The sudden crack of thunder left everyone stunned, ears ringing as they stood frozen in place, staring at Lu Ruiting, who had been struck flat on his back.

Had he been struck dead?

“My son — ah, ah, ah!” Lu Madam was the first to react, shrieking as she threw herself toward Lu Ruiting, her expression utterly crazed, crying out: “Murder! Murder!”

Lang Jiuchuan went first to Fuqi’s side and looked over Wen Yue and the others, who were clearly too shaken to be themselves. She looked them up and down: “No injuries?”

“No — no injuries. I came back to the estate intending to discuss the divorce, but he suddenly went into a frenzy — he was trying to bite people.” Wen Yue’s face was a deathly pale, and she pressed herself tightly against Wen Ze, her strength entirely spent.

“For something like this, let your father and the others handle it.” Lang Jiuchuan shook her head and said to Wen Ze: “Return to the estate immediately. Do not leave.”

Wen Ze nodded frantically, cast one glance at Lu Ruiting, asked nothing at all, and turned to leave.

“Stop them.” Lu Madam screeched furiously: “You come to our home and cause trouble, harm my son, and then think you can just walk away — do you think the Lu Family has no one to defend it? My Lord, you’ve come at the right moment — they’ve killed Ting’er!”

Master Lu, who had rushed over to the scene, took one look at the situation, his complexion darkening, his cold gaze sweeping across everyone present.

Wen Ze gave a cold laugh, directed the servants to escort Wen Yue back to the carriage, straightened his collar, and said: “My Wen Family came here in good faith to part on amicable terms with your household’s son. Who could have known that Young Master Lu would prove more than I imagined — suddenly going at people like a mad dog biting at random. Master Lu, are you certain you wish to discuss, in front of all these people, the full circumstances that led to this divorce?”

Lu Madam stiffened, her gaze flickering.

Before Master Lu could speak, Lang Jiuchuan had already lost her patience. She said sharply to Wen Ze: “Stop wasting words. Return to your estate immediately, keep everyone in the household under control, and don’t go outside. The divorce can be discussed afterward — if the husband is dead, being a widow is the same outcome regardless.”

Her gaze was strikingly sharp, and Wen Ze felt a sudden flutter of alarm and immediately fell silent, stepping back.

Hearing these words, Master Lu and the others grew even more incensed and were about to say something, but they saw Lang Jiuchuan stride quickly forward, crouch down, and press her fingers to the artery on Lu Ruiting’s neck.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Lu Madam reached out to slap her hand away.

Lang Jiuchuan’s sharp eyes caught something — she saw a fresh bite mark on Lu Madam’s wrist. She seized her hand and demanded urgently: “You’ve been bitten? Was it Lu Ruiting who bit you?”

Lu Madam opened her mouth to curse, but Lang Jiuchuan had already swept her gaze across the people standing nearby: “Is there anyone else here who has been bitten or has a wound on their body? Step forward now. Fuqi, keep watch over them. Those from the Surveillance Bureau — go and summon reinforcements. Surround this entire area.”

Master Lu sensed that something was wrong and suppressed his anger to ask: “Miss Lang, what exactly is your intention in targeting my Lu Family?”

“The village of Guanjiang has produced corpse wraiths. A person infected with the corpse poison will, within three days, begin a virulent episode — they will bite others, their body will stiffen, corpse spots will emerge on the skin, and then it spreads from person to person. Just like him.” Lang Jiuchuan pointed to Lu Ruiting and fixed Master Lu with a blazing stare: “Now — do you still think I am targeting the Lu Family? If the Lu Family becomes the first site of a corpse poison outbreak, do you think exterminating your nine clans of relatives would be sufficient recompense?”

The entire gathering fell silent.

Master Lu’s face drained of color in an instant. Lu Madam released her son’s garments, made a rasping sound in her throat, looked at her own wrist in terror, and then rolled her eyes and fainted dead away.

Someone let out a shriek and turned to flee.

Fuqi blocked them, but these words were genuinely terrifying. Some people, losing all composure, bellowed: “I haven’t been bitten, and I haven’t been poisoned by anything — let me go!”

The scene descended into chaos once more.

“Jiangche!” Lang Jiuchuan called out calmly.

