Chapter 18 Corpse Oil

Jiang Cheng retracted his gaze and said, "Any problems will be investigated. Now, focus and go take a look at the altar."

The altar was set up by the man who claimed to be a Heavenly Master Taoist priest, and it was also the site of his death, so clues might have been left behind.

Without much effort, they found the Heavenly Master Taoist priest's altar among several buildings. Outside the altar stood a strange flag with a yellow border, like a magical artifact from a novel's sect.

However, surprisingly, the center of the altar was covered with a white cloth, under which a human figure was vaguely raised. A pair of cloth shoes protruded from under the white cloth, listlessly tilted to one side.

White background, black surface, with yin-yang symbols embroidered on the shoe surface.

Without a doubt, it was the unfortunate Heavenly Master Taoist's corpse. "This old Taoist is quite miserable," Fatty said. "No one is even collecting his corpse after he died."

They had seen more than a dozen corpses in the police station's basement, all of whom Chief Qiao said were members of the Feng family. It seemed that apart from their own family members, they didn't care much about the corpses of outsiders.

Covering it with a white cloth and leaving it there, ignoring it.

"It seems that the Feng family is indeed having a hard time protecting themselves, otherwise they would never have left an outsider's corpse here like this," Zhao Xingguo said in a strange tone.

Opposite this altar was the Feng family's ancestral hall, with rows of black spirit tablets inside. It could be seen that many of the tablets were brand new.

Leaving an outsider's corpse opposite their own ancestral hall was, at the very least, disrespectful to their ancestors, and at worst, it would ruin their family's feng shui.

Especially in the old society where conservative customs prevailed, this could lead to deaths.

But this was not within everyone's consideration. They only wanted to find clues and end the mission as soon as possible. As for whether the Feng family would die violently or not, no one cared.

"Don't touch the corpse yet," Zhao Xingguo suggested. "Let's search the altar first. If anyone finds any clues, don't hide them."

Seemingly to increase his persuasiveness, Zhao Xingguo hesitated for a moment and continued, "I also did some investigation when I came. The last team that came here was unusual. Na Ruhu once led a team to solve many supernatural events. Even he failed. The danger here is imaginable."

Everyone else took these nonsense words with a grain of salt, which made Zhao Xingguo very depressed, but he couldn't vent his anger.

The altar was set up rather crudely, showing that it was arranged in a rather hasty manner. A purple sandalwood offering table was placed in the center.

On the offering table were three large, yellow-orange plates. Jiang Cheng reached out and gently tapped them, making a dull sound. They were made of copper and were very heavy.

The corpse fell in front of the offering table, head facing the table, feet facing outward.

But what was incomprehensible was that such plates, in everyone's impression, were used to hold offerings, but now, the plates were empty.

After staring at the plates for a while, Jiang Cheng reached out and gently touched the inside of the plates a few times. Then, as if he felt something, he rubbed his fingers together.

Huai Yi looked relatively nervous. The mission was only one aspect, and the more important thing was the current situation.

On one side was Deep Red, and on the other was the Night Watcher. Once their identities were exposed, the outcome would likely be endless conflict.

More importantly, judging from the situation they encountered when they came, the Night Watcher had already noticed this place. Even if they could leave safely, they might run into a large group of Night Watchers as soon as they went out.

"Brother Cheng, did you find anything?" Huai Yi asked, noticing Jiang Cheng's actions.

"Very slippery, and a bit greasy," Jiang Cheng brought his fingers to his nose and gently sniffed. "It's grease."

A few seconds later, Jiang Cheng's expression changed, and the look in his eyes towards the plates was also a bit strange.

"What's wrong?" Linghu Yong asked quickly.

"This grease has a very peculiar odor," Jiang Cheng then squatted down and wiped the grease on his hand on the shroud covering the unfortunate Taoist priest until it was clean before withdrawing his hand.

Fatty: "..."

Hearing that the grease had a smell, everyone gathered around to look, but no one followed Jiang Cheng's example of touching it with their hands. "Could it be corpse oil?" Pan Du's face looked a little ugly.

"No," Fu Fu picked up a plate, sniffed it, and then put it down, affirming, "The smell of corpse oil is stronger than this."

"But it's not entirely impossible. I heard that corpse oil made from fresh corpses is different from corpse oil made from rotten corpses," Fu Fu said naturally, seemingly unaware of how others would think of her saying such things in this situation.

"Damn, how do you know so clearly? Could it be that you Night Watchers have also come into contact with such ghastly things?" Fatty asked in surprise.

Hearing this, Fu Fu raised her head and glanced at Fatty. "We Night Watchers naturally disdain doing such things, but our mortal enemies, the Deep Red Society, are said to skewer living people on huge iron skewers and roast them over a fire until they sizzle with oil."

Hearing this, Huai Yi's heart skipped a beat, and he looked at Jiang Cheng, Fatty, and Lin Wan'er with different eyes.

No one paid attention to him. After checking the room, everyone focused their attention on the corpse on the ground. Luo He, who had been silent all along, slowly lifted the white cloth covering the corpse.

Although they were prepared, everyone couldn't help but feel a chill when that extremely eerie face came into view.

The Taoist priest's face had no color at all, his eyebrows raised exaggeratedly, his eyes slightly open, revealing the whites of his eyes, which had already changed color and turned yellow, and his mouth was open, revealing his white teeth.

He was indeed a man dressed as a Taoist priest, wearing a Taoist robe, cloth shoes embroidered with yin-yang symbols, white hair, and a long beard hanging down.

If it weren't for that face being so eerie, he would really have a bit of an immortal air about him.

On both sides of his body were placed a yin-yang Eight Trigrams mirror and a peach wood sword.

The mirror seemed to be more than a hundred years old. The copper frame was covered with bumps and scratches, but the mirror surface was as bright as new.

In the light, it emitted a dim yellow light. Jiang Cheng stared at himself in the mirror, and a strange feeling arose in his heart.

"Look," Pi Ruan's voice rang out. He had sharp eyes and was the first to notice the abnormality under the Taoist priest's body.

Pan Du and Linghu Yong moved the Taoist priest's corpse, and everyone suddenly discovered that there were actually more than a dozen straw dolls pressed under the Taoist priest's body.

The straw dolls were crudely made, like something a child would casually tie up when bored.

The straw dolls were of different sizes, but other than that, there was nothing special about them. "This Taoist priest has a lot of equipment. He probably planned to use these straw dolls to show off in front of the host family, but before he could make it to dawn, he died first," Pan Du said after examining the straw dolls and finding nothing unusual.

He casually threw the straw dolls back on the ground. After falling a few times, they lay quietly beside the Taoist priest, motionless.