Times Have Changed [MDZS]

Chapter 3: Removing Thorns

"Quick, go back!" Wen Qing ordered hurriedly. This should be a good omen, but she didn't think so. Someone so powerful enough to manipulate resentful energy, and command legions of evil spirits and corpses was in the town; she wouldn't be at peace until she saw her brother unharmed.

She deeply hoped that her hunch was wrong, and so when they arrived at the supervision office, it was as if all her calm melted down.

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The formerly extravagant and busy residence, seized by the Wens to be their supervision office in Yiling, was now deafeningly silent. Its vermillion gate was tightly closed with no presence of the disciples usually standing on guard beside each of its pillars. One look, and it would make one feel a strange feeling of oppression and suffocation, even comparable to the fortress of Qinghe Nie.

If it was Cloud Recesses or the town outside, Wen Qing wouldn't be surprised, but her hold had never been silent since Wen Chao had decided to temporarily stay here.

Wen Qing skeptically stepped out of her carriage, timely being assaulted by a bone-chilling wind like some kind of bad omen.

On her signal, one of the disciples knocked the vermillion gate using the energy of his sword while the others stood back. The door swung open, unceremoniously hitting Wen Qing's entourage with a surge of dark energy, and slamming some unfortunate ones to a few paces away.

Wen Qing stilled. In her dark ink-colored eyes reflected the equally dark miasma of resentful energy ominously hovering and fluctuating in the entire residence like stormy clouds. This aside, the courtyard was also suspiciously deserted. She just remembered that she left this yard earlier with much displeasure, seeing the other disciples running around, doing chores for Wen Chao and his bitch, and now there's not even a single presence of those boot-licking disciples.

She surveyed the surroundings for any abnormalities, but what she discovered had made her even more suspicious. The yellow, red-painted talismans stuck in every corner of the supervision office were still present. These repelling talismans should ward off the evils, but it had somehow failed to work this time. More so, the town outside was already cleared of resentful energy; it's a mystery that the supervision office became the opposite.

Wen Qing's brows knitted in a frown as her mouth turned grim for the foreboding feeling that spread within her heart. This isn't simple. She had to find Wen Ning, she had to find her brother. She didn't care for what had exactly happened here, as long as she could see that her brother is safe. After confirming that no one was seriously injured, she rushed inside with the others.

They had just stepped inside the courtyard when a familiar sound of flute suddenly echoed throughout the residence, exactly what they had heard on their way here, an eerie lull piercing through the miasma of resentful energy, manipulating and commanding it.

Wen Qing's eyes darted in search for the master behind this anomaly. At the same moment, she heard an ear-piercing shrill coming from the main hall of the residence, the place that Wen Chao personally appointed as his own office.

"Ahhhhh!!!" The cry was so thin and so sharp, making the hair in the back of one's neck stand.

Wen Qing wasted no time and immediately run towards the sound of the commotion. It might not be where her brother was staying; howbeit, since the intruder must be in there, she had to see.

Heart pounding with her every step, Wen Qing with the others finally reached the main hall. Contrary to the deserted and clean courtyard, this one wasn't. In fact, it's too much crowded.

Wen Qing couldn't believe her eyes. Words were stuck in her throat, witnessing the scene in front of her. The main hall...it was filled with piles and piles of lifeless disciples wearing sun-and-flame robes. Crimson gushing below this mountain of corpses, emitting a thick smell of death.