I felt that the second water ghost entering the village didn't quite trust those who were there to greet it. That's why it sent someone ahead as a scout.

Perhaps the second water ghost wasn't the main player either, and the real ghost king was the woman standing in the water?

When I walked back into the village, the coffin bearers all crowded around me. "Mr. Li, did you drive the water ghost back?"

"It retreated for now. You should all go back and be careful tonight." I deliberately took two steps back. "Don't get too close to me. The yin energy on me hasn't dissipated yet. It wouldn't be good if it hurt you."

After the villagers backed away, Old Liu Tou dismissed them. He followed me, quietly asking, "Mr. Li, is the village's situation really bad?"

Before I could speak, Old Liu Tou continued, "Even when the water ghosts caused trouble before, they never came into the village to kill people. They only made a fuss by the river. This time, it almost rushed into the village entrance… I'm thinking, is something wrong in the village?"

I asked calmly, "Didn't you say that the ancestors of the seven families all died in the village?"

"That's what I heard people say!" Old Liu Tou said, "But I never saw the village flooded like this before! What's going on this time?"

I asked again, "Have these seven families in the village had any conflicts? Also, are there any young people in the village who are determined to leave?"

Old Liu Tou thought for a moment and said, "There are bound to be minor squabbles in the village, but there really aren't any irreconcilable feuds."

"As for wanting to leave, everyone in the village dreams of leaving. Who wouldn't want to see the outside world? Who would want to be stuck in this village forever?"

Old Liu Tou's words were impeccable. Everything he said seemed reasonable.

However, reasonable things also cut off my leads. Without a motive, anyone could be a suspect. I couldn't possibly investigate everyone one by one, could I?

Even if I wanted to do that, the water ghost wouldn't give me the time.

After thinking about it, I asked again, "There are water ghosts outside the village. Can you still go out fishing? Has anyone fallen into the water and been rescued?"

Old Liu Tou said, "We fish during the time when the yang energy is at its peak. If we encounter a cloudy day, we don't go out. Besides, we don't just rely on fishing to make a living. We also have mountain ginseng that we cultivate in the back mountain."

"As for people falling into the water and coming back? There really aren't any. When that fish isn't around, nothing happens when we go into the water. But if that fish comes out, going into the water is certain death."

I continued to ask, "You keep talking about that fish. When does that fish come out?"

"It's hard to say!" Old Liu Tou said, "If we knew when that fish would come out, so many people wouldn't have died in the village."

As I nodded and walked towards the village, I asked again, "Who goes to Old Wang's house often?"

"A lot of people go there," Old Liu Tou said. "If you're talking about going there often, it's just three or five old women who bring food to Er Zhu Zi."

When I initially focused on the Wang family, I didn't consider the water ghost's intention in entering the village. Now it seemed that Old Wang's house was the entrance for the water ghost to enter the village. The village's mole was there to meet the first water ghost.

However, that ghost couldn't leave the willow tree's range, and its corpse was locked down by some force. But its soul, I didn't know where it had run off to.

Old Wang's family only had Er Zhu Zi, an idiot, making it the most inconspicuous place.

However, the difficulty lay in the fact that Er Zhu Zi was an idiot. If I wanted to get something out of him, I had to coax it out bit by bit.

Sometimes, I really think smart people are easy to deceive, but idiots are not. If they are fixed on a certain idea, they won't tell you what they saw even if you beat them to death.

I'm afraid Old Liu Tou will have to handle this!

I returned to Old Liu Tou's house and took out the incense burner again. When I was fighting earlier, the incense burner was in Old Liu Tou's hands the whole time. Only now did I have the time to examine it carefully.

As I was concentrating on looking at the incense burner, Er Zhu Zi, who was squatting at the door, suddenly said, "Grandma, I'm hungry!"

I subconsciously turned my head and saw that Er Zhu Zi was talking to the incense burner!

Old Liu Tou wanted to go and get something for Er Zhu Zi to eat, but I pulled him back. "Let him be hungry!"

As soon as I said "Let him be hungry," Er Zhu Zi immediately started to cry. "Grandma, I'm hungry."

Er Zhu Zi was still talking to the incense burner. There must be a secret in the incense burner.

I gave Old Liu Tou a look, and the latter went to find something for Er Zhu Zi to eat. I stood up, drew Bai Zhou (Daybreak), and raised my hand, slashing down at the incense burner.

Before Bai Zhou's blade even touched the edge of the incense burner, the outer layer of the incense burner cracked open under the impact of the blade aura, revealing a bronze interior.

The incense burner was wrapped in a layer of copper?

I pulled out my dagger and scraped along the crack a few times. After large pieces of brass fell off the incense burner, its original appearance was finally revealed.

"A bronze ding (ancient Chinese cauldron)!"

Engraved on the bronze ding that I had uncovered was a ghost's head.

Old Liu Tou said in a trembling voice, "Is this a magic tool?"

"No, this is an evil artifact!" I said in a deep voice, "If I'm not mistaken, there's more than just this one evil artifact in Fish Basket Village."