Chapter 429: Chapter 367: Buddha Heart
Reality was cruel, and soon they received news that the villagers had found Sui Chengguo’s body. Leaving Tong Han Wu Ma Haoming to look after Mi Shu, Yang Xiao and Cheng Cha rushed to the scene, only to discover that Sui Chengguo’s body was less than 50 meters away from the ancestral home’s main gate.
Sui Chengguo’s death was gruesome, his body nearly torn apart. Two forearm bones, hanging with remnants of flesh, fiercely protected his head, and his chest and back were almost hollowed out, with organs scattered everywhere. After offering a few pretentious words of comfort, the accompanying Du Family Villagers left, as the bloody scene was too horrific and the smell of blood extremely pungent.
"Sui almost succeeded," said Cheng Cha, half-kneeling on the ground, unable to hold back the tears. Based on their previous analysis outside the bridal chamber, they had confirmed that Quan Doufeng was alive and that he had lied about fainting. These were all excuses he made up to save his own life, and Yang Xiao and the others even doubted whether Quan Doufeng had actually gone on the mission last night.
Giving one’s best and failing is a matter of ability, but fabricating false clues to deceive others to preserve oneself was a matter of attitude. Last night’s mission was ruined because of Quan Doufeng. Now that he was dead, had he still been alive, he would have had to die tonight.
From the state of Sui Chengguo’s body, it was clear he had been killed by the Ghost Villagers. Yang Xiao and Cheng Cha couldn’t bear to leave the body lying beside the bluestone path, treated like unnoticed trash. After discussing, they decided to move the body to a nearby patch of overgrown weed, offering Sui a secluded final resting place as an acquaintance.
But just as they carried it into the weeds, suddenly, there was a crisp crack—the corpse’s forearm bone broke, and the bloody body fell to the ground, revealing a face mangled beyond recognition.
Most of the skin on the face had been peeled away, exposing the ghastly white facial bones, with the nose, ears, and lips long gone. Suddenly, Yang Xiao noticed a flash of silver in the exposed mouth of Sui Chengguo.
The corpse had its jaws clenched tight, and only when the skin was torn could one see a bit inside. Yang Xiao gestured to Cheng Cha not to gather Sui Chengguo’s bones anymore and to keep watch nearby while he crouched down. After muttering an apology to Sui in his heart, he reached out, pulled back the rotting flesh on the face, and probing towards the silver gleam with two fingers. The next second, he felt something and his expression changed instantly. Moments later, he pulled a blood-soaked silver anklet from Quan Doufeng’s mouth, even more shocking, there was also a silver lock attached to it.
Without a close look, Yang Xiao immediately recognized that this lock was the match for the Bridal Ghost’s lock. When combined, they formed a joint-heart lock.
"Damn it..." Cheng Cha was shocked, drawing a sharp breath. They instantly understood the scene before them: this must have been something Sui Chengguo discovered before dying, realizing it was a key clue, and thus stuffed it into what he believed to be the safest place, his mouth.
Indeed, even if his body was stolen by the Du Family people, the head would be left, and as long as they found the head, they would have a chance to discover the silver lock.
This discovery made Yang Xiao and Cheng Cha deeply respect Sui Chengguo. From the body, it was evident what kind of torment Sui had endured. With Sui’s capabilities, even knowing he would certainly die, he would choose a quick death. But before dying, he tightly protected his head with his arms, just to leave behind this item.
Some people lie to save their own lives, deceiving their teammates, while others willingly leave clues for their teammates who still have a chance to survive, even at their last breath. The difference between the two was clear.
"Quan Doufeng... he deserves to die!" Yang Xiao gritted his teeth in hatred.
At that moment, Cheng Cha pursed his lips and couldn’t help but sigh deeply, "Let’s dig a pit and properly bury Sui, not letting his... his help be in vain."
But Yang Xiao rejected this proposal, "No, we haven’t buried anyone before, and if we only bury Sui, it might raise suspicions among the Du Family people."
