Chapter 15: An Entire Spring

Tangshe Town lay north of Maple Forest City. It was one of the seven towns under Wei Quji’s governance, and also the smallest and most remote among them. It backed onto the Qichang Mountains, which stretched for dozens of li, and the townspeople lived off the mountains, most of them hunters.

Walking through Tangshe Town, one saw old houses and few pedestrians. Even those who occasionally passed by all hurried along, their brows heavy with gloom. Not to mention compared to Maple Forest City, even compared to Fengxi Town, where Jiang Wang had been born, this place fell far behind.

“The villages near Tangshe Town are scattered along the Qichang Mountains. The people here make their living by hunting, and usually only gather in town on the first and fifteenth days of the month. It isn’t market day now, so there are few people around.”

Jiang Wang had done quite a bit of preparation before coming, so he could explain some things to Zhang Linchuan.

Even though this trip had been arranged by the academy master for a senior brother to look after a junior brother, Jiang Wang deeply understood that there was no reason to make others guide him through everything, so he did not dare slack off.

Along the way, Zhang Linchuan had maintained a faint smile, neither distant nor familiar, revealing little emotion.

Hearing this, he merely nodded and continued walking toward the household where the extermination case had occurred.

Although they had come on behalf of the Dao Academy’s independent will, it would not be proper not to inform the local authorities. Tang Dun, a constable of Tangshe Town, was waiting for them at the door of that household.

“Tang Daniu and his wife were both locals of our Tangshe Town. When we were little, Daniu and I often fought…”

One could tell that this rough man, with dark skin and a blunt, honest face, was quite upset. His ox-bell-like eyes were still bloodshot. Standing there, he kept rambling, repeating over and over, “Those damned evil bastards are too hateful! Damn their mothers! Damn their mothers!”

Zhang Linchuan glanced at the constable uniform on him.

“Why are you the only one here? Where is your chief constable?”

“Our chief is busy with other matters.”

Tang Dun did not notice Zhang Linchuan’s displeasure at all and continued on his own, “You people are all going to become great officials in the future. You must stand up for us!”

“Interesting. In a tiny Tangshe Town, there’s something more important than a major case of an entire family being slaughtered?”

Zhang Linchuan smiled contemptuously, but did not continue pursuing it. He simply waved a hand, cutting off Tang Dun’s chatter.

“Get to the point. What clues have you found? And what did the people from the Criminal Investigation Office say when they came?”

Dong A had sent people alone to investigate, clearly showing that he did not trust Wei Quji. Correspondingly, the people from the Criminal Investigation Office avoided meeting them, and the local government of Tangshe Town had only sent an insignificant constable to receive them. This was also to be expected.

Tang Dun scratched his head.

“We… didn’t find any clues. If the officials from the Criminal Investigation Office found anything, they didn’t tell us…”

Zhang Linchuan was almost angered into laughter. If you have no clues at all, then what have you been babbling about for so long?

But he had considerable self-restraint after all and suppressed his displeasure.

“Fine. Then let’s go in and take a look.”

Tang Dun moved nimbly, tearing off the seal on the gate, then taking out a key and unlocking the large general’s lock. Only then did he push the wooden door open.

Jiang Wang noticed that the seal was not simple. Evil-suppressing talismans had been drawn on it. Clearly, the cultivators from the Criminal Investigation Office had intentionally protected the scene.

And as the seal was removed and the gate opened, a smell mingled with rot, filth, and stench surged out.

Jiang Wang forced down his discomfort and looked over the small courtyard. It contained things commonly used by hunters: hunting knives, traps, bows and arrows, along with some animal hides and smoked meat, all scattered messily around the yard.

Only the skeleton remained of a hunting dog, scattered near the main entrance. Judging from its posture, it had probably been the first to notice the intruder, but had been dealt with in an instant.

Jiang Wang turned back and saw that Zhang Linchuan had already covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief embroidered with orchids, his brows tightly furrowed.

Seeing Jiang Wang’s questioning gaze, Zhang Linchuan lifted his chin slightly, and his voice came from beneath the handkerchief.

“It’s fine. Go in.”

At this moment, Tang Dun stood sideways by the door, somewhat hesitant.

“I’ll just… not go in, all right? This place is… wicked.”

He was only a mortal after all, and Jiang Wang naturally would not force him. He nodded.

“That’s fine.”

