Chapter 258
Chapter 258
Ren Fengjue opened the door to find Xia Ximo standing alone outside, her expression as indifferent as ever.
“Come with me.”
With that instruction, she turned to lead the way.
Though puzzled, Ren Fengjue felt that this was indeed just like her, so he followed. “Where are Daoist Yan and Yu Lang?”
Walking ahead, Xia Ximo said coldly, “We found a clue about Lady Du, so we’ve come to have you take a look.”
“You found her Primary Soul?”
“Yes.”
Ren Fengjue asked again, “Has she named her killer?”
Xia Ximo paused slightly, her tone still flat. “You’ll know when you get there.”
She quickened her steps. Ren Fengjue hesitated for a moment and nearly failed to keep up.
But after a few paces, he noticed something wrong.
This was not the way to Zhenxia Courtyard.
Looking at Xia Ximo ahead, he saw that even though a long stretch now separated them, she had no intention of waiting for him…
“Miss Xia.”
Ren Fengjue called to her again. “Aren’t we going to Zhenxia Courtyard?”
“No.” Without looking back, Xia Ximo added, “Lady Du isn’t in Zhenxia Courtyard.”
Ren Fengjue stared at her back for a while. She felt both familiar and strange.
His doubts deepening, he stopped again.
This time, Xia Ximo slowly turned and looked at him coldly. “What? Aren’t you coming?”
Testing her, Ren Fengjue asked, “How did you and Daoist Yan find Lady Du’s soul?”
Xia Ximo stared coldly at him, her eyes utterly still and lifeless. “I told you. You’ll know when you get there.”
“You’re not Xia Ximo.”
Looking at the person before him, Ren Fengjue grew more certain of his suspicion and exposed her at once. “What exactly are you? Human or ghost?”
At his words, “Xia Ximo” suddenly gave an eerie smile. Then her entire face began to blur, her features gradually vanishing.
Ren Fengjue was startled. The next instant, he felt someone breathe a cold breath beside his ear. He whirled to look and found another blank face…
*
In Zhenxia Courtyard, the bells rang furiously.
Looking at the scattered souls in the array, Yan Zhengchu felt a headache coming on.
“Miss Xia, it seems these scattered souls are all that remain in this courtyard…”
This was a rather difficult problem.
He knew that so many Yin Souls lingering here without dispersing must harbor extremely deep resentment.
Moreover, there was another frightening possibility: an Evil Entity might have taken control of their Primary Souls.
Xia Ximo had doubts of her own.
Why were these Yin Souls lingering here? Could something else be hidden in the courtyard?
Just then, an impolite pounding suddenly came from the gate.
With it came Zhao Wan’s angry voice. “Xia Ximo, what are you doing in there?”
Unhurried, Xia Ximo walked silently to the gate and opened it only a crack.
Princess Fenghua and her personal maids stood outside.
“What’s all that dreadful ringing?”
Xia Ximo glanced over them. “I advise Your Highness to go to bed early and leave what happens here alone.”
Zhao Wan grew angrier still. “I’d like to sleep! But your bells are driving me to distraction. How am I supposed to sleep through that?”
Ignoring Xia Ximo’s attempt to stop her, she shoved the gate open.
“I’ll see for myself what you’re up to!”
The instant the gate opened wide, the bells in the array rang even more violently.
The moon now hung at the zenith. It was the hour when yin qi was at its strongest.
Struck by the yin qi rushing toward them, Zhao Wan and her maids could suddenly see the Yin Souls within the array.
Never having witnessed such a sight, they froze in terror on the spot.
Zhao Wan’s legs had already gone weak. She collapsed straight onto the ground.
The Yin Souls within the array all turned toward her. For some reason, they began lunging at her one after another.
Startled, Yan Zhengchu was about to stop them with talismans when he saw a force repel them less than a foot from Zhao Wan.
Standing close by, Xia Ximo naturally saw it all clearly.
But Zhao Wan could not withstand the fright. The instant she saw the ghosts spring toward her, she fainted.
Terrified, the maids crowded around Princess Fenghua, crying out incessantly.
“Be quiet,” Xia Ximo snapped coldly. She stepped forward to check on her, then ordered, “She’s only fainted from fright. Carry her back to her courtyard first.”
The maids obediently stopped crying and hastily worked together to carry the princess back to Zhaoyang Courtyard.
With the princess’s intrusion disrupting everything, Daoist Yan could only disperse the Yin Souls quickly and dismantle the array.
By the time Steward Sun arrived with his men, the two men had already slipped back to the guest courtyard.
Yu Lang had just breathed a small sigh of relief when he turned and saw Ren Fengjue’s door standing open.
Something seemed wrong. “Has Lord Ren gone out too?”
Curious, he looked into the room. The candles were still burning, but the Young Marquis was nowhere to be seen.
Yan Zhengchu asked in puzzlement, “The Young Marquis isn’t here?”
Yu Lang shook his head and hurried into the adjoining room to wake Axia.
Sleepy-eyed, Axia was utterly bewildered. Clearly, he knew nothing about it.
If Ren Fengjue had gone out, the most likely destination was Zhenxia Courtyard to see Xia Ximo.
But before leaving, they had specifically told him not to go there until they returned.
The three exchanged looks, immediately seized by a bad feeling.
“Come on. Let’s check Zhenxia Courtyard first.”
Steward Sun had barely left when someone knocked at the courtyard gate again.
Xia Ximo opened it. Before she could speak, Yu Lang asked anxiously, “Has the Young Marquis been here?”
Xia Ximo shook her head. “He isn’t in the guest courtyard?”
“His door is open and the lights are on, but he’s gone.”
That was clearly unlike Ren Fengjue.
Xia Ximo frowned slightly and immediately decided what to do. “Find the mansion’s steward.”
At a quarter to midnight, Prince Wu’s Mansion was ablaze with lights.
Upon learning that Young Marquis Ren had “disappeared,” Steward Sun immediately led the mansion’s guards in a search of the entire estate.
Yet well over an hour passed. They searched every part of the mansion, inside and out, without finding any sign of him.
For a moment, it felt as though they had returned to that night ten years ago…
When Concubine Du disappeared from Zhenxia Courtyard, it had also been Steward Sun who led the search through the whole mansion.
They had searched all night and found nothing.
Now that the past was repeating itself, Steward Sun felt cold all over.
If Marquis Renxuan’s only son really vanished just like this, he thought, his own life would surely be over too…
Meanwhile, Yu Lang was frantic. At last he thought of the Soul-Seeking Spell, only to discover, upon mentioning it to Yan Zhengchu, that it would not work.
Xia Ximo remained calm. After searching Ren Fengjue’s room carefully, she finally found a crumpled sheet of wastepaper in the basket beside his desk.
After a moment’s thought, she took it out and unfolded it. On it was a disordered diagram of the relationships among the mansion’s residents.
It included Prince Wu, Princess Consort Wu, the princess, Concubine Du, and several other concubines, with a timeline and related events noted alongside them.
Clearly, Ren Fengjue had been working through the connections too.
But his brush had plainly lingered longest over the name “Princess Consort Wu, Lady Yang.”
Evidently, he suspected her most deeply.
At that instant, Xia Ximo suddenly recalled the scene in Zhenxia Courtyard: the Yin Souls lunging at Zhao Wan, only to be flung back…