Chapter 361: The Most Convincing Evidence Yet!

Sss~

A chill ran up Dugu Zhang's nape, straight into his Heavenly Spirit Cover, and he involuntarily inhaled a breath of cold air.

His chest was filled with an uncontrollable tremor of fear.

Who is it!

Who is speaking!

He shouted sharply, demanding, his voice exploding from his mouth.

His tone carried a deliberately elevated confidence, yet it could not hide the tremor in the trailing syllable.

"Brother Dugu, we've at least met once; can't you even recognize the overseer's voice?" The teasing voice suddenly rose, playfully retorting.

Hahaha!

Before the words fell, a burst of hearty laughter suddenly erupted.

Immediately after,

accompanied by a "Creak—" sound.

The tightly shut Shufang door was violently pushed open from the outside.

Wind and snow surged through the gap, instantly sweeping away the last trace of warmth in the Shufang.

The candle flame flickered wildly.

The wick crackled, casting the shadows of the three people inside onto the wall, flickering irregularly like Guimo.

Standing at the doorway was Chen Yan, clad in a fox‑fur coat over a dark robe, a smile at the corner of his mouth and his eyes slightly upturned.

Behind him, dozens of embroidered‑clad emissaries streamed in one after another.

They wore Xuanse Jinshen, overlaid with scarlet cloaks, moving in perfect unison, swiftly occupying every corner of the Shufang, encircling the Dugu father and son in the center, their gazes devoid of any warmth.

The overseer?... Dugu Zhang murmured the self‑designation, then clearly saw the suddenly appearing face, his voice trembling with incredulous surprise: "Chen... Chen Yan?!"

"How did you get into my Weiguo Gong Fu??"

Our own mansion is heavily guarded; how did you slip silently into the rear‑yard Shufang, leading so many embroidered emissaries?

The tumultuous waves in his mind had not yet calmed, when a thought even colder to his bones surged out, spilling forth:

"No... that's not right!"

"Shouldn't you have died from the deadly Poison?!"

"Are you a human or a ghost!"

Fear flooded his reason like a tide.

Dugu Zhang staggered back two steps.

He clearly remembered his father swearing that the person before them had already perished under a martial artist's poisoned dart...

Could the figure before his eyes be... a ghost?!

"Chen Yan?!"

"How could he still be alive?!"

Xi Bilu's eyes widened, pupils contracting from extreme shock, his gaze glued to Chen Yan's face, forgetting even to regulate his breathing.

His eyes involuntarily scanned Chen Yan up and down.

His skin was smooth and taut, lacking any of the bluish‑black or purple bruises typical of poisoning, instead exuding a healthy pink hue.

When he stepped forward, the hem of his robe swept the floor in a steady, powerful arc.

His breathing was long and even; even a few steps away, one could feel the steady rise and fall of his chest.

It was the aura of abundant vitality, nothing like that of someone bedridden for long or just crawled back from the underworld.

"His complexion is rosy, not at all like a poisoned state; could it be..."

A chilling speculation suddenly surfaced in Xi Bilu's mind.

They've been tricked!

Dugu Zhao sat rigidly at the table, his fingertip still poised on the edge of a tortoise shell.

The cool lines under his fingertip seemed to seep into bone and blood.

He lifted his gaze, his murky eyes fixed on the overseer, showing neither Xi Bilu's panic nor Dugu Zhang's fear.

Only a deep, solemn weight, like a cold pool that has accumulated a thousand years of ice and snow—

If Chen Yan hasn't died, their end is not far off...

The omen may soon be fulfilled!

"Of course the overseer is a ghost!"

Chen Yan stared at Dugu Zhang with amused interest, his tone dropping, deliberately mimicking a sinister timbre, the trailing sound swirling in the empty Shufang, truly bearing a hint of Guimo's wavering.

"Your father is coming for vengeance!"

"Your father made the overseer die so miserably!"

The voice shifted between near and far, as if whispering against Dugu Zhang's ear, yet also drifting from the depths of the netherworld.

His complexion turned paper‑white in an instant, his lips losing all color, only the red threads of fear flashing in his eyes.

"Ah—!" A short, harrowing scream burst violently from his throat.

"Help!"

"Quick, help!"

"A malevolent ghost has breached the State Duke Mansion!"

At this moment, Dugu Zhang felt his heart gripped by an invisible hand.

It squeezed upward fiercely, then suddenly dropped.

Each beat comes with a drum‑like roar, shaking the chest until it feels suffocated.

Even breathing turns into rapid gasps.

The mind has already been in utter chaos!

Dugu Zhao slowly lifts his eyes, his gaze sweeping over his son's pallid, flustered face before returning to Chen Yan; the weight in his eyes finally eases a bit, flowing into a dead‑water calm.

"Stop shouting!" his voice squeezes out from deep in his throat, light as a dying candle in the wind, breath like a wisp.

"Since Supervisor Chen can appear here so brazenly, he has probably already taken care of everyone in the mansion except us…"

Need not even think—it's clear that the mansion's Private Soldiers and guards are all gone, ten to nine out of ten.

Otherwise, could this Mirror‑Justice Supervisor and his Embroidered Messengers move through the State Duke Mansion as if no one were there?

And with his methods, these things would not be difficult at all……

Chen Yan, hearing this, withdrew the mockery from his eyes; the playful curve at his mouth faded, replaced by a near‑scrutinizing sharpness: "The Old Pillar is so gravely ill, yet can still see so clearly as if fire, one cannot help but admire!"

