Chapter 298: Your Face Fell Off

Late at night, in the Ye residence.

Under the high moon and twinkling stars, amidst the quiet serenity, Gu Mo was meditating when he suddenly heard footsteps. Using his keen senses, he knew the approaching person was Ye Jinglan. Gu Mo immediately rose, put on his outer robe, walked to the courtyard gate, and opened it just as Ye Jinglan arrived, about to knock.

Ye Jinglan wasn't surprised by the coincidence; he knew Gu Mo must have sensed his arrival and opened the door. So, he cut straight to the chase: “Brother Gu, I just received news – Ye Chen is in trouble!”

Gu Mo paused, slightly startled, and asked, “He didn’t die, did he? He’s like a cockroach; he survived escaping Ghost City when his luck was at its worst, and now his luck should be back.”

Ye Jinglan waved his hand. “He’s not dead, but he’s been arrested and is currently at the Jingzhao Prefecture yamen.”

“What’s the charge?”

“Murder,” Ye Jinglan replied. “He killed a courtesan.”

“He didn’t try to escape?”

“No,” Ye Jinglan said. “With his martial arts, the Jingzhao Prefecture wouldn’t have been able to catch him quickly if he had tried to flee. What’s more, after he was arrested, they should have notified the Chu delegation for identification and negotiation, but instead, he gave your name in prison, claiming you’re his elder brother!”

Gu Mo was speechless.

Ye Jinglan chuckled. “Come on, you’ll have to bail out this new junior brother of yours.”

Gu Mo nodded slightly. “Just this evening, he said he was going to a brothel to see if his luck had returned. Now, he’s been arrested there. I suspect there’s more to this.”

Ye Jinglan asked, “Are you saying his strange luck, half misfortune and half fortune, has activated?”

“Most likely.”

Before long, Gu Mo and Ye Jinglan arrived at the Jingzhao Prefecture yamen. Given their identities, the yamen naturally dared not be remiss. The Prefect of Jingzhao, Mei Wensheng, personally came out to greet them. Mei Wensheng’s position as Prefect of Jingzhao was insignificant in their eyes, but he had another identity: he was Su Ziyou’s teacher. Therefore, out of respect for Su Ziyou, Gu Mo and Ye Jinglan were naturally courteous to Mei Wensheng. However, Mei Wensheng was also a discerning man. He wouldn’t dare put on airs as an elder just because Su Ziyou was acquainted with Gu Mo and Ye Jinglan. Instead, their courtesy made him even more respectful.

Soon, led by Mei Wensheng, they descended into the dungeon and found Ye Chen in a cell. However, Ye Chen was in terrible shape; his face was pale, he was drenched in sweat, and he looked incredibly weak.

“Hey, Ye Chen, why do you look like your vitality has been drained? Did you encounter a ghost?” Ye Jinglan teased.

Hearing Ye Jinglan’s voice, Ye Chen, who had been sitting on the stone bed, abruptly turned his head. When he saw Gu Mo and Ye Jinglan, he rushed to the cell door, gripping the iron bars tightly with both hands, and said grimly, “You know everything? I swear to God, I really did encounter a ghost!”

Ye Jinglan’s teasing smile instantly froze. “I was just kidding. What did you do to encounter a ghost?”

Ye Chen thumped his chest. “I, Ye Chen, am a chosen one, right? Who doesn’t know I have incredibly good luck? This evening, I casually entered a brothel, and the courtesan there begged me to be her special guest. For anyone else, that would definitely be suspicious, but for me, Ye Chen, it’s perfectly normal, isn’t it? Who doesn’t know that when I, Ye Chen, visit a brothel, I never pay, and I always end up with the top courtesan?”

Ye Jinglan looked utterly speechless. “Alright, stop boasting. Get to the point!”

Ye Chen took a deep breath and slowly began, “As the courtesan and I were about to get intimately acquainted in the room, I suddenly noticed something on her neck…”

He then recounted his entire experience at the brothel.

“Can you imagine my terror then? I was so close, just a little bit more... I was about to go in. I almost became a man embracing and penetrating a puddle of sewer sludge! Wuwuwu… You can’t imagine how disgusting it was – earthworms, maggots… Ugh…”

Ye Chen squatted in the corner, dry-heaving for a while, before slowly standing up again, looking so aggrieved he was on the verge of tears. He clutched the iron bars with both hands, lamenting mournfully, “Brother… my life is so bitter! That was too traumatic. I doubt I’ll ever be able to look at another woman straight again! Wuwuwu… What am I going to do? I’m only twenty-five, and I still need to carry on the family line… But I feel like I might never escape that shadow for the rest of my life…”

After listening to Ye Chen’s account, both Gu Mo and Ye Jinglan felt a chill down their spines and expressed deep sympathy for him. As men, they could empathize. Imagining themselves in such a situation, the psychological trauma would be no less severe than what Ye Chen was experiencing.

