What came into view was delicate yet terrified handwriting:

"...My parents accepted money from the Qin family...a lot of money...saying that Young Master Qin died young and they need to use a wedding to bring him good luck...but he's a dead man! A dead man!"

“I wanted to escape, but the entire Anping Town was under the Qin family's control. I was caught and brought back, locked in the attic… They forced me to wear that red… it looked like blood, it was so heavy, so cold…”

"I was in the dark attic, and I heard them laughing, saying that the Qin family was generous, and that a worthless person was now worth something..."

"Someone save me, I don't want to get married, I don't want to die... Waaah..."

"It's too late!!!"

The fear and despair permeating the words are like cold needles, piercing the heart.

At this point, the bride's identity becomes clear—a pitiful woman sold by her greedy parents to a dead man for a ghost marriage!

Xiao Jin closed the booklet, having already made up her mind.

Although it doesn't contain much information, it still gives Xiao Jin a general direction.

The bride they were to marry was indeed not a member of the Qin family, but rather the bride who had been sold to the Qin family by her greedy relatives for a ghost marriage.

As for what happened next, Xiao Jin guessed that the bride would turn into a ghost and come to the Qin family to take revenge.

Why would the Qin family listen to the ghost bride, and what was the other party's intention in taking her as a son-in-law? Xiao Jin hadn't figured these things out yet.

However, this exploration was not in vain.

Xiao Jin put away the 'evidence' in her hand and continued walking around. She passed through a moon gate and entered an abandoned flower hall.

On the wall, there seemed to be a huge, dusty family portrait.

Xiao Jin approached to examine the portrait. The figures in the portrait were dressed in Qing Dynasty attire. Sitting in the center were an elderly couple with rigid and serious expressions and empty, numb eyes.

Behind them stood several young men and women, their expressions ranging from blank to obsequious to carrying a hint of barely perceptible malice.

The most bizarre thing is the lower right corner of the painting, where the figure of a woman in a wedding dress and covered with a red veil is painted extremely blurry and distorted, as if she might dissolve out of the painting at any moment.

The spot next to the woman, where the "groom" should have been, was empty. There was only a thick, indistinguishable blot of dark red ink, like filthy blood.

Yes... The Qin family only has sons who died young, but no grooms!

Meanwhile, at the entrance leading to what appeared to be the backyard, a strange circular area had been cleared from the ground.

Within the area, twisted and intricate runes were drawn with a dark red, long-dried and blackened unidentified liquid, with some small, weathered and white animal bones scattered in the center.

Such as birds, mice, and the ash of some charred plant roots.

A faint yet unsettling chilling energy was seeping out of the magic array.

Zhan Wenzhen crouched down, his fingertips hovering in the air as he sensed the flow of energy, and whispered, "It's not a traditional ritual... more like some kind of... evil magic of binding and transformation... used to imprison powerful vengeful spirits?"

"It seems we've made a discovery?"

Zhan Wenchen looked at Chu Yuan, who was standing behind him with his arms crossed.

“I once received a book about witchcraft and rituals, which I found very interesting. I even did some small experiments myself.”

“These runes are quite similar to some extent.” Zhan Wenzhen slowly stood up.

"Pfft! That's quite a unique hobby of yours. Are you sure it's just a small experiment?" Chu Yuan laughed so hard he bent over.

Zhan Wenzhen smiled but remained silent.

A forbidden book full of evil magic; you can imagine what's inside.

"Let's go see what the others have gained." After saying that, Chu Yuan turned around and approached Xiao Jin's aura.

Their steps eventually stopped in front of an isolated three-story building. Chu Yuan could sense that the location they were referring to, Xiao Jin, was right here.

"Hiss~ Something seems off!" Chu Yuan gently rubbed his teeth against the tip of his tongue.

Zhan Wenchen's brows furrowed even more deeply.

Without Chu Yuan needing to say more, the evil aura emanating from the building in front of him was so thick that it couldn't be blocked.

The doors and windows of the small building were tightly locked with thick, rusty iron chains, and several dark red talismans with twisted runes were pasted on the chains.

Both the iron chains and the talisman emanated a strong, chilling, and malevolent aura.

At this moment, the iron chain was deliberately broken, and a dark gap was opened in the gate.

If the two of them had read the ghost bride's diary, they would know that this was the attic where the ghost bride was locked up.

"Xiao Jin just went in like that?" Chu Yuan kept tapping his arm with his fingers.

“Something’s not right here. We’d better go in and take a look.” Zhan Wenzhen was also familiar with Xiao Jin’s identity, so the two of them naturally didn’t need to discuss Xiao Jin’s fake name.

"Walk."

…………

The decaying wooden door of the attic groaned and shattered under Xiao Jin's blade, like tearing apart a withered skin.

In an instant, a chilling, fishy wind, ten times stronger than the one outside the door, mixed with a strong stench of mold, stale blood, and some indescribable, sweet and cloying stench resembling rotting internal organs, engulfed her like a viscous swamp.

The air was so heavy it was almost impossible to breathe; with each breath, it felt like cold maggots were crawling into my lungs.

Ever since seeing that diary, Xiao Jin had wanted to explore the attic.

She did indeed come in.

Cutting the chains and pushing open the door, Xiao Jin found herself not in the room she had imagined, but in a narrow, steep wooden staircase leading upwards, shrouded in an impenetrable darkness.

The steps were covered with sticky, dark green moss and slippery black grime, making a teeth-grinding "plop" sound when stepped on.

The walls on both sides were even more shocking, with thick, blackened mold patches layered on top of each other, like boils.

Mixed in with it were large patches of spray-like stains that had long since solidified into dark brown dirt, as well as countless deep and shallow furrows, like those left by wild beasts scratching!

"Tick-tock...tick-tock..."

Thick droplets of water fell from the darkness above, hitting the steps with a sound that was exceptionally clear in the deathly silence.

That wasn't water; it carried a strong, metallic, metallic smell—it was blood.

Not only Xiao Jin smelled it, but A Mo also raised his head from her wrist.

Its scarlet vertical pupils contracted to pinpoints, emitting a threatening hiss. Its cold scales sensed the surging malice around it and seemed ready to spring into action at any moment.

Xiao Jin gripped the hilt of the long sword tightly with his other hand. The blade was icy cold, the only anchor in this filthy darkness.

She then lifted her foot and stepped onto the first slippery step.

"Creak...creak..."

The moment you step onto the old wooden ladder, it groans under the weight of the weight, each step feeling like stepping on decaying bones.

The higher they went, the stronger the nauseating stench became. Xiao Jin could even feel as if countless cold eyes were watching him from the darkness.