Chapter 501: Qiu Liang
Chapter 501: Qiu Liang
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
The Tantai Family had a high status in society.
Since the mansion could not possibly fit the entire family, a few family members would do jobs outside and fund the family financially.
Tantai Mieming's aunt, Tantai Jueqing was one such person, an exorcist.
She was a beautiful lady and preferred floral clothing. Her skin was fair and she had an elegant demeanour.
Furthermore, Tantai Jueqing was the one and only family member of the Tantai Family who was on friendly terms with Fang Yuan. Sometimes, she even helped out the much-busier Tantai Juexin in teaching Fang Yuan the techniques of exorcism.
Logically speaking, Fang Yuan should be rather close to this aunt of his.
However, the overly-matured Fang Yuan could tell that this lady had ill intentions and was merely wearing a mask.
Although she did not display any signs of any ulterior motives, Fang Yuan trusted his intuition!
"I have nothing else to teach you regarding the identification of plants and pharmaceutics! You are a genius, Ming!"
Tantai Jueqing squinted her eyes and smiled as she rubbed Fang Yuan's head.
"Aunt Jueqing, can you tell me about the outside world?"
Fang Yuan displayed curiosity a 5-year-old had as he pestered his aunt for more stories about the outside world.
Although he knew that Tantai Jueqing had ill intentions, this was nevertheless still a good opportunity to gather more information about the outside world!
Tantai Jueqing seemed to be on a long break herself after the recent mission.
"Alright!"
Tantai Jueqing brought her hands together. "The outside world is very interesting! There are tall buildings all around! Every night, light from all the buildings come together, displaying a sight which is prettier than a rainbow. There are also a lot of delicacies and entertainment there! The chocolates and figurines which I gave you last time were only the most basic... Other than these, there are also planes which can fly in the sky, and these planes can fly across many other countries in just a single day..."
'This world is so technologically advanced?'
Fang Yuan blinked as he listened intently as though he was longing to see it for himself. 'Also... Why would Tantai Jueqing attempt to make me interested in the outside world? Does she really have an ulterior motive?'
Of course, he knew that Tantai Guijing and the fellow family members would never allow him to leave the mansion.
'However, it's not a bad idea to leave this place...'
Fang Yuan snickered to himself. 'I shall play along with you.'
Although there are many secrets in the Tantai Family which were worth discovering, this was not the time!
In other words, the secrets here were too much for him to handle. Fang Yuan would prefer to expose himself to the outside world first.
Furthermore, Fang Yuan would have to worry about the monthly 'ritual'. It was obviously an attempt to keep things under control! The longer the ritual, the more effective it would be! Unfortunately, Fang Yuan had not restored most of his abilities and could not resist against it.
Since he was underqualified to control the situation, it would only be wise to step out of it.
"Aunt!"
Fang Yuan tugged on Tantai Jueqing's hand and started to sound cringy. "Next time when you leave, bring me along, will you?"
"No way!" Tantai Jueqing smiled sheepishly. "You are a very important person and the Hall of Sacrifice requires you..."
'There she goes again, trying to end her sentence halfway to pique my interest.'
Fang Yuan secretly rolled his eyes.
He knew that he could not continue to plead. After all, the role which he was acting was an abnormal kid.
"Cough cough!"
A few coughs were heard as Tantai Juexin displayed a cold look. "Jueqing, you've said too much. Mieming, please leave with us!"
"Yes!"
Fang Yuan obediently packed up and left the room.
However, as his ears twitched, his sensitive hearing ability allowed him to eavesdrop a little.
"Keke... Brother, what are you afraid of? Are you afraid that he will learn the truth?"
"Enough! This plan is the hope for the entire family. Those old fogeys must fear their death, right? It's a pity that he's too..." Tantai Jueqing's voice sounded excited. "We... will all die!"
"Sister, do you hate us for doing all these?" After a long and awkward silence, Tantai Juexin spoke once more.
"Yes, I hate all of you and I hate this cursed family! I hate myself..."
Tantai Jueqing sounded pitiful as though she was forcing herself to speak.
"... Are you responsible for the missing pair of scissors?"
"Scissors? The one which Qiu Liang used years ago? Haha... finally, the truth is out?"
...
There was the faint noise of fighting and the information coming from the argument started to interest Fang Yuan. Unfortunately, he saw a few servants walking towards him and felt that it was inappropriate to continue eavesdropping and could only walk away.
"A 20-year cycle? Could this be about the peak of the curse on the family? Also, that pair of scissors..."
The pair of red scissors which Qiu Liang had used to attempt to kill Fang Yuan was ingrained in his memory and Fang Yuan felt an inexplicable vibe just be recalling it.
