World Tibet Bureau

I took Xia Xi and ran towards the village in the rain.

Xia Xi ran behind and said, "Slow down, kid, I'm prone to falling!"

I ignored him.

Judging from the time, the city defenders set fire, attracted moths, and destroyed the secret passage, which resulted in us staying under the Bagua Alchemy City for five or six days. Now we have no idea whether he is still in the village.

After ten minutes.

I ran to the third house next to the ancestral hall in the village.

This is a very ordinary rural house with a small courtyard outside, surrounded by walls and an iron gate.

I climbed over the courtyard wall and jumped in.

I found that the door to the house was also closed.

I was so furious that I raised my foot and kicked the door open.

After opening the door, I looked for someone inside, but I searched all over the place upstairs and downstairs. Not only was there no one, but the place seemed to have been tidied up and all the valuable things had been taken away. The owner seemed to have left early.

I'm late!
I was so angry that my liver was shaking. I kicked the coffee table in front of me and broke it into pieces.

Xia Xi also arrived at this time. Seeing this scene, he knew that I didn't find anyone. He looked around, frowned and asked, "Xiaoli's home?"

I nodded and sat down.

There was still half a pack of cigarettes that had not been taken away on the shrine. Xia Xi took it and handed one over.

The two lit it and took two puffs.

Xia Xi asked: "Why are you sure Xiaoli is the city defender?"

I replied: "I have a reason!"

Bring things back to the beginning.

The little tiger was on the river bank and barking at the cliff downstream of the river, indicating that Bian Wu was inside the cliff on the other side downstream.

This was the first clue we got.

Xia Xi and I planned to test whether we could enter the cliff from the top of the mountain, so we came into contact with Xiaoli for the first time.

At that time, Xiaoli told us the story of the ancient King of Chu, and also showed us the Han Dynasty weapon he picked up at the bottom of the river.The story is told in a very general way, and everyone in the village basically knows this story. It is very normal for the Shandong weapon to be picked up from the river by the villagers.

I have no doubts about Xiaoli.

But later, Xiaohu forced the big black dog in the village to go down the river to explore the way. The big black dog once picked up a few Han iron tools. As a result, the Han iron tools were severely corroded. When he was gently squeezed by his hand, they all turned into iron. powdery.

The first doubt in my mind arose: it was also corroded by water at the bottom of the river, so why was the head of the Han Dynasty in Xiaoli's hand still intact? Could it be that he didn't pick it up at the bottom of the river?

This thought was just a flash.

I didn't think much of it.

Immediately afterwards.Under the leadership of Sister Hong, we passed through whirlpools, water plants, and fierce fish, entered the Bagua Alchemy City, passed through the thick fog, and arrived at the Taiyi Phantom Sound Stone Sculpture Array.

When we broke into the stone sculpture array, we saw many corpses of tomb robbers who had come in before.

The theory is that these corpses were all insane due to the Taiyi Phantom Sound Array and sought death. They looked like stone sculptures and died by piercing their throats with sharp blades or sharp stones. However, I found that there were many bones from the corpses. The back of the head seemed to have been severely hit by someone with a heavy object. There were broken and missing bones, and the way of death was unusual.

The second doubt arose in my mind: Could it be that these people were not all killed by the Taiyi Phantom Sound Array, but were attacked by outsiders?

But at that moment, the biggest threats we faced were the strange and inexplicable mechanism formations in Bagua Alchemy City and the mysterious Yang Xinxin. In a panic, we did not continue to investigate the matter further, just as a doubt in our minds.

after that.

We entered the core of the Bagua Alchemy City, and I was reminded by Sister Hong’s words. She said with great regret that the Bagua Alchemy City should normally leave many cultural relics, but now the entire Bagua Alchemy City, except for some that cannot be moved, Stones and broken clay pots, not even an antique.

This thing is not normal!

Not to mention that it is almost impossible for tomb robbers to enter the core area of ​​Bagua Alchemy City. Even if someone enters, how can all the antiques in the city be swept away?

For this to happen, unless someone has been here for a long time and resorted to ant-moving style theft.

The third doubt arises in my mind: Could it be that there is a tomb robber hiding in the village, who has been secretly staying for many years and has been getting the antiques from the Bagua Alchemy City, resulting in it being completely emptied?
Later, when we were underground in the main hall, someone suddenly blocked the ascent and choked us to death with thick smoke. Under the leadership of Yang Xinxin, we escaped from the main hall and attracted a large number of corpse moths. attack.

The ones who are messing with us are not monsters, but people. Corpse moths will attack people indiscriminately, which means that the other party will have ways to avoid corpse moths!
When explaining the corpse moth, Sister Hong said that the corpse moth usually occurs in moist places where corpses are buried.

The hanging burials in Wuyi Mountain fully comply with the two major characteristics of a humid and corpse-burying place.

But for so many years, the villagers have been practicing cliff burial. When they send the elderly to be buried, they will inevitably encounter corpse moths in the humid and corpse-filled environment of the cliff tomb. However, the mourners have nothing to do and can only explain that , the people in the village who are responsible for burying the elderly in cliff tombs will also avoid the corpse moth method.

From this, I thought of Xiaoli and Langzai. When they were moving the grave of the widowed husband, they had applied a strange oil on themselves. Langzai told me at that time that it was something to avoid mosquitoes and poisonous snakes on the cliff. .

This thing is most likely a traditional Chinese medicinal oil that can avoid corpse moths!
The fourth doubt arises in my mind: Apart from the possibility of tomb robbers who have been lurking in the village for a long time, is it possible that the ones who took away these antiques were people from the village?

Until later we entered the secret passage.

I picked up the cigarette butts on the ground, and after analysis, I came to the conclusion that this was a secret passage for the city defenders, and the quality of cheap cigarettes basically eliminated the possibility of Feng Shui masters and tomb robbers coming in and out from now on, leaving only the village. There is a big option called city defender.

All the above logic combined together delineated the basic suspect: this city defender can lure and avoid corpse moths, and he is most likely the person in the village who is responsible for burying the old man in the hanging coffin.

According to the tradition of this village, there are two people responsible for burying the person into the hanging coffin: Lang Zai and Xiao Li.

Both are possible.

But who is he?
Until I saw the footprints in the secret passage.

Lang Zai is much taller than Xiao Li. He has big feet. In addition, given the relationship between Lang Zai and Sister Hong, it is unlikely that he will kill Sister Hong.

The reason why Xiaoli is called Xiaoli is mainly because he is relatively short, only over 1.5 meters tall, and his feet must be much smaller than Lang Zai.

The footprints in the secret passage were not much larger than the woman's footprints, indicating that the city defender was a small man.

Progressive analysis.

I came to the conclusion: there is a 99% chance that the city defender is Xiaoli! (End of chapter)