As if weighing the heft of an old ginger.

Sure enough, this Old Pillar, despite his grave illness, remains exceedingly shrewd……

The only fault is that his son was raised too poorly.

"Ha!" Dugu Zhao snorted lightly, responding.

"What?!"

Dugu Zhang lacks Dugu Zhao's composure; he was just frightened by the Death‑claiming Ghost's taunt, his mind now tangled in fear, racing straight to the most terrifying thought—

"Chen Yan's vengeful spirit has already devoured all our mansion's Private Soldiers and guards?!"

The color in Dugu Zhang's face had already drained completely.

Now it is a pallid blue‑green, even the tips of his ears tinged with ashen gray.

Cold sweat soaks his inner shirt, clinging to his back with an icy sting, yet cannot match the chill rising from his feet to his heart.

He stares fixedly at Chen Yan's harmless‑looking face.

As if a second later a fang would emerge from the corner of his mouth, dripping with blood.

Dugu Zhao's gaze shifts from Chen Yan to the trembling son, his eyes churning with complex emotions—

Regret, helplessness, and a barely perceptible hatred that fails to harden like iron.

He strains to lift his hand, his gaunt finger pointing at Chen Yan, each movement seeming to drain his whole body: "He is a person, a living person!"

Pausing, he draws another breath and continues: "That Poison couldn't claim his life…."

"Or perhaps he was never poisoned at all!"

If he truly were poisoned, even with timely miraculous medicine, his complexion could not be as rosy and his Qi so robust as now.

Instead, he should be as feeble as I am.

Then there is only one reasonable explanation……

"No wonder you, under Taizu's repeated suppression, still managed to become an Old Pillar!"

"Your analysis is truly precise down to the smallest detail!"

Chen Yan, hearing this, lifts his hand and gives two light pats.

He turns, casually pulls a pear‑blossom wood chair from beside the desk, lifts his robe's hem, and sits down leisurely.

The folds of his dark robe spread across the seat, exuding a hint of carefree ease.

His fingertips gently rub the smooth chair armrest.

Chen (somebody) remembers that, in any era or timeline, on any historical strand, Taizu always regarded Dugu as a thorn in his side……

From start to finish, he guarded against him with utmost vigilance.

Judging solely by that discernment, it indeed warrants such treatment……

Dugu Zhao slowly lifts his hand, his gaunt finger waving feebly in the air as if to brush away the praise, the motion sluggish with waning strength: "It's merely a post‑event hindsight, a Zhuge!"

"Compared to you, Supervisor Chen, you're far inferior……."

"I dare not accept!"

His voice is hoarser than before, as if covered with a layer of ash.

The trailing syllable stretches long, laden with heavy self‑mockery.

Even the mightiest still loses to a youngster, doesn't it?

"If Chen Yan had not died……"

Dugu Zhang watches Chen Yan's composed seated posture, and the knives still held by those Embroidered Messengers, his mind, previously scrambled by fear, finally beginning to recover.

Suddenly, after a delayed realization, he exclaims in shock: "Then at this moment aren't we in the same predicament as Da Xi Jue?!"

A wave of bone‑deep despair surges from his feet, instantly engulfing his limbs and body.

Like the original Da Xi Jue, he becomes a trapped beast in Chen Yan's grasp, ready to be slaughtered, with no ounce of resistance……

"There's such a heavy scent of blood on you……"

Dugu Zhao turns his head, his nostrils flaring twice lightly, as if sniffing for a certain scent floating in the air.

In the cold wind and snow, a faint, elusive sweet‑sour scent mingles.

It is not the usual iron‑rust of swords, but rather the smell of warm blood half‑frozen by the cold wind.

The murky gaze lands on the folds of Chen Yan's robe hem.

There seem to be a few barely noticeable dark‑red spots, hardened by the wind and snow into rigid patches.

It isn't the blood of our own Private Soldiers and guards—the mansion's scent of blood would never be so 'old'……

He pauses, a flash of understanding crossing his eyes, then deeper sorrow covers it: "Perhaps it just came from Brother Zhao's mansion?"

"Indeed!"

"Wasn't it just after dealing with Old Pillar Zhao that you rushed to our mansion?"

"I, this overseer, haven't rested even for a moment......"

Chen Yan snapped his fingers, gave a calm smile, and said.

Tonight he's a model worker, turning the axle nonstop.....

We also have to thank Song Fei for arranging that the Xuanwu Guard came early to infiltrate and set things up.

Dugu Zhao let out a light laugh, his face weary: "Yuwen Hu's Bestowal of that Grand Tutor and Grand Protector really is a ploy to confuse the public, letting us become numb and careless......"

Having said that, he sighed and asked, "What crime did you fabricate?"

"What do you mean by fabricate?"

Chen Yan heard this and instantly grew displeased, shook his fingers, and with a half‑smile said, "Old Pillar of the State Zhao, together with the two generals Yang and Yan who were under house arrest, were secretly plotting a palace coup and rebellion in the residence, and I, this overseer, happened to catch them in the act!"

If you said that before, Chief Overseer Chen wouldn't have challenged you.....

This is the most conclusive piece of evidence!

"Brother Zhao is indeed quick‑witted, trying to strike first......"

Dugu Zhao's mouth curved with difficulty, offering praise.

His words suddenly halted, his gaze sinking slowly, leaving only a heavy regret: "Unfortunately, you were still one step ahead!"

——

PS: I revised the next chapter five or six times and still wasn't satisfied, so I'll edit it again and try to post it as soon as possible.