After Rebirth, I returned to Miaojiang to inherit my family business - Chapter 39

It’s been a day and a half since entering the Tiankeng, and Kang Jianbai had been following him. How could Liu Hu kill two people in a row?

“Let’s go have a look.” 

Su Jingjing was buried downstairs in the girls’ dormitory. It is reasonable to say that newly dug pits will always have some traces leftover, but there were no traces here, not even a bit of ying. Wu Rong lived in this building, and did not sense that someone buried a person here last night.

Hiss, hiss, hiss

The human face huddled into the size of a sesame seed and crouched timidly behind the little spider, it moved away from Fu Qing as if in fear, and hissed at Wu Rong for a while.

Last night it was lying on the outer wall of the dormitory building on Wu Rong’s floor, spying on the little spider through the small hole. It was located right where the row of trees could be seen. 

The human-faced spider hissed and hawed. It couldn’t express itself clearly so it got a little bigger, walked with its eight thin legs and quickly climbed to the manhole cover of the waterway near the street tree. It went through the small hole in the manhole cover, and as it climbed back up, it picked up some black hair with its big jaw.

No wonder there were no traces of excavation on the ground. Su Jingjing was down below the sewer, where the underground drainage pipes extended in all directions. After Su Jingjing died, she was controlled by the Bone Bell, which damaged her mind a lot. Only leaving a vague impression of where she died. There were street trees surrounding her, so she had thought she was buried under the trees. It was not difficult to get her corpse out. Wu Rong took out the Green Spirit Gu, gave it a few commands in his mind, and let it shrink down and slip in through the sewer hole.

After a while, the manhole cover rattled and heaved up and down. Wu Rong took advantage of the situation and swung the old Miaodao. The manhole cover was lifted from the inside, and a female corpse soaked in sewage was pushed out by the little green snake.

It was Su Jingjing.

She was drenched all over, her messy hair stuck to her face, her complexion was pale, with her eyes wide open, and her pupils narrowed into sharp points. Her eyes were dyed more black than white, resembling those of a wolf’s. Thick Yin Qi enveloped Su Jingjing’s body, preventing it from decomposing in the midsummer water. But Su Jingjing’s exposed skin, including her arms, legs, neck and other parts, was covered with milky white stone shells.

Fu Qing didn’t hesitate to scrape some off, twisting it with his fingers

“It’s plaster.”

“The throat was cut.” 

Su Jingjing’s fatal wound was at her throat, and she was directly cut open. The blood had already drained away, and the wound was smooth, so the murderer must have used a very sharp knife. She is also a ghost raiser. Becoming a ghost below the rank of an evil spirit, the constitution of a ghost raiser after death is the same as those of the ghosts they had raised. Xu Tao was hanged to death by the resentful spirit Su Jingjing. She had a hanging rope in her hand, thus the ghost she raised was probably a hanged ghost.

Hanged ghosts are most afraid of cutting their own throats.

The murderer is not only familiar with Su Jingjing, but also understands her weakness. He might have ambushed her downstairs in the girls’ dormitory and then killed Su Jingjing.

“But why did he hide Su Jingjing’s bracelet under the banister?” 

Besides that, Liu Hu had killed Su Jingjing and hid her body in the sewer. Why? There must be a reason for the murder. Su Jingjing’s clothes were intact, and there was no other scar on her body except her throat. Liu Hu killed her not for sex, money or flesh, so what was his motive?

“Let me take a look”

Fu Qing kept calculating, and said to Wu Rong, “Where was the bracelet hidden?”

After death, Su Jingjing was already considered a ghost in the Tiankeng. But Wu Rong clearly remembered that when Su Jingjing was in Fu Qing’s dormitory, half of Su Jingjing’s ghost was able to be directly saved by the relic beads. 

It must be because Liu Hu had used a special way to preserve her body and soul. Was it the plaster-like thing on her outer body?

“This corpse can’t be moved.”

According to Fu Qing’s order, Wu Rong ordered the Qingling Gu to drag her corpse into the sewer again, and put the manhole cover back on. The Qingling Gu was guarding below, and Wu Rong led Fu Qing into the girls’ dormitory building.

Then he was stopped by the dormitory aunt. 

“Men are not allowed to enter, do not enter.”

Wearing presbyopic glasses, the dormitory aunt looked at Fu Qing vigilantly like a thief, and then yelled at Wu Rong: “Girls need to know how to love themselves at a young age! Bringing wild men with you when you are young, ah I thought he was so kind to you, but in fact he was just trying to fool you and greedy for your flesh! Which dormitory are you from and what is your name…”

The dormitory aunt’s words came to an abrupt end. Fu Qing pasted a yellow charm on her forehead, slowly walked her back to her room and locked the door.

