The Aloof Lord's Mysterious Wife
Chapter 353: Almost Fooled Even Me

Chapter 353: Almost Fooled Even Me

Young Master Zhao laughed, "Master Changying, you are truly impressive."

Changying lowered her gaze. Her ancestor had been a master of Daoist arts, but no mortal can escape the ravages of time, and he eventually grew old and died. Unwilling to reincarnate, his soul’s power remained, allowing him to lend his strength to his disciples in exchange for their accrued merit. This merit was then converted back into power, keeping his soul intact. She didn’t know why he refused to reincarnate, only that his repeated cycles had made his power formidable.

Her success just now was thanks to his help; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to transfer Nanli’s intricate protective talisman.

"Just a minor skill, not worth mentioning. I bled two pounds, just ask for more money," Changying stood up, but her strength hadn’t fully returned, and she nearly stumbled again.

Young Master Zhao secretly scorned her. She was so badly injured yet still stubborn, and so greedy that she might die before she could spend what she earned. But he didn’t care about her life or death; he just wanted to get this matter done quickly because Lingfu’s condition was critical and wouldn’t last much longer.

"Rest assured, Master. As I said, I won’t short you on the money."

Changying’s face brightened considerably. Once this job was done, she would retire and do good deeds to accumulate merit. After resting a bit more, she discussed the plan with Young Master Zhao and then used a puppet talisman to manipulate the disciple, making him walk out of the branch office openly.

The disciple walked until he reached a dark alley, where he collapsed in a corner.

Changying appeared at the end of the alley, walking over with her dust whisk swaying as she moved. She had taken a drop of Chu Yang’s blood earlier, mixed it with cinnabar, and used it to draw a disguise talisman on the disciple, transforming him into Chu Yang.

Fortunately, Nanli’s protective talisman only warded off evil and didn’t resist harmless talismans like the disguise talisman. Knowing Nanli’s extraordinary strength, Changying had borrowed more power from her ancestor to strengthen the talisman’s effect. Even Nanli wouldn’t detect the trick for a while. As long as they lasted seven days until the disciple was buried, no one would know this wasn’t Chu Yang.

Changying took a step back, staring coldly at the disciple, "You can only blame your bad luck."

She activated a hidden mechanism in her dust whisk, firing a poisoned dart straight into the disciple’s heart. He died instantly from the poison, his soul leaving his body. Seeing his own unfamiliar body, he was both confused and shocked, "Is this my body? Am I... dead?"

Changying raised an eyebrow, "Indeed, you are dead, and your soul will be scattered, vanishing completely."

With that, she cast a talisman that shattered his soul entirely, then cleaned the puppet talisman’s traces from his body. This way, the plan was even more secure.

Knowing Nanli would arrive soon, Changying left immediately.

When Nanli sensed the disturbance in Chu Yang’s protective talisman, she was reading in her room. The protective talismans she had drawn for the Chu family could not only ward off evil but also alert her if they were injured. However, the connection with Chu Yang’s talisman suddenly broke. She paused, her heart filled with panic. This meant... he was dead!

She stood up abruptly, knocking over her teacup in her haste.

Rainbow was startled and rushed over, "Princess, what’s wrong?"

But the room was empty, with only the autumn wind blowing through. Nanli was already gone.

Nanli’s sudden disappearances were common, so Rainbow wasn’t usually concerned, but this time it was different. The usually calm and composed princess was acting completely out of character, which was very unusual. Could something serious have happened?

Using a paper crane to track, Nanli quickly arrived at the dark alley. Two bodyguards were already there, looking horrified. She recognized them as Ye Siheng’s men, assigned to protect the Chu family. Her heart sank, and she hurried over, "What’s happened to Fourth Brother?"

The bodyguards turned and, seeing Nanli, became even more terrified. "P-Princess..."

They tried to block her view with their bodies, but Nanli pushed them aside with surprising strength, leaving them no chance to resist.

The bodyguards fell to the ground, barely daring to breathe, let alone look at Nanli. They had been diligently protecting the fourth young master, but when he entered the dark alley and didn’t come out for a long time, they had rushed in only to find him dead. They had failed in their duty and expected to be punished severely.

Nanli stood staring at "Chu Yang’s" body for a long moment. The bodyguards became more frightened, thinking the princess was in shock.

But Nanli said, "This disguise talisman is impressive. It almost fooled even me."

"???" One bodyguard was utterly confused, "Princess, are you... are you okay?"

The other bodyguard pulled his companion to kneel, "It’s our fault for failing to protect the young master, causing his death. We deserve to die!"

"This is not my fourth brother." Nanli didn’t look at them, instead examining the body’s cause of death. "He was poisoned, and even his soul was scattered. This was done to hide his true identity from me."

If it weren’t for her spiritual eyes seeing the true nature of the deceased, she would have been completely fooled.

The bodyguards exchanged glances, swallowing hard. One of them cautiously asked, "Princess, if this isn’t the fourth young master, then who is it?"

They had been protecting Chu Yang for a long time and couldn’t possibly mistake someone else for him.

Nanli raised an eyebrow, "This person used a disguise talisman to look like my fourth brother. The talisman’s effect is strong. While I could break it with a talisman of my own, it would consume a lot of energy. For now, knowing he’s not my fourth brother is enough."

The bodyguards, who had just been ready to die for their failure, were now overjoyed. Nanli’s words brought immense relief.

"Thank goodness! If he’s not the young master, we don’t have to die!"

"I must offer incense and thank the gods for their protection."

Nanli glared at them, "Don’t celebrate too soon. The culprit went to great lengths to deceive us, making us think the fourth young master is dead so we won’t look for him. This means he’s not safe."

The person who set up this trap had some skill, managing to transfer her protective talisman to the deceased. Besides her second brother, whose fortune was low, her other four brothers had strong souls and good fates, making them targets for ill-intentions.

The bodyguards were again filled with dread, looking helplessly at Nanli, "Princess, we didn’t even see the attacker’s face. How can we find the young master and save him?"