Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 388 The Origin of Plum Blossom Taoist

"From Plum Blossom Manor?"

Xiao Ran didn't have time to ask any more questions as he watched the black shadow leave some words and then disappear.

"Plum Blossom... Plum Blossom Taoist?"

Seeing these four words, Xiao Ran frowned and thought to himself, "Oh no, it seems that what the bald old man said is right. I am now in charge of four sects. Although I haven't officially become the new Plum Blossom Taoist, the cause and effect have already fallen on me. I just don't know what debt this Plum Blossom Taoist owes, and why does he want me to pay it back?"

"Eh, he's gone already?"

At this time, Sister Liu and Qiu Kui poked their heads out from upstairs, and seeing that there was no movement downstairs, they walked downstairs and asked.

"I think he's gone, but just in case, let's soak this mirror in water."

"The one from Plum Blossom Manor..."

Sister Liu turned around and saw a line of words on the wall. She couldn't help but look at Xiao Ran with some surprise. "Aren't you a corpse stitcher? How come you are related to Plum Blossom Manor?"

"Sister Liu, do you also know about Plum Blossom Manor?"

Xiao Ran looked up at Sister Liu.

"I read a story in a book whose name I can't remember. It seems to be the origin of Plum Blossom Manor."

Sister Liu thought for a moment and said to Xiao Ran, "Would you like to listen to it? This story has something to do with you, the corpse stitcher."

Hearing Sister Liu's words, Xiao Ran immediately became interested: "What story?"

"Qingping Shengxian Case."

Hearing these five words, Xiao Ran immediately became interested.

There is still some time before the fifth watch, so I just sit in the living room, light a peace candle, and listen to Sister Liu tell the story of Plum Blossom Manor.

In fact, Sister Liu didn’t know much. Only this story was left in the book back then. It had no beginning or end, and many things in the middle were not explained clearly. It was just written down as miscellaneous notes.

The name of this piece is Qingping Shengxian Case.
The content of the book says that it is set in Qingping County, Sichuan during the late Ming Dynasty.

There was a woman named Li Gu who killed all ten members of her family overnight.

The case was clear and the criminal was caught red-handed after committing the crime.

All the evidence was there. When the case was tried in court, although Aunt Li refused to explain the reason, she admitted that she did it.

So he was taken into custody that day and sent to Caishikou to be beheaded in public the next day.

Everyone just thought that this woman was crazy and insane, but the murder of a family of ten still caused quite a stir in the local area.

Until the next day when the beheading took place at Caishikou, when Li Gu was being escorted to the execution ground, she suddenly seemed to go crazy and shouted to everyone that she wanted to become a god.

The executioner who was in charge of the beheading was called Zhao Chunfang. At that time, the executioner was paid by the government and it was not yet called a secret operation.

Zhao Chunfang is a well-known elder brother in the industry.

Although the executioner's profession was not a shady business at the time, it did have its own rules passed down from ancient times.

The number of beheadings could not reach a hundred.

Otherwise, you are doomed to have no descendants.

Zhao Chunfang took over his father's knife at the age of thirty. Now, eighteen years have passed, and he has beheaded exactly ninety-eight people.

Normally, at this point, you should retire.

Unfortunately, Zhao Chunfang only had four daughters and no sons, and his only eldest disciple happened to be home visiting relatives.

The case has already been judged, and it is not his turn as an executioner to make excuses.

Zhao Chunfang had no choice but to go to the execution ground himself with a knife.

When they arrived at the execution ground and were about to be executed, Aunt Li suddenly turned around and said to Zhao Chunfang, "If you kill me, you will end your family lineage. If you don't want your entire family to be wiped out, find someone to sew up my body. I will ensure that your family can survive with only one child."

Zhao Chunfang's heart skipped a beat at that moment. Why?

Others don't know that although Zhao Chunfang is almost fifty years old, he has no son, so he married a concubine and kept her outside. Now the concubine is eight months pregnant.

Zhao Chunfang decided to find someone because that person was the only child in the Zhao family. If he died, their family would be extinct.

This matter was a very secret one, and outsiders would never know about it. Now that Aunt Li said this, Zhao Chunfang couldn't help but feel suspicious.

Before Zhao Chunfang could think more, it was time to behead him.

He couldn't ask too many questions at the execution ground, so he could only kill Li Gu with a single blow of his sword, full of doubt.

When the knife was cut, Zhao Chunfang's face changed instantly.

Why? Because after the knife was cut, Zhao Chunfang immediately felt something was wrong, as if all the strength in his body was drained away. His body swayed, and soon he fell backwards, fainted, and passed out.

After Zhao Chunfang recovered his breath and remembered what Li Gu had told him, he asked someone to send Li Gu's body to the corpse sewing shop at the city gate.

Unexpectedly, that very night, Wang San from the corpse sewing shop went crazy, running barefoot on the ground and shouting.

It is said that Li Gu's body came back to life and died on its own last night.

Upon hearing this, everyone plucked up the courage to take a look, and sure enough, Li Gu's body was gone.

Where did Li Gu go?
The crowd searched the entire county but could not find any trace of Aunt Li.

The incident caused a sensation in the entire county town, and everyone said that it was Aunt Li who had pretended to be dead.

