The sky was getting dark, and the night was cool like water.
The streets were already devoid of any trace of pedestrians, and the lights in every house and courtyard gradually extinguished, leaving a complete silence.
"Be careful with the candles in this dry weather." The night watchman, with his copper gong, patrolled the streets and alleys, but failed to notice a shadow that flashed by.
A cool breeze rustled as the plump young woman closed her wooden door. She suddenly felt an inexplicable chill and instinctively wrapped her robes tighter around her body.
In a split second as she turned her head, she felt a sudden chill on her scalp. In the pitch-black night, it seemed as if a pair of cold, indifferent eyes were staring at her through the door crack.
The young woman’s heart skipped a beat. She reached for a pair of scissors on the table and cautiously took a step towards the door, peering outside through the crack.
No one was outside the door.
However, just as she stared intently, the window suddenly banged open with a clatter, chilled by the cold wind, sending shivers down her spine.
"Why is the window open when everything was fine…"
What seemed like a draft before now felt different to her. It didn’t seem like a regular gust of wind anymore, but rather like someone was breathing lightly on the back of her neck.
This thought flashed through the woman’s mind, and she turned around in shock.
The room was empty except for a flickering candle flame by the bedside, casting a dim yellow light.
Suddenly, everything seemed unusually quiet around her. The sound of the night watchman banging the copper gong outside was fading away, gradually becoming inaudible. It felt as if the whole world had become silent.
The woman’s breathing became slightly heavier, and she instinctively tiptoed towards the bed. It was only by getting closer to the faint candlelight that she could find a moment of comfort.
"Could it be that bad luck befell me today at the market?" She closed her eyes, folded her hands together, and murmured a prayer.
"Every wrongdoing has its perpetrator, and I didn’t kill anyone. If someone must be sought, it should be those heavenly beings…"
It’s fine as long as I don’t close my eyes.
As soon as she closed her eyes, the scenes from broad daylight appeared vividly in her mind.
From the old man she accused, angrily pulling out his sword and holding it to his own throat, to the two beams of light shooting up into the sky, to the market filled with distress and a devastating whirlwind, bodies scattered on the ground…. And finally, the image of the old man freezing into an ice sculpture, shattering into pieces in front of her, protecting her.
"If everyone in this world repaid bitterness with kindness, and could still use it as a shield in the end, I wouldn’t have to worry or fear revenge…"
For an ordinary person, the things that happened during the day were too exciting, making it hard for her to forget. Her chest kept rising and falling.
There was a soft whooshing sound.
It sounded like the wind, and also like a breath.
Even though the young woman tightly closed her eyes, she could still sense the warmth of the candle on the bedside being extinguished, and the surroundings were enveloped in darkness.
Her heart trembled, and she quietly opened her eyes slightly, then her whole body trembled.
She saw a blurry silhouette resembling a person standing at the bedside, watching her.
The woman was so scared that she immediately closed her eyes again and continued to pray.
"It’s not my fault, someone else is to blame for this debt."
"I only cheated people, I didn’t kill anyone."
If a dead person she had seen during the day appeared at her bedside, then what else could it be other than a vengeful spirit?
"I am so unlucky… everything goes wrong…" The old man’s figure blurred and disappeared in front of the young woman, while his voice echoed around the entire room, sometimes near and sometimes far away.
"I can accept death, but I cannot let my lifelong reputation be ruined…"
"Come on, come on, come with me to see the Lord of the Underworld, where I will explain the twists and turns of my past life…"
"Please spare me, sir… I was just blinded by greed, but I never intended to take your life… Besides, I wasn’t the one who plotted against you, it was Mr. Wan Ronghua and Miss Fang Fang."
The young woman, frightened, explained the complicated truth in detail.
Qiao Mu chuckled to himself.
Even though he previously claimed that he wouldn’t seek revenge or care about others’ respect or slander… it didn’t mean that Qiao Mu was willing to forgive those who slandered him.
After all, if it were someone else in Qiao Mu’s position, they would likely suffer a severe blow to their reputation.
The ghostly scare he played was just a spur-of-the-moment act, a small act of revenge, and an opportunity to test the "Eye Sword Technique" that he hadn’t fully mastered.
The Eye Sword Technique is a method of attacking with the eyes that the Sword Ghost, a third-rank Spirit Refining martial artist, has mastered. It can only be mastered by Spirit Refining martial artists.
But when Qiao Mu thought about it, a memory came to his mind. It was the memory of the ten years he spent practicing the "Eye Sword Technique" day and night. Although he didn’t succeed because he didn’t enter spiritual refining, he didn’t leave empty-handed either.
"In these ten years, my ‘spirit’ has become stronger, and even the memories of my training seem to be clearer."
Qiao Mu didn’t succeed in mastering the Eye Sword Technique, but it was more than enough to intimidate an ordinary person.
However, the information he obtained from the young woman’s words confused him a bit.
"So, Wan Ronghua is the mastermind behind the scenes. But who is this Fang Fang? When did I provoke this person?"
When Qiao Mu thought about this, he asked, but little did he know that the young woman’s response would surprise him.
"Fang Fang was originally Miss Fang, a member of the Fang family who worked as an antique dealer. Later, she married into the Wan family and became Wan Ronghua’s mistress," the young woman replied.
"One day Miss Fang found me and taught me these tricks to deceive people, and asked me to do things for her."
From what the young woman said, it seemed like she had done this thing more than once or twice…
"Fang Fang? Is that the sister Fang Yuan is concerned about?" Qiao Mu furrowed his brows and asked again.
"Why doesn’t young master Fang Yuan know about this? Does he still think Fang Fang is ill and ran away from home?"