Chapter 706 - 431: Accident! Mother and Daughter Jump into the Well! (2)

Chapter 706: Chapter 431: Accident! Mother and Daughter Jump into the Well! (2)

If it weren’t for that excessively pale complexion, at first glance it looked so peaceful as if she were just asleep.

The older woman was about thirty years old, dressed in a plain white dress, her appearance still beautiful as in life, wearing a married woman’s bun, with traces of dignified grace between her eyebrows and eyes.

Beside her, the younger woman looked shockingly young—seemingly no more than sixteen years old, dressed in a blue and white dress, her damp bangs sticking to her forehead, her not-yet-matured face still possessing the soft contours unique to young girls.

The servants gathered around, glancing sideways and covering their faces, while several young maidservants couldn’t help but sob softly.

Lu Xuan stared expressionlessly at the two female corpses on the ground, his gaze repeatedly scraping over their soaked clothes and pale skin.

Too clean.

On the surface, there seemed to be no anomalies—clothes intact, faces calm, and not even a trace of struggle could be found. But this was precisely the greatest abnormality.

For someone who jumped into a well to commit suicide, no matter how determined they were to die, once the cold well water floods into their lungs, the survival instinct would make their body struggle frantically.

The nails would scratch the well walls, leaving blood marks, and the wrists would get injured from unconscious scrapes, absolutely impossible to look like now... as if just submerged into quiet sleep.

Just as Lu Xuan concentrated on his thoughts, a chill aura, difficult for ordinary people to detect, quietly swept across his senses.

Lu Xuan’s gaze slightly narrowed—no one understood this aura better than he did.

Immediately, Lu Xuan casually pointed to Steward Wu, who was trembling like a sieve: "You, watch over them tonight, arrange for them to be buried peacefully tomorrow."

Steward Wu was first stunned, but upon hearing the four words "buried peacefully," he was like having received a great pardon and hurriedly kowtowed with "thuds".

"Thank you, Marshal! Thank you, Marshal, for your grace! I will make every effort to watch over Seventeenth Concubine and Miss Qing!"

His heart was wild with joy—since the Marshal had consented to the burial, it meant he didn’t intend to delve deeper into the matter, so his life was temporarily spared!

As for the fear of keeping vigil, compared to being executed immediately, it was really nothing.

Lu Xuan said no more, turned around, and left.

Deep in the night, the main room belonging to Seventeenth Concubine was temporarily converted into a mourning hall.

Candle flames flickered, casting the room in semi-light and semi-darkness.

Outside the door, the few servants assigned to watch through the night huddled together, deliberately softening their breathing.

Inside the room, two thin coffins that hadn’t been closed sat side by side in the middle of the room.

In the coffins, Seventeenth Concubine and Miss Qing’s faces were calm, as if merely asleep.

Steward Wu sat alone on a chair directly in front of the coffins, a position forcing him to face those two lifeless faces directly.

The curling smoke from the burning incense swirled around, accumulating in the room without dissipating, mixed with the lingering scent of cosmetics and a faint corpse odor, forming a nauseating sweetness.

Steward Wu stared fixedly at the flickering candle flame in front of him, mechanically muttering an indistinct chant for the deceased.

Every slight flicker of the candle flame made his whole body tremble, always feeling like those two inside the coffins... would sit up in the next moment.

"Endure for three more hours and it’ll be dawn, it should... it should be alright."

Just as Steward Wu lowered his head to comfort himself, an inexplicable chill swept past his back suddenly.

He jumped up from his chair, turning his head in panic toward the door.

"Steward Wu, what’s wrong?"

Outside the door, there were still those few night-watch servants, scared by Steward Wu’s sudden reaction, they all poked their heads in to look, faces full of puzzlement, clearly unaware of anything.

"N-nothing..." Steward Wu feigned calm, waving his hand, but his heart was pounding wildly.

"Alright, keep watch on your door!"

Annoyed and uneasy, Steward Wu waved his hand trying to shoo away those peering servants at the door.

But this time, the outside was dead quiet.

He instinctively looked up, only to see those three servants frozen in place, their eyes bulging, staring fixedly into the main hall behind him.

