Chapter 15: A Serious Case in the Mountain Village

Hearing what Third Brother said, Zhang Lisheng was moved. The cultivation of witchcraft would cost a fortune, and he was neither a leader nor was he an enterprising financial tycoon in the Miaowei lands. It would not harm him to try to turn the kill into a boon that gave them some fortune this time around.

Unfortunately, just as he was lifting his spirits to discuss with this big man who planned to use money to buy his own life back, black blood began flowing out of Third Brother’s seven holes continuously. He had taken his last breath.

At the same time, the wizard worm Qing Hong, who was left with only a head, died silently after spitting all of its venoms out as it completed its master’s last instruction.

Although a wizard worm should just be a tool in the eye of wizards, after spending a couple of years with Qing Hong, Zhang Lisheng was stunned and felt lost for a while after losing it all of a sudden.

He then thought it would be dangerous if he went into the dense jungle to hunt for his new wizard worm without Qing Hong. He could not help but curse while clenching his teeth, “It’s dead, it’s dead just like that. Didn’t the book say that the wizard worms had an endless lifespan?! Just because I’m a Rank 1…”

He was pissed as he continuously cursed. Zhang Lisheng, who had been forcing himself to hold on, finally could not take it anymore. He fell headfirst onto to the ground and passed out.

On the next morning, the sky was just getting bright. Many villagers in Guawo Village woke up early and gathered at the stone road in front of Zhang family’s old house entrance with and without intention.

The noise and shriek that came from the old house in the middle of the night had spread to everyone’s ears in the mountain village. As the incident happened at the Zhang family’s old house and it happened the same night the legendary Zhang Daowu was buried on the mountain, the tourists who were usually busybodies did not dare to check out what exactly happened after being warned by the villagers.

In reality, although the sky was getting brighter and they had entered the time where the demons would withdraw themselves, the villagers outside of the old house were just chatting and gossiping vaguely. Nobody dared to knock on the Zhang family’s door.

The topic of the villagers’ chat was no longer a secret when Tao Lielin walked toward the old house along the village path in all seriousness.

“Ah Lie is here. He’s been in the military! He held guns before. He’s not afraid of this. He’ll knock on the door, he’ll knock on the door.”

“That’s right, that’s right. Ah Lie handled the matter himself and sent off Lord Daowu. He’ll knock on the door, that’s no big deal for him.”

Tao Lielin walked to the Zhang family’s old house entrance among the discussion. He immersed himself in his emotions with an expressionless face and slammed on the door hard while he shouted with an amplified voice, “What are you guys doing! What are all of you doing?”

“It’s early in the morning, those who need to work should be working, and those who need to go into the city should be going into the city. Why are you guys gathering in front of other people’s house entrance?”

“Uncle Ah Lie! Uhh, didn’t something happen at Zhang family’s house last night?”

“We’re here to see what exactly happened,” a mischievous young person among the crowd replied with a smile.

“You’re here to see what happened? What did you see, you didn’t even dare to knock on the door. What are you here for? What are you going to see there when you have the guts of a rat?”

“Mountain Worm, Mountain Worm, open the door. I’m your Uncle Ah Lie, I’m here to bring you to the bank in town to deposit the money.”

Zhang Lisheng, who passed out in the courtyard, jumped from Tao Lielin’s incessant banging on the door. His head was hurting so much that he felt like it was going to explode.

Wobbling, he got up from the ground and shook his head hard with his blurry vision. He replied with a hoarse voice, “Uncle Ah Lie, please wait…”

Just when he was halfway through talking, Zhang Lisheng, who was slightly more awake now, saw the four corpses and the muddy green pool of blood all over the courtyard. Suddenly, everything that happened last night replayed in his mind like a movie rewind.

“Bleargh…” All he could feel was his legs becoming soft before he fell to the ground and retched loudly.

When he was not chanting incantations or fighting, this skinny young man did not have the same courage and boldness where he would treat the lives of his enemies like they were nothing.

“Mountain Worm, what happened?” Tao Lielin asked outside of the house when he heard the abnormal noise.

After vomiting for a moment, Zhang Lisheng, who only had a couple of sips of chicken soup last night, did not vomit at all. He caught a few breaths and looked around in panic. He realized that it was impossible to cover up everything that had happened here.

He thought about it and decided to bite the bullet without even covering up his dead wizard worm. He removed the latches as he hurriedly said, “Uncle Ah Lie, something serious happened.”

“Somebody came into my house to rob me last night. I-In the end, they all died.”

“What?”

“All four of them are dead.” Zhang Lisheng opened the old house’s door as he spoke. Suddenly, the gory scene in the courtyard entered the vision of all villagers who reached their heads into the door.

Everyone who witnessed the mess in the courtyard was stunned at first, but before long, they began to feel the churning of food in their stomachs. “Bleargh…” They began to throw up.

As Tao Lielin had handled guns in the past, seeing his comrades getting injured and dying from bloody deaths due to accidents during actual military combat missions, he did not vomit but was stunned momentarily. He then said with his eyes staring blankly in a daze, “T-They’re all dead… A-And there’re four of them.”

