Chapter 248 Yinglian's Death

Wan Chongshan moved swiftly, almost running through the village alleys. Chen Mu and the others followed close behind. Ling Xiaoning clutched his left arm, gritting his teeth as he kept up. His steps were somewhat staggered, yet he never once fell behind.

Li Tiezui lived at the western end of the village in a detached house. Separated from the other villagers by a small bamboo grove, it was quite secluded.

Before they even reached it, they could see a crowd gathered by the edge of the bamboo grove from afar. There were at least twenty or thirty people, men and women, young and old, all huddled together. The buzzing sound of their discussions could be heard from a great distance.

Some were crying, some were cursing, and some children were being pulled away from the crowd by adults who covered their eyes.

"What happened?"

Wan Chongshan's heart tightened, and his pace quickened further.

Someone sharp-eyed looked back and saw their group. They were stunned for a moment before cheering out loud.

"The officers from the Demon Suppression Division? They didn't leave! The officers didn't leave!"

"Didn't they ride out of the village yesterday?"

"Wan Chongshan, Chongshan is here too!"

The crowd erupted. Dozens of gazes turned toward them simultaneously—some with shock, some with confusion, but most with a desperate, almost dependent expectation.

Wan Chongshan didn't bother explaining and asked point-blank.

"What exactly happened?!"

An old man squeezed out from the crowd, his aged face deathly pale and his lips trembling.

"Chongshan... You... You didn't leave?"

"Uncle Zhao, we left yesterday on purpose to lure that monster out. Don't worry about that for now. What's going on here?"

The old man opened his mouth, but it felt as if his throat were stuffed with cotton. After a long while, he only managed to raise a trembling hand and point inside the courtyard gate.

"You... go see for yourself... It's a sin... A true sin..."

Wan Chongshan abruptly pushed several people aside and stepped into the gate of Li Tiezui's home, with Chen Mu following right after.

This courtyard was even more dilapidated than Wan Chongshan's house, consisting of two low-lying earthen rooms with mottled, peeling walls and crooked window frames. Even the window paper was riddled with holes.

A water vat in the courtyard had been overturned, spilling water across the ground and soaking scattered firewood. A chipped porcelain bowl lay shattered at the bottom of the steps, its shards scattered everywhere.

The smell of blood was wafting out from the main hall.

Chen Mu hurried into the main hall, and then his footsteps came to a halt.

In the center of the hall lay a small set of remains, face up.

It was so small.

So small that it caused even someone as cold-hearted as Chen Mu to feel a slight twitch in his heart.

The remains were already unrecognizable. The limbs, torso, and internal organs had been almost entirely eaten away, leaving only bones still clinging to bloody sinew. The only part left intact was the head.

The small face was as pale as paper, eyes half-open, black pupils staring at the ceiling beams. The mouth was slightly agape, as if she hadn't even had time to let out a final sound.

She looked about eight or nine years old, her features still carrying the innocence of a child. A faded red hair tie was fastened to her braid.

This was Li Tiezui's only daughter, Li Yinglian.

A suppressed groan came from behind Chen Mu. Ling Xiaoning clutched his mouth tightly, his face white as a sheet and cold sweat pouring down his forehead. Shen Suning also turned her face away, her eyes already reddening.

The veins on Wan Chongshan's hand bulged as he gripped his spear shaft. He stared at the small remains on the ground, unable to utter a single word.

He thought of his own Xiao Yuan. When Xiao Yuan was seven or eight, she was just like this, with two braids, chasing after him and calling him 'Brother'.

The silence lasted for a long time.

Chen Mu slowly crouched down, his gaze scanning the wounds on the girl's body. The tears were jagged, showing teeth marks and claw prints that were identical to the traces left by the Bat King's talons the previous night.

It wasn't Li Tiezui who killed his daughter; it was a demon.

"Where is Li Tiezui?"

Chen Mu's voice wasn't loud, but it was like icicles hitting the ground, causing the villagers watching at the door to shiver in unison.

