“Shen Zhaozhao!”
Everyone in the room was startled.
Duke Shen was the first to recover. He shouted, “Where are the people outside? Guards—ah!”
Crack—
A whip lashed hard across his face, leaving a bloody streak.
Duke Shen covered his face and stumbled back. He pointed at Chu Zhao, too shocked and terrified to speak.
The woman ran her slender fingers over the blood on the whip, rubbed it between them, and held them beneath her nose for a light sniff. She frowned in disgust. “It reeks.”
“Then again, the blood of beasts has always been foul.” Her gaze dipped contemptuously. “Am I right, you old beast who murdered his wife, stole his own daughter’s fortune, and wears the skin of a man?”
“You—you…” A chill ran through Duke Shen’s teeth and cheeks. His gaze turned venomous. “You’re not Shen Zhaozhao. You absolutely aren’t her!”
“Who are you?!” Something seemed to occur to him. “You’re Chu Fanghua, aren’t you? No, impossible! Chu Fanghua’s soul was scattered long ago… Who are you, really?!”
Chu Fanghua was Madam Chu’s maiden name.
Chu Zhao’s lips curved with interest. She flicked her wrist, and Duke Shen and Nanny Zhou were like ducks caught by the throat. Neither could move, nor could they make a sound. They were terrified beyond measure.
Ignoring their wretched expressions, Chu Zhao hooked Concubine Liu’s chin up with her toe and coaxed, “Do you hate them? Do you want revenge?”
Concubine Liu stared at her, terrified and venomous. “You’ll help me? How could you possibly help me?”
“Then should I leave?” Chu Zhao said mildly. “Once that old beast and that old hag have butchered you, I’ll come back and butcher them. Either way, I’ve got nothing to lose.”
Concubine Liu’s expression shifted. “No! Don’t go! I—I’m willing! But you have to promise to spare my Yuzhu! She’s innocent!”
Innocent?
A faint trace of mockery flickered in Chu Zhao’s eyes. “Karmic debts are paid by the next generation. If you want to save her life, it depends on what you do.”
“I’ll pay! No—Shen Jue is the one who should pay!”
“Then go.” As Chu Zhao spoke, she gently breathed toward Concubine Liu’s face.
Like a bone-chilling wind sweeping up from the deepest reaches of the underworld, it passed through Madam Chu’s body and forcibly dragged Concubine Liu’s soul out. Chu Zhao plucked a bead of blood from the whip, flicked it with her finger, and sent it into the center of Concubine Liu’s brow. In an instant, baleful energy surged around her.
Concubine Liu transformed into a vengeful ghost, and vengeful ghosts could reveal their true forms to ordinary people!
Chu Zhao raised her wrist slightly and confiscated the peachwood spike from Nanny Zhou’s hand.
The next moment, Duke Shen and Nanny Zhou could move again—but waiting for them was the vengeful ghost Concubine Liu had become.
“Die!”
“You two beasts, die!”
Nanny Zhou was the first to suffer. Duke Shen used her as a shield, shoving her straight toward Concubine Liu.
Vengeful ghosts devoured people. Concubine Liu bit down once, snapping Nanny Zhou’s neck, then dragged out her soul and chewed it to pieces.
After devouring one soul, the ghost power around Concubine Liu surged. By then, Duke Shen had already escaped through a window. The old beast was clever enough to take Shen Yuzhu hostage as he fled.
Duke Shen’s Estate was ablaze with lights and thrown into chaos. Concubine Liu, transformed into a vengeful ghost, rampaged through the estate in pursuit of Duke Shen. The household servants all witnessed it.
On the roof, Chu Zhao sat with lazy ease, watching the spectacle below with interest. Beside her, Chu Nanxing was crouched there, utterly numb with shock.
“O-Older Cousin…” Chu Nanxing stammered. “Th-th-that’s a ghost, right? Sh-she’s that Concubine Liu, isn’t she? Why is she chasing Duke Shen? And why is that Shen guy holding Shen Yuzhu hostage?”
What he really wanted to ask was how Chu Zhao had done it.
They had come to Duke Shen’s Residence together. Chu Zhao had told him to knock out the guards at the gate, and in the brief moment he looked away, she had vanished. Right after that, the whole estate had turned upside down.
Chu Zhao drawled lazily, “You have eyes and ears for decoration? If you don’t understand, can’t you just watch?”
Chu Nanxing was left speechless. But he was genuinely afraid of Chu Zhao now, especially since he had always been scared of ghosts and spirits.
