A resonant chime of a bell tore through the pale dawn mist, startling the birds in the forest.
Yin Huizhi abruptly looked up, his brow furrowing. “The sacrificial bell of the Ouyang family.”
The Ouyang clan had always conducted sacrifices during the New Year festival. Why was the Yang family ringing the sacrificial bell at this time?
Xie Ling placed the blood letter and the jade signet ring into Yin Huizhi’s hand, then lifted his hand to restore the space beneath the bed to its original state. “Let us go to the ancestral hall to see.”
The sky was just beginning to brighten, yet the Yang family ancestral hall was already packed with kneeling people. Yang Yingfang, who had been full of vitality just a short while ago, was now leaning half-paralyzed on a palanquin, his chest rising and falling weakly.
A deathly aura, thicker than before, emanated from between his brows. However, his complexion was unnaturally flushed. He kept his mouth wide open, merely panting, unable to utter a single word.
Qiu Lianye looked terrible. She hesitated before asking the white-bearded Taoist beside her, “Immortal Master, is it absolutely necessary to do this?”
The white-bearded Taoist swept his horsetail whisk and said proudly, “Madam Yang, if you do not trust this old man, then I might as well leave.”
Having said that, he made a gesture as if he were about to depart.
Qiu Lianye hurriedly pulled him back, a flattering smile quickly forced onto her exhausted and disheveled face. “Immortal Master, please calm your anger. It was all thanks to your talismans that our Master was able to regain consciousness this morning. How could I possibly not trust you?”
So this person is the fraudulent Taoist who wrote that pile of worthless talismans, Yin Huizhi thought to himself.
The white-bearded Taoist gave a cold snort. “The resentment of a dead person is the most difficult to dissolve. This old man dares to say that in the entire Fucheng, and even the neighboring cities, no one else would dare beat their chest and claim they understand the intricacy of it. If Madam still wants Master Yang to recover, then quickly do as this old man says.”
Qiu Lianye bit her tongue, then nodded vigorously. “Very well.”
The dialogue between the two was vague. Just as Yin Huizhi was wondering what exactly the old Taoist wanted Qiu Lianye to do, he saw Qiu Lianye whisper something to the domestic servants behind her.
Immediately, the servants split into two groups. One group walked over to Yang Yingfang and propped him up, while the other group entered the ancestral hall and respectfully brought out a spirit tablet.
The name written on the spirit tablet was Ouyang Yi.
Combining this with the words of the fake Taoist just now, it was not difficult to guess what would happen next.
Yin Huizhi cast a thoughtful glance at the fraudulent Taoist.
Xie Ling, as if he had witnessed something highly amusing, let out a short laugh from his nose.
Yang Yingfang could not make a sound, but his expression was incredibly vivid. His eyes were wide with fury as he glared at the servants.
The servants shrank back, not daring to speak, but they kept their heads down and forced him toward the spirit tablet. Left with no choice, he opened his mouth wide again to glare at Qiu Lianye, saliva dripping from the corner of his mouth.
Unable to bear the sight, Qiu Lianye looked up at the sky, clasping her hands together and muttering prayers, “May the demons and malicious ghosts disperse.”
A raspy, choking sound came from Yang Yingfang’s throat, forcing Qiu Lianye to walk closer to him. “Master, we must cure your illness. Otherwise, those other pairs of eyes will be staring at our family residence, shops, and land.”
Having said that, she pulled Yang Yingfang down to kneel toward the spirit tablet together.
Qiu Lianye was broad-minded about it. Since the person was already dead, what harm was there in kneeling to a spirit tablet if it could dissolve Ouyang Yi’s resentment?
Moreover, everything belonging to the Ouyang family and beneath the divine temple would be securely held in their hands afterward. It was definitely a profitable deal.
“The first kowtow acknowledges the first crime. Once the three kowtows are completed, the resentment shall be entirely dissolved,” the white-bearded Taoist announced, drawing out his voice as he waved his whisk.
“The first bow.”
Qiu Lianye was the first to kowtow. Yang Yingfang, pulled by her and half-pressed down by the servants behind him, kowtowed as well.
“The second bow.”
The surrounding servants all kept their eyes lowered, not daring to look up at this absurd scene.
“The final bow.”
Before the final kowtow could be completed, the main doors of the ancestral hall were pushed open with a loud bang. Qiu Lianye turned her head and saw a dense crowd of Fucheng citizens outside the hall, causing her to nearly faint.