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“Mountain Worm, they’re all dead. You… this… what exactly happened?”

“They broke into my house last night. I hid in the kitchen and while they were smashing the door, a huge centipede came out of nowhere and bit them to death.”

“I passed out later on. Perhaps the centipede was full so it did not bite me.”

“Whether it bit you or not, there’re four lives that are lost here. We must report this to the police, I’ll make a call now.”

“Mountain Worm, you listen to your uncle, don’t be scared…”

“You… W-What happened to your face?” Just when Tao Lielin was comforting Zhang Lisheng, he asked in shock as he suddenly noticed that the young man before him had blood all over his face.

Zhang Lisheng was stunned. He wiped his face hard and realized that his hand was now covered in thick blood which was probably splashed on him when he was tearing the arm apart last night. However, he had no idea how it didn’t dry up from the wind blowing at it throughout the night.

“Nothing, Uncle Ah Lie. Its blood that splashed on me last night,” he said calmly with an expressionless face. He did not even attempt to clean the blood on his face at all.

Zhang Lisheng was expressionless but Tao Lielin had a major change on his face.

Recalling the countless myths of the Zhang family that were told by the elderly in Guawo Village last time, he looked deep into Zhang Lisheng’s eyes like he did not know him and said, “M-Mountain Worm… Y-You, go on to wash your face while I call the police.” Without delaying any longer, he took out his mobile phone and dialed 110 for the police.

A recording of a warning was heard, “The police will administer legal punishment to those who make false reports.” After the warning played a sweet voice that spoke accurate Mandarin, “Hi, this is the police station of Qu County.”

It was worth mentioning that the staff working in Qu County’s public sectors had a tremendous change in quality ever since the place was listed as a tourism city. At the very least, it was no different on the surface compared to larger cities.

“I’m calling to report that there’s been a murder in Guawo Village, Damu Town. Four people died,” Tao Lielin said nervously with his tongue curled.

“Sir, what did you say?”

“I’m the deputy village chief of Guawo Village in Damu Town, Tao Lielin. There’s been a murder here, four people died.”

“Please give me a moment to write this down, Chief Tao.” Hearing that the caller did not seem like he was reporting a fake case, the operator from the 110 police report station took a more panicky tone as she spoke.

While Tao Lielin was calling the police, Zhang Lisheng went in and took buckets of water from the well in his courtyard to wash off the blood on his face and hands with soap until he was squeaky clean. He then ran into his bedroom and changed into a clean top.

When he walked out of the old house’s side room, he was surprised to see that the crowd who was watching outside of the door had grown several times over.

Everyone who stood in the front row wore a fearful expression when they witnessed the gory scene with their own eyes.

The strange thing, however, was that the people hardly moved their feet, which forced the tourists in the back rows to lift their cameras high and move their arms blindly as they took multiple shots, their cameras making clicking sounds. They found out what was happening from the photos that they took.

Seeing Zhang Lisheng walking out of the old house which was now a murder scene, a couple of cameras on the front row focused on him as the flashes went off continuously.

Zhang Lisheng covered his face in a slight panic and walked toward Tao Lielin who had just reported to the police in big steps. He asked as he got to his side, “Uncle Ah Lie, what is this? Why are there so many people here?”

“The noise at your house was so loud last night and then this happened early in the morning. How is it possible to cover this up?”

“Within such a short period of time… I think all tourists in the village gathered here.”

“We can’t stop them even if we want to, we can only wait for the police to come.”

“Uncle Ah Lie, all of them who died were robbers. The police won’t make a scene, will they?”

“Mountain Worm, those are four human lives. Four human lives! This is such a major case, how can they not make a scene?”

“Kid, listen to your uncle carefully. The police will be here soon, just tell them everything that you know. Tell them what you know, don’t be vague.” Tao Lielin thought about it and eventually urged Zhang Lisheng with all sincerity.

“Yes, Uncle Ah Lie. I’ll definitely tell everything I know,” Zhang Lisheng hesitated for a while then nodded and said insincerely.

At the moment, the wailing police siren was heard from afar. It was obvious that the first batch of police officers had arrived in Guawo Village after receiving the report.

At Guawo Village’s entrance, the Damu Town Police Station Director Song Xinghe, Deputy Director Li Yujian, as well as police officers Sun Zhihe and Geguan Huizi got out of the police car. They looked around them, witnessing an environment that seemed breathtaking to foreigners but could only be described as poor and ill-maintained to the Qu County town people. Song Xinghe spat and said, “F*cking hell, troublemakers are produced from this sick place.”

“Four deaths at once. If this isn’t a fake report, apart from losing the bonus for this year, I might have to bear a couple of punishments.”

“Director Song, it doesn’t seem like a fake report.” Li Fujian pointed at the crowd gathered at the hillside and forced a smile as he said, “If you’re bearing punishments, perhaps I, as the Deputy Director who’s in-charge of criminal investigations, might get sacked.”