Chapter 48

A great hero!

Lu Chunying poked her head out again and stared at Li Banfeng for a long time, only feeling that the young man before her was exceptionally imposing.

"Benefactor, take care!" Xiao Yeci turned back to hug Lu Chunying and quickly left the backyard, heading toward the main gate.

Dealing with a House Spirit in a Residential Cultivator's house?

This person is crazy!

Xiao Yeci took her daughter Lu Chunying and left the backyard. When they reached the entrance of the front courtyard, Xiao Yeci looked back and couldn't help but sigh.

Lu Chunying said with a hint of sarcasm: "Stop looking; your looks aren't enough, that 'great hero' doesn't fancy you!"

Xiao Yeci frowned: "Don't talk nonsense; you have no sense of propriety!"

Lu Chunying snorted coldly: "What do you mean no sense of propriety? Do you really think you're my mother? When I see the Lu family, I'm going to tell them the truth!"

Xiao Yeci gritted her teeth: "You dare! If you dare to say it, we'll starve together, sleep on the streets together, and be sold into a brothel together; let's see who cries then!"

Lu Chunying frowned: "If you want to pretend to be my mother, change those verbal tics; don't end every sentence with 'ya' or 'de ya'."

"What verbal tics do I have? I'm telling you not to talk nonsense!"

As they spoke, the two left the courtyard and walked into a forest.

Lu Chunying gently pulled Xiao Yeci and whispered: "I remember when we came, this was a village; how did it turn into a forest!"

Swish~ Swish~ Whoosh~

Gusts of eerie wind blew, and the branches and leaves in the forest swayed, making continuous sounds.

Xiao Yeci also became nervous, hugging Lu Chunying and saying: "The situation isn't right; let's go back into the house first!"

As soon as the mother and daughter turned back, the original courtyard was gone.

All around was a boundless forest.

"Where are we?" Lu Chunying gripped Xiao Yeci's arm tightly.

Xiao Yeci looked around and said calmly: "This must be the House Spirit's trick; we might still be in the house and can't get out for the time being."

"Then what should we do?" Lu Chunying gripped even tighter.

"Don't worry, I'll reason with him first. No matter what his background is, as long as I can make him understand the logic, he should let us go!"

Xiao Yeci's expression was firm, and Lu Chunying stood behind her, her fear reduced by more than half.

Xiao Yeci began to reason with the House Spirit: "My friend, I don't know where you came from, but the owner of this house is already dead, and you should think about where you should go.

The owner of this house did too many harmful things; you were her accomplice. If you are caught by the judge, you will be punished when sent to the underworld!

I have seen the judge's verdict in books, and I have seen all kinds of torture instruments in the underworld; I have seen the suffering of ghosts there.

Before, it could be said you were coerced by her, and everything you did was involuntary. But now that she is dead, why are you still doing such harmful things?

Friend, let us two go; not only will you eliminate a portion of your sins, but you will also accumulate some merit. Why not do it!"

Swish~

The eerie wind gradually subsided, and the branches and leaves in the forest were no longer so frantic.

Xiao Yeci's communication seemed to have worked.

For many years, life had been very difficult; there had been complaints, disputes, and many barriers between this "mother" who was not a mother and Lu Chunying.

But whenever there was danger, Xiao Yeci always stood in front of Lu Chunying without hesitation; Lu Chunying believed she was the most reliable person in the world.

"Come, follow Mom!" Xiao Yeci walked straight ahead by intuition, and Lu Chunying followed closely behind.

After walking just two steps, a willow branch struck Xiao Yeci and Lu Chunying's faces with lightning speed.

Xiao Yeci covered her face and gritted her teeth without crying.

Lu Chunying was young and couldn't hold back; tears fell.

Xiao Yeci took out a handkerchief, wiped the bloodstains on Lu Chunying's face, and said with heartache: "Don't cry, baby. I didn't see the direction clearly just now; we should go to the left. Come! Follow Mom closely!"

Each of them had a bloodstain on their face, and facing the night wind, they turned left in the forest.

After walking more than ten meters, a willow branch struck again, still hitting them on the face.

Xiao Yeci shed tears, and Lu Chunying cried out loud.

Now they didn't have one bloodstain on their faces; they had two.

The two bloodstains formed an 'X'.

