Jin You gathered the water mist around his body and broke free from the control of the illusion. He immediately wiped his cheek with force and cursed through gritted teeth, “Disgusting, that old dog actually dared to touch my face, when Yan Baichuan catches him, I will definitely make him pay!”
As the illusion was shattered by Jin You, the study room that had been clearly visible just a moment ago also turned into a thick white mist, making it difficult to discern directions. Jin You did not dare to be careless, walking forward at a slow pace in the dense fog. After walking forward for a short while, Jin You suddenly saw flickering light up ahead in the mist, guessing that it was likely a new illusion.
Jin You also wanted to know what Xin’er had experienced, so after thinking it over, he raised his foot and walked toward it.
Who could have expected that the moment Jin You approached the firelight, the surrounding environment changed again, even the clothes on Jin You turned into wedding robes, making it seem as if he were about to marry someone.
“You really got addicted to playing this, didn’t you!” Jin You wore the wedding robes, standing inside Xin’er’s room, where two nuptial cups of wine were placed on the table. Liu Chengmian picked up the nuptial wine, appearing as though he were inviting Jin You to drink it together. Jin You sneered, making a motion to raise the nuptial cup, then splashed the wine directly onto Liu Chengmian’s face.
“I was just looking to settle accounts with you, but you came right to my door yourself, Xin’er.” Seeing these two cups of nuptial wine, Jin You could roughly guess how Xin’er had died. Liu Chengmian wanted to kill Xin’er, while Xin’er wanted to kill Jin You inside the illusion, so the person she was most likely to disguise herself as was Liu Chengmian, whom she hated the most, taking advantage of the moment when Jin You thought it was merely an illusion and had his guard down to launch a sneak attack.
“Liu Chengmian” let out two sinister laughs, and her tall frame shrank by a size in an instant. Her pale right hand brushed across that face she hated the most, revealing her original appearance.
Xin’er wore a set of wedding robes, where the fine stitches subtly showed the embroiderer’s care, yet that face, which was originally lovely, was filled with sinister hostility and hatred, “Who let you people come and interfere in my matters! Since you do not want to roll out of the Liu Estate alive, then die here together!”
Xin’er’s sharp nails extended out from her slender fingers, faintly gleaming with a cold light, stabbing without hesitation toward Jin You’s eyes.
Jin You stepped aside to dodge, manipulating the water flow to condense into a long whip, swinging it toward Xin’er, but the blow hit nothing. Xin’er’s illusionary form dissolved, her ghostlike shadow standing behind Jin You, her unpleasant and piercing laughter echoing through the room, mocking him without mercy, “And here I thought you were so capable, oh well, I will play with you for a bit!”
,The illusion was Xin’er’s home domain, so Jin You did not dare to attack recklessly. His eyes moved rapidly to observe the situation inside the room, barely dodging Xin’er’s attacks.
What was going on?
Normally, when a female ghost died on her wedding night, although she would be fiercer than those who died in other ways, she still should not be powerful enough to set up two illusions in a row, nor should she be able to fight back and forth with Jin You. Something must have gone wrong in between!
Jin You did not know Xin’er’s background, so he did not dare to act hastily. During the fight, he gradually fell into a disadvantage, his mind rapidly thinking of a way to break the situation. Suddenly, a thought struck him as he caught sight of the room’s furnishings, and he had a plan in his heart.
Seeing that Jin You’s movements to dodge her attacks became more and more labored, even stumbling under his feet due to being unable to hold his ground, Xin’er was delighted, feeling that her chance had come. Her sharp claws went straight for the back of Jin You’s heart, but the moment before she succeeded, a slight, proud chuckle from Jin You rang beside her ear, “I finally caught you.”
In disbelief, Xin’er tried to pry open the water flow tightly wrapped around her neck, but the water flow pulled tighter and tighter, choking Xin’er’s voice until it became hoarse, “This is impossible! How could you know where I was!”
“Because of the mirror, of course, you idiot!” Yan Baichuan kicked the room door open, saw Jin You’s attire, and raised an eyebrow, “Oh, you are dressed up to get married?”
Jin You glared at him in annoyance, “And what about you, are you planning to steal the bride?”
Yan Baichuan froze upon hearing this, looked down at his own body, which was likewise wearing an immensely festive grand wedding robe, and cursed with delayed realization, “Damn, it changes the moment you walk in? Go, go, go, let us drag this ghost out first before talking.”
