Chapter 84: Chapter 84: Unnatural Phenomenon, The Mystery in the Arrest Officer’s Past_1
The disastrous defeat at the Rooster Crow Temple sparked a heated discussion in Black Rain City and its surrounding villages. Xu Sui became the target of public criticism, as out of the over five hundred people who set out, only about thirty returned. Most of those who returned belonged to the Martial Arts Hall or the Dart Bureau; not a single member of the Mud Gang survived.
As a result, there was constant unrest at Xiongwei Martial Arts Hall, with people causing trouble every day.
The government merely watched with indifference, having also lost a Government Official in the chaos.
However, Xiongwei Martial Arts Hall paid no mind to the commotion. They never expected a ghost-extermination mission to be a walk in the park or a cash grab. Everyone participating had received payment and signed a life-and-death agreement, something even the government found hard to dispute.
When people died and their families started causing trouble, did they think the life-and-death agreement was merely for show?
The expedition of over five hundred people had cost Xu Sui more than 3,000 taels of silver, far exceeding the initial budget of 1,000 taels.
If they thought the risk wasn’t worth it, they shouldn’t have participated or signed the life-and-death agreement in the first place. Since they were now causing trouble after deaths had occurred, they couldn’t blame Xu Sui for taking action.
Xu Sui hadn’t established his martial arts hall in Black Rain City on integrity alone; he had also relied on being tough and ruthless.
As long as he held their signed life-and-death agreements, families of the deceased who came to cause trouble were first kindly dissuaded. If they persisted in their disruptive behavior, they were forcibly ejected.
Wang Linchi never planned to interfere. After all, Xu Sui was mainly to blame for this mess; what did it have to do with him?
Relying on the forces of Black Rain City to eliminate the Rooster Crow Temple was clearly no longer an option. Even combined, they were no match for the Headless Ghost.
Those three days had been a total waste of time.
In the end, he could only rely on himself.
Still, it had to be said, the Xiongwei Martial Arts Hall and Zhenyuan Escort Agency were remarkably ruthless. Not only did they show no remorse, but they also introduced a corpse collection service.
All the deceased were left outside the Rooster Crow Temple. Due to the fearsome reputation the Headless Ghost had gained from the battle, the families of the dead didn’t dare approach. If they wanted to retrieve the bodies, they had to pay these organizations to do it.
This practice caused the reputations of both organizations to plummet.
Neither Xiongwei Martial Arts Hall nor Zhenyuan Escort Agency cared. Their clientele had never been the common folk but rather the wealthy households and Great Families of Black Rain City.
Where would commoners find the money to hire dart bureaus to escort their goods, or have the spare funds to learn martial arts?
Both factions focused on the elite. Since returning from Rooster Crow Temple, Xu Sui had been incredibly busy, constantly in communication with Black Rain City’s government and wealthy families.
Wang Linchi didn’t know what they were discussing, as he had been busy investigating the original circumstances of the Rooster Crow Temple incident.
The government did have some case files, which Wang Linchi smoothly obtained through his connections with Xiongwei Martial Arts Hall. He even managed to find the arrest officer who had originally investigated the case.
More than ten years had passed. The man was no longer an arrest officer and was enjoying his retirement at home, surrounded by his grandchildren.
"Rooster Crow Temple? Why would a young gentleman like you be asking about that old affair?" The man, Li Huai, appeared to be in his sixties. He was the arrest officer who had presided over the Rooster Crow Temple case back then and, despite his age, was still quite robust and in high spirits.
"It’s been causing quite a stir recently, so I grew curious. I’d heard of Constable Li’s commendable work back then and wanted to pay my respects," Wang Linchi replied. He hadn’t come empty-handed, bringing good wine, fine tea, and several hearty dishes.
Otherwise, if he had just shown up asking questions empty-handed, there was no telling if the old constable might conveniently forget crucial details.
"Hahaha, enough with the flattery, young man. You think I don’t know what’s going on? That lad Xu Sui took your reward money and botched the job spectacularly. He deserves all the trouble he’s in now!" Li Huai said, waving a hand dismissively. Though his words discouraged praise, the grin stretching nearly to his ears showed he was genuinely pleased.