Now that he thought about it, every single person in the family was not as simple as they seem and that pair of scissors might just be a piece of magical equipment.
"Lost? This would mean that it has been guarded all these while. This is interesting..."
Fang Yuan slowly walked away. Unfortunately, he was already too far from the room and could no longer hear what they were talking about.
"Ah, it's young master Mieming!"
As he entered a garden, he noticed a few servants carrying a rack which was covered with a white cloth. A part of the white cloth was dyed red.
All the servants in the family feared Fang Yuan. Now that they suddenly realised that he was in the garden, they shrieked and released their grip on the rack, allowing it to fall to the ground. A corpse rolled out from the rack.
This female corpse was wearing a servant's clothing and had a pale look. Her eyes were wide open and there was an obvious cut on her neck, as though she was being sliced by a sharp object.
Just as Fang Yuan gazed towards the corpse, he could feel an indescribable chill down his spine.
"What are you doing there! Quickly clear things up!"
As the housekeeper lectured the servants, he forced a smile as he looked towards Fang Yuan. "Young master Mieming, this place is dirty. It will be best for you to return."
"Oh!"
Fang Yuan quickly agreed, turned around and took his leave.
The housekeeper heaved a sigh of relief. "Did the two of you not take your meals?"
It's not that, Housekeeper Zhang. It's just too scary! We have this recent death and immediately after, we see him..."
"That's right. When a normal child sees a corpse, he will surely feel scared, right? He doesn't even have any reaction at all! The rumours are true..."
"Ahong was fine yesterday and now, she's found dead in her room. That room was locked from in the inside. Could it be... that thing?"
...
Fang Yuan paid no attention to their gossip.
From his birth till now, he had already heard enough of such stories. If he were to investigate every single incident, he would have been exhausted to death.
Of course, the final piece of information was a little more interesting.
"Could it be ghosts?"
Fang Yuan returned to his room and chuckled. "Even this place is no longer safe. I should leave this haunted mansion as soon as possible."
"Of course, the priority would be to improve my abilities!"
At night, Fang Yuan rushed to the spot behind the Hall of Sacrifice as he waited for the appearance of the Ghost Garden.
Ever since he had learnt all about it, he had already planned on using the Ghost Garden for himself.
Now, he was prepared to create a few types of medicine.
"This Hall of Sacrifice..."
Under the dim moonlight, the dark building resembled a black hole which was seemingly trying to absorb everything.
Fang Yuan could sense a pair of prying eyes coming from the Hall of Sacrifice.
"Elder?"
Fang Yuan paid no attention to it and waited for the moon to set before walking into the Ghost Garden.
Oddly-shaped plants created an eerie shuffling nose as though they were welcoming him.
"Human equipment cannot deal with ghosts. Even these plants do not belong to the humans..."
Fang Yuan walked about in the garden. "In reality... the Tantai Family did not share with me their medicinal formulas for the more effective medicines. Now, I am merely creating the basic ones."
"According to the matured plants here, there are only 2 concoctions I can create. One will be the Spiritual Eye Water which will allow normal humans to observe the traces of ghosts. The second will be a concoction which will mask the traits of a human body, making it harder for the ghosts to detect the person using it."
Fang Yuan had his Fiery Golden Eyes and therefore would not need the Spiritual Eye Water. Therefore, he went straight into creating the other concoction.
"It is a requirement for me to create the entire concoction while I am in the Ghost Garden!"
Fang Yuan arrived at the Ghost Faced Sunflower and pressed on the forehead of the face.
"Sniffle!"
The pale face started to cry in a melodious tone and blood started to tear from her eyes.
Fang Yuan collected the blood with a test tube before adding the powdered seeds of Corpse Vine in. Following which, he added a few more odd ingredients into the mix.
In the test tube, the blood-coloured liquid suddenly turned transparent.
"I've succeeded!"
It was the norm to fail in creating these concoctions. Even elders in charge of making these concoctions would not have such a high probability of success as Fang Yuan had.
"However, I don't know how useful will this be..."
Fang Yuan held his concoction and was about to leave. Suddenly, he felt a chill.
A gold hue flashed in his eyes as he noticed a blurred silhouette.
"Could ghost be more visible in this alternate dimension?"
Fang Yuan revealed a smile on his face. "Am I... trapping myself? However, I must expose myself to... the threats of this world!"
At this point, Fang Yuan drank the concoction in his hands without a second thought.
A smelly and rotting stench filled his mouth but there were no visible changes to his body.
Taking light breaths, Fang Yuan slowly walked about in the Ghost Garden.
Finally, he could see it. A lady wearing red placed her hands on her hips and like a snake, she slithered on the ground with her shoulders.
The face of the ghost was that of... Qiu Liang!