"First, we have to start with the Zhuo Wenbai family."
Li Ang looked toward Guan Anyan, smiling. "Do you still remember the black fish they cooked especially for us when we visited their home?"
Guan Anyan naturally remembered how Li Ang had devoured an entire pot of fish in one go.
"Not long after eating that pot of black fish, I saw a blurred image of the woman in the painting."
Li Ang took out the piece of paper from his bosom, deliberately concealing the fact that the Ink Silk Clone possessed the ability to ruminate, and that seeing the image was actually a result of it ruminating and then re-chewing the black fish.
"At that time, I found it odd. According to Mr. and Mrs. Zhuo, the Qi Shui God was the source of the black fish. The vision one should see after eating the black fish ought to be of the young Qi Shui God in the Qi Shui Temple. Why was it a woman? Could it be that the Qi Shui God transformed into the Qihuai Lady?"
Li Ang said, "In the field of folklore, it’s not unheard of for deities to change from male to female, or vice versa. For instance, before the Yu Dynasty, Guanyin Bodhisattva was mostly depicted in male form. The Hua Yan Sutra states: ’The brave and valiant man, Guanyin.’ Only after the establishment of the Yu Country, as the tale of Princess Miao Shan spread, did Guanyin gradually come to be depicted in female form. However, in the tales of the Qihuai Lady, there is no such description at all. The Qihuai Lady seems to be a deity that appeared out of thin air, with no folk belief lineage or evolutionary connection to the Qi Shui God. Thus, the Qi Shui God and the Qihuai Lady exist independently."
Li Ang put away the painting, speaking lightly, "This is the first point of suspicion. The second point of suspicion is the questionable family register in the Qi Shui Village ancestral hall, and the varying conditions of the coffins on the gravehill. In the Qi Shui Village genealogy, for the first eighty years after the village was established, not a single villager lived beyond seventy-five. And on the gravehill, the coffins from within those eighty years were all empty, without a single corpse. Strange, isn’t it? Although the villagers of Qi Shui came from various parts of Hedong Road, with different hometowns, they all share the concept of laying their ancestors to rest in the earth. Even if conditions were difficult, they wouldn’t let their ancestors be buried in the wilderness, waiting until they had money to set up a Tomb of Clothing or something similar. So, where have all the bodies gone?"
He glanced at the others, their brows furrowed, and continued, "The third point of suspicion is this."
He took out another piece of paper from his bosom, which had many winding lines of text.
Ji Xingwang recognized the type of writing at a glance; the text on Li Ang’s piece of paper was oracle bone script, and the content was the same as what he had seen on the stele, and even more detailed.
"’A Jia Wu divination, not auspicious today for use...’"
Ji Xingwang read the content word by word, suddenly halting, looking shocked at the character after "use"—"...Qiang."
Yu Shusheng’s brow furrowed. He knew what Qiang meant, of course. The Shang Kingdom was surrounded by tribes and states formed by other ethnic groups. To the north was the Ghost Country, to the south the Hu Fang, to the east the Yi Fang, and to the west the Qiang. Wars never ceased. But "use Qiang"? What did that mean?
"In Chewed script, ’Qiang’ has many forms and variants. For example, in the human-shaped ’Qiang’ character, adding a hand symbol at the neck signifies the capture of Qiang people. Adding a rope around the neck and a stone lock indicates using ropes and stone locks to imprison Qiang people. There’s also a form using a rope plus the character for fire, which signifies..."
Ji Xingwang took a deep breath, speaking slowly, "The Ritual Records state that the Yin people revered the gods, led the people in religious affairs, and prioritized ghosts before rites for ancestors. The Yin Shang continued this lineage; the Shang people placed great emphasis on warfare and sacrifices. They needed to perform divination for all major events to satisfy the myriad gods, who were as numerous as the stars in the sky. To appease these numerous gods, they expended vast amounts of resources on divinations, which included livestock, Bronze Artifacts, jade, pottery, as well as slaves, prisoners of war, and barbarians."
Li Ang nodded. "The sacrifices of the Shang Dynasty were extremely cruel and barbaric. They regarded slaves and barbarians as pigs and dogs, even less than domestic animals. Killing slaves and barbarians was, like breathing or sleeping, an exceedingly common and normal thing. Use Qiang, use Qiang... Killing the Qiang people was as commonplace and casual as using a consumable item."
