Sanhe Township, which belongs to the boundary of Xiameng County, Qinzhou Prefecture, has a total of 56 registered households, which is a small remote village under Qinzhou Prefecture. There are not many people, the scenery is average, but fortunately, it is located in Shudi, there are mountains, rivers and fields, and the people do not say how rich they are, at least they are worry-free. As long as there is no border emergency, and the Qinzhou Mansion does not come to recruit soldiers, life here can be said to be stable and peaceful, and it is happy.

There are people, naturally there will be birth, old age, sickness and death, no matter how small the place, daily customs such as marrying wives and daughters, funerals and funerals are inevitable.

On this day, in the courtyard of Zhang's butcher's house at the east end of the village, almost half of the people from the village unexpectedly gathered, half of them were wearing linen and filial piety in the courtyard, some people had sad faces, biting their lips and holding back tears, and some people looked anxious and busy inside and out.

At the entrance of the courtyard, an old woman dressed in heavy filial piety stood, supported by her children, nervously looking up the village road to the east, as if waiting for some important person.

"Xiaojuan, why haven't you come yet, how long has your brother been there?"

"Mother, don't worry, it should be coming soon, the day before yesterday, my brother went there, and the day of the little fairy official's calculation is today, there will be no mistake. ”

"That's good, that's good. ”

The old woman spoke a little tremblingly, although her face was sad, but compared with the juniors who accompanied her, her face was not so sad, but more anxious.

"It's coming, it's coming!"

Before anyone saw it, there was a rush of shouts on the village road, and after a while, the filial Zhang butcher appeared in everyone's sight with a pair of big hands.

The Zhang butcher who came rushing was like a tumbling big ball of meat, Rao was only wearing a filial piety suit in late autumn, and he was sweating profusely and out of breath.

This shout, like an order, the people sitting and standing outside the courtyard immediately acted in an orderly manner, and the old woman at the door finally breathed a sigh of relief, and her tense body instantly relaxed.

"Open the curtain, open the door, welcome the immortal official!"

The township principal who had been waiting in the courtyard for a long time put down the teacup in his hand, slowly stood up, and sang the promise with full of energy.

The word "immortal official" fell squarely, and the door of the innermost room in the courtyard, which had been closed and covered with curtains, slowly opened, revealing a large lacquered wooden coffin that had not yet been closed inside.

Seeing the coffin lying flat in the room, the few family members in the courtyard who wore linen and filial piety could no longer help but cover their mouths and sobbed quietly, and even the old woman who was helped in stumbled and could not hide her grief.

But the whole courtyard was still very quiet, except for the shout of the principal, there was no other voice, and everyone moved very lightly, seeing that the family members did not even dare to cry loudly, as if they were afraid of disturbing something.

At this moment, all eyes are looking at the outside of the courtyard, the door of the courtyard is wide open, and there is no one outside.

Gradually, there was a sound of footsteps, steady, unhurried.

Butcher Zhang wiped the sweat on his face like rain, swallowed his saliva, he ran for more than ten miles, his throat was like a chimney burning in a fire, and he still didn't dare to find a cup of herbal tea to quench his thirst.

Silent.

Then, a figure appeared in the doorway.

However, this person who was eagerly awaited by everyone and called an immortal official did not have the same dress and momentum as he imagined, and what appeared in front of everyone was just a tall young man in his early twenties, dressed in a dusty blue pigment robe, and his hair was only tied back indiscriminately. Although he was very young, he looked very old, and his face had already lost his childishness, and what was even more surprising was that he was still holding a black object in his hand.

It was a small black iron lamp, the size of a palm, with four corners and four doors, and the lamp and wick were visible in the inside, and there was no light in it.

The style of the iron lamp is ordinary, more than one size smaller than the wind lamp used by ordinary people, so it is not enough for a lamp the size of a palm to be lit, even if it is lit, there is not much light, but what is even more strange is that this young man also carries such a lamp in his hand in broad daylight.

After standing at the door for a moment, the young man in plain clothes walked in with a calm face, and without saying a word, he walked into the coffin room, where the door had been closed since the morning.

The lacquered wooden coffin was headed inward and feet outward, and inside was Butcher Zhang's old father, who had just died in the morning. The plain-clothed young man walked to the coffin, looked inside, and then placed the iron lamp in his hand on the edge of the coffin's head.

The room faces north, the doors and windows are small, and now all the places that can let in the light are covered with a thick black cloth, which makes the whole room even darker.

Seeing that the person who came put down the iron lamp in his hand, the person in charge who was waiting outside the door with his neck stretched out his neck and glanced at the Zhang family who were nervously waiting, and with a wave of his hand, the Zhang family members who wore linen and filial piety knelt outside the door according to their seniority.

