Shen Qingyuan felt a bit curious. Chuntao seemed so perceptive; there was likely more to this story than met the eye.
"You should know that seeing your mother is no easy task. The living and the dead walk different paths; meeting rashly may not necessarily be a good thing for your mother."
For an ordinary person, seeing a ghost would at the very least lead to a decline in luck and a few days of misfortune.
Chuntao hesitated for a moment, but still replied.
"I beg you, my lady, please let me see my mother."
Shen Qingyuan asked no more, simply turning back to retrieve a small porcelain bottle from the room.
"Come in. I will take you out of the estate tomorrow. As a new ghost, you cannot withstand the yang energy during the day and must hide in here."
Chuntao nodded and, without hesitation, slipped inside.
After this ordeal, Shen Qingyuan felt no sleepiness at all.
She decided to go and check on Lady Liu and Nanny Liu.
During the day, Nanny Liu had already looked like a person on the verge of death.
Why was it that when she calculated the Six Lines just now, Lady Liu seemed perfectly fine?
Shen Qingyuan put away the porcelain bottle, took out a Puppet Talisman, and stuck it onto the servant who had fainted on the floor.
She commanded.
"Take me to Nanny Liu."
As soon as the talisman touched the servant, he stood up straight like a marionette.
Without even opening his eyes, he led Shen Qingyuan toward the door.
Shen Qingyuan followed behind, her steps light and soft, not making a single sound.
✦✦✦
It was night.
Yet, Nanny Liu's room was brightly lit.
As the head nanny in charge of Lady Liu's affairs, she naturally no longer needed to stand night watch and had a small room of her own.
At this hour, Nanny Liu would usually have extinguished the lamps and gone to sleep.
But at this moment, Nanny Liu was huddled in a corner, her face pale and blue, her lips twitching constantly, yet she could not make a sound.
It was clear that her three souls and seven spirits had been almost entirely pulled out of her body, with only the last sliver of her heavenly soul remaining.
Shen Qingyuan walked to the side of the room and saw the aftermath inside at a glance.
Nanny Liu was entangled by three or four pale black ghostly shadows, all of whom were the Grievous Ghosts of maids she had tortured to death in years past.
Shen Qingyuan had already seen these few Grievous Ghosts earlier in the morning.
The resentful qi of these ghosts was not particularly deep, but they had the advantage of numbers.
They were all young maids who had been beaten to death or sold off under Lady Liu's orders through Nanny Liu.
Shen Qingyuan only took one look before losing interest.
Those Little Ghosts were not like Chuntao, who was simply a soul who had died unjustly.
There were basically no good people among them; in life, they had been the type to enjoy petty squabbles and engage in thievery.
Their deaths were, in part, related to their own actions.
But regardless, these few Little Ghosts did not deserve to die.
Nanny Liu, relying on Lady Liu's backing, would beat, scold, and kill at will; her hands were truly stained with blood.
Shen Qingyuan released Chuntao from the porcelain bottle.
"Go and tell them to wait to enter the Underworld for judgment themselves, and don't let me see them again tomorrow."
After all, this was the estate that belonged to her mother's dowry. Since she had returned, she would not allow this place to remain so foul and miasmic.
After saying this, she peeled the talisman off the servant who had led the way.
She headed toward the main courtyard.
Shen Qingyuan had seen the outcome and had completely lost interest in Nanny Liu.
As for whether Nanny Liu lived or died, Shen Qingyuan did not want to care.
By the afternoon, Nanny Liu was already a dead person in Shen Qingyuan's eyes.
Chuntao quickly caught up.
"My lady, are we going to find Lady Liu?"
Shen Qingyuan nodded. "Lead the way."
In truth, Shen Qingyuan could see where the main courtyard was.
But on the way to the main courtyard, she would inevitably encounter servants standing night watch.
An ordinary fifth-rank official in the Capital City might not be able to afford such a large residence or employ so many servants.
But that Scum Father of hers had occupied her mother's family wealth, hadn't he?
The layout and specifications of this estate were comparable to the residence of a third-rank official.
Shen Qingyuan rubbed her chin. Her Scum Father had used quite a lot of her mother's dowry money over the years; how was she going to get that back?
With Chuntao leading the way ahead, Shen Qingyuan could directly avoid those on night watch, saving herself a Concealment Talisman.
It wasn't that Shen Qingyuan was stingy; it was mainly because she hadn't brought many with her when she came down from the mountain.
