Just as everyone’s attention was focused on searching for Fu Jinshu, Shuang Niang slipped away unnoticed from the crowd. Since she was originally a member of the household, the guards didn’t pay much attention to her departure.
“Immortal Master, your divine magic is unmatched. Once that brat dies, Wei Yunchan certainly won’t live much longer either.” Kneeling upon a prayer mat, Shuang Niang offered reverent, kowtowing bows toward the divine statue.
Strangely enough, over the past two days, the Immortal Master had not revealed his true form, remaining concealed entirely within the Buddha statue. Doubts lingered in Shuang Niang’s mind, yet she didn’t dare to ask too many questions.
Daoist Baitong, however, felt extremely uneasy. Feeling that today’s events had proceeded far too smoothly, he warned Shuang Niang, “It’s best not to stir up any more trouble over these next few days. Wait a little while before coming back to claim the life of the Wei family boy.”
Eager for Wei Yunchan to kick the bucket as soon as possible, Shuang Niang was naturally unwilling; yet, since she ultimately relied on Daoist Baitong’s backing, she could only comply with bitter reluctance.
The moment she departed, Daoist Baitong revealed his true form: half of his body was scorched a charred black, half his face looked like a ghastly specter, and even his right eyelid was fused shut—a truly terrifying sight.
All of this traced back to two days ago, when he went to Wei Yunchan’s residence hoping to investigate. The moment he reached Wei Yunchan’s doorway, his hand had barely grazed the doorframe when a surge of arcane magic blasted him into immobility. By the time he managed to break free with immense difficulty, half of his several centuries of cultivation had been sucked away in the blink of an eye, and his physical body had been ruined into this current wretched state!
Daoist Baitong had never witnessed such a formidable barrier before, and had no inkling which immortal master among those guarding Wei Yunchan had set it up.
Until now, it had never crossed his mind that Fu Jinshu could be the one responsible, largely because the child Fu Jinshu looked like an entirely ordinary mortal no matter how one observed him.
Not a single trace of demonic aura could be detected.
He had originally assumed that sending the water ghost to kill Fu Jinshu today would run into interference from the immortal master by Wei Yunchan’s side, but to his surprise, everything had gone off without a hitch. Once Fu Jinshu entered the water, he would be enveloped by the water ghost’s illusions, making it impossible for Wei Yunchan’s men to locate him.
And by the time he was found, he would merely be a corpse floating to the surface.
Having fulfilled his promise to Shuang Niang, Daoist Baitong had no desire to linger here any longer; if the immortal master by Wei Yunchan’s side came sniffing around, he was certainly no match for them.
Although he had reaped a substantial increase in cultivation over the years from accepting Shuang Niang’s offerings, one must endure loss to gain—in any case, he could no longer stay in this temple.
That very night, Daoist Baitong vanished without a trace.
Meanwhile, throughout that entire night, Wei Yunchan kept vigil by the lakeside until dawn broke.
Madam Wen had fainted from shock during the moment of Fu Jinshu’s fall into the lake. When she regained consciousness and learned there was still no news of Fu Jinshu, she fell ill from overwhelming worry and anxiety.
She worried both for Fu Jinshu’s safety and whether Wei Yunchan’s health would hold up if Fu Jinshu perished.
Wei Yunchan didn’t overthink things as much; deep down, he felt that yesterday’s events reeked of bizarreness at every turn. Even though the lake had been completely drained, it still yielded nothing.
“I want a living person, or a corpse if he’s dead.”
Staring at the ornamental koi fish struggling against imminent death due to the lack of water, Wei Yunchan’s complexion turned ashen.
Where on earth had Fu Jinshu gone?
Naturally, a mere water ghost couldn’t harm a hair on his head. Initially, Fu Jinshu had intended to drag the creature down into the water and destroy it in retaliation, but the interesting part was that right as the water ghost’s soul was scattering, it reverted to its original human form.