Then he took the lead and stepped into the courtyard.

Dense and intense corpse qi instantly surrounded him, filling his sense of smell. Corpse qi of this degree was absolutely not something that could be produced by killing a few people and summoning a few living corpses. It was more like something had communicated with some evil existence.

Behind him, Zhang Linchuan glanced at Jiang Wang’s hand on his sword. Those long, fair finger bones looked clean and powerful.

“Junior Brother Jiang specializes in swordsmanship?” he asked.

Jiang Wang observed the surroundings without turning back and replied, “Senior Brother Zhang must be laughing at me. This little brother has not formed a dao vortex yet and cannot cultivate dao techniques. I can only rely on swordsmanship to protect myself.”

“When the outer academy was attacked, I heard Junior Brother Jiang was also one of the people ambushed, yet you were able to escape calmly. That shows you are far from ordinary.”

“It was actually very dangerous. That evil cultivator was much stronger than me. I only escaped because I alerted the other disciples.”

There was a doghouse built from wooden planks beside the courtyard. Naturally, it was now empty. Jiang Wang’s gaze swept across it, but he could not see any bloodstains in the courtyard.

“The situation here isn’t good. Be careful, Junior Brother,” Zhang Linchuan said.

“This little brother understands.”

This small courtyard had three rooms. Facing the courtyard gate was the main hall, and its door was open. A skeleton lay sprawled across the threshold. It too had no flesh or blood left, only bones. Judging from its clothing, this should have been the male owner of the house, the hunter Tang Daniu.

Jiang Wang carefully stepped over the skeleton and entered the main hall.

The four walls of the hall were empty, with no decorations. In the center stood a square table and four long benches. There were still some leftovers on the table, covered by a bamboo-woven food cover.

Beneath the bench on the left lay the female owner of the household, as evidenced by the coarse cloth dress.

And yet…

The food had not spoiled, but the corpses had already been reduced to white bones.

An inexplicable chill stabbed at his tailbone, and a vague fear came from nowhere. Jiang Wang nearly drew his sword, but after all, he had experienced many life-and-death battles. He restrained his instincts and avoided embarrassing himself in front of Zhang Linchuan.

“These flesh and blood were definitely not gnawed away. This is the effect of some evil art.”

Zhang Linchuan held the handkerchief over his mouth with one hand and casually observed the surroundings. One could tell he felt only disgust, not fear.

“These two people haven’t been dead for long, but all their flesh is gone. That also means many clues have been lost. You fought the evil cultivator who attacked the outer academy. Is there anything familiar about this?”

Jiang Wang shook his head.

“I’ve only seen two skeletons for now, so I can’t judge. It’s just that the corpse qi filling the surroundings…”

“What about it?”

“At that time, the other party controlled corpses to attack me. I was poisoned by corpse toxin, and Teacher Dong was the one who cured me.”

Zhang Linchuan nodded, still not lowering the handkerchief covering his mouth. He walked straight toward the room on the right side of the main hall.

“We’ll split up and look around. If anything happens, notify me immediately.”

“Understood.”

Zhang Linchuan was a ranked cultivator, with a dao vortex revolving in his Heaven-Connecting Palace and dao essence generating by itself. Jiang Wang naturally would not worry about him. He pressed his hand to his sword and walked toward the room on the left.

…

This room…

was very small.

The moment he entered, he saw a wooden horse standing silently on the floor. The wooden horse was especially exquisite and smooth, clearly bearing much of its maker’s painstaking effort.

Not far from the wooden horse was a low table, with small toys such as a slingshot and a pellet drum scattered across it.

And on the wall beside the low table, Jiang Wang saw the only decoration he had encountered since entering this courtyard.

It was a small piece of canvas, on which three little figures had been drawn with childish brushstrokes.

Two larger ones held the hand of a smaller one, running through a sea of flowers.

Behind the little figures followed a small dog shaking its head and wagging happily.

This had once been a complete family. An entire spring had once bloomed here.

Jiang Wang forced himself to keep walking inward until, before the small bed, he saw scattered flower-patterned cloth.

His gaze moved upward, and naturally, he saw the final set of white bones belonging to this family.

Small, slender, fragile.

A lonely and helpless skeleton.

It was the only thing left in this world of a little girl who had once been cherished by her parents like a precious treasure.

He felt rage.

Uncontrollable, unbearably violent rage.

[End of Chapter]