Since his retirement, many of his former connections had faded, a common case of ’out of sight, out of mind.’
"However," Li Huai continued, "the official story was that it was wandering bandits, but whether that was true is another matter entirely.
"When I investigated back then, the scene was very strange. The traces didn’t look like they were left by humans; it seemed more like the work of demons or ghosts." Li Huai took a sip of wine, his eyes narrowing as he spoke.
While he was still serving, it wouldn’t have been appropriate for him to say such things. After all, the higher-ups in Black Rain City had officially declared it a case of banditry, and he couldn’t very well contradict their conclusion.
But now, those officials have long since been replaced, so it no longer matters.
"What about the heads, then?" Wang Linchi pressed. "Did you, Constable Li, ever find out what happened to the heads of the monks and the Buddha statue?"
"No. We searched every inch of Rooster Crow Temple, even dug three feet deep into the ground, but found nothing.
"We even scoured the surrounding areas. The heads had vanished without a trace," Li Huai concealed nothing.
"There’s another question," Wang Linchi said. "Why weren’t the monks’ bodies collected and buried? Leaving them in Rooster Crow Temple allowed them to become the Headless Ghosts we see today." He sensed there was more to this story.
The Headless Ghosts weren’t actually ghosts in the spectral sense. They were more like reanimated corpses, akin to zombies—a phenomenon that shouldn’t occur under normal circumstances.
"It’s because they reanimated—became like zombies—within four hours of our arrival at the temple. Our original plan was to find the monks’ heads and then bury the bodies together.
"You see, Rooster Crow Temple isn’t large. Logically, the bandits couldn’t have carried all those heads far, so we figured they must have been discarded somewhere within the temple grounds or nearby.
"By the time we completed a full search of the area and returned, all the monks’ corpses had transformed into those Headless Ghosts.
"Strangely enough, though, the Headless Ghosts back then weren’t as formidable as they are now. They weren’t impervious to blades and spears, nor did they possess Unmatched Power. In fact, I even managed to wound one of them myself back in the day."
Li Huai explained the sequence of events. As for why they didn’t eliminate the Headless Ghosts at that time, the reason was simple: they were afraid.
They were arrest officers, not demon hunters or exorcists. It was only natural for them to retreat.
If every constable were selflessly dedicated to protecting the people, Black Rain City and the surrounding villages wouldn’t be coexisting so ’peacefully’ with all the demons and ghosts. There are quite a few lairs of such creatures in the vicinity.
So bizarre? Wang Linchi was genuinely surprised.
"Indeed, it was bizarre," Li Huai affirmed. "On the night Rooster Crow Temple was massacred, there was no Black Rain, no White Wind. The corpses reanimated with unnatural speed. It was precisely because of this strangeness that the higher-ups ordered a halt to the investigation.
"If you hadn’t stirred things up again, Rooster Crow Temple would have remained quiet. Those Headless Ghosts never caused trouble outside the temple walls." Li Huai, in fact, knew that Rooster Crow Temple had always been quiescent; no incidents ever occurred unless someone was foolish enough to enter the temple itself. Merely wandering around the vicinity was perfectly safe.
Subsequently, Wang Linchi posed many more questions. Li Huai answered what he knew and offered his best conjectures for matters he wasn’t certain about.
The case had left a profound impression on Li Huai; after all, it was a massacre. The monks of Rooster Crow Temple hadn’t been wicked men; he himself had visited the temple in the past to offer incense and pay respects.
After meticulously recording a wealth of information, Wang Linchi asked Li Huai if there had been any unusual phenomena or omens observed before or after the Rooster Crow Temple massacre.
If humans weren’t responsible, then it must have been the work of demons or ghosts.
Wang Linchi surmised that the missing heads of the monks and the Buddha statue were likely the key to resolving this Secret Realm’s objective.
After all, the clues pointed so obviously in that direction. If the heads weren’t critical, why else would they have vanished so completely and mysteriously?