—It turned out to be a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old girl.
With delicate features, she was still clad in the standard attire worn by the maids of the Wei household.
“Spare my life, Your Honor! This humble servant was merely forced and manipulated by someone else…”
Casting an invisibility spell, Fu Jinshu brought her surging out of the water, took her to a secluded spot where no one else was around, and listened as she poured her heart out.
“This humble servant was originally a maid serving in the Wei family’s side courtyard. Your Honor may simply call me Qiuli.”
The side courtyard belonged precisely to Shuang Niang and her group.
“At first, this humble servant served by the Fourth Young Miss’s side, but…” At this point, two trails of bloody tears welled up in Qiuli’s eyes, choking her up so she couldn’t continue. “But one day, the Second Young Master had too much to drink… and happened to take the wrong turn… and did that thing to this humble servant… did that to me…”
Having never experienced mortal affairs, Fu Jinshu understood nothing about such romantic attachments between humans. Unable to grasp the hidden meaning behind Qiuli’s words, he asked bluntly through mental telepathy, “What kind of thing is that thing?”
With a pale face, Qiuli looked up into his innocent, thirst-for-knowledge eyes, completely at a loss for how to phrase it.
After a long pause, she stammered in reply, “He… took away this humble servant’s… body of purity…”
In reality, Fu Jinshu still didn’t quite understand the sentence, but seeing that Qiuli clearly wished to drop the subject, he let go of his confusion, shifted gears, and asked another question: “Then what? How did you die?”
“After the Second Young Master sobered up, fearing that this humble servant would report the matter to the City Lord… he threatened me not to speak a word of it. Being lowly and powerless, this humble servant naturally didn’t dare to make a sound… But this matter came to the ears of Madam Shuang, and Madam Shuang has always been ruthless and vicious… She had people tie me up and throw me into the lake. Because my body was weighted down with stones, the corpse never floated up, so no one ever knew…”
The Wei household possessed numerous attendants and maids; the disappearance of a single one would never draw anyone’s attention. What was more, since she was a maid from Shuang Niang’s courtyard, it was all the easier to pull the wool over people’s eyes and conceal the truth.
Over the years, quite a few people had died within their side courtyard.
Servants’ lives were as worthless as ants, and maids who had been violated by that Second Young Master, Wei Hangyuan were as numerous as the hairs on an ox.
Chief Magistrate Wei detested such filthy and unclean deeds; to avoid discovery, Shuang Niang had already cleaned up messes of this sort for her son on numerous occasions.
Some maids were merely fourteen or fifteen years old when they died. However, Qiuli harbored intense grievances, and because her corpse remained within the Wei estate, she managed to transform into a water ghost and acquire a certain degree of cultivation.
Fu Jinshu asked her, “Then who told you to harm me?”
“It was Daoist Baitong… He possesses formidable magic, and this humble servant dared not disobey… But I only met him a few times, and only know that Madam Shuang built a small temple for him located behind Wutai Mountain.”
Having acquired the crucial piece of information, Fu Jinshu stopped asking further, knowing Qiuli couldn’t answer anything beyond this anyway. He simply asked her, “Do you still wish to undergo reincarnation?”
Qiuli shook her head without a moment’s hesitation. “This humble servant only wishes for vengeance! But I am afraid of Daoist Baitong’s retaliation… I earnestly beg Your Honor to help me!”
For Fu Jinshu, this proved quite simple. Conjuring a talisman out of thin air, he folded it into a triangle, pricked a drop of blood from his fingertip onto it, and guided it straight into Qiuli’s chest. As the talisman vanished inside her, a flash of red light swept through her, and Qiuli felt her cultivation skyrocket instantly; yet, lacking sufficient foundational cultivation, she initially found herself struggling to bear the influx of power.
Fu Jinshu reached out and grasped her palm, transmitting a warm current that surged into Qiuli’s limbs and bones, instantly stabilizing her physical vessel which had nearly been torn apart at the seams.
