In less than five minutes, Tiger returned with the bald man in tow.
He tossed the bald man onto the ground as if throwing out garbage, then planted his foot firmly on his back.
"Husband!" the woman with the black birthmark cried out anxiously. "Let go of my husband! Let him go!"
Lu Fei ignored her and threw a rope to Tiger.
"Tie him up!"
"On it!" Tiger quickly bound the bald man tightly, leaving him no room to struggle.
"Husband, are you okay? Are you hurt?" The woman's face was filled with worry as she looked at the bald man.
But the bald man didn't spare her a glance. Instead, he turned to Lu Fei with a pleading expression.
"Shopkeeper Lu, we have no personal grievances. I'll give you the children—just pretend you didn't see anything, okay?"
"Ha! Are you dreaming?" Tiger sneered. "You used black magic to abduct so many kids, and you think we'll just look the other way? How delusional are you?"
"Shopkeeper Lu, name your price!" the bald man said, forcing a smile.
Lu Fei smiled back, standing under the light with a calm expression. "Do I look like someone who's short on money?"
The bald man's smile froze. He struggled to believe what he'd heard. "There's no such thing as a free favor in this world. Whatever they're paying you, I'll double it!"
Seeing no response from Lu Fei, the bald man gritted his teeth and said desperately, "I'll give you all my money. I'll even shut down this manor! Just let me go, and we can settle this peacefully."
"Do you think you're in a position to negotiate?" Lu Fei's smile didn't waver. "What makes you think your money or this manor means anything to me? Taking it would just dirty my hands."
The bald man was dumbfounded, disbelief etched across his face. Was there really something money couldn't solve?
"You think everyone is as vile as you, willing to hurt others for money? Disgusting!" Tiger spat on the ground in contempt. "We've already called the police. Get ready to rot in prison!"
True fear finally dawned on the bald man. He shouted in panic, "Shopkeeper Lu, we have no grudge against each other! Why are you being so ruthless?"
"No grudge?" Lu Fei's gaze turned icy. "Did those children have a grudge against you? Why did you kill them?"
The bald man shivered, shrinking under the weight of Lu Fei's glare. "It's her! It's all her! I didn't know anything about it! She raised the fish, and she caught the kids. I only ran the restaurant!"
"What did you just say?" The woman's eyes widened in shock, staring at the bald man in disbelief.
"Isn't it true?" The bald man's voice was devoid of emotion. "I was just a small-time businessman until you said you could raise special eels and make big money. That's why I started this restaurant!"
"I only managed the business. I had no idea how the fish were raised or where the kids came from!"
"You..." The woman staggered, her husband's words cutting into her like knives. She couldn't utter another word.
"Dogs eating dogs! Neither of you is innocent, and neither will get away with it!" Tiger sneered.
At that moment, the distant sound of police sirens echoed up from the valley below.
"I was bewitched by her, I swear!" the bald man pleaded, sweat pouring down his face. "Her family practices black magic. She makes hypnotic incense and brought that human-faced eel here."
"She said the eel had been in her family for over a century. It could produce countless delicious offspring as long as it was well-fed. The meat was so good, people couldn't stop eating it..."
In his desperation to lessen his own guilt, the bald man threw everything he could at the woman, his words growing increasingly frantic.
The woman stared at him, dumbfounded, as if he were a stranger.
It was clear now why the eel was called "Hei Niang"—it was a mother eel.
Lu Fei didn't need to interrogate further. The bald man had spilled every sordid detail on his own.
In the world of mystics, strange people and bizarre methods were common. Clearly, this woman's family had been steeped in dark practices for generations. The number of innocent lives they had claimed was likely countless.
Tiger was right: neither of them deserved mercy.
"If you're so innocent, why are infant spirits clinging to you?" Lu Fei asked coldly.
"I was just trying to cure an illness! Some shaman named Feng gave me the meat. I didn't know it was..." The bald man's voice faltered, lacking conviction.
"Save your excuses for the police. Let's see if they believe you."
Lu Fei glanced at the lifeless body of the human-faced eel and had a sudden thought.
The eel had been raised for over a century and had likely turned into a full-fledged demon. And where there were demons, there were often demon cores.
Demon cores were valuable.
Acting quickly before the police arrived, Lu Fei drew his dagger and dissected the eel, searching its insides carefully.
Discarding the eggs, he found a pea-sized bead embedded near its brain.
The bead was jet black, with faint wisps of dark energy swirling inside.
"A demon core?"
Though uncertain, Lu Fei cleaned it and stored it safely.
Throughout the process, the woman with the black birthmark remained silent, her cold gaze fixed on him.
Soon, the police and paramedics arrived.
The children were rushed to the hospital, while the bald man and the woman were arrested.
"I'm friends with Mr. Yu," Lu Fei explained to the police. "When he told me his child's armband was found near the manor, I wanted to help look."
"At night, we heard children crying and calling for help from inside the manor. When we investigated, we found all those kids."
"They tried to kill us to silence us, so we had to tie them up."
The police glanced at the bald man, whose body was covered in shoe prints, then at the burly Tiger. They didn't ask further questions.
"Thank you both for your bravery. We'll need you to come down and give a formal statement."
"No problem," Lu Fei agreed readily.
As a good Samaritan, he was more than willing to cooperate.
Just as they were about to leave, Lu Fei noticed a line of small, shadowy figures standing by the water tank.
"One moment."
He stopped and walked toward the figures.
The shadows hesitated, then pointed their tiny hands toward the tank filled with eel corpses.
"Something's under there?"
Grabbing a long stick, Lu Fei stirred the muddy depths of the tank.
Soon, he felt the stick hit something solid. Pulling it up, he found a small, white bone.
"Children's remains?"
A wave of nausea and horror washed over him.
So this was the source of the corpse energy.
The *Art of Creating Beasts* turned children into lambs, but their bones remained unchanged. The human-faced eel only ate the flesh, leaving the bones buried in the mud.
The sight of the bones turned even the police pale. They immediately retrieved tools to dredge the tank.
The tank, nearly seven meters deep, held dozens of children's remains beneath the mud.
By the time all the bones were recovered, dawn was breaking.
The small shadowy figures joined hands and bowed deeply to Lu Fei.
Feeling a lump in his throat, Lu Fei waved at them. A warm current flowed into his dantian.
**Merit energy?!**
The shadows then drifted toward the police cars, where the bald man and the woman were held.