Wang Fu ran ahead leading Lu Yuan toward the back courtyard.
Lu Yuan and his two companions, along with the group of Daoist priests from White Cloud Temple, quickly followed behind.
The group passed through the long corridor of the front courtyard and soon reached the moon gate of the back courtyard.
Here was an invisible boundary line.
The back courtyard was Zhao Qiao'er's private domain. Ordinary people were absolutely not allowed to step even half a foot inside.
Even Wang Fu, the head steward, when reporting matters on normal days, had to wait respectfully at the door while a maidservant went in to announce him.
He had already decided that if Lu Yuan didn't come today, he would lead the people from White Cloud Temple to force their way in. He couldn't just watch his madam die inside but now, Wang Fu suddenly stopped at the back courtyard entrance, turned around and extended his arm like a wall, directly blocking those few Daoist Masters from White Cloud Temple.
Lu Yuan, Xu Erxiao, and Wang Cheng'an charged straight in, heading directly for the main room of the back courtyard.
"Steward Wang!! Go in!"
"Why did you stop here?!"
The Daoist Masters from White Cloud Temple, seeing Wang Fu blocking the back courtyard entrance and not moving, quickly said but the Wang Fu at this moment was no longer the anxious Wang Fu pacing in the main room earlier.
Just now Wang Fu had been extremely anxious, and afraid that these Daoist Masters from White Cloud Temple would leave in anger, so he had spoken rather obsequiously but now that Lu Yuan had arrived...
Wang Fu leisurely brushed off his sleeves, glanced sideways at these Daoist Masters from White Cloud Temple, and said, "Go in for what?"
"Hasn't Daoist Master Lu Yuan already gone in?"
Wang Fu's tone was neither salty nor bland, and he continued, "Everyone, thank you for your hard work these past few days. I'll have the accounting office give everyone some reward money."
"After eating, all the Daoist Masters can go back."
The Daoist priests from White Cloud Temple: "???"
Hey!!
You damn!
Dog Wang Fu!!
You're putting on airs now!!
If that kid goes in and can't handle it, let's see what you do!!
...
"You two wait here."
Upon entering the back courtyard, Lu Yuan instructed without turning his head.
He was worried that Zhao Qiao'er's fever was severe and that her clothing might be immodest in her room, making it inconvenient for two half-grown lads to enter.
"Got it, Brother Lu!"
Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an immediately responded, nimbly putting down the large wooden boxes they had carried and opening the lids, ready to provide support at any moment.
Lu Yuan took three steps as two, arriving at the main room door. He didn't even knock, just pushed it open!
As soon as he entered, he was hit by a wave of heat.
Mixed with Auntie Qiao'er's fatally seductive feminine fragrance and the smell of various medicinal herbs and spirit meat.
Lu Yuan's push of the door startled the maidservants in the room.
When they saw clearly that the person who entered was an unfamiliar young man, they turned even paler with shock, thrown into confusion.
They all came forward trying to push Lu Yuan out but Lu Yuan paid no attention to these chattering maidservants at all. His gaze was like lightning, sweeping once and locking onto the alluring figure on the soft couch deep in the room.
Zhao Qiao'er seemed to have fallen into semi-consciousness, her pretty face pale as paper.
Her beautiful eyes were tightly closed, her forehead and neck covered with fine beads of fragrant sweat, wetting several strands of hair that clung tightly to her skin.
The situation was worse than he had imagined and just as he had expected.
In this room as hot as midsummer, Zhao Qiao'er wore only a wine-red silk camisole nightgown.
This little camisole barely covered to the base of her thighs, wrapping around Auntie Qiao'er's plump, voluptuous rear.
A pair of snow-white, slender, voluptuous legs lay uncovered and crossed, the skin gleaming like milk under the lamplight, dazzling to the eyes.
Especially below this pair of fair, tender long legs were bright red painted nails, truly impossible to look away from.
In normal circumstances, Lu Yuan might have had the mood to appreciate this but now, his face was dark enough to wring water from, and he quickly walked toward the soft couch.
"Get out! You need to get out quickly!"
The maidservants tried to come forward to stop him but simply couldn't.
Seeing they couldn't stop him, the maidservants anxiously ran toward the door, wanting to call for people but when the maidservants ran to the door and were about to shout loudly for the steward to bring the guards in, they saw...
Wang Fu was right at the back courtyard entrance, craning his neck to curiously peek inside.
At this moment, the commotion finally woke the great beauty on the soft couch.
Zhao Qiao'er slowly regained consciousness. Those eyes that should have been soul-stealing autumn waters were now covered with a layer of mist.
When she saw Lu Yuan's figure, they instantly burst with radiance.
"Dear nephew..."
At this moment, Lu Yuan with his dark face arrived before the soft couch. Looking at the great beauty before him hanging by a thread, he felt somewhat angered.
He suddenly raised his hand.
Under the shocked and horrified gazes of all the maidservants in the room gasping for air.
He fiercely slapped down on Auntie Qiao'er's plump, tender, explosively pleasant-to-touch large white rear!
"Mmm~"
Accompanied by an extremely seductive mature woman's soft cry, and the dumbfounded gazes of all the maidservants in the room.
Lu Yuan glared at Auntie Qiao'er and shouted, "What were you thinking!!"
