Chapter 91: If You Think You Can Escape, Keep Dreaming

She had to have done an unimaginable number of wicked deeds to draw in so much dark energy.

Curiosity guiding her, Xu Lin examined the place carefully and soon discovered something amiss.

Turning behind the Buddha statue, she found an offering table, and upon it were rows upon rows of small paper figures. The sight darkened Xu Lin’s face.

She picked up one of the paper figures and unfolded it to look inside, only to find an eight-character birth chart and a name written on the back.

In the place where the paper figures were kept, there was also a contract for exchanging fortune, stamped with a bloody handprint.

At a glance, Xu Lin knew the Ji family had found someone whose fate and good fortune were well matched, and had used them to trade fortunes.

At the same time, all the wicked deeds the Ji family had committed had been transferred onto the person whose fortune had been stolen.

The one whose fortune was taken would not only encounter constant setbacks and misfortune, but their merit would also be severely depleted, leaving them with no good end even after death.

To those of the mystical arts, this method was nothing less than sorcery.

If she had not encountered it, so be it. But since she had, Xu Lin let out a cold laugh.

Then she would not blame herself for taking action.

With a small wave of her hand, several talisman papers appeared in her grasp. She flicked them out, and the papers flew toward different directions.

Before long, a talisman formation had been set in place. Xu Lin cast a cold glance over the hundred or so paper figures, the corners of her mouth lifting.

She formed seals with both hands and chanted an incantation, and an elusive, mysterious force began to gather in the air.

"Dad, at a time like this, why come to the family shrine? We need to run, now."

"Shut up. What do you know? Hurry and help me inside." The old and urgent voice of the Ji family head rang out.

"Dad, the family shrine is for women to worship in. It’s not proper for us men to come here. In my opinion, we should hurry into the secret passage and escape."

"Bah! You useless thing, what nonsense do you know? Run, run, run. Do you have any ambition at all? If you were even half as capable as Chuan, I’d have handed the family head position to you long ago."

The Ji family head cursed through gritted teeth, and his voice made his disappointment and fury plain.

Their conversation drifted in from the entrance of the family shrine and reached Xu Lin’s ears. Her smile only deepened as she continued her spell.

She could hardly wait to see the Ji family head’s expression when he rushed into the shrine.

As Xu Lin struck out her final hand seal, the hundred-odd paper figures all burst apart.

Yes, burst apart. Shattered into pieces.

None of the paper figures remained intact; arms and legs flew everywhere. The contract seemed to ignite at the same time, and in an instant it burned to ash.

After finishing, Xu Lin said calmly, "This really is the kind of good deed that leaves no name behind."

The words had barely faded when footsteps reached the main hall of the shrine. Xu Lin immediately affixed a talisman of invisibility to herself, and her figure vanished.

She retreated to a corner and watched the two men enter, the smile on her face growing even brighter.

The Ji family head shuffled into the inner room on his old legs, his gaze falling upon the offering table. At that sight, his eyes nearly burst from their sockets, and he opened his mouth to cough up a mouthful of old blood.

"Who was it? Who did this?" he cried, voicing the same question as his grandson.

His whole body shook violently, as though he had caught the worst chill in the coldest days of winter. Even with all of Ji Qianlong’s strength, he could not steady him.

"Dad, Dad, what happened to you?" Ji Qianlong asked in concern.

The Ji family head gave his eldest son a look of utter despair, thinking bitterly how much better it would be if this fool simply worked himself to death.

Did the scene before his eyes even require asking?

It was over. The Ji family was finished!

Despair filled the old man’s heart. Fortunately, for all his age, he had seen much and reacted quickly. Soon he forced himself to calm down.

Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, the Ji family head said through red-rimmed eyes and clenched teeth:

"Go. Leave. As long as my Ji family is not destroyed, we will repay today’s hatred in full."

Oh? The feng shui array had been broken, the backlash had already arrived, and the Ji family still thought they could turn things around?

Xu Lin cast the Ji family head a sympathetic glance. The old man was thinking too highly of himself.

The Ji family? Heh. The Ji family was finished.

In a good mood, Xu Lin left the shrine. She had not gone far when she saw soldiers charging in.

Whenever they saw someone, they took them down. Anyone who resisted was shot on the spot.

When dealing with filthy creatures like traitor spies, they showed no mercy.

The fighting ended at three in the morning, with the Ji family having lost their weapons depot.

As for the Ji family’s plan to set the residence ablaze, that too came to nothing.

The entrance to the secret chamber where the treasures were stored was exposed to public view and taken over by the soldiers carrying out the operation.

What drove the Ji family to despair most was that after they left, the entrance to the escape tunnel was casually opened by Xu Lin.

That made the soldiers’ pursuit all the more convenient.

Under such circumstances, dreaming of escape was all they could do.

After doing her good deed, Xu Lin returned to the guesthouse in high spirits. Lying on her bed and checking the time, she saw it was nearly five o’clock.

Nothing more to say. Time to rest.

That night, though the disturbances elsewhere were not as great as those at the old Ji residence, many arrests were still made.

When dawn broke, military trucks rolled through the streets one after another, and the air everywhere was tense.

At Yu Tong’s knock, Xu Lin opened the door and greeted her, "Good morning, Aunt Yu. Are you here to tell me to come down for breakfast?"

"No. Breakfast will be brought up by the staff. We came to tell you that the city is under martial law today, so we’ll be staying in the guesthouse all day.

As for whether the lockdown will be lifted tomorrow, that’s still unclear. If we still can’t board the train tomorrow afternoon, I’ll have your Uncle Zheng ask for leave for you."

Yu Tong explained in a low voice, taking the chance to look Xu Lin up and down. Seeing that Xu Lin was perfectly fine, she went on:

"You’ve been wronged, coming out with us for a trip and not even getting to stroll the streets once."

"Hehe, it’s nothing. We weren’t really here to shop anyway, Aunt Yu, so don’t take it to heart."

Xu Lin hurried to comfort her. After chatting for a while, Yu Tong returned to her room.

About twenty minutes later, there was another knock on the door. This time it was the waitress.

Anyone who could stay in this guesthouse was no ordinary person, so the waitress’s attitude was quite good.

The breakfast she brought was simple, but filling enough.

After breakfast, Xu Lin entered her space to check the spoils from the previous night, and the more she looked, the brighter her eyes became.

Every treasure she had obtained from the bald man’s hidden chamber was top quality, with not a single fake among them. If placed in later generations, not one would be worth less than a million.

Thinking of the bald man, Xu Lin smacked her forehead and remembered something: after entering the Ji family, she had not seen him again. She wondered whether he had been arrested.

Never mind. The bald man was not her concern right now. Xu Lin continued opening her blind boxes and inspecting the gains.

She stayed busy until noon. By then, the shelves in her warehouse were filled with antiques, and Xu Lin’s peach-blossom eyes had turned into starry ones.

Because among those treasures were imperial objects used by the royal household, all of them carrying dragon aura, Xu Lin naturally would not let such things slip by.

Before she knew it, her cultivation had broken through and she had entered the master realm. It was simply an unexpected windfall.

The levels of mystical cultivation were divided very simply: master, grandmaster, great grandmaster, saint master, and sage.

At this point, even without any special power to protect her, Xu Lin was unquestionably an expert, a first-rate master.

If that first-rate master were also blessed with merit, then she would be a true winner in life.

Xu Lin happily checked her cultivation, grinning from ear to ear. Nothing more needed to be said: she absolutely had to celebrate.