Chapter 65: White Bone Hairpin 20: The Truth (Part 2)
"What do you mean?!" Wei Wulang raised his voice, which was much sharper than usual. "You don't doubt that the beast was also tamed by Yunniang, do you?"
"Whether it's true or not, we'll know after we report it to the authorities and have them investigate." Li Xuanhe didn't argue. "We found bloodstains and traces of a struggle between a wild beast and a human on the cliff face where Cai You's body was found. I believe that's where he was attacked. If we bring the dog named Baiju there and compare it with the paw prints left on the ground, the truth will soon come to light."
Claw marks on the ground? But didn't it rain yesterday? They should have been washed away by the rain, right? Xun Shu felt a little puzzled. He glanced at Li Xuanhe and saw that he looked confident. Suddenly, he understood.
This guy is probably acting again.
Wei Wulang had indeed been tricked by Li Xuanhe. He lowered his eyes, trying to hide his panic. After a moment, he said, "Since you say those two bodies aren't Xili Zheng and Shou Duan, then who are they? And where are Xili Zheng and Shou Duan now?"
Xun Shu answered his question: "I heard from Shou Changze and his wife that Shou Duan was not very smart and was always accompanied by two servants. After Shou Duan's body was found, the two servants disappeared. The Shou family thought they fled because they were afraid of being held accountable, but I think they must have been killed by the murderer. Then, bodies disguised as Shou Duan and Cai You appeared before everyone. As for the real Shou Duan and Cai You—" She stretched out her voice and pointed at the black pottery jar in the corner, "Aren't they right there—"
Xun Shu only finished half of his words, his voice stuck in his throat, and he stood there in a daze, staring at the jar.
I was squatting next to the jar just now and couldn't see it clearly. Now that I am farther away, I can see the whole picture of the jar.
Sunlight shone on the black pottery jar, and faint dark patterns emerged in the dark junction. Xun Shu hurriedly squatted beside the jar, holding it and twisting it with difficulty, his eyes fixed on the changing patterns. For a moment, he was immersed in it, his mind racing, and he completely forgot Wei Wulang's questions.
She was lost in thought, clearly having discovered something. Li Xuanhe, standing by, waited for a moment. Seeing her absorbed in her thoughts and unwilling to speak, he spoke to draw everyone's attention back. "Ashu's claim that Cai You and Shou Duan's bodies are in this jar isn't entirely accurate. After all, it only contains their hearts. As for where their bodies are, they're somewhat hidden, so retrieving them will require some effort." He paused, then began his story, recounting the day he and Xun Shu had discovered the secret passage within the shrine. "A few days ago, Ah Shu and I had nothing better to do, so we went to the so-called shrine in Ningyuan Village. We were originally looking for clues to the lucky hairpin, but we stumbled upon a secret passage behind the statue. We jumped down the passage and discovered a hidden world within.
"At the end of the secret passage was a huge cave with a pool of water in it and a locked secret room in the corner. We pried the lock and entered the secret room, where we saw a pile of human bone fragments and several unfinished hairpins. They must be the 'lucky hairpins' circulated in Ningyuan Village."
Li Xuanhe's eyes were fixed on Wei Wulang. Seeing that he didn't show any surprise, he said with understanding, "You really do know about this."
Before Wei Wulang could speak, the Taoist priest huddled nearby spoke hurriedly, his tone rather anxious: "Have you entered the sacred pond? Did you encounter anything strange?"
"Strange thing?" Li Xuanhe narrowed his eyes and touched his chin. "Are you talking about that monster with a fish head and a snake tail, the legendary snakehead fish? That thing should live in the pond. We encountered it as soon as we entered."
"Then how could you possibly get out alive?!" The Taoist priest looked strange. "How did you manage to prevent the snake fish from attacking you?"
Li Xuanhe walked up to him, lowered his eyes, and looked down at the Taoist priest. He said with a smile, "That unintelligent beast naturally attacked us, but we are not saints who can be slaughtered at will, so we naturally fought back. We fought with it and killed it. I guess the body has already rotted. So, did you raise that beast?"
As Li Xuanhe finished speaking, the Taoist collapsed to the ground, pounding his chest and slapping the ground. He no longer had any trace of the Taoist spirit, but looked like a gangster: "Oh my, if you kill it, what should I do? I'm afraid I won't be able to survive..."
Li Xuanhe stood up and took a few steps back, as if afraid of being infected by his madness. "Ever since I realized the blessing hairpin was made of human bones, and that these bones might have come from the Saintess who were sent to the Divine Palace every two years, I've felt a little strange. What was the purpose of the person who came to Ningyuan Village a hundred years ago and offered the Saintess such a sinister plan to pray for blessings? If he wanted to establish prestige in the village, gain the worship of the people, or exchange it for a large amount of money, then this charlatan who offered this plan should have stayed in Ningyuan Village. But he didn't stay, and even hasn't returned in many years. This obviously doesn't make sense. Moreover, even if he wanted to establish prestige, this plan is too insidious and vicious, and it is truly not something that an ordinary person could come up with... It wasn't until my sister saw the snake fish in the cave and pointed out the purpose of this monster that I understood."
Seeing Wei Wulang's bewilderment, as if he had never heard of this before, Li Xuanhe kindly explained, "Legend has it that if you feed snakehead fish with the bones and blood of young girls, and when they turn completely black, eating them will grant you immortality. Of the snakehead fish behind the shrine, only two are still red, so they're almost done."
