The Stepmother's Secret

"Ghost... ghost husband?"

Master Jiang's already plump legs could no longer support the weight of his body. With a "thump," he collapsed onto the patterned brick floor like a heap of mud. His corpulent frame trembled violently, accidentally knocking over the nearby white jade wine flagon.

"Splash—"

Crystalline wine flowed across the brick floor, quickly mingling with the dark red blood the servant had spat earlier, releasing a pungent odor that mixed醇香 with the stench of blood. The smell permeated the hall, nauseating, as if it were the truest portrayal of this hypocritical wedding feast.

The entire hall was deathly silent. Aside from the heavy, terror-filled gasps of the Jiang family, there was no other sound. Those guests who had once jostled and squeezed their way in, eager to curry favor with the Jiang family and call themselves brothers, now wished they could become invisible entities or instantly turn into bugs and crawl into a crack in the floor. They held their breath, terrified of being noticed by this terrifying man who called himself a "ghost husband" and radiated a chilling, murderous aura.

"You... don't come any closer!" Madam Jiang shrieked. Her face, usually well-maintained and always carrying the air of a noble lady, was now twisted into a grotesque mess by extreme fear. Her makeup, washed away by cold sweat, became patchy and hideous, like a cheap actor's.

She never imagined that the legendary monster, said to have been sealed for a thousand years and only heard of in storybooks, would actually be standing alive before her.

And what's more, he had brought that blind girl who should have been waiting in despair inside the stone coffin! And that blind girl held in her hand the death warrant that could send her to eternal damnation!

Pei Ji paid no attention to her pig-like shrieking. He slowly took a step forward. The hem of his black robe brushed across the blood- and wine-stained floor but didn't pick up a single stain.

With this seemingly casual step, the temperature in the previously noisy and warm hall dropped sharply. The candle flames in the red lanterns hanging around flickered violently, as if blown by some icy wind, and the light dimmed instantly. Everyone felt a bone-piercing chill shoot up from the soles of their feet to the crowns of their heads, as if they were standing in an ice cellar.

"You just said you wanted to break her legs?" Pei Ji's gaze, like two icy blades, passed over Jiang Ying's thin shoulders and landed on Madam Jiang. His voice was soft, without any roar, yet it seemed to carry the weight of a thousand tons, pressing down on them until they could barely breathe.

"I... I didn't... I'm not..." Madam Jiang stammered in terror, her upper and lower teeth chattering uncontrollably. She frantically shrank behind the collapsed Master Jiang, trying to use his obese body to block that terrifying gaze.

"And you," Pei Ji slowly turned his head, his gaze now falling on Master Jiang. "You wanted to lock her in the cellar?"

Master Jiang trembled all over, his lips quivering, making a "gurgling" sound in his throat, but unable to utter a single word. He only felt that those dark green eyes were looking at him as if he were already a dead man.

"General," Jiang Ying suddenly spoke. In this oppressively tense atmosphere, her voice was unexpectedly calm, like a deep, stagnant pool—no ripples, yet hiding a whirlpool beneath. "This is a personal grudge between me and the Jiang family. I want to settle it myself."

Pei Ji stopped and turned to look at her. His brow furrowed slightly, as if displeased by her lack of appreciation.

"Settle it yourself?" He let out a cold laugh, his tone full of mockery and disbelief. "You, a blind girl who can't even see, can barely stand. What are you going to use to settle it? That silver tongue of yours?"

"With evidence." Jiang Ying raised the few yellowed letters in her hand. Though her hand trembled slightly, her back remained straight as an arrow. "This evidence, in black and white, is enough to ruin her reputation and sentence her to execution after the autumn harvest. I want her to face the judgment of Daqian law."

"Report to the authorities? The law?" Pei Ji seemed to have heard something utterly foolish and ridiculous. He couldn't help but let out a low laugh. The sound echoed through the empty hall, carrying endless scorn. "Human law only protects those with power and influence. Do you think the Governor of Qingzhou would offend his future in-laws for the sake of you—an unloved, abandoned blind concubine's daughter? Would he destroy a marriage that benefits them both?"

