"Second Young Master mentioned that Master Wu had a serious illness many years ago and almost died," Jiang Cheng naturally connected this event with the current speculation.

Li Bai nodded in agreement. "That's right, I remember that too. What's even more suspicious is that after that incident, Second Young Master described Master Wu as if he had become a different person. He became distant from his brothers, and from then on, the Wu family completely changed their attitude towards the townspeople, providing them with free medical care and medicine."

"More than that, I remember they even gave out coffins," Fatty added.

"Coffins?" Luo Tianhe, who had been silent, seemed to suddenly remember something. After a moment, cold sweat began to trickle down his cheeks. Luo Tianhe's body trembled slightly; he had never been so out of control before. "Zhong Ying! It’s...it’s Zhong Ying (infant implantation)!"

"No wonder he gained so many years of life for no reason. That damned fellow, he actually dared to use such an evil technique to prolong his life. He's crazy, really crazy. He deserves such an end, and he's even dragging the entire Wu family down with him..." Luo Tianhe muttered to himself, his expression almost insane.

Among these people, only Yuan Shanyuan's knowledge could compare with Luo Tianhe's. After hearing the words Zhong Ying, Yuan Shanyuan was also stunned, and his expression became similar to Luo Tianhe's. "Those women... no wonder, no wonder! Those resentful infants have such a strong resentment, so that's why." Yuan Shanyuan looked enlightened.

This made Fatty anxious. He hated the feeling of being kept in the dark when everyone else understood, which reminded him of the days when he first entered the mission.

Fortunately, after Luo Tianhe calmed down, he began to explain to them that the so-called Zhong Ying was an extremely sinister method that involved killing infants in a cruel way and then burying them deep in one's ancestral grave or residence, continuously stealing the infants' original lifespans for one's own use.

Moreover, this ritual had to be performed every year. Once interrupted, it would be backfired, and the caster's death would be horrifying.

Needless to say, the caster in this case was undoubtedly Master Wu.

After Fatty understood, he gnashed his teeth at Master Wu's actions. "He should have died at the age of 40, but now he's lived for 20 more years. The ritual has to be performed every year, which means at least 20 children have died at his hands. What a sin!"

Yuan Shanyuan shook his head, his voice revealing a complex feeling of fatigue and helplessness, which was rare for him. "You're underestimating it. Zhong Ying doesn't involve just one child at a time, but nine. Nine infants together are needed to make it work."

In the past 20 years, nearly 200 children had died at the hands of Master Wu. This number made Jiang Cheng, Yao Shunyu, and the others silent. Everyone began to truly understand Luo Tianhe's previous words: Did the Wu family slaughter a city to attract so many evil things?

The matter was already relatively clear, but Luo Tianhe cautiously said that they still needed to find concrete evidence. Everyone would go out to find clues during the day. Now that they had a direction, the process would be much simpler.

This matter came to an end, and the sky had completely brightened. The surrounding darkness gradually receded, and everyone had safely survived the most difficult night, giving them the feeling of being reborn.

"Let's settle this coffin first, and then we'll go back." Luo Tianhe gave everyone an explanation. He arranged for everyone to work together to carry the coffin to a place further away, where it wouldn't be shaded by trees.

Since everyone was very careful, there were no accidents during the搬运 (bānyùn - carrying) process, but before putting down the coffin, Jiang Cheng first squatted down to make sure there were no gravel or anything like that on the ground. Luo Tianhe and the others also took the opportunity to lift the coffin higher.

The next second, Jiang Cheng's eyes paused. He saw a strange pattern on the bottom of the coffin.

It wasn't really a pattern; it was more like a distorted character.

This discovery was significant and immediately attracted the attention of Luo Tianhe and the others. Yuan Shanyuan squatted down and leaned half of his body under the coffin. After careful identification, Yuan Shanyuan confirmed that it was the character "昏 (hūn - dim, muddled)," and it was very old, almost worn away.

It was already strange for there to be a character under the coffin. Generally, characters are not engraved on the bottom of coffins, because ancient people also had a respect for writing. It was not good for the dead to have characters pressed under their bodies, especially names or surnames.

Having a person's name under the coffin implied that the person would never be able to turn over in their next life.

"Judging from the shape, this character should be a surname or a title," Yuan Shanyuan seemed to know a lot about this and spoke with confidence.

"Someone's surname is 昏 (hūn)? I've never heard of it. And who would use the character 昏 (hūn) as a title? I've only heard of 昏君 (hūnjūn - foolish ruler)," Fatty said bluntly.

"A burial coffin isn't supposed to have a surname. This should be referring to the one in the main coffin," Luo Tianhe suddenly said.