Chapter 157: The Su Family Residence (Part 1)

Night fell.

The Su family estate was brilliantly illuminated.

Fang Yue sat opposite Su Youhao, the head of the Su family, while Su Qingbo, the eldest young master of the Su family, and Constable Xu from the Longcheng County Yamen sat respectfully in the lower seats.

"Young Master Fang, since the Su family encountered this bizarre misfortune, people have been dying one after another, and everyone from top to bottom is in a panic. I have invited numerous monks and Daoist priests to perform rituals, but none of them proved effective."

"Young Master Fang, you are a man of imposing and extraordinary bearing, sent here from above with profound abilities. If you can help our Su family resolve this bizarre affair and ensure the safety of our household, the Su family has nothing else, but a generous reward of wealth will certainly not be lacking for you."

Su Youhao looked exhausted; it was evident he had not slept well in days.

While flattering Fang Yue, he offered lavish gifts, hoping Fang Yue would earnestly help the Su family weather this great disaster.

Up to this point, starting with the first victim, Yuncui, eight people from the Su family had met unnatural deaths.

The manner of their deaths was identical: their heads were cleanly severed, and later drawn up from a water well in buckets.

After the first victim, Yuncui, died and her head was discovered by Su Bai-san in the water well next to the Su family's back kitchen, that well had been sealed up.

After all, with a human head soaking in it, no one dared to drink that well water in the short term.

The second time, another Su family servant wandered in a daze to that same well to draw water, and hauled up another human head, belonging to another servant of the Su family.

Since lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place without warning—or rather, events shouldn't happen thrice—after the second incident, Su Youhao had people fill the well beside the back kitchen completely with soil.

Yet, such measures obviously failed to solve the problem.

The heads of the subsequent Su family members were discovered in the water wells of neighboring households around the Su family estate.

After the third death, the members of the Su family temporarily moved away from the estate while continuing to hire monks and Daoist priests to perform exorcism rituals.

Unfortunately, it remained useless. Even after moving far away from the estate, every few days, the head of a Su family member would still be discovered in the water well of some civilian residence surrounding the estate.

With no other choice, the Su family had to move back into their main estate.

Su Youhao devised a method: he divided the remaining members of the Su family into groups of three, requiring them to stay together at all times. Even when going to the latrine, they had to accompany one another and never let each other out of their sight.

He hoped to use this method to figure out exactly what kind of entity was wreaking havoc.

Miraculously, this method actually worked. As long as they did not let each other out of their sight, no accidents would happen.

However, it was clearly impossible for three people to never lose sight of each other; lapses were bound to occur, especially during sleep.

To solve this problem, when sleeping at night, Su Youhao arranged for two groups—totaling six people—to stay in the same room, with three people taking turns standing watch each time.

This method temporarily ensured the safety of everyone in the Su family, but it was clearly not a long-term solution.

Furthermore, constantly staying in groups of three without losing sight of one another was extremely inconvenient.

A single lapse in concentration, lasting merely a few minutes out of someone's sight, would result in meeting an unfathomable doom and losing one's head.

Then, the head would be discovered inside a water well.

Therefore, even after being divided into groups of three, the Su family still lost several more people.

Listening to Su Youhao recount these details, Fang Yue fell into deep thought. What on earth was this creature causing such chaos?

A ghost? A monster? A practitioner of heretical arts? An evil god? A cultist of an evil deity? Someone who had obtained a malevolent artifact? Or some other ominous specter?

Or perhaps martial artists or cultivators playing supernatural pranks?

As for that, he could use his insight ability to take a peek later.

Once the mastermind was identified, everything else would be easy to handle.

Just as he was pondering, a commotion echoed from the courtyard outside.

Su Youhao's expression changed, and he instructed several servants standing nearby to go outside and see what was happening.

Ordinarily, sending a single servant would suffice, but now protocol dictated that three servants had to move together.

Just as Su Youhao began to worry whether another death had occurred, the people from the courtyard walked in.

It turned out to be Zhu Yueyun, the eldest daughter-in-law of the Su family, leading a middle-aged Daoist priest inside.