“Let’s go.” 

The amethyst bracelet was brought back by the little green snake, as it would be faster to find it’s original place using it. The human faced spider was surprisingly quite capable at chasing yin qi. The little spider was obsessed with showing off its new car. As soon as Wu Rong entered and went up to the fourth floor, it couldn’t wait to get out of the backpack. The human-faced spider, as small as a sesame seed, was thrown to the ground.

‘Go! Go! Go! ‘

The fourth floor of the girls’ dormitory building was too gloomy, and the stairs were near the toilet. As soon as the human-faced spider hit the ground, it swelled up like a balloon, and instantly swelled to the same size as when Wu Rong first saw it. The corridor was too narrow to fit its body, its pale grimace was distorted, and its eight slender legs were piled up like infrared rays. The black rock tarantula jumped from Wu Rong’s shoulder to the ghost’s face, biting violently in dissatisfaction, enough for it to shrink a few times.

‘Sit, Kaka, sit!’ 

When faced with the courtesy of the black rock tarantula, even giving up the best place to sit on the human-faced spider, Wu Rong was not moved at all, and refused indifferently: “No.”

After feeling the amethyst bracelet, the human-faced spider went straight to the central staircase like a well-trained hound, and finally stopped at the junction of the third and fourth floors.

The first to third floors were male dormitories, and the fourth to sixth floors were female dormitories. At the central staircase, there was a thick iron gate in the middle of the third and fourth floors. It opens every morning and locks at 12:40 noon. It will reopen at 1:30 noon, and will then be locked again at 9:30 in the evening.

The iron fence door wasn’t open now. It looked old, the corners and crevices were rusted, and the dark red rust appeared ted on, looking like dried bloodstains. Standing in front of the fence gate, you would always feel like there was a gust of wind blowing from nowhere. 

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Yin Qi and Yang Qi should cancel each other out, but the Yin Qi in the building is too heavy and the Yang Qi was not enough to offset the Yin Qi. It can only push the Yin Qi to rotate like the wind, just like a Yin Qi vortex.

“There’s something in the iron gate.”

Keng Keng———

The sound of the fence gate being knocked on was not clear, but it was a deep and hoarse sound, like knocking on wood. Fu Qing held the mahogany sword lightly on the iron fence gate, and the mahogany sword, which was obviously not sharp, easily made a small gap in the fence gate. A little blood-like crimson was exposed inside, and a small clump flowed out, but it didn’t fall off, instead sticking to the gate like clay. 

“Blood mud.”

The hairs on Wu Rong’s back stood on end. How could there be such a thing in the iron gate? Does it have anything to do with the blood mud in the sewer of the girls’ dormitory?

Historically, Chi Fangfang would have died in the toilet during the early hours of this evening, leaving only a sticky and bloody mud in the sewer pipes. Wu Rong had a dinner appointment with her tonight.

It was originally thought that only the girls’ dormitory toilet was dangerous, but now, suddenly blood mud was found in the plain iron fence door, which gave off a very creepy feeling. 

“It’s not active.”

Fu Qing pinched a few grains of long glutinous rice and stuck them on the gap where the blood mud was exposed.

“It blocked the Yin Qi from sinking.”

The Yin Qi in the girls’ dormitory building kept accumulating downwards, but was blocked by the iron gate. The upwelling yang qi stirred up the yin qi causing it to swirl, forming a vortex of yin qi over time, and the center point was exactly where the amethyst bracelet used to be, it was yin within yin. This vortex was cleverly aligned with the sewer lines where Su Jingjing’s body was hidden. 

Looking out from the corridor window, you can clearly see the manhole cover under the shade of the trees, on the walkway downstairs.

“What is Liu Hu going to do?”

Wu Rong frowned, but his mind was far away. This is not the first time he had seen dead people after his rebirth. In Miaojiang, the death conditions of people killed by Gu are much more miserable. Even Xu Tao’s cause of death was crueler than Su Jingjing’s. But when he looked at him, Wu Rong felt very light in his heart. He just saw it as it was, and neither the corpse nor the blood could move him a bit.

Only with Su Jingjing’s death, did Wu Rong feel extremely resistant and even nauseated the first time he saw her dead body. Just like when encountering a ghost, the hunger felt from the depths of his soul was similar, it was his instinct to reject something. He calmed down a lot when he first went upstairs, but here, when he stood in front of the iron gate, the unbearable nausea came back again. 

