Chapter 28 Becoming a Ghost

King Zhou smiled and said this, and then there was no movement.

Zhu Zijin, who was holding ice cheese, noticed that his father suddenly stopped moving. He was stunned for a moment before he tremblingly stretched out his fingers to check his breath.

Pan Yun had already stood up and said to the servants waiting on the side: "King Zhou has passed away."

Zhu Zijin fell to his knees on the ground and burst into tears. The whole yard was suddenly filled with crying.

The people who had served King Zhou personally cried the loudest and most sadly. They sat down on the ground and wept toward the sky.

They were not only crying for King Zhou, but also for themselves.

Pan Yun's eyes swept over them. The youngest among them was about seventeen years old.

In two months, Pan Yun had become familiar with him. He was always serious about his work, and his father had been exiled to Yunnan with King Zhou, so he was highly valued as soon as he entered the palace. At the age of thirteen, he was promoted to serve King Zhou because of his outstanding performance.

He had known that he would be buried with the dead since last year, when he was only sixteen years old.

Pan Yun turned and left.

There were beauties crying on the roadside outside the main courtyard. The most luxuriously dressed among them were beautiful women in their thirties. They were all the concubines of King Zhou. If there was no imperial decree, they would have to be buried alive with the King.

Princess Gong was originally among them, but is no longer with us.

The funeral of King Zhou had been prepared in advance. The steward in the palace immediately took out the prepared items and built the mourning hall as quickly as possible. Officials from the Ministry of Rites also helped and quickly instructed Zhu Zijin to dress King Zhou in shrouds, carry the body into the coffin and place it in the mourning hall.

Pan Jun walked around the mourning hall, chanting mantras quietly. The soul that was about to dissipate slowly condensed, and soon it took shape and sat on the head of the coffin.

He looked confused. Pan Jun walked up to him, tapped his forehead lightly with her finger, and whispered, "Come back to your senses."

King Zhou came back to his senses instantly, and when he regained consciousness, he met Pan Yun's smiling eyes.

King Zhou: ...

There was crying inside and outside the mourning hall. King Zhou turned his head stiffly to look at the person lying in the coffin, and his eyes gradually widened.

He, he, he...really turned into a ghost!
This is a whole new world, a whole new understanding.

King Zhou slowly floated up, floating around everywhere with great interest, floating out of the mourning hall, floating out of the yard... and then he couldn't float anymore.

He looked back in confusion, then floated back lightly. At first he was not skilled enough and was always blown in the wrong direction by the wind, but slowly he found the trick, just like a child learning to walk, and could float forward according to his heart.

He floated in front of Pan Yun and asked, "Why can't I get out of Prince Zhou's Palace?"

Pan Yun: "Your Highness, you only have seven days. If you float away and cannot find your way back, you will become a wandering ghost and be easily eaten by the monsters outside. This palace is here to protect you."

"Meow——" Pan Xiaohei reminded that someone was coming.

As soon as it finished speaking, Xuanmiao pushed the door open and came in, "What are you doing here? Princess Zhou wants you to be buried with her. Prince Xiangfu wants his sixth wife to be buried with him..."

Xuanmiao's voice suddenly stopped, and she stared with wide eyes at the soul of King Zhou floating in the air, curiously peeking at the beams.

She glared at Pan Yun and lowered her voice to scold him, "You're crazy!"

In this world, except for the dead with particularly deep obsessions, whose souls will return to the human world after death, the rest of the ghosts will not condense into human form, but rather a vague ball of energy.

It will slowly dissipate between heaven and earth. Some Taoists believe that this process of dissipation is a return to nature, while others believe that it is a process of going to the underworld and being reborn.

Only those who have great resentment and obsession, who do not want to die and do not accept their own death, will naturally return to the spirit world and exist in another space in human form, invisible to ordinary people. People call them ghosts.

In addition to becoming a ghost naturally, there is another way, which is to gather the soul power of a person when he just died and awaken the spirit of his life, thus becoming a ghost.

Xuanmiao had caught ghosts and communicated with ghosts in his life, but this was the first time he had seen a soul being condensed into a ghost by someone.

She stepped forward, grabbed Pan Yun's arm, pulled her behind her, and stared at King Zhou warily.

King Zhou: ...

When he distributed his inheritance before his death, he also gave Xuan Miao a sword. How come he was treated as an enemy after only two hours of not seeing him?
Pan Jun stuck his head out from behind Xuan Miao and explained, "Don't worry, he has all his memories. His soul is very solid, and he is not missing a soul or a spirit."

King Zhou felt nervous and floated down to ask, "Are you still missing souls?"

"Yes, if someone is not well-trained, they may only summon one soul and one spirit, while the other souls and spirits are scattered all over the world," Pan Yun said. "The souls summoned in this way have incomplete personalities, and they may not remember things clearly, and they may also be very fierce."

"But I am not a person who is not good at learning skills," Pan Yun said, "Although I am average in other aspects, I am the most proficient in formations, talismans and summoning spirits, so don't worry, Your Majesty, you are now fully prepared."

Xuanmiao felt relieved when he saw the lively expression on King Zhou's face, but when he heard Pan Yun say it so lightly, he felt a lump in his chest again.

Just as she was about to speak, the door was pushed open again, and Tao Ji hurried in, "Junior sister, what are you doing in the room? The princess, the prince, and the Xiangfu County Prince are arguing."

Tao Ji said as he passed through the soul of King Zhou. After he passed, he shuddered and frowned, "Why is it so gloomy? You are quite far from the mourning hall..."

Pan Yun's eyes widened, he looked at Tao Ji, looked at Zhou Wanghun, and then looked at Xuanmiao, his eyes brightened, "You didn't see it?"

