Chapter 21 Zi Chou Teases Yin Mao: His master's face seemed to turn red.
The thunder grew increasingly deafening.
Lou Yan followed Heng Qichun out of the ancestral hall, then raised his hand to cast a spell, slamming the wooden door shut with a loud bang.
Tan Wangshi's shrill screams ceased, and the evil aura that filled the ancestral hall floated up and down, but in a moment it all escaped through the cracks in the doors and windows.
All that could be heard was the deafening roar of thunder.
Heng Qichun stood under the eaves, half of his robe sleeve dampened by the slanting raindrops. He casually rolled up his sleeve and looked at Lou Yan with a rather meaningful gaze, "When did you learn the 'evil-controlling spell'?"
Lou Yan paused in his incantation, and the spiritual energy gathered at his fingertips immediately vanished without a trace.
He was so annoyed by Tan Wangshi's calls that he impulsively recited the exorcism spell, forgetting that it was a spell he used to use.
In his previous life, he was elevated to the position of Lord by the Nine Netherworld Realm, commanding tens of thousands of demons. It was commonplace for him to casually cast a spell to punish disobedient little demons.
He never expected that such an unintentional act would allow Heng Qichun to easily see through his scheme.
Lou Yan chuckled awkwardly, trying to make up a lie: "It seems...it seems like..."
"My senior master mentioned it during his lectures!"
If the question is posed to Nanyushan, Heng Qichun will likely not ask any further questions.
"Nonsense." Heng Qichun frowned and scolded him, "The most dangerous spells for controlling evil spirits are the easiest to go astray. How could your senior uncle possibly teach this?"
His brow furrowed even more, and he squinted as he asked, "Could it be... that you read some books you shouldn't have?"
These words were like a wake-up call. Lou Yan snapped out of his daze, raised one hand, and nodded repeatedly, "Yes, I saw it in a book!"
"I don't know how I remembered it." Lou Yan blinked, looking flippant. "Master, am I quite talented?"
"cough……"
Heng Qichun remained silent.
Lou Yan thought his lie was flawless, so he turned around and followed Heng Qichun along the corridor under the eaves, peeking over his shoulder, and then suddenly froze.
His master's face seemed to turn red.
Lou Yan stared at the blush spreading across the back of Heng Qichun's neck, and his wolf head suddenly tilted to the side.
Oh no, did I upset him again?
You get angry over whatever book you're reading? Are you that easily angered?
"Master?" Lou Yan called out tentatively.
The good news is that Heng Qichun doesn't seem angry. He quickly hummed in agreement, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "This spell only controls evil spirits. It's not a technique commonly used by righteous sects. Don't use it again in the future."
“And that book…” he paused, then added, “Don’t read it anymore.”
His words were vague and his tone wasn't as stern as before. Lou Yan didn't take them to heart and reluctantly agreed with an "Oh."
"Uh... Master." He finished speaking and suddenly looked up, his gaze sweeping around in the night, and said somewhat blankly, "It seems we've lost them."
Raindrops fell rapidly outside the corridor.
A bolt of lightning struck the pitch-black night sky, leaving a flash of white light, and the air was filled with a fishy smell.
The blood-red talisman they had been following seemed to have disappeared.
Lou Yan stared blankly at the rain curtain under the eaves, and asked in confusion, "That's strange. It's just a wisp of demonic energy. Where could it possibly go?"
Heng Qichun didn't reply. He slowly raised his pale eyes and looked towards the end of the eaves.
In the instant after the thunderclap, a blinding white light flashed at the end, illuminating a swaying hem of a robe.
Lou Yan noticed it as well, and he instinctively hunched over, adopting a defensive posture.
Before he could speak, he heard his master softly call out, "Uncle Li."
Lou Yan straightened up and saw the Tan family's old servant turn back from behind the pillar.
Lou Yan exclaimed "Whoa!" in surprise, realizing that he had almost forgotten that there was such a person in this mansion.
In just a short while, the old servant's previously panicked and anxious expression had softened considerably. He stood in front of Heng Qichun and nervously clenched the hem of his clothes.
“You heard everything,” Heng Qichun admitted frankly.
The old servant did not deny it, but clutched the piece of clothing and sighed.
Lou Yan then realized that the old servant had been eavesdropping outside while they were discussing Tan Qiqi's cause of death in the ancestral hall.
The more he looked at the old servant, the more suspicious he became. Considering that there wasn't a single normal person in the entire Tan family, he quickly walked over and blocked Heng Qichun's path, squinting as he scrutinized the man.
That's normal.
Either he's very good at hiding it, or he's genuinely innocent.
During the stalemate, Heng Qichun spoke calmly, pulling up his sleeves and saying, "Tan Chengyi is controlled by Xu Shengzi, and his fate is still unknown. Your master and madam are either dead or insane. All of these things are inextricably linked to Tan Qiqi's death."
He looked down at the old servant, his eyes filled with a mixture of pity and compassion. "Now that things have come to this, are you still not going to tell the truth?"
The old servant's expression changed several times because of these words, from concealment to panic, and finally he was immersed in the rainy night. Every word he spoke was like a thunderclap that split the darkness.
