Grudge Breaker

Chapter 357: The Ghost Appears (Part )
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"Your Excellency is so wise! Wu Jiu and I have really been enlightened in the past two days at the Goddess Peak."

Ding Heran started talking as soon as he entered the door. After all, the entire Tingfeng Mansion was shrouded in a sound barrier, so they didn't need to be shy.

"The whereabouts of the missing Noble Lady Ruan, the traitor in Sichen Mansion, and the final list of the warlock grading trial, all three of these things have unexpected findings. Which one do you and Brother Wei want to hear about first?"

Ding Heran obviously hadn't been beaten for three days, and he actually kept it a secret.

Mo Tingfeng thought of the 'Ruan Mianmian' he had seen in the mist at Sikong Mansion that morning. Her appearance had become that of a cuckoo, which was not a good sign.

"Could it be that there is something wrong with the Invisible Five Elements Formation? But he has not received any urgent information from Ruan's mother Jinglan, so it shouldn't be..."

As Mo Tingfeng thought about it, he always felt uneasy. Thinking about it carefully, Ruan's mother was unusually quiet in the past two days after the night banquet. She was a little too patient.

Thinking of this, he subconsciously sent a directed message to Jing Lan, asking about the abnormality in the Ruan Mansion.

"Let's talk about Mian Mian's disappearance first."

Ding Heran took the order and quickly walked to the silk map of the sleeping world in Wuqing Residence, which was made of a folding screen and covered with clues. He pointed to a place in the southwest of the Goddess Peak.
"Today at 7 pm, Wu Jiu and I saw Lady Ruan at the Goddess Peak. The Lord had told us not to reveal our whereabouts no matter what we saw, so we followed from a distance."

"Lady Ruan was just a faint shadow, walking in the woods, seemingly without any purpose. The shadow lasted for half an incense stick and then suddenly disappeared."

Ding Heran cast a spell and pointed it at the silk map. Four locations on the map, namely, Goddess Peak, Sikong Mansion, Sichen Mansion, and Wuyin Village, lit up at the same time.

"Before we set out, my Lord said that the 'Dead Qi Resurrection' signal of the 'Square Victory and Harmony Method' must appear in the four locations in the upper part of the Yao character structure. Any disturbance in the Sikong and Sichen mansions will naturally ferment at the first time, so we don't need to pay too much attention. So after seeing the whereabouts of Lady Ruan, I continued to wait at the Goddess Peak, and Wujiu went to the Hidden Mist Village in a low-key manner. Wujiu, what do you say?"

Ye Wujiu responded, bowed and stepped forward.
"Your Excellency, contrary to what Tsuru Mori and I thought, the shadow of Lady Ruan did not appear in the Hidden Mist Village."

"On the contrary, around noon, several villagers who had been responsible for guarding the collapsed crypt in the village said that they saw a female ghost suddenly appear and disappear. Based on the description of her appearance, it should be Dujuan."

"Cuckoo?"

"Yes, Dujuan."

Ding Heran replied, "The villagers mentioned a detail. The woman was wearing red clothes and barefoot, and there was a strange talisman pattern on her ankle. They noticed it because it was bleeding. This outfit and details are exactly what Du Juan looked like when she hanged herself."

Hearing Du Juan's name, Mo Tingfeng once again recalled the scene he saw in the Mist Spirit, and couldn't help but frown - why was it not Ruan Mianmian who appeared in the Hidden Mist Village? Something must have gone wrong.

"Today at noon, I also saw Dujuan in Sikong Mansion. Or rather, Mianmian who looked like Dujuan."

Mo Tingfeng told everyone what he had encountered.

It seems that they must find out now whether there are any unusual phenomena in the mansion during the day when they are not at Si Chen Mansion - if so, who appears is Du Juan or Ruan Mianmian.

But now it was past midnight, and it was really abrupt for Mo Tingfeng to suddenly ask someone to ask whether any unusual phenomena had occurred in the mansion at noon. This was bound to attract excessive attention from those who were interested.

