Tang Qinian felt the sudden chill in the air but paid it no mind, tilting his head to look at Qin Qing.
“What are you muttering about? Whose life is being taken?”
Qin Qing’s gaze turned icy cold, her red lips curling into a meaningful smile.
Naturally, it was her life!
Her eyes narrowed slightly as she asked, “Where’s the master you hired to inspect the house?”
Tang Qinian turned to look at the commercial vehicle and called out loudly:
“Master Li, where are you?”
The door of the commercial vehicle was pulled open from the inside.
An old man in a Daoist robe stepped out, holding a peach wood sword in one hand and a Three Pure Ones Bell in the other, exuding an air of otherworldly elegance.
Qin Qing’s sharp eyes fixed on the old man.
With a single glance, she ruled him out as the one who had killed the original owner of this body.
He was nothing but a charlatan peddling superstitions—the peach wood sword and the Three Pure Ones Bell were both fakes, and there wasn’t a trace of Mystic Power on him.
Master Li walked up to the two of them, and when he saw Qin Qing, a flicker of admiration and lust passed through his eyes.
As a man, Tang Qinian could easily tell what Master Li’s gaze meant.
He stepped in front of Qin Qing, his expression displeased as he warned:
“Keep your eyes where they belong.”
Master Li was inwardly furious but maintained a composed facade on the surface. “Young Master Tang, to deal with the spirits haunting this house, I’ll lose at least ten years of cultivation. You’ll need to add another five million.”
—Hmph! If you dare offend me, don’t blame me for asking for the sky!
“No problem!”
Tang Qinian didn’t even furrow his brow at the words.
A flicker of glee passed through the depths of Master Li’s eyes as he swaggered toward the ancient mansion, putting on the airs of a transcendent master.
Qin Qing crossed her arms, watching coldly as the charlatan walked away.
Tang Qinian lowered his voice and said to her, “Why would you come here? Don’t you know this mansion has been haunted lately? I heard several girls were violated by ghosts and fell into a coma—when they woke up, they couldn’t remember a thing.”
Qin Qing didn’t want to bother with him, but she remembered that he’d taken a beating from her for no reason.
She replied dismissively, “Just here for the excitement.”
Tang Qinian’s face darkened. “What excitement is there to see? Aren’t you afraid of running into danger? If you ask me, there are no ghosts harming people—someone is clearly using supernatural stories as a cover to take advantage of those girls!”
Qin Qing looked at him with a strange expression. “If you don’t believe in ghosts causing trouble, why did you hire a master?”
“The old man hired him. He wants to move into this prince’s mansion to retire.”
“You say this is a prince’s mansion?”
Qin Qing’s hand resting on her arm paused slightly, a hint of gravity passing through her calm eyes.
Tang Qinian nodded. “That’s right. It was the residence of some wanton prince after the Later Jin entered the pass, but its first owner was the son of Emperor Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty…”
“Is this the Dingguo Prince’s Mansion?”
Before Tang Qinian could finish, Qin Qing cut him off.
He nodded. “That’s right.”
Qin Qing’s expression grew increasingly grim.
In the book, the Dingguo Prince’s Mansion held a golden opportunity belonging to the female lead—or rather, a key plot device that bound the male and female leads together.
“Bang—!”
A dark shadow flew through the air, followed by the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground.
Master Li, who had walked into the ancient mansion, was sent flying out by a powerful surge of Malevolent Aura.
“Pfft!”
He lay sprawled on the ground, hair disheveled, spitting out several mouthfuls of blood.
“Ghost… there’s a ghost! There’s an evil ghost inside!”
Master Li’s face was deathly pale, his eyes wide with terror as he stared at the ancient mansion, his voice trembling and shaking.
Tang Qinian didn’t realize the severity of the situation, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly. “Aren’t you here to catch ghosts? If there’s a ghost, go destroy it!”
Master Li cowered backward, scrambling to get up, but he was too badly injured to even stand.
Seeing his demeanor, Tang Qinian quickly caught on.
“You’re not a fraud, are you!”
