Chapter 237 Destined to be Born with Yin Sha

Wan Chongshan's face was ashen, and he nodded.

"My younger sister just got engaged last month. The groom is the son of a hunter from the neighboring village, and they were originally scheduled to marry next month."

"Her Eight Characters."

Wan Chongshan was stunned for a moment, then recited a series of heavenly stems and earthly branches.

Shen Suning calculated silently, her expression gradually becoming grave, and she turned to the village head.

"Village Head, do you know the birth dates of the other three young women?"

The village head looked somewhat troubled.

"This… a young woman's Eight Characters are kept secret, and even the government has no records of them. Unless you ask their parents."

The others looked at Shen Suning with suspicion, but Chen Mu did not ask any questions; he stood up abruptly.

"Then we will go ask. Please trouble yourself to lead the way, Village Head. We will visit these households to examine the scenes first."

The village head quickly agreed and led the group to visit the homes of the missing young women one by one.

The situation was exactly as the village head had described: the young women's chambers were tidy and clean, the doors and windows were intact, and there were no signs of forced entry. When asked about the Eight Characters, the parents of the three families were initially hesitant, but after being persuaded by the village head and Wan Chongshan, they reluctantly divulged them.

Shen Suning wrote down the four sets of Eight Characters one by one, her expression growing increasingly somber.

By the time they left the last house, the sun had already begun to set. Chen Mu signaled for everyone to rest under the old locust tree at the village entrance, and only then did Shen Suning speak in a low voice.

"All four young women were fated with Yin Sha."

Ling Xiaoning looked somewhat bewildered.

"Fated with Yin Sha? What is that? Is it rare?"

Shen Suning explained.

"It cannot be considered rare. As long as one's destiny chart contains the Yin Sha star, they are considered to be fated with Yin Sha. Such people are extremely prone to attracting evil spirits, but some evil cultivators and alchemists specifically seek out women of pure Yin to Cultivate evil techniques or forge Yin artifacts."

Ling Xiaoning listened, only half-understanding, and could not help but ask further.

"Sister Suning, what about specifically targeting unmarried women? What is the reasoning behind that?"

Shen Suning was silent for a moment, her gaze sweeping over everyone present, and her voice lowered.

"Some evil methods focus on 'harvesting Yin to supplement Yang,' or using Yin to refine Yin. Unmarried women have not yet broken their original Yin, so the Yin Qi within their bodies is the purest. If they are fated with Yin Sha, it is even more 'Yin upon Yin.' For the sake of Cultivating certain vicious Cultivation Techniques or refining certain evil energies, they are highly nourishing substances, yielding twice the result with half the effort."

She paused and added.

"This is not absolute, and it could just be a coincidence, but the fact that all four missing women happened to meet both conditions is truly too suspicious."

Everyone's heart sank.

Wan Chongshan's face turned even paler, and veins bulged on his hands.

If it were truly as Shen Suning said, and his sister had fallen into the hands of such demons, it was likely that her fate was grim, and she might even suffer unimaginable torture before death.

Chen Mu's expression was calm as he scanned the group.

Shen Suning's deduction coincided with what everyone had been guessing; this was no longer a simple case of a monster preying on victims, but rather an evil ritual with premeditation and selection.

But the trail ended there.

The scenes of the disappearances were creepily clean. Apart from the commonalities of being fated with Yin Sha, being unmarried, and having intact doors and windows, there were no other clues to be found. The black shadow only existed in Hunter Liu's description from a panicked glance; its authenticity was hard to verify, let alone track.

The sky grew dark bit by bit, and the outlines of the distant mountains became blurred.

"Let's find a place to stay first and investigate in detail tomorrow. Someone needs to keep watch tonight," Chen Mu said.

Wan Chongshan took a deep breath, suppressing the turbulent emotions in his heart, and said in a hoarse voice.

"Go to my place. The old house my parents left behind is at the east end of the village. It's a three-room tile-roofed house. Although it's simple, it can accommodate everyone for a rest. I... I also need to go back and check."

