Chapter 113

Chapter 113

Under the strange looks all around her, Mu Tingting remained ramrod straight, facing them with perfect calm.

In all her sixteen years, she had never felt as open and unburdened as she did in this moment.

At last, she no longer had to tread on eggshells. At last, she no longer had to obey everyone else’s judgment and commands.

“Do you think I wanted the title of a general’s daughter?”

“Ever since I parted ways with the Marquise in Xiling County six years ago, I haven’t slept a single full night.”

“I was terrified someone would expose me. That was a crime that could cost me my head.”

“But what choice did I have? I had to listen to my mother. I had to be used by my father!”

“Do you think I ever had a choice?”

She let out a cold laugh, but when she looked at Ren Fengjue, there was tenderness in her eyes. “But from the first moment I saw you, I knew I had not come to the capital in vain. My mother was right. Only a man like you is worthy of being my husband.”

“I know you look down on me, but you don’t have a choice now.”

“Since we’ve all come to this place, none of you should even dream of leaving.”

Ren Fengjue had no desire to waste words on her, but he remained wary after hearing what she had said.

Frowning, he ordered Yang Jing, the chief of the household guards beside him, “Go outside and see what’s happening.”

Yang Jing accepted the order and hurried away. Before long, he rushed back, his expression completely changed.

“Young Master, once you step out of the North Courtyard, there’s nothing but thick fog outside. You can’t see a thing.”

From the moment Ren Fengjue had entered, he had already sensed something strange about this place.

Still uneasy, he decided to investigate for himself.

Mu Tingting, however, scoffed from the side. “I told you not to waste your strength. There is no way out of this place.”

“What?”

“How did we get trapped here?”

“Are we going to be trapped here until we die?”

The moment they heard they could not leave, everyone in the room panicked, voices rising over one another.

Ren Xuan suddenly rose with an ashen face. Before he even spoke, the authority of Marquis Renxuan was already on full display.

“What are you panicking for? If a few words from this woman are enough to frighten you like this, don’t you dare call yourselves people of Renxuan Marquis Manor in the future!”

Once he said that, sure enough, no one dared make another sound.

He continued, “This marquis will go out and see for himself!”

Ren Fengjue immediately stopped him. “Father, you and Mother stay here. I’ll go take a look.”

As he spoke, he stuffed a protective talisman into Lady Rong’s hand.

He ordered Yang Jing to remain and protect the Marquis and his wife, then went to the corner to check on Yu Lang. Seeing that Yu Lang could not be woken, he had no choice but to have a servant carry him to the couch.

Only then did Ren Fengjue take two household guards and head straight out.

Outside, it was still night. Two moons still hung in the sky.

When they reached the ornamental gate, it was exactly as the guards had said. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but dense fog. No direction could be made out at all.

But Ren Fengjue did not hesitate. He walked straight into the mist.

Only, after they had walked a long distance, there was still fog beyond the fog, stretching on without end.

The Young Marquis had grown up in the manor. Though he could not claim to remember every flower and tree, he knew the layout of every courtyard and garden like the back of his hand.

Relying on memory and instinct, he counted his steps as he walked. By his estimate, they should have reached the South Garden by now, yet no gate appeared before them.

Ren Fengjue did not stop. He continued toward the East Courtyard.

The result was the same.

“Young Master… this place is far too strange. I’m afraid we…”

One of the household guards who had come with him was beginning to lose his nerve.

Ren Fengjue said sternly, “This is precisely when you must not lose your head!”

No sooner had he spoken than the bell at his waist rang wildly. The wind howled past his ears, accompanied by a chilling laugh.

Then, without warning, a massive black shadow appeared behind that household guard and opened its cavernous, blood-red maw.
The guard instantly felt something envelop his body. Overcome with terror, his legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground.

Seeing this, Ren Fengjue immediately stepped in front of him.

The other guard was so frightened that he turned and bolted into the dense fog, only for the ghostly shadow to stretch out a spectral hand, rip his soul clean from his body, and swallow it on the spot.

The guard slumped on the ground let out a scream and fainted dead away.

Facing the colossal thing before him, Ren Fengjue immediately thought of Zhou Zigui and Zheng Daoyuan.

So this was the ghostly creature that had eaten their souls?

But it did not attack him at once. Instead, it fixed that blank face on him, as if staring him down.

“The sword. Where is it?”

All at once, it asked him a question, its voice rumbling like muffled thunder.

Ren Fengjue had no idea what it meant. He was not carrying a sword on him, either.

But from that question, he could still pick out a clue…

“There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of treasured swords in the Treasure Pavilion of my Renxuan Marquis Manor. Which one do you want?”

Ren Fengjue intended to draw information out of it.

The ghostly thing flew into a rage. The black mist surging from its body nearly knocked Ren Fengjue off his feet.

It asked again, “Ren Yao’s sword! Where is it?”

Little Uncle’s sword?

Ren Fengjue’s heart tightened.

In his memory, Little Uncle’s South River Courtyard held many “strange and curious” trinkets, but to him, they had all seemed like toys meant to amuse children.

Perhaps there was a peachwood sword? Or maybe a sword strung from copper coins!

Little Uncle had said it was a precious sword that could ward off ghosts.

But Ren Fengjue had a feeling that neither of those was what this ghostly thing was looking for.

Seeing him stand there in stunned silence, the black shadow grew furious again. The black aura around it thickened, and its voice became even more deafening.

“Where is it?!”

“If you won’t tell me, I’ll have everyone in the Marquis Mansion buried with you!”

No sooner had its voice fallen than footsteps sounded from within the fog.

Ren Fengjue instinctively turned back and saw a blurred figure slowly approaching through the mist.

He could not make out the person’s face at all, could not even clearly distinguish the figure, and yet it gave him a sense of familiarity…

And as the footsteps drew closer, that instinct grew stronger.

At last-

The figure stopped.

“Whether he tells you or not, you’re still going to bury everyone with him, aren’t you?”

It was Xia Ximo’s voice.

Her features gradually became clear within the haze.

She still wore that same cold, distant expression that kept others a thousand miles away.

When the ghostly thing saw her, it immediately shifted its target.

“You dare come in here?”

Xia Ximo lifted her eyes and glanced at it. “Why wouldn’t I?”

The ghostly thing let out a strange laugh, half mocking and half smug.

“In here, you can’t kill me at all. Even if you do kill me, the people inside still won’t be able to get out.”

Xia Ximo said contemptuously, “There is no art in this world that cannot be broken. Especially when it’s only a Soul Art.”

“You!”

The ghostly thing was enraged by her once more.

This time, even the moon in the sky began to change, its frosty white gradually turning bloodred.

The ghostly thing vanished from sight.

Then the ground trembled, splitting open with cracks.

A red flower broke through the earth and grew wildly at an astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, it stretched all the way toward the heavens.

At the sight, Ren Fengjue grabbed Xia Ximo and retreated, instinctively spreading his arms to shield her behind him.

The fog around them thickened even further.

When the commotion faded, what appeared before them was a Human-Faced Flower, its branches like peachwood, its buds enormous, scarlet as blood, yet seeming to hold a smile.

Staring at the flower, Ren Fengjue froze for a moment. Then Xia Ximo reached out from behind him and pushed him aside.

“Stand behind me.”

“…”