He took a step closer, looking down at her from above, his oppressive aura making Jiang Ying feel suffocated.

"Naive. In this world, justice has never been won by a few pieces of paper. It's earned by the blade in your hand and the blood beneath your feet!"

Jiang Ying fell silent. Her fingers, gripping the letter paper, turned white from the strain.

She knew Pei Ji was right. In this world, justice was often built with silver and power. Since the Jiang family could form a marriage alliance with the Governor's Mansion, there must be countless underhanded dealings behind it. How could the lofty Governor easily believe the words of a blind girl? Even if he did, to protect his official face and interests, he would most likely suppress the matter or even turn around and bite her.

"Then... what does the General suggest?" She took a deep breath, her voice tinged with a hint of reluctant compromise and helplessness.

"Eradicate the roots." A flash of violent red light flickered in Pei Ji's eyes. A thousand years of sunless imprisonment and a millennium of nourished resentment had long stripped him of all mercy and patience toward humans. "Kill all these hypocritical, disgusting people. Burn down this filthy mansion. Everything will be clean then."

His hand had already slowly risen, black yin energy swirling around his fingertips, as if it would transform into the scythe of the God of Death in the next second.

"No!" Jiang Ying shouted urgently, recklessly grabbing his cold sleeve. "General, no!"

Pei Ji's eyes turned cold as he looked at her hand gripping his sleeve, restraining the urge to shake her off.

"If you kill them all, there'll be no one left to testify. My mother's injustice will never be cleared in the eyes of the world! People will only say the Jiang family met with misfortune, or even pin the blood debt on me! I want them alive, stripped of what they value most—their status, their reputation. I want them to face the judgment of the law. I want the entire Qingzhou City to see their ugly faces, more terrifying than ghosts! I want them to suffer a fate worse than death!"

Jiang Ying finished in one breath. Her chest heaved violently from agitation, and her face grew even paler.

"Soft-hearted woman." Pei Ji snorted coldly, looking at her stubborn expression. Though he found it laughable, he didn't actually make a move. He slowly lowered his hand.

In truth, his current strength was barely enough to intimidate these mortals. If he were to go on a killing spree, it would certainly cause quite a stir. He had only just broken free from the seal and needed time to conceal his tracks and fully recover. Besides, for some reason, he didn't want to see that disappointed look on this blind girl's face.

Suddenly, he turned around, his gaze shooting like lightning toward the thick darkness outside the hall.

"Since you're here, stop skulking in the shadows. What, do I need to come out and invite you personally?"

As soon as the words fell, a rustling sound of footsteps came from the darkness outside the hall.

A Taoist priest, dressed in a yellow Daoist robe, holding a hundred-year-old peachwood sword, and carrying a tattered cloth bundle, stepped out nervously from the night.

It was the very same Xuyun Daoist who had presided over the Arranged Ghost Marriage the day before, sending Jiang Ying into the stone coffin.

He had originally come to the Jiang residence to collect the remaining payment and scrounge a wedding feast. He had just reached the front courtyard when he heard the commotion inside. He was about to slip away, but Pei Ji's powerful spiritual sense had locked onto him, making his legs feel as heavy as lead.

"De... demon! You actually broke the Thousand-Year Frozen Spirit Curse and escaped!" Xuyun Daoist stared at the murderous Pei Ji before him, his eyes filled not only with shock but also with a barely perceptible glint of greed.

The reason he had been willing to risk shortening his own life to preside over this heinous ghost marriage for the Jiang family, besides the generous reward of several hundred taels of silver, was more importantly his coveting of the legendary treasure inside the stone coffin. With that treasure, he would never have to swindle and deceive again for the rest of his life. His status in the Daoist sect would soar, and he could even found his own school.

But no matter how much he calculated, he never expected that the true master of that stone coffin hadn't been reduced to ashes and had actually escaped.

"Xuyun Daoist! Quick! Subdue this demon!" Master Jiang shouted with abandon, like a drowning man spotting a plank. "If you subdue him, I'll double your silver! No, ten times!"

Hearing "ten times," a greedy gleam flashed in Xuyun Daoist's eyes. Men die for money, birds die for food. Besides, this demon had just broken the seal; his power was surely greatly diminished. This was a golden opportunity that came once in a thousand years.