It wasn’t until he left the dormitory that this feeling gradually disappeared.

Wu Rong closed his eyes, took a deep breath and let it out slowly, returning to normal. Looking up, he saw that Fu Qing had taken out his mobile phone and was talking to someone on the phone.

Even though he looks like Teacher Ye now, when he thinks of the Taoist priest making a phone call, Wu Rong felt it was particularly out of character, as if a person like him should use a pigeon or a paper crane to pass a letter through instead. It wasn’t intentional, but Wu Rong heard a loud voice on the other side of the phone, it should be Little Master Hui Xin.

“Besides Xu Tao and Su Jingjing, there are others dead.” 

After hanging up the phone, Fu Qing nodded to Wu Rong, “I’ll go and have a look.”

“Be careful.”

Wu Rong responded. Liu Hu killed two people in just two days after he came in. His purpose must not be as simple as feeding the vicious dog soul. What is he planning?

Hui Xin hung up the phone, he was in the back kitchen of the canteen, and there were neatly cut vegetables on the chopping board. Hui Xin only prepares the vegetables, and he does so meticulously. The vegetables are cut quickly and neatly. Then the chopped vegetables are washed and put into baskets, before other chefs take them to stir-fry. After preparing the vegetables, Hui Xin washed his hands. The status he had acquired was not low, and he didn’t need to cook during rush hours. Hui Xin patrolled the back kitchen in a leisurely manner. 

Suddenly, he picked up a pot of meat.

“Today’s meat isn’t fresh.”

Hui Xin said softly, “They’re all fried vegetarian food, right?”

“Where is it bad? It’s all good meat” 

The meat cutter muttered and looked into the pot incredulously, “Isn’t it all good?”

“Take a closer look.”

His eyelids looked heavy, as if they had been pressed by something. The man looked left and right, and mumbled, rubbing his eyes and looking back at the pot: “It’s all good meat… Damn it! What is this?”

He saw that the meat slices were covered with tiny, densely packed white spots. They were like pustules growing on skin, with yellowish white pus in the needle-sized white spots, similar to parasite eggs. From a distance, they looked like a layer of sesame seeds that had been sprinkled on the meat, but they were extremely terrifying and nauseating when viewed up close. 

It was almost dinner time, but this happened, and the whole back kitchen panicked. They checked all the meats, and found that whether it was pork, chicken or fish, they more or less had this white color on them. Why didn’t they realise before? Where did the responsibility lie? There was no time to investigate, all the meat was removed, and the stir-fried vegetable dishes were all completely vegetarian.

It was noon, and not long after the end of class bell rang, the students rushed into the cafeteria, and a long queue quickly formed at every window. But soon, the students were dumbfounded when they saw all the healthy greens without any meat.

There is only one canteen in Liuyang Vocational High School, which was divided into three floors. The first and second floors were for students to eat at, and on the third floor, teachers could go and order small stir-fry dishes. When lunch time was about to end, Kang Jianbai came in. He frowned in thought, with a small pimple found between his brows, his clothes hadn’t been changed since he first entered the Tiankeng, his face was sweaty, with his thinning hair stuck to his forehead in pieces, making him look a bit sloppy and embarrassing.

He was preoccupied and went up to the third floor, sitting down by the window as he continued to think about things. After a while, the big-bodied chef came over with his dishes and rice and sat down opposite him. When he sat down, it seemed like a mountain was pressing down on the space, and the originally spacious seating area seemed narrow in an instant. Kang Jianbai was still thinking about something, he was absent-minded and added two chopsticks to each dish, smacking his mouth. 

“It’s all vegetarian food?”

He finally came back to his senses, his face turned green as he looked at the plate full of spinach vermicelli, cabbage vermicelli, and vegetarian fried cauliflower, and wondered, “Doesn’t the cafeteria serve meat today?”

“The meat is all spoiled.”

Hui Xin kindly reminded: “I’ll show you after you finish your meal.” 

“No appetite.”

Kang Jianbai said anxiously, with thin red veins all over the whites of his eyes: “Liu Hu will definitely kill someone again, and he must be brought to justice as soon as possible.”

The testers came to Tiankeng No. 444 to strengthen their abilities to cope with the next disaster, not to be killed by Liu Hu like pigs!

“Don’t worry, Fu-daozhang has some news.” 

Hui Xin said in relief, “Su Jingjing’s body is hidden in the sewer pipe, and there’s a vortex of Yin Qi in the girls dormitory building.”

“Sewers and whirlpools of Yin Qi? These are the most yin concentrated places.”

