The Heroine Made a Pact With Senior Sister (GL) Chapter 27

That voice…
Mu Yinfeng only felt her waist tighten. Then her whole body was dragged into the Xu residence by something. The pull came so suddenly that she had no time to guard against it. When the force at her waist stopped, Mu Yinfeng staggered and fell backward. She had already prepared herself for the back of her head to be smashed open, but just as she felt she was about to make intimate contact with the ground, she suddenly felt an arm wrap around her waist. Mu Yinfeng opened her eyes and met a pair of pale blue eyes.
“S-Senior Sister?”
Huixue raised a hand and steadied her, then turned toward Ruoying, who had returned to the gate, and greeted her in a cold but polite voice. “Martial Uncle Shadow?”
Martial… Uncle?
When the servants present heard how Huixue addressed the girl at the gate, their eyes all went round. After all, they had just seen Huixue freeze the entire courtyard. If this was that person’s martial uncle, how unfathomable must her strength be?
For a moment, no one dared slight Ruoying anymore. They hurriedly invited her in. Ruoying waved her hand, turned toward Huixue and Mu Yinfeng, and gestured for them to come out.
Ruoying seemed to have completely expected Huixue to appear here. Mu Yinfeng glanced at Ruoying, then looked at Huixue. Neither of them reacted much. If she had not been present through the entire process, she would truly suspect these two had arranged in advance to meet here.
“Did you ask everything clearly just now?” Ruoying propped her chin in one hand and looked sideways at the stone lion by the gate. Perhaps because of age and weathering, or perhaps for some other reason, one toe was missing from the stone lion’s foot.
Huixue nodded. Her hand remained clasped on Mu Yinfeng’s shoulder, as if the moment she let go, Mu Yinfeng would be snatched away by the evil being.
“So careful. I have yet to see anyone snatch someone away in front of me.” Ruoying glanced at Huixue and smiled faintly. Then she extended one finger and tapped toward the plaque. “Huixue, Yinfeng, look at this plaque.”
“The plaque?” Mu Yinfeng raised her eyes. “There is nothing unusual about it.”
Huixue also did not notice anything strange. She turned toward Ruoying, her gaze equally puzzled.
“This is the style of a plaque from the previous dynasty. It is normal that you do not know. Missions involving such wealthy households are rarely assigned to Hanyou Valley. Usually, they are assigned to neighboring Mirror Flower Hall or Shuihua Gate.” Ruoying blinked mischievously. “Although cultivators do not ask about worldly matters, if you enter the world, you should still know some customs. Have either of you ever seen a capital official of the current dynasty use a plaque from the previous dynasty? This one point alone is enough to have his whole family killed several times over.”
Ruoying did not hide her voice. The servants closest to her immediately turned pale as earth and rushed out to look at the plaque. Once they saw it, they were so frightened they nearly knelt on the ground. One by one, they lost their wits and muttered to themselves, “Again. Again.”
“Again?” Mu Yinfeng caught the information in their words. Since they said again, the same thing must have happened before.
A servant whose clothing looked slightly higher in rank hurriedly knelt before Mu Yinfeng and knocked his head like pounding garlic. “Immortal masters, please save us. This plaque, this plaque…”
The servant trembled all over like chaff in a sieve and did not dare continue. A bolder servant beside him added, “Once the plaque turns like this, every night there will be… there will be… strange things…”
“Understood. You may withdraw first. I will go see your master soon. This golden leaf will protect you.” Spiritual energy flowed in Ruoying’s palm and condensed into a shining golden leaf. She gave the golden leaf to the leading servant, then waved her sleeve. A gentle spiritual current lifted them up. The leading servant hurriedly held the golden leaf and respectfully went back to report.
Huixue watched the whole process coldly, then suddenly said, “Martial Uncle Shadow knows Squire Xu?”
“No,” Ruoying answered. “But she should recognize this golden leaf of mine. With this golden leaf here, she should not act rashly.”