However, now was not the time for sympathy. After hearing Ye Chen’s story, they still needed to understand the yamen’s on-site investigation results. Immediately, Ye Jinglan asked Mei Wensheng, “Prefect Mei, what are the Jingzhao Prefecture’s investigation findings?”

Mei Wensheng said gravely, “Lord Ye, according to our yamen’s investigation, the scene did indeed align with Young Master Ye’s description. However, it’s too outlandish. As a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Justice, you must know that our authorities always exclude supernatural explanations when investigating cases.”

Ye Jinglan nodded slightly and asked, “Setting aside supernatural claims, how do you reconstruct the scene?”

Mei Wensheng shook his head. “It’s a stretch. If we set aside supernatural explanations, there are only two possibilities. First, Young Master Ye used his formidable martial arts to kill Lady Yu, remove all her flesh, leaving only a skeleton, and then opened the sewage ditch to fake the scene. However, this deduction defies logic. There was no blood or flesh at the scene. Furthermore, the bones had some flesh on them, yet there were no signs of it being removed; instead, it looked as if it was growing.”

Ye Jinglan asked, puzzled, “What do you mean, growing?”

Mei Wensheng explained, “It means flesh was growing on the bones. This is merely how it appeared; it hasn't been definitively proven. This is the first possible on-site deduction, but it’s too far-fetched. Then there’s a second deduction.” Mei Wensheng looked at Ye Chen and continued, “According to our investigation, the reason Young Master Ye garnered Lady Yu’s favor was because she was forced into prostitution and, out of desperation, made a wager with someone. Young Master Ye happened to appear and helped her. Therefore, it’s plausible to assume that Young Master Ye staged a supernatural act with Lady Yu to help her escape her plight, allowing her to get away. At this moment, Lady Yu is still alive and hiding somewhere. However, this theory is also far-fetched. After all, Young Master Ye has been spending lavishly in Chang’an lately. If he truly fancied Lady Yu, he could have simply paid for her freedom; there was no need for such complexity. As for the young master who was forcing Lady Yu, he certainly didn’t have the power to challenge Ye Chen, the third-ranked master of Chu! So, for now, our yamen has no further leads and needs to investigate slowly.”

Ye Jinglan nodded, then looked at Gu Mo and asked, “Brother Gu, what’s your take?”

Gu Mo said gravely, “It’s certainly appropriate to exclude supernatural explanations when investigating a case. However, the martial world is vast and full of wonders. Many strange techniques, people, or objects, while not truly supernatural, are superior to the supernatural. I believe you, Brother Ye, have experienced this firsthand!”

Ye Jinglan had indeed experienced this firsthand, as the origin of his own martial arts was quite supernatural in nature.

“Brother Gu, are you referring to taboos?”

“It might be related to the Reincarnation Mirror.”

Gu Mo offered a brief explanation, then looked at Ye Chen and asked, “What you just described—during your interaction with Lady Yu and up until she turned into a puddle of sludge—did she never show any abnormalities? Did she consistently believe she was Lady Yu from beginning to end? Did she have thoughts and awareness, or was she a puppet?”

Ye Chen nodded. “Yes, she wasn’t a puppet. All her reactions were like those of a normal person. It was more like someone had manipulated her without her knowing.”

Gu Mo recalled the fake Great Compassion Monk who had been imprisoned beneath the Stargazing Tower of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau for twenty years. Gu Mo was certain that monk was a fake, yet the monk himself was unaware of it. All his actions, perceptions, and memories were those of the Great Compassion Monk. This situation was very similar to Lady Yu’s. The only difference was that Lady Yu’s body was a puddle of sludge inside, while the fake Great Compassion Monk was a real person.

At this thought, Gu Mo suddenly connected it to what Mei Wensheng had just said: the flesh on Lady Yu’s skeleton didn’t look like it had been stripped away, leaving only a little; instead, it seemed to be growing.

“The fake Great Compassion Monk… perhaps he was also a pile of sludge once, and then flesh slowly grew…”

With this realization, Gu Mo asked Mei Wensheng, “Prefect Mei, may I see the skeleton?”