Everyone nodded. After rushing about and investigating for half a day, they were physically and mentally exhausted. They did indeed need a place to regroup and rest, and it would also allow them to observe the village's movements at night from nearby.

Wan Chongshan's home was on a gentle slope at the east end of the village. It was a standalone courtyard with three main rooms facing south. Although it had some years on it, the blue bricks and grey tiles were still sturdy.

The group entered the house. Without rushing to rest, they used the last bit of light filtering in from the window to carefully examine Xiao Yuan's room.

The room was not large and was kept clean and tidy. A wooden bed was placed against the window, covered with a coarse cloth sheet with white flowers on a blue background. Beside the bed was an old table with a sewing basket on it.

The doors and windows were intact; the latch on the window frame was tightly fastened from the inside, and the door bolt showed no signs of damage. Feng Qing squatted down to carefully inspect the floor and corners, Ling Xiaoning stood on tiptoe to check the beams and roof, and Shen Suning slowly scanned every object in the room, attempting to find any discordant details.

Wan Chongshan stood at the doorway, looking at every single item in his sister's room, his eyes turning red again. He held back his emotions and said.

"Just like the other families, not a single trace was left behind... What exactly is this thing!"

Ling Xiaoning shrank his neck and muttered softly.

"This is really evil... The doors and windows aren't broken, so how did it get in? Could it be that it can walk through walls?"

Feng Qing carefully rubbed the dust on the window frame and shook his head.

"There is no residual Demonic Qi, nor are there any signs of a large creature squeezing through or causing damage."

Chen Mu did not participate in the discussion. Instead, he stood in the center, scanning every corner of the room inch by inch. Finally, his gaze fixed on an unfinished wedding dress beside the bed.

The wedding dress was bright red and made of ordinary cotton fabric, but the stitches were fine and dense. It was embroidered with patterns of lotus flowers on a single stalk and mandarin ducks playing in the water. Although it could not be considered exquisite or luxurious, it revealed a young girl's longing for marriage.

Chen Mu stepped closer, his gaze tracing the patterns on the wedding dress. Suddenly, below the lapel, a few extremely tiny, dark brown, round particles caught his attention.

These small round particles were smaller than sesame seeds and were almost indistinguishable as they were mixed into the intricate embroidery. If Chen Mu's Qi had not been tempered many times, far exceeding that of an ordinary person, and if his concentration had not been highly focused at this moment, it would have been impossible to discover them.

His heart stirred, and he immediately recalled the situation when they visited those three families during the day.

In the room of Cuicui, Carpenter Li's daughter, there seemed to be a few similar black dots in the corner of the windowsill. At the time, he thought they were dust or wood shavings from insect damage. There seemed to be some under the bed of Xiu Gu at Widow Zhao's house, and in the crevices of the dressing table under the window of Hunter Liu's daughter, there also seemed to be...

At the time, they had all appeared in inconspicuous corners and did not attract special attention. Chen Mu had just assumed they were ordinary household dust or traces of insects and ants.

But now, they appeared on the wedding dress.

How could such stains be allowed to exist on a piece of personal clothing, carefully embroidered by a young girl awaiting marriage, and surely treasured by her?

"There is something here."

Chen Mu's voice was not loud, but it made everyone in the room look up instantly. Shen Suning immediately leaned in, Wan Chongshan also suppressed his emotions and took two steps over, and Ling Xiaoning and Feng Qing also gathered around.

Ling Xiaoning squinted to look.

"What is this? A clod of dirt, or insect droppings?"

Feng Qing shook his head, "It doesn't look like ordinary dirt, and it's definitely not insect droppings. The texture looks... a bit special."

Shen Suning bent down, carefully examining the inconspicuous small round particles. She extended her index finger to pick one up, brought it to the tip of her nose, and sniffed it, her brows immediately knitting together.

"It is neither. This is night-luminous sand."

She raised her head, her gaze sweeping over everyone in the room, her voice cold and clear.

"In other words, bat droppings."