"Are you dumbfounded? You still have to rely on me to get gossip."

Song Weichen, who had been silent the whole time, spoke up. "Although I don't want to see Lao Longjing at all, her disappearance is a good thing for me to have some peace and quiet, but I don't hate her to the point of cursing her. You guys chat while I go find Guyu."
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Song Weichen went out of the door and headed towards the maids' courtyard next to the Tingfeng Mansion. She walked very slowly. Yun Jian was seriously injured and was barely saved. However, she had an intermittent headache due to Sang Pu's brief return to life, and she could no longer hold on.

After walking a few steps, his nose felt hot and he skillfully took out a silk handkerchief to cover it. Song Weichen grinned and laughed at himself. This nosebleed scene was really good and it happened at the right time. In this way, he had a good reason to look for Guyu in the middle of the night, and even if the other maids living in the same courtyard noticed it, they would not be suspicious.

"Miss Sang Pu is ill, why did she come here in person? You can just call me over."

Although Guyu knew Song Weichen's true identity, walls have ears after all. She was still cautious and addressed Song Weichen according to his attire, while she was busy treating her bleeding nose.

"It's okay. I just got back home and it feels like I haven't seen you for a while, so I stopped by."

In fact, it was only less than 20 days since the princess held the Spring Banquet in the back mountain of Si Chen Mansion. It was also only more than half a month since Song Weichen drank the disguise water and disguised himself as Guyu and took Xiao Biezhi to punish Lao Longjing. However, too many things happened during this period.

Ruan Mianmian disappeared, Ding Heran and Ye Wujiu were both seriously injured during a secret investigation of the Lord's Mansion, the arranged marriage at the night banquet was a mistake, Gu Cangyue's Mengya was at work, and her relationship with Shu Tinglong was exposed, Mo Ting's power in the Fengyun cocoon was greatly damaged, she met Sang Pu in Shu when she was on the verge of death, and Sang Pu briefly returned to life... So many things happened, it would be hard to breathe just to recall them all.

"Guyu, I'm so tired. Sometimes I envy you for being able to stay in the mansion every day and enjoy peace and tranquility."

"Young lady is a person who does great things, how can you argue with me? Life in the mansion is dull, and I'm afraid young lady will get bored after a few days."

"But speaking of which, a strange thing happened earlier today..."

Guyu's eyes moved, her curiosity was burning. She glanced at the closed door and leaned close to Song Weichen's ear.

"The house is haunted today."

Song Weichen was waiting for her gossip. He raised his eyebrows and showed his curiosity.
"What? Haunted? This is Si Chen's residence, what ghost is so blind?"

"Really, several sisters saw it, right in our Venerable Mansion."

Guyu looked like he had eaten a big melon.

"Girl, guess who you bumped into?"

"The words of the Venerable Mansion..."

Song Weichen pretended to think,

"Xiao An and Du Juan both died there. If it's haunted, could it be one of them?"

Guyu nodded, then shook her head.

"The girl is half right."

"Today at noon, the maid in charge of sweeping the floor heard some noise in the cellar. That place had been unused since the eldest princess and Lady Ruan left. There was nothing else there except for the wine vessels and food utensils that were not used in daily life. The maid thought it was a rat that had entered the cellar, so she found the key and went in to check. As a result, she saw Lady Ruan."

"But it's strange. She was clearly Concubine Ruan, but she was wearing the red dress that Du Juan wore when she hanged herself. And when she saw the maid coming, she raised the tray in her hand to her, just like when Du Juan came to the cellar to get ice when she was alive. Then she disappeared out of thin air, and the tray fell to the ground with a loud noise, which scared the maid. She is still lying in the clinic now."

"The governor didn't allow us to talk about this matter, fearing that the Venerable Mansion would be haunted and Lord Si Chen would blame us if he knew about it, so not many people knew about it. The maid who cleaned the house and several maids in the Venerable Mansion were stuffed with personal money to keep them quiet. The reason why I knew about it was that the governor took into consideration that Guyu was the personal maid of the White Robe Venerable and that this happened in the Venerable Mansion, so he couldn't hide it from me, so he secretly called me to go."...