Mei Wensheng quickly replied, “Of course, Great Hero Gu, if you wish to see it. Shall we go now?”

Gu Mo nodded. Mei Wensheng immediately led the way, and Gu Mo and Ye Jinglan followed.

Ye Chen quickly called out, “Brother! Brother! What about me? Don’t abandon me!”

Gu Mo looked at Mei Wensheng and asked, “Prefect Mei, can he be released?”

Mei Wensheng cupped his hands and replied, “Young Master Ye is a suspect, and currently, a highly sensitive Chu national. Theoretically, he cannot be released at this time. However, if you, Great Hero Gu, wish to take him, Young Master Ye can leave immediately. His Majesty and the imperial ministers have long established a rule in court: as long as it’s not treason, local authorities must unconditionally obey your will, Great Hero Gu.”

Ye Jinglan quietly said, “Brother Gu, in the current situation, your presence for our Qian Kingdom is equivalent to Su Qianqiu’s status in Southern Jin. You don’t need to do anything; simply acknowledging your identity as a Qian national brings more help to our Qian Kingdom than hundreds of thousands of troops. Therefore, His Majesty and those shrewd old ministers in court have reached a consensus: to revere you!”

Gu Mo nodded slightly, saying no more than, “Then let Ye Chen out!” to Mei Wensheng. Mei Wensheng immediately ordered the jailer to open the cell door. In truth, that simple cell door couldn’t truly confine Ye Chen, but the meaning it represented—the will of Qian Kingdom’s law—was what truly held back a Grandmaster like Ye Chen.

Ye Chen quickly dashed out of the cell and came to Gu Mo’s side, giving a thumbs-up and exclaiming, “Brother, your status in Qian Kingdom is truly high!”

Gu Mo chuckled lightly. He then channeled his energy to observe Ye Chen’s ‘lucky aura’ and ‘misfortune aura,’ surprisingly finding that both had grown significantly stronger. However, Gu Mo said nothing further and led Ye Chen away.

Soon, the group arrived at a morgue and saw the skeleton. Indeed, as Mei Wensheng had described, there was flesh on the bones, but it was peculiar. It didn’t look like it had been stripped away, leaving only a little; instead, it had a tentacle-like appearance. Gu Mo immediately closed his eyes slightly, channeling his energy to perceive the laws of heaven and earth. When he opened his eyes again, he saw wisps of peculiar aura swirling around the skeleton, clinging to it. The faint flesh resembled mold on decaying food, possessing an imperceptible vitality.

Gu Mo gently raised his hand and extracted that wisp of vitality. In that very instant, the skeleton instantly began to blacken and decay. Within a few breaths, the entire skeleton transformed into a puddle of foul-smelling sludge.

“That’s it…” Ye Chen pointed at the sludge. “Lady Yu was entirely made of this kind of sludge… And now this skeleton is sludge too…”

Mei Wensheng was stunned by this sudden sight. He looked at Gu Mo, cupping his hands, and asked, “Great Hero Gu, what… what exactly is going on?”

A cold glint flashed in Gu Mo’s eyes. “I’ve roughly understood it. Behind this is something not truly supernatural, yet superior to the supernatural: a mysterious power that can turn clay figures into real people, replace real people, and become real people!”

Mei Wensheng said gravely, “I’ve just remembered something. My disciple, Su Ziyou, has been investigating the ‘Evil Ghost Devours Marrow’ cases recently. On two occasions, he had the culprits surrounded, but they vanished without a trace. Both times, the culprits were surrounded inside residential homes that had drainage ditches. Since this Lady Yu turned into sludge, could it be that those two surrounded culprits also vanished because they transformed into sludge?”

“Investigate!” Ye Jinglan said decisively. “Prefect Mei, immediately mobilize the Jingzhao Prefecture’s forces to search the capital for places with large amounts of sludge, as well as places that create clay figures, including Ghost City… Hmm, as for Ghost City, leave that to our Ministry of Justice!”

Mei Wensheng said, “Investigating from Lady Yu’s background might be quicker. Since Lady Yu was a clay figure, it wouldn’t be without reason; there must have been some contact or connection!”

Ye Jinglan nodded. Immediately, Mei Wensheng left the morgue.

Ye Jinglan looked at Gu Mo and said, “Brother Gu, I’m heading to the Ministry of Justice now. You can go back to my house and wait for my news!”

