Before long, a party of four arrived in the vicinity of the Wang family estate, where Chief Zhang, accompanied by several pallid-faced yamen runners, was cordoning off the scene to prevent any tampering.
Yi Chen and his companions halted at the entrance of the estate.
Three corpses lay on the street outside the gate; each one had been gutted, their livers vanished without a trace. Of the three, the one clad in dark brocade had suffered the most—both the depth and number of his wounds surpassed the others.
Master Lianhua crouched down, thoroughly examining the scene before revealing a contemplative expression.
"Judging from the positions the bodies fell and the wounds on them, these three were alive and had their livers gouged out right where they stood," said the master.
"Their eyes bulging and filled with terror before they died, and yet they didn't run or make any sound. This evil spirit might possess the ability to intimidate the mind or control the body of others."
"Master is perceptive," Yi Chen and the others nodded in agreement.
The four of them then proceeded to enter the estate in single file.
Upon crossing the threshold, they were assailed by a pungent stench of blood. Abbess Shuiyue's delicate nose twitched, and her brow furrowed deeply.
Daoist Qingxu then proposed from behind, "Why don't we split up to inspect the place, then exchange our findings afterwards?"
Yi Chen and his companions saw no reason to disagree, as the Wang family estate was large; sticking together and inspecting the place as a group would prolong the investigation indefinitely.
In an instant, they dispersed in different directions.
Abbess Shuiyue headed for the back courtyard, the residence of the female family members, making her the most appropriate choice for inspection and out of respect for the deceased, given the circumstances.
After all, Chief Zhang had mentioned that even the young miss of the Wang family had her mouth torn apart—in this vast estate, they could hardly muster a complete pair of underpants. Between Yi Chen and the other two men, Abbess Shuiyue's involvement was most proper.
Watching Daoist Qingxu and Master Lianhua head to different areas, Yi Chen's eyes gleamed; he followed the perimeter wall on a casual stroll.
It wasn't long before he spotted a corpse beside the wall, dressed as a martial artist, its death a ghastly sight. It had left a narrow, elongated blood handprint on the blue brick wall, and its chest was torn open from the front, red and white viscera spilled all over.
His face still bore an odd, post-calamity expression of joy.
Yi Chen looked up at the two-meter-high wall and then back at the corpse—a man over one meter eighty in height, strongly built, sporting a physique that hinted at some sort of external martial arts training.
This sight unwittingly brought a look of confusion to his face.
He stretched out his finger to pinch the skin on the corpse, finding it tough and resilient, akin to feeling a layer of cowhide.
Hmm, truly a robust body.
A skilled fighter, no wonder he made it to the wall.
Yet Yi Chen's confusion only deepened.
With the man's imposing stature and external martial arts rendering him robust and virile, how could he not scale a mere two-meter wall?
And why did the corpse have that odd smile, as if he'd survived a great disaster?
How did the evil spirit accomplish this?
Through melody? Psychic control?
Even if two hundred pigs were lined up for slaughter, it would take a good while; yet out of the entire Wang family estate's two hundred souls, not a single one escaped, with no neighboring households hearing any disturbances.
"Interesting," Yi Chen muttered, his brow furrowing as he took another lap around the wall, spotting several more scattered bodies along the way.
The confusion in his heart grew ever stronger.
After a moment's thought, he leapt over the wall with a swift motion, exerted force under his feet, and circled the four gates of Fengyun County to internally check the fissures in the eight trigrams evil-banishing mirrors before returning to the Wang family estate.
By then, it was high noon, and Master Lianhua and the others had just finished their inspections. Led by Chief Zhang, the four gathered at Fengyun County's largest restaurant, Shili Xiang, to have a meal and exchange information.
All accustomed to corpses, including Abbess Shuiyue, none were deterred from eating after seeing the dead. As soon as the dishes were served, each began to devour heartily.
They had no choice but to be quick.
For fear of missing out due to someone's whirlwind feast, and unlike a certain someone who had already consumed several bowls of noodles before arriving, they hadn't even had breakfast.
A dish of greens vanished in two bites, and Yi Chen grabbed a pork knuckle, gnawing it without even spitting out the bones; his gaping maw was like a black hole, swallowing everything without a trace.
What was shocking was that despite his speed, Yi Chen's eating manners were not unsightly, exuding an air of boldness.
Abbess Shuiyue watched Yi Chen, her delicate mouth slightly agape, as if she had stumbled upon something fascinating.
Feeling the gaze of Abbess Shuiyue, Yi Chen, despite his usually thick skin, couldn't help but blush slightly. He put down the chopsticks reaching for the braised chicken leg, rubbed the back of his head, and offered an embarrassed smile to everyone, saying,
"My apologies for the spectacle."
Watermoon Abbess, noticing the bizarre disparity between this young Daoist who had just moments ago threatened to fight Old Peach Blossom Daoist, and now sat sheepishly smiling for having overindulged in his meal, found herself amused.
A thought flickered, and bearing the possibility in mind, Watermoon Abbess's demeanor softened even further. She pushed a plate of chicken legs toward Yi Chen and said,
"Taoist, please don't be shy. Eat. If it's not enough, we can order another round of dishes."
Her voice, like the chiming of a spring, was extraordinarily pleasant to the ear.
Yi Chen glanced at Abbess Shuiyue bashfully.
Such large chicken legs, beautifully curved.