"Mom might have made a mistake; let's go to the right. Come! Follow Mom closely!" Xiao Yeci firmly took Lu Chunying's hand.

"Mom, you go first; I'll follow behind you." Lu Chunying shook off Xiao Yeci's hand.

She took back her previous thought.

Xiao Yeci was not reliable at all.

Li Banfeng entered the old woman's room and examined every piece of furniture in the room.

A bed, a table, two chairs, and a standing cabinet.

The furnishings were very simple; Li Banfeng scanned each item one by one, guessing which one would be the House Spirit.

There was an old grandfather clock on the table, which had no spirituality at all; it was clearly not the House Spirit.

There was a teapot next to the grandfather clock that looked quite spiritual; could this be the House Spirit?

There was a sewing kit next to the teapot; the thread balls were arranged very neatly, and the needles inserted into the thread balls were also very neat; it looked like it had the temperament of a House Spirit.

There was also a rolling pin next to the sewing kit; the flour on the rolling pin was spread very evenly, and traces of spirituality could also be seen!

Which one is the House Spirit?

Li Banfeng felt very conflicted.

I am a Residential Cultivator, and there must be some mutual resonance between me and the House Spirit.

Clang!

The old grandfather clock rang once.

Li Banfeng looked at the dial; it was 9:30.

This kind of traditional old grandfather clock rings once every half hour and rings the corresponding number of times every hour.

For example, when it reaches nine o'clock, it will clang nine times.

When it reaches 9:30, it will only clang once!

The sound of that ring just now interrupted Li Banfeng's train of thought in searching for the House Spirit, which made him very displeased.

He glared at the grandfather clock and continued to scan the other objects in the room.

Finally, he stopped his gaze on a feather duster; he felt this feather duster had the most spirituality.

First, the color was relatively bright, and second, the feathers were relatively soft.

Li Banfeng picked up the feather duster, preparing to have an in-depth exchange using his Residential Cultivator talent, when he suddenly heard the grandfather clock clang, clang, clang... ringing ten times in succession, and the sound was extremely loud, completely attracting Li Banfeng's attention.

It rang ten times?

Li Banfeng looked at the dial; the hour hand and minute hand were pointing to ten o'clock.

It was just 9:30, and now in the blink of an eye, it had become ten o'clock?

Could it be...

Is this grandfather clock broken?

Just now, Li Banfeng was thinking about whether he should move this grandfather clock to his personal residence, as it lacked a timing tool.

Looking at this situation, this grandfather clock couldn't be kept.

Li Banfeng exchanged with the feather duster for a while and found that the feather duster didn't give any response.

Next to the feather duster was an iron mooncake box; the paint on the box was severely peeling, and one could tell it had been around for some years, but it was spotless and very clean.

House Spirits love cleanliness; could it be in this box?

Li Banfeng forcefully lifted the lid and found that there was only a stack of old newspapers in the box—old, yellowed newspapers that seemed like they would shatter at any moment.

The House Spirit couldn't possibly be dwelling on newspapers, right?

Li Banfeng picked up a newspaper, and before he could open it, this time he really had a resonance.

He felt the words on the newspaper touching him.

The words, the size of fly heads, seemed to turn into little worms, wanting to drill into Li Banfeng's fingertips.

Is it really in the newspaper?

Click-clack! Click-clack!

The sound of the pendulum became brighter, and every sound struck the heartstrings.

Li Banfeng put down the newspaper and looked at the golden pendulum; the pendulum reflected the candlelight, showing some images.

At first, the image was very blurry, but after a while, it gradually became clear.

Li Banfeng seemed to see an old movie with a dim yellow background on the pendulum.

A beautiful woman wearing a cheongsam was drawing her eyebrows in front of a mirror.

A man appeared behind her, took the eyebrow pencil from the woman's hand, and gently drew on the beauty's eyebrows, stroke by stroke.

After drawing the eyebrows, he drew the lips.

After drawing the lips, he bit the lips.

After biting the lips, he could bite something else.

The two faced each other and bit each other for a long time, then the man went behind the woman.

The pendulum clicked and clacked, becoming loud and crisp.

The man, who had originally been grabbing the woman's shoulders, collided with her; his left hand circled the woman's neck, and his right hand locked onto his own left hand.

He pressed his face against the woman's face, used his left shoulder to press down on the back of the woman's head, forcing the woman's head to bend forward.