"Just leave the body here, don’t move it again. Sui hoped we could survive; we mustn’t disappoint his intentions."
After taking the silver anklet, the two acted as if nothing had happened, turned around, and left. After returning to their room, they took out the silver lock from the anklet and combined it with the lock Mi Shu had brought back. The next second, everyone’s breathing quickened—it really fit perfectly together, forming a quite exquisite joint-heart lock.
What was even more astonishing was that, when the two locks were combined, the seemingly random scratches on the lock heads aligned at that moment, vaguely forming a character.
Yang Xiao had Wu Ma Haoming bring a basin of water immediately to clean the joint-heart lock, and then he held it up to the light. Now he could see it clearly: engraved there was the shallow outline of the character for "Buddha."
Upon closer inspection, the character wasn’t carved with a sharp tool but had been pressed in bit by bit with fingernails, leaving shallow indentations.
Without a doubt, this must have been left by the Ghost Monk before he died.
Previously, none of the Ghost Villagers, including the Ghost Village Chief Yang Xiao and his group, had seen anything like this anklet on anyone’s ankle. Yang Xiao and his team boldly guessed that perhaps Sui Chengguo had torn it from the Ghost Monk’s ankle just before his death.
Thinking about it differently, only the Ghost Monk, as the root of the mission, would warrant such a great sacrifice from Sui Chengguo.
The appearance of the joint-heart locks on both the Ghost Monk and the Bridal Ghost proved much: the Ghost Monk and the Bridal Ghost were a couple of newlyweds.
The Bridal Ghost was wearing a red bridal gown when she died, which proves that this woman was murdered on her wedding night by the ruthless Du Family who massacred the village.
What exactly happened before that, and why had the monk gotten married, especially on the night the Du Family Villagers massacred the village? Was this really... just a coincidence?
The bridal chamber for the marriage was also significant; the Du Family mansion where they lived was among the most prominent and grandiose in the village. One could say that only the person serving as the clan chief was qualified to live there. In other words, this mansion was probably the residence of the Mangjia Village Chief.
Following this line of thought, the girl qualified to marry in this bridal chamber would naturally be the daughter of the village chief, meaning the girl the Ghost Monk had married was the daughter of the Mangjia Village Chief!
Everything seemed to be getting clearer, yet Yang Xiao and his group still couldn’t sort out their thoughts completely. They lacked a key point to break the case, for none of the Du Family Villagers—the demons—uttered a single truth. It was certain, however, that the death of the Ghost Monk was related to them as well.
"Could they have forced the Ghost Monk to marry the Mangjia girl?" Tong Han suddenly said.
"Why?" Cheng Cha asked.
Tong Han shook his head, "I don’t know, it’s just a guess. Those people from Du Family Village are beasts, maybe they wanted to torture the monk like that too."
This remark seemed to remind Yang Xiao. He fully believed that the scoundrels from Du Family Village were capable of such beastly deeds. At the same time, he also thought of the Five Precepts punishment spoken of by the Du Family. Suddenly, a scene flashed through his mind, followed by a slight shiver through his body as he realized a possibility, "I think I know what happened."
"Quick, tell us!" Mi Shu clutched at his own heart as well.
"After the Du Family deceived the city gates open, they captured all the people of Mangjia Village. They told the monk that if he broke his precepts and married, they would release the people of Mangjia Village. The monk did as instructed, but in the end, he couldn’t save the villagers. The character for Buddha etched on the joint-heart lock was the monk’s way of telling Buddha that he did it to save others, not of his own volition."
Cheng Cha’s face grew increasingly grim, and after a long silence, he lowered his voice and added: "You’re right, and it’s probably worse. They... they probably forced the monk to break all Five Precepts: the precept against sexual misconduct, the Precept against Killing, the precept against stealing, the precept against lying, and finally, the precept against alcohol. Our mission is to follow the sequence in which they forced the monk to break the precepts. It’s not just a mission, it’s a reenactment of history."
"No wonder it’s the punishment of the Five Precepts, these animals..."