“I saw it with my own eyes…” The old servant closed his eyes, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead, and said in a mournful voice, “The old lady lied that she was going to take Qiqi out, but she personally took her out of the mansion and abandoned her outside, and never brought her back.”
It turns out that Tan Qiqi didn't get lost on her own, but was abandoned by Tan Wangshi.
Lou Yan was shocked by the news and asked in confusion, "You've seen it all, don't you know to find the child?"
The old servant knelt down with a thud. "I dare not make the decision myself. I immediately informed my master of this matter. My master went out to look for the girl and has been missing ever since."
"When did this happen?" Heng Qichun asked.
"About..." the old servant said with his eyes closed, estimating, "about half a year."
"What?" Lou Yan leaned down to look at him, increasingly doubting whether there was something wrong with her brain. "You said it yourself last time—the child was only missing for three or four days!"
The old servant was even more bewildered than Lou Yan, his cloudy eyes blinking repeatedly in the night. "What?"
Lou Yan felt something was wrong.
This old servant is so sincere; every word he says doesn't sound like a lie.
But he was certain that there was nothing wrong with his mind. Yesterday, standing in front of the mansion gate, Heng Qichun asked how long the child had been missing. He heard the old servant say with his own ears—about three or four days.
Why has it become almost half a year today?
The wind was strong and the rain was heavy, bringing a rare coolness.
The tangled web woven from time seems to be being straightened out, strand by strand.
The dampness from the corridor hit his face. The old servant was stunned for a long time before slowly understanding Lou Yan's meaning. He hesitated and said, "I vaguely remember that the last time the two immortal lords visited our residence was half a year ago."
Lou Yan glanced at him sideways and blurted out, "Are you senile? That was clearly yesterday..."
“Lou Yan.” Heng Qichun interrupted him.
Lou Yan reluctantly shut his mouth, tilted his head and looked back at Heng Qichun, only to see that his master was still staring at the old servant, easily taking over the strange theory about time.
"And what about Tan Chengyi's wife?" Heng Qichun asked. "That crazy woman."
The old servant sighed heavily, his wrinkled eyes drooping as he began to recite the particularly difficult tale of the Tan family.
“That was before Qiqi’s accident,” he recalled. “One day, the lord suddenly declared that the lady was a demon.”
"Later, for some unknown reason, the master forcibly kicked the lady out of the house. The master and the old lady were in great danger and invited Master Xusheng to perform a ritual overnight, which caused chaos in the mansion."
After a moment's thought, Heng Qichun had already found the answer in his heart: "So when the people in town say she's looking for her child, she's actually looking for Tan Qiqi."
The old servant said, "Yes," adding, "I have always suspected that Qiqi's misfortune was mostly related to this matter."
The downpour gradually subsided, leaving only fine raindrops slanting in the wind, brushing against people's sleeves, leaving them damp.
Heng Qichun looked up and suddenly realized that the terrifying heat had been completely washed away by the rain.
It seemed that the drought that had caused so much suffering was about to pass.
"Did you see that bloodstain just now?" Heng Qichun asked.
"I see...I see it."
“That’s Tan Qiqi’s death curse.” Heng Qichun looked at the old servant and said, “Where did Madam Tan take her that day?”
The old servant didn't know what a "death curse" was, but his face changed when he heard it.
He raised his sleeve and gently wiped the corner of his eye, saying in a hoarse voice, "In... Fuzhu River."
Ten miles from Tan Chengyi's home, there is a stream in the valley, which the people in the town usually call "Fuzhu River".
Legend has it that the river was once abundant with pearl clams and river snails, but in recent years the water has become deeper and more dangerous, and many people have lost their lives along its banks, so it has been abandoned.
Lou Yan stammered out a "rain avoidance spell" and followed the direction the old servant pointed out to them, searching all the way.
Heng Qichun was half a step behind him, his robes already soaked through by the rain.
Lou Yan covered his eyes with his hand, looked up at the barrier he had created above his head, and couldn't help but make a bitter face. "Master, why don't we go back to town and borrow an umbrella?"
—His magic has always been terrible; the rain-sheltered barrier still has several holes, and a light drizzle is still falling from it.
The rain soaked them both completely.
A few strands of white hair at Heng Qichun's temples were covered with raindrops, clinging damply to his cheek. He casually raised his hand to brush his hair aside, revealing an even paler face.
“It will take a lot of time to go back and forth.” He looked up at the pale golden barrier that was constantly leaking water, and said calmly, “Just make do with it.”
Lou Yan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, as long as he wasn't scolded.
Before he could even settle down, he heard Heng Qichun's voice again: "Go back and copy the Rain Avoidance Mantra a hundred times, and give it to me along with the 'Tongming Zhi' that your senior uncle asked you to copy before."
Lou Yan: "Huh?"
Heng Qichun ignored his little apprentice's complaints and stopped at a fork in the road. He tentatively condensed his Qi and used a spirit-detecting technique. Looking at the faint halo in front of him, he said, "Tan Qiqi's blood seal came here before. The Floating Pearl River is just ahead."
He stepped aside and said to Lou Yan, "Go and find out where the Blood Seal is."
Lou Yan blinked. "What about Master?"
Heng Qichun looked away. "I'm going to meet that crazy woman."
A note from the author:
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Sorry for the wait! See you tomorrow!
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