The two of them watched the commotion from the roof. Before long, Chu Nanxing figured out what was going on, and his expression turned grim.
“My aunt… was possessed by Concubine Liu? Is that why her personality changed so drastically all these years? Why she kept mistreating you while spoiling Shen Yuzhu like the apple of her eye?”
“And it was all at Shen Jue’s direction? He murdered his wife and used dark magic to switch Concubine Liu’s soul into my aunt’s body!”
Chu Nanxing’s eyes reddened. His anger flared so fiercely that he no longer feared the ghost.
“Concubine Liu’s useless! She’s already a vengeful ghost—how come she still hasn’t killed that bastard Shen Jue?”
Chu Nanxing couldn’t bear to watch any longer. He drew his sword and rushed down.
Chu Zhao: “…”
The reason the vengeful ghost Concubine Liu still hadn’t killed Shen Jue, and had instead chased him all over the estate, was naturally the work of her, the Old Ancestor of Ghosts.
That old beast Shen Jue had harmed her descendants. Did he think he could die with his reputation intact?
Even if he died, everyone in the world would hear about all his filthy deeds! Tomorrow, Chu Zhao would hire a theater troupe to turn that scumbag’s misdeeds into a play and have them perform it across the land, so he would stink for all eternity~
“He really can’t keep his head.” Chu Zhao rubbed her temples. “No wonder he’s a cook.”
Every last one of her descendants was a disappointment.
She rose lazily, glanced in a certain direction, and leapt gracefully from the roof.
She’d watched the spectacle long enough. It was time to bring it to a close.
…
With Chu Zhao no longer interfering, Concubine Liu finally cornered Shen Jue, the old beast.
The servants had all fled far away. A vengeful ghost was coming to claim a life—who would dare go near?
“Yuniang… We were husband and wife for a night, and that counts for a hundred nights of kindness. Let me go, please, let me go!” Duke Shen was in a wretched state, his body covered in bloody gashes.
Concubine Liu’s expression was sinister. A ghost had no reason left in her; she had no sense of reason at all. “Husband and wife? Everyone you married is dead. Come down and keep me company…”
“Don’t come any closer! Do you think I won’t kill her?” Shen Jue clamped a hand around Shen Yuzhu’s neck.
Choking, Shen Yuzhu woke. The first thing she saw was Shen Jue’s contorted face and the vengeful ghost Concubine Liu opposite him.
She screamed and struggled desperately to survive.
Concubine Liu let out a shrill roar. “Touch her, and I’ll kill you!”
She rushed forward as a ghostly shadow, driving her claws straight into Shen Jue’s brain. Blood gushed from his skull. Eyes bulging, he screamed as Concubine Liu devoured his soul in one bite.
Terrified by the sight, Shen Yuzhu screamed and scrambled away on hands and feet.
Concubine Liu’s blood-red eyes turned toward her. A trace of maternal feeling remained, and she wanted to approach Shen Yuzhu, the child for whom she had given everything…
Rumble…
A peachwood spike happened to roll right to Shen Yuzhu’s hand.
Somehow, Shen Yuzhu found the strength to snatch it up and thrust it hard at Concubine Liu. “Don’t come any closer! Aaaah! A ghost! Die!”
The peachwood spike pierced straight through the ghostly body. Concubine Liu stiffened.
Her blood-red ghost eyes fixed on Shen Yuzhu. They held confusion, reluctance, resentment… At the very end, her gaze fell on the woman beneath the corridor behind her.
Chu Zhao stood silently beneath the covered walkway, wrapped in a snow-white fur cloak. She watched the end of it all with a faint, inscrutable smile.
Suddenly, Concubine Liu remembered Chu Zhao’s earlier words: karmic cycles, debts paid by the next generation…
The karma she and Shen Jue had created had been visited upon Shen Yuzhu…
But from beginning to end, Chu Zhao had never said what retribution Shen Yuzhu’s own karma would bring.
Concubine Liu’s ghostly body scattered like ash in the wind, as though consumed by raging flames. Until her soul was scattered, her eyes remained fixed on Chu Zhao.
“You… lied… to me!”
Beneath the walkway, Chu Zhao stood like a clay Bodhisattva, smiling gently, her eyes like a cold spring, devoid of feeling or compassion.
She murmured to herself:
“A child who kills their mother commits one of the five heinous sins; it is evil karma.”
“If any sentient being is unfilial to their parents, or even kills them, they must fall into Avici Hell, where for trillions of kalpas there is no hope of escape.”
An invisible Soul-Seizing Lock quietly wound around Shen Yuzhu’s neck.