Kang Jianbai fell into deep thought, hammered his head, and said to himself: “Liu Hu killed Su Jingjing, and Xu Tao… No, he didn’t kill him, Su Jingjing killed Xu Tao.”

Even though Su Jingjing was controlled by Liu Hu at that time, she was the one who hanged Xu Tao. 

“What else…”

Before entering the Tiankeng, Kang Jianbai devoted himself to studying the two brothers, Liu Hu and Liu Bao thoroughly, and vaguely sensed that something was wrong, but there was still something missing, and he couldn’t poke through the window paper.

“Little Master Hui Xin, have you discovered anything?” 

“Amitabha, this little monk wants to say something.”

Hui Xin’s voice was loud, and he persuaded again: “Benefactor Kang, please have some more food. I’m afraid you won’t have an appetite later.”

“I have an appetite as long as I have clues.”

Seeing Kang Jianbai’s insistence, Hui Xin nodded, got up and brought another tray. There were three bowls on the tray from the left to the right. 

As soon as the bowl was brought over, the stench hit his face, like the pungent smell of rotten fermented corpses and maggots, the meat turned into a puddle of thick pulp. Kang Jianbai’s face turned ugly when he smelled it, then he realized what it was.

“Resentful meat?”

“Yes, these three bowls contain chicken, pork and fish.”

Now that he lost his appetite, Hui Xin arranged the bowls on the table in order, from left to right. The chicken was still the same as when he checked it just now, with small white spots like eggs on it, but not many. The color of the pork in the middle had changed, and the oxidized reddish brown had faded away. There were corroded cavities on the surface of the meat, and white spots grew out of the cavities. It seemed to be a long and thin parasite, the tip was brown, so it couldn’t be seen clearly. 

The fish had rotted into a bowl of soup, the color was like rotten marinade mixed with leek flowers, reddish brown, grayish green, and a layer of fish egg-like foam had formed on the surface. If Hui Xin didn’t tell him, he wouldn’t be able to tell that it was fish meat. It was from this bowl that the stench came.

“When washing these meats, I used water from the water house.”

“Water house?!”

Kang Jian lost his voice. These so-called resentful meats were meats that were infected by strong resentment and Yin Qi, the resentment had condensed into spots resembling insect eggs. Compared to vegetables, fish and meats are more likely to become tainted. Poultry, such as chicken, have strong yang energies, therefore they are impacted the least. Whereas pork and fish have an average level of resistance, however as fish live in water, if resentment is found within their water source, they are more likely to be tainted, thus rotting quite quickly. 

“People who die with hatred in water will have resentment. But even though just being washed in such water forms resentment, the resentment in this water is too strong—”

Kang Jianbai took in a breath: “Could it be that Wang Lengliu is dead? !”

“Benefactor Wang has a special constitution, she’s a girl from Luohua Cave.”

Hui Xin showed a look of pity: “I don’t want to speak nonsense, but except for her, no one would have so much resentment after death.” 

The special constitution of Luohua Cave comes from the remote area of western Hunan, and only appears in a few women. It is said that these women were chosen by the gods and promised themselves to the gods. At the age of 14, they can ‘fall into the cave’, that is, communicate with the ‘gods’, and control spirits such as the willow boy, paper figures as well as other spiritual objects. The women from Luohua Cave are usually extremely beautiful. Their faces are as bright as peach blossoms, their temperament is youthful, gentle and virtuous, their eyes are as bright as morning stars, and they are graceful and charming. Their bodies naturally emit the fragrance of flowers.

Due to the rarity, beauty, purity and innocence of Luohua Cave girls, people will unconsciously be attracted by their temperament and chase after them. But Luohua Cave girls want to keep their bodies pure all their lives, so there have been endless vicious incidents surrounding them, stretching from the past to the present.

Once a Luohua Cave girl is maltreated and humiliated, she will die immediately, and all the pure fragrance on her body will be transformed into strong resentment, just like the wrath of the gods, as more and more time goes by. If she can’t be rescued in time, she will eventually even destroy nearby villages, towns and even the nation.

“It’s not too late, let’s go and have a look.” 

Kang Jian acted vigorously, thinking about something along the way, and finally clapped his hands when he was about to reach the water house: “Yes, this is it!”

“I remember now! Xu Tao and Wang Lengliu once had a boyfriend and girlfriend relationship for some time!”

When it comes to matters between men and women, Hui Xin doesn’t like to intervene, he just listened quietly.

