Put away your magical powers now!.

Chapter 194 [Death Aura] (6000)

Chapter 188 [Death Aura] (6000)

After leaving the restaurant where they met and returning home, Lu Sisi's mood was noticeably lower.

Chen Yan stayed by Lu Sisi's side for a long time, comforting her and saying many things that he would definitely protect her, before the girl's mood improved.

That evening, while Lu Sisi was practicing her martial arts and meditating, Chen Yan left his room and sat in the courtyard for a while.

He doesn't look very good.

Today's meeting with Lu Xiuting was unpleasant—but that's alright. Chen Yan had gone there prepared for a potential conflict.

But after seeing Lu Xiuting return, there was something he didn't tell Lu Sisi.

Lu Xiuting is acting strangely!
It wasn't just her attire and appearance that were deliberately imitating Chu Keqing.

It's not just that she's always so stubborn and unreasonable in insisting on sending her daughter abroad—she shouldn't care about Lu Sisi so much.

More importantly, from the moment they met today, as soon as he entered the door, Chen Yan sensed a strange aura emanating from Lu Xiuting.

This kind of aura would be completely undetectable to ordinary people.

But Chen Yan happens to be a cultivator, and he also has the Heavenly Eye open, making him skilled in the art of observing qi!
Using his Qi Observation Technique, Chen Yan sensed a faint, almost imperceptible... presence within Lu Xiuting's aura...

Dead air!

It's not that Lu Xiuting is dying or her life is coming to an end.

Chen Yan noticed that Lu Xiuting's fate was intertwined with a strange death aura. This death aura was intertwined with her destiny for many years, not just a sudden occurrence.

This is very strange.

This woman was not a cultivator; at least, Chen Yan couldn't sense any fluctuation of vital energy from her.

He even suspected that Lu Xiuting might have some means of concealing her cultivation level, so during the conversation, Chen Yan deliberately provoked her and released his own energy.

As a result, Lu Xiuting did not notice or react at all.

Then she's not a cultivator!
But where does this deathly aura come from?

After thinking it over, Chen Yan picked up the phone and dialed Chu Keqing's number.

"Senior Chen Yan." After the call connected, Chu Keqing's tone was still that cloying, affectionate manner.

Chen Yan paused for a moment before whispering, "Keqing, help me investigate someone."

Chu Keqing's tone was relaxed: "Who does Senior want to investigate?"

“Lu Xiuting, Lu Sisi’s biological mother.” Chen Yan sighed.

Chu Keqing smiled: "We've already investigated Lu Sisi's background. Her family's situation is pretty clear, isn't it?"

“This time it’s different, we need to investigate more deeply.” Chen Yan’s heart stirred: “Investigate Lu Xiuting, her past experiences, and it would be best to find out before she married Yang Jiaming.”

After a pause, Chen Yan slowly said, "I think this person is a bit strange."

Chu Keqing didn't ask any further questions. After a simple agreement, Chen Yan hung up the phone.

·
Chu Keqing truly lived up to her reputation as the renowned Master Zi of Jinling Prefecture. Her network included many high-ranking officials and nobles, and she possessed both legitimate and illegitimate means as well as numerous gray-area channels.

Within just two or three days, a document about Lu Xiuting was sent to Chen Yan's phone.

"Senior Chen Yan, is this a request for me to investigate your future mother-in-law?" Chu Keqing sent Chen Yan this message, followed by a laughing emoji.

Chen Yan didn't reply to Chu Keqing's teasing. Instead, he opened the document that had been sent to him, which contained information about Lu Xiuting's life and career, and began to read it carefully.

A few minutes later, Chen Yan's expression gradually became serious.

·
Lu Xiuting was born in Hengxi, a suburban county of Jinling Prefecture. Chen Yan knew that place; he had even gone on a field trip there with his classmates when he was in college.

Well, it's a bit remote.

In Jinling Prefecture, that area was a rural region, famous for its watermelon cultivation, and there was also a reservoir nearby.

