70. Utterly Ruined
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Back at the Yan house...
"Cheers!" Luoyin and Yinying chorused, clinking their liquor cups, and they both downed the wine.
"But Xiaobai, how did you find all these people?" Yinying asked in curiosity.
"I didn't..." Luoyin confessed, toying with his liquor cup. "It was a result of 'Zhang Luoyin's' own investigation through the years..."
'Bailong' had seen all this in Duan Xiu's memories.
Or more accurately, as he watched Duan Xiu's ghost follow Luoyin around, more of Luoyin's memories had awakened within him.
Back then, Luoyin had already lost Weiyan and went about as a ghost, so no one paid him any attention... Till one day, when he accidentally bumped into an old maid.
Luoyin had bowed a hasty apology and made to move past her, but the woman had suddenly gripped his shoulders, a sorrowful look on her face.
Then she herself fell on her knees and apologised for 'not taking care of her lady'.
That woman had been his mother's maid towards the end, and overcome with a guilty conscience, she had confessed to finding out Duan Xiu had been poisoned, but she had said and done nothing about it for fear of being sold off.
The incident had filled Luoyin with a new spark of life, and had led him down a rabbit hole of discoveries...
Since no one noticed his existence, they also didn't realize the many times he disappeared, venturing down the mountain to other cities or settlements.
This continued for the following years, and through whispered secrets from the lips of frightened servants on the run, to bold curses from more than a few outraged individuals who sought justice for themselves or dead family members, most of the story was unraveled.
Back at present, 'Luoyin' had told Yinying the full story.
"I was impressed to discover just how much the lad uncovered!" He said with some pride. "And I was pleased that he didn't simply waste away in those last years...
"I couldn't let his work go to waste, so in the days before the 2nd stage, I used the one thing I had a lot of... Money! I sent Meng Qiu and other servants to shamelessly bribe anyone possible and smuggle in all those people!"
The servants had also been instructed to spread rumours along the way - nothing too serious--.
"...but when added to the appearance of Duan Xiu's ghost in the Arena, and the anonymous information I sent to Sect Leader Xu, no one would look too closely at those documents!"
"Don't tell me... The documents are fake?!"
"Hehe, more than half of them! Zhang Furen is not that careless!" They both laughed, and Yinying shook his head as Luoyin refilled their cups, but Luoyin's hand stilled as he felt a mild twinge.
The Spirit-Binding Seal reappeared to show Zhang Furen's arrow reduced to a tiny pointed tip.
"Wah, so much of it has vanished!" Yinying observed. "What else can we do to finish it?"
"I suspect she will have to die... 'Luoyin's' hatred for that woman is too strong, and she likely had something to do with his ultimate death..."
"So when do we kill her?" Yinying asked, suddenly changing to his tiger form. "I can go over right now if you want."
"Laoying, calm down!"
"I am calm."
"I mean put away your hatred! We may not need to move at all. That woman probably won't live past tomorrow..."
"Ei? How? She's not the type to kill herself, nor can the Sect execute her without the Wulin. Is she poisoned? Does she have some terminal illness?"
"No. But with the gravity of her crimes, the Wulin will surely be involved, and our dear Zhang Furen has overlooked the biggest disadvantage to having powerful ties...
"These people move quickly, and will do anything under the sun to ensure their own safety and interests. There is already at least one person who can't afford every breath Zhang Furen draws from now on!"
He instantly thought of the father-son pair from Huofeng.
The two seemed to be on Zhang Furen's side, but if they were who he suspected they were, then he was fairly certain they would swiftly 'handle' Zhang Furen.
Yet he sighed, and a worry crossed his brow.
It was in those years of Luoyin's investigation that he had glimpsed the father and son through Duan Xiu's eyes, but she had been in her crazed state at the time, and he had assumed it might be a passing encounter, especially since it wasn't too strange for cultivators to travel.
But now that the father and son were here again, and with such killing intent directed at him, he couldn't shake the suspicion that they might have been following Luoyin even back then...
Had Luoyin gotten too close to the truth back then?
Did they have something to do with his death?
And if they did, then they wouldn't spare him now either!
'I must raise my power as quickly as possible!'