There was another reason she had agreed to the old Taoist’s request to kowtow and confess the crimes to disperse the resentment, which was because the location the old Taoist specified was their own ancestral hall.
By bowing secretly in their own ancestral hall, no matter how unseemly it was, it would not be seen by outsiders.
“Calling us here so early in the morning, what are they doing? Bowing to a spirit tablet?” someone muttered in a low voice.
“The one they are bowing to is Ouyang Yi, right?” an eagle-eyed observer noticed. “Did you hear what they said outside the door just now? Three kowtows to confess crimes. Could Ouyang Yi really have died at the hands of this couple?”
“The more one thinks about it, the more terrifying it becomes.”
“Think about it. Could Master Yang’s madness be caused by Ouyang Yi’s lingering resentment coming back to seek revenge after his tragic death?”
“Yes, exactly. Otherwise, why would it happen to be the exact same madness as Ouyang Yi? Perhaps Ouyang Yi was not meant to go mad originally, but rather.”
The whispers outside the door were incessant. Qiu Lianye snapped up to her feet and shouted angrily, “Who allowed you to come here? What nonsense are you talking? Xu Zhongren, if you spread rumors again, you can get out of my Yang family shop tomorrow.”
Xu Zhongren was the man who had just speculated about the cause of Ouyang Yi’s death. He ran a rice shop at the head of Fucheng’s main street, and he rented the shop from the Yang family.
Thus, he immediately fell silent.
However, after Qiu Lianye’s shout, though one person was suppressed, even more voices emerged.
“Are you feeling guilty?”
“Of course she is guilty. She is even using her power to oppress people.”
“If you ask me, what Yang family shop? That shop is originally surnamed Ouyang.”
Qiu Lianye’s face turned white and blue with anger. She loudly commanded the servants, “Drive these people out for me. Help the Master up. Return to the manor immediately.”
Suddenly, a sharp cry of alarm came from behind her.
Without even turning her head, she cursed with a dark face, “Are you crying at a funeral?”
“Madam, this is bad.” The servant’s voice trembled, his face filled with panic and terror.
“The Master, he has stopped breathing.”
Qiu Lianye turned around and saw a pool of black blood in front of the spot where Yang Yingfang had been kneeling. As for Yang Yingfang himself, he had already turned stiff and ceased breathing.
Her face drained of color, her body swayed, and she fell directly face-forward to the ground.
The servants fell into a chaotic panic, but the head manager managed to react. “Seize that wicked Taoist for the Master.”
However, when they turned around, the white-bearded Taoist was nowhere to be found in the ancestral hall. The wicked Taoist had already slipped away amidst the confusion.
In a deserted street corner, the old man stuffed his discarded Taoist robes into a bundle. After shaving off his false beard, he refreshed his composure and shook the sleeves of his ordinary clothes.
Just as he was about to turn around, two hands silently landed on his shoulders.
He turned his head stiffly and met two pairs of eyes. One pair appeared lazy but was actually unfathomably deep, while the other appeared calm and gentle but contained a subtle, cold severity.
This was bad.
Years of experience in scamming told him that these two were definitely here to cause trouble.
He slowly raised both hands. “Gentlemen, have you perhaps found the wrong person?”
Yin Huizhi stared at him for a few seconds before saying to Xie Ling, “There are no traces of shapeshifting, and his cultivation is very low. It should not be him.”
“Yes, exactly. I told you that you must have found the wrong person. I am,” the old man smiled with a seemingly honest and simple expression, attempting to slip away, but Xie Ling grabbed him firmly by the collar from behind.
Yin Huizhi thought, rather inappropriately, that this person truly could not change his strange habit of grabbing people by the back of the collar wherever he went.
Xie Ling asked in a calm voice, “Who instructed you?”
The old man shrank his neck. “Young brother, I do not know what you are talking about.”
“Since the living person is unwilling to speak,” Xie Ling’s fingers tightened around his neck as he gave a pleasant smile, “then I can only let the dead speak.”
“Do not, please. Great hero, immortal cultivator, spare my life. It was all instructed by that guest official of the Yang family.” The old man cried out in a panic.
Yin Huizhi asked, “The guest official of the Yang family you mentioned, is it Feng Tianbao?”
