Chapter 45 Seeing Ghosts in Broad Daylight

"Do not commit wanton acts of slaughter," Su Changleng said, her expression turning slightly cold as she gently parted her lips toward the female ghost. "However, I don't mind if you teach him a small lesson."

"You got it~" The female ghost curved her brows and blossomed into a radiant smile, yet her hands were remarkably steady and ruthless as she pinned the young man's head straight down.

The county magistrate surnamed Luo felt his scalp go numb and his knees turn to jelly as a tremendous force instantly slammed his head fiercely against the bluestone floor!

*Bang—*

The sound of his skull colliding with the bluestone pavement was startlingly loud. Warm blood instantly flowed across half of the young man's cheek, leaving the surrounding crowd utterly astonished and dazed as they stared fixedly at the magistrate who had "mysteriously" hurled himself into the stone slabs upon the high platform. They felt as though everything happening today had far surpassed the limits of their understanding!

"M-Magistrate, are you alright?" Cheng Mingye, standing guard nearby, watched this with mounting panic and instinctively wanted to step forward to help up the young man who seemed to have been knocked senseless.

Yet Magistrate Luo, weighed down by the vengeful spirit possessing his body, now felt his physical shell grow as heavy as a thousand pounds. No matter how hard he tried—even pulling with enough force to nearly wrench the young man's arm right out of its socket—he could not budge the man a single inch.

"Gasp... wheeze..." Unable to stand, Magistrate Luo struggled to force out some words, but his throat, tightly locked by the female ghost, could only produce two muffled and ambiguous gasps.

At that instant, a boundless despair suddenly welled up within his heart—countless scenes he had witnessed or never seen before flickered across his mind like a revolving lantern. In the shifting light and shadows, he saw young children, still unformed, having their spines bent straight by the crushing weight of rites, laws, and dogma; he saw how the turbulent world gradually warped people into those ferocious and twisted shapes...

He saw countless women driven to their deaths by one chastity archway after another, and he saw farmers starving to death by the roadside due to bad weather and exorbitant taxes.

He saw his own reflection from over a decade ago, still studying late into the night, reciting grand ambitions to "establish a heart for Heaven and Earth, secure life and fate for the people, continue the lost teachings of past sages, and bring lasting peace to all generations"—only for those ideals to dissolve into a vortex of greed and ambition amidst the passage of time and clinking wine cups...

—Amidst that endless flood of illusions, he finally saw the face of his long-deceased eldest sister-in-law.

—That pitiful woman whom his parents had plotted to murder under the banner of "bringing honor to the family."

"Gasp... wheeze!" Luo An was overcome with panic, the terror so intense it felt as though the flesh all over his body was about to burst apart!

"An'er... you've grown this big." In the hallucination—or perhaps it was no hallucination at all—the woman smiled and slowly leaned down. The smile on her face was just as gentle and kind as he remembered, yet the fingertips that brushed against his cheek were so freezing cold that they sent him shivering violently and uncontrollably!

"I remember... your dream once was to be a good official who could bring benefit to the local people." Cheng Yingrou smiled as she reached out to pat the young man's head. Wherever her fingers passed, the bone-chilling ghostly aura instantly made the hair on his body stand on end.

"Yet look at yourself now... See if you can still be considered a good official today!"

"Your official career... why on earth should it be paved with my life?!"

The woman's expression suddenly twisted. As she erupted in fury, the flesh on her body peeled away inch by inch like tree bark.

The sloughed-off, rotting flesh piled up in an instant beneath her feet into a small, foul-smelling mound. Luo An's head was forced to bend upward at a bizarre, nearly fractured angle—his eyes bulging, he finally caught sight of her skeletal frame and her skull, most of which had been gnawed away by rats!

"Ah—!!" Terror surged upward, squeezing a rolling scream from the young man's throat. The shriek pierced through the rafters and startled the birds resting in the trees.

After letting out that shriek, Luo An closed his eyes and completely passed out. Yet to everyone else, it simply looked as though their usually lofty magistrate had, for some unknown reason, tripped over himself and screamed in terror before fainting away.

"C-Could this be seeing a ghost in broad daylight?" someone in the crowd muttered, immediately sparking a wave of discussion.

Seeing this chaotic state of affairs, Cheng Guanghao wanted to shout loudly to restore order and quickly summon a physician to diagnose the magistrate.

Yet Su Changleng's hand incantation earlier had been far too fierce and ruthless; despite the old man exerting every ounce of his strength, he could not open his mouth even a fraction of an inch!

What on earth... was going on here?

With a look of sheer bewilderment, Cheng Guanghao reached up and clutched his own throat. In a flash of overwhelming agitation, he rolled his eyes back as well and lost consciousness right on the spot.

Thus, the ancestral hall, already in turmoil, descended into complete chaos. Seeing this, Cheng Mingye had no choice but to make a prompt decision, stepping up to take his father's place and taking charge of the situation.

"This is the sacred ancestral hall, strict silence is required!" Cheng Mingye snatched the drumsticks from the hands of the drummer and struck the ceremonial leather drum with all his might.

The earth-shaking drumbeat drowned out the clamor of the crowd, plunging the courtyard into sudden silence.

"What are you all standing around dazed for? Hurry up and carry Lord Luo and the Elder Master away to be treated!" Cheng Mingye commanded harshly, directing the maids and servants to carry the two unconscious men out of the ancestral hall while ordering others to quickly clean up the pools of blood both on and off the platform.

Once the chaotic ancestral hall finally quieted down, Cheng Yingxue absorbed the very last trace of medicinal potency within her meridians and slowly opened her eyes.

"Miss Cheng, how are you feeling now?" Su Changleng lowered her eyelashes as she concluded her spell, wiping away the startling bloodstains from the young girl's body and recalling Cheng Yingrou, who was still lingering rigidly atop the high platform.

At these words, Cheng Yingxue earnestly checked her physical condition, only to find that the places which had hurt so excruciatingly just moments before no longer held even a hint of pain—instead, her entire body was suffused with an unprecedented sense of lightness and comfort.

"I feel great!" The young girl beamed with joy and immediately scrambled to her feet. "It doesn't hurt at all anymore, Master!"

"Good, as long as you've recovered," Su Changleng replied with a nod, beckoning the female ghost back down from the rafters of the ancestral hall. "Now, what about the circulation route through the heavenly cycle that I just taught you? Have you memorized it all?"

"I've memorized it all," Cheng Yingxue nodded at the sound of her voice, "like the back of my hand!"

"Good." The young woman's expression softened slightly, and she raised a hand to signal the girl to look toward Wang Manyin, who was staring at her unblinkingly. "Then go bid the mistress farewell; it's time for us to leave."

"I'm going right now." Hearing this, the young girl gave a heavy nod, turned around, and rushed toward the matron over yonder.

Though she was someone who had never been particularly fond of making grand bows, this time the girl dropped to both knees with lightning speed. Wang Manyin felt a blur before her eyes, instantly followed by the sharp sound of two heavy kowtows ringing in her ears.

"Mother, your daughter has been unfilial and lacks the fortune to serve by your side. I only hope that from this day forward... you will take good care of yourself!" Cheng Yingxue pressed her forehead deeply against the floor, her voice uncontrollably tinged with a sob as she spoke.

Wang Manyin, whose tears had just barely stopped, suddenly found her face drenched in them all over again.

Trembling, she lowered her head, wanting to pull the girl up from the ground. She wanted to speak, but she was already choked with tears:

"Get up... Yunniang, good child, hurry and get up—"