Chapter 1 What Happened?

"What's going on? How could two grown men just disappear?" Li Bai's face betrayed his anxiety upon hearing that Fatty and Yao Shunyu were missing.

The door was open, and Jiang Cheng stood behind it with a grim expression, his gaze fixed on the darkness outside. Not long ago, he had been following Fatty and the others from a distance. The lantern held by the maidservant was quite conspicuous in the dark night. Worried about being noticed, he didn't rush to close the distance. But who could have imagined that after turning a corner, when he hurried over, the lantern light was gone, and Fatty's group had vanished without a trace.

Naturally, he wouldn't give up so easily and continued to pursue them along the path for a while. However, the seemingly gentle courtyard concealed hidden mysteries. The corridors were interconnected in all directions, and many places were no longer illuminated by white lanterns. Under the cloak of night, everything around had gradually changed its flavor. The trees and the stacked rocks had all melted into blurry, dark black outlines, shadowy and indistinct, as if they had grown hands, feet, and limbs, or as if something was hiding behind them.

Continuing to chase would not only fail to find Fatty and the others but would also trap him as well. Jiang Cheng had no choice but to retreat first and seek another way.

Sitting at the table, Shao Tong wrapped his military coat tighter around himself and grumbled with dissatisfaction, "What did this Daoist say? This mansion clearly has problems. I told you that living human stakes had been planted here, but you didn't believe me. This Daoist also possesses supernatural powers. If you ask me, we should just fight our way out, capture this Marquis Zhennan, and use some harsh methods on him. We wouldn't have to worry about him not telling the truth."

The others were already annoyed, and Shao Tong's terrible idea only worsened their mood. How could they, just a few people, capture the Marquis Zhennan in this mansion? Did he think those guards were made of clay?

Lu Qin glared fiercely at Shao Tong, and the latter finally quieted down.

Suddenly, a burst of rapid footsteps came from outside the door. Before long, a man in his early thirties appeared outside the door, also carrying a lantern in his hand.

The man was wearing the clothes of a servant in the Marquis's mansion, but they clearly didn't fit him well. The sleeves were much too long, and there was an indescribable look of panic between his eyebrows. "Masters, the Marquis invites you to come over for a meeting, saying there's an important matter to discuss."

"Didn't the Marquis already send someone to invite us?" Zhang Qizheng asked in astonishment. "Two of us have already been taken away."

The man was stunned and then looked at the people in the room. After counting, there were indeed two people missing. The man's expression immediately became nervous. "How could that be? I just received the order. The Marquis didn't arrange for anyone else to notify you, only me..."

After a moment, the man seemed to realize something. He walked straight into the room, then carefully closed the door, and even bolted it shut. Only then did he turn around and ask, "Masters... masters, what did the people who came to pick you up look like? Do you... do you still remember?"

Looking at the man's cautious demeanor, Jiang Cheng suspected that he must know something. So he replied, "It was a woman, probably a maidservant from the Marquis's mansion."

"A woman? How could it be a woman..." The man muttered softly to himself, but Jiang Cheng and the others caught it, which further confirmed his suspicion.

At the same time, Jiang Cheng also noticed a very strange phenomenon. The man was holding the lantern in his left hand, while his right arm hung down unnaturally. His right hand was completely covered by the wide sleeves of his robe, as if something was hidden inside. Considering the man's ill-fitting clothes, it seemed as if everything was meant to conceal the right hand hidden beneath the sleeve.

Jiang Cheng casually glanced at the others and noticed from their expressions that he was not the only one who had noticed the strangeness. While Li Bai was comforting the man, he took out paper and ink, and without hesitation, poured some tea to grind the ink. Jiang Cheng sat at the table, picked up a brush, and with a few strokes, sketched the woman's appearance.

"It's her. Do you recognize her?" Jiang Cheng put down the brush, observing the man's reaction.

After a few seconds, the man's pupils suddenly contracted, and then he staggered back several steps. His body went limp, and something angular fell from his sleeve with a "thud" and landed on the ground.

The man immediately reacted and tried to pick it up, but Tang Qisheng was much faster than him and grabbed it. Only then did everyone see clearly that it was a Bagua mirror. The bronze mirror surface looked old and not like an ordinary object.

"Give it back to me!"

The man was furious and reached out to grab it, but Jiang Cheng seized him in the next second, twisted his arm behind his back, and pressed him against the table, his face facing the painting.

Staring at the woman in the painting, the man trembled with fear, constantly struggling and begging for mercy, as if afraid that she would crawl out of the paper.

Tang Qisheng played with the Bagua mirror in his hand, unable to help but exclaim, "Good stuff, really good stuff." He then turned the Bagua mirror over, and the back was made of what looked like burnt wood, but it looked even more textured. "A genuine Xuanzhou Shui Luo mirror surface, with struck-by-lightning wood for the back, and the Xuamen's Ghost Recording carved on it in hidden patterns. If I'm not mistaken, this thing was obtained from the Xuamen, right? Someone like you wouldn't have such a treasure. Tell me the truth, where did you steal it from?"

"Give it back to me! Give it back to me!" The man was almost crying. "I didn't steal it. It was... it was lent to me by the steward in the mansion. Anyone who comes in here has to carry a protective magic item, and when they leave, they have to return it. Once it's lost, their lives will be in danger!"

"Why? Why do you have to bring a protective magic item when you come in here? What exactly happened here?" Zhu Jie asked urgently. The ominous premonition in everyone's hearts was gradually becoming a reality.

"I... I can't say..."

Seeing the man so stubborn, Shao Tong became excited and looked at Tang Qisheng eagerly. "Since he refuses to speak, then smash the mirror and see how he explains it when he goes back."

Tang Qisheng naturally understood the seriousness of the matter and pretended to raise the mirror, about to smash it on the ground. Upon seeing this, the man's defenses completely broke down, and he cried out, "Don't, don't smash it! I'll talk, this is the Marquis's villa specially built for his deceased wife. Since the day it was built, there have been rumors of it being haunted, and it's said that people have died here. Everyone in the Marquis's mansion knows about this, so without special circumstances, everyone avoids approaching here, especially at night."

"This is a yin house?" Li Bai was secretly shocked.

"Y-yes, that's right." Staring at the painting on the table, the man's voice trembled with nervousness. "Also, the woman in the painting is a maidservant who served the madam. She... she's also dead!"

Thinking of what the woman said, that she had come to invite them to meet the Marquis and his wife, it was more likely that she was inviting them to meet the madam. Jiang Cheng couldn't help but worry about Fatty and Yao Shunyu's situation.

"How did the madam and the others die?" Jiang Cheng pressed.

The man shook his head violently, as if resigning himself to fate. "I don't know, I really don't know. The madam died a long time ago, before I entered the mansion. I... I've never even seen the madam's face."