Sensing the tense atmosphere between the two sides, Wei Shengnan was the first to back down, saying to Qu Ruilin, "We were able to come to Sichuan this time because Duan Shenxing shared intelligence with us, so he definitely had no intention of harming us. Even if they really did kill the people, this must be a misunderstanding!"
Seeing that Wei Shengnan was suppressing the anger of both sides, I didn't argue with them: "We really didn't kill him. He was already dead when we arrived. If you don't believe me, you can check the body yourselves."
Upon hearing this, one of Wei Shengnan's bodyguards stepped forward, examined the body, and then turned to Wei Shengnan, saying, "Miss, the body has been dead for more than two hours. No obvious external injuries were found, so it is unlikely that the person was involved in a fight before death."
"How could a perfectly healthy person just die like that?"
After hearing the bodyguard's response, Wei Shengnan frowned and asked, "Is it possible that she was bitten by a poisonous snake or something?"
The bodyguard shook his head: "It doesn't seem like it. If he had been poisoned by snake venom, at least his skin should have shown a severe poisoning reaction. But so much time has passed since he died, and his skin hasn't changed at all. If he had been poisoned, it wouldn't be like this."
After listening to their conversation, Song Laosan went over to examine the body, then took out a dagger from his travel bag and gently made a cut on Uncle Qi's carotid artery.
The skin was cracked, but there was no blood seeping out.
I wanted to ask something, but seeing the monkey glaring at Song Laosan, I swallowed my words.
Seeing this, Wei Shengnan looked at Song Laosan and asked, "Why isn't there any bleeding? Is it because the blood has clotted?"
"In this kind of weather, blood won't clot so quickly."
Old Song shook his head: "He's been bewitched!"
"insanity?"
Qu Ruilin shone a flashlight on Seventh Uncle's cheek: "What's your basis for that?"
"Fingers! When a normal person dies, their hands are usually either clenched or relaxed, but his fingers were twisted like chicken claws, indicating that he was out of control before he died."
Old Man Song turned Seventh Uncle over, ruffled his hair, pointed to a bloody hole, and said, "The problem lies here!"
When I checked earlier, I didn't see any blood on Uncle Qi, so I didn't pay attention to these things. But when I looked in the direction that Song Laosan was pointing, I found that there was indeed a hole about the thickness of a little finger under his hair.
Old Song used a straw stick to poke the wound on Seventh Uncle's head, inserting it five or six centimeters deep before pulling it out. Pointing to the black bloodstains at the bottom, he said, "His brain is rotten. The Gu worm damaged his central nervous system and killed him in a short time. Although he didn't feel much pain, it made his body lose control, which is why his fingers look like this."
"So, he was being watched on his way here?"
I turned my gaze to Wei Shengnan: "How did you manage to contact him?"
"His son."
Wei Shengnan got straight to the point: "We got lost after entering this jungle and kept looking for Ping'an Village. But on the way, we met a young man who was attacked by a wild boar. We saved his life by accident! To repay us, the young man took us to Ping'an Village. He learned that we came here to find the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace and said that his father might be able to provide us with some information. With his help, we got in touch with Uncle Qi."
I knew that the child Wei Shengnan was talking about was most likely their fourth child, and I also knew that she was definitely not the one who harmed people. I pressed on, "Besides that young man, who else knows about your relationship with Uncle Qi?"
"It's gone!"
Wei Shengnan shook her head: "I know that the people who are looking for the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace are all top talents in the industry. How could they possibly spread such a thing? After we made contact with Uncle Qi, we entered Ping An Village under normal circumstances and agreed to meet in the willow grove tonight. You already know what happened next."
“If that’s the case, then this matter is a bit too strange. We learned about Uncle Seven from his wife and rushed here immediately! It took about an hour. By the time we arrived, Uncle Seven had been dead for more than two hours, which means he had been targeted by someone for a long time.”
I licked my lips: "But in Fengmen Village, besides you and me, who else would know Uncle Qi's identity and use this method to interrogate him?"
"Young Master Duan, do you think this might have been done by the people of Ping'an Village?"
The monkey squinted at me and said, "Don't forget, when we met Uncle Qi before, Miao Xiaoxian, he was terrified. He kept begging Miao Xiaoxian not to tell the clan leader about this! And Aunt Qi also said that what they were doing would bring them to their deaths!"
With so many strangers recently flooding into Ping'an Village, the village chief, unless he's an idiot, will definitely be wary of us! In this tense situation, Uncle Qi's constant attempts to leave the village will surely arouse suspicion. So, is it possible that his death was because his actions were exposed, and the village chose to silence him?
Qu Ruilin rejected the idea without hesitation: "Impossible. If the people of Ping'an Village wanted to silence us, how could they only target Uncle Qi and not us?"
I glanced at Qu Ruilin: "What Seventh Uncle did was not to make a deal with us, but because he hunted in secret and contacted the outside world, violating the rules of Ping'an Village! So the village eliminated him most likely because they knew what he had done, not because they knew about his deal with us! Our encounter with his corpse was probably just an accident."
Wei Shengnan nodded thoughtfully: "Could it be that the people of Ping'an Village know how to use Gu poison?"
Qu Ruilin raised an eyebrow and said, "This is very likely. Although they call themselves a village, many of their customs are similar to those of the Miao people. There should be some connection between the two. It is not surprising that such an ancient village, living in such a yin place as the Double Ghost Forest, knows some evil magic."
Wei Shengnan sighed: "If that's really the case, then all the clues we've been working on for so long have been gone?"
"Now that we're here in Willow Grove, let's go check out the center of Willow Grove."
Qu Ruilin said, "Ping'an Village is eerie in every way, but I have a feeling that if we can get to the village in the center of Willow Forest, we might be able to solve the mystery in my heart."
"Since we're already here, we might as well go and take a look."
Wei Shengnan nodded and turned her gaze to me: "Duan Shenxing, do you want to come with us?"
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