Chapter 214

Chapter 214: Afraid Yiluan Charity Will Close

Consort Yu jolted: “Who are you?”

She moved on instinct to call for help, but when she opened her mouth again, no sound came out.

Consort Yu let out two muffled sounds: “Mmm, mmm.” Realizing she could not make a real voice, she went pale with fear and tears welled in her eyes.

The old woman spoke in a rough, grating voice: “Your Highness, do not be afraid. I do not wish to hurt you.”

Consort Yu grew even more frightened, because the voice sounded like it came from a throat that had been cut.

The old woman warned: “As long as Your Highness does not call anyone in, I will undo the binding on you. But if you say one thing and do another, I promise you this: before anyone outside can come in, you will be dead.”

Consort Yu studied the uncanny old woman, struggled inside, then nodded.

The old woman smiled, the wrinkles on her face bunching into a terrifying mask: “That is right. I like people who obey.”

She swept her hand through the air. Consort Yu felt a sudden lightness and blurted: “Who are you?”

Only then did she realize she could truly speak again.

The old woman rasped: “As it happens, I have a tie with Your Highness. The man who helped Your Highness not long ago was my husband. He went traveling to earn money and never returned. When I checked his life tablet, I learned he was dead.”

Hearing that the man who made her pregnant with a monstrous fetus was this old woman’s husband, Consort Yu flared with anger, but she forced it down when she remembered her life was in the other woman’s hands: “I did not kill him.”

She steadied herself and understood the scene at once. [She came here for revenge. Perfect. I also have a grudge with Yu Zhi Yi. I had wanted that girl to fix the child in my belly, but that little wretch refused to give me face, and refused the Yu Clan too. If she is useless to me and dares to disobey me, then she can die.]

The old woman asked softly: “Oh? Then who killed him?”

Her cloudy eyes locked on Consort Yu. Under that gaze, Consort Yu felt as if she had fallen into an ice pit, shaking from the cold. Worse, above that pit hung a sharp sword, ready to drop and kill her in an instant.

She shivered and stammered: “It was a fifth-rank official at the Ministry of Justice, Yu Zhi Yi. She learned a bit of mystic arts and, relying on her skill, respects no one.”

The old woman finally had a name for her enemy, and fierce hatred flashed in her eyes.

Consort Yu blinked, and the old woman was gone.

She blinked again. If not for the goosebumps still pebbling her skin, she might have thought she had just woken from a nightmare.

Then she looked at the table and saw an extra item that had appeared out of thin air; she knew she had not been dreaming.

…

Red Luan listened to the account of Madam Li and her daughter, then spoke with her fox-like eyes full of anger: “So that is how it is. They really are awful. Too scared to come at you in the open, so they pick on a widow and an orphan. Shameless.”

Yu Zhi Yi thought for a while without explaining more, which was as good as agreeing with Red Luan.

[But the people behind this did not go after them only to get back at me; they were after Jiang Xiaohua.]

Jiang Xiaohua was born in a yin year, month, and day. That kind of fate is very special and draws Demonic Cultivators like a magnet.

Whether to seize her as a cultivation vessel, or to kill her in misery and use the vast hatred to refine her into a Ghost Soldier, both are methods Demonic Cultivators love to use.

From the face of that silk-clad man, Yu Zhi Yi had judged the mastermind was a woman, which made the “cultivation vessel” route far less likely.

[So the goal was a Ghost Soldier.]

The greater the rage and resentment before death, the stronger the Ghost Soldier.

If Yu Zhi Yi had not shown up today, Jiang Xiaohua would have watched her mother be humiliated before her eyes and then die in terror and hatred. She would likely have become a Vengeful Ghost. If someone seized her the instant that ghost took shape and refined her with secret arts into a Ghost Soldier, the result would be as powerful as a Cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Realm.

[The mastermind truly is vicious.]

But now that Madam Li and her daughter had been brought into Yiluan Charity, that plan had fallen apart. [I just do not know when she will strike again. If she could attack a widow and her child without mercy, she has probably done it before.]

Red Luan did not know what Yu Zhi Yi was thinking. She said: “At daybreak I will hire more people to guard around Yiluan Charity. No one will lay a hand on anyone inside.”

She added: “By the way, I heard you promised to treat Madam Li’s deafness and muteness?”

Yu Zhi Yi nodded: “I do plan to help, but I will not act myself right away. We will ask a physician first. If the physician cannot do it, then I will step in.”

After all, Madam Li was a mortal. Many methods that worked well on Cultivators were too harsh for mortals. And if spiritual energy entered her body, it might change her constitution later. That kind of change would not be all good. If there was no need, Yu Zhi Yi would not act rashly.

Red Luan agreed: “That is better. We cannot rely on you for everything. If you ascend one day and only us muggles are left, what would we do then?”

Yu Zhi Yi asked: “Muggles?”

Red Luan explained: “It means ordinary people.”

It was too late that night to find a physician, so they handled it the next day.

The most renowned local physician in the city examined Madam Li and said: “Her deafness came from a head injury years ago, which left a mass in the brain. After she went deaf, she slowly stopped speaking. If we want to cure her muteness, we must cure the deafness first. I will need to study the case. It will not be quick.”

As for Jiang Xiaohua, he said: “Her body is fine. She does not speak because no one has ever taught her, and she has hardly met anyone besides her mother. If she interacts with people more, she will learn to talk soon.”

Both pieces of news were good.

That day, Steward Wu finished adding up last month’s accounts and could not hide his worry.

Yu Zhi Yi returned from outside, saw his gloomy face, and asked: “What happened?” [Could someone who needed help have run into trouble again?]

Steward Wu said with a pained look: “Boss, in just half a month, we spent fifty taels of silver. Counting wages for our staff, the monthly outlay comes to two to three hundred taels. You gave us a lot of money, but without income, it will run out.”

Yu Zhi Yi never imagined her steward was afraid Yiluan Charity would close down.