Yu Shusheng’s face grew even paler. He suddenly remembered the character that followed ’use Qiang’—the one representing ’to stew’ or ’to boil.’
"These characters are what I copied from a piece of oracle bones I found within the lakebed’s rock strata after I dived to the bottom of the lake," Li Ang said. "Apart from more black fish at the bottom of the lake, there’s also a convoluted cavity. Inside the cavity sits a huge Bronze Artifact, called a Yan. It must be an ancient mutated object, and also the root of everything in Qi Shui Village."
"You were able to dive to the bottom of the lake?" Wang Linian’s tone finally held a trace of change. "That’s impossible. The waters of Qi Shui Lake are filled with resentment and hatred. Even a Cloud Patrol Realm cultivator, fully prepared, wouldn’t be able to dive all the way to the bottom..."
He trailed off mid-sentence. According to the Taiyuan Wang Family’s contact in the Chang’an Ghost Market, Lu Fei was very likely the successor of the Former Sui pirate sect, the Nine-headed Snake Demon. Having some special Water Avoidance Technique wouldn’t be too strange.
Li Ang wouldn’t explain the uniqueness of the Ink Silk Clone, merely offering a slight smile and letting Wang Linian draw his own conclusions.
Yu Yong couldn’t help but ask, "What is a Yan..."
"A Yan is a type of bronze cooking vessel from the Shang Dynasty, which, as a ritual vessel, continued to be passed down to the Han Dynasty. If you go to the houses of those who live in opulence, perhaps you can still find one," Ji Xingwang said eerily. "A Yan consists of two parts. The top is a round barrel used to hold food, known as the Zeng. The bottom of the Zeng is a perforated plate, called the grill. Below the grill, the lower part is a high-footed base that supports the container, called the ceramic. When in use, wood is placed under the ceramic and lit. Water in the ceramic turns to steam, rises through the holes in the grill, and heats the Zeng, thereby steaming the food."
"That’s right," Li Ang nodded and said, "The entire Yan is enormous, over ten meters in diameter, and its top is completely sealed by a heavy bronze plate. The base below it is deeply buried in the mud, immovable. Such a huge Yan, even with powerful cultivators in the Shang Kingdom, could not have been easily cast. Moreover, its material is quite special; apart from bronze, it’s mixed with other unique materials that have allowed it to remain unoxidized, uncorroded, and intact underwater for thousands of years. Also, do you remember that character in the Chewed script, the one representing ’to cook by steaming’? The entire Yan is a tool used to torment Qiang slaves and to delight the ghosts and spirits. Considering that on our way here, I was constantly using my steps to gauge the tunnel’s position relative to the ancestral hall’s distance and direction, the place where we are standing right now should be directly beneath Qi Shui Lake. And beyond that stone gate lies the bottom of the Yan."
The sound of applause came from behind the stone gate.
From the shadows behind Wang Linian, a figure slowly emerged. It was a young man, about twenty years old, wearing a filthy green shirt. His face was also quite dirty, yet his handsome appearance and refined demeanor were hard to hide. He was precisely the person Li Ang and his party were searching for—Chu Haoman.
He stepped slowly through the stone door, standing shoulder to shoulder with the expressionless Wang Linian.
Li Ang watched the scene unfold with keen interest. Yu Yong and Yu Shusheng were stunned into disbelief, while Ji Xingwang and his disciple, Guan Anyan, felt not only profound shock but also anger.
Guan Anyan clenched her fists, staring at Chu Haoman and shouting sternly, "Senior Brother!"
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Chu Haoman gave a bitter laugh, bowed to Guan Anyan and Ji Xingwang, then said sincerely to Ji Xingwang, "Teacher, I’ve let you down."
Ji Xingwang was silent for a long while, then slowly asked, "Why?"
"Why come here? Why make everyone worry? Why conspire with Wang Linian? Why put your junior sister in danger?"
Ji Xingwang’s words were as calm as ever, but his tone contained an unwavering, iron will.
Chu Haoman took a deep breath, bowed again, and calmly replied, "I did this out of necessity, not for myself, but for the safety of the countless common people in Bingzhou City, Taiyuan County, and even all of Hedong Road."