Chapter 181 Blood Cave Refining Evil

The interior of Xu Changze's residence was quite luxurious, with carved Dragons and painted beams, and exquisite furnishings—a stark contrast to the diligent and incorruptible image he projected in his daily life.

Liu Ziming cursed and swore as he searched.

"This corrupt official, I wonder how much wealth he has extorted from the common people!"

The bailiffs ransacked the place, turning up quite a bit of gold, silver, jewelry, and antiques, but Chen Mu had little interest in these things, instead using his exceptionally keen senses to meticulously probe every corner of the residence.

When he reached the study, Chen Mu's eyes lit up.

Xu Changze's study was in the deepest part of the residence, forming an independent courtyard with a tranquil environment, and servants were strictly forbidden from approaching it.

At this moment, the study door was slightly ajar. Liu Ziming led several bailiffs in, one after another. A wave of ink fragrance hit their noses, but woven through it, there seemed to be a faint, bloody stench.

"Search! Be careful, watch out for hidden compartments and mechanisms!" Liu Ziming ordered.

The bailiffs immediately sprang into action, tapping on walls and floors, checking bookshelves and ornaments, while Chen Mu walked straight to the massive desk.

He keenly sensed that the Yin Qi here seemed heavier than elsewhere; if not for his extraordinary spiritual perception, it would have been almost impossible to detect.

Chen Mu reached out and felt along the desk inch by inch. Suddenly, when he pressed on a certain carving, a faint mechanical sound clicked, and immediately after, a wall panel slid open silently, revealing stone steps leading sharply downward.

Instantly, a nauseating, sweet, bloody stench mixed with decay surged out from the opening.

"Ugh—" The bailiffs standing closer were caught off guard. Hit by the odor, they immediately began to retch, their faces turning pale.

Liu Ziming also hurriedly covered his mouth and nose, his face turning ashen.

"There really is a secret chamber! This animal!"

Chen Mu's eyes sharpened. His Hunyuan Calamity Astral Qi circulated spontaneously, protecting his body and sealing out the filthy aura.

He reached out to take a torch handed to him by a bailiff and took the lead, walking down the stone steps. Liu Ziming forced down his discomfort, drew his blade, and followed closely, with two other brave bailiffs trailing behind.

The stone steps were short, reaching the bottom after about twenty steps. The torchlight illuminated the space below—it was an underground secret chamber slightly smaller than the study above, but far more sinister.

When the firelight illuminated the scene before them, even Liu Ziming and the two bailiffs, who were accustomed to bloody scenes, froze instantly in place. The color drained from their faces, and their bodies trembled uncontrollably.

Hell—that was the only word that surfaced in their minds.

Scattered throughout the secret chamber were the remains of young women. Some had been drained of all their blood, leaving only a layer of skin and flesh clinging to bone; others had incomplete limbs with jagged, uneven edges, as if they had been brutally torn apart. Still others, though barely retaining human form, had their abdomens sliced open, their internal organs gone.

In the center of the secret chamber was a circular pool built of black stone, resembling an altar. The edge of the pool was carved with strange runes, and it was filled with a viscous, dark red liquid.

Above the pool were several rusty iron chains, their ends attached to sharp hooks. Two of the hooks still had pale, severed limbs hanging from them.

The entire secret chamber was like a slaughterhouse; thick resentment and Death Qi mingled together, creating an environment capable of driving a normal person to a mental breakdown.

"Ugh—" The two bailiffs who had followed them in couldn't hold it back again. They turned and leaned against the wall, retching violently, almost vomiting up their bile.

Liu Ziming's face was terrifyingly ashen, and the hand gripping his blade trembled violently—not from fear, but from extreme rage.

"Animal! That animal Xu Changze! Bastard! He actually used living people to Cultivate—these were all... living, breathing girls!"

He fiercely slashed his blade against the nearby wall, sending sparks flying.

Chen Mu was not as furious as Liu Ziming, but the chill in his eyes was enough to freeze the air. He held the torch and walked step by step toward the blood pool, his gaze sweeping over the runes on the pool's edge and the hanging iron hooks.

The miserable state of these young women's deaths was beyond compare; clearly, they had suffered inhuman torture before death, finally being drained of their essence, blood, and souls by Xu Changze using evil methods to Cultivate his so-called Power Of Will longevity technique.

However, looking at these corpses, the doubts in Chen Mu's heart did not diminish; instead, they deepened.

In the Qinglin Town human skin case, the victims had their flesh and blood stripped away, leaving only a complete human skin. Yet, while these girls before him died in various ways—some drained, some dismembered, some disemboweled—they had not been completely skinned.

The methods were completely different.

Xu Changze's evil method required specific souls, while the killer in the Qinglin Town case seemed to have other preferences or needs.

Could it really be the work of two different factions? Or was there another monster hiding behind Xu Changze?

Just as Chen Mu was deep in thought, Liu Ziming's exclamation interrupted him.

"Chen Mu, there are still survivors over here!"

Chen Mu turned his head sharply to see Liu Ziming rushing into the innermost corner of the secret chamber. There was a low iron cage with its door open. Liu Ziming was crouching beside the cage, and the firelight illuminated the scene inside.

Two young women, dressed in rags and covered in filth, were trembling and huddled in a corner of the cage.

They were alive, but their state was more heartbreaking than death.

Both had dull, lifeless eyes, showing no reaction to external shouts or the firelight, merely curling up instinctively.

One kept banging her head against the cage wall, her forehead already a bloody mess, while the other was biting down hard on her own arm, fresh blood flowing down her wrist.

Their minds had clearly completely collapsed.

"Animals! Animals!"

Liu Ziming punched the ground, tears in his eyes. He tried to approach the two women and called out softly, but they only huddled tighter, as if terrified.

Chen Mu walked over and crouched down to examine them closely. There were no obvious new injuries on their bodies. Their faces were as pale as paper, and their breathing was faint. That they were still alive was perhaps because Xu Changze hadn't had the chance to consume them yet.

"Take them up first. Be careful, don't startle them." Chen Mu said in a low voice, which had already grown somewhat hoarse.

Liu Ziming wiped his face and nodded heavily. Together with the other two bailiffs who had managed to recover, he carried the two delirious women out.

Chen Mu remained in the secret chamber to continue investigating. Beside the blood pool, he found some yellow paper inscribed with birth dates and times, as well as some twisted runes—clearly used by Xu Changze for his rituals.

Chen Mu searched another round, but finding nothing else of value, he frowned and left the secret chamber.

In the study, Liu Ziming had already arranged for the two pitiful women to be temporarily settled and sent someone to fetch a doctor. Everyone else in the residence was under strict guard; further interrogation was clearly indispensable.

Standing at the study door, watching the sun gradually rise higher, Chen Mu felt not a shred of warmth.

Xu Changze had been brought to justice, but this only uncovered a corner of the darkness in Yunmeng. The threat of the Beimang Fox Clan was imminent, and the strange monster hiding in Xu Changze's shadow—who knew when it would bare its fangs again.