Gong Four and Gong Qi followed Lang Jiuchuan to the entrance of a private residence. The moment they saw the two white lanterns hanging under the eaves, their expressions shifted.

“Miss Nine, are you sure you haven’t made a mistake?” Gong Four said, his face tight.

Gong Qi spotted the surname character in the corner of one lantern and narrowed his eyes. Qi. He seemed to recall that the Rong Family had in-laws in Wu Jing surnamed Qi. Was this a coincidence — or had she deliberately led them here?

Lang Jiuchuan put on a look of deep distress. “And yet it truly is this household.”

“You already knew who did it?” Gong Qi said, watching her evenly.

Lang Jiuchuan gave a cold laugh. “I did not. But I told you before — when a technique is cast and then broken, karmic backlash is inevitable. After you broke the technique, I simply followed the trail using a Karma Tracking Talisman, tracing the karmic thread back here. Is it that the Gong Family doesn’t teach this method?”

Gong Qi: “!”

Jiangche said inside her mind, “That’s enough. The more you put them down, the more you expose yourself.”

Lang Jiuchuan replied, “Look at the expression on his face. He thinks I’m scheming against them.”

“Aren’t you? If you weren’t, you’d have come here quietly to beat the dog while it’s in the water. Instead you dragged these two along as your shield — you want this confrontation to be out in the open, to make those people afraid of the Gong Family!” Jiangche scoffed.

“Knowing too much is bad for your health.”

Jiangche went quiet.

Lang Jiuchuan addressed Gong Four and the others again, recounting her past dealings with the Qi Family. Her voice went cold. “They say the Qi Family has been riding high, feathers and all — all because a daughter of their house married into one of the Xuan Clans. And so they run roughshod over Wu Jing, to the point where even the noble daughters of third-rank officials can only keep their distance and retreat. Looking at today, it seems that was no exaggeration. I grew up on a farm estate — a girl from the countryside who never did anything. I was simply walking down the street when I crossed paths with that Miss Qi, nearly came to grief, managed to survive by sheer luck — and somehow the fault was mine? When I think about it carefully, my very survival might genuinely be the mistake. To have brought such catastrophe upon my household for no reason at all! The Xuan Clans — truly not a force one dares to provoke.”

There it was again.

That hypocritical, barbed tone was back.

Gong Four’s brow creased into furrows. Something in his chest was unsettled — he wasn’t sure whether he felt mocked or ashamed.

Gong Qi said, “We haven’t even seen anyone yet. There’s no need to draw such swift conclusions. It could be that the Qi Family brought in some rogue practitioner to do this.”

He stepped forward and knocked on the Qi household’s side gate. A gatekeeper popped his head out — a young manservant — and said with clear impatience, “The household is in mourning. If you don’t have a calling card, please submit one first.”

Gong Qi unclipped a token from his waist. “I am a disciple of the Gong Family.”

The manservant startled and straightened up immediately. Looking closely at the clan emblem and the identity token, his entire manner shifted into eager obsequiousness. He smiled. “I couldn’t tell it was a Daoist. My eyes must have been blind — please forgive this one, Daoist.”

At this point, Lang Jiuchuan interjected, “Our Daoist was invited by one of the Daoists inside. We’ve come to pay a call — we’re all acquainted, all helping each other out.”

Gong Qi shot a sharp glance at her. Lying through your teeth.

The manservant said in surprise, “Which Daoist might that be? Daoist Wumu, perhaps?”

Gong Four’s pupils contracted slightly and his expression fell. That name — Lang Jiuchuan had actually got it right.

Gong Qi’s veins visibly tensed. Daoist Wumu — that was the Rong Family’s guardian elder. He had actually come to the Qi household. Could it truly be that the one who made a move against the Lang Family was him?

But to go to such lengths just to exact revenge on behalf of some Miss Qi — since when did the Rong Family place such value on these worldly in-laws of theirs? This was news to him.

Gong Qi said, “Bring me to him.”