“Hmph.” With a flick of Jin You’s long whip, Xin’er was thrown directly onto the open ground outside the room, a ring of water still firmly bound around her neck.
Stepping out of the room door, all the surrounding illusions dispersed. The spot where the group stood was right outside the new bridal chamber for Liu Chengmian’s current wedding.
Xin’er looked at Jin You with deep hatred, while Jin You looked at his original clothes with satisfaction, only then kindly answering Xin’er’s confusion, “There is a bronze mirror on the vanity table in your room, which can reflect where you are. I merely exposed a flaw on purpose to trick you into taking the bait. How about it, is it very simple to trick you?”
Xin’er’s pale blue face became even more hideous out of anger, and she shouted unwillingly, “I will not lose, I am going to kill you all!”
Yan Baichuan was annoyed to death by Xin’er’s noise, digging his ear with impatience, “Kill me? With this little capability of yours, you cannot even kill Liu Chengmian, stop dreaming.”
“Why does sir speak such words? Since you have captured the evil ghost, the Liu family naturally ought to present heavy gifts to express our gratitude.” Liu Chengmian arrived late, the wedding robes on his body still not taken off. Beside him, A’Nian was tremblingly supporting another woman dressed in wedding robes, who was precisely Liu Chengmian’s new bride this time, Ruyi.
Ruyi seemed to be frightened immensely, her face, which shared a slight resemblance with Xin’er, was full of terror, yet she did not dare to seek comfort from Liu Chengmian, able only to stand with effort.
The moment Xin’er saw Liu Chengmian and Ruyi, her eyes turned blood red, her questioning words sounding as if she were crying blood, “Young Master Liu, you promised to marry me, to marry me as your main wife and grow old together with me, why did you kill me, why did you harm me!”
Yet Liu Chengmian merely glanced at her, saying neither heavily nor lightly, “A reason? I am the son of the City Master of Liu City, Liu Yingfeng, whereas you are merely a servant girl.”
“A servant girl actually dared to crave the position of the main wife, and even used the matter regarding the lady to threaten me.” Liu Chengmian walked up in front of Xin’er, looking down at her from above, his face filled with a disgust she had never seen before, “Blame only your wrong birth into the wrong family. Thank you all for stepping in to save me, this woman has harmed two of my wives one after another, she is truly not a good person, so please, sir, send her into reincarnation to avoid harming others.”
The path to reincarnation had long been sealed, so Liu Chengmian’s words were meant to send her to her death.
Xin’er clearly understood the meaning in his words as well, having no reaction for a time, only staring blankly at Liu Chengmian, yet in the silence, applause suddenly came. Liu Chengmian suppressed the dissatisfaction in his heart, turned his head to look at Lingyun, “Taoist Master, what is the meaning of this?”
Lingyun had produced a handful of melon seeds from who knows where, eating them while saying, “Nothing much, just feeling emotional over Young Master Liu’s fine scheme.”
Liu Chengmian seemed too lazy to pretend any longer, letting out a cold laugh, “I merely killed an interfering servant girl, where does a scheme come from.”
“Oh? Regarding Young Master Liu’s second wife, Wang Wan, whether you were deeply affectionate or taking over the whole estate, I believe everyone has their own view.” After Lingyun finished speaking, ignoring Liu Chengmian’s unsightly expression, she swallowed the melon seed kernels in her mouth, spat twice to spit out the melon seed shells, and even looked at Liu Chengmian when spitting, making it hard to believe it was not intentional.
Lingyun pretended to be apologetic, “Oh my, I did not do it on purpose, Young Master Liu should not mind, right?”
Xin’er sensed something from Lingyun’s words, letting out a tragic smile as two lines of blood tears flowed down from her eyes, “So that was how it was, so that was how it was! You used me to kill the lady back then and promised me deep affection, all just for today! Ha ha ha ha ha ha, I should not have killed those two women, the one I should kill the most is you! Liu Chengmian, pay with your life!”
Standing on the spot, Xin’er’s ghostly power surged greatly in an instant, clearly having lost her mind and entered a state of rage, so even Jin You’s water ring shattered along with it.
Liu Chengmian looked at Xin’er in shock, hurriedly taking two steps back wanting to hide behind Yan Baichuan, but was grabbed by the collar by Yan Baichuan and thrown out, “When you were killing people, why were you not afraid, roll off to the side!”
