Weird Cultivation, I have a five-organ temple

Chapter 413 Weird way of death
"Yue Ming."

After leaving Chengfeng County, Shang Lu galloped on his horse while calling out to Qiu Dao who had come back to report the news.

When Yue Ming rode his horse to catch up, Shang Lu asked, "How did you find the bodies of Chen Zecao and others? Please tell me in detail."

"Reply to your Excellency's words."

Yue Ming pulled the reins and saluted with his hands crossed on horseback.

Then, according to Shang Lu's instructions, he described the incident in detail:
“A few days ago, our team followed Lord Du’s orders and left the city to look for the thief Chen Cao.

We have been to many places in the past few days, but have not found Chen Zecao.

It was not until yesterday in Longyou County that we heard a piece of news that a team of officials had appeared in Xiahuai Village and other places.

We suspected that it was Chen Zeicao and others, so we immediately rushed to Xiahuai Village to see if we could get some clues about their whereabouts.

However, when we arrived at Xiahuai Village, we found that the people there denied that any officials had ever been there.

Although they insisted that no officials had ever been to Xiahuai Village, their evasive eyes showed that they were obviously lying.

So we directly captured a few villagers and interrogated them, and learned that a team of officials had indeed arrived in Xiahuai Village the day before yesterday afternoon, but they did not stay long and left before dark.

It was not until the next morning when some villagers went out of the village to collect manure that they found the bodies of the officials outside the village.

The people of Xiahuai Village were terrified and hastily buried the official's body in a nearby mass grave.

After we got the news, we immediately took those people to the mass grave.

After arriving at the place, they found that the bodies of Chen Zeicao and others had been dug out and eaten by wild dogs.

Fortunately, the faces were still recognizable, and we were able to confirm that the dead were Chen Zecao and the others..."

After listening to this, Shang Lu paused for a moment and asked, "Do the people in Xiahuai Village know who killed Chen Zecao and the others?"

"We asked them, and they all said they didn't know. They didn't look like they were lying."

Yue Ming told Shang Lu: "The people of Xiahuai Village said that when Chen Zecao and his men left, it was already dark. They did not dare to leave the village at night, so they did not know what happened outside. When they left the village at dawn the next day, the bodies of Chen Zecao and his men were already scattered all over the ground."

"Did you hear any noise of fighting?"

"No."

Yue Ming said this with certainty, because they had also asked the people in Xiahuai Village about this situation.

"People in Xiahuai Village said that night was exceptionally quiet. Not only was there no sound of fighting, but there were no sounds of dogs in the village, or even the chirping of insects and birds."

Shang Lu raised his eyebrows slightly.

Even the dogs and birds were silent? Was this a spell that blocked the transmission of sound?
It seems that the murderer who attacked and killed Chen Zeicao and others is very wrong and unusual!
Tu Pi followed on horseback and listened to the conversation between Shang Lu and Yue Ming. He couldn't help but ask:
"Since the people of Xiahuai Village found the bodies of Chen Zecao and the others, why didn't they report it to the authorities, but buried the bodies instead? Could they have received instructions from the murderer?"

"This is not."

Yue Ming shook his head and said, "The people of Xiahuai Village buried the body because they saw that Chen Zecao and others were officials and were afraid of getting into trouble."

"What kind of logic is this?" Tu Bin was stunned.

But he reacted.

In today's world, people fear officials more than they fear demons and bandits. There is even a saying among the people that "officials are tigers and clerks are wolves."

These people in Xiahuai Village were obviously afraid that they would be blackmailed by the officials after reporting the matter to the authorities.

After all, Chen Li and others died outside their village and had been to their village. If they were really threatened by officials, they would not be able to explain themselves even if they had a mouth.

If one fails to produce enough wealth to satisfy the officials, he will be charged as an "accomplice of thieves" and "murdering officials and treason", and his property will be confiscated.

So it would be much safer to just bury the body and pretend nothing happened.

"This is bullshit..."

Tu Pi wanted to curse the world for what it is, but after saying half of his words, he held the rest back, fearing that someone in this group of thieves would use his words to cause trouble for Shang Lu.

Shang Lu was thinking about one thing: "Why did Chen Zecao and his gang go to Xiahuai Village? Did they patrol there, or did they discover something?"

Du Feng guessed: "He must have discovered the crime. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been killed outside Xiahuai Village."

Shang Lu nodded, he thought so too, and asked Yue Ming: "Have you investigated why Chen Zecao and others went to Xiahuai Village?"

Yue Ming was a little embarrassed: "I didn't do these investigations before I rushed back."

Then he explained: "We were busy investigating the whereabouts of Chen Zecao and others. When we found out they were dead, I immediately rushed back to report the news. I didn't have time to do other investigations."

Shang Lu did not blame him, and asked about the condition of the bodies of Chen Li and others.

Yue Ming recalled, "Chen Zecao's face was purple, which was very strange. The rest of them had a big hole in their backs, and their hearts were taken away."

"Pierce through the back and take the heart?"

Tu Pi was a little surprised: "Were they attacked from behind?"

"It should be." Yue Ming said.

Shang Lu thought of the mass graves Yue Ming had just mentioned, and asked, "What is the scale of that mass grave?"

