Chapter 250
Chapter 250
After reading about the tragedy that had taken place at Luo Mansion, I felt a chill even in broad daylight.
A residence of forty people, thirty-nine corpses-what kind of scene must that have been?
No wonder more than a hundred people had vomited. I figured the sight back then simply wasn’t something human beings could endure.
After Seventh Master finished reading, he frowned too, even more deeply than I did.
A residence where that many people had died-how inauspicious would that place have to be? A Stigmatized Property to the thirty-ninth power…
“When I first heard the report from the people I sent, it scared me badly too.”
Seeing us lift our teacups, Boss Lin said, “What happened at Luo Mansion was over a hundred years ago. You can’t even find it in the local county annals anymore. Fortunately, the Luo family was a prominent household, and after the incident occurred, it caused a huge sensation locally, so the story was passed down.”
“The people I sent spent a full week asking around before they managed to learn this story.”
No wonder some of the details in the materials were either missing or described so vaguely. After all, it was something passed down by word of mouth.
Curious, I asked Boss Lin, “Back then, they only found thirty-nine bodies, and Luo Xiuzhu was missing. So did she die, or was she still alive?”
Boss Lin shook his head. “That part isn’t clear. Supposedly, no one knew whether Luo Xiuzhu was dead or alive. No one ever found her, so some people said Luo Xiuzhu had probably died as well. After all, when the Luo Mansion Massacre happened, she was only nine years old.”
“If a nine-year-old child had run away, in those days, it would have been nearly impossible for her to survive.”
The more I listened, the more familiar it sounded.
Why did the versions surrounding Luo Xiuzhu’s life and death sound so much like Du Yuwei’s situation…?
Back then, when Du Yuwei’s parents were murdered, she had also disappeared. They couldn’t find her, nor could they find her body. Later, some people also spread rumors that she had died.
“I think the authenticity of this story still needs to be verified,” Seventh Master said. “If it’s true, then we’re talking about thirty-nine wronged souls. Forget a hundred li around the place-at the very least, several streets nearby would have become uninhabitable. And no matter how many people moved in, they wouldn’t be able to suppress the vengeful spirits there.”
Boss Lin smiled. “Keep reading, you two, and you’ll know whether this story is true or not.”
I saw that there was still half the file left. Clearly, the story of Luo Mansion wasn’t over yet.
So Seventh Master and I continued reading.
According to the materials, after the incident at Luo Mansion, the authorities sealed off the estate. People back then were superstitious, and no one dared go near Luo Mansion again. Even the street where Luo Mansion was located had basically emptied out. Those who did business there no longer dared to stay.
People thought that as long as they stayed away from that place, nothing would happen. But those days weren’t like today, with roads leading everywhere in all directions.
Sometimes, people still had to pass through that street, though they would always run past it as quickly as possible.
Even so, something happened later. People in that area began to disappear from time to time, with no one seeing them alive again or finding their bodies.
There were no warning signs before these people went missing, but they did have one thing in common: they all disappeared at night.
And every single person who disappeared was male. Not one was female.
Because the matter was so long ago, there were also more detailed records of these missing people.
In any case, after those people disappeared, people began to suspect that Luo Mansion was haunted, and that those people had been taken away by the dead spirits inside Luo Mansion.
Later, more and more people went missing, until it even drew the attention of the authorities.
In the end, under pressure, the authorities had no choice but to bring a large group of young and able-bodied men in broad daylight, break the seals on Luo Mansion, and prepare to go inside to investigate.
And the search… yielded a tremendous discovery. Inside Luo Mansion, they found every one of the missing people.
All of them were in the Seventh Concubine’s room, lying in disarray across the floor. Their manner of death was exactly the same as the servants who had died in Luo Mansion before: frightened to death, bodies twisted, faces contorted in horror.
And the Seventh Concubine’s room contained more than just the missing locals. There were also several unidentified bodies. When the authorities investigated afterward, they found that all of them had criminal records. To put it plainly, they were thieves-and thieves from out of town at that.
These outsiders had no idea what had happened in Luo Mansion. Seeing such a grand estate sealed off with official notices, they had gotten greedy.
If they wanted to sneak in and steal, they naturally would have climbed over the wall at night. But once they entered, they remained forever in the Seventh Concubine’s room of Luo Mansion.
After this incident, yet another shadow fell over the hearts of the local people. Rumors began to spread that the wronged souls inside Luo Mansion had turned into a Vengeful Ghost and were looking for a Body Double. Thirty-nine more people had to die before the wronged souls inside could be reincarnated.
As for the souls of those missing people, they were said to be trapped in Luo Mansion as new wronged spirits.
In short, from then on, Luo Mansion became the local haunted house. No one dared even pass by the place anymore.
But the wronged spirits in Luo Mansion did not stop harming people simply because people feared them. After that, more people continued to disappear.
The locals were terrified, living every day in fear. In the end, with no other choice, they invited an expert to deal with those wronged spirits.
The expert they invited was named Li Tushan. He was a folk practitioner, and a very young one at that.
Young though he was, Li Tushan was truly capable. One night at Zi Hour, he opened the gates of Luo Mansion and walked in alone.
It was said that even the authorities came that night, standing guard a hundred meters away.
That night, the wronged spirits cried out in unison. Many people heard ghostly howls coming from Luo Mansion.
At the time, some people thought Li Tushan was bound to die inside. After all, he was young; how great could his abilities possibly be?
Early the next morning, when the officials saw that Li Tushan still had not come out, they sighed again and again and prepared to leave. They did not even dare go in to collect his body.
But just as they were about to withdraw, Li Tushan walked out of Luo Mansion safe and sound.
He had not even suffered a single injury. He was merely somewhat exhausted.
The officials were utterly shocked, and the local people began to regard Li Tushan as a true expert.
They asked Li Tushan whether he had already performed Exorcism for all the wronged spirits in Luo Mansion.
But Li Tushan said he could do nothing about the wronged spirits of Luo Mansion. Because they had been dead for too long, and because there were far too many of them, performing Exorcism was practically impossible. If anyone wanted to perform Exorcism for those wronged spirits, the King of Hell himself would have to come up and collect them.
After hearing Li Tushan’s words, all the people present fell into despair. If that was the case, they either had to stay there and wait for death-only to be inexplicably dragged into Luo Mansion by the wronged spirits one day, just like those missing people-or they had to move away from the area and never return.
But Li Tushan then said that although he could neither eliminate those wronged spirits nor perform Exorcism for them, he could stop them from harming anyone again.
The solution he proposed was for the people to pool their money and build a Thunder Ancestor Temple on the site of Luo Mansion.
Thunder Ancestor was a deity of Daoism, revered in status and supreme in divine office and magical power. He would surely be able to suppress those wronged spirits.
Once the Thunder Ancestor Temple was completed, the people would need to worship there devoutly and pray for Thunder Ancestor’s protection. As long as their hearts were sincere, Thunder Ancestor would send a portion of his divine presence to suppress the wronged spirits of Luo Mansion. After a hundred years, when those spirits realized they could no longer harm anyone, they would naturally return to the Underworld.