Liu Chengmian cowered a few times on the ground, fierce on the outside but weak on the inside, “Aren’t you Taoists the fondest of killing ghosts, why do you not kill her! What can a female ghost bring to you, our Liu family is the one… mmm! Smelly woman, what are you doing!”
Lingyun was too lazy to listen to his nonsense, squatting by his side and shoving a handful of melon seeds directly into his mouth, stuffing his cursing voice back in.
With shells on.
“Mm, it is much quieter this way. Calling me a smelly woman, I see this mouth of yours is the one that smells foul beyond endurance.” Lingyun had long been thoroughly sick of Liu Chengmian’s hypocritical look, only now feeling a bit more refreshed in her heart.
At this moment, Xin’er had disheveled hair, her whole body in red clothes lingering with an ominous aura, looking at Liu Chengmian sarcastically, “Do you regret it now, Liu Chengmian, Young Master Liu? How laughable that when I was thrown into the mass grave by you, mistreated by ghosts and wishing for death rather than life, I still thought of staying together with you forever, not hesitating to taint myself with slaughter for it, crawling even if I had to crawl out of that ghost place to possess those two women. What a pity that they could not bear my power, dying after no more than three days anyway, ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
Xin’er was clearly laughing, yet her laughter was full of mockery and bitterness. No one would know that the day she returned from the mass grave after undergoing tribulations was also the time when Liu Chengmian was getting married. Dressed in the same wedding robes, the people in the room laughed so brightly, yet when placed on her, it left only terror.
Xin’er appeared frantic, not fearing in the slightest even with this person, Yan Baichuan, present. The long nails on her fingers were sharper than blade edges by three degrees, making even Ying Chuang, who exchanged moves with her, feel it was somewhat tricky, almost getting scratched by her.
“Impressive, come again!” Ying Chuang’s fighting spirit was aroused, without a single trace of fear in his eyes, making Lingyun shake her head directly as she watched, “Children are just simple-minded.”
Yan Baichuan had not made a move yet, and Xin’er could do nothing to Ying Chuang, feeling a bit anxious in her heart, when she suddenly caught sight of A’Nian and Ruyi trembling on the side, her mind moving as she reached out her hand to grab toward them.
Ruyi retreated a step in fear, falling to the ground. Xin’er missed her grab, choking A’Nian right by the neck, “A’Nian, what a fine dog raised by Liu Chengmian. Wasn’t the person who threw me to the mass grave back then precisely you, how come you do not recognize me now instead, then I shall use you to take the first strike!”
Yan Baichuan, “Ying Chuang!”
Ying Chuang turned into a wolf form and dashed over, biting the back collar of A’Nian’s clothes in one mouth, saving the person out from Xin’er’s hand. Just as he turned back into human form, he held onto a tree trunk and dry-heaved twice, “Gag, humans, smell so foul.”
Huh?
Jin You leaned close to A’Nian to take a look, immediately pinching his nose, frowning, stepping two steps back, and waving his hand in disgust, as this person had actually uselessly wet his pants from fear.
Ying Chuang’s sense of smell was too good, and he was biting his clothes just now, no wonder he was made to vomit from the stench, so he felt a bit of sympathy for that white-haired wolf.
Having heard enough of the story, Yan Baichuan finally drew out Duanming, pointing at Xin’er and saying, “Originally, I thought that you were still considered innocent, so if you cleaned up that hypocrite next to you, I would close one eye and open one eye. Now it seems you two are truly a match made in heaven, killing two innocent women was not enough, and you still want to kill a third, truly beyond saving.”
Innocent? As if she had heard some joke, Xin’er threw her head back and laughed loudly toward the sky, “If I had not died, how would it be their turn to marry in, what right do they have! Especially her!” Xin’er was pointing right at Ruyi, “Forget about others, but her, a peasant girl, in what aspect of appearance or talent am I inferior to her, why can she do it while I cannot! She must die.”
Yan Baichuan originally felt that her words about wanting to kill Liu Chengmian were still somewhat agreeable to the ear, but hearing this reason at this moment, he let out a sneer, “It is fine to trick others, but do not trick yourself too. Why was she able to marry in, do you not know better than anyone? If you had not killed two daughters of famous merchants in the city in succession, how would Liu Chengmian be reduced to not even having the chance to marry someone of equal social standing?”
“Liu Chengmian is indeed a dog, but do not act innocent with me either. You two, I will settle both together.”