Jiangche leapt to the top of the surrounding wall, threw back its head, and let out a tiger’s roar — sending people cowering and trembling, staring in terror at the creature that had suddenly grown enormous.

A cat?

This was no cat whatsoever. How could there be a tiger inside Wu Jing city?

Master Lu himself nearly stumbled backward off his feet. He swallowed hard and looked toward his son — at precisely that moment, Lu Ruiting’s eyes snapped open, the whites utterly bloodshot, as though flooded with blood and about to burst from their sockets, a sight that struck dread into all who saw it.

Lu Ruiting was just about to lunge upward when Lang Jiuchuan sealed the major acupoints all over his body. He gnashed his teeth, and Lang Jiuchuan gripped both his cheeks and at last got a look at his teeth — they had grown unnaturally sharp, glinting with an eerie greenish-cold light. Her brow furrowed deeply.

What a nuisance.

Gong Qi arrived with Gong Si, took one look at Lu Ruiting’s condition, and his expression immediately changed.

“You’ve come at just the right time. This situation is troublesome. Those infected with the corpse poison need to be gathered in one location. Gong Qi, take your people and handle it — and set up a Demon-Vanquishing Formation at that location as well. Gong Si — I have a formula here. Have people prepare the medicine and brew a decoction to force down their throats. See whether it has any effect; if not, we’ll try something different.” Lang Jiuchuan handed Gong Si the formula she had prepared earlier.

Gong Qi said: “The Surveillance Bureau’s prison already has formations. Take them there first.”

Master Lu’s expression shifted again: “Is there truly no cure? Once infected with the corpse poison, they become wraiths?”

In their understanding, the Surveillance Bureau had been established precisely for strange incidents and malicious cultivators, and its prison naturally existed to confine those wraiths and evil beings.

His Lu Family’s firstborn legitimate son — had become a wraith?

Lang Jiuchuan said gravely: “This corpse poison is like a plague. Right now, there is no way of knowing how many people have been bitten, and whether it can be cured is not yet known. But it absolutely cannot be allowed to spread further. As for how Lu Ruiting came to contract it — do any of you know?”

“I — I have no idea!” How would Master Lu know this?

Gong Qi motioned Lang Jiuchuan aside and, without any regard for the bitter cold, ripped off the upper half of Lu Ruiting’s clothing. He found a bite mark at his lumbar spine — already darkening to a ghastly green-black.

Everyone present: “…?”

Such a concealed location — so just how had he come to be bitten there?

Master Lu’s face turned as black as the bottom of a pot. He felt as though the Lu Family’s dignity had been stripped away along with his son’s clothing. He glared furiously at Gong Qi.

Gong Qi examined the wound, reached out to probe it, and felt the bone-chilling yin energy emanating from it. He frowned and said to Lang Jiuchuan: “The yin energy is extraordinarily heavy. If even someone who wasn’t the source has reached this state, the true original source must carry even more virulent yin poison. If it cannot be found…”

Great Dhan is in peril.

Lang Jiuchuan said: “I will cast a divination.”

“Not necessary just yet — before I returned, the Young Master had already begun divining to calculate its location. Let us first stabilize these infected individuals and see whether they can be saved.” Gong Qi shook his head.

This corpse poison was unlike an ordinary plague. It carried yin-evil cold poison that not only ravaged the body but also transformed its victims into corpse wraiths among the living dead. To treat it, not only medicinal decoctions were required — Daoist arts would also be needed to drive out the evil. Only with both approaches working in tandem was there any hope.

And Daoist arts — they were not something one person could accomplish alone. It was a matter of tremendous expenditure of spiritual power and vital energy.

He drew out a talisman and pressed it to Lu Ruiting’s forehead. Lu Madam was not spared either — just at that moment she came to on her own, caught sight of a yellow talisman before her eyes, and reached for it reflexively, only to receive a strike from Lang Jiuchuan that sent her into unconsciousness once more.

Master Lu stumbled, watching helplessly as both his wife and his son were taken away. He wanted to intervene but dared not. If those two were kept within the compound, there was no telling what catastrophe might unfold — it would not even be enough to offer up nine clans in recompense.

And yet, disaster had already struck. Both his wife and son had become among the living dead — the Lu Family’s reputation had been utterly destroyed.