Yu Nian's gaze swept over the two little ghosts.
The two little ghosts shivered. They were truly scared by Yu Nian's punch and didn't dare to play any more tricks. "The young mistress is naturally suspicious. She'd rather kill by mistake than let anyone go. But it's her big happy day. Why don't you, Master, disguise yourselves as the congratulatory gifts captured by us? In this way, the young mistress will be much less on guard and won't have the time to pay attention to you."
Yu Nian looked at He Zhiping and Ming Mingzhong, who were less courageous. She could conceal her own aura, but the two of them couldn't. If they rushed in rashly, they would indeed be easily detected by the evil spirits.
Yu Nian reached out and touched a sharp stone beside her. Pressing hard, a few drops of bright red blood oozed out from her fingertips.
She put a dot on the glabella of He Zhiping and Ming Mingzhong respectively to ensure that no one else could get close to them. Then she drew a talisman on them. A pale purple light flashed, and the three of them were out of their bodies with their souls.
He Zhiping looked down at his translucent arm and felt extremely curious.
Yu Nian said calmly to the little ghosts, "Lead the way."
The terrain inside the grotto was extremely complex. It always gave people the illusion that they were about to reach the end the next second. But in fact, after the group made five or six turns in the dim corridor and walked another seventy or eighty meters forward, they found that there was actually a whole new world deep inside the grotto.
Ming Mingzhong's cheeks were illuminated by the pale yellow light in front. He stared in amazement with wide - open eyes. "There's actually a mansion inside this grotto?!"
The dim and gentle red wedding candles were closely arranged around the stone walls. The big red lanterns were hanging high on both sides of the plaque. Faint music and somewhat ambiguous laughter came from behind the tall, dark - brown mansion gate.
Yu Nian looked up at the black - and - gold plaque. The characters on it were written in a powerful and elegant style. "Jade Branch Tower...?"
The two little ghosts walked to the door and knocked on the door rings on the left and right three times respectively. Then they shouted in their shrill voices, "Open the door quickly! We're back with the young mistress's congratulatory gifts!"
With a soft creak, the closed gate slowly opened, and a stench of miasma and demonic aura rushed towards them. Yu Nian couldn't help but frown tightly.
Behind the gate, a gaunt old woman appeared expressionlessly. She was wearing an old - fashioned women's long gown, and her half - white hair was in a mess, hanging on her shoulders.
Her face was pale and empty. The lower half of her face was bloody. Her mouth corner seemed to have been cut open by something sharp and extended all the way to the earlobe, then sewn back together with dense stitches to form this face.
He Zhiping and Ming Mingzhong were startled by the old woman. They endured the fear in their hearts and didn't scream out.
The two little ghosts seemed to be in great awe of the old woman. They folded their hands in front of their bodies and said respectfully, "Aunt Hui."
The old woman seemed not to hear what the two little ghosts said. She stepped forward and walked towards the three people standing side by side.
Then Aunt Hui slowly raised the old - fashioned hand lantern. Her bloody and terrifying face slowly got closer to Ming Mingzhong and stopped when there was still a distance of two fingers from his nose tip.
Aunt Hui's nose twitched slightly. She carefully sniffed something on him, and her pair of expressionless eyes stared at him without blinking.
Ming Mingzhong gasped. He felt that the stinking and rotting smell on Aunt Hui almost made him faint. Just when he couldn't hold on any longer and wanted to run away, Aunt Hui finally moved away and walked towards He Zhiping.
He Zhiping shivered immediately. In extreme fear, he let out a burp.
Aunt Hui: ......
He Zhiping felt a bit embarrassed. Since he experienced the incident of the old lady of the Yu family, he would always carry some evil - repelling things with him, such as... garlic. He was too nervous before entering the grotto, so he chewed two cloves. One could imagine the smell in his mouth at the moment.
Maybe it was just his illusion, but there seemed to be a hint of disgust in Aunt Hui's empty eyes. She only stayed in front of He Zhiping for a moment and then immediately walked towards Yu Nian.
Yu Nian didn't dodge. She always stared at Aunt Hui calmly. Aunt Hui carefully sized Yu Nian up for a while and actually spoke. Her voice was hoarse and unpleasant, and her words were a bit slurred. "This one is not bad. If she becomes a rough maid for the mistress, the mistress will surely like her." She paused for a moment and looked at Yu Nian with her cloudy eyes. "Would you like to?"
Yu Nian replied with a calm smile, "Naturally, I would."
Only then did Aunt Hui nod in satisfaction. She turned around and led the group towards the mansion. "You're a sensible one. Unlike that Taoist priest who came here just now. He was old and stubborn. No matter what I said, he didn't want to be my shoe - boy. I knocked him out and locked him in the wood - shed..."
Yu Nian's steps faltered. If she guessed correctly, the "old and stubborn Taoist priest" referred to Xie Yiming. She suddenly admired Aunt Hui's ability to judge people. Asking her ancestor Xuande to be a maid for the evil spirits and a young and talented man of the Taoist sect to be a shoe - boy for the evil... Only Aunt Hui could come up with such an idea!
The group continued walking inwards. It was still dark all around, and the music they heard at the mansion gate had disappeared.
Yu Nian made a hand gesture with her left hand and quietly marked the way they passed.
Aunt Hui stopped in front of a dilapidated thatched cottage and opened the door. Yu Nian saw a group of people tied up. They were lying on the ground in a disorderly manner. Some of them looked familiar, and there were also a few strangers, but Feng Chengyuan's figure was nowhere to be seen.
Aunt Hui said, "The mistress and the master will hold their wedding soon. You just stay here obediently. If I find out that you're running around, I'll eat you alive."
After saying that, Aunt Hui deliberately grinned her cracked mouth. The warning meaning was self - evident. The mistress had set up multiple barriers at the door. She didn't think the group had the ability to escape. Moreover, the three of them were quite obedient, so she didn't tie them up.
Yu Nian's heart sank. Since Feng Chengyuan wasn't here, he could only be in the guest area of the front hall or the bridal chamber. Did that evil spirit kidnap Feng Chengyuan just to marry him?
Yu Nian's eyelashes trembled. She felt inexplicably annoyed.
Just as Aunt Hui was about to turn around and leave, someone on the ground let out a whimper. Xie Yiming slowly woke up. He felt his whole body ache. He looked up by the light. The moment he saw Yu Nian, he was shocked and confused. "Yu Nian? You... You've been captured too?"
Aunt Hui's steps suddenly stopped. Her eyes emitted a faint green light in the darkness. She finally realized something and said coldly, "So you're all in this together. How dare you play tricks on me? Die!"
There was a sound of bursting clothes. The old woman in front disappeared, and a spider as big as a person crawled on the ground. Different from ordinary spiders, it had sixteen legs covered with fine fluff, and each leg was as thick as a bucket.
"What the hell... is this thing?!"
Yu Nian explained seriously, "It's just a slightly ugly spider."
Aunt Hui: ......
Xie Yiming's face suddenly turned deathly pale. He was not afraid of demons or evil spirits since he was born, but he would go weak in the knees as soon as he saw things with a lot of legs like spiders.
Moreover, the giant spider in front of him was approaching step by step. He could hardly breathe. He managed to curse, "This must be a mutated spider!"
The spider's mouth, as sharp as a sickle, opened and closed. With two whooshing sounds, two thick strands of spider silk rushed towards Yu Nian and quickly wrapped around her waist. Then its huge body suddenly swung, as if it was about to swallow Yu Nian into its belly.