Naked choke!

This isn't a singing naked choke.

This is an eye-gouging naked choke!

Li Banfeng was still analyzing the technical difficulty, but the woman in the picture stopped moving.

She was strangled to death alive.

The man pulled out, put on his clothes, and quickly disappeared from the picture.

The woman's corpse remained in the room; the picture seemed to be still, but the light and shadow were changing.

Dawn and dusk, day and night alternated; the woman's corpse gradually rotted and was covered in maggots.

Until one day, her corpse was discovered and moved away from the center of the picture.

People came and went, many people whose background was unknown; they emptied everything in the picture, including large amounts of jewelry and large amounts of banknotes.

Until the picture was completely empty, only then did this story seem to end.

But what did this story explain?

Why did this old grandfather clock make me see this story?

While pondering, Li Banfeng discovered that the story hadn't ended!

A woman appeared in the empty room—the woman who had died earlier.

The woman was grooming herself, grooming herself with a smile.

In the house, the woman who had originally been strangled reappeared.

She was grooming herself.

There was no mirror in the room; she was grooming herself facing Li Banfeng, and her charming smile made Li Banfeng feel very intimate.

This should be the House Spirit, right?

The woman suddenly disappeared.

A man appeared in the picture.

Although he had changed his attire, Li Banfeng still recognized him; he was the murderer who had killed the woman.

He seemed to be searching for something; he carefully groped on the floor until he felt a hidden compartment in the floor, and from the hidden compartment, he found a knife.

Li Banfeng recognized this knife; it was the short blade that the old woman cherished very much, and now it was tucked into his belt.

The man was very excited; this was the knife he was looking for.

He gently brushed his fingers over the blade, but he didn't expect the handle to tremble violently and break free from his palm.

The floating short blade hovered in front of the man.

The man was terrified, used his hands to support his body, and quickly crawled backward.

He crawled too slowly.

The short blade rushed toward the man, slashed across his throat, and blood gushed out.

The man clutched his throat and struggled with all his might; his appearance was very similar to the woman's appearance when she was struggling to die.

The woman's figure slowly emerged in the picture, and she continued to groom herself with a charming smile.

She ignored the man struggling on the ground; her eyes were fixed on Li Banfeng, and there was a hint of sweet, chilling coldness in her eyes.

Grooming is grooming, why do you keep looking at me?

Every debt has its debtor, I wasn't the one who killed you!

Li Banfeng wanted to move his gaze away, when he suddenly saw the woman put down her comb, pick up something like a key, and reach out toward Li Banfeng.

What are you doing? Are you going to make a move?

If this woman is the House Spirit, do I have to defeat her to subdue her?

Li Banfeng was highly alert, but he saw the woman open a glass cover and then slowly rotate it with the key.

Li Banfeng looked carefully for a long time and found that it wasn't a key in the true sense; it was the key used to wind the old grandfather clock.

The woman wasn't grooming herself facing Li Banfeng; she was grooming herself facing the grandfather clock.

The woman's room hadn't been completely emptied; one item remained, which was this old grandfather clock.

Li Banfeng didn't see this movie from a spectator's perspective; he saw all this from the perspective of the grandfather clock.

The woman drew her eyebrows, applied lipstick, raised her head, parted her red lips, and asked softly:

"Am I beautiful?"

This was the first time Li Banfeng heard the woman's voice.

Was she asking the grandfather clock, or was she asking me?

The woman's eyes were filled with earnest anticipation.

Li Banfeng pondered for a moment and responded: "Beautiful."

The woman revealed a smile; she was very satisfied with this answer.

Next, she asked another question: "Do you know my name?"

Li Banfeng pondered for a moment and looked down at the iron mooncake box.

He took out an old newspaper from the mooncake box.

On the second page of this newspaper, there was a news story, and every word in the news story was trembling constantly.

The title of the news story was: Famous Courtesan Luo Yuni, Tragically Died in an Outer Residence.

The woman asked again: "Do you know my name?"

Li Banfeng nodded: "I think I know."

"Look at me, keep looking at me, and say my name, and I will be yours." The woman smiled even more sweetly.

PS: Today's two chapters combined are as long as four chapters; Sala is exhausted. Dear readers, leave a comment, vote, and give Sala a smile.

(End of chapter)