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Yue City awoke to a barrage of rumours the next day, as the stories of Zhang Furen's misdeeds spread far and wide, getting more colourful as it spread...
Soon, the tales included how Zhang Furen transformed into a monstrous bat monster each night to suck the blood of Yueyan dwellers, kill children, and spread diseases and misfortune!
In mere hours, Zhang Furen had become the sole source of every negative occurrence in the Yueyan region, and some were even tying her to unfortunate events in far off regions of Baishan!
But amidst it all, a few unshakable facts remained firmly standing...
~ Zhang Furen had indeed caused the drought more than two decades before.
~ Zhang Furen had killed numerous Zhang servants.
~ Zhang Furen had harmed, silenced, or banished the families of these servants.
~ Zhang Furen had bribed and threatened numerous disciples, Sect Warriors, Elders, and their families into doing her bidding.
~ And Zhang Furen had poisoned Luoyin and his mother, leading to his mother's death, and to Luoyin's fall from grace.
Zhang Guo and Zhang Cheng didn't escape unscathed...
Before long, the story of Zhang Guo's favouritism and negligence was made public, and the sheer amount of just how many Sect resources Zhang Cheng had swallowed to become so strong, was made known to all.
This was in addition to Zhang Cheng using his mother's power to threaten servants, his fellow disciples, and even Sect Warriors, and even included the many ways he and his mother had bullied and maltreated Luoyin, making his life worse than death...
The Zhang family name was now utterly ruined, less than outhouse paper and the things it was used to clean!
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By noon, Zhang Guo publicly repudiated Zhang Furen, tossing out all her belongings and burning her name off all Zhang family records, leaving Duan Xiu as the only 'Zhang Furen' of his generation.
He did the same for Zhang Cheng, clearing him from the register and driving he and Xu Linhua out of the Zhang Manor.
Xu Linhua had returned with a still unconscious Zhang Cheng to the Xu Residence, only for the front gates to be barred.
"Forgive us, 2nd Miss- Er- Lady Zhang! The master instructed us not to let you in!!"
Pissed off by the recent discoveries, Xu Fengyan indeed barred entry, but his target was not Linhua.
"Tell her to come in alone, or go back!" He ordered, and went to his study, determined not to let them in.
However, Xu Furen intervened...
"She's your daughter! Wouldn't the rumours be worse if the two separate? It would be hard to marry as a divorcee, and she will be blamed for being disloyal, abandoning her husband in time of crisis!"
"Why must we leave our child tied to such a bad person?! Why care so much about face?! Even if she never marries, the Xu resources are more than enough to take care of her!"
But Xu Furen was insistent, and with pleading from both mother and daughter, he relented.
"A daughter's marriage is like emptying a bowl of water, especially when she forces her way into a bad match." Xu Fengyan gently reprimanded Linhua, who knelt before him in his study.
"I kept postponing your sister's wedding to Xiao Cheng at every opportunity... Did you never wonder why?
"You and your mother were blinded by wealth, power, and status, forgetting to look at the man himself, and I hoped since you were my biological child the family would treat you well, but I don't understand why you're clinging to him even now!"
He sighed. "Still, I'm not heartless. You both can stay in one of the empty courtyards. Your mother will arrange some servants and bring over a physician for Xiao Cheng."
Xu Linhua bowed in a full Kowtow. "This daughter thanks her father for his grace...!"
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After such a scandalous reveal, the eye-widening news made sure to visit every household, shop, in, tavern, brothel, and then fly to the docks and trade routes, ensuring that the news wasn't bound by Yueyan's borders or shores!
"Did you hear?!" One random trader began, gossiping with his fellow. "That Zhang Furen did 'this and that' (insert outrageous deeds here!) She's really too evil!"
Trader 2 gently set down a large gourd of wine and scratched his beard. "Who is this Zhang Furen?"
"How can you not know Zhang Furen?!" Trader 1 demanded. "That wicked woman who did so many evil things on Yueyan mountain!"
"Ei?!" Trader 2 turned his head to look around, revealing they were surrounded by deserts for miles and miles! "Yueyan is thousands of miles away!
"Isn't it stranger that the news reached even here??!!!!"
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