She had seen audacious people before, but never anyone audacious enough to steal business inside another person’s shop. A person like this was either missing a bolt from his mind, or genuinely convinced of his own superiority. Otherwise, where did he find the nerve — had the Heavenly Lord of Limitless Mercy granted it to him personally?

Lang Jiuchuan flung the curtain so it flew into the air and stepped out. She saw an elderly manservant standing there, along with beside him a lean young man with clear, pleasant-looking features.

The young man wore a faded grey robe patched in several places, his hair wound up and fastened with a strip of vine grass. A cloth strip served as his belt, from which hung a Daoist bell and a jade talisman. A bundle was slung diagonally across his back, and a ritual sword was tucked behind his neck.

His entire person was worn and shabby — he was clearly very poor.

Ordinarily, someone receiving the stipend of a mystical clan would not have been reduced to such poverty. But this Yice was the picture of destitution, his few ritual implements clearly the whole of his worldly possessions — on display in full for appearance’s sake, otherwise no one would believe him capable of anything.

Though his features were pleasant enough, he had a pair of fox-like eyes. When he was not speaking, those eyes seemed to be constantly rolling around, giving him a shifty, untrustworthy air.

Yet shabby and impoverished as he was, there was no small amount of accumulated virtue radiating from him. A faint layer of pale golden light glowed at his Spiritual Hall — pure and clear.

Lang Jiuchuan was surprised.

Even the mystical clans could produce a genuine talent, it seemed.

Although — it was more accurate to say the man was trained at the Maoshan School and had only joined a mystical clan afterward. As for how that joining had come about, it was likely through the usual process of being recruited.

Regardless, accumulated virtue or not, he had come here to steal business from her doorstep — and that made him in the wrong. Did a fellow of the Daoist path not know this was a grave transgression?

The Daoist school had its rules, and priority mattered. If someone had engaged a yin-yang geomancer to examine the feng shui of their household, and you inserted yourself uninvited — that was outright theft, a violation of the code between fellow practitioners, and counted as provocation.

The figure before her, this Yice, had come here to provoke.

While Lang Jiuchuan was sizing up Yice, he was also sizing her up. Seeing how frail she appeared — a single gust of wind might knock her over — and noticing that the one who looked like the shopkeeper stood behind her in the manner of someone who regarded her as the authority, he was taken aback.

This young girl was the one in charge?

This slight and feeble-looking creature?

Yice glanced at her face — and in that instant, his gaze sharpened. His fox-like eyes narrowed to slits. He stared at her features with focused intensity, trying to probe her fate and read her destiny. But he could perceive nothing.

Her entire face was as though veiled in a layer of mist — impossible to see clearly, impossible to penetrate.

And the moment he fixed his gaze to probe, a sudden chill shot up the back of his neck. He jerked his attention away at once, but it was already too late. A stabbing pain lanced through his spirit-soul, his whole body going rigid, cold sweat breaking out across his skin, and his complexion draining of color.

Lang Jiuchuan let out a quiet snort.

Ever since Gong Qi had once tried to probe her origins — and had discreetly glimpsed that she had returned from the dead by borrowing a body — she had, belatedly, come to the realization that there were capable people everywhere in this world. If anyone ever figured it out, they would inevitably attempt to calculate her fate and read her destiny. She had therefore used mystical arts to obscure her own fate, so that no one could read anything unusual from her appearance.

And as she had helped resolve a number of people’s troubles during this period, the accumulated merit and faith she had gathered bolstered her strength further and further in its recovery. She had added a layer of retaliatory counter-technique to her fate’s concealment — anyone who attempted to calculate her fate would first receive a hidden strike for their trouble.

She had not anticipated that this Yice would be the unlucky first to experience it.

Served him right.

Did prying into her cost him nothing?

Yice looked at Lang Jiuchuan with wariness.

What was this — a short-lived ghost of a girl, with her fate veiled by someone else’s hand. Whoever had done it was thoroughly lacking in virtue.