He mustered his courage, let out a cold laugh, and said, "Master Jiang, rest assured. Since I've accepted your silver, I will naturally uphold the will of heaven and vanquish this demon for you, ensuring peace in the Jiang household!"

He quickly pulled a golden talisman paper from his bosom, bit his middle finger, and smeared blood over the cinnabar runes on the talisman.

"Heaven's Net, by the urgent decree of the law! Go!"

With a loud shout, he hurled the golden talisman paper into the air. The paper instantly burst into flames in midair, transforming into a massive, blindingly radiant golden net of light, carrying scorching pure yang energy as it descended upon Pei Ji and Jiang Ying.

The temperature in the hall rose slightly, and hope flickered in the eyes of the Jiang family.

Pei Ji stood still, not even lifting his eyelids to dodge. A look of undisguised contempt and disdain flashed in his eyes.

"You think this piece of trash can do anything? A paltry trick."

He coldly watched the net of light fall with the sound of wind and thunder.

Just as the net was about to touch his body, and the fiery glow at its edges had already illuminated his pale face, he suddenly raised his right hand.

An extremely powerful, thick, and tangible black yin energy surged from his palm like a roaring black dragon, charging fiercely toward the net of light.

"Boom!"

A deafening explosion rang out in the hall, like a clap of thunder striking beside their ears.

The moment the golden net of light touched the black yin energy, it was like thin paper meeting a blazing fire. Without even a struggle, it was instantly torn to shreds, dissolving into faint specks of golden light that ultimately dissipated completely into the air.

"Pfft—"

The backlash from the shattered array struck Xuyun Daoist hard. His face changed drastically, as if hit by a heavy blow. He spewed a large mouthful of blood, and his body flew backward like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily onto the threshold of the hall.

"This... this is impossible!"

Clutching his agonizing chest, he stared in terror at Pei Ji, who was completely unharmed.

He might have been a half-baked swindler, but that talisman was a high-grade killing array talisman he had bought with half his life's savings from an inner disciple of Dragon-Tiger Mountain! Even an ordinary century-old fierce ghost would shed a layer of skin under that talisman. How could it be shattered so easily, without even lasting a single move?

"You think that a talisman not even fit for a child's game could trap me?" Pei Ji lowered his hand and walked step by step, slowly and oppressively, toward Xuyun Daoist lying on the ground.

With each step, his yin energy grew denser, and the surrounding air grew colder.

"A thousand years ago, the founding master of Dragon-Tiger Mountain personally led forty-nine top cultivators in laying down the Heavenly Dipper Killing Array, and even they couldn't kill me—only seal me away. Who do you think you are?"

Xuyun Daoist was scared out of his wits. Scrambling backward, he had long since lost track of where his hundred-year-old peachwood sword had fallen.

"Who... who are you?" His voice trembled uncontrollably, as if facing an insurmountable monument of death.

Pei Ji stopped, looked down at him, and curled his lips into a cruel sneer.

"General Who Pacifies the East, Pei Ji."

These six words, uttered lightly, struck like a thunderbolt, exploding beside Xuyun Daoist's ears and leaving him dizzy and dazed.

"You... you're that murderous general who massacred cities and destroyed nations!"

Xuyun Daoist finally remembered the ancient legends listed as forbidden knowledge in his sect's ancient texts. A thousand years ago, the invincible yet bloodthirsty General Who Pacifies the East had violated heaven-defying taboos and was jointly sealed away by the entire Daoist sect and the imperial court at a terrible cost.

The ancient texts said he had long since been annihilated. But who could have imagined that he was still alive, standing right before his eyes?

He never imagined that his own greed would lead him to provoke such a terrifying existence that even his sect's founder had found troublesome.

"Since you know my name, then rest assured and take your leave. On the Yellow Springs Road, at least you'll have company."Pei Ji slowly raised his right hand, and a thick mass of pitch-black energy rapidly condensed in his palm, like a miniature black hole, emanating an aura of destruction.

"Wait!" Jiang Ying suddenly spoke out, stopping him once again.

