Free Web NovelChapter 847: Chapter 622: Clue_2
The courtyard was eerily quiet, with only a night breeze occasionally brushing against the face, carrying an indescribable chill. This sensation instinctively put Jiang Qingluan on alert.
It seems that things are not as good as Xiang Fengchen had imagined, but it doesn’t matter; after all, he is only human, not a deity. He can’t predict everything.
This result somewhat reassured Jiang Qingluan. If everything was calculated without omission, there would be no guarantee that she wouldn’t become his next pawn.
On tiptoes, she looked toward the direction of the Sleeping Gold Pavilion. The two-story building cast a huge shadow in the night, resembling a colossal beast lurking in the darkness, barely making out the tightly closed door on the stairway, pitch black inside.
She could confirm that no one had entered the Sleeping Gold Pavilion yet, which was good; it proved that the others were also faithfully executing the plan.
Jiang Qingluan turned to the left and came to the first marked area. Here, she also noticed the well and the stone house. After a brief judgment, she directly moved to the second area, the very decrepit old garden.
She had just stepped in when Jiang Qingluan sensed a disturbing aura, one that had not been present when entering the first area.
Jiang Qingluan keenly realized there was an issue here and also sensed that someone might have failed.
At this point, it no longer mattered who it was. Regardless of who it was, she must complete the task for them.
Slowing her pace, Jiang Qingluan walked deeper into the garden. At a dilapidated corridor corner, she saw a small ancestral hall and 12 bizarre statues.
Looking at the strange masks on the statues’ faces and their number and placement, Jiang Qingluan immediately thought of that night’s Land Temple.
She also realized that the real anomaly was hiding among them.
Suddenly, she noticed something lying on the ground not far in front of her. On approaching, she found it to be a cloth that wrapped several broken sticks of incense.
Seeing this scene, Jiang Qingluan’s pupils quickly constricted. She watched the surroundings cautiously, made sure there was no problem, then picked up the cloth package and quickly retreated until she was out of the ancestral hall’s vicinity.
Upon inspection, she was surprised to find that the incense in the cloth package was not missing. Although broken, they more or less added up to four sticks, which means this person hadn’t used them.
The person not having used them must have encountered something terrible, and Jiang Qingluan took out a cloth-wrapped package of Life Burning Incense from her bosom. Upon comparing them, the texture of the two cloths matched perfectly; this cloth and the Life Burning Incense belonged to Chang Chuchu, her roommate. The cloth in her hand was the one she had given her.
Many chaotic thoughts flashed through Jiang Qingluan’s mind. She couldn’t understand; although Chang Chuchu was crafty, she wasn’t foolish. What dangerous situation had she encountered that she didn’t even have time to unwrap the package of Life Incense before being attacked?
Here was someone experienced, silently fell into trouble, alive not seen, dead not found, she found it incomprehensible.
At the same time, Jiang Qingluan’s vigilance significantly increased, acquiring a whole new understanding of the danger level in this ancestral hall.
The bigger problem now was she didn’t know whether only the second area’s abnormalities hadn’t been dealt with, or if the third and fourth areas also had hidden dangers.
Standing outside the ancestral hall for several minutes allowed Jiang Qingluan to calm down completely. However, according to her observation, she did not directly notice anything unusual.
Or rather, at this point, everything seemed off to her.
Finally, she made up her mind, re-entered the ancestral hall, and pretended to casually walk around twice, feeling as if being stabbed in the back. She clearly sensed that something was watching her with malevolent intentions.
Yet even with careful sensing, she couldn’t determine the source or direction of this gaze, but she was certain that the problem definitely lay here.
Holding a lantern, she carefully examined each statue. Suddenly, the lantern in her hand trembled, and Jiang Qingluan’s gaze was also drawn; she stared at a small clump of withered yellow leaves fallen on the ground, finding fresh blood spots on them.
The blood was still fresh, left not more than 1 hour ago. It seemed undoubted now that it was left by Chang Chuchu.
