The emperor was somewhat unhappy and summoned the prefect of Jingzhao, demanding that he solve the case within a time limit. He also ordered the people of the capital not to discuss the matter of the sorcerer anymore. How could these ignorant people know that the Taoist priest was not the one who was suffering from the backlash when he was exorcising evil spirits?
If Lianyi knew what the emperor was thinking, she would definitely think that there was something wrong with his brain circuit.
Jingzhao Prefecture Yin did not want to disobey the emperor, but he was very smart, and he said earnestly:
“Your Majesty, rest assured. I will get to the bottom of this matter. However, it is difficult to suppress the rumors about this evil spirit. After all, it is better to guard against the mouths of the people than against the river. The more you stop them from speaking, the more likely the rumors will become more powerful.
In my opinion, if we want to stop the rumors, it would be best if an accomplished immortal master went to the scene to check it out and give an explanation to dispel the rumors. Furthermore, if there really is an evil spirit, the immortal master can also eliminate it to avoid affecting your majesty's longevity."
The old emperor thought it made sense. How could he let the evil spirit grow stronger under his nose? So he assigned his alchemy team a task to check out Li's mansion, which had become a murder scene.
These Taoists are good at meditating, bragging, and refining elixirs on a daily basis, but they are not so capable of getting rid of evil spirits. However, the old emperor has spoken, and for the sake of future success, they finally sent a representative to accompany the prefect of Jingzhao to check out Li's mansion.
The Taoist priest who was pushed out had the least presence among them. His alchemy skills were not very good and he couldn't flatter. But he was quite active in eating. In their eyes, he was just eating to get a free meal.
But it was not easy for them to expose him, after all, they were in the same industry. In the end, this Taoist priest Wuyou got a job doing odd jobs, and he filled in wherever there was a shortage of manpower. Now, the task of assisting the prefect of Jingzhao to quell the rumors naturally fell on him.
Wuyou was meditating with his eyes closed when he heard the little Taoist boy's report. He opened his eyes, straightened his grey robe, put on his peach wood sword, held a whisk in his hand, and walked out of the palace with his little Taoist boy in a proper manner.
After meeting the bailiffs at the Li Mansion, Taoist Wuyou was invited in. In just a few days, the entire Li Mansion had become extremely desolate and lifeless. The closer he got to Fanghua Garden, the more serious Wuyou's expression became. He originally thought that it was just a formality, but things seemed to be completely different from what he expected.
It was not until Wuyou saw the array pattern on the ground of Fanghua Garden turned into crimson purple outlined by blood that he immediately took a step forward, jumped onto the rockery beside him, and looked down from above, his brows furrowed so much that they could be knotted.
The yamen runners standing by were a little surprised. They didn't expect that this inconspicuous Taoist priest was so skilled. In order to draw the scene, the coroner had to work very hard to climb up the rockery.
After Wuyou finished reading, he jumped off the rockery again, landing lightly and gracefully. He asked the yamen runner beside him:
"I want to see the body!"
"It has been sent back to the government office."
The bailiff replied directly.
Wuyou nodded, without saying much, and left Li Mansion with the little Taoist boy. In order to confirm his guess, he wanted to go and see the body.
"Master, is there something wrong?"
The little Taoist boy was only five or six years old, with short legs and a short body. He had to run hard to keep up with Wuyou's pace, and he asked in a low voice.
"I need to see the body first to confirm. Don't go in for a while. Wait for me outside."
Wuyou was not impatient and replied to his little disciple.
"Yes, Master!"
A quarter of an hour later, Taoist Wuyou stood in front of Jingzhao Prefecture. After greeting the prefect, he went directly to where the coroner placed the body.
The coroner was also a little overwhelmed at this time. He had been examining corpses for so many years, but he had never seen anything like this. There was only a skeleton left, and everything else was gone, but the bones were still preserved so intact.
The only thing he could think of was ghosts and gods turning people into this overnight, so he hastily wrote a note saying there were no fatal injuries and placed the dozen or so corpses in a separate room. He was really scared.
When Taoist Wuyou arrived, the coroner was very cooperative and immediately took people to the place where the body was kept, muttering:
"Master, these people died in a dangerous way. I hope you can help resolve their resentment and not disturb others."
Wuyou didn't say much. After lifting the white cloth and looking at the bones, he knew what was going on. He just looked at the number of corpses and turned to ask the coroner:
"Is that all?"
"Yes, they are all here, including the body of the Taoist nun. The prefect asked me to put it separately, saying that this case is difficult to investigate, so I didn't mix it with the other bodies."
“Are there any pictures of the scene?”
"Yes, I will find it for you right away."
The coroner immediately turned around, left the place where the body was stored, and went to look for the drawn scene map.
Wuyou then made some hand gestures, as if he wanted to summon something from these corpses, but unfortunately a breeze blew past and nothing came out.
"Master, this is the site drawing, please take a look."
The coroner presented a slightly yellowed notebook, which happened to be the page with the picture of the murder scene at Li's mansion.
After Wuyou finished reading it, he pointed directly at the center of the strange pattern and asked:
"There are no bodies here?"
"No."
"Is there anyone missing from the Li Mansion?"
"Yes, they said that they were going to hold their cousin's coming-of-age ceremony the next day, and they took the cousin home the day before. Unfortunately, after the incident, the cousin disappeared!"
"Tell me about it in detail."
"Don't blame me, Taoist priest. I am only responsible for the autopsy. These are the affairs of the yamen runners. You need to ask them for the details."
Wuyou nodded, knowing that he had asked the wrong person, and went straight to find the prefect.
The prefect was a little puzzled. Didn't they agree to find a Taoist priest to go through the formalities and quell the rumors? Why did it seem that Taoist Wuyou was more active than them?
The prefect still called the yamen runners to answer all of Wuyou's questions. At the end, he looked at the Taoist priest who was lost in thought and asked:
"Master Wuyou, do you think there is something wrong with this cousin? Did she do all this?"
"There are two possibilities. She is the victim, or she is the perpetrator. And from the beginning to the end, all the people in the capital who have heard of this cousin have never seen her in person. They must have only seen the maids and servants around her."
"The bailiff went to ask, and found out that the butler Li who brought the cousin to the capital had met with Mrs. Li. However, Mrs. Li was sold out by the master a long time ago because she was not doing her job well. As for where she was sold to, it has not been found out yet.
We asked another steward, Li, and he said he had seen Miss Wu Lianyi, but when we asked him to describe her figure and appearance, he couldn't give a clear idea. "
"It can be done with a simple trick. What Manager Li saw may not be the true appearance of this cousin."
Wuyou finished speaking calmly, then stood up and said goodbye. He was now a little undecided, so he wanted to inform his uncle-master.
Three days later, an immortal with white hair and a youthful face arrived in the capital. Wuyou respectfully invited him into the palace to meet the emperor. Afterwards, this Taoist Ziyun stayed in the palace and was named the Protector of the Nation by the emperor. He became the most famous person at the time.
Wuyou, with his little disciple Fengyu, left the capital and followed the direction in which Lianyi left.
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