Chapter 818: Chapter 608: Female Official Pendant
Fang Zhou and Lou Huixiang seemed to have been sapped of all their strength, their legs buckled, and they sat down on the ground one after the other, with beads of cold sweat dripping from their foreheads.
Nalan Shuo and Xiang Fengchen eventually sighed in relief, but the ordeal was not completely over. Gathering their spirits, they returned the Ghost Gate God to its original place.
Meanwhile, Jiang Qingluan and Chang Chuchu also returned the Gate God to the door. After the female ghost left the courtyard through the well in their room, the well itself disappeared.
"Is it... over?" Fang Zhou, who had survived a brush with death, still looked incredulously at everything before him. He had truly walked a path before the Ghost Gate, which was far more terrifying than when he had faced the Ghost Hitting the Wall alone in the Corpse Forest.
Struggling to his feet, he subconsciously moved away from the well, the sinister evil Qi that had been emerging from it was gone.
"Don’t get too close, that ghost hasn’t died, it has only been temporarily suppressed. It won’t be long before it reappears," Nalan Shuo approached.
Hearing this, Fang Zhou’s recently relaxed emotions were instantly shattered, his complexion turning pale. Seeing this, Nalan Shuo stepped forward, gently patted his shoulder, and reassured, "But you don’t need to worry, at least there won’t be any trouble before we leave."
"That’s not necessarily true." The next second, Xiang Fengchen, who wore a cold expression, also came over. At this moment, his sleeves were soaked in blood, and his face and body were dotted with bloodstains. The aura of an expert was completely absent, making him look quite disheveled, "If another fool like Zhang Songde appears, we could all be killed by his actions!"
"You, tell me exactly what happened?" Carefully picking up the Divine Turtle Shell that had fallen to the ground, Xiang Fengchen, pointing directly at Fang Zhou, called him out.
Hearing this, Lou Huixiang, who stood by the side, trembled frightfully, and then looked at Fang Zhou with eyes almost pleading. After all, it was him and Zhang Songde who had concocted the situation, and they had forced Fang Zhou to peep behind the door.
The consequences of this incident were disastrous, nearly killing everyone. Once this was known by Xiang Fengchen and Nalan Shuo, Lou Huixiang knew his fate would be very ugly.
However, to Lou Huixiang’s surprise, Fang Zhou did not mention his actions at all but instead blamed everything on Zhang Songde. It was Zhang Songde who did not believe Yang Xiao’s words and insisted on looking behind the door, which invited the ghost. As for him and Lou Huixiang, they tried in vain to persuade, but due to Zhang Songde’s domineering threats, the two really had no choice.
"You’re young, that’s excusable, but Lou Huixiang, you’re after all from the Black Buddha Mother’s sector, how could you be so spineless, unable to discern the severity of consequences?" Without any hesitation, Xiang Fengchen turned his head and revealed Lou Huixiang’s incompetence in front of everyone.
Even so, Lou Huixiang dared not show any dissatisfaction. He could see that Xiang Fengchen was extremely frustrated, and he didn’t want to be the one to provoke him, stepping forward to offer himself for relief.
"Senior Xiang, Brother Lou did his best, but Zhang Songde is just incorrigible, he really had no other option," Fang Zhou tried his best to ease the situation.
"Right, right, exactly, both Brother Fang and I tried our best. It was all messed up by that bastard Zhang Songde," Lou Huixiang explained anxiously.
With Fang Zhou vouching for him and everyone else helping to smooth things over, Xiang Fengchen finally suppressed his anger. It had taken almost costing him his life to resolve tonight’s troubles, not to mention he had also broken a middle finger. This loss was indeed significant.
However, the crisis of the night was temporarily overcome, and the anomalies in the surroundings gradually returned to normal, the dark clouds dissipated, and the clear moonlight once again shone down.
"Miss Jiang, my apologies, it was a desperate measure under pressing circumstances, please be magnanimous and forgive me," Yang Xiao went forward, sincerely apologizing to Jiang Qingluan. The late-night door smashing and threatening tear down the door God, pulling her to a mutual destruction, was not a decent act.
Jiang Qingluan looked at him, her expression neither sad nor happy, "You’ve already been punished for it, consider that kick as your compensation."
Indeed, Jiang Qingluan was not one to make unreasonable trouble, for she was a reasonable person. Tonight, if she hadn’t acted, it would have resulted in Yang Xiao’s demise, possibly even endangering the experienced seniors like Nalan Shuo and Xiang Fengchen, with at least one or two lives lost.
