er back and waist. There were also some faint black marks on her body.Both my brother and I were stunned. In our minds, zombies were either withered, raging corpses or fresh "people" oozing with gore...Qing Yuan Lao Dao smiled and shook his head: "Miss Mu, don't worry. Perhaps the practitioner is already dead, so there's only some remaining poison left inside. I think it's more like evil spirits that have condensed for too many years. When you touched the rouge, did you feel anything unusual"

My brother tilted his head and thought for a moment: "I just felt the smell was pungent, and then I felt like the rouge was like blood, which was pretty disgusting. I rinsed it off quickly, and there wasn't much abnormal after that, just nightmares. Even after being swallowed in the nightmare, it wasn't a big deal, just a slightly low body temperature."

"Don't act like you don't care! This is a matter of life and death!" I couldn't help but slap him.

Lin Yanqin asked anxiously, "Old sir, is there any way to treat it"

Qiyuan Laodao stroked his beard and nodded, "Doing the ritual to ward off evil stars is right. When the source of malicious and evil energy is unclear, using the ritual to ward off misfortune and drive away evil spirits at least guarantees physical well-being."

I heard the tone in his voice, like he was agreeing to do a celestial ritual for my brother: "Master Daoist, can you perform a celestial ritual for my brother"

He laughed and said, "Old Daoist, it's been twenty-three years since I last did a star warding ceremony—what's your birthdate"

My brother replied, “Just like I didn't have time to do a ritual for you.”

"Well, I guess that's fate then. Alright, I'll make it for you."

Qingyuan Laodao agreed and told the junior Taoist to prepare the items.

I quickly followed the Taoist priest back to the Taoist temple and asked him about the fee for "fated connection".

"So-called 'fate' is a euphemism, generally you shouldn't ask the masters "how much do you charge"

Therefore, general buying and selling, or service relationships are usually called fate or karma.

The little Taoist shook his head and said, “I don’t know about that. Grandmaster Tai has been out of the mountain for over twenty years. How would I know how many stars he has averted… You can just look at it yourselves. Money doesn't mean much to Grandmaster Tai, he doesn't care about it.”

Well, they all said so... I quickly donated some money to the Taoist temple in my brother's name.

I think I've already given a generous amount, fifty million yuan as a connection fee isn't low, right

The middle-aged Taoist priest at the Dao Guan smiled mysteriously and took it, winking: “Don’t worry about anything, Master Taishi is taking care of things.”

That would be great.

I returned to my humble cottage in the hills. Lin Yanqin was sitting in the courtyard, using her phone to look up information about medicinal decoctions.

I walked over and comforted her, saying: "Don't bother looking online. There's no way it could have such a detailed introduction. At most, there are just explanations of terms and a bunch of people bragging."

"What are we going to do Xiao Qiao, I'm so worried..." Her voice trembled with a hint of crying.

I glanced at her and suddenly remembered what my brother had said.

It's really hard to find a wife in our family. Women are naturally Yin, and being around Yin things all the time can lead to an early death. Look at our mother! I think I'll just stay single.

This isn't a matter of evil spirits, there's also… the issue of karmic retribution.

The Yin merchant family's karmic burdens would not be few. Even if they upheld benevolence and were careful, they inevitably encountered dangers that ordinary merchants couldn't even imagine.

He doesn't want to scare his partner or worry them, does he

Especially Lin Yanqin is an outsider.

"It's okay, this old Daoist priest is very skilled. He should be very good at warding off evil stars! If that doesn't work... I can still petition the gods, right He is Yu Gui and You Nan's brother-in-law, there's no way anything could happen to him. Just relax." I comforted her with a few words.

"Right, right!" she nodded eagerly.

After a moment of silence, she suddenly smiled: “ ... I never realized liking someone could be so nerve-wracking.”

"Yeah, thinking what he thinks, worrying what he worries about, and even wondering if he's safe, how his mood is, if he's angry, or if he… has fallen for someone else, haha." I smiled.

She also laughed: “You're still worried about these things Your husband loves you so much! The saying 'a gentle woman is a hero's grave' is truly not a lie... Come, let me see if your 'gentle place' has grown larger again!”

She feigned pulling on my collar as she spoke. She’d done this before, and back then I was angry. Now that I consider her one of us, I playfully swatted her away. As she stole a glance at me, she whispered, “You’re so beautiful, haven’t you grown taller”

I felt a little awkward: "This is why your breasts swell. Why don't you try being a mother"

She hesitated for a moment, blushing and shaking her head. "No, no," she said. "Yun Fan would never agree to this. He thinks things through more carefully than I do. I'd rather just follow his lead."

"What's the plan" I asked curiously.

He just said to me, "Just stay by my side and don't worry about anything else. I'll take care of everything. When I need your cooperation, I'll tell you... That's it." Lin Yanqin pursed her lips.

I also pursed my lips, not expecting the usually free-spirited Mu Yunfan to be so cautious around Miss Lin.

I looked out the door of my humble hut. My brother was leaning against the door frame, arms crossed, smiling at me and Lin Yanqin.

He must be serious. I've never seen him this out of sorts.

The things needed for warding off celestial calamities are largely similar. Cheng Banxian's art of removing poison, in a certain sense, is also a kind of warding-off ceremony. However, it is much more powerful than ordinary warding-off ceremonies.

Before a ritual, one must set up an altar and prepare incense, candles, talisman paper, a mirror, seven-star lamps, and a red crowned rooster.

A rooster crowed at dawn. The blood of a rooster’s comb was considered a highly yang substance. Qingyuan Lao Dao, taking three drops of the comb blood, patted the head of the rooster and told his young disciple to take it back and raise it well.

When performing the ritual, there should be no distractions from others. We walked to the Taoist temple in front and waited, chatting on the steps of the back mountain gate.

"Xiao Qiao, is astrology complex" Lin Yanqin asked.

"Nah, just recite the Spirit Officer Exorcising Star Curse after getting ready. It'll be quick."

No sooner had I spoken than a young Taoist priest rushed over and asked, "Which one of you is surnamed Lin A very important person has just arrived, looking furious and demanding to see a woman surnamed Lin."

Lin Yanqin was stunned for a moment, then bit her lip and said: "It's me, I'll go out now, sorry to have troubled you."

"What's going on" I asked hurriedly.

Lin Yanqin lowered her voice in embarrassment: "It's my mom! She wasn't happy about me being with Yunfan to begin with, but my brother stood up for me... My brother said, 'Yanqin getting some freedom isn't easy, if she's happy let her go play.'"

Is Lin Yanhuan really so indulgent towards his younger sister Doesn't he mind my family's financial situation

"My brother said you're going to be the next special advisor very soon. My mom only reluctantly agreed. This time, I ran away with you guys because I suspect she thought I was eloping!" Lin Yanqin said, shrinking her neck.

This...

I sighed, “Honestly, you should have listened to my brother. You shouldn't have gotten involved in our business. This has caused misunderstandings, and things will only be harder for the both of you! Your mom’s definitely going to kill my brother!”

Lin Yanqin was about to burst into tears as she said, "I'll go explain to her right now—"d like the painting and the door were connected by a mechanism. I pushed on the painting, and the door swung open wider—just enough for me to squeeze through before the painting snapped back into plac...