Holding a lantern, guiding souls across, Lady Hou comes from the underworld.

"...Is it you?"

Zhuang You's expression changed, and he turned to leave.

Xia Ximo blocked her path and asked, "What exactly are you and Granny Yan trading? And why are you forcing Zhou Qin to eat the sugar figurine?"

Upon hearing this, Zhuang You scoffed, "Why should I tell you?"

Xia Ximo stared at her face for a while, then suddenly grabbed her hand and said, "Look at your own hands."

Zhuang You looked down and was startled.

It turned out that black marks had inexplicably appeared on the back of her hand. Although they did not hurt or itch, they showed signs of ulceration and emitted a strange, sweet smell.

"My hands...how did they get like this?"

Xia Ximo added, "Your eyes don't look right either."

"Eye?"

Zhuang You instinctively covered his eyes, and the next second, tears welled up from the corners of his eyes, blurring his vision.

"How could this happen? Why did this happen?!"

Xia Ximo coldly replied, "Grandma Yan isn't helping you at all."

Zhuang You suddenly remembered what Granny Yan had once told him—one should not be too greedy, lest one suffer the consequences.

She grabbed Xia Ximo's hand and pleaded, "Please, take me to Granny Yan, okay? I'll tell you everything!"

Then, she recounted everything that had happened after she met Miss Lin at Tianxiang Pavilion that day.

Xia Ximo frowned as he listened.

Ren Fengjue, standing to the side, immediately thought of the theft case that Guan Yue had told him about.

So that's the truth.

Zhuang You was truly terrified now. As she cried, the tears falling from her eyes turned black.

She looked at her hands again; the black marks were increasing, almost covering her entire palms and the backs of her hands.

Ren Fengjue knew he couldn't delay any longer, so he immediately said, "Let's go. Now that we have both witnesses and evidence, it's time to go to Granny Yan's house."

The three then moved to Granny Yan's house. When they arrived, Yan Zhengchu and Chai Hua were already waiting at the alley entrance. Not only that, Yu Lang had also come along.

A-Dong, who was in charge of keeping watch from the shadows, appeared and said to Ren Fengjue, "Young Master, no one inside has come out since last night."

It seems that Granny Yan also knows she's being watched.

Before anyone could see, Zhuang You stumbled and staggered toward Granny Yan's house.

Her eyesight was failing, so she could only knock randomly on the courtyard gate, but there was no response from inside.

Yu Lang didn't recognize the person at first and couldn't help but whisper to Ren Fengjue, "And who is this?"

Ren Fengjue calmly replied, "Zhuang You, daughter of the Imperial Censor."

"?"

Yu Lang could hardly believe her eyes. "How...how did she become like this?"

Ren Fengjue did not answer, but instead gestured to A Dong beside him.

Adong nodded and stepped forward to kick open the courtyard gate.

The moment the door opened, a gust of cold wind blew in, carrying a strange, sweet smell.

Everyone covered their noses and looked inside, only to find that it was filled with a gloomy fog.

Without saying a word, Yan Zhengchu took his magic weapon and went in to clear the way. After dispelling the yin mist, he saw that the courtyard was covered with black soil, almost barren of vegetation, and four black altars were placed in the corner of the wall, forming a yin-gathering array.

"It seems that this Granny Yan not only knows how to make sugar figurines, but also magic."

After saying that, he used a yellow talisman to strike the mouth of the jar.

The black jar exploded instantly, and a thick, syrupy black liquid spilled out, slowly revealing a skull.

Yu Lang was initially curious about what was hidden inside, but when he saw it was a human head, he was so frightened that he quickly backed away.

"Why is Granny Yan keeping a human head immersed in a sugar jar?"

Yan Zhengchu replied, "What sugar jar? That's used to set up formations."

"What kind of formation is this? It's so sinister!"

"It's a formation that gathers yin energy and locks away the soul. If an ordinary person lives here, they will die of illness in less than half a year."

As Yan Zhengchu explained, his expression suddenly turned serious, and he speculated, "I guess the old woman's real intention in locking the soul here was to nourish it."

Upon hearing this, Ren Fengjue couldn't help but think of her mysterious son.

Is it...

Yan Zhengchu immediately picked up another yellow talisman and threw it at the main door of the house.

But this time, the yellow talisman was bounced back and fell to the ground, turning into ashes.

Seeing this, Chai Hua, who was standing at the doorway neither advancing nor retreating, silently withdrew his foot.

He now completely believes that ghosts really do exist...

When Yan Zhengchu saw his talisman being struck out, he knew that the person inside was giving him a warning.

Undeterred, he raised his voice and asked, "Grandma Yan, aren't you afraid of shortening your lifespan by living with ghosts all these years?"

The person inside replied quietly, "Master, this old woman doesn't want to cause trouble, so why must you kill them all?"

Yan Zhengchu was thinking about how to persuade the other party when Xia Ximo stepped forward, raised his palm, and pushed inward, opening the door with a thud.

"If you don't cause trouble, what's the point of harboring wronged souls?"

Behind the door, Granny Yan's gloomy face, as sinister as a ghost, came into everyone's view.

Her gaze swept over the crowd, but after a moment, it settled on Chai Hua outside the courtyard gate.

"Manager Chai, you're here too?"

Chai Hua, who had been called out, felt inexplicably guilty, but thinking of their friendship over the years, he still braced himself and walked in, trying to ask, "Grandma Yan, what... what exactly happened?"

Granny Yan gave a cold laugh, and before she could speak, Zhuang You, who was in the corner, had already groped his way into the house.

Her vision began to blur, and she never knew when she might go completely blind.

The panic caused by blindness overwhelmed the fear in my heart, and for a moment, I couldn't care about anything else.

"Grandma Yan, what happened to my eyes? What did you do to me?!"

Granny Yan glared coldly at her, showing no sympathy whatsoever for her current predicament. She simply said, "I told you long ago, being too greedy will backfire. Did you think you could take someone else's life without paying a price?"

Hearing this, Zhuang You felt a chill run through him. "You didn't say that before. You... you're lying to me?"

She scrambled to Grandma Yan's feet, grabbing at her clothes frantically, crying, "Give me back my eyes! I don't want to go blind!"

With minimal effort, Granny Yan knocked Zhuang You to the ground.

"It's too late."

Zhuang You fell to the ground, and the thought of dying together with him actually came to mind. She groped in the darkness with her hands, trying to find a "murder weapon".

Suddenly, I touched a sticky object with a strange feel.

Zhuang You looked up in surprise, and in the dim light, he saw a person sitting on the chair next to him.

She hadn't expected that there were other people inside.

Because I couldn't see it clearly, I couldn't help but move closer.

The next second, she suddenly realized that there was indeed a person sitting in the chair.

But more accurately, it is a "person" completely enveloped in sugar syrup.