Chapter 265
Chapter 265
The Ninth Concubine’s background was far too mysterious.
I had seen her earlier, when the wretched hag punished Xiuzhu.
At the time, I had only thought she was young and beautiful. Looking back, however, there had also been something unusual about her bearing. I could not quite describe it, but something the steward said had finally made me understand.
The steward said someone had seen the Ninth Concubine handling objects used by wandering folk practitioners in her room, which made everyone think there was something sinister about her.
In retrospect, the unusual quality in her bearing had been a certain gloom, much like the aura of people such as Du Ruhai and Wang Guofu.
The steward had also said that the Ninth Concubine resembled the Seventh Concubine. Combined with her exceptional concern for Xiuzhu, people had thought the Seventh Concubine had returned to take revenge.
I had felt something similar before. I simply had not known that the Ninth Concubine looked like the Seventh.
I suspected the Ninth Concubine had never truly died. If she understood the arts of folk practitioners, faking her death might not have been difficult.
And only if the Ninth Concubine had remained alive could we explain why thirty-nine bodies were found after the Luo Mansion Massacre.
Otherwise, there was no way to explain how there should have been only thirty-eight corpses after the Ninth Concubine and Xiuzhu died, yet one extra body appeared.
That additional corpse must have been connected to the Ninth Concubine’s false death.
But if the Ninth Concubine had faked her death, why did she still end up dead later?
The mystery of Luo Mansion was becoming painfully convoluted. The more I thought about it, the more questions emerged.
I asked Seventh Master, “Could the Ninth Concubine really be the Seventh Concubine brought back from the dead? Maybe she returned for revenge, and the Luo Mansion Massacre had something to do with her.”
Seventh Master shook his head. “No one comes back from the dead. The Seventh Concubine drowned in a well. Everyone in Luo Mansion saw her body. Once a person is dead, resurrection is impossible unless there was a Soul Reincarnation in Corpse…”
Before he could finish, Seventh Master froze and looked at me.
True resurrection was naturally impossible, but we knew the dead could return in other ways: Soul Reincarnation in Corpse and Seven Deaths for Life Exchange.
Lv Zhengxian had become Du Ruhai, and Du Ruhai had become Du Yunting.
Why could the Seventh Concubine not become the Ninth?
Had someone already mastered Seven Deaths for Life Exchange a hundred years ago?
Seventh Master and I rose at the same time and left the room, no longer interested in watching the adulterous pair.
Since no one here could see us, there was no need to sneak around. We opened every door and went inside to look.
There were few people in Luo Mansion, and we never saw Master Luo.
The hag would never dare commit adultery with the steward if Master Luo were home, so she had probably sent everyone else away.
Seventh Master and I searched several rooms. At last, we found a portrait of the Ninth Concubine in one of them.
It was a large black-and-white photograph, though not a memorial portrait. All photographs from that era were like that.
The Ninth Concubine wore a qipao in the picture. Although the miraculous makeup techniques of the modern age had not existed then, she still looked dignified and beautiful.
Neither primitive photography nor simple cosmetics could conceal her natural beauty.
The room itself was also arranged like a woman’s private chamber, and not a speck of dust could be seen. Rouge and face powder remained on the table.
This had to be the Ninth Concubine’s room, but she was supposedly dead. Whether she had faked it or not, she had died as far as Luo Mansion was concerned.
Yet the room looked as though someone still lived here, and it was clearly cleaned regularly.
“It seems Master Luo cared deeply for the Ninth Concubine.”
Seventh Master examined the room. “Even after her death, he had servants clean the room every day. He didn’t even put away the things she used.”
“But there’s something I don’t understand.”
I looked at Seventh Master and waited for him to explain.
“Master Luo despised and hated the Seventh Concubine because of her affair, and in the end, she died by his hand. If the Ninth Concubine resembled the Seventh, why did he dote on her so much?”
Seventh Master might have known everything under the heavens, but relations between men and women were outside his expertise.
He had married only once in his life and never remarried after his wife died. This was one of his blind spots.
I said, “If the Ninth Concubine looked like the Seventh, then the Seventh Concubine must have been beautiful too. Before the rumors of her affair, Master Luo adored her. And Master Luo was the sort of man who thought with his lower half.”
“Now another dignified, beautiful woman with an extraordinary bearing appeared who looked like the Seventh Concubine. Master Luo wasn’t some devoted lover concerned with an emotional connection. Of course the Ninth Concubine bewitched him.”
After hearing my explanation, Seventh Master nodded thoughtfully. “That makes sense.”
We began searching the Ninth Concubine’s room.
After a long search, we had found nothing valuable.
Then I thought of the space beneath the bed. I dropped to the floor to see whether anything was hidden there.
There was. A wooden chest sat at the very back.
Dust covered the floor beneath the bed. When Master Luo had ordered servants to clean the room, they probably saw no reason to clean underneath it, since the Ninth Concubine was already dead.
Under normal circumstances, no one would look below the bed anyway.
I crawled in and dragged the wooden chest out.
When I opened it, Seventh Master and I froze.
Inside were cinnabar powder, blank Yellow Talismans, completed Talismans, and several ritual implements used only by practitioners.
The Ninth Concubine truly was no ordinary woman. She was not only a folk practitioner but a practitioner of magic.
She knew actual magical arts!
“This is a Yin Gathering Talisman.” Seventh Master picked up one of the completed Talismans.
I looked closely and recognized it too.
“What’s this?” I lifted a palm-sized stone carving from the chest.
It had a bizarre shape resembling some ancient ferocious beast, but I could not identify it.
“Qiongqi, one of the Four Ferocious Beasts.” Seventh Master recognized it at a glance.
“Qiongqi?” I suddenly remembered a spell Seventh Master had once used that seemed to summon Qiongqi into his body.
I had asked him about it. He said it was not truly Qiongqi possession, but a secret technique of the Meishan branch of a folk magical sect. He did not understand its precise principles because he had secretly learned it from a Daoist Priest of the Meishan Fa Sect.
Qiongqi was an ancient ferocious beast. Setting aside whether such a creature truly existed, even if it did, no human body could possibly endure its possession.
Seventh Master said, “Qiongqi is called a ferocious beast because of its brutal, savage nature, the opposite of auspicious beasts such as the Pixiu and Qilin. Pixiu and Qilin can be used to stabilize a home and suppress Evil Spirits, while Qiongqi is used to destroy Feng Shui.”
“Keeping Qiongqi in a home also governs Fright and Strange Afflictions.”
I was startled. “You mean the Ninth Concubine was deliberately destroying the Feng Shui of Luo Mansion?”