The people in the room didn't care about the outside at all, just stared at the old man Zhang who was lying in the coffin, the old man was old and sick, and his face was gloomy, but fortunately, he just breathed two hours ago, so he was still a little angry on his face.

"Dust to dust, dust to dust, hey. ”

As the young man sighed, and he didn't see how he moved, the iron lamp placed on the coffin above Zhang Laohan's head suddenly lit up, and the small wick on the oil pot actually "rubbed" out a blue fire without warning, swaying gently in the windless room.

The black light is blue and the fire is weird and abnormal. If you get close, you can still feel that the temperature from the blue flame is not hot, but a little cold to the bone.

This is the Yin Fire, and the lamp is the soul-attracting lamp that is dedicated to guiding the soul.

The living are reported to death, and the immortal officials attract souls.

The person who died was Zhang Laohan, the father of Zhang Butcher, and the young immortal official who came to draw his soul was called Wang Shen.

I don't know when, a hundred, a thousand, or even a long time ago...... After a person dies, his soul can no longer find the entrance between heaven and earth to the netherworld, and can only wander aimlessly in the world, or endure the washing of heaven and earth and gradually dissipate, or become the mouth of the mountain monster beast and be swallowed into the belly, and may even become a murderous evil ghost who hurts people and kills people to do evil in the world.

Therefore, there are immortal officials in this world who collect souls.

Since the king of Hades has closed the door of the underworld, the living people in the human world have to find another way.

Since the founding of the Southern Tang Dynasty two hundred years ago, the imperial court has set up the Spring and Autumn Mansion to take charge of all the yin affairs in the world.

There are countless soul-attracting pavilions under the Spring and Autumn Mansion, and there are countless soul-attracting pavilions under the Yin Division, all over the 436 counties in the 34 prefectures of the Southern Tang Dynasty, as well as nearly 30,000 townships scattered under the counties of each state.

There is a lush poplar forest twenty miles east of Sanhe Township, next to the poplar forest is a soul-attracting pavilion, this soul-attracting pavilion is responsible for the five townships within the jurisdiction of Meng County, including Sanhe Township, and there are about 500 households in the soul-collecting matters. As long as someone in these 500 households dies, no matter what the reason or what the hour, the township must immediately report to the Soul Pavilion, and ask the lamp lighter in the pavilion to collect the soul.

The lamplighter is the immortal official in the mouth of the people, in fact, in the Southern Tang Dynasty, the lamplighter is not a serious official position, they only receive Yulu but have no rank. But the lamplighter attracts the soul and collects the soul, but the deceased is behind him, and the peace of all households is guaranteed, although he is not an official, he is respected by the world as a fairy official.

Wang Shen stood quietly by Zhang Laohan's coffin, to be exact, he was not an immortal official, because he was not the lamplighter registered in the Spring and Autumn Mansion, and the lamplighter registered in the soul-attracting pavilion twenty miles away was Wang Shen's master. It's just that since four years ago, Wang Shen's lamplighter master has never gone out again, and all the aftermath of the five hundred households in these five townships has been collected by this little immortal official Wang Shen.

After the iron lamp on the top of the coffin stabilized, Wang Shen reached out and pressed the two fingers of his right hand on the eyebrows of Zhang Laohan in the coffin.

This yin qi is naturally Zhang Laohan's soul, and among the surrounding people, only Wang Shen can see this yin qi. The yin qi contains the three souls and seven spirits that Zhang Laohan has not had time to dissipate, and since Zhang Laohan's spirit platform floated out, he reluctantly swirled around the air above the master's body and refused to leave.

Wang Shen was not in a hurry, his fingers had already been withdrawn, and he stood quietly beside him with his hands tied.

From the time of birth, people have three souls and seven spirits in their bodies. The three souls are divided into heaven, earth, and man, among which the two souls of heaven and earth are the imprint left on the human body by this heaven and earth, and it can also be said to be the potential connection between man and heaven and earth. The human soul is the consciousness of the human being, and all the memories, thoughts, joys, sorrows, and other emotions in the life of the human soul are closely related to the human soul.

The three souls dominate the human mind, and the seven spirits are the bridge between the three souls and the physical body, and they are also the hub for the spiritual platform consciousness to control the body's actions. If the seven spirits are incomplete, the person will have a disability. As soon as a person dies, the body loses its vitality, and the three souls and seven spirits are no longer attached, and they will be pulled away from the body by the power of heaven and earth, but the soul that has just passed away still retains the consciousness of life, and will always be nostalgic for the body and refuse to leave.

But the three souls that have lost their physical attachment cannot exist in heaven and earth for too long, and the two souls of heaven and earth will continue to be called and pulled by heaven and earth, and return to heaven and earth with the human souls of residual consciousness. When the three souls are completely dissipated, there are only seven souls left in the human soul, and the seven spirits are just a pure yin qi between heaven and earth, without the slightest trace of life, and should have entered the Huangquan Dao to go to the Netherworld to re-enter the reincarnation of heaven and earth.

