Free Web NovelChapter 770: Chapter 581: Longevity
"I heard the sound of iron chains, but it quickly disappeared," Jiang Qingluan suddenly said. "You all must have heard it too."
"We heard it," sighed Zhang Songde, "but we couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from." Now, everyone had lost all hope that Tang Zerun was still alive, but finding his body was of utmost importance—the body was the best clue. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
Compared to "Yuan Ruoci’s" death, the disappearance of Tang Zerun was even more mysterious. After all, he vanished right before everyone’s eyes, and even his body was gone.
Suddenly, Yang Xiao recalled the pair of legs he had seen at the threshold when entering. As soon as he mentioned this, Xiang Fengchen’s brow furrowed. "The people at the manor had predicted it correctly. I think Yuan Ruoci was lured here by tonight’s longevity celebration, but she couldn’t enter the hall and was stopped by the threshold. She had to find someone ’to borrow’ a body from."
"She borrowed Tang Zerun’s body," Nolan Shuo continued. "Ghosts usually borrow by either riding on the shoulder or standing on the feet, but the premise is that the person’s luck is bad, their fate is low. I think compared to us, Tang Zerun must have committed some kind of taboo."
At this point, Jiang Qingluan suddenly remembered something. "When we first walked in, Tang Zerun stepped over the second threshold—the high one—but later, I saw him stepping back out of it."
"He stood in the wrong place; he should not have entered through the second door," Yang Xiao said. "He broke the master’s rules."
And with the word "rules" spoken, both Xiang Fengchen and Nolan Shuo’s eyes lit up. "Right, the rules!" Xiang Fengchen, as if he had found a breakthrough, spoke quickly. "Do you guys remember how Yuan Ruoci died?"
"Drowned... She drowned," Gong Banlan subconsciously responded when Xiang Fengchen’s gaze swept over.
"That’s incorrect. She died because she broke the master’s rules. She was the first to suggest mixed bathing for men and women, then she personally picked out two men to come upstairs with us," Chang Chuchu said, having cleared up the sequence of events, which sent a shock through her.
"One has to die for not following the master’s rules?" Zhang Songde, also an experienced player, couldn’t help but gasp. "Isn’t that a bit too harsh?"
"What’s that compared to the Ancestor inside?" Xiang Fengchen glanced behind at the Longevity Hall, a strong sense of dread appearing in his eyes.
Before they could analyze further, a flurry of footsteps suddenly came from outside the courtyard door. By the sound of it, there were dozens of people approaching. As the courtyard door opened, everyone was shocked by the sight—a crowd of people wearing bizarre masks had squeezed in, and from their attire, it was clear they weren’t ordinary servants or attendants.
The leader among this group was a person dressed in luxurious silk, walking unsteadily with a wooden mask unnaturally fixed to their face. The mask reminded Yang Xiao of the one in the Longevity Hall belonging to the Ancestor—the styles, though dissimilar, were unmistakably from the same origin, suggesting some ancient, endlessly bothersome forbidden technique.
"Hai... Hai Hai..." The leader, being supported by others, let out a familiar cough. Yang Xiao instantly realized this person was the Manor Master of Fushou Manor, whom they had seen before being carried in a sedan chair.
"Manor Master, what are you doing?" Nolan Shuo stood in front, respectfully but firmly asked.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please... please do not misunderstand. These... these are all direct descendants of our manor, all blood relatives of the Ancestor. Now that the Ancestor’s birthday has just passed, we... we the younger generation naturally want to come and offer well wishes and also... also to seek a share of his overflowing fortune," the old Manor Master said, coughing violently, and this time, thick fresh blood dripped down from his mask, a sight quite disturbing.
"The auspicious hour is near, and our Ancestor is still... still waiting for us. Please leave for the time being, and come tomorrow morning, when there will be... there will be a generous reward." The Manor Master said in a blood-choking voice, a sight that was spine-chilling.
"But we have a brother missing, and we ask the Manor Master..." Lou Huixiang argued justly. He had no personal connection to Tang Zerun, but finding the body was critical for them.
However, he was interrupted before finishing his sentence as a discordant voice emanated from the crowd, "You all only came with nine people, and now all are here; how can someone be missing?"
"We clearly came with eleven people. One disappeared earlier in the attic during the bath, and just now, another during the Ancestor’s birthday celebration," Chang Chuchu quickly said. In a few hours, they had lost two teammates, and at this rate, they wouldn’t survive three days without an explanation.
