The Yong'an Corpse Case Reappears 2

Just as Bai Bumian said, Yong'an City was sealed off by government troops, and there were also magic arrays set up by Taoist priests inside and outside the city. Whether human or demon, once inside, it was as if they were trapped.

Fortunately, Bai Bumian had a travel permit, so their travel was very convenient. It was only then that Huaiwen thought to ask Bai Bumian what was so special about his travel permit.

But before he could even ask any questions, he was dragged into the city by several soldiers for questioning. After the soldiers finished questioning him, he was then taken away by several Taoist priests.

The Taoist priests, upon seeing Bai Bumian, immediately determined that he was a mortal. Huaiwen and the others initially also judged him to be a mortal, then determined that he knew some magic, and upon further investigation, they felt that Huaiwen was somewhat strange and unclean.

As Huaiwen listened to the Taoist priests' comments about her, she worried that her true gender would be exposed. Although these Taoist priests, who were not immortals, could not compare to the high priests in terms of magical arts, they also specialized in techniques like Qimen Dunjia (a form of divination and divination), and in some situations, they could rival the high priests, and even stumble upon some secrets by chance.

Fortunately, the Taoist priests were stuck there, and no matter how much they probed Huaiwen, they couldn't find out anything. However, the Taoist priests didn't intend to let Huaiwen go so easily; they planned to place a talisman on Huaiwen to track him.

Huaiwen appeared obedient on the surface, but secretly stuck the talisman onto a passing dog, avoiding the Taoist priests' sight. She glanced at the group of Taoists; they seemed to be staying there for a few days.

So Huaiwen inquired, "Are the Taoist priests also here to capture the man in black? Have you found anything?"

One of the Taoist priests, surnamed Zhang, said, "What can we find? So much time has passed. Some are dead, some are buried."

Huaiwen rested his chin on his hand and thought for a moment before asking, "Esteemed Taoist priests, have you inquired with the people in the city? Did they feel anything unusual that night, or did they see anyone die next to them the next day? Was there anything strange about it?"

“I asked them, and they said they just went to sleep normally that night, and the next day they found their bedmates dead. That’s terrifying,” Zhang the Taoist replied. “However, the county magistrate has a record that says the dead people were of no particular status, age, or gender, but they seemed to have some kind of scar on their bodies? But the case file only mentions the scar, which is dark and looks like it was burned.”

Another Taoist priest surnamed Huang calmed himself down and said, "It's that burning that attracted attention. It's obviously intentional. In my opinion, we should dig up the grave! Seeing is believing!"

"By now, all that's left are bones. What would we find if we dug it up?"

“I’ve inquired around. There’s a recently deceased person at the Qian family cemetery in the northern suburbs of Yong’an City. They say there are similar marks on their body. They were buried just two days ago,” said the Taoist priest, his hands behind his back.

Huaiwen grasped the key point: "At the Qian family's grave?"

Seeing Huaiwen's puzzled expression, as if he were waiting for an explanation, Huang Daoshi was pleased. So he waved his hand and began to tell his story in a leisurely manner, like a storyteller.

With Yong'an under lockdown and so many Taoist priests around, such things shouldn't have happened again. But just two days ago, the Qian family steward said he was going out of the city on business, and he was found dead outside the city by patrolling soldiers.

The steward had died, and the master and mistress of the mansion were supposed to bury him. But who could have imagined that a few months ago, the master and mistress of the Qian family disappeared? It's said that people were sent to look for them, but there's still no news.

Upon hearing this, Huaiwen touched her purse... At that moment, she felt a little guilty.

After a sigh, the Taoist priest continued. Without Master Qian and Madam Qian, the Qian household was run by the steward, but now that steward is dead. The entire Qian household is leaderless and in complete chaos.

So the servants of the Qian household planned to take some valuables and leave. They had barely taken anything from the mansion when they were killed. This terrified the others, who dared not take anything more and fled for their lives.

With the Qian family mansion no longer their owner, the county magistrate ordered someone to write a letter to the Qian family's relatives, asking them to come and settle things. However, those relatives had already heard about the haunting of the Qian mansion and were unwilling to come, but they were also unwilling to give up such a large fortune as the Qian family. So they paid someone to bury the servants first.

Originally, these servants should have been buried in the wilderness graveyard, but since the person died in the Qian family, they simply buried him in a large cemetery that Master Qian had bought before his death.