Mu Yinfeng understood who Ruoying meant. Ruoying’s golden leaf was formed from her pure spiritual current. When necessary, it could display half of Ruoying’s strength. With Ruoying’s great name in the cultivation world, almost no famous evil being failed to recognize Ruoying’s golden leaf.
“Next, let us look at this plaque.” Ruoying waved casually, and the huge plaque slowly descended. Seeing her remove someone’s plaque right in front of them left Mu Yinfeng dumbfounded, but Huixue, standing to the side, looked used to it, as if she had already grown accustomed to Ruoying’s way of handling cases.
“Yinfeng, try dispelling the illusion on it. If something suddenly changes, eight or nine times out of ten, it is a trick to fool the eyes.” Ruoying controlled the plaque as it landed, then turned to Mu Yinfeng.
Mu Yinfeng nodded. She had just reached out to touch the plaque when a mass of black fog suddenly surged across it. Raging flames ignited within the black fog and nearly burned Mu Yinfeng’s sleeve. At that moment, snow filled the sky and fell with a soft rush. Mu Yinfeng looked back and saw the frost-snow mark on Huixue’s forehead light up. Her eyes were like ice as she looked in Mu Yinfeng’s direction.
“The ice-snow domain. In truth, there is no need. Yinfeng is not someone you must always protect.” Ruoying said softly to Huixue. Then she waved her hand again. The black fog scattered, the fierce flames went out, and the plaque returned to normal. But it was slightly different from what they had seen before.
The patterns on the plaque had changed. Earlier, they had still been flame patterns. Now they had become cloud-water patterns. The previous dynasty followed Fire virtue. Because water overcame fire, the current dynasty claimed Water virtue. These cloud-water patterns were the proper decoration for a noble family’s plaque in the current dynasty.
“The previous dynasty, Fire virtue,” Mu Yinfeng said softly. “This evil being should be connected to the previous dynasty.”
“That is easy to think of. The birth of a Heaven-grade being requires the right time and place. A fallen country and family hatred are indeed a reasonable trigger.” Huixue added.
“Senior Sister had already thought of this before?”
“Only intuition.” Ruoying chuckled. “Huixue’s intuition is often very accurate, accurate enough to compare with your Linglong Heart Method. This is a talent of the people of the Snow Domain.”
Huixue glanced at Ruoying, then turned away. “Martial Uncle Shadow, there is no need to mention these things. If nothing unexpected happens, this case is already clear. It should be a vengeful ghost from the previous dynasty causing trouble. I wonder whether anything has been found in Guiyuan Tower’s registry of vengeful ghosts.”
“If nothing unexpected happens,” Ruoying said with a smile. “So you mean there may still be something unexpected?”
Huixue nodded. “Yes. The unexpected point is that this may not have been recorded in Guiyuan Tower at all.”
“Then that is right. This one has never been registered in Guiyuan Tower. This is her first time committing a case.” Mu Yinfeng crouched beside the plaque and lightly stroked its surface. A thick layer of dust covered her fingertip. It felt like old accumulated dust, not smoke and soot from fire. “Generally speaking, a vengeful ghost with such high intelligence should have her own reason for making trouble. If she was able to act, then she should have had the ability to act long ago. Why wait until now?”
“If she waited until now, she naturally has her reasons. The clues we have now are the strange events described by the Xu residence, the face on Reed Village’s stone tablet, and this plaque. These are still not enough to judge the evil being’s identity.” Huixue walked to Mu Yinfeng’s side and gently placed her hand on Mu Yinfeng’s shoulder.
“We should also go inside the Xu residence and look? The evil being has been causing trouble for so long. It is impossible that she left no trace at all.”
Huixue leaned close to her ear, breath fragrant like orchids yet still cold as frost and snow. “I have already investigated. The only thing left at the scene was a red dance costume. It should be the same red dance costume described in the dossier as being left at the fire scene, but this red dance costume is completely intact and undamaged.”
“Where was it found?” Mu Yinfeng asked.
“In the third young lady’s bedroom,” Huixue slowly said. “Other than that, there are no traces. Yinfeng, do you want to go see?”