"Doing a good deed?" Ke Wuwen asked, utterly confused. "What kind of good deed is this?"
"How is this not a good deed?" Tong Zheng smiled. "These two sisters, due to the rumors of harming those close to them, would certainly not be able to make friends. Let alone friends, it's likely very few people would even be willing to speak more than a few words to them."
Ke Wuwen nodded, understanding dawning slowly. "So that's how it is. What then?"
"Then?" Jiang Zheng sighed. "Then, Xiao Rou fell in love with this man, arguably the only outsider willing to be close to them. Even knowing he didn't have long to live, even though her sister desperately tried to make her see reality, she still loved this man uncontrollably. And, sigh, she even tried to find a way to save him."
"Is that what's depicted in the mural?" Ke Wuwen exclaimed. "Is she insane? If what the idol saw is the true situation, then for the sake of saving someone who was already dying, she killed so many children? She's truly mad."
"More than mad, she's possessed," Jiang Zheng said with a sarcastic laugh. "The village chief told us that later, the man's condition worsened dramatically, and he was almost in a coma every day. We don't know what dark arts Xiao Rou learned, but she killed all the children under eight in the village overnight. However, just as she was performing the ritual to save the man, all the deceased children suddenly began to cry, one after another, their cries shaking the heavens."
"That's too cruel," You Mi couldn't help but say, frowning.
"What happened next?" Ke Wuwen eagerly pressed.
Jiang Zheng looked at Ke Wuwen speechlessly. "What happened next? The rest, hasn't Jing Minghe already told you? It's the part on the mural, the part he can see but we cannot. The ritual failed, the man and the bodies of those children all turned to ash, and the village became a purgatory." Su Dan Novel Network
After hearing Jiang Zheng's account, Tong Zheng asked doubtfully, "According to the mural content described by Minghe, and the previous notebook entry, this girl named Xiao Rou later learned how to save her hometown, which was to eliminate the Eight Great Evil Spirits. How did she know?"
Jing Minghe, who had been listening quietly, finally spoke. "Brother Jiang, besides this, is there anything else? Regarding this Xiao Rou."
"Yes," Jiang Zheng nodded. "Earlier, in the main hall of the Dragon King Temple, I only told you I went to find Xiao Xi, but I didn't tell you that I got clues from her."
Ke Wuwen was skeptical. "Can you get clues from a madwoman?"
Jing Minghe smiled faintly. "Such people either reveal nothing, or they provide very important clues. Go ahead, Brother Jiang."
As Jiang Zheng was about to speak, he inadvertently met Chi Hao's eyes. A bone-chilling coldness flashed by, leaving Jiang Zheng utterly bewildered. He couldn't recall ever offending Chi Hao.
"Brother Jiang? Is something wrong?"
After Jing Minghe's question, Jiang Zheng felt that coldness again. It was still fleeting, but it was absolutely real.
Jiang Zheng felt an inexplicable unease. He tried to ignore the cold and turned to Jing Minghe. "No, what she said was very jumbled. I need to organize it a bit."
"I see."
Jiang Zheng cleared his throat and said, "The day before yesterday, I went to see her. I didn't know anything then. After seeing her, I only asked her one question. I asked her, 'Has anything strange ever happened in your village?' After I asked that, she covered her face with her hands and repeatedly shook her head, saying, 'It wasn't me, it wasn't me. The person in the mirror isn't me.' Then I searched her house thoroughly and found that there was no mirror in her house at all."
After Jiang Zheng finished speaking, Ke Wuwen shook his head, trying to think while repeating what he considered important. "The person in the mirror isn't me? But she has no mirror in her house. Mirror?"
Speaking of mirrors, Ke Wuwen picked up the four fan-shaped mirrors on the table and fiddled with them, muttering, "These four fan-shaped mirrors can be combined into a round mirror."
He then leaned in and looked at himself. "But, the person in the mirror is me."
"Right, besides what I just said, there's one more thing," Jiang Zheng hesitated. "But it's probably not needed anymore."
Jing Minghe said, "No matter, tell us first."
"Mhm," Jiang Zheng nodded. "After the ritual failed, Xiao Rou was already grief-stricken. Seeing her hometown reduced to a purgatory because of her, she originally wanted to commit suicide. But before atoning, she decided to save her hometown. She found the right method, but was still tricked by the Eight Great Evil Spirits."
Jiang Zheng sighed. "Xiao Xi doesn't know what method Xiao Rou used to identify the Eight Great Evil Spirits back then, but after successfully eliminating four of them, she mistakenly killed four innocent people consecutively."
"Four humans?" Ke Wuwen suddenly realized. "Could they be the four people we were looking for in the mass grave?"
"Yes, Xiao Xi said that the Blood Jade Cudgel was stolen by those four people. I didn't know what the Blood Jade Cudgel was at the time, but I remember everything she said."
Ke Wuwen was confused again. "Those four people are already dead. What did they want with the Blood Jade Cudgel? Could they have planned to eliminate the Eight Great Evil Spirits themselves?"
Jiang Zheng shook his head. "I don't know that. After all, what Xiao Xi said at the time was very jumbled, like the ramblings of a madwoman."
"I suspect," Jing Minghe interjected, "there are two possible reasons why they stole the Blood Jade Cudgel."
Ke Wuwen immediately leaned closer to Jing Minghe, asking, "What are the two reasons?"
"First, having become ghosts, they accidentally learned that the Eight Great Evil Spirits had a way to destroy the Blood Jade Cudgel, so they stole it from Xiao Rou and hid it to prevent it from being snatched and destroyed by them. This can be seen from the fact that the evil spirit possessing Lin Ling deliberately followed us to the mass grave to try and snatch the Blood Jade Cudgel. Second, perhaps they didn't want Xiao Rou to continue killing innocent people."
"But," Ke Wuwen scratched his head, "what's the difference between dying at Xiao Rou's hands and dying at the hands of evil spirits?"
Jing Minghe smiled faintly. "Don't take it too seriously. This is just my wild guess. After all, we only need to follow the clues to find what we're looking for, there's no need to get to the bottom of it."
Ke Wuwen repeatedly agreed. "Yes, yes, yes, the idol is right."
"Little flatterer," Tong Zheng lightly tapped Ke Wuwen's head with his finger. "So, the clues Brother Jiang collected were mainly to help us find the Blood Jade Cudgel, but before we met him, we had already found it under Minghe's guidance."
"So," Jiang Zheng shrugged helplessly, "I'm also speechless about this. You were one step ahead of me, and the clues I had seem completely useless."