Chapter 496

Yang Rui died?

This news was like a bolt from the blue to us.

Following the bodyguards, we raced back to the Yang family ancestral estate at top speed; the courtyard was filled with a mournful atmosphere. Every face bore a look of grief, and Yang Shouren's wrinkled face was already streaked with old tears.

In the main hall there stood a huge bed, on which lay a pale‑skinned child. This child, needless to say, everyone knew was Yang Rui.

After entering the house I felt strange: clearly the iron talisman of the Yang family ancestral grave had been cleared away, and Yang Rui's body should have been slowly recovering, so why did he lose his name overnight?

To avoid attracting Yang Shouren's attention, I kept my face covered the whole time I entered the house, so he wouldn't see the 'Yao' character on my face.

Yang Rui lay on the big bed, his complexion deathly pale, yet a black line ran straight from the center of his forehead down to his upper lip—a black line indicating lethal poison, showing that Yang Rui had been struck by a deadly toxin.

Seeing this, I grew even more puzzled: hadn't the earthly evil of the feng shui already receded? Why was Yang Rui still affected and killed? Could it really be as Pangzi's book says, that the masked person has already entered the Yang family ancestral grave?

I thought it over and over but could make no sense of it; there were too many people around, I didn't dare speak up, especially seeing Yang Shouren's old face full of malice, which made me even more afraid to ask.

The house remained steeped in a sorrowful atmosphere; the servants kept their heads bowed low, while the guards stood stone‑still, their faces grim.

"It's all your fault—if you hadn't done so many evil deeds in life, we wouldn't have so many enemies coming to kill the Yang family. It's all your fault, it's all your fault that you killed little Rui…" Suddenly, Ye Qi, who had been softly weeping at the bedside, grabbed Yang Shouren's sleeve and dug her nails into his face.

"Have you gone crazy enough?" Yang Shouren's face flushed with anger as he shoved Ye Qi away, raised his hand to strike her, but in the end let it fall limp.

"Brother Yang, please accept my condolences; no one could have predicted this. I blame only my own lack of skill—I failed to protect your son's life, and I, Wang, am ashamed before you." QingSongShu stepped forward, his face filled with guilt.

Yang Shouren sighed, gestured to QingSongShu and said: "Master, your words are too much—you've already done all you could. It's just that my son's fate is thin; it's the karma I, Yang Shouren, have accumulated in the first half of my life."

Yang Shouren seemed to have aged ten years in an instant; his expression was exhausted, his temples whiter. We knew that at this moment any consolation would be futile for this old man—the grief of losing a son pierces the heart, something no material thing or a few words can ease.

Amid this mournful atmosphere, QingSongShu suddenly stepped forward, furrowed his brows, and carefully examined the Yang Rui lying on the bed.

Then QingSongShu strangely turned to Ye Qi and asked: "Sister‑in‑law, could you tell me what exactly happened last night? Could you roughly describe the events leading up to Rui's death?"

From Ye Qi's sobs we learned the whole story: last night Yang Rui, who had been improving, suddenly vomited white foam at four a. m.; his complexion turned a strange purple‑black. Then Ye Qi saw a black line spreading from his forehead to his nose.

As that black line moved down to his upper lip, Yang Rui spat out blood, then closed his eyes and departed this world.

When QingSongShu asked Ye Qi whether she had felt anything unusual before Yang Rui's death, she nodded without hesitation and said yes.

She said that when the black line appeared on Yang Rui's forehead, the surrounding air suddenly grew suffocating, making her unable to breathe and causing her to feel nauseous.

Ye Qi's account further confirmed that the influence was the lethal qi of the ancestral feng shui, affecting the household's descendants. In feng shui theory, aside from yearly fortune, both yang residences and yin graves affect descendants; a good yin grave brings blessings, while a bad yin grave brings misfortune and calamity.

Since feng shui is intangible, ordinary people cannot see its killing qi; the only thing they have is sensation. Human senses can perceive the surrounding environment. A place with good feng shui naturally feels comfortable to live in, whereas a place of fierce evil qi produces aversion. Thus, when the killing qi of a yin or yang dwelling reaches a certain level and erupts at a point, ordinary people will also feel it.

Although Ye Qi's words further confirmed that Yang Rui had been affected by the ancestral feng shui, QingSongShu's face showed no relaxation; his brows furrowed even tighter.

