Chapter 419: Chapter 413: Afraid of Being Struck by Lightning
"Save him, I cannot," left both the servant and Mrs. Ma dumbfounded.
The servant was even somewhat dazed. Last time he had come, at least had been allowed inside. Now, without even stepping through the door, was he going to be sent packing?
"No, Master, you haven’t even seen our young master, how could you say he cannot be saved?" The servant was getting anxious.
Qin Liuxi tilted his chin towards Mr. Ma, "Isn’t that him over there?"
Mrs. Ma was incensed and said, "Are you toying with us at this establishment? We’ve traveled a great distance through wind and snow to come here, and without asking a single question, you say he can’t be saved? Are you mocking us? It was you who told us to come in person, and now you’re saying he cannot be saved. Is this some sort of joke! Is it that you lack the skills or simply refuse to save him!"
Qin Liuxi replied indifferently, "I’ve made it clear from the beginning, even if you came, I might not be able to save him. Did you not understand that?"
The latter sentence he said while looking at the servant.
The servant’s face turned white, thinking Qin Liuxi was just speaking in passing before. But now, he realized she truly was unable to save him.
"Ma-Master, I..."
Mrs. Ma angrily declared, "Then you are toying with us! This small shop of yours dares to toy with me! Do you know who I am?"
See, the character of the servants reflects that of their masters; they speak in the same tune.
Qin Liuxi looked at the servant with a barely detectable smile.
The servant’s face turned red, and he hung his head low.
The guards from Dongyang Marquis at the doorway, seeing Mrs. Ma about to explode, stepped forward and looked at Qin Liuxi, "Master, should we drive them away?"
It wasn’t until then that Mrs. Ma noticed those men, all surrounded by a resentful aura and straightforwardly not to be trifled with. Her mind cleared up a bit, and she recalled what the servant had said before—that this place had backing as well.
Could it be these men?
Her anger moderated somewhat as she forced herself to speak with restraint, "We have come from Ling County, you can’t just turn us away like this. At least take a look at him; I am willing to pay however much Silver is necessary."
"Why is your family’s young master in this state? Don’t you know the reason deep in your heart?" Qin Liuxi fixed her gaze on her and said, "For every cause, there’s an effect. All the evil deeds committed will have to be repaid."
Mrs. Ma’s pupils constricted, and she stepped back twice, her heart suddenly pounding fast.
Her eyes darted about, she swallowed hard, trying to avoid Qin Liuxi’s pitch-black eyes as deep as mysterious pools. But his gaze seemed to follow her like a shadow.
The guards at the door looked at each other, asking with their lips, "Do you see anything?"
The leader among them, named Zhang Zhao, keenly noticed Qin Liuxi’s fist clenched behind her back. Looking at her face, he saw an iciness and disdain he had never encountered before.
Zhang Zhao couldn’t help but follow her gaze towards the person enveloped in a black cloak. What had this person done?
Mrs. Ma clenched her teeth and suddenly knelt down with a thud, "Master, I was blinded by ignorance and spoke insolently. I beg you to be magnanimous, do not take offence. Please save my son. Aren’t those of you who practice Daoism concerned with slaying evil and upholding the Righteous Path? Now that my son has encountered evil, shouldn’t you vanquish these malevolent spirits?"
Qin Liuxi said, "To slay evil and uphold the Righteous Path. Who is evil, and who is righteous? In my eyes, he is filled with wickedness, his sins reaching the heavens—he himself is an evil spirit. The women who died unjustly because of him, even the unborn children, are merely seeking revenge. Such heavy karma from killing, I certainly cannot save him. I’m afraid of being struck by lightning!"
As her words ended, with a wave of her hand, the overcoat that was previously draped properly over the person seemed to be ripped off by an invisible pair of hands, revealing the skeletal figure of a young man.
His eyes were sunken, his eyelids dark circles, his cheeks devoid of any flesh, his cheekbones protruded, and his face had not a trace of blood color. He seemed to have lost all his essence and blood, looking as if he might die at any moment.
And the most eerie part was that, despite his emaciated state, his abdomen was inexplicably swollen, as if he were a pregnant woman.
Everyone was startled.
Such an appearance was indeed horrifying.
Mrs. Ma screamed out loud and hurriedly ordered someone to pick up the overcoat and drape it over him again.
Qin Liuxi’s face remained expressionless, her gaze lowered to a corner of the room invisible to others, where a young woman knelt, weeping about her ordeal.
She was a newlywed, only seventeen years old, and became pregnant less than a year after her marriage. She and her husband were deeply in love, but when she was six months pregnant, that beast Ma Xiaowei saw her on the street, forcibly dragged her to his private residence, and ravished and tortured her to death.
"...Ma Xiaowei is an utterly unforgivable beast; he indulges in prostitutes, engages in all sorts of evil deeds, and he has a particular preference for pregnant women. Both I and those two sisters were killed by him while we were pregnant," the young female ghost said resentfully. "He is the County Magistrate’s only son. We are just powerless peasant women. After we died, the Ma Family used their status to brush the matter aside with some Silver and hastily cover it up. Sister Chen suffered the worst fate. Her family sought justice for her, but they were all charged with the crime of conspiring against the County Magistrate and thrown into prison. Then they were exiled and died on the road."
When Qin Liuxi looked over, she saw a female ghost with blood-red eyes clinging desperately to Ma Xiaowei’s neck, and beside her, a little ghost with an umbilical cord trailing behind was lying on Ma Xiaowei’s chest, lifting its head and greedily sucking his life force.
In addition to the mother and child, there was another female ghost clinging to his legs.
Together, they turned Ma Xiaowei’s aura of resentment dark as ink.
This young female ghost was also among them, but as they came near Feichang Dao, they felt an inexplicable panic, and upon seeing Qin Liuxi, they couldn’t wait to run away, fearing that she would capture them and prevent them from taking revenge.
After all, some Taoist masters would not care about right or wrong—if an evil ghost harmed people, it had to be subdued.
However, Qin Liuxi did not do so, and they breathed a sigh of relief.
"And my man, in order to avenge me, took a knife and tried to kill him. But he had an Amulet on him and managed to escape that fate!" the young female ghost said, glancing timidly at her: "That talisman was drawn by you, master."
Qin Liuxi nodded: "I didn’t give it to him."
The young female ghost quickly said: "I know, he snatched it from someone else. It’s really a coincidence; I don’t dare blame you, madam."
"Master, who are you talking to?" the servants quivered in their legs, and even Mrs. Ma looked at her with unsettled suspicion.
Qin Liuxi’s lips curled slightly: "Naturally, it’s the creditor of your esteemed household’s young master."
The servants’ hearts chilled, and they stepped back several paces.
Mrs. Ma’s face turned even paler.
"Every grievance has its master, and every debt has its debtor. This is fate. The three people he harmed were all two lives for one corpse, totaling six lives, and no one can save him!" Qin Liuxi stated coldly, and then turned and entered the room.
The servant swallowed hard, realizing she knew everything; indeed, she was a master, but she wouldn’t lift a finger to save them!
"No no no, master, we’ll give you Silver, as much as you want. Please save him, I only have this one son!" Mrs. Ma rushed forward, trying to follow her.
However, after taking a few steps, she tumbled to the ground, her legs as if seized by something, immobile, and she screamed in terror.