"Ladies and gentlemen, don’t we know ourselves how many filial guests we have invited?" The Manor Master waved his hand to quiet the disturbance behind him, earnestly saying, "There’s no mistake, it was nine people. If you don’t believe it, you can go find Steward Wu; he’s outside the courtyard."
"Alright, since you are saying the person disappeared in the Longevity Hall, I’ll make an exception this once and take a look inside." After stating this, he did not wait for Yang Xiao and the others to react, took a red lantern from a clan member’s hand, and stepped forward, heading towards the Longevity Hall. However, he didn’t enter but stood at the threshold, shining the lantern inside. Although the light was faint, it was clear that near the second threshold, there was nothing—completely empty.
"Sorry, I was overwhelmed by the Ancestor’s fortune earlier, leading to some indiscretion," Nolan Shuo apologized to the assembled clan members with a bow, the first to walk towards the courtyard door. Seeing this, the others quickly followed.
Every person in front of them was filled with strangeness, and Yang Xiao and his companions did not dare linger. What worried them even more was that if they startled the "Ancestor" within the Longevity Hall, they could not predict the chaos that might ensue. The disappearance of Tang Zerun was undeniably related to this elder. frёewebnoѵēl.com
"Damn, what kind of hellish place is this?" Zhang Desong cursed under his breath. Upon seeing those so-called clan members, he felt an eerie chill as if he was being stared at by a multitude of ghosts. The manor was rife with bizarre and ominous events.
At the same time, everyone thought Tang Zerun, who was presumed to have vanished, was currently kneeling inside the Longevity Hall, ears perked up, anxiously waiting for the sound of the wooden clapper.
As time ticked by, a feeling of unease fermented at the pit of his stomach. He had already waited long enough, at least half an hour, but why... why hadn’t the clapper sounded yet? Could it be they were supposed to kneel in this ghostly place the entire night?
Slightly comforting him was the fact that the dripping and the clang of chains had ceased as well; his ploy to mislead the calamity had been effective.
Kneeling for a prolonged time was unbearable, especially as maintaining the same position caused him extreme discomfort, as if he had been shouldering a heavy burden for a long duration. Unable to bear it any longer, he lightly shook his shoulders a few times, but not only did the bizarre sensation of weight not diminish, it also produced a hair-raising sound.
"Clatter..."
The sound was faint, yet it pierced Tang Zerun’s mind like a jolt of electricity. At this moment, fear was an inadequate description; it was utter despair.
It was the sound of chains.
And... right behind him.
The Iron Chain Ghost hadn’t disappeared; it was riding on his back!
However, this was only the beginning. The next second, a light flickered nearby, followed by a second, a third, a fourth... The extinguished longevity candles suddenly ignited, one after another. What made Tang Zerun even more desperate was that these candles were now surrounded by people wearing strange masks, each holding a bronze candlestick, advancing towards him in a bizarre step. They arranged the candlesticks around him just like the setup near the wooden bed, each in specific offset positions.
It was also at this moment that he realized he was the only one left inside the Longevity Hall; all his teammates had disappeared!
Immediately afterwards, the encircling people, without any need for command, suddenly dropped to their knees and started worshipping towards Tang Zerun in the center, their posture the same as when they had previously worshipped the Ancestor, but now with an added fervor that came from deep within.
"Bang."
"Bang."
"Bang."
Without uttering a word, they struck their heads upon the ground, each impact forceful, as if attempting to shatter their own skulls. Moreover, the pace quickened, faster and faster, until in the end, only the blur of ghostly heads bowing remained. This terrifying spectacle drove Tang Zerun to the brink of madness.
He exerted all his strength to get up, to leave this place. He could no longer fool himself into thinking it was an illusion because... his body was decaying at this very moment. But he could not, as if a heavy weight pressing down on him prevented him from rising.
Flesh rotted away at a rate visible to the naked eye, pus and blood trickling down like thick juice. Soon, one of his ears decayed so much that it fell from his face with a plop onto the ground.
His vision grew increasingly blurry, his eyelids completely decayed, an eyeball dropped like a rotten egg, smashing onto the ground. His arms, almost reduced to bare bones, could no longer sustain the weight, and with a "snap," they broke off, and Tang Zerun helplessly collapsed.
In his final moments of consciousness, his dislodged left eye made out a blurred figure in the front row smashing its mask, revealing beneath, an indented, grotesquely misshapen face.
The next second, the crowd of figures plunged forward, striking their heads upon the ground:
"Our Emperor... Longevity!!"