"Bang!" a loud crash rang out; the grieving Yang Shouren suddenly stomped his cane and rose to his feet. He swept his gaze over the guards in the room and bellowed: "Investigate! Get out there and find out who killed my son Rui—if you don't catch the culprit, none of you are to come back!"

The guards dared not speak, cowering like mice, and retreated in haste.

As the guards filed out of the Yang family manor, Yang Shouyi's figure began to slowly walk in from outside.

Upon entering, Yang Shouyi's face was initially full of doubt, but when he saw the grief‑stricken Yang Shouren and the corpse of Yang Rui covered with a white cloth on the big bed, his complexion instantly turned deathly pale and he staggered back a few steps.

"Big brother…?" Yang Shouyi looked toward Yang Shouren, who could only lower his head, let out a helpless sigh, and slumped to the ground.

Yang Shouyi's face turned deathly pale as he clutched his chest, retreating a few steps before collapsing in front of Yang Rui's bed, wailing his name.

It seemed Yang Shouyi had just learned the news.

"Big brother, it's only been one night—how could Rui suddenly be gone? What on earth is going on?" Yang Shouyi wept, coughing repeatedly.

Yang Shouren remained silent, so Yang Shouyi turned his gaze toward us.

Seeing Yang Shouyi look at us, QingSongShu stroked his beard and offered an explanation: "The Yang family's burial site and its feng shui are closely tied to the clan's descendants; damage to the dragon veins brings disaster upon the offspring."

To echo QingSongShu's words, Pangzi stepped forward and revealed the matter of the masked person and the discovered tunnel.

After hearing the explanation, Yang Shouyi was startled.

"Big brother, speaking of this, the Three Evil Steles placed by our ancestors, the great feng shui array set up in the graveyard has already gone wrong." Yang Shouyi stepped forward quickly, panicked, and asked Yang Shouren: "Big brother, what should we do? If the Three Evil Steles have an accident, not only will our Yang family's century-old foundation be destroyed, but even our descendants will be cut off, left without heirs!"

"I have already been cut off, left without heirs." Yang Shouren roared with bloodshot eyes, and only after a long time did his heaving chest calm down.

"You don't need to worry about this for now; tell me, how did the matter I asked you to investigate turn out? Is it really the Yao family who did this?" Yang Shouren, full of hostility, pressed Yang Shouyi for an answer.

Hearing Yang Shouren ask that, I also felt nervous, after all this concerns the Yao family, so I also rallied all my energy.

Yang Shouyi hesitated not at all, and recounted everything he had found to Yang Shouren. He said, besides sending people to Yang Family Village, the Yao family's heir Yao Wenju supposedly also summoned several sorcerers from the clan; Yang Shouyi did not know exactly what these people were called to do, but he often saw them leaving at night.

What shocked us even more was that, according to Yang Shouyi's description, two of these sorcerers were people we knew.

Among the people Yang Shouyi described, there was one man and one woman. The woman wore an ethnic minority headpiece, dressed in red clothes and red boots, with a long whip tied at her waist. The man was a sickly, pallid, short youth.

These two…… aren't they Han Duo and Wu Fei, who first came to ruin the Yang family ancestral grave's feng shui?

At this moment, Yang Shouyi added another sentence.

"Our surveillance personnel found that these two man and woman, who resemble sorcerers, have both appeared in Yang Family Village."

This time, Yang Shouren was truly furious; without even thinking, he ordered Yang Shouyi to send out all the Yang family members, prepare firearms, gather the troops, and definitely kill Yao Wenju to offer sacrifices to the spirit of Yang Rui in heaven.

"Wait, this is not proper," I said, stepping out as if possessed while Yang Shouren was in a frenzy, and I shouted to interrupt him.

As soon as I spoke, all the pairs of eyes in the room turned toward me, each person's expression different. Pangzi was stunned and surprised, while the faces of the Yang brothers were filled with gloom and incomprehension.

The atmosphere in the room grew ever more still, so quiet that one could hear a needle drop. The fixed gazes of everyone made me, standing at the center, feel an unprecedented pressure.

How should I speak to smooth over the past!

The second floor again offers tribute to Brother Dou three…… Dou, I can't come back to my senses!