Master Li crawled to his feet, coughing blood as he begged, “Young Master Tang, I’m just trying to make a living. Forget the payment—please have someone take me to the hospital!”
“Damn! You got my pants dirty!”
Tang Qinian kicked him away in disgust, his brows furrowed tightly, his face full of irritation.
Qin Qing ignored the farce, her eyes fixed on the mansion’s gate as she suddenly spoke up in warning.
“It’s coming!”
“What’s coming?” Tang Qinian asked, confused.
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a woman burst out, her clothes in disarray and covered in blood.
“Help!”
The woman’s slender figure rushed past Qin Qing, heading straight for Tang Qinian.
“Save me, someone’s trying to kill me!”
Just as she was about to throw herself into his arms, Tang Qinian reached out and yanked Qin Qing in front of him as a human shield.
He said warily and fearfully, “I’m allergic to women—stay away from me!”
The woman’s eyes brimmed with aggrieved tears, looking pitiful and delicate—anyone who saw her would feel a pang of sympathy.
Qin Qing regarded her with interest, taking in the woman who radiated a blinding Golden Light of Merit.
“You say someone’s trying to kill you?”
Seeing Tang Qinian’s wariness, the woman turned to Qin Qing for help instead. “Not someone—a group of evil ghosts. They want to rape me, and when I refused, they tried to kill me, wuwuwu…”
At the sorrowful part, her frail body trembled incessantly as she sobbed uncontrollably.
Qin Qing’s voice was exceptionally gentle as she softly reassured her:
“Don’t worry. They can’t kill you.”
The woman wept tears of joy, but before the happiness could even reach her brows, Qin Qing spoke softly again:
“After all… you are neither human nor ghost—a century-old Evil Spirit.”
The woman froze in place, her pupils constricting sharply, a flicker of murderous intent flashing through her eyes.
Her voice was sweet and delicate: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Qin Qing smiled—a gentle, harmless smile—yet her words were chilling.
“Your life, I’m taking it.”
The woman’s expression changed drastically, staggering back two steps in shock and fear: “You’re with those evil ghosts! You want to kill me too!”
Qin Qing curled her fingertip, and a faint, barely visible black Karmic Baleful Thread coiled around the woman’s body.
“Do you know what this is? A Karmic Thread—it’s the murderous intent you hold toward me.”
When the woman appeared, Qin Qing had already sensed the thread of fate connecting them.
The one who killed the original body wasn’t Tang Qinian—it was the Evil Spirit before her.
The woman’s Malevolent Aura leaked from beneath her feet, yet she was unaware, shaking her head with an innocent look and sobbing: “I have no grudge against you—why would I kill you?!”
If the black baleful Karmic energy weren’t so thick, her words might have carried some credibility.
But the black Malevolence on the Karmic Thread was so dense it was alarming.
Seeing that she wouldn’t confess until faced with irrefutable evidence, Qin Qing narrowed her clear eyes and lowered her voice.
“Yin Niang, stop pretending. I know exactly what you are.”
Yin Niang was the female lead’s future benefactor.
She helped Liu Qingyan preserve eternal youth and aided her in obtaining a famed vessel that drove men to obsession.
Fu Yuanchen, already ruled by lust, was so enticed he didn’t leave his room for a month, coupling with Liu Qingyan day and night without rest.
From then on, Fu Yuanchen never again tangled with those young models and socialites—his heart and eyes held only the female lead.
Until the very end of the novel, he wished nothing more than to die upon Liu Qingyan’s body.
Whether such a setup was meant to bind the male and female leads together, or to indulge in more depraved forms of play, was anyone’s guess.
Qin Qing’s words shattered all of Yin Niang’s pretenses in an instant.
Her tears vanished without a trace, her vertical pupils dilated into pools of pitch black, and a nauseating stench of decay emanated from her body.
Yin Niang’s ghostly, sinister eyes fixed on Qin Qing.
“You’re a Celestial Master?”
The aura she had smelled earlier was clearly that of a supremely nourishing Extreme Yin Body!
If she could devour this person, she would be able to live under the sunlight just like a human.