Furthermore, the fact that these servants all left behind such marks after their deaths makes it hard not to think of the same thing.

But the county magistrate and his men were incompetent and couldn't figure out who left those marks on the corpses. Some incompetent Taoist priests simply said they were lividity marks, so the corpses were buried in the ground again in a muddled way.

Now, Huang the Taoist priest plans to dig up people's graves to find out what's going on. So he asked the group of Taoist priests if they wanted to come with him to dig up the graves.

Several Taoist priests gathered around, and after taking turns trying it, they decided it was a desperate measure. They figured they might as well give it a shot.

“Taoist priests, I will go with you.”

“You…” Huang the Taoist priest drawled out the last syllable as he began to scrutinize Huaiwen.

The other Taoist priests also sized up Huaiwen and found her strange. However, digging graves at midnight requires people to bolster one's courage; many hands make light work, and many people bring more yang energy, so it did seem somewhat useful, and they agreed.

Huaiwen then told Bai Bumian to wait for her message at the inn. But Bai Bumian said he was also quite curious and decided to go with them to see what was going on. Besides, he was planning to write a supernatural novel soon, and this experience would be a good way to spark his imagination.

As night fell, the group of Taoist priests left the city and arrived at the Qian family cemetery in Yong'an City. They discussed whether to dig up one grave or several. After much bickering, they were finally persuaded by the Taoist priest in yellow robes to dig up one first and see.

This cemetery has particularly good feng shui, facing green mountains, where spring is warm and flowers bloom. To be buried in such a tomb is to have a good place to live in the afterlife.

That said, although no one would scold them for coming late at night, digging up graves is still an immoral act. The Taoist priests decided that after the matter was over, they would perform a ritual to pray for the souls buried in the Qian family's cemetery.

Soon the Taoist priests took out their tools and, after working for a while, found the corpse wrapped in a straw mat. Fortunately, only a few days had passed, and apart from being rotten and smelly, the corpse was still recognizable.

Just as the Taoist priests were arguing about who should jump in, Huaiwen set an example and jumped into the pit. She carefully examined the corpse. This startled the Taoist priests. Then, seeing Huaiwen squat down and sniff the corpse, the priests all frowned, unconsciously covered their noses more tightly, and continued to look down.

Huaiwen took out a small nightlight from her bag, then a tracking mirror, holding one in each hand, and scanned the corpse from head to toe. Sure enough, she saw the mark on the ribs through the tracking mirror.

She hurriedly called a Taoist priest to come down and help. The bravest of them all, Huang, jumped down. Huaiwen then had him hold up the small nightlight and placed the tracing mirror aside. She then pulled open the corpse's clothes, and sure enough, there was the mark above the collarbone.

The mark, as described in the case file, resembled a burn. Huaiwen reached out to touch it and realized it was different from ordinary burns. This wasn't a mark left by fire; rather, it looked more like ink embedded in the skin.

Moreover, it wasn't just a large, dark patch. Upon closer inspection, the area was curved, undulating like waves, or like individual petals connected together, resembling both water and flowers.

Fire, petals.

Who left behind this symbol of victory?

Huaiwen found it hard not to think of one person. She fell into deep thought, feeling her thoughts were in turmoil. She remembered a demon saying that the winner is the saint. But she knew that person was with her then.

He can't be...

She cannot conclude without evidence that the other person is the murderer, even if that person killed her a thousand times over.

Later, the Taoist priest Huang asked her if she had discovered something. It seems Huaiwen will be stuck in this pit, pondering until dawn.

She turned her head, shook her head at the Taoist priest, and stood up: "These marks are probably intentional on the part of the murderer, but we don't know who the murderer is..."

Everyone muttered that his words were meaningless. Then, the Taoist priest Huang stood up, handed the item back to Huaiwen, jumped out of the pit, and said he was going to dig another grave. Finally, Bai Bumian reached out and pulled Huaiwen up.

That night, they dug up three graves, each in roughly the same condition. The Taoist priests sighed, lamenting their fruitless efforts, and finally reburied the graves, performing a ritual for the deceased. By the time they finished, dawn was approaching.

As the night passed, the Taoists returned to the city, intending to get a good night's sleep. Huaiwen made an excuse and left the group, and Bai Bumian naturally went with her.

Before long, the two arrived at the stone tablet.

This time, the sign that read "Cherish life, stay away from the stone tablet" was gone. In its place, the king had it rewritten: "Return to nature, and may your destiny be peaceful and healthy."