Yue Ming was puzzled as to why Shang Lu asked this, but he still answered seriously:
"It's a big business. Poor people in several nearby villages who can't afford to buy graves will bury their bodies there. It's said that every year during the Qingming Festival, the Zhongyuan Festival, and the Cold Clothes Festival, the temple priests in the town will bring the talismans given by the county witch priests and burn them there to dispel evil spirits and prevent the birth of evil spirits."

This answer made Shang Lu more suspicious. Could it be that the death of Chen Li and others was really related to the group of people who refined the rampant ghosts, soul flags and five evil stones?

Unfortunately, Yue Ming was busy coming back to report the situation, so he didn't know much.

Shang Lu asked a few more questions, but seeing that Yue Ming really didn't know, he had to give up.

I plan to conduct a detailed investigation after arriving at Xiahuai Village.

In order to save time, Shang Lu and his men not only whipped their horses faster, but also attached witchcraft talismans to their horses to increase their running speed. So at dawn, they arrived at Xiahuai Village in Longyou County.

Under Yue Ming's leadership, they found a mass grave about ten miles outside the village.

In the mass grave, there were two thieves guarding, both of them were extremely nervous.

Seeing Shang Lu and his companions arriving, they both breathed a sigh of relief and hurried forward to greet them, bowing and saluting.

"No need to be polite."

Shang Lu jumped off his horse, waved his hand, and asked the coroner who came with him to check the bodies of the thieves. He put on a pair of deerskin gloves and came to Chen Li's body.

Chen Li’s face was purple and swollen, like a purple potato spirit.

All his clothes were stripped off, even his shoes and socks.

"Where are their clothes?" Shang Lu asked, turning around.

"The villagers took it out when they buried it."

A thief who was guarding here answered.

Shang Lu had a gloomy face and ordered: "Go and get some people to take back the clothes of Chen Zecao and the others, and bring me someone in the village who has the latest news."

"Yes!" Yue Ming bowed and accepted the order, then took his men to Xiahuai Village.

Shang Lu asked Qiu Dao who was guarding here, "Are there people guarding Xia Huai Village?"

"Have."

Qiu Dao, who was guarding here, quickly replied: "After we found the bodies of Chen Zecao and others, we immediately sent two brothers to Xiahuai Village to keep an eye on them."

"well done."

Shang Lu praised him, then bent down and checked Chen Li's body.

There were many scars on Chen Li's body, but these scars were obviously caused by bites from animals such as wild dogs and had nothing to do with the cause of death.

Instead, there was a dead wild dog lying on the ground next to him. Like Chen Li, its body was purple. It was most likely poisoned after eating Chen Li's flesh and blood.

It was the death of this wild dog that scared the other wild dogs and prevented the bodies of Chen Li and others from being eaten too much.

In addition to the purple swelling on his face, Shang Lu also found a wound on Chen Li's back.

The wound pierced directly through his back and dug out his heart - it looked like a sharp martial art like Iron Claw.

As for where Chen Li's heart was taken, no one knew it had been found nearby.

After looking at Chen Li's body, Shang Lu judged that Chen Li should have died of poisoning.

As for having his heart dug out from his back, that must have happened after he died.

At least it happened after Chen Li was poisoned.

Because there was no sign of struggle or resistance on Chen Li's part.

This is obviously wrong!
While Shang Lu was examining Chen Li's body, the coroner also examined several other bodies.

He reported to Shang Lu: "Sir, these brothers all died because their hearts were dug out from behind. There were no other injuries on their bodies except for the wounds on their backs. This is the strangest thing..."

"What's so strange?" Du Feng asked puzzledly.

“The strange thing is that they only had one wound, and it was in the same part, which means they were most likely attacked at the same time.

But Chen Zeicao's situation was different. Although he was also injured, he died of poisoning!
So the situation at that time should be that Chen and Cao were poisoned first, and the other brothers were attacked while they were surprised and stunned, and their hearts were grabbed out from the back at the same time... This is not something that ordinary people can do."

"Someone used evil methods to kill Chen, Cao and others!" Shang Lu judged.

Such a death is obviously not something that an ordinary thief could do. He must have used either evil methods or evil weapons.

Shang Lu called the coroner again and asked him to examine Chen Li's body to see if he could find out what kind of poison Chen Li had been poisoned with. At the same time, he turned his head and asked, "Have you managed to summon the souls of Chen and Cao?"

Among the thieves who followed Shang Lu this time, there was a ghost who was holding a soul-calling banner, wanting to summon the souls of Chen Li and others to inquire about the cause of death.

Hearing Shang Lu's question, he hurriedly replied: "There has been no response."

However, he didn't know that Shang Lu was not asking about him at all.

Sanniang had already appeared in the mass grave, but the thieves around her could not see her.

At this moment, Sanniang made witch seals with her hands, chanted spells, and emanated black light from her body, like a ghost or god descending to the earth.

Even so, Sanniang did not gain anything. She told Shang Lu: "There is not a single wandering soul in this mass grave."

There are no wandering souls in the mass graves, either they have been sent to the underworld by shamans or temple priests using rituals and witchcraft.

Or it was taken away by someone.

Shang Lu felt that the latter was more likely.

Especially not long ago, he was reminded by Lu Dao to pay close attention to cemeteries in various places.

So the death of Chen Li and the others is really related to the group of people who refine the devil and sell the soul flag?

Shang Lu was thinking when he suddenly heard a noise coming from a distance.

He suddenly stood up and turned his head, looking in the direction where the sound came from.

(There will be another chapter updated in the evening~)

(End of this chapter)