Chapter 417: This Is a Literal Face-Slap

Chapter 417: Chapter 417: This Is a Literal Face-Slap

Caspian Rhodes’s mouth twitched. He could only describe this development as both unexpected and perfectly logical. He sighed, wishing he could just give up on the spot.

Unaware of the situation’s true nature, Mrs. Rhodes and the others looked at Caspian Rhodes with some concern. "Caspian, about Serena..."

Caspian Rhodes shot them a helpless glance and reassured them, "It’s fine. She won’t let herself get the short end of the stick."

Arabella Donovan indeed wouldn’t let herself get the short end of the stick, but she had no interest in disciplining another family’s descendants. After a moment’s thought, she decided to let these ancestors—who were worried sick about their posterity—handle it themselves.

It wasn’t that she could actually summon the dead back to the world of the living. Not only would that violate the rules of The Providence, but she also lacked that kind of power.

However, she was perfectly capable of letting these people get a glimpse of their own ancestors’ immense resentment.

"Mr. Rhodes, I need to borrow your finger."

"Borrow... my finger?" Caspian Rhodes’s face stiffened. For a second, he thought she wanted to chop it off to vent her anger, but his hand still extended instinctively.

"Gimme that." Arabella Donovan snatched Caspian Rhodes’s hand, pulled an embroidery needle from her pocket, and pricked his fingertip.

Caspian Rhodes: "???" ’Wait, why do you carry something like that with you? How is that scientific?’

As it turned out, things were about to get even more unscientific.

Arabella Donovan carefully collected the drop of blood that welled up on Caspian Rhodes’s finger in a transparent, disposable bowl. She poured in a little clean water, stirred it, and then began to chant an incantation.

"Mystic Sect of Heaven and Earth, the Dao is nature’s way. By the Void Emperor’s decree, let me see the truth. Let a hundred spirits gather and merge as one with me. Reaching the Nine Heavens above and the land of Yin below. To your kin of blood, reveal your forms at once! Go!"

When she finished, Arabella Donovan’s eyes snapped open, and she flung the pale red, blood-infused water toward the Rhodes Family’s ancestral tombs.

Ian Rhodes and his cronies looked on with disdain, not bothering to hide their contempt and ill will toward Arabella Donovan. "Putting on a show."

However, what happened next made the color drain from everyone’s faces.

The blood-infused water, which should have arced through the air before splashing onto the ground, instead seemed to follow some unseen guidance. The instant it left the transparent plastic bowl, it atomized into countless droplets that rained down upon every single tomb on the mountainside.

A moment later, everyone felt a sudden chill. Though it was ten in the morning with the sun high in the bright sky, they felt an inexplicable, bone-chilling wind, and their limbs turned to ice.

Many people shivered where they stood, instinctively crossing their arms to hug themselves for warmth.

Before they could process what was happening, a sudden cry drew everyone’s attention.

"Smoke! Black smoke! Look over there! There really is smoke! She was telling the truth!"

What?!

The members of the Rhodes Family instinctively turned toward the voice. They saw that the tombs, bathed in sunlight just moments before, were now shrouded in plumes of black miasma, just as Arabella Donovan had described.

This was especially true for the tomb Arabella Donovan had specifically mentioned—the one belonging to the ancestor of the young man who’d had illicit dealings with Jasper Jacobs. The black smoke there was pitch-black, blotting out the sun and completely obscuring the tomb. From a distance, it looked like a pixelated blur.

Arabella Donovan naturally noticed the strange state of this tomb as well. Upon closer inspection, she discovered that this family didn’t just have an outlaw son, but an outlaw daughter, too. The parents weren’t any good, either. ’The apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree. I’ll find a chance to report all of them when I get back and rid society of this menace!’

Caspian Rhodes’s eyes narrowed. He subtly glanced at the family Arabella Donovan had mentioned and quickly confirmed who they were.

’No wonder their family’s company has been growing so aggressively these past few years, even starting to overshadow the family of my most opportunistic second uncle. So they’ve been dabbling in things they shouldn’t have.’

Everyone was stunned by the scene before them. After a long moment, Ian Rhodes stubbornly ground out, "A Blinding Technique. This must be a Blinding Technique that woman is using on purpose. It’s all fake! Fake!"

The words had barely left his mouth when the black smoke above the nearest tomb seemed to awaken. Riding the brisk spring breeze, it surged menacingly toward Ian Rhodes.

The color drained from Ian Rhodes’s face. He instinctively tried to run, but his legs wouldn’t obey him.

Seeing the black smoke reach him in the blink of an eye, Ian Rhodes could only try to console himself. ’It’s just a bluff. How could this wisp of bad mojo, something I can see but can’t touch, possibly hurt me?’

The thought had barely formed before reality delivered a harsh slap to his face.

SMACK—

Everyone clearly heard a loud slapping sound, followed by someone’s pained wail.

"A ghost! There’s a ghost! Help me! Ghost! Ghost!"

The crowd: "..." ’We all saw that. Weren’t you just saying it was all an illusion? Talk about being proven wrong. And that was a literal slap in the face!’

The few cronies who had been egging Ian Rhodes on started to panic, and those who couldn’t stand him weren’t faring much better.

Because they soon discovered this was a case of the pot calling the kettle black. The slaps were coming for them next, and not a single one of them would be spared.

And so, for the next half-hour, the scene of the ancestral rites descended into chaos. It was a cacophony of slaps and screams, a blur of pulled ears and pulled hair—truly a living hell.

The few survivors were now all huddled around Arabella Donovan, watching the scene with a mixture of awe and lingering fear.

"This is... just brutal, isn’t it? What on earth did they do that was so unconscionable their ancestors had to crawl out of their graves just to slap them around?"

Third Miss glanced at a few of her rivals in the crowd, with whom she had never seen eye to eye, who were now also running for their lives. Her feelings were complicated. Amidst the satisfaction, there was a tiny sliver of pity—though it was probably no bigger than a fingernail clipping.

Third Miss’s husband pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose and said the most heartless thing in the gentlest of tones.

"They must have done some wicked, unscrupulous things. This is their retribution."

Mr. Rhodes and the other elders hadn’t expected a perfectly normal ancestral rite to become such a dramatic scene.

After his initial shock, he couldn’t help but ask tentatively, "Serena, is there anything you can do to help them? I know what they said earlier was out of line, and they offended you, but... we can’t just let this chaos continue indefinitely, can we?"

Arabella Donovan blinked, a picture of innocence. "I’d like to help them, but I’m afraid... that wouldn’t be a good idea."

"How... would it not be a good idea?"

"It’s only natural for a father to discipline his son, never mind ancestors from generations ago who’ve finally gotten a chance to teach their descendants a lesson. Are you sure you want me to stop them? Besides, at the end of the day, this is all your family’s private business. As an outsider, it wouldn’t be right for me to get involved."

The Rhodes Family: "..." ’She has a point. We’re speechless.’

Caspian Rhodes’s mouth twitched. He strongly suspected Arabella Donovan was doing this on purpose—that this was personal, a calculated act of revenge.

’But then again,’ he thought, ’if these arrogant fools hadn’t gone out of their way to antagonize her, she wouldn’t have done anything. They brought this on themselves. They have no one else to blame.’

The most important thing now was...