Uncle Zhao was helped through the door, his voice hoarse.

"He... he's gone mad..."

"Before dawn today, someone passed by his door and heard noise inside. They gathered their courage to come in and look, and they saw... saw his daughter lying here. Li Tiezui held his daughter and cried for a long time, until his voice went hoarse."

"Later... later he stopped crying. He just held his daughter, constantly muttering 'my daughter, my daughter.' Then he suddenly stood up and ran outside, shouting her name as he ran. As he shouted, he started laughing—a bone-chilling laugh..."

The old man raised his sleeve to wipe his eyes, and tears just kept flowing down.

"How far could a half-blind man run? Someone saw him heading toward the back mountain, but when they chased after him, they couldn't even find a trace..."

Chen Mu's gaze sharpened.

"Half-blind?"

The old man wiped away a tear and nodded.

"Yes, when Li Tiezui was young and traveling the world, he suffered some kind of misfortune. When he returned, one eye was ruined, and the other wasn't good either. Everything was a blur to him; he could only recognize people when they were close. The villagers say that in their line of work, one must always suffer one of the 'Five Hardships and Three Deficiencies.' Because his eyes were bad, his fortune-telling was accurate."

Chen Mu lowered his eyes, his gaze falling once more upon the tiny corpse.

A half-blind fortune teller who couldn't even protect his own daughter.

A Yin and Yang master who could arrange marriages, choose auspicious dates, and read Feng Shui for the entire village.

The man who had handled the birth charts of all the missing girls.

Where had he gone now?

Chen Mu slowly stood up, his gaze passing over the crowd to look at the rolling mountain shadows.

"Search."

"He couldn't have gone far. Brother Wan, you know these mountains best. Lead the way. Once we enter the mountains, split up and search. Go in pairs; do not go alone."

"Once Li Tiezui is found, bring him back immediately, regardless of whether he is lucid or not."

Everyone complied. Chen Mu didn't look at the corpse again and turned to step out of the courtyard.

Outside the courtyard, a woman from some household finally couldn't help but burst into loud wailing.

...

As the sun tilted toward the west, Chen Mu had already been traversing these mountain ridges for several hours.

The mountains surrounding Kaoshan Village weren't particularly steep, but they were filled with crisscrossing gullies and overgrown forests. He, Wan Chongshan, and Feng Qing had split into three groups, each taking a few helpful villagers, and had meticulously searched along the directions Li Tiezui might have fled.

Forget a person; they hadn't even found many fresh footprints.

Wan Chongshan was anxious, his voice cracking as he called out Li Tiezui's name over and over. Feng Qing remained silent, but he stooped to examine every thicket and earthen bank they passed, not letting any suspicious trace escape him.

Chen Mu stood on a bluestone halfway up the mountain, looking down without speaking.

The matter weighing on his mind was heavier than finding a person.

That little girl, Li Yinglian, was eight or nine years old with two braids. When Li Tiezui went out to tell fortunes, she would be in the courtyard shelling beans. If someone passed by, she would look up and softly call them 'Uncle' or 'Auntie' in a voice as delicate as a fledgling bird's.

The villagers said that Li Tiezui loved this daughter to his very core.

He feared she would be cold in winter and hot in summer. He couldn't bear to spend the copper coins he earned on new clothes for himself, but he would always bring back a piece of malt candy for his daughter whenever there was a market fair.

If anyone teased him by saying, 'Uncle Tiezui is saving up a dowry for Yinglian,' he would squint his poor eyes and smile until his face was full of wrinkles.

If such a father had truly conspired with a demon and leaked the birth charts of the four village girls, why would that demon devour his only daughter?

To silence him?

No!

Chen Mu dismissed the thought. If Li Tiezui were truly an insider, the Bat King would have just killed him to silence him. Why bother brutally murdering an eight or nine-year-old girl and leaving the remains everywhere, driving Li Tiezui to run into the deep mountains in a state of madness?