Lu Xiuting lived in that place until she was eighteen. After she turned eighteen, she was admitted to university and came to study in the city of Jinling Prefecture.

After that, I graduated from university, found an internship at a company—the same company Yang Jiaming worked for—and then met, fell in love with, married, and had children with Yang Jiaming…

However, in the information that Chu Keqing found, there was an extra entry in this section.

The claim that Lu Xiuting dumped her college boyfriend as soon as she got together with Yang Jiaming was obtained by Chu Keqing through interviews with Lu Xiuting's college classmates.

After all, eighteen years is not a long time. Lu Xiuting's college classmates back then are only middle-aged now, not dead.

Moreover, Jinling Prefecture is a large city, and many classmates stayed in Jinling Prefecture to develop their careers.

This detail is quite intriguing.

Lu Xiuting had a boyfriend in college. During her internship, she met Yang Jiaming, a young and talented man from a wealthy family. Her internship lasted only two or three months. She started dating Yang Jiaming and quickly dumped her boyfriend.

Their ambition is quite obvious.

However, the report stated that Yang Jiaming seemed unaware of the matter and probably thought it was because of his charm that he had won over this young girl who had just graduated from school in a very short time.

It's hard to say who the hunter and who the prey really are.

However, there was one detail that wasn't mentioned in the report, but it made Chen Yan think about it for a long time and felt a little strange.

The report contained three photos of Lu Xiuting.

The first picture is from when she was younger, supposedly from her high school days.

Well, this photo is a bit tacky and not very pretty.

Looking at her eyebrows and eyes, she still looks like Lu Xiuting I saw a few days ago, and you can also see that she looks somewhat similar to Lu Sisi.

But his looks are a bit off.

The person who provided the report didn't notice this, after all, it was a photo from more than 20 years ago. At that time, beauty filters, makeup, and photography techniques were far beyond what modern society could compare to. In that high school photo, Lu Xiuting's appearance looked at most like an average girl with a score of 6 out of 10, but it didn't arouse any surprise.

But Chen Yan felt something was wrong!
The second photo is of Lu Xiuting during her internship at Yang Jiaming's company after graduation.

In this photo, Lu Xiuting's features are still there, but her appearance has improved a lot!
It wasn't plastic surgery or cosmetic procedures; it was as if, suddenly, a person's appearance underwent a transformation.

The ugly duckling has turned into a beautiful swan.

Lu Xiuting, who had just graduated, looked youthful in the photos. Her face was very similar to Lu Sisi's, and she was quite beautiful—no wonder Yang Jiaming, a Hong Kong guy, was so captivated by her.

Chen Yan could tell that this was definitely not a transformation caused by beauty filters, photography techniques, or makeup! It was certainly not the result of cosmetic surgery either.

Because... the third photo in the document is of Lu Xiuting after she gave birth to Lu Sisi, and her appearance has declined again.

It's not that women age after childbirth, but rather that their overall appearance, including their temperament and vitality, seems to be significantly diminished.

Chen Yan touched his nose.

The first picture shows Lu Xiuting during her high school years; her looks are rated between five and six.

The second picture shows Lu Xiuting during her internship; her looks are close to a 9 out of 10.

The third picture is of Lu Xiuting after giving birth to Lu Sisi; her appearance has dropped to around six or seven points.

Chen Yan recalled seeing Lu Xiuting at the restaurant a few days ago. Lu Xiuting, who was 41 years old, looked very well-maintained—but that was due to beauty and skincare techniques, the result of being a wealthy woman.

However, her looks are still far from her peak, only about a 6 or 7 out of 10.

Another interesting part of the report for Chen Yan was Lu Xiuting's background.

Actually, Lu Sisi had told Chen Yan about her family situation, mainly focusing on Yang Jiaming's side. She didn't say much about her mother, Lu Xiuting—because there wasn't much to say.

