“No one?”
“That bastard Zhou Yifei, where did he go?”
After the four men entered, they found the entire courtyard completely empty.
The courtyard felt dark and gloomy, giving off an uncomfortable sensation.
Even the light streaming down from the sky seemed somewhat dim and hazy.
However, because these four were in a hurry to find Zhou Yifei, they didn’t pay much attention to the changes in the courtyard.
Just then, one of the four looked towards the wooden pillar where Zhang Yingxue had been tied.
He noticed that only a tattered piece of red cloth was draped over the pillar, but Zhang Yingxue, who had been bound there, was nowhere to be seen.
“Brother Li, this is bad, Zhang Yingxue is gone!”
At these words, the leader, Brother Li, quickly looked over there.
Sure enough, Zhang Yingxue really was gone.
Brother Li panicked instantly, directly shoving aside the person blocking his way and striding quickly towards the pillar.
“What!”
“Get out of my way!”
As he hurried over, not paying attention, Brother Li stepped directly onto the pile of white powder on the ground.
“That bastard! You few, go find Zhou Yifei immediately.”
“If Zhang Yingxue is lost, none of us will escape death.”
“You all know Young Master Xiao’s methods better than I do.”
“Damn it, when I find that bastard Zhou Yifei, I’m going to teach him a lesson he won’t forget.”
The mere mention of Young Master Xiao made the other three men look as if they’d seen a ghost, their faces turning pale and cold sweat continuously beading on their foreheads.
In their eyes, this Xiao Chenliang’s power to instill fear was even greater than that of their own gang leader.
“Yes, Brother Li, we’ll split up and search right away!”
The three men, appearing extremely anxious, ran out of the courtyard gate and headed off in three different directions to find Zhang Yingxue.
After they left, Brother Li was also about to leave the area to search for Zhang Yingxue and Zhou Yifei.
However, just as Brother Li turned around, a fleeting red shadow suddenly flashed in the corner of his eye.
Brother Li’s body, about to move, stiffened abruptly. He then fixed his gaze on the Zhang family ancestral hall.
“Am I seeing things?”
But before he could get a clear look,
The severed heads of the Zhang family members on the altar table in the ancestral hall suddenly seemed to come to life. They opened their bloody, grayish-white pupils, glaring fixedly at Brother Li.
The corners of their rotten mouths curled into a sinister smirk.
Brother Li instantly began to tremble all over, as if plunged into an ice-cold cellar, unable to believe what he was seeing.
“Ghost!”
But just as he mustered all his strength to turn and flee,
Brother Li realized his body seemed unable to move, and something seemed to be behind him, tightly restraining him.
A strange, evil red cloth fell onto Brother Li’s shoulder, visible to him with perfect clarity.
Something was behind him, one of those ghostly things!
In that instant, all hope drained from Brother Li, leaving only utter despair. He could only stare helplessly at the ancestral hall, as if the ghostly thing wanted him to witness this penance.
Inside the Zhang family ancestral hall, the dozen or so severed heads on the altar table,
Under Brother Li’s terrified gaze, they rose into the air and flew swiftly towards him.
Mid-air, the dozen or so rotten, foul-smelling heads of the Zhang family members opened their gaping mouths wide, revealing yellowed, blackened teeth inside.
Looking closely, deep within those mouths were numerous white specks—squirming, writhing maggots.
Those severed heads, as if crazed, frenziedly gnawed at the flesh and blood on Brother Li’s body.
And Brother Li, the victim, could only watch helplessly as wave after wave of excruciating pain assaulted him, making him wish he could end his own life on the spot.
“Ahhhhh!”
In the midst of his agonizing torment, he could even hear the ghostly thing behind him emitting sounds resembling gleeful laughter.
In just half an hour, aside from his head which remained intact, Brother Li’s body had been completely devoured.
This same scene was playing out elsewhere in the Zhang mansion as well; not a single one of them could escape.
The ghostly thing behind Brother Li was none other than Zhang Yingxue, clad in her eerie red dress.
Zhang Yingxue’s hideous, crack-covered face was now faintly glowing with a red light!
“Xiao Chenliang~ Xiao Chenliang~ Xiao Chenliang!”
These wailing sounds, like a vengeful spirit demanding life, rang out, echoing incessantly within the courtyard.
The next moment, a figure appeared in the air above the courtyard.
It was Lu Xuan.
Lu Xuan stood silently in the void, as if standing on solid ground.
Around Lu Xuan’s body was a purple protective barrier of Yuan Power, emitting a mysterious, arcane purple glow.
Lu Xuan’s voice rang out in the terrifying, gloomy courtyard, startling Zhang Yingxue for a moment.
From behind Zhang Yingxue’s head, a terrifying visage slowly emerged, glaring at Lu Xuan with a resentful gaze.
“An anomaly appearing in broad daylight… Is this a ‘Specter Domain’?”
“And this Yin energy, so full of resentment, is only slightly weaker than that thing which appeared in Qingyun County last time.”
“This Southern Region actually has an ‘E-class Anomaly’!”
As Zhang Yingxue stared at Lu Xuan, Lu Xuan was also scrutinizing her horrifying features.
Lu Xuan had arrived some time ago, but noticing something strange about Zhang Yingxue, he hadn’t made a move immediately.
Because Lu Xuan discovered that this anomaly before him actually possessed human emotions.
This frightening discovery once again reshaped Lu Xuan’s understanding of the world.
Anomalies all originate from the Spirit Ruins, beings born of heaven and earth.
Why did this Zhang Yingxue possess the power of an anomaly, and moreover, to the extent of an E-class Anomaly?
Had Zhang Yingxue, through possession, taken control of an anomaly?
Or had she herself transformed from a human into an E-class Anomaly?
After seeing Lu Xuan, Zhang Yingxue raised her deathly pale hands and made a grasping motion towards him in the void.
Immediately following, two red claw marks, swift as lightning, shot towards Lu Xuan.
“Die!”
The two claw marks, filled with resentful Yin energy, collided head-on with Lu Xuan’s purple Yuan Power barrier.
Ripples faintly undulated across the surface of the purple barrier.
Then, the purple Yuan Power barrier seemed unaffected, still enveloping Lu Xuan.
Suddenly, a massive purple Yuan Power hand, dozens of zhang in size, materialized in the void and violently pressed down towards Zhang Yingxue’s position.
Boom!
The terrifying impact shook the entire Zhang mansion.
When the dust and smoke cleared, a scorched black handprint pit, deeply imprinted in the ground, was revealed.
Within the scorched pit, the tattered red dress on Zhang Yingxue’s body had already turned to ashes.
Zhang Yingxue’s body emitted vast amounts of steaming white smoke, as if it would be burned to nothingness the next moment.
Another series of piercing, resentful wails echoed around the courtyard once more.
“Xiao Chenliang~ Xiao Chenliang~ Xiao Chenliang!”
“Die!”
“All of you, die!”
Lu Xuan stared at Zhang Yingxue in shock; he could sense the change in her Yin energy.
“What!”
The Yin energy, which had been on the verge of dissipating, was gradually becoming solid again.
Moreover, Zhang Yingxue’s Yin energy was now slightly stronger than before, almost on par with that E-class Anomaly from Qingyun County.
In the instant of Lu Xuan’s shock, Zhang Yingxue’s figure gradually transformed into wisps of red Yin energy, then vanished into the void.
“Trying to escape!”
Lu Xuan’s figure instantly transformed into a beam of purple light, shooting towards Zhang Yingxue to grab her.
But under Zhang Yingxue’s resentful gaze, Lu Xuan grasped at empty air.
