Chapter 44 She Has Her Rules

Bad news arrived one after another, making Lang Zhengping's mood as freezing as the icy world outside the house, a chilling despair beyond words.

Originally, the suspicion only pointed to Song Chengfu and Concubine Rong from the Lu family, and without substantive evidence connecting them to the Lang family's ordeal, their sudden deaths made even the innocent look suspicious—otherwise, how could such a coincidence exist?

After Gao Cailang started investigating them, three people had already died, all of whom were entangled in this affair with the Lang family. Needless to say, a powerful mastermind was pulling the strings behind the scenes, and the Lu family was likely far from innocent.

Lang Zhengping did not ask Lang Jiuchuan how to handle this matter. Perhaps in his heart, he felt that she was merely a frail young girl incapable of shouldering heavy burdens, and there was no need to tax her delicate constitution, so he told her to return to her room to rest.

Yet Lang Jiuchuan asked Gao Ping for the names and birth dates of Song Chengfu and Concubine Rong.

Compared to Lang Zhengping, when she learned the exact date Song Chengfu visited the Taiqing Temple, a subtle feeling arose in her heart. That date coincided precisely with the day the original owner of this body died. She wondered if the two were connected, and if so, it would be simply marvelous.

Was the mastermind's drive to eliminate all future trouble caused by the original owner's death, or was it the enmity provoked by the Lang family that ultimately led to the original owner's demise?

Whichever the case might be, it seemed she could not leave the Lang family just yet.

Lang Jiuchuan lowered her gaze to the tabletop, where water stains were evaporating in the breeze—characters she had absentmindedly traced with water.

"Who holds such deep hatred? Not only do they want you dead, but they want your entire family wiped out too!"

Lang Jiuchuan let out a light laugh, a fierce chill raging in her eyes as she licked her lips.

When Jiang Che returned from outside, this was the exact scene that met his eyes: the person sitting beneath the lamplight, lowering her gaze to lick her lips, causing him to tremble involuntarily.

How should he put it? The figure under the lamp hardly looked human; she resembled a female demon wrapped in swirling black mist.

This was a tough, prickly thorn not to be trifled with!

Jiang Che tightened his skin, gave a heavy cough, and asked with feigned nonchalance, "Showing such a spine-chilling smile—who in this estate is courting death and displeased you?"

"Someone wants me dead, the kind of dead from which there is no return. What do you think I should do?" Lang Jiuchuan raised her head, looking straight at it with a toxic, bone-chilling smile.

Jiang Che gave a sharp shiver and said, "Didn't you say it yourself? You have your own rules. If someone wants you dead, it's like blowing out your lamp; shouldn't you blow theirs out right back, or even pull out their wick?"

"Indeed." Lang Jiuchuan smiled again, her tone shifting as she asked, "Tell me, what have you found out?"

Jiang Che darted into her spiritual altar and declared, "I'm exhausted. Let me take a couple of sips first."

As its spiritual awareness fully merged into the spiritual altar, Lang Jiuchuan's innate soul fortune began to circulate. Overjoyed, Jiang Che sprawled out its limbs and frantically absorbed the energy.

Simultaneously sensing the flow of the other party's willpower, Lang Jiuchuan unceremoniously began to harvest it in return.

Yet as the two exchanged energies back and forth, Jiang Che suddenly felt something was slightly amiss. The sensation bore an uncanny resemblance to a term it had once heard before.

Dual cultivation.

Jiang Che stiffened slightly, the tips of its ears turning somewhat red. It furtively glanced at the person opposite, only to find her expression completely calm and composed, entirely devoid of any untoward thoughts.

Bah!

Jiang Che spat out in self-disgust, though it remained unclear whether that contempt was directed at itself or someone else.

"The baleful aura clinging to that fellow Shen Peng, from what I can see, seems to have been provoked by his own father. Shen 青河 (Shen Qinghe) has recently been investigating a case—a missing persons case. Two young aristocrats and rakes in the capital have vanished: Yang Ming, belonging to the Marquis of Changle's estate, and Li Xin, the son of the Prince of Kangle. It's caused quite an uproar. Though called a disappearance, it's likely a 'Mountain God's Wedding' case."