Having barely met and already swallowed a hidden loss, Yice was full of resentment. He silently recited a Maoshan cultivation technique, while keeping a divided portion of his attention locked on Lang Jiuchuan, quietly turning over in his mind what this woman’s true capabilities might be.

Lang Jiuchuan smiled coldly. “Is this what everyone from the Feng Family Mystical Clan is like — so utterly shameless? Stealing business by coming into someone else’s shop — do you people observe even half the rules of the Daoist school?”

Yice’s face flushed red. “This poor Daoist was not stealing anything — I only—”

“Only what? Were you not just disparaging my Wanshi Shop and trying to convince this steward to bring you along to drive out evil spirits?” Lang Jiuchuan looked him up and down. “The Feng Family — is this how low your standards have fallen? Abandoning all Daoist decorum?”

Yice stiffened his neck. “This poor Daoist encountered him outside. That hardly counts as coming into your shop.”

The elderly steward said with mild exasperation, “Daoist, I have already explained — I was specifically dispatched by my mistress, bearing her calling card, to come here and engage someone. You simply followed me inside. If this were my own private matter, and you had spoken to me like that out on the street, I might well have been persuaded. But this is my mistress’s direct instruction. What sort of servant would I be to take it upon myself to act otherwise?”

Yice said, somewhat abashedly, “This poor Daoist only wished to offer you another option — to help you see clearly.” Seeing Lang Jiuchuan’s eyes still fixed on him, he added, “Since that is how things stand, I will wait outside the door. That should be acceptable.”

And with that, he quickly retreated to the doorway, crouched down, and kept his eyes trained on the interior with his ears pricked up. The dark energy on the manservant was considerable — which likely meant the matter at his master’s household was even more serious. If it were not resolved, the man might well be struck dead.

Lang Jiuchuan’s brow furrowed slightly. She paid Yice the Daoist no further attention and turned her gaze to the steward.

The steward began with a brief introduction. His surname was Huang, and his employer was Bai Maoxing, a tea merchant from Jiangnan — known locally as Manager Bai. Of late, his employer had encountered a series of strange and troubling occurrences that no physician had been able to address. Various spirit mediums and Daoist priests had also proved useless, and matters were growing worse rather than better.

It happened that Madam Bai and Madam Shen had been close childhood friends. When Madam Shen heard of her troubles, she directed her to Lang Jiuchuan and provided one of her personal calling cards.

“Madam Shen has not been in Wu Jing of late. She only sent a calling card along. And since the master of the household is unable to leave, he dispatched this old servant in his stead — otherwise, he and the mistress would have come to call in person.” Steward Huang explained himself, then bowed to Lang Jiuchuan.

He had already been told by his employers that the person capable of resolving their troubles would be a young woman — not very old at all. But he had not expected someone quite this young. She was certainly growing into her height, but looked all the more slight and delicate for it.

One can only imagine how our master and mistress will react when they see her.

“The Bai Family — if they are Jiangnan tea merchants, are they based in Jiangnan?” Lang Jiuchuan asked.

“Not quite. Madam’s elder brother holds an official post here in the capital, so the household has been settled in Wu Jing for the past three years now.” Steward Huang replied. “Our mistress’s brother is Liang Mifeng, the Commanding Officer of the Western Division of the Five Districts Constabulary. The household currently resides in Pomegranate Alley within the Qianjin Quarter of the Western District.”

Lang Jiuchuan nodded her understanding and asked, “What troubles have befallen your employer?”

From the dark malevolent energy she could already see clinging to this man, it was clear the affairs of the Bai Household were no ordinary matter. It had already spread to affect others within the household — much like the situation at the Chengle Marquisate with Xiao Zheng Shi before.

Steward Huang’s face turned somewhat pale, and his voice was touched with dread: “It is the Madam’s unborn child. Something has gone wrong.”

Lang Jiuchuan’s brow drew together sharply.