The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 174 Victim Zero

"If I'm not mistaken, it's because of the construction of the Aquatic Products Building. This passage collapsed under the force of the new building. The murderer lost the altar in Dongji Town and had to look for the next suitable altar. During that period, he had an intersection with Baicong Mountain for some reason. Xu Chunxia died in the back mountain of Baijiazhai. Maybe it was because he hadn't found the second altar during that time." Qi Fei said, those clues like broken glass were slowly piecing together a complete mirror in his mind.

He turned to Song Tao and said, "Teacher Song, we need your help."
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A joint exploration team consisting of police and the Marine Research Institute arrived at the coast of Dongji Town with professional equipment.

On March 3th, the lowest point of the month, the sun rose above the horizon, the tide began to recede, and the wet rocks shimmered in the morning light.

When the tide receded to its lowest point, the team members, under the guidance of Song Tao, found the entrance to the passage that was covered by sea water erosion.

A crack suddenly appeared between the rugged rocks.

Covered by shells and barnacles over the years, it has become a gray-brown color that blends seamlessly with the surrounding rock walls. Only when the searchlight is shone at an angle can the jagged entrance be glimpsed - it is like the throat torn open by the sharp teeth of a giant beast, slanting deep into the ground.

The salty sea breeze, carrying a decaying smell, rushed out of the cave, echoing on the rock walls like a sob, like the gasp of some ancient creature.

The flashlight beam pierced the darkness, revealing a few clumps of seaweed winding down the slippery cave wall. Decades of neglect left the passage, leaving only the sound of the wind whistling through the winding crevices, like the wailing of countless souls within a maze of concrete and basalt.

This passage can no longer reach the theoretically existing underground altar.

In 1983, geological changes caused by the construction of the Fisheries Building caused a tunnel deep beneath the building to collapse. On-site exploration and scanning confirmed the model's predictions: the blockage was located directly beneath the Fisheries Building. Rash excavation would have had an immeasurable impact on the building's safety.

Fortunately, this passage is U-shaped. After bypassing the location near the town center, the underground cavity is located in the suburbs not far from the coast.

Song Tao and his team worked out a plan to drill from directly above the cavity so that they wouldn't have to enter through the passage.

As the sun rose from high in the sky to setting in the west, the drill made a continuous whistling sound on the concrete slab poured during land reclamation. With a strange sound of the drill idling, the concrete slab was finally worn through, revealing a vertical tunnel that was wide enough for one person to pass through.

Qi Fei put on a searchlight, followed the explorers from the institute, tied a safety rope, and entered the underground gap along the narrow passage.

The air was filled with a mixture of salty and rotten wood smells that penetrated the mask and hit his nostrils.

In the pale glow of the searchlight, the gray-green traces of dead barnacles and algae on the rock wall looked like tear marks, as if they were the source of the wailing from the cave entrance by the sea.

However, when Qi Fei stood on the muddy ground and saw the entire environment of this underground cave, he was truly shocked.

The light source provided by the channel drilled through the top allows the sunset light to fall into this underground cave that has been sealed for forty-two years.

A simple stone platform was placed in the center of the cave, with mottled salt frost forming on the black blood scabs on it.

The thick pine stakes were supported by the ribs of a giant beast. If you looked closely, you could vaguely see bloody scratches on them.

Qi Fei was silent. He roughly guessed who the scratches belonged to.

Of all the victims, Lin Suzhen was the only one who was killed a month after her disappearance. He couldn't imagine the desperate torture she had endured in this dark hell for that month.

The rest of the police officers arrived along the passage one after another.

Fortunately, due to the temporary collapse of the passage, the nylon ropes, crowbars, nails... these tools used in the crime remained scattered everywhere as they were.

In the corner, there are five mirrors stacked there.

They knew that if the aquatic products building had not been built, these five mirrors would have been hung on more women in Dongji Town, and these women, like the previous dead, would have become pitiful sacrifices.

And in the mud, Qi Fei discovered something unusual. He bent down to push aside the sticky mud, and his fingertips touched the cold metal. The crackled texture on it struck his heart, like ice chips hitting his heart, and his head went numb.

He lightly wiped off the mud stuck on it, and a wind chime shape appeared in his sight. The object in his palm emitted a dark blue light under the white light of the searchlight. In the gaps between the rust and the mud, he could vaguely see the Sanskrit that was very familiar to him - the Sanskrit that appeared on the palms of every victim in Dongji Town, like a death spell: "All dharmas are false perceptions, like dreams, like flames, like the moon in the water, like the image in the mirror, born of delusion." He couldn't help but recite its Chinese meaning, as if it overlapped with the desperate cries here that year, echoing in the cave.

The echo caught Song Tao's attention. He signaled everyone to be silent and listened carefully to the tail end of the echo. Finally, he stopped in front of an inconspicuous crack and touched it lightly with his finger. The rock-like surface suddenly turned into smoke and dust.

It turned out to be a piece of covering cloth, which had become moldy and black over the years and blended in with the surrounding cement and rocks.

The echo produced by Qi Fei's voice just now allowed Song Tao to hear that there was an extra gap here.

Inside the man-made doorway in front of me, there was a skeletonized body sitting in the middle.

There are two candlesticks and several porcelain plates in front of the bones, on which you can vaguely see the offerings placed there at that time.

However, this offering was very special, and Qi Fei recognized it at once - he had seen the dark brown hard shell and cracked texture not long ago - it was the walnut, a specialty of Wuyin Baijiazhai. The scene of Zhong Kui and Bai Sanshui quarreling over this walnut was still vivid in his mind.

Only the hickory nuts from Kirigakure are this size.

The style and craftsmanship of the candlestick are exactly the same as the old items left in the Bai family's ancestral home.

"What is this?" Qi Fei lowered his head and saw a small pendant hanging on Bai Gu's neck, which seemed to be a pocket watch.

This Western style reminded him of the legend of the Bai family's rise to fame as pirates, as if the antiques were obtained by robbing foreign merchant ships at sea.

He took it off carefully and opened the watch cover. The watch inside had stopped long ago.

However, on the inside of the lid, there is a black and white photo embedded, in which you can vaguely see a photo of a mother and son, a loving mother and a boy about ten years old.

When he saw the faces of the mother and son, he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

(End of this chapter)