Chapter 1 Li Tangzhu

Soon after, Xia Mengying's phone played a voice, "Hall Master Li, long time no see."

I said in a deep voice, "Are you Qiao Gongliang?"

"The very one!" Qiao Gongliang said, "Hall Master Li, I heard everything you just said. As expected of the number one person in Liaodong, you guessed ninety percent of what happened back then based solely on clues."

I followed up, "What about the remaining ten percent?"

Qiao Gongliang said, "The remaining ten percent is in this curse group."

"My Qiao family was originally a prominent family, holding a place in Confucianism. I think that girl with the surname Xia should have heard of that, right?"

Xia Mengying's expression changed slightly. "The Four Heretical Confucians?"

Qiao Gongliang laughed, "What is righteous? What is heretical? Righteous and heretical only depends on who sits in the seat of the Confucian leader. If my Qiao family occupied Confucianism, you would all be heretical Confucians."

Qiao Gongliang didn't seem to want to argue with Xia Mengying and shifted the topic back.

"After the Qiao family was listed as heretical Confucians, our status plummeted. In the beginning, my Qiao family could still make a living as consultants and yamen secretaries. However, Confucianism did not allow us to have any contact with officialdom. The Qiao family's secretaries were bound to be ostracized by their colleagues, which completely cut off the Qiao family's livelihood."

"The descendants of the Qiao family, with a belly full of learning, had nowhere to use it. The dignified orthodox Confucianists could only write letters, tell fortunes by analyzing characters, and sell paintings for a living. Isn't that ironic?"

"By my generation, I could only wander the martial world, making a living by storytelling. When I was young, I was unwilling to admit that I was a Confucian disciple and never revealed my identity. Therefore, there is only a storyteller Mr. Qiao in this world, and no Confucian Qiao Gongliang."

"But I didn't expect that when I was over sixty years old, I received a message from the direct descendants of the Qiao family. They had found a feng shui treasure land that could allow the Qiao family to return to the imperial court."

"Returning to the imperial court is the long-cherished wish of the Qiao family's ancestors. With the blessing of feng shui power, the return of the Qiao family is unstoppable. The Qiao family's branch in the Northeast will do everything to fulfill the ancestors' long-cherished wish."

Qiao Gongliang's voice suddenly turned sharp, "However, the military governor lost the Qiao family's last hope because of his greed. The Qiao family desperately tried to intercept the coffin from entering the tomb. They also sent me a message, asking me to come and support them."

"When I arrived, it was already too late. Most of the Qiao family's branch had already died outside the tomb, and they had only managed to drag the coffin to the entrance of the tomb."

Qiao Gongliang stopped here, as if deliberately waiting for me to ask him something.

I didn't want to waste time with him, "The curse group is to hold back the coffin? Don't tell me that the person in the coffin likes to listen to stories and can't enter the tomb because he wants to hear you tell stories!"

Qiao Gongliang laughed, "Of course that's not possible. I just said that I used the Qiao family's technique of Book Ghosts to keep him at the entrance."

"Whether it's a person or a ghost, once they are too deeply trapped in a story, they can't get out. They will regard themselves as characters in the story, gradually lose their original selves, and become characters in the story. That's the core of the Qiao family's secret technique."

"The biggest drawback of this secret technique is that the person who casts the secret technique must first have a story that is attractive enough to the target. Then, let the target resonate with the characters in the story until he is involved in the story."

Speaking of this, Qiao Gongliang couldn't help but sigh, "I, Qiao, thought I was a master of storytelling, and I had seen all the aspects of human life, but I couldn't trap him."

"Therefore, I can only search for writing masters to trap the coffin. Unfortunately, these people can only trap him, but they can't bring him into the story."

"I don't have time to wait any longer. If I wait any longer, the feng shui here will change. Therefore, I must eliminate the person in the coffin in the shortest possible time, and then send the remains of the Qiao family's ancestors into the tomb."

Qiao Gongliang stopped here, but I interjected, "Then what are you looking for *Xie Guan Pu* (Evil Coffin Manual) for?"

Qiao Gongliang said, "The Coffin Gate is unparalleled in the world for its method of burying ghosts with coffins. The two great secret techniques, *Xie Zang Jing* (Blood Burial Sutra) and *Zang Shen Jue* (God Burial Art), have been taken away by ghosts and gods, and are hard to find in the world. But *Xie Guan Pu* (Evil Coffin Manual) still remains in the world. The only thing I can think of is *Xie Guan Pu* (Evil Coffin Manual)."

Qiao Gongliang's voice sank, "I've heard that books can also be made into coffins. My specialty is storytelling. If I have *Xie Guan Pu* (Evil Coffin Manual) in hand, I am confident that I can bury the person in the coffin with a book."

"Gong Fugui, to put it bluntly, is my test subject. Unfortunately, I didn't succeed. The book I put on him only became a story, not a coffin."

"As for saying that you must find *Xie Guan Pu* (Evil Coffin Manual) to join the curse group, it's just a dispensable condition."

"I released the news that I had written a novel called *Xie Guan Pu* (Evil Coffin Manual), and that you could only join the group if you found *Xie Guan Pu* (Evil Coffin Manual), all to arouse other people's curiosity. Or rather, it was to arouse the curiosity of the true owner of *Xie Guan Pu* (Evil Coffin Manual). To make him come forward himself."

"Who would have thought that the owner of *Xie Guan Pu* (Evil Coffin Manual) would be someone with no curiosity at all?"