Bai Bumian read the sentence aloud, then looked around at the surroundings and sighed, "This place is overgrown with weeds, truly living up to the saying 'return to nature.' However... fate is not peaceful. Writing such a sentence at this time is of no use."

Yes, in this situation, a word of comfort won't do any good. And things are different here compared to when Huaiwen last visited.

Last time I came here, there was only yellow clay, sand, and stones. But this time, the pit is overgrown with weeds, and the stone tablet is surrounded by them. If it stays for a while longer, the stone tablet will probably be buried in the weeds.

But Huaiwen clearly remembered that she had almost lost her life here, and it was Xuan Ye who saved her. He even split the stone tablet in two, but now the stone tablet was intact.

Huaiwen walked over with doubt. The pit was already half covered by yellow mud and sand, and it wasn't as deep anymore. Coupled with the weeds around it, it looked like just an ordinary pit.

Thinking of all this, Huaiwen walked down into the pit. She squatted down and looked at the stone tablet covered by weeds and sand. The stone tablet, which should have been split in two, now fit perfectly, without a trace of the split in the middle.

But the stone tablet wasn't smooth. Huaiwen reached out and touched it, suddenly feeling several incantations. She touched it harder, and after confirming that they were incantations, she immediately leaned closer to look. What she saw stunned her... those were sealing incantations.

Huaiwen carefully removed the illusion on the stone tablet and indeed saw that it was glowing all around, sealed by incantations.

This is a very advanced sealing spell. It doesn't rely on talismans, utensils, or anything else; you only need to place the sealing spell on the place you want to seal, and it will be sealed.

Clearly, someone has sealed something here. And to manipulate such a sealing spell requires extremely powerful magical abilities.

Not many people in this world can do that.

So who would come here to inscribe the sealing spell?

"What's wrong, Huaiwen?" Bai Bumian asked worriedly from outside the pit.

Huaiwen instinctively found himself speechless, unable to answer. After a long pause, he finally managed to say, "It seems like something is sealed away..."

Bai Bumian calmly read Huaiwen's words: "What was sealed?"

Huaiwen was stunned. She shook her head, "I don't know, I don't know..."

A gentle breeze rustles the weeds, filling the air with the scent of grass and earth, while soft sunlight filters through the trees. A new day is dawning, a hopeful day about to begin.

Bai Bumian walked to Huaiwen's side, squatted down, and then slowly turned Huaiwen to face him. His expression softened, and he called out to Huaiwen in a gentle voice, "Tell me, what's wrong? You were fine just now, why are you so helpless now?"

Huaiwen's eyes were filled with confusion. She felt a sharp pain in her heart. She opened her mouth, but after a long while, she finally answered, "That day, A-Ling and I clearly broke through the seal here... How could there still be something sealed here?"

"What's the meaning?"

"Nothing should be sealed here..."

Bai Bumian frowned and added to Huaiwen's words: "So you mean, something is sealed here. Then... could it be that person named A-Ling, behind your back, sealed something here again?"

Huaiwen's eyes lit up for a moment upon hearing this, but quickly drooped again: "No way..."

How do you know he can't?

Huaiwen was like a deflated kite, teetering on the brink of collapse. She flew helplessly in the air, knowing that if the kite flyer lost control, she would have nowhere to go. So she fell silent; she didn't know how to answer.

Bai Bumian asked righteously, "I ask you, if it were him, what would you do?"

The kite string seemed to have been suddenly cut, and Huaiwen trembled a few times in fright. For some reason, a voice cried out in her heart.

"You have your own righteousness, your own right path, and your own judgment. You have the world in your heart, you want to save all living beings, and you want to slay demons and monsters. You want this world to be peaceful and your descendants to continue."

The sound echoed, leaving one unable to calm down for a long time.

Huaiwen remained silent, like an empty shell. Bai Bumian pressed on, worried and incredulous: "So, you're saying you won't kill the person who committed the murder? Huaiwen... is this the righteousness you once spoke of to me? Is this what you meant by slaying demons and monsters?"

"No... I just can't wrongly accuse him..."

"Do you want to know who killed people? Who killed everyone in the world?"

"Um……"

"good."

Bai Bumian reached out and removed Huaiwen's mask, cupped Huaiwen's face in her hands, and gently stroked it, showing great affection. Finally, she said in an extremely gentle voice, "Then... let's go and see... see... who the bad guy really is."