Kang Jianbai spoke faster and faster: “The police station received a report before. It was Xu Tao who suspected that Wang Lengliu was seeing someone behind his back. While he was emotional, he wanted to force her. But Wang Lengliu refused to obey. The two then broke up… Xu Tao raised a double-faced ghost, which made him extremely unstable. He usually acts like a normal person, but he’s no different from a ghost when he’s angered. This time he and Wang Lengliu happened to meet in Tiankeng. Could it be that——” 

Kang Jianbai stopped, he and Hui Xin had already reached the back of the water house. In the cement brick room, there was a tall and wide water storage bucket. The bucket was very tall, two or three meters long, and it was covered with a cover to prevent things from falling into the water inside. Standing in front of this bucket, all the negative energy and resentment dissipated, clearing up without leaving a trace.

Hui Xin said Amitabha, climbed up from the iron frame beside him with Kang Jianbai, and pushed the lid open with the iron chisel hanging by the bucket.

With a bang, the lid fell to the ground, and a human head with its face skinned floated in the water storage bucket.

It was already afternoon when all of the corpse found in the water was fished up. Not only on the face, but also the rest of the corpse’s skin was peeled off. Only one corner of skin was loosely connected to the body. It all spread out on the ground, like a hide but instead made out of human skin. Without caring to rest, Kang Jianbai’s eyes turned empty, and his eyes were filled with blackness. The book shining with silver light appeared in his hand again out of thin air, without affecting its surroundings. 

“The deceased, Zhang Qianrong, female, was a student in Class 2-6 of high school. Her real identity was Wang Lengliu, a tester. She had an argument with Xu Tao in the corridor at 9:45 yesterday morning, and at 12:15 they went to the cafeteria for dinner together. There was another dispute. The time of death was yesterday at 6:30 p.m., the cause of death was torture.”

“The murderer is Xu Tao!”

Kang Jianbai opened his eyes, his face still solemn, and said after consideration: “Master Hui Xin, don’t you think there are too many people dying too fast in this Tiankeng Trial? ”

“Although the longer you stay in the Tiankeng, the more evil thoughts will rise from within your heart, it’s only the second day now.” 

Chi Fangfang is not dead yet, and No. 444 Tiankeng is still safe, yet half of the human testers have died by killing each other, and Liu Hu hadn’t been caught yet, these things made Kang Jianbai worried to the point of baldness.

“Benefactor Kang, maybe the little monk can explain something.”

“Look.”

Hui Xin squatted beside the corpse and picked up the large piece of human skin. Kang Jianbai leaned over and found something milky white on it. After scraping a little off, he pondered for a long time before hesitantly saying: “This is… gypsum?” 

“I don’t know if Master Kang has ever heard of the Raksha game?”

Kang Jianbai recalled it: “The Raksha game… didn’t it pop up a few years ago? Isn’t a killing game, I heard it was passed along from the Western Federation?”

“Prepare four game participants, three women and one man, respectively numbered 1,2,3 and 4, and a game host In no particular order. But No. 1 is required to kill No. 2, No. 2 must kill No. 3, No. 3 must kill No. 4. Finally, the host must kill No. 1 and takes her head to a place where Yin Qi gathers, so that the door to the world of the dead can be opened.”

“Isn’t this a terrible killing game?!” 

“No.”

Hui Xin shook her head: “It originated from the ancient Haitian sacrifice and had evolved into its present state. After offering sacrifices, the door to the Great Tiankeng can indeed be opened in some special areas.”

“For example, in the 444 Tiankeng, when Shifu asked me to come in for the test, I was aware of the changes in the Great Tiankeng and worried about the changes in the Small Tiankengs. Unexpectedly, it seems that Liu Hu will be the host this time.”

“If this is the case, there is still one person left.” 

Kang Jianbai stood up suddenly: “Su Jingjing, Xu Tao, Wang Leng Liu, two women and one man, there is still a woman missing, but there are only two women among the testers. I have read the list in advance, and my ghost eyes can also see the identities of the testers, the only women are the two of them—— hiss!”

Kang Jianbai suddenly grabbed the phone and hurriedly dialed: “Wú Róng is also a woman!”

“The cafeteria is full of vegetarian dishes today, it may not suit your taste.”

Wu Rong sat on the first floor of the cafeteria, opposite to him was Chi Fangfang. For the dinner appointment, one of the two was silent and the other was shy. They were stunned for a while at the fried spinach fans. Chi Fangfang tried to find a topic, and smiled shyly: “I remember you like braised pork ribs the most.” 

The author has something to say:

Dorm aunt [shocking]: He is just greedy for your body, he is lowly!

What kind of cliffhanger mastery does Author have?