It was a completely black, semi-transparent bead, inside which was a tiny baby curled up.

Lu Qing was somewhat surprised; she had never seen this thing before, and it carried a sinister aura.

Just as she was wondering, Helian Shi suddenly appeared beside her, frowning as he said:

"The Infant Soul Bead? How did that thing end up in his body?"

Lu Qing asked, puzzled, "What is an Infant Soul Pearl?"

"This is a very old legend. I only discovered it recently when I was looking through my old notes."

"Several hundred years ago, I was traveling in the deep mountains when I was accidentally bitten by a poisonous spider. After I fell into a coma, I was rescued by the people of a very ancient tribe who lived in seclusion in the deep mountains."

"This tribe is called the Tayun tribe. They have lived in seclusion in the deep mountains for generations, guarding a sacred tree. Every ten years, they sacrifice a newborn baby to maintain the growth of the sacred tree."

"The method of sacrifice is this Infant Soul Bead."

"Children born on the day of the sacrifice will be chosen by the sacred tree as offerings. The priests of the tribe will use a secret technique to extract the soul of the infant and condense it into a bead, which is the Infant Soul Bead."

"Newborn babies possess an extremely strong life force within their souls. They believe that only by nourishing the sacred tree with this force can the tree achieve immortality!"

Upon hearing this, Lu Qing couldn't help but angrily rebuke:

"Bullshit! Using infants' lives as nourishment, that's an evil demon, not a divine tree!"

Helian Shi: "That's right! I must have gone to see it back then. It was indeed not a divine tree, but a tree demon."

"The tree demon uses the Infant Soul Pearl as nourishment and has become a great threat. I want to get rid of it, but I am stopped by my people."

"The priests in the tribe told me that without the divine tree, the Tayun tribe would cease to exist. Even if the divine tree is truly a demon, they must still make offerings to it."

"Because every member of the Tayun tribe is born with a curse, they can only survive by eating the fruit that grows from the sacred tree every once in a while."

Lu Qing frowned slightly: "So they may not have been unaware that the divine tree was a demon, but they were forced to make offerings to it!"

Helian Shi nodded:

"Later, I stayed with the Tayun tribe for a while and discovered that what they called a curse was just a kind of insect poison, and the fruit that the tree demon bore happened to be able to counteract this insect poison."

"So I went back to the city, found a cure for this insect venom, and gave it to them. Only after they cured me did they let me burn the tree demon."

As they spoke, the spirit ring had already extracted Li Shiwan's memories.

Lu Qing closed his eyes and watched what happened before he died.

Sure enough, the person Li Shiwan saw before he died was Qiao Lanru.

"Li Shiwan, give me the things!" Qiao Lanru looked at Li Shiwan with a gloomy expression.

At this moment, murderous intent appeared in her eyes.

Li Shiwan, however, did not notice anything amiss and continued to berate Li Shiwan as usual.

"You old hag, get out of my way! I've already sold that bead!"

"Li Shiwan, you can do whatever you want to me, but you must return that bead to me!"

Qiao Lanru was so angry that her eyes turned red. She stepped forward and grabbed Li Shiwan's collar, refusing to let go.

"Give it back! Give me back the beads!!!"

Annoyed by Qiao Lanru's nagging, Li Shiwan shoved her away.

"You old hag, aren't you annoying me! I already said it's sold, get out of here!"

After saying that, Li Shiwan staggered off down another road, complaining as he went:

“Every day, you buy those few plates of cheap braised food, which isn’t even enough for my cigarettes and alcohol. I’ve been your father for so many years, and he hasn’t sent any money back for me to use.”

"It's the New Year, and I can't even get a decent drink. If I had known this would happen, I should have spared my son's life so he could grow up and take care of me!"

Upon hearing this, the sinister look in Qiao Lanru's eyes became even more pronounced.

She got up from the snow and slowly followed behind Li Shiwan, leaning on her crutches.

Li Shiwan was drunk and not in his right mind, so he didn't notice her at all.

Just as he reached the riverbank, Qiao Lanru suddenly sped up, pounced on him, pinned him to the snow, and began to strangle him.

"Li Shiwan! I've had enough of you all these years!"

"Go to hell! Go to hell!"

Qiao Lanru used all her strength to try to strangle Li Shiwan.

However, she was old and weathered, so her strength was naturally inferior to that of a younger man who had lived a life of luxury for many years.

Soon, Li Shiwan pushed her away.

"You old hag, do you want to die?! How dare you pinch me! I'll kill you!"

Li Shiwan stood up and lunged at Qiao Lanru. However, he staggered and, after taking only two steps, stepped on a large rock and tumbled into the river.

The thin ice broke instantly, and Li Shiwan fell into the icy river. Before he could even call for help, his waterlogged cotton clothes pushed him into the water.

After getting up, Qiao Lanru went to the riverbank and saw Li Shiwan struggling in the water. She couldn't help but burst into laughter.

She's endured so much for so many years, and finally she doesn't have to anymore.

Once Li Shiwan had completely sunk, Qiao Lanru got up, swept away the marks on the snow, and then left.

In the river, seeing that Qiao Lanru had left, Li Shiwan mustered his last bit of strength to take out the pearl he had hidden in his bosom and swallowed it.

He only knew it was a good thing, but he didn't know what the Infant Soul Bead was actually used for.

After he swallowed the Infant Soul Pearl, it merged into his body, and the powerful resentment of the infant spirit directly devoured Li Shiwan's soul.

After reading through all of Li Shiwan's memories before his death, Lu Qing opened her eyes and her gaze fell on the Infant Soul Pearl.

No wonder we couldn't see Li Shiwan's soul by the river; it turns out it had been swallowed by it.

“Helian, it’s not surprising that you mentioned the Infant Soul Pearl just now. Did you already know what Qiao Lanru had done?” Lu Qing asked.

Helian Shi slightly curled the corners of his mouth and asked in return:

What do you think?

Lu Qing pursed his lips. He must have known all along, otherwise he wouldn't have said that Qiao Lanru brought it on herself when they first met.

Just then, police sirens sounded outside, indicating that the police officers who had gone out had returned.

"It's time to meet my great-grandmother!"

Lu Qing brought the Infant Soul Pearl to the interrogation room, and Qiao Lanru remained calm when she was brought in.

"Young man, didn't my wife accidentally fall into the river? Why did you bring me here?"

Qiao Lanru is still pretending to be clueless, betting that the police have no evidence.

"Qiao Lanru, we now suspect that Li Shiwan had a fight with someone before his death, so please cooperate with the investigation."

A policeman walked over to collect Qiao Lanru's fingerprints and handprints, but Qiao Lanru withdrew her hand.

“You don’t need to do any testing! Before he fell into the river, I did have an argument with him and I even hit him. The injury on his neck was caused by me choking him, and the injury on my hand was also caused by him.”

Everyone was surprised that Qiao Lanru confessed so easily.

But he quickly regained his composure and continued to ask:

"So, you're admitting that you murdered Li Shiwan?"

Qiao Lanru laughed: "Young man, I only said that I had a fight with Li Shiwan, but I didn't say that I killed him."