The stab from the Ghost Hand wasn’t fatal, but it was plenty torturous.
Huo Yin quickly bandaged the wound to staunch the bleeding. After catching his breath for a bit, he finally looked over at Chu Jing and Bern. “…You’re here for Luo Li.”
At this point, there was no need to hide anything. A few sharp words between these clever minds had laid bare everyone’s motives.
Chu Jing had started out with a solid plan: grab Bern, and he’d have leverage over the Jinzhou Chamber of Commerce, right?
But he’d quickly realized the foreigner wasn’t lying. Despite holding him captive for days, the chamber hadn’t sent anyone to retrieve him. Clearly, Bern held no real power there. He couldn’t control the empire Huo Jieqi had left behind.
“Those riches? I couldn’t care less.” Chu Jing sat slumped in the corner, letting out a self-mocking laugh. “What I can’t stomach is the filthy business the Jinzhou Chamber of Commerce is mixed up in. Selling out the country for profit… How many of our brothers did the Huo Family murder back in the day?”
It wasn’t just about revenge anymore. He’d long since moved past those old grudges on his path to where he was now.
No, he couldn’t stand by while Jinzhou City became the foreigners’ playground. His disciples and their descendants needed to make lives for themselves someday, but with the chamber looming over them, survival would only get harder.
“So you’re betting on Luo Li to hand you those assets?”
Huo Yin found it ridiculous. “That’s one hell of a gamble.”
Chu Jing glanced up at him briefly. The man who’d always been quick to fight stayed silent this time.
Bern stared at the Ghost Hand, bound by talismans and formations, lost in thought.
“Who told you I control the Jinzhou Chamber of Commerce?”
Chu Jing furrowed his brow. “That rumor was all over the city. No one had to tell us. If you’re asking who started it…”
He cut himself off abruptly.
Huo Yin, still nursing his injury and ready to tune out the conversation, felt a chill run through him at those words, like a bucket of ice water.
It was obvious: the story about Bern controlling the chamber had come from Huo Cheng.
And the blood beads—Huo Cheng had been the one to swear they were a Huo Family heirloom.
Even discovering the hidden compartment and the sheepskin scroll in the cave, revealing the truth about the blood beads—it had all been Huo Cheng’s doing.
Putting it all together, every twist they’d faced bore Huo Cheng’s fingerprints.
A buzzing filled Huo Yin’s ears. Just then, Bern suddenly seized Zhang Banxian, who was muttering incantations beside the Ghost Hand, and yanked him over.
Without another word, Bern pressed his gun to the Taoist’s neck. “Who the hell are you, really? And what else do you know? Spill it.”
Chu Jing eyed the Taoist for a long moment, then something clicked. “Right—you’re the one who saw that little waste strung up with the blood beads and claimed Huo Jieqi had marked him. Didn’t you know Huo Jieqi was still alive? Why the hell would you say that, you damn Taoist?!”
Zhang Banxian mumbled pleas for mercy but refused to say a word.
Bern scowled and swung the gun toward the Ghost Hand instead. “If you don’t talk, I’ll put a bullet in this evil spirit right now.”
“Don’t…! No! I’ll talk! I’ll talk!”
Zhang Banxian panicked, his body going limp as he collapsed to the floor.
“I…”
“I am Huo Cheng.”
…
Everyone knew the Huo Family’s rise had been anything but honorable.
Legend had it that, back in the day, while carving roads through the mountains to traffic opium, they’d stirred up an evil spirit from the folklore known as the Ghost Mother.
But the Ghost Mother wasn’t some malevolent entity. He was just a kindhearted Little Mountain God. Rather than curse the Huos, he sent his naturally superhuman son to help with the excavation—in exchange for some shiny agate beads.
The reason was simple: the Little Mountain God just loved red gems.
But the Huo ancestors weren’t satisfied. They coveted the Mountain God’s power and tried to force him into marrying into the family, binding that divine strength to them forever.
The Mountain God, of course, refused. When their scheme to steal his power failed, the Huos kidnapped his “son”—the Ghost Hand.
A Taoist from the temple, bought off with a fortune, not only sealed the Ghost Hand but destroyed the Mountain God’s shrine and slew the god himself.
That shrine was the cave behind the mansion—the Huo Family Ancestral Hall.
The Ghost Hand was sealed inside a small stone statue and placed in the hall. The Taoist provided a method to suppress him: every few years, sacrifice one of the Huo descendants to appease the Ghost Hand’s rage and keep the family safe.
…And a few years ago, Zhang Banxian had been the real Huo Cheng.
He’d come down with a mysterious, unrelenting fever that no one could cure. With the mansion plagued night and day by the Ghost Hand’s curse, Huo Jieqi weighed his options and sent him to the Ancestral Hall—which meant sacrificing him.
Huo Cheng thought he was done for. But then he saw that silver-haired, red-eyed boy. The boy patted his head, and miraculously, the fever broke.
The boy escorted him out of the cave and warned him never to return.
As he left, Huo Cheng spotted the sheepskin scroll on the table. While the boy wasn’t looking, he tore off half a page, learning the Huo Family’s secret with the evil spirit.
“After that, I fled to the temple and became Zhang Banxian.”
