Chapter 366: Soil Stained Red by Blood?
Chapter 366: Chapter 366: Soil Stained Red by Blood?
Shen Ningning and Ye Shangyi were both drawn in by his tone.
The two of them swallowed nervously, waiting for what came next.
Mo Lingwei held his teacup to wet his throat and said coolly, "Ghosts?"
Lu Shaoyuan was so startled he nearly fell off the soft stool.
He steadied himself on the table, a hint of complaint on his handsome face. "Crown Prince, you should choose your words more carefully."
Mo Lingwei scoffed and set down his teacup. "You keep dragging this out and acting so scared. Isn’t it just because you think there are ghosts behind the mountain?"
With that, he narrowed his sharp eyes, a hint of impatience showing. "Making a fuss over nothing."
Lu Shaoyuan immediately said, "I’m not trying to scare you! If you go over the mountain behind this villa, you’ll see vast stretches of soil stained red with blood."
Ye Shangyi instantly hugged Shen Ningning’s small arm tightly.
"I... I don’t believe you!" she shot Lu Shaoyuan a glare. "Didn’t they say this place was nothing but desolate mountains? Just a lonely grave. Where would blood-soaked land come from?"
Lu Shaoyuan began to tell his story in a low, slow voice.
"I heard that the ancestor buried in that graveyard on the back mountain was a rich man from an outer county. One day, he brought a Feng Shui master to survey the area, looking for the most auspicious place to establish his ancestral tomb."
"So, they chose this spot. The Feng Shui master said that although the location was excellent and would make his family as rich as a nation and bless them with many prosperous descendants, it was only good for ten generations. After the tenth generation, they had to move the tomb, or their entire clan would face annihilation."
"The rich man left instructions for his descendants, reminding them to move the ancestral tomb in advance. But unfortunately, his descendants were too busy enjoying the wealth their ancestor had brought them and forgot his warning."
"Not long ago, this family was almost completely wiped out by a combination of drought and freezing weather. And they just happened to be the eleventh generation."
As Lu Shaoyuan spoke the last sentence, the room fell completely silent.
The small, red clay stove on the table was still GURGLING, letting off steam.
The firewood burning in the stove CRACKLED, throwing off sparks.
At some point, Shen Ningning had grabbed tightly onto Mo Lingwei’s sleeve, her watery eyes wide and round.
As for Ye Shangyi, she was clutching Shen Ningning’s small arm, ready to press herself against her at any moment.
Among the three of them, only Mo Lingwei’s expression remained unchanged, his demeanor cold.
Lu Shaoyuan lowered his gaze slightly, his eyes turning grim. Outside, the wind and snow howled, perfectly matching the atmosphere in the room.
"That blood... it’s the resentment of the family’s ancestor, displeased with his descendants, seeping up from the ground."
"That’s why the whole mountainside is stained a bloody, bloody red."
By the time he reached this part of the story, Shen Ningning had completely hidden herself beside Mo Lingwei.
’The little one had met bad people before, but never a ghost!’
So, her small hand clutched his sleeve, her big, bright black eyes wide with a mixture of fear and immense curiosity.
Ye Shangyi was trembling uncontrollably.
Just then, a kindly voice called from the doorway, "Crown Prince, Commandery Princess..."
The sudden sound broke the silence that had settled among the four of them.
It startled Ye Shangyi and Shen Ningning so much that they both cried out in shock.
Even Lu Shaoyuan was frightened, patting his chest.
Everyone turned to see Housekeeper Wu standing there with an innocent look on his face.
Ye Shangyi clutched her chest, gasping for breath in fright.
"Housekeeper Wu, why don’t you make any sound when you walk!"
Housekeeper Wu was baffled. "This old servant just knocked on the door."
It was just that everyone had been so engrossed in the story that they hadn’t noticed.
Mo Lingwei patted Shen Ningning’s little head.
"Don’t worry. If you’re really scared, you can wear these Buddha Beads from my wrist." As he spoke, he took off the beads and hung them around the little one’s neck.
Shen Ningning looked down at the Buddha Beads, which were made of Shariputra.