The old man nodded repeatedly. “Yes, exactly, it is him. That person said that as long as I deceived Madam Yang according to what he said, he would give me five thousand spiritual stones as a reward after the matter was accomplished.”
He stole a glance at Yin Huizhi’s expression and hurriedly clarified, “Immortal cultivators, I did not know this would kill anyone. It was all instructed by that black-hearted fellow. I regret it deeply now.”
“Since you regret it, then use your life to compensate him.” A low, raspy voice resonated heavily from behind the old man.
Hearing this voice, the old man’s pupils contracted. Before he could utter any words of apology or compliance, a sharp pain pierced his temple.
After a few breaths, traces of blood seeped from his temple. The silver needle that had plunged inside withdrew silently, returning to the hand of the person behind him.
“Are you two looking for Feng? What an honor.”
The newcomer’s face was completely covered in hideous scars left by burns and blade cuts, appearing exceptionally terrifying under the sunlight, like a vengeful ghost that had emerged into the day.
He curved his index finger and lightly flicked the end of the silver needle. After flicking away the red and white blood stains, he deliberately inserted the needle back into the strap tied around his wrist.
Unsurprisingly, this person was Feng Tianbao.
Yin Huizhi asked, “The poison inside Yang Yingfang’s body was placed by you, right?”
Feng Tianbao did not feel guilty at all; on the contrary, he seemed very pleased. “It is indeed Feng.”
Yin Huizhi looked at him and continued, “The person who fed Yang Yingfang the Rejuvenation Pill was also you.”
Feng Tianbao grinned with surprise, letting out a raspy, choking laugh. “Me? I poisoned him because I naturally wanted to kill him. Why would I feed him medicine?”
Yin Huizhi answered, “Because your purpose was not only to make him die. Today’s fine performance was also within your plan.”
“In order to avenge Ouyang Yi, you deliberately poisoned Yang Yingfang to make him die, and you also wanted his entire family to kowtow and confess their crimes to Ouyang Yi.”
He paused, then called out another name, “Ye Tian, were you entrusted with this by Ouyang Xu on his deathbed?”
Feng Tianbao, or rather, Ye Tian.
The smile on Ye Tian’s face vanished, and a flash of danger crossed the depths of his eyes. He narrowed his eyes and scrutinized Yin Huizhi’s face for a while.
As if remembering some events from long ago, he suddenly clapped his hands and laughed loudly, “So that is how it is, so that is how it is.”
“It is you, little Ah Yin. You are actually still alive?”
His tone was filled with astonishment, as if finding it an extraordinary marvel that Yin Huizhi could still stand here alive.
Yin Huizhi showed no trace of anger on his face, nodding slightly. “Yes, I am still alive.”
Yin Huizhi’s expression was very calm, but Ye Tian knew clearly that beneath this calmness brewed a storm of resentment and hatred.
After all, back then, it was he who had accepted Ouyang Xu’s command and personally planted the poison inside Yin Huizhi.
“I said long ago that when cutting grass, one must eradicate the roots. Ouyang Xu was simply too foolish. Compared to his father, his intellect was truly the difference between heaven and earth,” Ye Tian remarked.
The father Ye Tian referred to was Ouyang Xu’s father, Ouyang Yi’s biological grandfather, and also Ye Tian’s former master.
Ouyang Yi’s grandfather had shown appreciation and saved Ye Tian’s life. Although Ye Tian looked down upon the father and son pair, Ouyang Xu and Ouyang Yi, he had previously been working for the Ouyang family.
It was precisely because Ye Tian always maintained a disrespectful attitude that Ouyang Xu later suspected him of harboring intentions to harm his master and drove him out.
He had not expected that Ouyang Xu would ultimately entrust his son to the subordinate he disapproved of the most.
Ye Tian’s gaze shifted subtly between Yin Huizhi and Xie Ling, and finally he sighed, “Little Ah Yin, now that you have aligned yourself with the Qinyin Ghost Domain, I am quite afraid. You have not brought a backer here to look for trouble with me, have you?”
Yin Huizhi let out a soft sneer, the smile not reaching his eyes. His demeanor was actually quite similar to Xie Ling’s. “Guest Official Ye, whether our grievances are settled now depends on how you answer the next question.”
“Back then, what did Ouyang Xu rely on to force Yue Niang to remain in the Ouyang manor, and for what exact purpose did he do so?”