The two chatted for a while, and when Song Weichen's nosebleed stopped, he used the excuse of being sleepy to go back, and did not let Guyu follow him. He only said that Mo Tingfeng would stay at Wuqingju tonight, "It's not convenient."

On the way back, she was still thinking about it. It was a good thing that she came out to inquire. If she had let those two stupid guys, Ding Heran and Ye Wujiu, go, the government officials would have intended to conceal the matter, and only a limited number of people knew about the ghost story. It would be really strange if they could find out anything.
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After returning to Wuqingju, Song Weichen told Mo Tingfeng all the information that Guyu mentioned, and Mo Tingfeng's eyes darkened.

The person who appeared at the Goddess Peak was Ruan Mianmian, the person who appeared at the Hidden Mist Village was Dujuan, and the person who appeared at his and Zhuang Yuheng's house was a "hybrid" of Ruan Mianmian and Dujuan - something must have gone wrong.

According to normal reasoning, it is true that phantoms will appear in the four places of Shang Yao, but they should all be Ruan Mianmian, and definitely not Du Juan. Even if it is the person behind the scenes who turned Du Juan into a blood puppet, and wants to use the "Not Entering the Five Elements Formation" to revive Du Juan in Ruan Mianmian's body, it is far from the time to activate the formation.

Doing this now will not bring Du Juan back to life early, but it will most likely prevent Ruan Mianmian from ever coming back.

But what went wrong?
Could it be that Ruan's mother Jing Lan secretly activated the formation in Ruan Mianmian's room without telling him? This possibility cannot be ruled out - Ruan's mother has not responded to his targeted transmission, which is really abnormal.

Mo Tingfeng had an idea, and wanted to see if Ruan's mother had done anything behind his back, so he set up a Qimen Dunjia game according to the "Chenshi" time when Ruan Mianmian's virtual image appeared -

"In the fifth round of Yang Dun, the gates are reversed. The Death Gate falls in the Life Gate Palace, and the Life Gate falls in the Death Gate Palace. Life and death are reversed. You saw Mianmian in the southwest direction, which makes sense. The Kun Palace in the southwest is originally the Death Gate Palace, but it is the Life Gate location at the time of Chen, and it is the most prosperous."

"However, the situation of the gate reversing means that among the core people involved in this matter, someone must have experienced some kind of repetition and change in behavior and thoughts."

"Plus, the moon is near Tianying Star and Dumen...it turns out that Jinglan is up to something."

Mo Tingfeng frowned deeply, but unexpectedly Song Weichen frowned even more than him.

"No, is there any law left? Which good person speaks in Morse code?"

"Don't even mention that it's past two in the middle of the night. I've been so sleepy that I can't understand even if I just woke up. Big brother, please be kind and consider the feelings of an illiterate person."

Before Mo Tingfeng could speak, Ye Wujiu spoke up.

"My Lord is trying to figure out the situation and sorting out the clues. Let me explain."

"Taiyin can be understood as an elder. In this situation, this person is obviously Ruan's mother, Madam Jing. Tianying Star represents impulsiveness and impatientness. Taiyin is near Tianying Star, which means that Madam Jing is likely to act impulsively because she can't keep her temper. And this matter is near Dumen, which is a typical sign of hiding something, intentionally not letting people know."

"Du Men's five elements belong to wood, and it falls in Qianjin Palace. In this situation, gold is strong, and gold and wood are fighting. Strong gold overcomes wood. This means that Madam Jing's reckless actions in the dark will be greatly frustrated. It is very likely that the alternating appearances of Noble Lady Ruan and Du Juan's phantoms today are related to this."

After Ye Wujiu's explanation, Song Weichen was amazed - is this wisdom?
She blinked her eyes, as clear and pure as those of a college student, and looked at Mo Tingfeng.
"So what should we do next? Don't look back and see that Lao Longjing's mother didn't listen to advice and harmed her daughter, but now she blames you for not being able to find Ruan Mianmian."