Drawing talismans also consumed spiritual power and wealth.
In the past, Shen Qingyuan was always losing money, so she never had much left on her.
Even things like cinnabar and yellow talisman paper were given to her by her Master or her mother.
Therefore, for consumables like talismans, Shen Qingyuan had developed a habit of saving whenever she could.
Chuntao led Shen Qingyuan, relying on her memory and the convenience of a ghost being able to walk through walls.
They bypassed the servants on night duty.
Shen Qingyuan watched her skillfully avoid the living, a trace of imperceptible approval flashing in her eyes.
This Chuntao was indeed a worry-free companion.
Before long, a courtyard with extinguished lights appeared ahead.
It was the main courtyard where Lady Liu and Shen Shiqian currently resided.
Chuntao stopped in the shadows and turned back to speak respectfully.
"My lady, Lady Liu is inside. The master has heavy yang energy and a thick aura of officialdom; I cannot go in."
Shen Qingyuan nodded.
Shen Shiqian still possessed some official luck and yang energy; ordinary ghosts would be scorched the moment they got close.
Shen Qingyuan signaled for Chuntao to wait there, while she herself held her breath and focused, concealing her aura.
Then, she lightly tapped her toes against the base of the wall, flipped her body, and landed silently inside the courtyard.
The doors and windows of the main house were tightly shut, and the lights inside were extinguished.
Only one young maid was keeping watch at the door.
She was currently leaning against a pillar, dozing off.
Shen Qingyuan closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, her Heavenly Eye was activated.
The noisy but faint luck all fell into her sight.
The Soul Lamp on Lady Liu's left shoulder, which should have been extinguished, was now lit.
Although the flame was not vigorous, it burned steadily.
While a person was alive, the Soul Lamp would certainly recover as their luck recovered.
However, Shen Qingyuan frowned slightly.
The Soul Lamp she had extinguished with her own hands should not have been so easy to restore.
Moreover, only two or three hours had passed, and Lady Liu was not a person of great luck; how could it have recovered so quickly?
Shen Qingyuan raised her eyes to examine it carefully.
The Soul Lamp on Lady Liu's left shoulder had not recovered naturally; it looked as if it had been forcibly converted by consuming a portion of luck after a Fortune Transfer.
Shen Qingyuan's heart skipped a beat.
Fortune Transfer?
Lady Liu was currently occupying her mother's position.
She was sleeping in her mother's main room; was it not obvious whose luck was being transferred?
No wonder her mother's luck had been so low in the countryside; it turned out it wasn't entirely because she was being dragged down by her.
Recalling the faint black qi on her mother's forehead after returning to the Capital City,
Shen Qingyuan sneered. The Liu Family, very well done indeed.
Just wait and see if I don't deal with you all.
Shen Qingyuan took a deep look at the main house and closed her Heavenly Eye.
A moment later, Shen Qingyuan withdrew from the main courtyard.
Chuntao was still waiting outside the courtyard.
"My lady?"
Shen Qingyuan took out the porcelain bottle without saying much.
"Let's go."
Seeing Shen Qingyuan's expression, Chuntao dared not ask more and quickly slipped inside.
Shen Qingyuan plugged the bottle and returned the way she came toward Minglan Courtyard.
If Lady Liu wanted to swap her mother's Fate, it certainly wasn't something she could do alone.
It must be the entire Liu Family helping her, and who was helping them from behind the scenes?
The art of Fate Swapping was an Evil Art and a forbidden technique within the Xuan Sect.
Ordinary cultivators didn't even have a way to come into contact with such things.
Naturally, Shen Qingyuan had never seen it either.
How to find the person who set up the formation, how to break the formation, and ideally, how to beat that person half to death before bringing them to justice—
Shen Qingyuan felt a massive headache.
It wasn't that she lacked confidence in her own strength.
It was the difficulty of lacking manpower.
She alone could not protect her mother while also going out to fight against others.
And this Chuntao she had encountered today was just a new ghost.
Even if she took her in to guard the gate at Minglan Courtyard, she wouldn't be able to stop anyone.
What a headache, what a headache.
She couldn't just run back to find her Master right after coming down the mountain to train.
If this got out and her Senior Brothers and Sisters found out, who knows how long they would laugh at her; how embarrassing that would be.
Shen Qingyuan shook the terrifying scenario out of her mind and then solidified another idea.
Finding some maids who knew martial arts was an urgent matter.
✦✦✦