The bodyguards brought me the stuff I wanted: three roosters, a bag full of eels, crab shell powder, needles, wooden nails, and whips.

It wasn’t hard to summon the soul back to the body; a shaman dance would usually do the trick. However, our current situation was special... Yuan Chonghuan was still inside the tycoon’s body, and the rich woman had confined her husband’s soul somewhere. I wasn’t sure if I could pull this off.

I asked the men to take off the tycoon’s clothes. After that, I used a knife to collect some eel blood, using it as ink to write the tycoon’s birthdate on his body and a soul summoning formation on the ground. As for the crab shell powder, it was sprinkled on the formation. The tycoon stopped struggling once he was laid in the middle of the formation. Chuyi also stepped in to help; he cut the roosters’ combs, using their blood to draw a great formation encircling my formation.

The small formation in the middle was the Yin formation, which was used to summon souls. However, as soon as the formation was activated, wandering souls would flood in from every direction. That was why we needed the bigger formation—the Yang formation—to keep them outside. At the same time, this pair of Yin and Yang formations would create an invisible power that would forcefully draw the tycoon’s soul back to his body.

In theory, there was nothing wrong with this method, but I had never tried it before.

Yuan Chonghuan almost choked on the crab shell powder. He cursed us for being dissenting, dishonest, corrupt, and things along those lines. I just ignored him, only focusing on preparing the formation.

Shen Hongbin saw that Chuyi and I were cooperating very well. He seemed to understand something. He said as he puffed his cigarette, “If I’m not mistaken, you two already knew each other and kidnapped my brother… Still, I don’t know why you want to help me now.”

“I think we have some misunderstanding here. I didn’t want to work for your sister-in-law from the very beginning. I kidnapped your brother so that I could use him as a bargaining chip for my negotiation,” I answered.

“A bargaining chip?”

“She kidnapped my friend and forced me to help her with the company’s equity transfer contract. I could only scheme against her.”

“So that’s what happened!” Shen Hongbin then understood. “You should have told me earlier. Although I’m just a Deputy General Director, I’m more than capable of rescuing your friend using the connections I have with the police and the underground.”

“Thank you. Please keep him safe!” I said.

“I swear on the name of my family!”

Shen Hongbin immediately sent his people to save Li Mazi. I asked him to leave some guards with us, just in case we needed more people.

I asked two bodyguards to grab the whips and stand by. When I gave the order, they would whip the tycoon’s legs.

I asked the remaining bodyguards to use the wooden nails to pierce the roosters without killing them. Afterward, they needed to let the roosters run loose in the outer formation. The roosters crowed loudly, as they were in such unbearable pain.

“I’m sorry, General Yuan!” While speaking, I stabbed the tycoon’s chest with the needles that had been soaked in eel blood. Yuan Chonghuan’s eyes rolled to the back of his head as he shook even harder.

“Whip him!” I ordered.

The two guards were reluctant to take action, and Shen Hongbin had to urge them. After they lashed as ordered, the tycoon’s legs had several bleeding streaks. The outer formation written with rooster blood started to boil. At the same time, the needles in the tycoon’s body started to vibrate. The formation had been activated. I told the others, “Face the door and call your boss’ name, as loud as possible!”

They started to call loudly, “Shen Yanchen! Come back! Shen Yanchen! Come back!”

It took a solid minute before Yuan Chonghuan stopped shaking. I asked the two bodyguards with the whips to stop hitting him.

A wisp of Yin energy swirled upward and disappeared into the ceiling. Yuan Chonghuan was gone, but the tycoon’s soul had not returned!

The atmosphere suddenly turned gloomy. All the window panels began to rattle, and a gust of wind howled around the outer formation, rolling with ghosts whining and crying. The bodyguards paled in panic, but they didn’t dare to stop calling the tycoon’s name.

The rooster blood on the ground had almost dried, which made me very worried. Yin energy was steadily gathering, and when the outer formation—our defense—collapsed, we would be unable to count the number of wandering ghosts flocking from every direction.

Chuyi suddenly stabbed his sword into the marble floor and sat down cross-legged to recite the sacred text of Daoism. The roosters were crowing loudly, but his voice was clearly reaching my ears. The tycoon had not moved yet, even after five minutes had passed.

The rooster crowing gradually subsided, and the blood was almost dry. I was afraid we couldn’t rely only on Chuyi reciting the sacred text of Daoism. I gritted my teeth and pulled out the needles in the tycoon’s chest, asking the bodyguards to pick him up. It seemed that our soul summoning ritual had failed.

When we moved to pull him up, he suddenly opened his eyes. I was shocked.

“Brother, I was so miserable!” He jumped toward Shen Hongbin, crying loudly.

“It worked! Brother Zhang, it worked!” Yin Xinyue was so excited that she hugged me. Chuyi exhaled, pulling out his sword from the floor and placing it once again in the sheath strapped to his back.

The tycoon was still feeble as his soul had just returned to his body. Shen Hongbin comforted him and asked his guards to take him to a room to rest.

“There’s one more thing we need to solve! Please follow me!” Shen Hongbin said as he took us to the control room.

The fat secretary was sitting by the control room’s door, dying.

“Who are you? Why did you go to such lengths to help my sister-in-law?” Shen Hongbin sternly shouted at the man.

The fat secretary sneered. “You know what? Everything you and your brother have should have belonged to me and her.”

“What did you just say?” Shen Hongbin gawked in shock.

What the fat secretary told us later left us completely stunned. When this oil company had just been established, the fat secretary and the tycoon had been the co-founders. They had taken risks for dozens of years to make their company thrive. However, at the time their company was about to be listed in the stock market, the tycoon backstabbed him, falsely accusing him of embezzling the company funds. He was later sent to jail to face this charge.

After the fat secretary was released, he underwent several plastic surgeries to change his face. He even had hormones injected to make himself fat. That was how he made his way to the rich woman. He had been subtle, waiting for the chance to take revenge. He even advised the rich woman to use supernatural methods, but he had never expected to lose the battle.

Shen Hongbin didn’t look pleased after listening to his story. “It’s not true. You must be hiding something! You didn’t need to go through all of that if you wanted to retaliate against my brother.”

“Haha, you have good intuition. Actually, your brother’s children are mine,” said the fat secretary.

“Indeed, that wasn’t outside of my expectations!” Shen Hongbin nodded.

“Little Lu and I loved each other for a long time. You see, she had been unable to become pregnant for quite a long time. That’s all because of your brother's horrible karma. Heaven doesn’t want him to sire another generation. Once I got out of jail, she didn’t hate or abandon me... Our love was like fire sparking back to life from the ashes. Then, we had two kids. It doesn’t matter if I have to die, as long as they grow and live well. Once I get to Hell, I can fight against your brother one more time!” The fat secretary laughed.

Shen Hongbin sneered. “If you thought your words could touch me and make me spare her, you’re totally wrong! But the two kids are my nephews. In name, anyway. I will provide for them until they graduate from university.”

“I wasn’t looking for your understanding…” The fat secretary’s voice faded as he was like a lamp running out of oil.

Since there wasn’t much time left, I had to intervene, “Who gave you this token?”

The fat secretary snorted. I guessed the grudge he had against me was even bigger than the grudge he had for Shen Hongbin as I had messed up his entire plan. I tried asking several times, but the fat man’s head dropped low. Eventually, he exhaled his last breath.

Soon, the police came. Shen Hongbin explained the situation. Of course, he couldn’t tell all of the truth. This time, we weren’t taken to the police station to take our oral statement.

The scene was soon cordoned off. Suddenly, Shen Hongbin’s phone rang. Once he ended the call, he told me, “Li Mazi’s back.”