“It’s just bluffing. If it were truly powerful, it wouldn’t be outside calling for you to open the door—it would have killed you directly.”
As she spoke, Wen Ling wandered around the room, searching carefully.
Outside the door, Gao Zhi continued to ram against it relentlessly.
The wooden door rattled loudly with each impact, as if it might shatter under the assault at any moment.
Ting Yin was on the verge of tears. “What if it never leaves? Aren’t we just trapped here then?”
“It’s broad daylight right now! How can there be a ghost knocking on the door in the middle of the day?!”
“Where are the guards in the prince’s residence? Just two days ago, there were guards watching us everywhere!”
Wen Ling’s voice drifted over calmly. “Take a look at the sky outside the window. Is it day or night?”
Ting Yin glanced out the window.
Just moments ago, the sun had been high in the sky, but now dark clouds had gathered, shrouding everything in a murky haze as if enveloped by thick fog.
The light was so dim it hardly resembled daytime—it looked more like night.
Terrified by the sight of Gao Zhi hanging dead earlier, Ting Yin had completely failed to notice the changes outside. “H-how did this happen? What’s going on?!”
“The entire prince’s residence has been ensnared in an array. Our location is the final array core. If you had been tricked into opening the door just now, this Soul-Extraction Array would have been completed.”
After circling the room once, Wen Ling already understood the situation.
She looked up, as if peering through the tightly shut door, a bright orange light flashing in her clear, beautiful almond-shaped eyes. “Once the Soul-Extraction Array is complete, everyone in the prince’s residence will die as their soul-spirits are forcibly extracted, and the Qi Fortune of Prince Chen’s residence will be completely drained.”
“From then on, this place will become a cursed dead zone where even passing by will bring misfortune.”
As Wen Ling’s words fell, Ting Yin shuddered violently.
“So someone is targeting Prince Chen’s residence, and we’re just unlucky collateral damage! Madam, why are we so unfortunate?!”
Ting Yin was on the verge of tears again. “It’s alright, Madam. At least we’ll have company on the road to the Yellow Springs…”
“Wait,” Wen Ling asked curiously, “why do you keep talking about walking the road to the Yellow Springs? Do you really want to go there?”
Ting Yin choked, opening her mouth but unable to find a response.
Wen Ling didn’t waste any more words.
Muttering an incantation, she paced in measured steps before finally stopping beside the room’s antique display shelf.
She lifted the hanging scroll on the shelf, revealing a hidden compartment behind it.
When she tried to open it with her bare hands, the compartment remained firmly shut.
But when Wen Ling enveloped her hand in orange-yellow flames and tried again, a layer of black mist appeared around the compartment.
The black mist was burned away by the bright flames, vanishing completely in moments.
This time, when she tried to open it, it slid open with a gentle pull.
A foul stench mixed with the smell of blood assaulted their senses. Inside the compartment lay a blackish-red heart.
The heart was about the size of a fist and was still pulsating rhythmically.
“Found you, array core.” Wen Ling narrowed her eyes slightly, her gaze darkening.
Ting Yin nearly retched. “Madam, what is that? It looks and smells disgusting. Could it be some animal’s heart?”
Wen Ling replied, “No.”
Before Ting Yin could ask further, Wen Ling stated directly, “This is a child’s heart. And not just one child’s heart—it’s pieced together from the hearts of nine children.”
“A heart pieced together from nine children’s hearts?! Yuck—!!”
Ting Yin could no longer hold back. Covering her chest, she turned aside and vomited, nearly bringing up bile.
Wen Ling glanced at her and, after a moment’s thought, kindly refrained from speaking the rest.
Although this heart was assembled from nine children’s hearts, the actual number of children required far exceeded nine.
Perhaps only one child’s heart in ten would be suitable.
In other words, this heart likely required the killing of over a thousand children to complete.
If Ting Yin knew this, she would probably break down completely.
As it was, Ting Yin was already in a terrible state. She stumbled back several steps, putting a considerable distance between herself and the hidden compartment, then tremblingly asked, “Why are these things in the bridal chamber? Who put them here?! Madam, what should we do now?!”
Wen Ling narrowed her eyes slightly, her mind already made up.
She waved a hand at Ting Yin. “Step back a few more paces. Just watch from the side and don’t move. It’ll be resolved in half a quarter-hour.”
Ting Yin obediently retreated another two or three meters.
This heart was the true core of the formation.
As long as this core was destroyed, the entire formation would collapse.
Forcibly destroying this heart could also achieve the effect of breaking the core.
But doing so would mean the thousands of children who had died unjustly for this heart would lose all chance of reincarnation.
These pitiful children would face soul dissipation.
Therefore, Wen Ling chose not to destroy it directly.
She bit her fingertip and used the essence blood to draw a complex talisman seal in the air.
As the final stroke was completed, the talisman seal erupted in a brilliant golden light.
Wen Ling swiftly performed Hand Seal Casting, layering several Binding Seals over it.
A circular formation imbued with ancient power finally took shape, floating in mid-air.
With a graceful wave of her hand, Wen Ling pushed the formation onto the black heart.
A sizzling sound was heard. The moment the golden formation descended, the black heart emitted a noise like something dropped into a frying pan.
The black substance coating the heart began to bubble and decompose under the golden encasement, like soda.
In moments, the original crimson of the heart was revealed.
The black substance showed faint signs of attempting to fight back.
“Wahhhhh—”
Suddenly, agonized, sharp shrieks of countless infants erupted from the heart.
The infants’ painful cries were intensely contagious. Even Ting Yin, standing so far away, felt as if she were under a tangible attack.
She crouched down, covering her ears in agony.
Immediately, she thought of her mistress. Standing so close, wouldn’t the impact be even greater for her?
Worried, Ting Yin looked toward Wen Ling, only to see her standing before the golden formation, her hair and robes billowing without wind, the hem of her garment fluttering loudly in the air.
Wen Ling did not retreat half a step.
In another corner of the capital, before a black formation in a secluded backyard, a lean man dressed in Daoist robes.
Just as the black substance coating the heart completely dissipated, he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood with a “pfft.”
His previously closed eyes snapped open, filled with disbelief.
His voice was hoarse, like a broken drum. “The Soul-Extraction Array has been broken. Impossible, how is this possible? How could anyone in this world break my formation?”
As soon as he finished speaking, his once smooth and plump skin rapidly withered like a deflated balloon, turning into wrinkled, bark-like folds.
His entire body collapsed with a heavy thud, falling to the ground in a dead faint.
Meanwhile, on Wen Ling’s side, the moment the black substance completely faded from the heart, the cries of thousands of infants abruptly ceased.
Countless children’s souls emerged from the heart, appearing within the room.
The golden Magic Array dissipated, its golden light scattering over the children’s souls.
None of the children wore clothes, looking remarkably like the golden boys and jade maidens depicted in New Year paintings.
The youngest among them appeared less than a year old, while the oldest was only five—still at the babbling age. They hovered in the air, some crawling, some sitting, their eyes filled with innocence, completely unaware of what had just transpired.