"I have just sent a message to Zhuang Yuheng, asking him to go to the Ruan Mansion immediately and check to see if the Five Elements Array in Mianmian's room has been tampered with."

"Also, if my guess is correct, Madam Jing must not be at home right now. She must have received some news and went to look for Mianmian herself."

"As for where she is..."

The strange situation that had just occurred popped up in Mo Tingfeng's mind.

"It's a pity that we don't know Madam Jing's age, so we can't get more information from this situation. We can only try to find out where she is hiding."

"Since Tianying star falls in Qian Palace, Madam Jing is likely hiding in a place like the escort agency, forging bureau, arsenal, or even a gunpowder workshop. Tianying is in Taiyin, which means that the place is very dark, and it should be in a secret room or a mine."

"As the saying goes, 'A place where the door is closed, ghosts and gods cannot detect'. Madam Jing is in a very well hidden place, but what is her purpose? Why does she want to go there?"

Song Weichen clicked his tongue again when he heard this.
"Boss Mo, you can actually tell so much information from just one strange situation? What the hell... Should I stop doing bad things behind your back in the future? Otherwise, you'll be right about everything you see."

It’s no wonder that Song Weichen always interrupts. Everyone has likes and dislikes and selfish desires. The missing person they are looking for is Lao Longjing. She really can’t empathize with them, and there is really no way she can really worry about Ruan’s mother.

Fortunately, the matter has basically come to an end. Mo Tingfeng ignored Song Weichen's nagging, and only instructed Ye Wujiu to let the ground network's resentment-breaking masters carefully patrol the places that meet the description of the Qimen Bureau in the Chenmei and Youmei realms, and make sure to find Ruan's mother to prevent her from doing something bad in a hurry.

After arranging all this, Mo Tingfeng looked at Song Weichen with an apologetic look on his face.

"Weiwei, are you sleepy? I'm sorry for making you so tired before your injury has healed."

Song Weichen was about to yawn, but when he heard what Mo Tingfeng said, he held it back.
"It's okay, it's okay, Mr. Mo, you're always saying nice things. Instead of letting yourself off the hook, you might as well push yourself."

"Aren't there two more things? I'm very interested in the traitor in Si Chen Mansion. Can we quickly align the list of warlock grading trials to a granular level, and then focus on the traitor?"

Ding Heran's brain was spinning for eight times before he realized what was going on. He quickly responded by taking out a brocade book from his bosom and presenting it to Mo Tingfeng.
"This is the final list of warlock classification trials reported by various states. The interesting thing is -"

"The list of participants in this trial actually includes people who are already Class A warlocks."

Grade A is the highest grade for warlocks in the Sleep Realm, and there are very few of them. However, as Grade A warlocks, they still sign up to participate in this grading trial. Regardless of whether it is in compliance with the regulations, their motives are a mystery.

"who is it?"

"Old tree, wood grade A, Lord Si Chen, do you have any impression of it? During the Ghost Husband Case, Pingyang Shulin fought with us."

"Old tree..."

Mo Tingfeng repeated the name, and a man with a dry body like an old tree root just dug out of the soil appeared in his mind. He had said something to him outside the ghost market,

"I am Lao Shu. Today, I have received a favor from you, sir. If there is another day after this trip, I will definitely repay you. Goodbye."

The old tree is good at manipulating plants. The Goddess Peak is rich in vegetation. He is like releasing a tiger into the forest. He is a formidable opponent that cannot be ignored.

But he was already a Class A, so why did he still want to take part? Was he a friend or an enemy?
Mo Tingfeng thought about it but had no idea. The rules of the grading trial did not stipulate that a Class A sorcerer could not participate in the trial a second time, so according to the regulations, Si Chen Mansion could not refuse Lao Shu from participating in the trial.

"Well, let him go."

Mo Tingfeng looked calm, and it was hard to tell what he was feeling.
Because of the old tree, he remembered the black-clothed man in the Pingyang forest who was let go.
"Are there any other Class A warlocks taking part?"