According to Lu Sisi, her mother Lu Xiuting's family was almost gone. Her parents, Lu Xiuting's maternal grandparents, had passed away years ago, and Lu Xiuting had no siblings. She might have some distant relatives, but none of them lived in Jinling Prefecture, so they hadn't had much contact over the years. As for this, Lu Sisi, the unloved child at home, didn't know much more.

But the investigation report states that;
Lu Xiuting's mother passed away at a young age.

Her father was seriously injured and died suddenly when she was young! The cause of death is unknown!

She also has a cousin who served eight years in prison. After his release, his whereabouts are unknown.

The last one made Chen Yan's eyes flash with a strange light.

It seems we've found the reason for the deathly aura emanating from Lu Xiuting that seemed to come from nowhere!

·
The day after receiving the investigation report, Chen Yan went out alone and drove to Hengxi, a southern suburb of Jinling Prefecture.

After the car exited the national highway and entered the rural road, Chen Yan used the navigation system and, after some effort, finally found a village located east of the reservoir.

This is Lu Xiuting's hometown.

Chen Yan parked the car at the village entrance, swaggered into the village, bought a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of iced cola at the small shop at the east end, pretended to stand at the shop entrance smoking, and squatted down to tease the shop owner's big yellow dog.

Chen Yan casually chatted with a middle-aged, plump woman who was minding the shop.

Since Chen Yan bought two packs of Zhonghua cigarettes, the middle-aged, plump shop owner started chatting.

"The Lu family? There's no one left in the Lu family in the village. The Lu family's daughter was my elementary school classmate. She went to university in the city and I heard she married a rich boss and is enjoying a life of luxury in the city. She hasn't come back for many years."

Chen Yan smiled and said, "Marrying a rich boss, isn't that great?" "Oh, oh, oh." The proprietress clearly rolled her eyes and pouted, "God is blind! That family has done so many wicked things, and their daughter still managed to marry so well. Tch!"

Chen Yan smiled and casually took the most expensive-looking ice cream from the freezer: "We'll charge you for one piece."

He pretended to eat ice cream and casually asked, "How come God is so blind? What kind of despicable thing did you do?"

Chen Yan had probably bought another expensive ice cream, which pleased the proprietress. Since the Lu family had long since died out in the village, she had no qualms. She pursed her lips but lowered her voice, saying, "Let me tell you something, this family's business is shady! They're involved in tilling the soil!"

"Turning over the soil?" Chen Yan pretended not to understand: "What do you mean?"

"That's right, going up the mountain to dig up graves! Digging up ancient graves, old graves, and then finding some treasures, antiques or something, and selling them."

You're saying doing this is incredibly immoral? Digging up people's ancestral graves, doing this kind of thing, don't you think God is blind?

Later, some died, some were arrested, and the family was torn apart.

Chen Yan nodded.

Lu Xiuting's cousin served eight years in prison, and the investigation report did indeed state that he was convicted of trafficking in cultural relics.

The report stated that he was sentenced to ten years, but in the end, it was estimated that due to good behavior in prison and possibly some meritorious service, the sentence was reduced from one time to the next, and he was released after serving eight years.

"Old man Lu died a terrible death back then. They say he went up the mountain to break rocks and got injured by them, so he was carried back—pfft! We're all from the same village, everyone knows what happened to his family. Breaking rocks on the mountain, what a load of rubbish."

He was actually digging up someone's grave when he got seriously injured. He was carried home and died less than half a day later.

Back then, his family all did this kind of work. There was also my elementary school classmate, her older brother, who was underage and went to dig soil with the adults in his family. Later, he was arrested by the police and spent many years in jail.

When they made the arrest, several police cars arrived and searched the Lu family's house thoroughly, finding a lot of things before taking the people away.

Many years later, he came back once, presumably after being released, but he didn't stay in the village for more than two or three days before leaving again. No one knows where he went; I haven't seen him since.

The plump proprietress looked at Chen Yan strangely and said, "Young man, you're not an undercover cop, are you? Here to gather information?"

As she spoke, she seemed to get excited: "Hey! If I tell you all this, does that count as providing intelligence? Is there a reward?"

