The expert's home.
When Chen Jing arrived here and found the expert, he went straight to the point and said, "Master, I did not find the Xie Zhi sculpture in Ash City."
He paused for a moment, then said directly:
"I believe the Xie Zhi sculpture should be in Meijing City. The core of the entire blood sacrifice ritual is not in Ash City, but in Meijing City!"
The expert, wiping his knife, asked, "Why do you say that?"
Chen Jing showed no signs of fatigue and recited the thoughts he had been pondering on the way here:
"First of all, I didn't find the buildings I saw in my dream in Ash City. Of course, it's possible that I just didn't find them, but when I thought about it carefully, something seemed off."
"Black Hand was assassinated on September 23, when he was performing a blood sacrifice."
"Our hunting party organized the hunt for glass lizards, and the slave spirits suddenly left on that same day. It was a coincidence."
"Afterwards, before the threat of the assassins was resolved, Black Hand sent people to Meijing City to hunt down the wandering souls of slaves."
"Assuming the blood sacrifice has a purpose, then the Black Hand should be working towards achieving that purpose. During this time, he did two things: one was to be assassinated and to capture the murderer, and the other was to hunt down slaves for the lake."
“It’s understandable that he’s trying to capture the assassin, since the assassin almost killed him and, because of me, objectively hindered the blood sacrifice. But why did he suddenly abandon the assassin and instead deal with the slave spirits?”
"His excuse for dealing with the souls of slaves is highly suspicious. In his speech, he told us that he was killing the souls of slaves for the scavengers and the hunting party. Was he really that kind?"
"The real answer is that after he performed the blood sacrifice, the slave spirit—which is essentially a painting—was awakened by some mechanism I don't understand. Its wandering around Meijing City directly threatened the core of the ritual in Meijing City. Therefore, Black Hand Lu Gang had to eliminate that slave spirit."
"Therefore, I believe the Xie Zhi sculpture should be in Meijing City."
The expert wiped his long knife and slowly raised his head:
"That's a bit of a stretch."
Of course it's far-fetched, because I got this answer from the source of darkness, and the whole reasoning process was made up on my way here... Chen Jing felt a little guilty.
“Have you ever considered that although Black Hand Lu Gang is the true leader of Ash City, Ash City is not his personal fiefdom?” the expert said. “During the capture of the assassin and the lockdown of the city, scavengers, hunting groups, merchants from outside the city, and even archaeologists will all protest and put pressure on the city council, on the city lord Liu Hua, and on Black Hand Lu Gang behind them.”
"Lu Gang, the Black Hand, went to hunt down the wandering souls of slaves. Firstly, it was to give the hunting party and the scavengers an explanation, so that they could obtain more resources in Meijing City and be satisfied."
"Secondly, by using the slave souls of the Hunting Qi Realm, we can demonstrate the Black Hand Gang's formidable strength to everyone in Ash City, deter discontent and opposition, and restore the influence he lost due to the assassination."
"Thirdly, as you said, if Lu Gang of the Black Hand Gang was keeping it a secret from most of his subordinates, but after the incident on the big ship, he could no longer keep it a secret, then he needed a large-scale operation to subdue his subordinates. He didn't know that the Slave Soul was a painting before, and he probably thought that he would kill the Slave Soul, obtain his Qi Realm Elixir, and let his Dan Realm subordinates see the benefits and suppress their dissatisfaction."
Chen Jing listened and found it very reasonable, but he felt uneasy. If he hadn't obtained some images through the source of darkness, he might have even thought that this might be the truth of the matter.
However, the scene seen in the source of darkness is indeed like that.
Chen Jing took a breath:
“I think these are all excuses used by Lu Gang, the mastermind behind this. They are just superficial reasons, or rather, artificial rationalizations.”
The expert raised an eyebrow:
"reason?"
Chen Jing thought of the corpses that seemed to have been sacrificed in the arena, the cocoon people, the maggot people, the people who turned into angels, the dilapidated military camp, the fallen soldiers, the moon drawn with chalk, and the monument with an inscription of unknown meaning.
Thinking of the scene I saw from the source of darkness: the white-clad boy, the purple rain, the people coughing up blood...
Given Chen Jing's lack of extensive knowledge, the fragmented evidence could not be pieced together into a complete chain of evidence.
Chen Jing pursed his lips tightly, but said resolutely:
"intuition."
The expert froze, remaining silent for a moment before raising his head to look at his apprentice.
It felt like I was meeting him for the first time.
Chen Jing met his gaze, his eyes filled with determination.
"It's just a dream, you're probably overthinking it," the expert said. "The purple rain curtain you described in your dream sounds similar to a certain technique used by the Extreme Realm Heavenly Cultivator in historical records."
Chen Jing was delighted to hear this.
"All intuition is a manifestation of the subconscious. First, assume that your dream has a real symbolic meaning, and then assume that your reasoning is correct. Only when both assumptions are true does your information have meaning. But you may be under too much pressure and thinking too much, so it is normal for a coincidence to appear in your dream."
After hearing the expert's words, Chen Jing did not argue, but asked, "Master, although it is said that only Black Hand Lu Gang knows how to safely cross the Song River, there are actually more than that. Many caravans have also figured out routes with lower risks."
The route here does not refer to a fixed path, but rather to many precautions, and even the time required to travel through a certain section of the river.
The expert asked, "Do you want to leave Ash City?"
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