On the other hand, Zhao Chunfang was bedridden and had difficulty even getting up. He felt that his time was up and he was afraid that he would not live long. What made him even more shocked was that Zhao Chunfang's concubine also had a strange disease. She was clearly alive, but she would not wake up no matter how much she was called. Soon after, Zhao Chunfang's four girls began to develop dense pustules like grapes on their bodies, and no doctor could cure them.

Zhao Chunfang also realized that something was wrong. After much thought, he decided to ask himself and Zhang, the coroner from the yamen, to help him find out what was going on.

Normally, it was not Zhang's turn to intervene in this matter, after all, he was not responsible for investigating the case. However, due to the entrustment of his friend Zhao Chunfang, he followed the officials to investigate.

It is said that this coroner was born with the ability to see ghosts and spirits, but he is a low-key person and few people know about it.

You wouldn't know the result until you check. It turned out that Aunt Li was pregnant with a child.

So Zhao Chunfang killed two people with one sword and broke the taboo.

Not only that, this Aunt Li is not called Aunt Li, but Aunt Mei. She came here three years ago and used the alias Aunt Li.

Coroner Zhang followed this line of inquiry and found that the matter was related to the Meizhuang bloody case thirteen years ago.
Rumor has it that the Mei Manor was wiped out by a group of bandits thirteen years ago, and the murderer is still unknown.

This Mei Gu is the girl who escaped from Meihuazhuang.

But why did she do this? What did she want?

Following the clues, they found out that the group of robbers who destroyed Meizhuang were the family that Li Gu married into.

They robbed money and settled down in Qingping County.

Thirteen years passed in a flash, and he became a wealthy local.

Mei Gu didn't know how she found out about them, so she married into this family to look for opportunities.

Finally, he took advantage of a banquet at home to put a knockout drug in the wine and killed the entire family.

The case was already clear at this point, but the strange things just started at this time.

Coroner Zhang and his men found Mei Gu's body in the charity cemetery.

As a result... the baby in Mei Gu's belly is gone.

"The child is gone?"

Xiao Ran was listening intently. Seeing that Sister Liu stopped talking here, he quickly asked, "Then what?"

Sister Liu took a sip of water and continued, "That night, the people in Qingping County all had the same dream."

In the dream, Mei Gu became a fairy and she left behind a son.

It was said that his son was born a half-immortal, and in order to repay Li Chunfang, he left him to the Li family.

It was after this dream that Li Chunfang's concubine woke up, and soon gave birth to a big fat boy for the Li family.

This child was born with the ability to see ghosts and ghosts. He is smart and eager to learn. He can learn anything after just one look.

When Zhang the coroner saw that the child was born with the ability to see ghosts and spirits just like himself, he taught the child all his skills.

Later, when the child grew up, he suddenly ran away from home, saying that he wanted to go out and explore the world.

Until the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, this child came back from outside, dressed as a Taoist priest, and rebuilt a Plum Blossom Manor on the site of the old Plum Manor, calling himself...

Plum Blossom Taoist.

"I don't know whether the story is true or not, but I heard that this Plum Blossom Taoist is the ancestor of your four Yinxing sects. I don't know whether this story is true or not."

After Sister Liu finished telling the story she knew, Xiao Ran's mind had already connected it with the story he heard from the bald old man.

"I didn't expect that this Plum Blossom Taoist's life story would be so complicated."

Xiao Ran frowned. What debt did this Plum Blossom Taoist owe? Why did he have to pay it back himself in the end?
Sister Liu had no idea about Xiao Ran's doubts, so he had to find the answer himself.

"If conditions permit, you'd better go to Qingping County in person. Maybe I can give you an explanation on this matter."

Faced with Sister Liu's suggestion, Xiao Ran felt it made sense. He had never been out of the province before, so he might as well take this opportunity to go out for a walk. At least it would be good to go out and have some fun before the maze city completely collapsed.

Of course, the prerequisite for this is that Lu Cheng’s work needs to be completed first.

Xiao Ran picked up the small notebook and wrote this down.

"Is it almost five o'clock in the morning?"

Xiao Ran looked at the time. It was almost three in the morning. He walked to the window and glanced at the street.

I saw that the streets outside were still in chaos. Many bodies whose souls were taken away on the first watch were now wandering aimlessly on the streets like zombies.

Seeing this, Xiao Ran couldn't help but think to himself: "This is a good opportunity. If I take advantage of it..."

Of course, Xiao Ran was just thinking about it. After all, he was not a murderer. He could not hunt other beginners for no reason.

"It's a pity that this place is a bit far from Changchun Guild Hall, otherwise it would be nice to hunt down a few people from Changchun Guild Hall."

Thinking of this, Xiao Ran looked towards the direction of Changchun Guild Hall. It was still terrifyingly dead silent over there. Although he didn't know what was going on over there, Xiao Ran already had a bad feeling in his heart.

"Dong dong dong..."

At this time, the sound of gongs and drums came from afar.

Xiao Ran saw a figure through the window. He was holding a gong in one hand and an oil lamp in the other. When he walked out of the alley, there were dense swarms of ghosts following him.

These ghosts were in a daze, lined up in a long line, and walked forward with their heads shaking.

As the other party got closer, Xiao Ran suddenly widened his eyes and stared at the other party's figure: "Hey, why is it him..."

(End of this chapter)