Huo Cheng spoke slowly. “The strange part? After I left, it was like everyone in the mansion forgot it ever happened. Then came the news of Huo Jieqi’s death, and suddenly there was another ‘Huo Cheng’ in the mansion. No one remembered but me.”
“I grew suspicious, so I came back disguised as a Taoist… and that’s when I saw it. Huo Jieqi—he’d taken my place, become the new Huo Cheng.”
“I knew, but I couldn’t tell anyone. As family head, Huo Jieqi controlled the Ghost Hand’s statue. He could alter memories at will.”
“I thought about it for a long time… Maybe only the Mountain God’s power could turn things around.”
Huo Cheng hung his head in defeat. “I knew full well the Mountain God had only saved me briefly. The curse was still on me. Without his help, as the eldest Huo son, I was doomed to die.”
His words plunged everyone into stunned silence.
Suddenly, so many things made sense: Huo Jieqi’s uncanny resemblance to “Huo Cheng”; the curse targeting Huo descendants, yet killing the family head instead…
Even the talk of “power returning” and “descendants thriving”—it all meant freeing the Ghost Mother and Ghost Hand would lift the curse from the bloodline.
It took Huo Yin a long while to find his voice, hoarse as it was. “But… why would Father do it?”
Impersonating Huo Cheng, destroying the cave, abducting the Ghost Mother—it gained him nothing.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Chu Jing ground his teeth. “Didn’t you say the Huos always wanted to force the Mountain God into marriage?”
“That old bastard snatched Luo Li… He wants to make him marry him!”
Bern fixed Huo Cheng with a stare. “Is that it?”
Huo Cheng’s shoulders trembled as he bowed his head.
“Maybe… But marrying a god? It’s not that simple…”
“I’m afraid he’ll defy heaven itself to claim the Mountain God…”
He recalled the scene he’d witnessed that day in the paper effigy shop in Jinzhou City.
A god couldn’t wed mortal flesh.
But with some heaven-defying ritual—like summoning spirits with paper effigies, turning the entire Zhaohua Mansion into a tomb of the living dead…
The gathered yin energy would strip the Mountain God of his power, trapping him in the mansion forever.
…
【World Leader Boss “Huo Jieqi” has appeared】
【Note: If the leader boss dies, or the host is rescued by the player faction, the Huo Family Curse will be lifted, the players will clear the instance, and the host will settle points based on the number of players who cleared the instance.】
【This world’s main storyline has entered its countdown. Good luck.】
The flickering red prompt board faded away. Luo Li snapped out of his daze and stared at his reflection in the mirror.
Behind him stood a maid in a peach-pink jacket, her braids tied in twists, her pale hands holding a wooden comb as she brushed his long hair.
But the comb’s teeth felt feather-light against his scalp, barely registering.
Luo Li lifted his head, tugging the comb—and it snapped clean off, clattering onto the table. Light as paper.
…Not just like paper. It was paper.
The maid’s face bore a rigid smile, unchanging even as the comb broke. She pulled another from her pocket and resumed combing.
Luo Li saw it then: her skin was pallid paper.
Every maid and servant in the room was a paper effigy. Their features painted on with brushstrokes, eyes unblinking, mouths sealed shut.
A chill crept up Luo Li’s spine, his body shuddering uncontrollably.
Footsteps approached from behind. A pair of hands settled on his shoulders.
“Looks like you’re all ready.”
Huo Jieqi’s figure appeared in the mirror. He wore a crisp new suit today, his broad frame filling the copper mirror and making Luo Li, seated before him, seem even more slender and delicate.
Every paper effigy seemed to be watching him.
Luo Li was on the verge of tears but forced himself to stay calm. “What… what the hell are you planning?”
“Taking you to meet the Huo Family elders.”
Huo Jieqi’s palm rested on his head, rubbing gently. “You’re marrying into the family as the new bride. Can’t skip meeting the elders.”
Bride…?
“I—I never said I’d marry you! I didn’t agree…”
Huo Jieqi chuckled. “From the first day you entered the Huo Mansion, haven’t you come for Master Huo?”
“You admire him and can’t let him go… Didn’t you say all that yourself, Lili?”
“An oath weighs a thousand pounds, and we of the Huo Family value our promises most of all. Since you’ve made such a vow, with the ancestors above bearing witness, they’ve heard it and committed it to memory.”
Luo Li finally shot to his feet, whispering, “Back then… I was lying…”
Huo Jieqi lowered his gaze. His stern, unyielding face, framed by the black suit, seemed even more distant and inhuman. “Lying?”
Luo Li had no choice. He steeled himself and said, “I only said that because I wanted a share of your inheritance. I really… don’t know you at all, so there’s no way I’d marry you.”
He rattled off the words in a rush, then deflated, hanging his head. “Sorry.”
A long silence stretched out. Huo Jieqi took a step forward, and Luo Li had nowhere left to retreat. He ended up perched on the edge of the table.
The man’s gaze raked over him like a judge’s. “Then why, that day in the room at the Jinzhou Grand Hotel, did you kiss me first?”
Luo Li shuddered all over.
“When I kissed you back, you truly felt nothing?”