This is the way of the reincarnation of yin and yang in heaven and earth, the body is the yang, the soul is the yin, once the death is gone, the yin and yang are scattered, and then reincarnation.

It's a pity that the ghost gate of the underworld has been closed, and the seven spirits have nowhere to go. What Wang Shen had to do was to wait for Zhang Laohan's three souls to completely dissipate, take away the remaining seven spirits, and prevent them from wandering aimlessly between heaven and earth.

At this time, the yin qi that only Wang Shen could see in the presence began to change after hanging above the coffin for a while, and the vague yin qi gradually condensed into a human shape, it was a drooping child, with red lips and white teeth, which was extremely cute.

But soon, as the yin energy continued to float, the child began to grow up rapidly, becoming a handsome teenager, and the teenager did not stop growing, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old...... The boy quickly grew into a strong middle-aged man.

Whether young or middle-aged, his eyebrows and expressions are seven or eight points similar to Zhang Laohan lying in the coffin. At this moment, the middle-aged man's eyes were on the family members kneeling outside the door, and his peaceful eyes revealed a deep reluctance.

This is the nostalgia of life and death, and no one can let go of it.

However, the middle-aged person also grew old quickly, and his strong body began to become rickety, and his black hair turned gray and gray hair turned white.

But at this moment, an accident suddenly appeared! The soul of the aging old man Zhang suddenly stopped, and it was a Zhang old man who looked still healthy and at least ten years younger than now, who was quietly staring at a person outside the house.

Wang Shen frowned slightly, turned his head to look, and found that the person Zhang Laohan's soul was staring at was none other than his daughter-in-law, the woman kneeling beside Butcher Zhang.

It is said that Butcher Zhang's mother-in-law is not only lazy and lazy but also extremely inappropriate since she entered Zhang's house, and Butcher Zhang often kills pigs and sheep for people outside, while his mother-in-law quarrels with her in-laws at home. But fortunately, Butcher Zhang is a filial son, and the old couple swallowed their anger many times and did not make a big fuss about the family scandal.

The soul of Zhang Laohan, who was staring at his daughter-in-law, was obviously very dissatisfied with her, and even after death, he still had a little resentment, and the female woman kneeling beside Zhang Butcher felt a little strange cold air coming out of her back for no reason, and when she thought of the many things she had with her father-in-law on weekdays, she suddenly panicked.

So, as soon as her body went limp, she fell to the ground, shaking her shoulders violently and sobbing vigorously.

The resentment in Zhang Laohan's eyes also flashed away at this time, and the soul hanging in the air seemed to sigh softly. Family and everything is prosperous, at least this woman passed incense to the Zhang family and gave birth to two big fat boys who he regarded as treasures.

Then, the yin qi floated again, and finally, after a few breaths, the yin qi turned into a withered old man, swaying like a candle in the wind. The appearance of this old man is exactly the appearance of Zhang Laohan lying below.

Soon, a sudden, but as if it was a gust of wind through the hall, completely blew away the old man who was hanging in the air until he disappeared.

The three souls dissipated, and all the traces left by Zhang Laohan in this world disappeared with the wind. All that remained was the gradually cold body and the unconscious Seven Spirits.

Dust to dust, dust to earth, the three souls of Zhang Laohan, who could not go away, finished his life again in less than half a pillar of incense, and when he looked back on the decades of time, it was just a snap of his fingers.

Wang Shen, who was waiting beside him, breathed a sigh of relief, lifted the iron lamp placed on the coffin, and shook it lightly at the remaining seven spirits of Zhang Laohan.

"The immortal official lights the lamp, the deceased returns to the soul, and the family members thank you!"

The experienced principal knew that the important thing was over when he saw Wang Shen raise the iron lamp, and with a loud singing, the mourning music finally began to blow and beat outside the door, and the Zhang family members wept loudly after respectfully kowtowing three heads to the body of Zhang Laohan and Wang Shen who was still in the house.

The funeral has officially begun.

After being invited to the side and drinking half a bowl of tea, Wang Shen, who had finished his work, accepted a few pieces of broken silver that Butcher Zhang had forced into his hand, and then took the iron lamp and left.

In fact, the lamplighter has his own subordinate Yin Division monthly distribution, but every time he goes out to collect his soul, the people who do the work will always express their gratitude more or less with a gift, and Wang Shen will accept it every time. When he met a poor family, he was not too small to have dozens of copper coins, and he did not refuse to give a few taels of silver to a generous family like Butcher Zhang.

After all, he was the only one doing things in this Soul Attraction Pavilion, but there were several mouths for eating.