Ghost Immortal

The deceased was Wu Youde, the owner of Renhetang.

This person happened to be the one who left the clues left by Yan Songde.

Early in the morning, Xiao Qiulan suddenly pushed open Li Feng's door and said urgently, "Junior brother, Master wants you to go to Renhe Hall immediately. Someone has died there again. This time it's a rich man, and I heard he died a particularly gruesome death!"

Li Feng's heart skipped a beat.

Wu Youde is dead?

He hadn't even gone to find Wu Youde when Wu Youde died first. What a coincidence.

Renhetang is located on the most bustling pawnshop street in the west of the city.

The storefront is large, with three bays, a gilded signboard hanging above the door, and two stone lions about half a person's height squatting at the entrance.

At this moment, the entrance to Renhetang was completely surrounded by constables.

Zhao Tiezhu and Constable Sun were both present, their faces showing deep worry.

Li Feng walked into the backyard of Renhetang and immediately saw Wu Youde's body.

Wu Youde was a fat man in his forties, wearing a silk robe and three gold rings on his fingers. He looked like a wealthy man who lived a life of luxury.

He lay on his back on the bluestone ground of the backyard courtyard, arms outstretched and legs straight, in a posture like someone sunbathing.

If it weren't for the gruesome bloody hole in his chest, he would have looked like he was taking a nap.

A large hole was ripped into his chest.

A fist-sized hole pierced through the center of the sternum and down the back, the entire heart was ripped out.

The edges of the wound were extremely clean, as if it had been gouged out with an extremely sharp blade, but upon closer inspection, it could be seen that the muscle tissue of the wound was not cut open, but rather bitten off by something.

The edges of the wound were covered with fine, shallow teeth marks, as if they were formed by many teeth gnawing at the same time.

Li Feng squatted down to examine it carefully.

There were no signs of blood clotting inside the wound, and the cross-section of the blood vessel was grayish-white, exactly the same as the wound on Yan Songde's tongue.

These are likely characteristics left behind after being eaten by Gu worms.

Wu Youde was not bitten to death by a Gu worm.

His eyes were wide open, his pupils dilated, and a look of fear crossed his face.

His fingers were bent into claw shapes, his nails deeply embedded in the cracks of the bluestone floor tiles, and the cracks between his fingers were full of stone powder and bloodstains.

This indicates that he struggled desperately before he died, but ultimately failed.

His heart was actually ripped out while he was still alive.

Li Feng asked curiously, "Did anyone see what he looked like before he died?"

Zhao Tiezhu pointed to a fellow worker huddled in the corner.

The young man, only sixteen or seventeen, was wearing a short jacket from Renhetang and was trembling with fear.

"He was an apprentice at Renhetang named Afu. He was the first to discover the body and saw the murderer."

Li Feng knelt down in front of Afu and asked, "Afu, don't be afraid, tell us what you saw?"

Ah Fu raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, and stammered, "I saw the master rip out his own heart!"

Upon hearing this, everyone present exchanged bewildered glances.

Afu recounted the scene in fits and starts.

Last night, around midnight, he got up to use the outhouse and, as he passed the courtyard, saw Wu Youde standing alone in the middle of it.

The moonlight was bright, illuminating Wu Youde's face clearly.

His face was expressionless, his eyes staring straight ahead, as if he were sleepwalking.

Ah Fu called out "Master", but Wu Youde ignored him.

Afu sensed something was wrong and was about to go over to take a look when he saw Wu Youde slowly raise his right hand.

His right hand was spread open, and his fingernails looked as if they were coated with blood.

Then he put his hands into his chest.

Afu said he could see it clearly: Wu Youde's five fingers were like five knives, piercing directly through his sternum.

After the finger was inserted, Wu Youde's expression was extremely painful, and he was breathing heavily.

His body was convulsing, and he was desperately grabbing his right wrist with his left hand, trying to pull his right hand out of his chest.

But his right hand wouldn't obey him and continued digging deeper into his chest.

Finally, Wu Youde used his right hand to rip out his entire heart.

Afu saw that Wu Youde was holding his heart in his hand, and it was still beating.

Wu Youde looked down at his heart, and a sense of satisfaction appeared on his face.

Then Wu Youde fell backward, his heart rolling out of his hand and rolling all the way to Afu's feet.

Ah Fu couldn't continue speaking at this point, and started gagging while hugging his knees.

He had already vomited everything in his stomach, except for his bile.

Li Feng stood up and looked around the courtyard.

There was indeed a heart next to Wu Youde's body, but it had stopped beating.

Its surface was covered in dust, and like Wu Youde's chest, it was covered with fine teeth marks.

But what caught Li Feng's attention was not the heart itself, but the residual aura on the heart, which emitted a special spiritual energy fluctuation.

He had just discovered that Wu Youde was an accomplice of Gu Zhenren when Wu Youde died.

This doesn't seem like silencing someone; it's more like a warning.

Li Feng asked Zhao Tiezhu, "Officer Zhao, has Wu Youde been in contact with any unusual people recently?"

