusive thing - if you believe in it, it exists; if you don't, it doesn't. Some things are predetermined in the grand scheme of things.

  As he spoke, Cha Wenbin couldn't help but think of his own experiences. If his fate was sealed from the start as a heavenly outcast, then this time, would he be able to turn his fate around? He had some expectations, not because he feared being plagued by bad luck - after all, most Taoist priests didn't receive divine favor - but because he feared those around him would suffer even more harm because of him."

  For some reason, Zha Wenbin touched the sun wheel on his chest, but this time he found it hard to feel the warmth coming from his chest. The sun wheel seemed to have turned back into a cold bronze object, and it didn't show any magical powers again. The person who gave him the object had disappeared after bringing him here, but Zha Wenbin knew that person was not Lao Dao.

  The massive circular door was pushed open with just a slight force, contrary to expectations that it would take some effort to open due to its size. However, the ease with which it opened made several people feel uneasy, possibly due to being in a tense environment for too long.

  Out of the door, after a while, I saw a bright light not far away. Following it, I found that the exit was actually hidden in a valley at the foot of a small hill, surrounded by a seemingly open thicket of weeds, with trash scattered all around from tourists who had thrown them away from the mountain stream.

  They finally breathed in their first mouthful of fresh air, and by now it was already late morning, almost noon. The several people had been stuck inside this curved cave for nearly half a day, and at the moment the most urgent thing was to deal with Da Shan - his matter couldn't be delayed any longer.

  Several people rushed out of the exit in a fluster, but behind them came a loud "rumble" sound. Not only did the tourists on the mountain think it was an earthquake, but even the citizens of Tongdu City thought it was a disaster and rushed to the streets.

  At that time, the tourists' cries for help, children's wails, women hastily holding baskets or wine bottles, men throwing down their mahjong tiles, made the city crowded and chaotic. The tourists on the mountain didn't dare to stay any longer, rushing down the mountain in a panic, almost causing a stampede. Only Cha Wenbin and his group knew that the cave entrance behind them had been completely blocked, and it was likely that uncovering the true secrets of this mountain would be even more difficult than ascending to heaven.

  They mixed in with the tourists, carrying the big mountain, and some unknowing people thought that this unconscious strong man had been injured in the previous shaking, and couldn't help but be concerned. However, after smelling the foul odor on Zha Wenbin's body, they each covered their noses and ran away. The few of them didn't care about so much anymore, and after rushing into the hotel, Zha Wenbin gulped down several mouthfuls of water and then took a bath.

  The big mountain was placed flat on the bed, and Zhang Wenbin asked the two to go out and guard the door. No one was allowed to enter this room until he came out. When a Taoist is casting a spell, he cannot be disturbed. Firstly, this spell may summon some dirty things, which may harm others. Secondly, if the Taoist is inviting the gods, it will disturb the true god.

  Although it's simple here, he has prepared the incense paper, cinnabar and several bowls of clear water that he needs. As for other things, Cha Wenbin also brought them himself.

  Dashi wasn't possessed or frightened, but had walked a retrograde path. This is an extremely rare case of being bewitched, even in Daoist records it's rarely mentioned. Qian Wenbin was able to diagnose it because he himself almost lost his life due to the same reason.

  What is the scene like when you see your past life self? A person's three souls, after death, leave behind a terrestrial soul that transmigrates, and the heavenly soul and human soul will disperse on their own. However, everyone leaves something behind after transmigration - residual soul!

  What is a residual soul? In fact, it's equivalent to the files we leave behind when we're working in an office.

  Many people are puzzled, since after a person dies, their soul is reincarnated, then who exactly receives the paper money that was burned? Doesn't it lose all meaning? If it's someone who just died, they can naturally receive it, but what about those who have been dead for hundreds of years?

  In our daily lives, some children get possessed by evil spirits. A fortune teller would say that it's because a certain ancestor from your family's grave has found this child. But when you think about it, that ancestor has been dead for over a hundred years, so why would they still be able to find someone from this generation? In fact, the person being possessed is actually their residual soul, or the record of their past life left in the underworld.

  This lingering soul, the time of its existence varies from person to person. Some people disappear after reincarnation; but some people's lingering souls do not perish, carrying the memories of that life and wandering around, what Daxiong sees is his lingering soul.

  The gate of life and death can only be entered, not exited. Why? It's because it's a one-way road, and if you turn back, you'll fall into the cycle of reincarnation from the previous life. If people could really go back and choose to be reborn in a better womb, wouldn't everyone do so? But once you turn back, you'll get stuck there, and the lingering soul from that past life will stare at you, while you can also see it staring back at you. However, how can this world allow two versions of yourself from different eras to coexist? Yet your fate hasn't reached its end, so this state of limbo, like being undead, occurs, and all you can do is wait until the time when your life force is exhausted, and with a final breath, it's over.

  Zha Wenbin gave a name to people in this state: stiff person.

  The stiff person can also be understood as being possessed by his own evil spirit, the self of the previous life found the self of this life, and it is actually one's own people fighting against one's own people. But after all, one cannot harm oneself, so he stiffened there, no one to resolve it, maybe forever will not wake up.

  Cha Wenbin had to do something extremely dangerous. He discovered this rare possession by himself and before his body stiffened, he decisively crawled into that human-shaped coffin and sealed himself inside. This was him telling his past life, "I" am already dead, only by telling him that he's dead would he truly believe that he killed himself, and thus the lingering soul would disappear along with this life's self.

  What needs to be done now is to hold a funeral for Dashan, and create the illusion that Dashan is dead. This illusion is for the benefit of the remaining soul, but there are no coffins or anything like that here. However, Zhang Wenbin still has a way. Not everyone who dies has a coffin; poor people will use mats as substitutes.

  This is not the case now, Dashan has already put on a shroud, wrapped in a broken grass mat by Cha Wenbin. At this moment, his nostrils are blocked by two cotton balls, and there is a tube connected to his mouth. The other end of the tube is connected to the outside of the window, used for ventilation. At least in this closed space of the room, Dashan's current state will not show any signs of life.

  Offerings, incense and candles, even Zhang Wenbin was dressed in a plain white mourning attire, with a hemp cloth draped over his shoulder and holding a soul-summoning banner. On the bedhead, there was also a temporary spirit tablet with Da Shan's eight characters and name written on it. At first glance, this was a real funeral, who knows if Da Shan would really think he had died when he woke up...

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