If the deceased had been Yang Xiao, it might have been bearable, but if Nalan Shuo or Xiang Fengchen were the ones, it would have been an unbearable loss for the entire team.
Thus, Yang Xiao was right to say, coming out to help him was indeed helping themselves. Jiang Qingluan understood this principle, and that kick was also because she was annoyed by Yang Xiao blocking the door.
Having resolved the misunderstanding between them, Yang Xiao then turned to look at Chang Chuchu. At the moment, the imprint of a slap was still visible on her face, she looked pitiful and helpless as she gazed back at him.
"Miss Chang, I’m sorry for the discomfort you’ve endured," Yang Xiao said truthfully.
Miss Chang stared at him, biting her lip and not saying a word.
The look in her eyes made Yang Xiao’s heart ache, recalling how Jiang Qingluan had been somewhat aggressive in trying to persuade Miss Chang to help.
"Brother Yang, are you alright?" Fang Zhou had a favorable impression of the man who had helped him in the Land Temple.
"I’m fine; thanks to you this time, thank you," Yang Xiao said with a smile, mimicking Nalan Shuo as he patted Fang Zhou’s shoulder.
"You’re too kind, but..." Fang Zhou gave a bitter smile and lowered his voice, "Brother Yang, you don’t know, when I saw that ghost just now, I was almost scared to death."
The trouble tonight had been resolved, the Ghost Gate God and Gate God had both returned to their places, and Nalan Shuo had gone back behind the courtyard gate. The half upper body that had been lying outside the gate had disappeared, leaving only a puddle of wet, sticky liquid on the ground.
Nalan Shuo was not surprised by this, but he inadvertently spotted a small, shiny object in the sticky liquid, resembling a string of beads.
This must have fallen from the female ghost. With Nalan Shuo’s warning, everyone quickly gathered behind the courtyard gate, but no one dared to step out, as they had all seen the fate of that ghost—sliced into two halves, and if even ghosts could be cut in half, let alone humans.
No entry was allowed, which was one of the rules of the night, and these two Human Skin Door Gods were more sinister than the Ghost Gate God.
However, not going out didn’t mean they couldn’t retrieve the beads. Nalan Shuo tore open a bundle, piecing together a 5-meter long rope, tying a sharp-edged stone to one end. He then stood behind the threshold and tossed the rope out, hitting near the beads perfectly.
Then he slowly reeled the rope back in, needing only three attempts to successfully hook the beads back.
It was only when the distance was closer that Yang Xiao clearly saw that it wasn’t a string of beads but a string of jade pendants sewn and pieced together.
Dragging the jade pendants into the courtyard, Nalan Shuo didn’t act rashly; instead, he gathered a lot of dirt and buried the pendants until they formed a small mound, though to Yang Xiao, it looked more like a grave.
After finishing, Nalan Shuo stretched out his hand towards Xiang Fengchen, who unhesitatingly produced a small remainder of incense from his chest. Nalan Shuo took it and lit it with a Fire Starter, reverently planting it in the soil.
"Bury evil, ask the way," Jiang Qingluan said softly.
"Not bad, quite knowledgeable," Xiang Fengchen admired the young lady and couldn’t help nodding.
Nalan Shuo stared intently at the small portion of incense until it burned out not long after. With no abnormality in the incense smoke, it indicated the object was relatively safe.
He pulled out the incense and leveled the soil clockwise, retrieving the jade pendants buried at the bottom. The pendants, sewn onto a tattered piece of cloth with severely frayed edges, looked as though they had been forcefully torn from some clothing.
"It’s a Female Official Pendant," Nalan Shuo declared the origin of the item as he held up the pendants against the moonlight.
Female officials might not attend court, but they still possessed rank and status, and this Female Official Pendant was one of the few items that could prove a female official’s identity and symbolize her status. Those knowledgeable could determine the female official’s rank by the number, quality, and sewing method of the pendants.
And clearly, among them, Xiang Fengchen was an expert in this field.
"Seven-tailed Ring Dragon Fish Pattern Pendant," Xiang Fengchen eyed the pendants closely, gently caressing them as he took a deep breath, "This person held a high status, a third-grade female official."
This answer coincided exactly with Yang Xiao’s previous speculation, indicating that the female official who perished in the well was one of the eleven protectors enshrined in the Land Temple, one who had died protecting her former master.
According to the old beggar, the Land Temple was actually Zhongyi Temple, built by people from the Earl Mansion to calm their minds and avoid the entanglements of aggrieved spirits, but Yang Xiao vaguely felt that things were not so simple.