Zhao Tiezhu answered directly: "I asked the shop assistants, and they said that Wu Youde has been receiving people in black cloaks in the backyard for the past few months. They always come at night, stay for half an hour, and never stay overnight in the shop. The shop assistants don't know the man's identity; they only hear Wu Youde call him 'sir.'"

Li Feng's heart skipped a beat: "When was the last time the person in the black cloak came?"

In the southern border regions, those who practice Gu cultivation are called Gu Masters, but in the Central Plains, to avoid being recognized, they often refer to themselves as "Master" or "Doctor".

"The night before last, according to the clerk, Wu Youde and that gentleman had a fight in the study that night, and a lot of things were broken."

"After the master left, Wu Youde looked very unwell and seemed absent-minded. He didn't go to the shop to serve customers all day, and then he died last night."

As Zhao Tiezhu spoke, he led him into the study of Renhetang.

The study was in the deepest part of the backyard, and the door was tightly closed.

Li Feng pushed open the door and went inside, only to find the place in complete disarray.

The bookshelf was overturned, books were scattered all over the floor, the calligraphy and paintings on the wall were crooked, and there was a clear handprint on the rosewood desk, a mark left by forcefully slamming the table.

"This place hasn't been cleaned yet; it's the same as last night."

Zhao Tiezhu looked at Li Feng curiously, hoping that Li Feng could help solve the case.

Li Feng searched the study carefully.

Most of the books on the bookshelf are pawnshop ledgers, recording the daily operations of Renhetang.

Following Yan Songde's dying wish, Li Feng checked the bookshelf for hidden compartments.

The bookshelf had been knocked over, and any hidden compartments that existed would have been exposed long ago.

He searched through all the drawers and cabinets but found no clues related to Gu Zhenren.

However, we still managed to find a hidden compartment.

The hidden compartment is located in the loose blue bricks under the desk.

The blue bricks look no different from the surrounding bricks, but they sound slightly different when you step on them.

Li Feng pried open the blue bricks, revealing a flat iron box underneath.

The box wasn't locked, and inside was a stack of ledgers.

These account books are quite different from the scattered accounts outside.

The cover was covered with black oiled paper, with no words written on it, except for a number marked in cinnabar in the lower right corner.

Li Feng opened the first book, which contained not records of money transactions, but of people's names.

Each page contains a person's name, age, place of origin, date of death, and cause of death.

The last line is marked in red: Sold.

This thing turned out to be Wu Youde's ledger for selling corpses.

Li Feng flipped through the pages quickly.

The ledger records more than one hundred names, with deaths ranging from three months ago to seven days ago.

Everyone dies for different reasons: some die from illness, some from accidents, and some from old age.

These people are all elderly people living alone or migrants from other places. They have no relatives in Qingyan City, and no one will investigate their deaths.

Wu Youde used usury to coerce these people, and after they died, he would sell their corpses to Gu Zhenren as feed for raising Gu.

More than a hundred lives were lost, yet the account book contained only a few thin pages.

Li Feng turned to the last page of the ledger.

The names recorded on the last line made his pupils suddenly contract.

"Zhao Laosan, stonemason, quarry in the south of the city, cause of death: exhaustion of Gu worms, sold."

It turns out that Zhao Laosan was also sold to Gu Zhenren by Wu Youde.

In other words, they obtained the Moon Soul Key from the tomb raiders.

All of this was arranged by Gu Zhenren.

He first bought Zhao Laosan's corpse from Wu Youde to conduct experiments, and then used Zhao Laosan to lure out the tomb raiders.

The tomb raiders opened the tomb door of the Phoenix Burial Ground, released the female corpse to create chaos, and used the people in the city to conduct experiments with Gu worms.

Wu Youde, the pawnshop owner who sold corpses and aided and abetted evil, was silenced by Gu Zhenren after he lost his usefulness.

Li Feng picked up the entire iron box and walked out of the study.

"Officer Zhao, this is Wu Youde's ledger of corpses. It records all the corpses he sold to Gu Zhenren. This is the irrefutable evidence to bring down Wu Youde and uncover Gu Zhenren."

Zhao Tiezhu took the ledger, flipped through a few pages, and stared wide-eyed.

He closed the ledger, his expression serious: "I will personally present these ledgers to the magistrate. Although Wu Youde is dead, the Gu Master behind him is still alive. With these ledgers, the magistrate can mobilize more manpower to investigate."

After returning to his courtyard, Li Feng studied the second chapter of the Righteous Qi Technique.

The second chapter is titled "Using Literature to Convey Morals".

The cultivation method in this chapter is much more complicated than that in the first chapter.

A complete article needs to be written with a strong sense of righteousness.

The content of the article must be true, based on the writer's personal experience or firsthand observations.

The essence of righteousness is sincerity; without sincerity, the spirit dissipates, and when the spirit dissipates, literature is ruined.

Yan Songde annotated in the booklet: "Confucian scholars use literature to convey the Way and the pen as a sword. What is recorded in the writing must be true and true. If there is even a single false word, the noble spirit will collapse and the writing will be no different from waste paper."