Tao Ji: "What do you see?" King Zhou was waving vigorously in front of him. He seemed to find it interesting and even touched his face with his hand.

Tao Ji frowned, put his hands in front of him, squeezed to stand next to Xuan Miao, looked around and said: "Junior sister, do you feel it? The yin energy in this room is particularly heavy."

"I feel it," Xuan Miao bowed to King Zhou helplessly, "Please let my third brother go, Your Majesty, and don't tease him anymore."

Tao Ji screamed, jumped three feet high, and instantly jumped to the corner of the wall, stretching the distance as far as possible, "He, he, he, how did he become a ghost?"

King Zhou: "If I don't become a ghost after I die, what will I become?"

Pan Jun was too lazy to explain, so he picked up the black cat and walked out. It turned out that not all Taoists in this world could see ghosts like Xuanmiao.

Pan Yun suddenly became more confident.

She walked towards the side room next to the mourning hall with a smile.

The princess, Zhu Zijin, and Prince Xiangfu's family are all here.

It is summer now and the weather is very hot. Generally, the coffin will only be kept for three to seven days before it needs to be moved to another place.

Whether to bury the body or not is another matter, but the body certainly cannot be kept in the mourning hall forever. It can be placed in a temple, Taoist temple, etc., waiting for subsequent imperial edicts or for other vassal kings to send people to pay their respects.

But before that, the burial items and people must be prepared together during the period of the coffin's rest. Those that should be buried should be buried, and those that should be carried to the coffin's place should be carried there.

Although King Zhou left a will before his death, asking for a frugal funeral and no burial objects, some necessary things were still included.

Otherwise, not to mention Prince Xiangfu, the eunuchs and officials from the Ministry of Rites present would also question Zhu Zijin's filial piety.

No one had an objection to the burial objects, but Zhu Zijin and the princess both refused the burial objects.

Zhu Zijin said: "My father had a last wish before he died. He did not want to be buried alive with others. I don't want to go against his wishes."

Prince Xiangfu: "This is the ancestral rule, and your father went to the underworld all alone. You don't want to send someone to serve him to show your filial piety, but only want to gain a reputation for being generous. It seems that if you are not your own son, you really can't be caring."

Princess: "Fourth uncle, this is also what I mean, it is what the prince means. Just as Fourth uncle said, my husband and I have no children, and the prince has always believed that it is the sin of patrolling the border and killing too many people when he was young.

Since we had this idea, we have been tolerant to others, doing good deeds and accumulating virtues, hoping to have a biological child in the next life. My Lord and I do not want people to die with us. Doctor Zhang from the Ministry of Rites is here now. He should know that our Lord has been petitioning to exempt the palace from being buried with us every year. The Crown Prince is doing this to comply with the Lord's last wish."

Doctor Zhang nodded immediately: "Yes, it is true."

"Then according to Doctor Zhang, is this behavior of the prince filial?"

Doctor Zhang paused and nodded, "Obeying one's father's wishes is filial piety."

Zhu Youjue asked coldly, "How do you want to deal with the matter of accompanying the deceased? According to the ancestral rules, in order to prevent my eldest brother from being lonely and wronged on the road, the six wives of the mansion should accompany him to die early. Do you think my eldest sister-in-law and the prince are going to go against the ancestral rules and suppress this matter?"

Pan Yun and the other two walked to the side room, and she poked Tao Ji who was standing beside her.

Tao Ji shuddered for a moment, then immediately said, "How difficult is this? Since King Zhou submitted a memorial before his death, we can just ask the emperor for instructions."

Zhu Zijin nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, whether to follow the ancestral system or my father's will is up to your majesty to decide. I will submit a memorial to your majesty right away."

Zhu Youjue looked at the eunuch and said, "I'm afraid that we won't have enough time and will waste my elder brother's precious time."

Eunuch: “This…”

The princess glanced at Nanny Qin.

Nanny Qin immediately stepped forward and stuffed a big red envelope into the hands of the eunuch and Doctor Zhang, saying, "It's not too late, it's not too late. Our palace will rush to the capital to deliver it. Please forgive me for keeping you for a few more days."

This blatant bribery made Zhu Youjue pale in the face, but... no matter what he said, it was inappropriate, so he held it back.

King Zhou watched from the side and sighed, "The fourth son is good at forbearance. If the second son was here and was choked by the princess, he would have smashed my mourning hall."

Perhaps because of his death, King Zhou became much more frank and commented on his brother in front of Pan Yun and Xuan Miao.

"In fact, the fourth child is still okay. I didn't intend to bring Zijin back, but the princess suddenly had nightmares and sent people to the capital to inquire. Alas, the child has a hard life. The second child, that bastard, threw all the farm work to him, and he beat and scolded him at every turn. There is not a single piece of good flesh on the child. After all, I raised him with all my heart, how could I bear to watch him die without saving him..."

Pan Yun thought he was too nagging and kept a distance from him. It happened that Prince Xiangfu was attacking Tao Ji, thinking that he was not a good doctor and was a Taoist priest who was good at playing tricks. The princess and the prince were deceived by him and therefore acted disobediently.

Tao Ji was not afraid of him and started arguing with him. In the end, it was Doctor Zhang who came out to mediate and the two of them stopped.

The purpose of Pan Yun's coming here was to guide Zhu Zijin in writing the memorial, and by the way, to touch upon Doctor Zhang and the eunuch, to give them an introduction and wish them a good dream when they go home at night.

The memorial sent by the palace was not quite up to standard. It would be perfect if the two angels could send it back and say a few good words for the Zhou Palace.

She didn't turn King Zhou into a ghost just for him to watch the fun. He should also contribute to her last wish, okay?

　The ten lucky numbers for this chapter are numbers ending in 3. The screenshots are provided as proof. The screenshot deadline is before the next chapter is updated.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)