’With so many Shariputra, even if a Fierce Ghost showed up, wouldn’t it be turned to dust in an instant?’
The little one said in a sweet voice, "Thank you, Big Brother. I’ll wear it then. But what about you?"
Mo Lingwei chuckled, a cold light glinting in his eyes.
"The ghosts should be afraid of me."
’After all, don’t they say I’m the reincarnation of an Evil God?’
’In this world, I’ve never seen a malevolent spirit, but I’ve seen plenty of human hearts uglier than any ghost.’
Housekeeper Wu stepped forward. "Commandery Princess, here are the cloaks I’ve prepared for the four of you."
"The mountain behind the villa isn’t high. Once you go over it, you’ll see a large depression in the ground."
"There’s not much to see, though. Just a few lonely graves."
After Housekeeper Wu finished his explanation, Ye Shangyi became even more frightened.
She hurriedly asked, "The soil behind the mountain... is it really blood-red?"
Housekeeper Wu paused, then gave a pleasant smile.
"This old servant hasn’t been to see it, but I imagine that’s not the case."
Shen Ningning was immensely curious. She was both scared and eager for an adventure.
She blinked her big eyes and said, "Well, we’ll know if we go take a look."
"Lu Shaoyuan, Changyi, if you’re scared, you two can stay here. Big Brother and I will go."
Lu Shaoyuan immediately stood up. "I’m not scared."
Ye Shangyi stuck close to Shen Ningning. "I’m going too! I want to get to the bottom of this and see if there’s really something as weird as blood-soaked soil!"
So the four of them set off together, heading up the mountain from the villa’s back gate.
Housekeeper Wu had indeed been thoughtful. The vegetation on the mountain was sparse, and the cold wind was much fiercer than in the villa.
Wrapped in their cloaks, they made their way over the mountain, holding onto one another for support.
Mo Lingwei’s Hidden Guards followed nearby, ready to protect them at a moment’s notice.
The mountain was indeed not very high.
There was just one long slope. When they reached the top, the view suddenly opened up before them.
Shen Ningning let out a panting breath.
Mo Lingwei stood beside her, blocking the wind.
Ye Shangyi exclaimed in amazement, "Look! It really is a huge depression!"
Everyone looked up.
Before them, the mountainside looked as if something had smashed a giant crater into it.
The depression was enormous. To Shen Ningning’s eyes, it seemed as large as the entire villa.
It was covered in a thick blanket of white snow.
There was no sign of the blood-soaked soil Lu Shaoyuan had described.
And looking further into the distance, there were a few scattered grave mounds.
Ye Shangyi breathed a sigh of relief and shot Lu Shaoyuan a sharp glare.
"Didn’t you say the soil was like fresh blood? All you do is scare people."
Lu Shaoyuan coughed lightly, feeling a bit embarrassed. "I was just repeating what one of the servants at the villa told me."
’His silver notes had come in handy after all.’
At first, the servant didn’t dare to speak, but after being tempted by two hundred-tael silver notes, he said that when they were first assigned here by Chancellor Xie, they took a look around the area.
They not only saw the graves, but also a large patch of gory, blood-stained soil.
It reeked of a thick, metallic smell of blood!
At that time, Shen Ningning had already summoned the boundless light that broke the ice and melted the snow across Cangyun Country.
But it had snowed again in the past two days, covering the soil once more.
Curious, Shen Ningning crouched down.
She used her small hands to brush away the accumulated snow.
At first, the soil was brown, but as she pushed away more and more of the powdery snow...
Shen Ningning’s eyes gradually widened.
’What is that...?’
She couldn’t help but release the hand that was tightly gripping Mo Lingwei’s clothes.
Her whole little body leaned forward, wanting to get a clearer look at the color buried beneath the snow.
Suddenly!
In a moment of carelessness, she lost her footing and went tumbling head-over-heels down the slope!
Ye Shangyi let out a terrified shriek!
"Shen Ningning!" Mo Lingwei cried out urgently.
He immediately leaped down the long slope after her.
The Hidden Guards rushed forward, but they couldn’t even grab him in time.