Chen Yan laughed, took out his phone to scan the code and pay for the items, and said with a smile, "Auntie, you've got it wrong. I'm not a policeman. I just like to gossip and ask around randomly, like I'm listening to a story."

The proprietress was immediately disappointed.

After saying goodbye to the landlady, who had some whimsical ideas due to the boredom of middle age, Chen Yan walked into the village.

After wandering around for a while, it was easy to find out where the Lu family's old house was.

The house is small, located on the west side of the village, in a somewhat remote location, near a small river.

The plot of land wasn't large, with only two tiled houses, but they looked very dilapidated, probably because they hadn't been repaired for many years, and they looked like they were about to collapse.

The houses were surrounded by withered vegetation, a scene of utter desolation.

After glancing around to make sure no one was watching, Chen Yan jumped over the wall and went inside.

The door lock was broken, but Chen Yan didn't try to turn it. Instead, he pushed the window. The window frame was made of rotten wood and fell off with a gentle push. Chen Yan held onto the window frame and moved it aside, creating a crack before crawling inside.

The room reeked of a strong, pungent musty smell. It was dim and cramped.

The furniture was basically all rotten. Judging from the degree of corrosion, Chen Yan could roughly determine that the house must have a leaky roof. Over the years, rainwater had seeped in, causing all the wooden furniture in the house to rot into its current state.

Yeah, mushrooms are even growing in the corner.

Patches of mold on the wall.

Chen Yan calmed himself down and thought for a moment. He took out a compass from his storage jade pendant, calculated the direction according to the "Qi cycle number" algorithm, and then used the Heavenly Eye Qi Observation Technique to look at it.

They caught a faint trace of deathly aura!

Following the deathly aura, Chen Yan strolled out of the house and walked more than twenty steps along the small river behind the house.

Finally, he stopped in front of a bluestone slab on the riverbank.

The bluestone slabs are right by the river, but the terrain is slightly higher, so even when the water rises, they won't flood here.

Chen Yan looked around to make sure no one was there, then reached out and used his strength to lift one side of the bluestone slab.

I reached down and pulled something out from underneath.

This is a tattered oilcloth bag, so worn out that it would probably break if you applied too much force.

However, it still feels clattering in your hand.

Chen Yan unwrapped the oilcloth bag; inside were some odds and ends.

A worn and corroded copper coin, and a jade bracelet. The quality of the jade is unrecognizable, as it has clearly been improperly preserved and has turned black.

These things all have a faint aura of death on them; they look like they were dug out of a grave!
It's a funerary object.

Chen Yan recalled the trace of deathly aura emanating from Lu Xiuting herself and nodded.

Just as I put these things into the jade pendant, I heard footsteps behind me.

"Hey! What are you doing!"

Two men walked along the riverbank. They looked like they were from the village. One of them was carrying a stick. He glared at Chen Yan and shouted, "You're not from our village, what are you doing here?!"

Chen Yan smiled and said, "I'm just wandering around."

"What are you wandering around for!" The man with the stick looked wary.

Chen Yan looked around and saw the shopkeeper standing under a telephone pole in the distance, secretly peeking in their direction.

He laughed, realizing what was going on.

The proprietress was probably acting out a drama queen; since I was asking about the Lu family, she was curious whether I was an undercover police officer.

After he denied it—could she have mistaken him for a tomb-raiding criminal gang and reported him?

Sure enough, after talking with the people from the two villages, Chen Yan learned that one of them was the village's security chief, and the younger one carrying the stick was the chief's son.

"You've misunderstood. I just came to the river to look around and find a place to fish—I like wild fishing."

Chen Yan casually offered a reason.

He didn't refuse the other party's request to see his ID card and patiently took out his documents—as well as his car keys.

Accompanied by the village security chief, Chen Yan started his car with the key.

That brand-new G-Class with a local license plate from Jinling Prefecture.

A local, a local car, plus Chen Yan is young, handsome, and dressed in a distinguished manner.

