Lin Zhao shook his head and said, "None!"

"That's strange!"

In the world of術 (shu – esoteric arts), a ghost's only purpose in leading someone up the stairs is to make them fall down.

The only places where ghosts specifically kill people are in the middle of the stairs and at the corners.

When walking up the stairs, don't follow the person in front of you too closely. If you do, it means your footing isn't stable. If they suddenly turn around and a bloody ghost face appears, the person behind will be so frightened that they'll fall down the stairs and never get up again.

The principle is the same at the corners of the stairs. When people go around a corner, they usually don't look down at their feet, but rather at the hallway. However, the ghost hides in their blind spot and reaches out to grab their ankles.

When going upstairs, if the person in front of you doesn't make a sound while walking, you really need to be careful, because it means their feet aren't touching the ground.

Lin Zhao followed Zhang Hua upstairs, but he didn't do anything else. Did he just want to separate us?

I quietly glanced at Zhang Hua behind me and said, "Manager Zhang, what do you want me to see?"

"Come this way!" Zhang Hua led us into the office, took out a yellowed family tree from the safe, and said, "This is that family's genealogy. Take a close look at Rong Xuan's spouses!"

"Ten people!" I was taken aback when I glanced at the genealogy.

In ancient times, men could take concubines, but a concubine's status was only slightly higher than that of a servant, and they couldn't be entered into the family tree.

As for the concept of "Pingqi" (equal wife), before the end of the Qianlong period, "Pingqi" had no legal status. Even after it gained some legal standing, it was still regarded as a concubine. It wasn't until the Daoguang period that the concept of "two heads as big" or "matching rooms" for a principal wife and equal wife appeared.

After the Daoguang period, although the status of the Pingqi was established, men would still take an unlimited number of concubines, but they wouldn't marry an unlimited number of equal wives.

This is because the distinction between嫡 (di – of the main bloodline) and 庶 (shu – of a concubine) was very clear in ancient times. The eldest son born to the principal wife could inherit most of the family property, while the son born to a concubine could only inherit a small portion, or even none at all.

A son born to a Pingqi was also a 嫡 (di) son, or called "Pingdi," and was legally equal to a嫡 (di) son. The result of having an extra Pingqi could be an extra clan.

Explaining the matter of "Zongtiao" (ancestral temple) and "Jiantiao" (concurrent inheritance) in detail would probably take an hour or two. When my master told me about these things, he didn't go into too much detail. He just told me: remember, when you use咒法 (zhou fa – incantations) , trace back along the descendants of the Pingqi, and you can still拍死 (pai si – slap to death) their ancestors.

I looked at the family tree carefully: "Rong Xuan couldn't have had nine Pingqi. Did nine of his wives die?"

Zhang Hua gave a thumbs up and said, "Hall Master Li is right again! Rong Xuan married nine wives within nine years, and nine wives died. These people were naturally written into the family tree."

I gasped: "Are you saying that the Nine Graves Gully actually buries Rong Xuan's nine principal wives?"

If we calculate according to the orientation of the graves, then this statement holds true.

According to the customs of Northeast China in ancient times, a principal wife should be buried in the ancestral tomb. However, if the head of the family was still alive and the principal wife had no children, she could only be buried temporarily in a place close to the ancestral tomb, and then be combined with the head of the family's tomb after he died.

That family's patriarch was buried on Maozi Mountain, and the Nine Graves Gully below was the perfect place to temporarily bury his daughters-in-law.

If we follow this line of reasoning, then the key to opening Erlin Town is nine special female corpses. Moreover, these nine female corpses need to be buried using some special method. In this way, burying the corpses would not be able to hide from the nearby villagers.

Although that family was large and powerful, they might not dare to openly kill and bury people. However, those girls had married into that family, which meant they were that family's people, and it was natural for that family to bury them wherever they wanted.

That wild Taoist priest standing on Maozi Mountain and shouting "Sin!" must have been referring to these nine wronged girls.

In this way, some things should be explained.

I said to myself, "Does that family have术士 (shushi – occultists)?"

Zhang Hua opened that family's genealogy again: "Look at these places?"

In that family's genealogy, every other generation had a person crossed out in red, which meant that the person had been expelled from the family, and was even forbidden from using the family surname.

There were many children from prominent families who were expelled from the family, but not many were expelled from the genealogy. Unless the person had committed a major crime that could involve the family, or a crime that could lead to the extermination of nine generations.

In ancient times, some officials would be temporarily expelled from the family genealogy by their families until they retired peacefully, and then they would be added back. This was to prevent them from implicating the family while they were officials.

Zhang Hua said, "Looking at the genealogy, none of these people who were expelled from the family ever came back. According to the ancient people's practice, if these people went out to become officials, it was impossible for them all not to return. I suspect that these people went out to serve as secret killers or similar professions."

"I've heard people say that successive dynasties have secretly raised術士 (shushi – occultists) to help them deal with people in the術道 (shu dao – world of esoteric arts). I think these disappeared people from that family may have gone to places like the Imperial Household Department."

"So, I also inquired about some things about that family from the side!"