Chapter 1607 - 1454: Yin Yang Inn 10
The terrified Pei Shaosen suddenly discovered that a huge human face had appeared on the wall beside him—it was the Wood Demon that Feng Lin had introduced to him earlier.
Pei Shaosen had just heard Feng Lin say that the Wood Demon eats ghosts, and then the Wood Demon suddenly showed up. Pei Shaosen’s first reaction was to step back in a big hurry, putting more distance between himself and the Wood Demon’s face.
With a mouth that big, his thin frame would definitely be swallowed in one bite. The Wood Demon was briefly depressed by Pei Shaosen’s reaction—he had clearly wanted to comfort the guy, yet ended up scaring him instead.
Afraid Pei Shaosen would get even more nervous seeing him, the Wood Demon could only leave a brief sentence: "You have a contract. I won’t eat you. I’ll protect you." With that, the Wood Demon disappeared again.
Pei Shaosen looked at the wall where the Wood Demon had suddenly appeared, said one sentence, and suddenly vanished again, then turned a puzzled look on Feng Lin. Feng Lin helped explain on the Wood Demon’s behalf: "What the Wood Demon steward means is, you’ve made a contract set by this Yin Yang Inn.
That contract is your steward wooden token, so the Wood Demon won’t eat you, and on the contrary will protect you when you run into danger."
After listening, the uneasiness Pei Shaosen had felt upon hearing the Wood Demon eats ghosts finally eased a bit. He smiled at the section of wall where the Wood Demon had appeared earlier. "Thank you, Wood Demon steward."
The Wood Demon didn’t respond, and Pei Shaosen didn’t mind. He turned back and asked Feng Lin, "What do we do with these ghosts?"
Feng Lin tilted his head and glanced at Pei Shaosen. "What else can we do? Next is your job: do the accounting for these ghosts, then wait for the Shopkeeper to come back and send them on to the Yellow Springs."
After speaking, Feng Lin looked at the group of ghosts who still wore utterly baffled expressions, not yet recovered from the blow of realizing they were already dead: "You all heard him. Now line up to be accounted, then head for the Yellow Springs."
In fact, although these ghosts had been muddleheaded before, they could still instinctively sense that they were trapped in the world of the dead, unable to find release, unable to escape, only able to keep walking and wandering endlessly.
That is very painful, so driven by this pain, they wanted to break free of that state and thus gave rise to the thought of entering reincarnation. It was precisely because of that thought that they could arrive at the Yin Yang Inn.
The middle-aged woman and the remaining servants, after their moment of dawning realization and grief, still didn’t regret it; they had all decided to enter reincarnation.
Once all ghosts enter the Yin Yang Inn and learn that they are people who have died, they naturally understand that, after coming to the Yin Yang Inn, they can set foot on the Yellow Springs Road, cross the San Tu River, forget their past life, and reincarnate again.
Feng Lin bumped Pei Shaosen’s shoulder. "What are you still standing there for? Hurry up and do the accounting for the guests."
Pei Shaosen let out an "Ah," raised his hand, and summoned the Yin Yang Account and Merit Pen, but then didn’t know how he was supposed to do the accounting.
So Feng Lin patiently said, "Mr. Pei, place the Merit Pen on the forehead of the guest you’re about to account for, and then you will follow the Merit Pen and see the person’s entire life.
You must remember, no matter what you see in their memories, you must keep a calm heart. You cannot delight or be angry, you cannot harbour the slightest personal like or dislike.
Only then can you fairly and impartially record the merits and sins of their whole life. Afterwards, when the ledger is entered into the Underworld, only then can reward and punishment be carried out without wrongful leniency or severity, upholding justice and fairness."
After hearing Feng Lin’s explanation, Pei Shaosen finally understood how to use the Merit Pen to record in the Yin Yang Account. He picked up the Merit Pen and first touched it to the brow of that middle-aged woman.
In an instant, Pei Shaosen felt as if he had entered the life of this middle-aged woman—he watched her being born, watched her grow up, watched her be betrothed, watched her become the secondary wife of a high official’s household.
He watched her vie for favour, jealous and scheming, against the concubines in the back courtyard; watched her give birth to her own child; watched her go out with her husband to burn incense, and in the end die in a mountain collapse.
Withdrawing the Merit Pen, Pei Shaosen opened the Yin Yang Account. Inside, the pages were snow-white; as soon as the Merit Pen touched the paper, three large golden characters appeared, filling the whole page: Hou Mingyue.
Hou Mingyue was this middle-aged woman’s name. Once her name appeared in the Yin Yang Account, it meant that the merits and sins of this woman’s life had been recorded; when checking, you only needed to tap her name to see her entire life.
Feng Lin leaned over to look at the name in the Yin Yang Account, raised his brows, and smiled at Pei Shaosen. "Impressive—her name is in gold.
That means you completely managed to record her life fairly and impartially, without mixing in any personal likes or dislikes."
Pei Shaosen also let out a breath of relief. For his first time doing the accounting, he was very happy to be acknowledged, and then he started doing the accounting one by one for the remaining people.
During this time, that Middle-aged man who had run out earlier rushed back into the Yin Yang Inn. As soon as he saw the Yin Yang Inn he let out a shout, turned around, and ran off again.
But very soon, that Middle-aged man came running back to the doorway of the Yin Yang Inn once more. In the time Pei Shaosen spent doing the accounting for the next people, the Middle-aged man had run back a full seven times.
After finally finishing the accounting for everyone, Pei Shaosen was quite exhausted. He hadn’t expected that doing the accounting would be such a tiring task.
Although from the outside it looked like he recorded everything in a very short time, within the memories of the person being accounted for it was an entire lifetime, which left Pei Shaosen mentally drained.
Feng Lin sent the people whose accounts were done upstairs to the guest rooms to find their own places to stay, and then stretched out one hand. In his palm appeared an Elixir, faintly exuding a refreshing fragrance.
Feng Lin handed the medicine to Pei Shaosen. "Here, take this. It’ll ease your discomfort a bit. Today was your first time doing accounting and you did so many people at once, of course you’d be tired. Once you get used to it, it’ll be better."
After thanking him, Pei Shaosen took the Elixir and swallowed it. In an instant he felt his taut nerves relax quite a lot.
Just then, that Middle-aged man arrived for the ninth time at the door of the Yin Yang Inn and ran off again. Watching the man’s retreating back, Pei Shaosen asked Feng Lin, "We’re not going to deal with him?"
Feng Lin replied lazily, "Let him run. Once he’s worn out he’ll behave himself. If that still doesn’t work, he can just be an extra course for Lord Wood Demon. If he insists on courting death, nobody can save him."
Outside the Yin Yang Inn, in the sea of Manjushaka blossoms, the Middle-aged man stumbled as he ran. He didn’t know how far he had gone, nor how many times he had already run back to this eerie inn.
A sense of despair grew in his heart. No matter how he ran, in front of him there was always that blood-red sea of flowers, and behind him that strange Yin Yang Inn.
After running too long, the Middle-aged man could barely keep going. His foot accidentally caught on something, and he stumbled and fell to the ground.
Before he could get up, he saw a hem of clothing fall right in front of his face—black fabric with gold characters embroidered on it.
The Middle-aged man froze for a moment, raised his head, and saw Qi Shuangshuang, dressed in luxurious black robes, holding a round fan, her expression cold as she looked down at him.
The Middle-aged man stared at Qi Shuangshuang’s face. First he was stunned, his expression filled with memories.
Then his eyes opened wider and wider, as if he had seen something terrifying. He shouted at Qi Shuangshuang, "I-it’s you! How are you not dead?!"