The Taoist priest cried and wailed, "It was almost done... This fish must have lived for thousands or tens of thousands of years. It might be the only one left in the world, and yet you killed it! How could you be so cruel..."
"If it weren't cruel, we would be the ones to die," Li Xuanhe sneered. "Besides, it's just a rumor. In thousands of years, no one has ever achieved immortality by eating snakehead fish. Yet, some people actually believed this unfounded rumor and ruined so many lives. They're truly foolish and vicious."
The Taoist priest was choked by his words, his lips trembling, but he finally calmed down and said no more.
Li Xuanhe, however, had no intention of letting him go. Standing beside the beads at the center of the altar, he laid their scheme bare to the public: "The so-called Saint's blessing, the so-called blessing hairpin, is nothing more than asking the villagers of Ningyuan Village to proactively find food for the snakehead fish and offer it to them. But there's one thing I can't understand: if the Saint was going into the pond to feed the fish, how did they retrieve their remains from the water?"
Wei Wulang seemed to have lost his soul, his mind a mess, and he lost the desire to argue. He whispered, "I do know this. I once accidentally overheard the village chief and Xili Zheng's drunken conversation, and learned what happened after they took the saints into the cave every time they prayed. They would force the saints to jump into the pool, telling them that as long as they picked up bones from the bottom of the water, they would complete the blessing and leave the cave. The saints believed it, but they didn't expect that after entering the water, they could only pick up a few bones before alarming the monster and died in the pool... They laughed at these girls for being stupid, and said that sacrificing their lives for Ningyuan Village was a blessing... If it was a blessing, why didn't they do it?!"
The Taoist priest said weakly: "Well, it must be a virgin girl. I'm afraid the people you mentioned are not suitable..."
Wei Wulang sneered, "Yes, they are the dirtiest people in the world. They take the lives of others in exchange for their own well-being and benefits, and they think it's justified. Even the devil wouldn't bother to make a deal with them."
These words were profound. Li Xuanhe paused for a moment before continuing, "It was this eavesdropping that allowed you to know the secret of the Divine Palace, right? I've arranged for people to keep watch outside the Divine Palace these past few days. For two consecutive nights, I saw people carrying boxes into the Divine Palace. The first night, there were four people, each holding a small box. When they came out of the Divine Palace, the box was gone, and they returned to the Wei residence empty-handed. Afterwards, my people entered the Divine Palace and found gunpowder buried in the secret passage. What are you going to do? Are you going to blow up the secret passage? But since the gunpowder has already been placed, why don't you do it now? Are you going to wait until the day when the Saint Maiden prays?"
"On the second night, there were five people. They drove two carriages, carrying two boxes that could hold one person each, into the shrine. This time, they stayed for the better part of an hour and returned to the Wei residence. My people searched the carriages while they were inside the shrine and found a large amount of blood on them. They then searched the shrine again but didn't find the boxes. However, they did find dripping blood in a secret passage. They followed the blood trail until they stopped at the bank of a hidden river. The boxes must have been thrown into the turbulent water. I believe the two boxes contain the bodies of Cai You and Shou Duan, right? And the people carrying the boxes must be your wives, right?"
At this point, Wei Wulang no longer concealed the truth and chuckled, "I didn't expect you to discover the secret passage, too. Yes, I planted the gunpowder. I was going to blow up the secret passage during the Saint's blessing ceremony, ending their hopes! The shrine, the Saint, it's all fake! They're just trying to send one young girl after another to their deaths to satisfy their lust for power and wealth! It's truly despicable!"
"Have you ever thought about telling the people in the village about all this?"
Wei Wulang smiled sadly, "You still don't understand. Ningyuan Village has no county magistrate or county magistrate, only a village chief and two village heads. In the eyes of the villagers, they are the law, the heaven and the earth. Even if I talk my mouth off, I'm afraid they won't believe it. Only by killing them all and no one knows this secret anymore can Ningyuan Village's nightmare be completely ended... I was negligent. I didn't expect that behind the village chief and the village head, there was this evil Taoist."
Li Xuanhe sighed, "So, you want to kill them, take their hearts and blood to activate the formation, and revive the deceased girls. The formation requires five people. Besides Xilizheng and Shouduan, plus Donglizheng, the village chief, and Shouchangze, that's exactly the right number of people."
"No, he doesn't want to resurrect these people." Xun Shu suddenly spoke and corrected Li Xuanhe's words.
She stood up from the pottery jar and walked over to Li Xuanhe, her head hanging, dejected. "I was mistaken. The formation he set up is very similar to the Yin-Yang Reversal Formation, but the Yin-Yang Reversal Formation doesn't require talismans to be drawn on the pottery jar. I was too careless and didn't look closely at the talisman on the ground, let alone the pattern on the pottery jar. This is not the Yin-Yang Reversal Formation, it's the Soul-Calming Formation. The person who sets up this formation doesn't need to gather several people. They just need to place the heart and blood of the person they want to curse in the center of the formation, and they will be prevented from entering the cycle of reincarnation and will never be reborn."
"Shou Zhiyue, you've never believed that the Yin-Yang Reversal Formation can resurrect the dead, right?"
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