"You're practically dying and you still won't quickly let people in to treat your illness!!"
Slapped so that her entire beautiful body trembled, Zhao Qiao'er lying on her side on the soft couch wasn't angry at all.
Instead, that pale face actually showed a trace of sickly rosiness, and her eyes instantly became seductively silky, coming alive.
Lying on her side on the soft couch, Auntie Qiao'er, gorgeous and alluring with seductive eyes, looked at Lu Yuan.
She extended a jade hand with bright red nail polish, boneless and soft, hooking Lu Yuan's clothing.
Using a tone that could make a man's bones go soft, she complained coquettishly, "Aiyaa You can't spank Auntie's bottom"
"Auntie hurts~"
Looking at this top-tier mature woman who suddenly had spirit and energy, clearly deathly ill yet putting on the appearance of a little woman acting coquettish.
The anger filling Lu Yuan's chest strangely dissipated by more than half.
This vixen!
The next second, Lu Yuan said hatefully, "I'll deal with you later!!"
He immediately bent down, one hand passing through Auntie Qiao'er's plump but still slender willow waist compared to her barefoot height of five foot nine.
The other hand steadily supported her lower body, gently lifting her upper body then Lu Yuan freed one hand and quickly searched under Auntie Qiao'er's pillow.
Zhao Qiao'er took the opportunity, a pair of fair jade arms naturally wrapping tightly around Lu Yuan's neck, her whole body pressing against him.
Her devastatingly beautiful face moved close to Lu Yuan's ear, breathing like orchids, saying in a sweet voice, "Why did you only come now~"
"Auntie has been missing you to death~~"
The maidservants in the room looked at each other, every person's face written with huge question marks.
No...
No way...
This... this person in front of them now...
Is... is this still the Madam??
Could she have been possessed by some lusty thing???
Huh??
At the same time, Lu Yuan searched under Zhao Qiao'er's pillow for quite a while.
Nothing.
He frowned and gently laid Zhao Qiao'er down flat.
This movement disturbed her breathing, causing another bout of violent coughing.
Immediately, Lu Yuan turned and shouted toward outside, "Throw the things in!"
Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an had been waiting outside long ago. Hearing the call, they immediately pulled out a cloth bundle from the large wooden box.
Using all their strength, they threw it forcefully toward the room door.
Lu Yuan's figure flashed and he was already at the door, accurately catching the bundle, then turning to run back to the couch.
"Don't move!"
He glared at Zhao Qiao'er who still wanted to get up and speak.
"And don't talk!"
Lu Yuan quickly opened the cloth bundle and took out the ritual implements inside.
He dipped his fingertips in three-year-old rooster comb blood and with lightning speed, dotted it on Zhao Qiao'er's brow, chest, and the center of her jade feet.
The blood drops touched her skin and actually sank slightly, as if absorbed by the skin.
He grabbed a handful of hearth soil mixed with cinnabar, his fingers flying as he drew a simple "Soul-Stabilizing Circle" in the air around her body.
The instant the ritual circle formed, Zhao Qiao'er's rapid coughing stopped abruptly, as if an invisible hand had forcibly pressed the pause button.
Having done all this, Lu Yuan looked around and said to those maidservants still in a daze, "Where are the clothes Auntie Qiao'er wore the last time she went out?"
The maidservants jolted awake as if from a dream and hurriedly turned to search.
Lu Yuan couldn't wait. He directly strode after them and personally rummaged through Auntie Qiao'er's huge wardrobe.
But... still nothing!
Since it wasn't under the pillow and not in the clothes either!
Lu Yuan's gaze focused. He looked up at the roof beams, then ran back to the side of the soft couch.
He bent down and picked up a long hair that had fallen from Auntie Qiao'er beside the soft couch.
Silently reciting an incantation, he held the hair between two fingers and slightly raised it.
A bizarre scene occurred.
In the room with doors and windows tightly closed and no air flow, that soft strand of hair suddenly went rigid.
The tip of the hair pointed unwaveringly toward the northwest corner of the room, like an iron needle attracted by a magnet.
Lu Yuan understood in his heart. He casually tossed away the hair and muttered to himself, "The disease source isn't hidden deep, it's on the beam in the kun position."
He immediately moved over a rosewood stool but didn't rush to climb up.
Instead, he took from his chest a palm-sized bagua copper mirror with the back carved in relief with complex Primordial Eight Trigrams inscriptions.
Lu Yuan pointed the mirror face at the northwest corner of the beam. His finger quickly dipped in cinnabar and like lightning drew a "Filth-Breaking Eye" talisman on the cold mirror surface.
"Taiyin penetrates the darkness, reveal traces and manifest form—Illuminate!"
The blood-colored talisman on the mirror surface suddenly lit up with an eerie red glow, the light projecting out and shining on the beam.
The scene reflected in the mirror instantly became different.
The beam that was completely ordinary in the eyes of mortals now showed in the mirror a walnut-sized, dark green viscous thing.
At its center, one could vaguely see a twisted talisman paper written in ash, wrapping something unknown.
Strands of gray-green "disease qi" thinner than hair were continuously dripping from that thing.
Like spider webs, like tentacles, precisely enveloping Zhao Qiao'er's bed below.
Found it!
Lu Yuan's eyes turned cold.
The Life-Severing Wang Family's Disease-Drawing Talisman!!