Qiuli blushed, gazing down at Fu Jinshu’s fingers which resembled snow under the early spring sun—and felt an overwhelming wave of shame. The mud from the lake bed still stained her fingernails, making her hands look utterly mismatched beside Fu Jinshu’s, as if she were defiling a deity.
Withdrawing his hand, Fu Jinshu said, “There. Rest assured, that so-called Daoist Baitong won’t be able to harm you hereafter.”
Realizing belatedly that the young master before him possessed heaven-defying abilities, able to arbitrarily elevate someone else’s cultivation without incurring backlash from the heavenly dao, Qiuli dropped heavily to her knees and kowtowed repeatedly. “Thank you deeply, Your Honor, for this bestowal. From this day forward, Qiuli shall place herself at Your Honor’s disposal and obey your every instruction.”
Having thus bafflingly acquired a ghost subordinate, Fu Jinshu waved a hand. “Alright, you may head back first. I still have matters to attend to.”
He was still planning to head over to Wutai Mountain to have a proper chat with that Daoist Baitong. With those words, he leaped into the air and flew off.
Qiuli hadn’t provided a precise location, and since Wutai Mountain was remote and encompassed numerous peaks, Fu Jinshu searched for half the night before finally locating a small temple.
Unfortunately, it was already completely deserted. Presumably, after triggering his barrier two days ago and suffering severe damage to his cultivation, Daoist Baitong had fled for his life in advance.
Unfazed, Fu Jinshu picked up a single strand of hair left behind the Buddha statue and tucked it away inside his spacious hundred-treasure sleeve pouch.
I’ll let that old Daoist priest live a few more days. Watching the rising sun, Fu Jinshu let out a yawn before leisurely making his way back toward the Wei estate.
The moment he stepped through the front gates, a guard bellowed at the top of his lungs, “The Young Lady Wife has returned!!”
Word spread rapidly down the line, and a chorus of excited shouts echoed through the courtyard: “The Young Lady Wife is back—”
Blinking his eyes as drowsiness overtook him, Fu Jinshu couldn’t fathom why everyone was making such a grand production out of this. He had completely forgotten how terrifying and heart-wrenching his fall into the lake yesterday must have looked to everyone else.
Most frightening of all was Wei Yunchan’s expression. Everyone in the Wei estate had been holding their breath in terror, dispatching search parties both inside and outside the compound.
By the time Wei Yunchan rushed into the bedchamber, Fu Jinshu was already fast asleep beneath the covers, snoring softly.
Having gone a full night without sleep, Wei Yunchan looked dreadful; yet, contrastingly, Fu Jinshu slept with flushed, rosy cheeks, looking utterly blissful and sweet.
Confirming that he was completely unharmed, the nerve that Wei Yunchan had kept strained tight all night suddenly snapped. Darkness washed over his vision, and he tumbled straight down beside the bed.
Seemingly sensing the disturbance, Fu Jinshu stirred awake.
The attendants outside had likewise heard the commotion, nervously knocking on the door before pushing it open. Upon seeing Wei Yunchan collapsed on the floor, they hurriedly carried him up onto the bed and dispatched men to fetch a physician.
Checking Wei Yunchan’s pulse and testing his breath, Fu Jinshu confirmed that he was merely physically depleted and had passed out from a sudden surge of acute stress and anxiety, whereupon his worries vanished.
Looking at the dark, bruised circles under Wei Yunchan’s eyes, Fu Jinshu recalled the frantic, tense expression the man had worn when he rushed to the lakeside yesterday.
—Was he worried about me?
Lifting a hand, Fu Jinshu covered Wei Yunchan’s large palm, interlacing their fingers together, and channeled his own arcane magic directly into the other’s body in one swift motion purging away every last lingering trace of the death curse that had still clung to Wei Yunchan.
Once Wei Yunchan woke up, he could finally ask for his answer.