He quickly lowered his gaze, muttered a thank you, and then began to focus on devouring the chicken leg.
The dishes at this Ten Li Fragrance Restaurant were truly excellent, far superior to eating fish, which made him inadvertently take a few extra bites.
Now, in the entire Hidden Dragon Temple, everyone turns pale at the mention of fish…
Before long, the table was a mess of plates and cups, everyone sated with food and drink, and the server brought over a few cups of tea and some plates of fruit before leaving the private room.
The group began to share their findings with one another.
Daoist Qingxu was the first to speak, "I meticulously inspected the front courtyard, and the death states of those maids, old women, and house slaves were basically the same as those three individuals found outside the main gate, all showing terror before death, their livers vanished into thin air."
"From this it appears that this evil spirit is indeed as Master Lianhua said, there is a very real possibility that the evil spirit has the ability to psychically shock or control others' bodies, something we cannot afford to ignore."
Everyone nodded, and Master Lianhua continued, "I examined the death states of the night patrol guards and found that they died in disarray, as if they had been walking in circles on the spot right before death. I suspect that this evil spirit not only has psychic powers like shock but may also have the ability to confuse and bewitch."
"That would explain why this evil spirit was able to kill more than two hundred people in the Wang family in one night without being discovered."
"It must have first confused and muddled everyone's mind, before killing them one by one."
"Among the many corpses, I even found the body of a daoist whom the Wang family had recruited with a hefty sum, also dead without a sound, his liver taken."
"This evil spirit is indeed vicious."
Abbess Shuiyue pulled out a white silk handkerchief to wipe her mouth before speaking, "In the back courtyard, the female corpses were torn apart, their livers similarly missing."
"It appears they suffered abuse before death."
When she reached this point, a trace of faint anger appeared on Abbess Shuiyue's egg-shaped face, her complexion turning slightly red, as if recalling the tragic deaths of the once-beautiful ladies.
Everyone understood immediately, shocked to think that this evil spirit was also a lascivious old ghost.
All three turned their gaze to Yi Chen.
"I may not be comparable to the esteemed elders here in examining and investigating corpses, but I have indeed discovered something new."
"Even if the evil spirit possesses the ability to bewitch, Wang Yuanwai's estate had no shortage of capable people. How did it manage to control so many at once?"
"The more people it controlled, the weaker its bewitching abilities must have become, and certainly, some strong-willed and vigorous martial artists, or a lucky few carrying some magical item, would have broken through the blockade. I found over a dozen corpses near the wall, which corroborates this theory."
"However, those who had escaped the bewitching, carrying the look of having survived a great catastrophe, were dead."
"They died without ever climbing over that wall more than two meters high."
"Or perhaps, they thought they had climbed over that wall and escaped, but in reality, they remained right beside the wall."
Upon hearing this, all three furrowed their brows, and Daoist Qingxu spoke, "Yi Taoist, are you suggesting there might be more than one evil spirit?"
"Could this evil spirit, like the wolf and jackal, have an accompanying or parasitic ally? Is that what caught those martial artists who fled to the wall off guard again?"
"Of course, it's possible," Yi Chen said, giving the group a deep, searching look.
"It's even possible that someone used dark magic to smash the Eight Trigrams Soul-Capturing Mirror and let this spirit in."
"If the spirit is someone's familiar, controlled by some evil practitioner with flags or a special Magic Artifact to seal off the Wang family estate, that could have had the same effect."
The group was startled by this possibility.
After all, Yi Chen's conjecture was too horrifying to contemplate.
If it was the kind of ghost with a parasitic ally, then their mission was bound to be extremely dangerous; even death here was a possibility.
Such unusual ghosts usually have the ability to merge or even swallow each other during crucial moments, dramatically increasing in strength. Fortunately, such evil spirits are rare and hard to encounter.
But if they do, the danger is great.
If it's the second possibility, then the matter is even more troubling.
Who knows what the intentions and capabilities of the person behind the curtain are?
At that moment, all three thought of the scene where the livers of the Wang family's corpses had all vanished and grew more anxious.
Seeing the somewhat low spirits of the group, Master Lianhua forced a laugh and said, "These are just our speculations. Unless the experts from the imperial Court of Judicial Review come to investigate, we have no way to determine if the Eight Trigrams Soul-Capturing Mirror was shattered by human or evil spirit."
"Now that the arrow is on the string, we have to shoot it tonight. We must be careful in our actions," he continued.
"If there truly is someone behind this, this matter is beyond our capacity. At that time, we should faithfully report to the County Magistrate and ask for assistance from the Court of Judicial Review."
"If it really is a parasitic evil spirit, let us do our best. The four of us together, that spirit won't find it easy to take us down in one bite."
After Master Lianhua spoke, everyone nodded in agreement.
What Master Lianhua's words essentially meant was:
Currently, it's all speculation, but we have to fight, otherwise, we can't justify ourselves. If this matter is too complex, we'll let the Court of Judicial Review handle it.
We're just earning a little money, why risk our lives?
Even risking our lives might not solve the problem. It's better to trust in the wisdom of the court to handle things and deter the nefarious.
Tonight, let's be careful, brothers. Even if it's a parasitic evil spirit, if we can't beat it, we can still run.
"The Master speaks wisely, with the caution of experience," they all said.
Being individuals of keen intellect, they all understood the subtext of Master Lianhua's words.