This middle-aged Daoist possessed an ethereal, immortal demeanor and was quite handsome.

Su Youhao glanced at his eldest son, Su Qingbo, who then reluctantly rose from his chair, stepped forward to greet her, and asked, "My wife, where have you been? Why are you only returning now?"

Zhu Yueyun let out a disdainful, cold snort, cutting off Su Qingbo mid-sentence without giving her husband the slightest bit of face. "Where this lady goes is any of your business?"

Rebuked so sharply, Su Qingbo's face flushed alternately red and pale. He was a wealthy young master who cared deeply about his pride, yet he simply could not bring himself to fly into a rage at this wife of his.

The Su family's business ambitions relied entirely on the official backing of Zhu Yueyun's maternal family.

With just a single word from Zhu Yueyun's family, the Su family—merely wealthy local gentry in Longcheng County—would face utter destruction in an instant.

Backed by such a powerful family, coupled with Zhu Yueyun's argumentative and unreasonable temperament, Su Qingbo could never show any backbone in front of her.

After snapping at her husband, Zhu Yueyun swept her gaze across the others in the hall.

Constable Xu also stood up from his chair at that moment, greeting her politely, "Eldest Young Mistress Su."

Zhu Yueyun gave a slight nod, acknowledging Constable Xu's greeting.

Without paying any further attention to her father-in-law Su Youhao, who sat in the master seat, she led the ethereal, middle-aged Daoist straight toward the inner courtyard.

Fang Yue watched detachedly. He had already gathered some background information regarding this eldest young lady of the Su family, Zhu Yueyun.

She was the illegitimate daughter of Zhu Guanhe, the prefect of Yannan Prefecture, and was only later welcomed back into the Zhu family.

Ordinarily, an illegitimate daughter held little status, but Zhu Guanhe had several sons yet only this single daughter, whom he doted on immensely. This upbringing fostered Zhu Yueyun's spoiled and willful personality.

As for why the illegitimate daughter of a prefect had married into a merchant family like the Su clan, Fang Yue did not know.

Come to think of it, illegitimate daughters had low status and could not marry into peers of equal social standing.

Marrying into one of the top wealthy merchant families in the county to live a carefree life as a young mistress was actually not a bad outcome.

Fang Yue did not pay much mind to Zhu Yueyun, but the middle-aged Daoist she brought back caught his attention.

The aura emanating from that Daoist was not particularly strong; he looked like a mere small fry in the initial Qi-refinement stage.

However, Fang Yue could not be entirely certain whether he was a con artist from the Jianghu or someone concealing his true cultivation level.

"By the way," Fang Yue recalled a question and asked Su Youhao, "Your Su family is related by marriage to Prefect Zhu of Yannan Prefecture. When such bizarre events befell your household, why didn't Prefect Zhu send someone to resolve it right away?"

Su Youhao replied, "We sent people to the prefecture capital to ask for help long ago, but Prefect Zhu stated that the White Cloud Temple in Yannan Prefecture had no idle emissaries available at the moment and we had to wait for someone to be dispatched from above. And then, we waited until you arrived, Young Master Fang."

Fang Yue pondered this. Stationed in every prefecture capital were a few envoys from the White Cloud Temple to handle supernatural incidents within that jurisdiction.

The fact that Yannan Prefecture could not spare any personnel now, requiring someone to be sent from elsewhere, was likely connected to the Martial Sage's secret manual.

Northern Yun Prefecture boasted a strong tradition of martial arts, and the White Cloud Temple emissaries across its five prefectures were predominantly Xiantian martial artists.

Right now, these Xiantian martial artists were undoubtedly focusing all their attention on the Martial Sage's manual.

The significance of a Martial Sage's secret manual to martial artists went without saying.

The White Cloud Temple itself exerted little binding control over these external retainers, relying instead on merit points to entice them to undertake missions.

Yet, a Martial Sage's manual held vastly greater appeal for Xiantian martial artists than any treasures, secret techniques, talismans, or pills obtainable through merit points.