The manservant sensed something was off but the household had indeed received several Daoists because of the Fourth Miss’s matter. And the Gong Family was one of the Xuan Clans, with even marital ties to the Rong Family — he obligingly opened the gate and ushered them all inside.

Jiangche spoke inside Lang Jiuchuan’s mind. “They couldn’t even identify who you were before bringing the wolf right through the gate. Tsk.”

Lang Jiuchuan gave a low laugh. “It also illustrates the Xuan Clan’s standing, from the side.”

This manservant hadn’t even bothered to notify the steward or verify anything before letting them in. Would he have done the same for an ordinary person?

Try it and see.

So the Xuan Clans’ standing in the eyes of the common people was even higher than she had imagined.

She said nothing more, keeping her expression cool as she watched the Qi household with peripheral attention, listening as the manservant spoke of Qi Xingyu’s death with a sense of aggrieved indignation — as though truly believing she had been murdered by someone, rather than having brought her end upon herself through her own reckless actions.

Gong Qi listened with an expression like dark water.

Not because of the Xuan Clan’s conduct — but because what the manservant described of the Qi Family’s ways was exactly as that person had said: treating the Xuan Clans as a talisman to shield them, as a battering ram to strike others down, running wild and causing havoc.

What shamed him was this: Lang Jiuchuan’s taunts had not been baseless.

The Xuan Clans’ ways had begun to rot at the edges.

Gong Qi pressed his lips together and said nothing.

The manservant, seeing that, dared not say more and went to inform the head of the household that the Gong Family had arrived.

When word reached the Qi Family, they were stunned, eyes nearly popping out of their heads. That the Rong Family had sent a Daoist made sense — after all, they were the Rong Family’s in-laws. But the Gong Family arriving? Had they wandered in by mistake, perhaps stopping in to beg for a ceremonial meal?

Could it be that hearing of what happened to Xingyu, they had come to back them up? The Xuan Clans did look out for one another, after all, and the Daoists currently staying in their house seemed to have run into difficulties.

The Qi Family dared not be negligent. Setting aside the mourning preparations for Qi Xingyu’s funeral, they hurried over to receive the guests.

Only the woman, Zhang Shi, who had previously gone to stir up trouble at the Lang estate, suddenly recalled that the Lang Family’s widowed Madam Cui was acquainted with the Gong Family’s First Madam. Was it possible that these people had come to back the Lang Family up?

Gong Qi and the others walked directly toward the courtyard where Daoist Wumu was staying. The manservant’s expression turned strange — he hadn’t even led them this way, yet they seemed to know exactly where to go.

And the two young Gong Family Daoists — their complexions were looking rather dark. Had they heard the news that Daoist Wumu and the others had run into trouble and come in a black mood because of it?

By the time they reached the courtyard where Daoist Wumu and the others were staying, Qi Zuyao had arrived with his eldest son, his youngest son, and Qi Xinfei. When they saw Gong Qi and Gong Four, he clasped his hands and bowed with eyes glistening. “Two great Daoists gracing our threshold — our humble Qi household is honored beyond measure. Please forgive us for not coming out to receive you.”

Qi Xinfei suppressed the shock and unease in her heart and gave the two men a bow. As she straightened, she noticed a young woman following behind them and was taken aback. An unattended young woman — could she be a daughter of the Gong Family?

Lang Jiuchuan stepped half-forward, bringing herself fully into Qi Xinfei’s line of sight. Qi Xinfei’s expression changed drastically. Was this — could this be —

“You — you’re…”

Qi Zuyao and the others looked over as well. When they made out Lang Jiuchuan’s face, their pupils contracted. Was this not the cursed short-lived wretch from the Lang Family that Xingyu had someone paint a likeness of?

Outrageous — Xingyu had barely drawn her last breath, and this girl dared come to their door? Was she looking to die?

No — how had she ended up standing alongside the people from the Gong Family?

Compared to the Qi Family’s shock, Lang Jiuchuan’s face was utterly calm. She even pulled out a faint smile — though it never reached her eyes. “Lang Nine of the Lang Family,” she said. “I’ve come uninvited. Forgive the intrusion.”