"A Mountain God's Wedding?" Lang Jiuchuan asked in astonishment, her interest piqued. "What's this? Could those two profligates have been married off to a mountain god? No wait, are you certain the missing persons are males, not females?"

A Mountain God's Wedding involving male brides?

"That is precisely the bizarre part. Actually, the missing are not limited to just these two over the past few years; others have vanished as well, but they were merely commoners, unworthy of attention." Jiang Che's tone carried a hint of mockery as it continued, "However, once aristocratic profligates run into trouble, it is a completely different matter. Both families kicked up a fuss, and the case was eventually handed over to the Dali Temple."

As a relative of the imperial consort's family, the Marquis of Changle's estate naturally acted with supreme arrogance, not to mention their overbearing ways. Failing to find their missing son, they raised a ruckus that reached the Dali Temple. Shen Qinghe had expended a great deal of manpower, even sacrificing quite a few subordinates, before finally unearthing a few clues linked to this so-called Mountain God's Wedding.

"...A hundred miles away from Wujing lies Tongcheng, featuring a village named Daughter's Village, nestled deep within the Sea of Maples. Come late autumn, the entire mountain transforms into a blazing sheet of red, attracting numerous scholars and travelers seeking to admire the scenery. Interestingly, despite being named Daughter's Village, it is a place where yin truly outweighs yang."

"How is that village connected to a Mountain God's Wedding?"

"Not only is Daughter's Village scenic, but it also houses a remarkably responsive Mountain God Temple. Legend has it that every November, the village holds a Mountain God Festival. At that time, the mountain god manifests to perform a marriage and bestow blessings, ensuring the village enjoys peace and prosperity throughout the four seasons."

Hearing this, Lang Jiuchuan sensed something was amiss and remarked, "Since it's a Mountain God Festival, this so-called wedding is actually a sacrifice, isn't it?"

For isolated rural settlements to offer sacrifices to so-called ghosts and gods was hardly a novel occurrence. The more importance they attached to such rituals, the more precious the offerings—whether objects or living beings.

If the offerings of Daughter's Village happened to be the latter, then the euphemism of a "wedding" was merely a pleasant-sounding veil to conceal their brutality.

Jiang Che cast an approving glance in her direction and said, "Indeed. However, the sacrifices of Daughter's Village are rather peculiar. While other deities demand living sacrifices—especially those involving marriages—they almost exclusively use females. Yet the sacrifices of Daughter's Village are male."

"So those two profligates were offered up as sacrifices?"

Jiang Che shook its head. "Hard to say. I've heard that historically, the targets of the Mountain God's Weddings have mostly been the young men of Daughter's Village itself, which explains why the village suffers from an imbalance of yin and yang. Their recent disappearance reportedly occurred because they violated the auspicious hour during the Mountain God's Wedding, infuriating the deity and prompting him to detain them forcibly. Of course, that is the official explanation of Daughter's Village; the underlying truth remains unknown."

Lang Jiuchuan bent her fingers to tap rhythmically on the tabletop. "That Daughter's Village is quite bold, daring to forcibly detain aristocratic youths without fearing that those families might utterly annihilate the entire settlement."

Just as Lang Zhengping had said, society was stratified into distinct classes. In the eyes of the nobility, an ordinary village and all its inhabitants combined were not even worth a fraction of one of their own young masters or misses. If the village dared to court death in such a manner, erasing them from existence would not even cause the nobility to blink.

"What you say is true, but aside from hiding behind the shield of safety in numbers, that village genuinely possesses some eerie qualities. I've heard that anyone venturing into the vicinity of the Mountain God Temple to search for the missing either dies or suffers severe injuries, more or less crossing paths with malevolent spirits, as if a genuine mountain god were truly manifesting to protect the village." Jiang Che stroked its tiger-like whiskers and added, "Were it not for this, Shen Qinghe would not have continually lost his men under his command, dragging even his own son into misfortune."

Lang Jiuchuan lowered her gaze. "Whether it is human trickery or the wrath of a so-called mountain god depends entirely on Shen Qinghe's choice."

"Do you think he will come looking for you?"

Lang Jiuchuan pushed open the window, gazing at the darkening sky, and replied, "I won't force it. Let fate decide."

This, too, was one of her rules.