"What now? Are you having another fit of inexplicable compassion?" Pei Ji turned to look at her impatiently, a clear displeasure in his eyes. He disliked being interrupted, especially when killing.

"General, if you kill him, no one will know the secret of the stone coffin," Jiang Ying analyzed calmly, her voice cutting through the silent hall with unusual clarity. "Since he was able to find that well-hidden stone coffin and accurately knew about the Thousand-Year Icy Curse and the solution requiring a Pure Yin body, he must know some inside information that we don't. Besides, Lady Jiang was acting under his direction when she thought of using me for an Arranged Ghost Marriage. He's a living witness and a piece of evidence."

Pei Ji was silent for a moment, the black energy in his hand receding slightly.

What she said made sense. A thousand years was too long; he knew nothing about the state of this world now. Who had orchestrated his sealing back then? Why had that stone coffin appeared in the desolate wilderness? He needed to find all this out.

He lowered his hand and looked coldly at Daoist Master Xuyun, who had collapsed like a limp heap on the floor.

"Tell me everything you know. Perhaps I'll consider letting you keep a whole corpse."

Daoist Master Xuyun knelt on the ground, kowtowing incessantly, his face ashen with terror.

"I... I'll talk... I'll tell you everything! Please, General, spare my life!"

Under Pei Ji's terrifying intimidation, Daoist Master Xuyun poured out everything like beans tumbling from a bamboo tube.

It turned out that Lady Jiang, in order to smoothly marry her eldest daughter Jiang Mingzhu into the Governor's Mansion, had been desperately searching for a way to eliminate Jiang Ying, the "stain" on the family. By chance, through an introduction, she found Daoist Master Xuyun, who told fortunes at a stall in the southern part of the city.

After learning of the Jiang family's wealth, Daoist Master Xuyun, eager to claim the generous reward, told her that deep in the wilderness fifty li outside the city, there was an ancient, unclaimed stone coffin. If she drugged Jiang Ying, whose birth chart was of the Yin element, placed her in the stone coffin for an Arranged Ghost Marriage, she could make her disappear without a trace and without leaving any incriminating evidence. To ease Lady Jiang's concerns, he even lied to her, saying it was to pray for blessings and ward off misfortune for the Jiang family.

"And the secret of that stone coffin—how did you come to know it?" Pei Ji interrupted coldly. That place was extremely secluded, and those who had set up the formation back then had deliberately erased all traces. How could a half-baked Daoist know of it?

"It... it was recorded in a fragmentary ancient text," Daoist Master Xuyun stammered, pulling a yellowed, tattered book from his bosom with trembling hands. "I... I obtained this残缺残卷 years ago while tomb raiding... no, I mean, while exploring the ruins of an ancient immortal. It said that inside the stone coffin was sealed a demon general from a thousand years ago, and that by using the blood of a Pure Yin person, with Conjugal Wine as a catalyst, the outermost seal could be broken without damaging the foundation of the formation."

"You knew that what was sealed inside was me, that I would emerge, and you still dared to scheme against me?" Pei Ji's eyes hardened, killing intent radiating from him.

"I... I thought... after a thousand years, the formation would have drained all your Yin energy, that your soul would have scattered, leaving nothing but dry bones. I... I only wanted one of the burial items from the stone coffin..."

"Burial item?" Pei Ji frowned slightly, quickly searching through his memories of a thousand years ago.

"Yes... a black jade pendant carved with totems. The ancient text said that the pendant held a tremendous secret about the Dragon Vein."

Pei Ji suddenly remembered. A thousand years ago, when he was sealed by design, he indeed had a black jade pendant on him. It was the only keepsake left to him by his mother, the saintess from that mysterious foreign clan. He had always worn it close to his body.

But just now, when he had awakened in the stone coffin, he hadn't sensed that pendant. It wasn't on him.

"Where is that pendant? Where?" Pei Ji grabbed Daoist Master Xuyun by the collar, lifting the man entirely off the ground, his voice freezing cold.

"I... I don't know! I didn't dare touch anything inside the stone coffin! Yesterday when I sealed the coffin, I didn't even lay a finger on the lid!" Daoist Master Xuyun, terrified, squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head frantically while wailing.

