Possession

"I know a thing or two!"

Zhang Jian nodded slightly. He could see a glimmer of shock in the eyes of both Qi Yi and Qi Yuansi.

Clearly, this was beyond their expectations.

Sorcerers who understood the arcane arts were often extremely troublesome; such individuals typically possessed methods beyond the imagination of ordinary men.

The unknown was always terrifying.

"Then, Brother Jian, can you capture that evil entity?"

Qi Yuansi looked over with a solemn gaze.

After their investigation, they had consistently concluded that Madam Zhou might indeed have died at the hands of an evil spirit!

The Qi Estate was heavily guarded to begin with, not to mention that a family of military lineage was filled with experts in body tempering. If an assassin had struck, no matter how stealthy their methods, they could never have escaped their eyes, let alone flown away with wings.

Furthermore, after the Qi father and son investigated, they found that Madam Zhou's death was indeed somewhat bizarre.

Qi Yi's face darkened as he said, "A-Yu, if you understand sorcery, it would be best if you take action. I cannot trust Mr. Qingyu from the Commandery Governor's side, nor the other Daoists in the commandery!"

There was a grim chill in Qi Yi's eyes.

His heart was filled with gnashing hatred. As long as Madam Zhou was alive, the Qi Estate could advance or retreat, or even remain uninvolved, but with her dead, the entire Qi family was effectively left naked and exposed to a pack of hungry wolves.

They would have to fight hand-to-hand with the surrounding wolves, drawing blades and shedding blood.

How could Qi Yi not be furious?

The only plan for now was to find the killer and provide an explanation to the Dingyuan Marquis's estate. Otherwise, they would not only face the precarious situation in Fengyang Commandery but also suffer the wrath of the Dingyuan Marquis's estate, which would be dire indeed.

Zhang Jian nodded in agreement.

If the Zhang family wished to stand on equal footing with the three great commandery-prominent families of Fengyang Commandery, they naturally had to display some strength.

To obtain corresponding benefits, one naturally had to possess corresponding power.

By revealing a portion of his strength at this moment, he could naturally discard many troubles and avoid some pointless provocations and disputes.

Of course, exposing his strength rashly would certainly bring him more risks.

However, Zhang Jian had thought this through very clearly by now.

His previous actions had actually already exposed him; the fact that the Gu family did not publicize it widely clearly meant they still wanted to marry into the Zhang family to monopolize the benefits. Now that a marriage alliance was basically impossible, the other party would certainly not continue to deliberately conceal it for him. Since that was the case, it was better to trade it for some benefits.

The Zhang family's promotion to a commandery-prominent family would also make it easier for him to "shear the sheep" at the ancestral shrine.

It could be considered killing several birds with one stone.

Inside the back courtyard, Zhang Jian stepped within, only to be immediately met with a thick, pungent scent of blood.

He saw his eldest uncle, Qi Yuanwu, standing before the bed with a gloomy expression, his eyelids lowered as if lost in thought, yet there was no sign of grief on his face.

On the contrary, his cousin Yu Xian was weeping like rain, her heart shattered.

Seeing Zhang Jian led in by Qi Yuansi, Qi Yuanwu cast a faint glance over. He possessed a layer of intense, masculine blood energy, and with his exceptionally handsome features and years of leading troops, he looked quite extraordinary. It was no wonder Madam Zhou had been determined to marry this eldest legitimate son of the Qi family back then.

Zhang Jian was not particularly close to this eldest uncle and had seen him very few times. He simply nodded, then immediately cast his gaze toward the bed.

The deep red quilt on the bed was soaked with a layer of dark, dried blood.

Even without uncovering the quilt, Zhang Jian knew that this eldest aunt had been skinned by some monster; her state of death was truly miserable.

Qi Yu Xian raised her head, her tear-streaked face filled with intense hatred as she pleaded.

"Younger Brother Zhang, you must avenge my mother!"

Zhang Jian nodded.

"I will find that evil entity!"