The security chief no longer doubted it, but hesitated for a moment before saying, "If you want to fish, you can go to the reservoir; there are fishing spots there. If you prefer pond fishing, there are also fish farmers in our village who run fishing businesses; I can introduce you to some."

"No need, I prefer wild fishing." Chen Yan waved goodbye and drove home.

However, halfway there, he passed a melon field where melon farmers had set up stalls by the roadside, so he stopped and bought a few watermelons.

After finding a secluded spot, Chen Yan parked the car and, after confirming that there were no surveillance cameras around, took out the "funerary artifact" wrapped in oilcloth.

Using the Heavenly Eye Observation Technique and calculating the flow of fortune, Chen Yan noticed a wisp of deathly energy swirling around him. His eyes glazed over, but he looked up towards the northwest.

Under the aura observation technique, the wisp of lingering death energy seemed to be pointing in that direction.

After putting away his things, Chen Yan transformed into a sparrow on the spot and flew away!
A moment later, he flew to the foot of a hilly area—such hilly areas are as common as hairs on a cow in the southern region, and the one in front of him was only about a hundred or two hundred meters high.

Following the faint trace of death, Chen Yan headed into the mountains.

Activating their Heavenly Eye along the way, they traced the source of the deathly aura and soon found a mountain stream.

A stream flows in front, and a forest grows behind the mountain.

From a feng shui perspective, it's a good burial site.

However, looking over, there were no tombs or ancient houses to be seen. There was only a wisp of deathly aura, lingering in the mountain stream, swaying and drifting, as if it originated from there!

Chen Yan recalled the feng shui techniques he had learned, looked around for a moment, walked to the center, took a deep breath, gathered his vital energy in his chest, and stomped his left foot heavily on the ground!
With this kick, the surrounding天地之气 (heaven and earth energy) sensed it and immediately dissipated!
Chen Yan felt a chill run down his spine! As the Yuan Qi dissipated, a dense aura of death was revealed within the seemingly lush mountain streams and hills!
However, this deathly aura was extremely strange. Although it was dense, it never dissipated, as if it was firmly contained within the mountain's belly by some force.

Over time, it was covered by the primordial energy between heaven and earth. If Chen Yan hadn't possessed magic to disperse the primordial energy, it probably wouldn't have been exposed.

"Impressive tactics," Chen Yan chuckled. "It's actually a secluded residence!"

A tomb that is not marked with an inscription, is not built as a burial site, and is hidden in the mountains is called a hidden dwelling!
Chen Yan stared at a spot, slowly walked over, and gently touched the mountain wall. After pieces of stone and soil peeled off, an oval-shaped tomb robber's hole was quickly revealed.

Chen Yan snorted, then slapped a [Good Fortune and Misfortune Amulet] and a [Six Yang Righteous Qi Talisman] onto his body before disappearing into the tomb.

The tunnel wasn't wide, but after only ten or so steps inside, you could see a section of the wall of a hidden ancient tomb that had been dug open.

The tomb chamber inside was pitch black!
The dense aura of death that rushed towards him immediately gave Chen Yan, a cultivator with keen spiritual senses, a strong feeling of suffocation!
This deathly aura is imperceptible to ordinary mortals, who will only feel a chill, but to cultivators it is like smelling a foul stench, assaulting their spiritual senses and polluting their own vital energy.

Without hesitation, Chen Yan grabbed two [Six Yang Righteous Qi Talismans] and threw them in.

In an instant, two golden flames burst into flames within the tomb!
The Six Yang Righteous Qi Talisman is most effective against evil spirits and death energy; once ignited, it bursts into flames.

Soon, the flames died down, the deathly aura in the tomb dissipated, and a few emerald green will-o'-the-wisps floated in the air!

Chen Yan gathered his vital energy in his chest and abdomen, but sealed his spiritual senses, and slowly walked into the tomb chamber!
As soon as he stepped inside, Chen Yan's eyes narrowed!
Right before my eyes lay a corpse!
(End of this chapter)