Pei Ji stared at him intently for a while, convinced that this cowardly, spineless wretch wouldn't dare lie at a time like this.

He threw Daoist Master Xuyun back to the ground in disgust.

"It seems someone got here before us. Or rather, a thousand years ago, the one who sealed me had already taken it."

He turned his head, his gaze drifting darkly toward Lady Jiang, who had been cowering and trembling in the corner.

Lady Jiang was now scared out of her wits, her makeup smeared into a mess. When she saw Pei Ji looking her way, it was as if she had seen a demon crawling out of hell.

"You... what do you want? Stay away! I'm the in-law of a court official!"

"She's yours to deal with." Pei Ji ignored her bluster, stepping back half a pace and speaking to Jiang Ying. He knew this was what Jiang Ying wanted most.

Jiang Ying took a deep breath, clutching those letters tightly in her hand. She straightened her back, and even though she couldn't see, she relied on her instincts to walk step by step, resolutely, toward Lady Jiang.

"Lady Jiang, twelve years. You owe me for my mother's life, and you owe me for these twelve years of living death. Today, it's time to settle the full account."

Lady Jiang looked into Jiang Ying's hollow yet murderous eyes and suddenly let out a piercing shriek that sounded inhuman. Driven by extreme terror, she burst forth with astonishing strength, pushing over the table in front of her and madly dashing toward the hall's entrance.

"Trying to run?"

Pei Ji snorted coldly. He didn't even need to lift a hand; with a mere thought, a visible stream of black energy shot up from the ground like a nimble black serpent, coiling tightly around Lady Jiang's ankle.

"Ah!" Lady Jiang crashed heavily to the floor with a miserable scream. The black energy dragged her back to the center of the hall like a dead dog, mercilessly dumping her at Jiang Ying's feet.

"Tomorrow morning, we'll go see the authorities. I want you to confess all your crimes clearly in the courtroom," Jiang Ying said coldly, looking down at Lady Jiang, who lay on the ground wailing, her voice devoid of any emotion.

Just then, the sound of orderly, rhythmic clanking armor and dense footsteps came from outside the hall.

"Who dares to cause trouble in Qingzhou City and disturb a private residence?!"

Accompanied by this authoritative bellow, a fully armed squad of soldiers, carrying torches and weapons, rushed into the hall like wolves and tigers, encircling it completely.

Leading them was a young man in silver soft armor, handsome but with a hint of arrogance. He was none other than Li Yunxuan, the only son of the Governor of Qingzhou and Jiang Mingzhu's fiancé for the evening.

Li Yunxuan had just come over after toasting at the back banquet. As soon as he entered the hall and saw the mess, the servants lying in pools of blood, and the Jiang parents slumped on the ground, his face darkened as if it could drip water.

"Master Li! Son-in-law! Save us! This witch has conspired with a demon to murder our entire family!" Master Jiang, as if seeing a true savior, scrambled frantically to Li Yunxuan, clutching his leg and crying out loudly.

Frowning, Li Yunxuan glanced at the center of the hall. When he saw Pei Ji and Jiang Ying standing there, a flicker of shock passed through his eyes. Though he didn't know Pei Ji, he could sense the dangerous aura emanating from the black-clad man. And that young woman... wasn't she the Jiang family's Second Miss, who had supposedly already been sent off for an Arranged Ghost Marriage?

But as the son of the Governor, he would never allow anyone to challenge the authority of the government in Qingzhou City.

With a whoosh, he drew the sword from his waist, its tip pointing directly at Pei Ji.

"Brazen fiend! How dare you commit violence and murder in broad daylight! Men, seize these two lawless thugs for me!"

At his command, dozens of well-trained soldiers drew their blades in unison and charged at Pei Ji with battle cries.

Pei Ji watched these soldiers surging toward him like a tide of ants, showing no sign of panic. Instead, he let out a soft laugh, the corners of his mouth curling into an extraordinarily cruel arc.

"It's been a long time since I've stretched my limbs. Since you're all so eager to die, this general shall oblige you."