Zhang Jian slowly extended his divine sense. His incredibly sensitive perception could sense the thick, dragon-tiger aura permeating the Qi Estate, which exerted a massive suppression even on his own spirit.

However, his divine sense was exceptionally sharp and could still perceive many subtle details.

At this moment, he could faintly sense an obscure, malicious gaze staring at him from the shadows.

If that gaze could be considered hidden and hard to track, the low, murmuring voice whispering in his ear was remarkably conspicuous.

"Kill... new target... delicious!"

The voice was extremely eerie, existing on a "frequency" within Zhang Jian's divine sense, yet it was easily captured by the Myriad Worlds Spirit Orb.

Following that gaze, Zhang Jian instantly locked onto a spot within the boudoir. In front of a massive screen stood a nanmu frame, upon which candles were arranged in tiers.

There were also two crane-shaped palace lamps in the room, exquisite and beautiful, which had also been topped with lamp oil.

Under the flickering candlelight, the shadows of the four people in the room were stretched long, and the one Zhang Jian locked onto was a shadow.

It was Qi Yu Xian's shadow.

"This monster can hide in a shadow?"

Zhang Jian quietly used his divine sense to sweep the area, but he found that even his sense could not detect the monster within the shadow; he could only faintly perceive a trace of imperceptible, sinister spiritual energy.

It was only because he had been biased to look for it that he could notice anything at all.

"Truly bizarre!"

Almost simultaneously, Zhang Jian chose to strike directly. A burst of intense, crimson lightning fire appeared out of thin air in the depths of his palm, and in an instant, it blasted toward Qi Yu Xian.

This was his first time truly manifesting heavenly lightning with his own hands.

A rumbling thunderclap echoed out of nowhere. The weeping Qi Yu Xian was stunned, her watery eyes filled entirely with the terrifying crimson lightning. Under the pressure of the thunder, her entire body seemed to go numb, unable to move.

She trembled all over, her hearing temporarily lost.

"Zhang Jian, have you lost your mind?"

Qi Yuanwu's hair stood on end, his eyes filled with fury. He instinctively reached for the long saber at his waist, only to see the crimson heavenly lightning, which had been heading straight for Qi Yu Xian, curve at a peculiar angle and instantly strike her shadow on the floor.

Qi Yuansi, standing nearby, also widened his eyes. This was his first time seeing Zhang Jian perform a sorcerous technique, and a lightning strike at that.

There truly existed someone capable of controlling the most magnificent power between heaven and earth!

"Awoo!"

It was as if it had struck a vital point in an instant. A painful, piercing shriek erupted from the depths of the shadow. Along with this terrifying cry, the shocked Qi Yuanwu suddenly felt his entire body go numb, finding himself unable to move.

"A monster?"

It wasn't just Qi Yuanwu; Qi Yuansi, Qi Yu Xian, and even Zhang Jian felt their own souls shaking.

To be precise, the shadow on the ground was shaking, as if suppressed by some terrifying existence.

But the three of them broke free instantly. Zhang Jian possessed spiritual power and could shake off the suppression on his soul, while Qi Yuanwu and Qi Yuansi held official positions and were protected by dragon-tiger auras. Furthermore, they were powerful martial artists at the visceral-refining stage.

Their masculine blood energy erupted, immediately shattering the confinement of the sinister spiritual energy.

Qi Yu Xian, however, remained stiff all over. In an instant, her eyes turned completely dark, and a thick, sinister aura emanated from her body. Like a phantom, she lifted off the ground.

She had been possessed?

With a dark glint in his eyes, Zhang Jian did not hesitate. His Wind-Walking Technique flowed, and like a gust of breeze, he appeared at Qi Yu Xian's feet in an instant. One hand grabbed her foot, and at the same time, several Soul-Cleansing Talismans appeared in his other hand, which he slapped onto her back.

"Get out!"

Since it was capable of possession, it must be an evil ghost-type monster. Against such creatures, the Soul-Cleansing Spell was the perfect bane.