Chapter 317 - Fortune Telling
The peddler was embarrassed when Li Huowang did not believe him. “I’ve only heard all this from the village elder. He said that the ghosts wanted to be reborn, and so they stole many young babies that were less than a year old. Moreover, because they were stuck in Hell for so long without anything to entertain them, they are also targeting women.”
“You mean that a lot of people have lost their babies and many women were raped within the Cangshui County?” asked Li Huowang.
“Yes! Wow, a Daoist sure is amazing. It only took you one word to explain everything that has happened,” said the peddler.
Li Huowang frowned. If it was only babies being kidnapped and women getting raped, then the county could just send the guards instead of informing the Surveillance Bureau. There had to be something that the peddler didn’t know.
After he finished talking to the peddler, Li Huowang urged his horse and the horse carriage continued moving.
Li Huowang managed to enter the city just before the gates closed. When the guards saw the identification token on Li Huowang’s waist, they immediately called the town guards and had them escort him to the magistrate’s office.
On the way to the magistrate’s office, the sound of footsteps rang out incessantly. As Li Huowang saw several strong men running past his carriage while carrying a torch, he asked the guard that was escorting him, “Who are they?”
The guard clasped both of his hands together before answering, “My Lord! These are the men the magistrate has chosen to patrol during the night. Everyone within Cangshui County is very nervous right now, and so we have imposed a curfew. We will capture anyone who’s loitering outside after curfew.”
Hearing this, Li Huowang silently nodded.
Meanwhile, Bun felt quite uneasy in the new environment; it kept pushing its head into Li Huowang’s body.
As they moved, Li Huowang scanned the streets but didn’t find anything unusual.
Soon, they arrived at the magistrate's office. The people inside had already been informed of Li Huowang’s arrival and were currently standing there, waiting to receive him near the two stone lions at the gate.
“We greet the Lord!” The magistrate bowed. He was wearing the robes of an official. Following his lead, his deputy, secretary, and the other officers bowed as well.
Li Huowang jumped down from the horse carriage and saw that the magistrate was around forty years old. He was shorter than the others, something that was made even more apparent when he was surrounded by the officers.
“Let’s cut to the chase and talk about the official matters,” said Li Huowang as he walked into the building. The others followed suit.
Inside the building, Li Huowang read parchment after parchment while everyone else looked at Li Huowang carefully. By the time Li Huowang finally placed down the parchments, the tea on the table was no longer hot.
“So you have lost nine babies and five women were raped?” asked Li Huowang.
The magistrate stepped forward. “My Lord, I think the number of women who were raped far exceeds that, but they did not report the matter to us out of shame.”
“Is that it? Is this all?” Li Huowang looked at all of him, his penetrating gaze staring into the magistrate’s eyes.
A single drop of sweat rolled down the magistrate’s forehead. After a while, he bowed toward Li Huowang before he turned around and ordered, “All of you, disperse from this room. Guard Zhou, tell your team to surround the entire office.”
With this, everyone left the room. Soon, only Li Huowang and the magistrate were left.
“My surname is Lou. Even though I was not born in Cangshui County, my hometown is nearby. As a magistrate, my heart hurts when I see my people in distress. Please save us all!” Magistrate Lou cried and kneeled on the ground.
However, this was a bit overwhelming for Li Huowang; he and the magistrate did not have a superior-subordinate relationship. There was no need for the man to beg and kneel.
However, Li Huowang still wasn’t sure whether the magistrate was being sincere or just putting up a show.
“Let’s just stick to the case. Other than these cases, did anything else happen in Cangshui County?” asked Li Huowang.
“Yes! There were some thefts; however, I don’t think they were anything serious. Please look at this, my Lord!” Magistrate Lou took a map from the table and unfurled it in front of Li Huowang.
It was a map of the entire region. This region was called Jiang Nan. Beside the Jiang Nan region was the Zong Luo region. Yinling City and Cowheart Mountain were located within the Zong Luo region. The Liang Kingdom had a total of six regions, some larger than the others. Jiang Nan region was considered to be the smallest region.
“My Lord, look here,” said Magistrate Lou as he pointed at several small dots on the map. “The incidents weren’t contained within just the Cangshui County. The areas surrounding Cangshui County, including Ping Cheng, An Shan, Pan Shui, and fifteen other counties are all experiencing the same things!”
Li Huowang looked at the dots on the map and knew why Tuoba Danqing had been called for this mission even though the cases were mostly minor.
There were too many! Even sand could pile up into a mountain if there was enough of it.
Li Huowang looked at the map. “This is serious. To think that there are so many cases. How many babies went missing?”
“Fifty-seven, and the numbers are still rising. Thankfully, we are dealing with this rather seriously and the number of cases in our County are not as serious. In some of the other places, the criminals are using this chance to commit heinous crimes before blaming the whole thing on supernatural beings[1].”
“Why are they stealing babies no older than one year?” muttered Li Huowang. Thinking about all that he had experienced in this world, Li Huowang had a feeling that those babies did not survive.
“My Lord! Please save the people in my county!” Magistrate Lou kneeled once more.
“There’s no need for that. Didn’t you say that the women were raped? Would you bring them in? I will investigate them,” said Li Huowang. He needed to know what was going on. Why did the culprits steal babies and rape women at the same time throughout the entire surrounding region?
Soon, a serious-looking girl was brought in front of Li Huowang; however, she couldn’t answer any of his questions.
She didn’t know who it was that raped her nor did she know when it happened. If it weren’t for her parents finding out that something was wrong, she wouldn’t have even found out about it or reported it.
Having reached a dead end, Li Huowang didn’t know what to do next. He wasn’t really an expert on such matters.
No, maybe I have one more method.
Staring at the girl who was leaving, Li Huowang thought about it and took out the guidebook on making talismans. He flipped through it and turned to Magistrate Lou. “Do you have a human bone? I need the bone to be wide.”
Blind Chen told him that there was a talisman that could be used to do fortune telling to guide him. He decided to try it out.
“A... human bone?” Even though the magistrate didn’t know what Li Huowang was doing, he still told the guards to go and get one.
By the time the sky brightened up, the human bone that Li Huowang needed was brought in front of him. It was a skull.
“My Lord, please rest assured that it’s a human bone. We dug it up from a wild grave,” said the guard as he passed the skull, eager to be praised.
Li Huowang took the skull, pulled out a piece of yellow talisman paper, bit his finger, and used his blood to swiftly draw the talisman.
“As busy as you are, I summon the Impermanence of Yin! Heed my orders, tell my fortune, and guide me from desolation!”
He then placed a bronze coin on the talisman before pressing it onto the skull. Then, a sudden cracking sound rang out as cracks appeared on the skull.
When it was done, Li Huowang examined the cracks on the skull and compared it to the patterns described in the book. “Hmm... This pattern...”
1. This is referring to the unexplained cases of girls being raped. Some of the commoners likely raped the girls and blamed it on supernatural entities to escape blame. ?
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