Chapter 537 - 356: The Strangeness in Mo Gui Lane!

Chapter 537: Chapter 356: The Strangeness in Mo Gui Lane!

The scorching sun of midsummer hangs high, heating the bluestone slabs in front of the Envy Immortal Tower.

In the steaming heat, the kneeling crowd seems to be roasted over charcoal, their clothes soaked through with sweat.

Madam Liu, the procuress, lies on the scorching ground, her forehead against the stone.

The coarse stone patterns grind painfully against her knees, but she dares not move an inch.

The heat wraps her back, with cold sweat continuously seeping, creating a sticky feeling that slides down her spine into her collar, causing her to shiver nonstop.

Madam Liu sneaks a glance at the approaching hem of the deep purple robe, which shimmers with an indescribable nobility under the blinding sun.

The scenes of yesterday flash before her eyes.

At noon, a group of royal secret guards, clad in chain armor, approached the backyard under the scorching sun, their armor reflecting sunlight so bright that it blinded the eyes.

It was this deep purple figure that shattered the sunlit ground, roughly dragging the oiran Chen Qingran from her cool rattan chair.

"Commoner respectfully welcomes Your Highness the Crown Prince..."

Mrs. Liu’s voice is hoarse and dry, her painted nails digging deep into her burning palms.

The reddened skin and the bright red nail polish almost merge into one.

Lu Xuan’s footsteps suddenly halt in front of her, the hem of his deep purple robe slightly fluttering in the heatwave.

"Speak, who directed you!"

This gentle voice, wrapped in a pressure more scorching than the sun, sends shivers down Mrs. Liuʼs back, as if she fell into an ice cellar.

She fearfully raises her eyes, meeting Lu Xuan’s indifferent gaze.

Those ink-black eyes are so profound and still, yet more daunting to behold than the midday sun.

"What directive, this commoner doesn’t understand Your Highness the Crown Prince’s meaning."

Mrs. Liu’s voice is clearly somewhat shaky.

Lu Xuan does not heed her, instead, he speaks on his own.

"You let that woman Chen Qingran approach Gu, even carrying something filled with a ghostly aura."

"Gu is very curious, who dares to have such courage, to force a woman to use her life to plunge Gu into the clutches of those ghostly things."

As his voice falls, the surrounding heat seems to suddenly solidify, leaving only the irritating cicada chirping to pierce the eardrums.

The commoners kneeling on the ground wish they could bury their heads into the bluestone slabs.

This is certainly not something they should hear!

Assassinating the Crown Prince is a crime that warrants execution of the nine familial exterminations!

The scorching stone slabs painfully sear the knees, yet no one dares to move a fraction, their breathing becomes cautious.

Several merchants kneeling in the back row are already soaked through, their foreheads pressed against the ground forming a patch of moisture.

They secretly exchange glances, their Adam’s apples bobbing but unable to speak.

In each other’s bloodshot eyes, the same horror is visible.

Watching today’s spectacle, they fear it might cost them their heads!

The girls kneeling before the Envy Immortal Tower are trembling like leaves in the wind.

A young girl in the front row with an apricot-red shirt clutches her handkerchief tightly, her nails almost piercing her palms.

She sneaks a peek at Madam Liu beside her, whose face is ashen, and can’t help but whisper to herself.

My goodness, Madam usually just withholds our wages, but now she dares to scheme against the Crown Prince!

It’s like an old man hanging himself — asking for more life than he has!

But looking at her sisters trembling like windblown leaves around her, she swallows hard.

She only wishes for this earth-shattering turmoil to quickly pass, sparing her small life in the process.

"Commoner is wronged!"

Mrs. Liu suddenly bursts into a heartrending cry, the gold hairpin on her coiffure tilting and about to fall.

As she suddenly raises her head, her face stained with blood twists under the scorching sun, resembling a ghost.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince, it was you who forcefully took Qingran away!"

Having said that, she bangs her head against the ground, the jewels in her hair clatter with the violent movement, exploding into an ear-piercing echo down the silent long street.

The scorching stone slab resounds with a dull thud, each blow sends shivers down the hearts of the onlooking commoners.

Within a few breaths, the bluestone slab in front of Mrs. Liu is smeared with a large eerie crimson.

The blood quickly dries under the venomous sun, forming dark red scabs, snaking between the stone seams like a serpent.

Her frail body heaves violently, blood-soaked strands of hair stick to her face, yet she continues to knock her head.

As if using this self-destructive body posture to carve out the crime from her own being.

While everyone is shaken by this gruesome scene, a sinister flash suddenly passes under Mrs. Liu’s lowered eyelids.

She fixates on the deep purple robe at Lu Xuan’s feet, a suppressed whimper escaping from her throat.

Impossible, why isn’t he dead!

Why is the Crown Prince not dead!

Yesterday, she saw Chen Qingran hiding the ghostly aura-soaked handkerchief close to her body with her own eyes.

That was an artifact the master painstakingly obtained from West City Mo Gui Lane, using the lives of seven death warriors.

That alley shrouded in a foul stench all year round was a secret place the master discovered half a month ago.

Anyone who came into contact with objects from the alley would be gnawed to bone ash by the resentment of those ghostly things within an hour.

Even the Martial Arts Grandmaster could barely last a day.

The cicada’s song suddenly becomes sharp and piercing, mixing with the blood running down the back of Mrs. Liu’s neck.

She recalls the master’s sinister parting words: "As long as the Crown Prince touches that handkerchief, even the Martial Arts Grandmaster cannot save him."

"Now, His Highness the Crown Prince still stands well before us... ..."

"Could it be that the vile woman Chen Qingran messed up?"

"No... ..."

That woman Chen Qingran, last night, had already been visited by the ghostly things from Mo Gui Lane, dead completely!

Moreover, she has two young sisters in the master’s hands, a death rope hanging over Chen Qingran’s head.