Gu Mo waved his hand. “I need to go to Princess Chengyang’s residence first. I remember when I first arrived in the capital a couple of days ago, Princess Chengyang mentioned she had a clay figure that looked just like a real person!”

Ye Jinglan exclaimed, “It couldn’t be such a coincidence, could it…?”

“We’ll only know once we see it!”

Immediately, Gu Mo and the others left the Jingzhao Prefecture yamen. Ye Jinglan hurried to the Ministry of Justice, while Gu Mo and Ye Chen rushed to Princess Chengyang’s residence.

Late at night, the Princess’s residence was exceptionally quiet, making the sound of knocking on the door seem particularly heavy. Soon, the gatekeeper opened the door and, seeing Gu Mo, immediately bowed respectfully. Gu Mo asked, “Are the Princess and my sister present?”

The gatekeeper quickly replied, “Both the Princess and Miss Gu are here; they returned this afternoon, Great Hero Gu. Do you wish to see Her Royal Highness or Miss Gu?”

“Both.”

“I will go announce your arrival now.”

With that, the gatekeeper quickly went to announce them. Before long, Li Li, Gu Chudong, and Hong Yi arrived in the living room.

“Brother!” Gu Chudong quickly ran to Gu Mo’s side and asked, “Why are you here so late at night?” She then looked at Ye Chen beside Gu Mo and inquired, “And who is this?”

Ye Chen quickly cupped his hands and said, “Lady Gu, my name is Ye Chen. I’m your brother’s newly recruited junior brother!”

Gu Chudong: “??”

Li Li, who entered last, yawned incessantly and grumbled, “Oh, Great Hero Gu, do you have any idea how much damage waking up a blooming young lady in the middle of the night does to her skin? If I become ugly and can’t get married, you’ll have to take responsibility for me!”

Gu Mo pursed his lips, utterly speechless. However, he had no time for banter with Li Li now, so he asked, “I’m here because I want to see your clay figure.”

Li Li asked, puzzled, “Why do you want to see a clay figure?”

“Investigation,” Gu Mo replied. “Don’t ask so many questions. Just take me to see your clay figure.”

Li Li waved her hand. “You’re too late. I already sent the clay figure back.”

Gu Mo asked, bewildered, “Why?”

Li Li said, “It was your sister. That clay figure was too lifelike, and she found it creepy. What could I do? Although I really liked it, my dearest Chudong spoke up, so I had to get rid of it. But I couldn’t bring myself to destroy it, so I sent it back to the clay figure master, thinking I could visit it whenever I wanted to see it again.”

“Where is that clay figure master?” Gu Mo asked.

“Tingyu Town in the east city,” Li Li said. “It’s the fourth clay figure shop in Niwa Lane, in the middle. The owner’s surname is Song.”

“Brother, are you going there?” Gu Chudong asked. “Can I come with you?”

“No need,” Gu Mo waved his hand. “Just stay at the Princess’s residence.” Then, Gu Mo looked at Li Li and said, “Now, arrange for someone who has been there to guide me.”

“Alright!” Li Li immediately stood up and headed out.

Just then, Gu Mo’s pupils suddenly contracted. He saw a wisp of primordial spirit power flash across Li Li’s body.

“Li Li, wait a moment!” Gu Mo called out.

Li Li turned around, puzzled, about to ask, “What’s wrong?” However, before she could speak, she found Gu Mo already standing before her, reaching out to gently touch her cheek. In that instant, Li Li’s heart leaped into her throat. Her heart, despite itself, began to pound ‘thump-thump, thump-thump,’ and her small face instantly flushed red. She liked Gu Chudong, so she often joked about becoming Gu Chudong’s sister-in-law. But when a joke is told too often, one can inexplicably start to genuinely consider it. And Gu Mo, as the greatest in the world, also possessed unparalleled looks and demeanor. As a woman, it was impossible not to be moved, but Gu Mo’s current level was too high, so she usually only dared to joke and never took it seriously.

Therefore, at this moment, facing Gu Mo’s sudden intimacy, she couldn’t help but feel a rush of excitement and apprehension. Her cheeks burned, her heart raced, and she slowly closed her eyes, quietly awaiting Gu Mo’s touch.

However, after closing her eyes for a while, she didn’t feel any touch. She opened her eyes, puzzled, just as Gu Mo spoke: “Your face… it fell off!”

Then, she saw Gu Mo’s hand gently tug at the side of her face. And then, a piece of skin fell to the ground—it was unmistakably her face!