The next morning, Mu Xiao once again greeted them with a beaming smile.

"Dear relatives and friends, the clan is hosting a banquet today to welcome you all back and wash away the dust of your journey."

Wen Jiajia was woken up early in the morning, still fuming. Naturally, her mood wasn't very good the whole way.

The roads around the Zhang family's old house are still like a maze. There are several courtyards that look exactly like the one they live in, and they are indistinguishable from the outside.

Damn, if it were her, even going back to her room to sleep would be a huge problem.

Along the way, she saw many guards and maids from the mansion. She had seen the guards dressed several times before, but this was the first time she had seen maids.

Wen Jiajia secretly glanced at a passing maid and found that their Zhang family's old mansion was really strange. The guards were dressed like cavemen, but the maids were all dressed in white and without makeup, looking like they were attending a funeral.

The further they went, the more maids they encountered. Wen Jiajia didn't notice that a maid in white they met at the corner was none other than Ami, the one who had brought them to the market yesterday.

At this moment, Ami seemed like a completely different person, calm and ladylike, unlike her lively and cheerful self yesterday.

More importantly, it seemed that Ami didn't recognize them at all.

Her unusual behavior was naturally noticed by Yue Qi and Yan Che, but they couldn't pay attention to her. Not far from them, a group of women in red carrying flowers brushed past them, and the woman in the center was none other than Yan Qing, whom they had been searching for everywhere.

"Yan—" Yue Qi instinctively wanted to call her, but was immediately pinched by Yan Che beside him.

The woman who resembled Yan Qing seemed to have seen nothing at all, steadily holding the flowers in her hands, and slowly walked in another direction.

The two were greatly shocked, their thoughts wandering far away with "Yan Qing". It wasn't until the group stopped that they realized they had all been taken to a huge square.

Right in front of them stood a huge stone archway, much larger than a traditional archway.

The archway is covered with the glorious deeds of the Zhang family ancestors. You don't even need to look to know that some great figures must have come from the Zhang family's ancestral home.

Behind the archway stands an even taller archway, estimated to be at least ten meters high, which looks very imposing.

In the very center of the archway stand four large, golden characters: Zhang Family Ancestral Hall.

Zhang Family Ancestral Hall? Such a huge square, such an imposing building, and it's just an ancestral hall? What exactly is the background of this old Zhang family residence?

At that moment, a hoarse voice came from afar above the archway.

"Dear relatives, welcome to our family who have come from afar. On behalf of the Zhang family ancestral home, I have prepared a banquet to entertain you all. Please take your seats."

Yue Qi looked up and saw that the speaker was an old man in his fifties. His face was slightly pale, his eyes were bright and piercing, and he even had a goatee on his chin, which made him look quite like a sage.

Nevertheless, Yue Qi still sensed a deep-seated malice.

There was no other reason than that the huge square was completely empty; there wasn't a single table or chair to be seen, let alone a large banquet.

They're having a banquet? This isn't some kind of trap, is it?

Among the dozens of people present, many reacted quickly. The faster ones had already drawn their weapons to prepare for defense, while most remained in a wait-and-see mode.

Then, the old man on the archway gently waved his hand, "Let's get started."

The next moment, nearly a hundred spear-wielding guards suddenly appeared around the previously empty square, surrounding them completely.

The crowd erupted in uproar, with someone raising the question, "We were just invited to the Torch Festival, why are you treating us like prisoners?"

This question voiced everyone's thoughts. Yes, we're not here to cause trouble. It's just a torch festival. If we hadn't been invited, who would come to this godforsaken, remote mountain forest?

"Wait a moment—" The old man gestured, and all the guards temporarily halted their attack.

He glanced at the people present and said in a stiff and rigid tone,

“There is no such thing as a Sacred Fire Festival at the Zhang family’s old residence, so your invitation was not sent by us at all.”

The old man's words immediately made Yue Qi frown. He clearly remembered that on the way here, the little girl Ami who led the way had mentioned this Sacred Fire Festival.

Moreover, he could tell that the Sacred Fire Festival not only existed, but seemed to hold a very important position.

Why are the Zhang family members now denying it?

The person who had spoken first, in order to prove his identity, took out the invitation in his hand and showed it to everyone.

As someone who was also invited, Wen Jiajia naturally didn't miss a single word of it.

Sure enough, this invitation was exactly the same as the one she had received. Not only that, but the person who invited her was also the same—Zhang Nana.

The invitation was taken to the archway by a guard. After the old man read it carefully, his expression changed drastically.

"That's impossible! How could this invitation have been written by Zhang Nana? She clearly already—"

The old man Zhang suddenly stopped talking. Everyone isn't stupid. If this is the case, it would be strange if there wasn't something wrong with Zhang Nana's identity!

"If that's the case, then let us go, and we'll all stay out of each other's way?"

Seeing that things were getting out of hand, the person who was speaking took the initiative to back down and settle for second best. They couldn't afford to offend them, so they decided to avoid them altogether!

"No!" As expected, the old man Zhang refused without hesitation.

The atmosphere in the crowd tensed up again, and all the guards became vigilant once more, tightly surrounding everyone in the center of the square.

Just then, thick black smoke suddenly rose from the southeast of the square. In the dense forest, smoke was not a good thing.

After the old man from the Zhang family clearly saw the direction of the black smoke, his expression suddenly turned terrified. Then, his attitude underwent a complete 180-degree change, and his expression became amiable.

"Since that's the case, and everyone has come from afar, my Zhang family, as the host, should do our part to show some hospitality—someone, take everyone back to their rooms to rest."

This change was so sudden that even the guards didn't have time to react, let alone the outsiders.

However, the difference in strength between the two sides was too great, and everyone had no choice but to be obediently escorted back to their rooms.

"No, we can't just sit here and wait to die!"

As soon as they returned to their room, Yan Che and Yue Qi immediately began packing, fully gearing up. Then Yan Che pulled a map from his pocket and slammed it onto the table.

"This is something Qingqing just gave me; it's a feng shui map of the entire Zhang family's old residence."