Their faces twisted in the dim light, filled with extreme fear, shaking all over.

"You... you guys..." Steward Wu’s words stuck in his throat.

"Pfft—"

A light sound, all the candle flames were snuffed out simultaneously!

Immediately following, the wide-open door seemed to be slammed shut by an invisible giant hand with a "thud," completely blocking out the last sliver of moonlight.

Outside burst into a shrill howl, unlike any human sound: "Ghost—!!"

The sound quickly faded away, evidently those three were scrambling to escape for their lives.

Steward Wu was left trapped alone in the pitch-dark mourning hall, ice-cold all over, sensing that something behind him... was slowly approaching.

Just as a cold hand was about to touch the back of his neck.

"Buzz!"

A warm, dazzling golden light erupted suddenly from his chest, instantly dispelling the thick darkness around him!

Almost simultaneously, a piercingly shrill female screech blasted through the room, making Steward Wu’s eardrums ache.

Under the brief golden light, he turned to see the scene before him.

Seventeenth Concubine stood right in front of him, less than three feet away!

Her face was pale and blue, eyes pitch black, her once beautiful face twisted with malice, her ten fingers curled like hooks, poised in a ready-to-strike stance.

However, at this moment, her whole body crackled and hissed, continuously emitting wisps of white smoke, as if scorched by invisible flames.

Seventeenth Concubine glared fiercely at Steward Wu, her eyes almost tangible with hatred, but mixed with a hint of fear toward the golden light, not daring to step forward.

"You... you... you!"

Steward Wu was terrified out of his wits by the horrid scene before him, landing on the ground with a thud, scrabbling backward with both hands and feet until his back bumped against the cold door.

Yet, amidst the profound horror, a desperate ferocity suddenly erupted.

In a few breaths, Steward Wu scrambled back to his feet, his previous cowardice replaced by a crazed madness born of having nowhere else to turn.

"You wretched woman! Dead and still dare come back for me! I killed you once, I can kill you again!"

"What, your daughter, Chen Qing that little beauty didn’t come back with you?" Steward Wu spoke, his face twisting into a lewd and crazed grin.

"I’ll tell you, your daughter was real juicy... made this steward feel real good several times! You’ve only yourself to blame for not watching over her!"

As he stared at Seventeenth Concubine’s increasingly twisted malevolent face, fear intertwined with perverted glee in his heart, driving him more insane.

"But that little bitch wasn’t appreciative! Only played a few times before wanting to report to the Marshal? Hmph, I just had to kill both of you mother and daughter."

As he spoke, Steward Wu suddenly pulled out a red triangular talisman from his chest, gripping it tightly in his hand.

It was the "Exorcism Talisman" he had spent heavily to obtain from the charm master’s monastery, said to repel evil spirits, unexpectedly useful tonight.

The talisman felt slightly warm to the touch, seemingly giving Steward Wu some illusory confidence.

"Hehehe..." He watched Seventeenth Concubine’s form slightly retreat under the weak red glow emitted by the talisman, letting out a smug and hoarse chuckle.

Just as Steward Wu’s chuckle was hanging on, Seventeenth Concubine’s vengeful spirit suddenly swung her sleeve!

A heavy coffin rose into the air out of nowhere, with a howling sound, crashing down upon him!

Though the red talisman in Steward Wu’s hand could indeed repel evil, it was utterly useless against such physical attacks.

In the next second, Steward Wu’s smugness turned to stark terror, he let out a cry, scrambling out of the room, desperately fleeing toward the courtyard square.

Steward Wu staggered to the center of the square, only to hear a swooshing sound coming from behind him.

The coffin seemed an inseparable shadow, flying out too, on the verge of crushing him into pulp!

"You audacious beast!"

A clear reprimand pierced the night sky, a nimble gray figure swept past like a gale, pushing Steward Wu aside at the last moment.

"Boom!"

The coffin crashed heavily onto the bluestone slabs, instantly shattering into pieces, splinters flying.

The still frightened Steward Wu looked up and saw two people standing in the moonlight.

One was the senior Taoist whom Lu Xuan had pointed a gun at earlier in the day at the charm master’s monastery!

And the other was the adjutant whose face was as pale as a sheet.