There was blood, indicating she was injured, and the situation was worse than Jiang Qingluan had imagined. Without the opportunity to use Life Burning Incense immediately, she could almost be certain that Chang Chuchu was already dead.
With the lessons learned from the past, she also dared not be overconfident. Eventually, she took out a stick of Life Burning Incense, lit the incense, and held a lantern in one hand and the incense in the other.
Strangely enough, once the Life Burning Incense was lit, the faint smell of blood made Jiang Qingluan feel very reassured.
There were quite a few bloodstains on the fallen leaves, all concentrated near the row of statues on the right side, but eerily, the statues themselves were spotlessly clean.
It seemed this was also a Blinding Technique by the Ghost Substitute, but after a thorough examination, Jiang Qingluan identified two prime suspects.
They were the two statues situated right in the middle.
Because the fallen leaves near these two statues were very clean, whereas blood splatters were present around the surrounding statues, this was illogical.
If only one Ghost Substitute remained, Jiang Qingluan would not hesitate to throw bone ashes over these two statues, but now this was not an option, as the situation was much worse than she and Xiang Fengchen had anticipated, which meant she had to take on greater responsibility.
Xiang Fengchen was a well-known Evil Cultivator Great Mage, she knew the extent of his prowess, but she did not trust Yang Xiao. If the next person were Nalan Shuo, that would be ideal.
No longer entangled in these messy bits of information, Jiang Qingluan gave up the chance to choose between two and pondered for a moment before making a bold plan. She gently placed the lantern down, positioning it in front of the statue on the left side among the two suspicious ones, then slowly retreated step by step, clutching bone ashes in her hand and keeping her eyes fixed on the statue until she exited the ancestral hall. freewёbnoνel.com
Changing her angle for observation, she stood outside the ancestral hall to view it. Inside, everything looked as it had always been. She noticed that the ancestral hall was not capped, so distinguishing the direction simply, she took a detour around and squeezed through a broken wall to reach the other side of the courtyard wall where the ancestral hall was located.
During this process, she suffered quite a bit, for the depths of the garden were dim and unlit, and after losing the lantern’s illumination, the path became blurry as she struggled onward; numerous shadows hiding behind broken walls exerting great pressure on her, even though they were just wildly growing trees or collapsed walls.
Finally, she climbed a tree to scale the courtyard wall beside the ancestral hall, strained her head over the wall, and looked inside.
This time, she discovered something unexpected; it was dim inside the ancestral hall, and the lantern she had left behind was gone.
The lantern would not extinguish itself, especially since there was no wind here at all, and the candle inside the lantern was not made from ordinary materials.
At the same time, out of the 6 statues facing her, only 5 remained.
However, when Jiang Qingluan walked back to the ancestral hall, a lantern was lit on the ground, faintly showing the flickering of the candle inside.
The six statues on the right side were all accounted for.
Holding the Life Incense in her left hand and clutching a handful of bone ashes in her right, she approached the lantern and scattered the bone ashes over the statue behind the lantern.
The moment the bone ashes touched the statue, everything changed as if the door to another world had opened. The surroundings turned exceedingly dim, followed immediately by the ghastly figure of a dead person appearing on the spot, dressed in green maiden attire.
The maiden’s face was distorted, her skin resembled dehydrated bark, her neck crooked, limbs wiry, ten fingers twisted together and held in front of her body, obviously long since dead.
Indeed, this was another Ghost Substitute by the Ancestor. Now, she no longer had time to consider Chang Chuchu’s whereabouts, picked up the lantern, and swiftly turned to leave.
As she walked away, the eerie chill she felt upon arrival was no more, the threat of this place was dealt with.
Looking at the stick of incense that had burned down to a third of its size, Jiang Qingluan suddenly felt a twinge of heartache.
It wasn’t just for herself but also for the missing Chang Chuchu. If it weren’t for the clues she had left behind, it might have taken much more effort.
