Heavenly Official Sends Evil

Chapter 947 The Second Hall and the Sixth Chamber

Small pieces of writhing flesh still remained along the edge of the door frame.

Five elderly people sat on the ground, watching Wu Lei and his companion walk into the doorway.

Passing through the blood-stained door and over the high threshold, they entered the right-hand area on the first floor. Lei Weiguo followed behind Wu Xian, his eyes darting around, afraid that something terrifying might suddenly appear.

Wu Xian stood at the door, squinting his eyes.

Spacious, open, bright, clean... that was Wu Xian's first impression of the area behind the entrance.

This place resembles a huge courtyard house. The building in front is marked with the words "Second Hall". There are three rooms on each side: the Office of Officials, the Office of Revenue, the Office of Rites, the Office of Military Affairs, the Office of Criminal Justice, and the Office of Works.

Enclosed by the second hall and the sixth room is a huge and spacious courtyard. The ground is a little dusty, but not much. All the chandeliers on the ceiling are intact, providing natural and comfortable lighting.

In the center of the courtyard stands a banyan tree, which is over four meters tall. Its trunk is covered with many aerial roots, making it appear exceptionally thick and uneven.

Wu Xian peered through the gaps in the aerial roots of the banyan tree and saw that it was empty; there was nothing inside.

The only thing that could be associated with evil spirits was the wagon-wide, slimy mark left on the ground, which must have been left by the 'Giant Corpse Worm' that rushed into the human world last week.

After being baptized by the Gate of Death, Wu Xian did not become careless just because the place seemed safe. Instead, he led Lei Weiguo to search through the six offices of the county government one by one.

The so-called six offices of the county government were institutions modeled after the six ministries of the imperial court.

In movies and TV dramas, county magistrates are portrayed as meddling in every trivial matter, but in reality, county officials wield considerable power and cannot handle everything personally; those miscellaneous tasks are usually dealt with by their six subordinates.

The six offices were managed by county clerks. These clerks had no official rank, but they wielded considerable power and were considered high-ranking figures to ordinary people.

The doors to all six rooms were open. Each room was not very large, even smaller than some ordinary people's bedrooms. The walls were grayish-blue, and the floor was paved with uneven blue bricks. A set of tables and chairs was placed on one side, and a wooden shelf for storing miscellaneous items was placed on the other side.

Wu Xian went through all six rooms and examined them carefully, but found nothing of value.

These six rooms were surprisingly 'clean', with no evil spirits, no corpses, no traps, and not even props like 'fire-attracting powder'.

It was like an ordinary ancient room, with only the smell of dust in the air from not having been cleaned for a long time.

If there was anything unusual about it, it was that on each table there was a long robe and hat, which looked like the attire of a clerk.

Wu Xian frowned:
"There's nothing in the sixth room, so we'll have to go check the second hall."

The second hall of the county government office, to some extent, symbolizes the dark side of the ancient county government. Its threshold is lower than that of the main hall but higher than that of the county magistrate's inner residence, symbolizing the ambiguity of 'mixing public and private affairs'.

Thinking on the darker side, it's very likely that some outrageous behind-the-scenes deals took place here, such as... covering up the truth about the massacre of the four major families in Xuanling County!
The layout of the second hall is slightly more complex, with tables, chairs, bookshelves, screens, and various ornaments. The decorations are also more upscale, with a botanical painting hanging behind each table, featuring plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, chrysanthemums, pines, lotuses, banyan trees, and so on.

A moment later, Wu Xian's expression gradually turned ugly.

Wu Xian searched the entire place, but like the six offices of the county government, there was no valuable information here. Although there were many books and official documents, it would take a lot of time to find useful information from them.

On one of the tables, there was a set of green clothing that looked like an official's robe.

During his first playthrough of the Blessed Land, the puppets on the second floor showed Wu Xian some images. The images included the figure of a county magistrate. Although the images were in black and white and the color of the clothes was not clear, the slight difference in style confirmed to Wu Xian that the clothes were not those of a county magistrate, but rather those of a county assistant or registrar.

Wu Xian frowned in thought, while simultaneously twirling his official hat in a circle with his finger.

The Human Gate is the last unknown area in the Blessed Land, and Wu Xian originally thought he could find a lot of useful information here.

However, there is no back door in the second hall, which means that he has already searched the entire right side area of ​​the first floor.

Not only did he fail to find the 'County Magistrate's Seal' he was looking for, he also failed to find the 'Water Prison Key'. The search for the official seal could be postponed, but if a new Water Prison Key could not be found within a few hours, Wu Xian would be unable to reset time and start the next cycle of the Blessed Land.

"Are we going to lead them into a final battle...? Even if we put the old folks in cages, they might be so frightened by the evil spirits that they die suddenly. That's too risky." Thinking of this, Wu Xian glanced at Lei Weiguo.

Lei Weiguo keenly sensed that these elderly people had become a burden to the young people, which was the last thing many elderly people wanted to happen, so his eyes dimmed slightly.

Wu Xian, on the other hand, was still thinking.

"The conditions for opening the Human Gate are quite stringent. It's impossible for there to be nothing here; I just haven't found the key yet."

"There are clothes in the sixth room and the second hall. These clothes are undoubtedly the key, but the question is how to use them?"

Wu Xian thought for a moment, then put the green robe over his suit and wore the black gauze hat, but nothing happened after he finished dressing.

"There are still six sets of clerk's clothes outside, and six new recruits left..."

Wu Xian looked at Lei Weiguo and scratched his head.

"It seems that I can't handle this place on my own, so I'll have to ask the veteran comrades to come out of retirement."

……

A dozen minutes later, Wu Xian returned to the gate.

Six elderly people followed Wu Xian in a scattered manner. Some of them were tourists, and with their curiosity and looking around, they looked somewhat like a young tour guide leading a group of elderly people.

Wu Xianke had to use a lot of persuasion to get the elderly to cooperate with his actions.

Among the elderly, sanitation worker An Guiying and fashionable elderly woman Lin Xianglan were injured. After Wu Xian returned home, he got a box of wound medicine and applied it to their affected areas, which restored their mobility.

While wound medicine is not very effective for serious injuries, it is very effective for minor injuries such as sprains and fractures.

Upon returning to the Human Gate, Wu Xianrang had the six old men dress up as the six clerks of the six departments, instantly changing the overall style of the scene.

If you take a picture here, anyone would think they're just messing around at a tourist attraction.

After everyone was dressed, Wu Xian clenched his fists warily, waiting for some kind of change to occur, but the scene remained quiet for a while and nothing changed.

Wu Xian suddenly felt a pang of toothache.

It seems that the secrets behind the door cannot be uncovered simply by putting on a new set of clothes.

Next, he tried staying in the second hall by himself, while letting the six old men each go into their respective rooms and sit in chairs, but this did not trigger any strange changes.

"Wearing clothes won't work, and standing in the corresponding position won't work either, so the key must be hidden in the books on the bookshelf."

"This will keep us busy..."

Wu Xian returned to the second hall and began to inspect the books on the bookshelves.

Unlike modern books, ancient books do not have titles and authors that can be seen directly on the spine. Moreover, the titles are often obscure and literary, making it difficult to guess the general content of the book from the title alone. Therefore, Wu Xian could only flip through the books one by one.

After searching for a while, Wu Xian's eyes finally lit up.

He found the blueprints and books used to build the county government office. Calling them blueprints is not entirely accurate, as the 'blueprints' were described in words, but they were still sufficient to provide Wu Xian with a reference.

But before Wu Xian could even open the book, he suddenly heard the voice of the thin old man, Feng Yu:
"This painting is not right!"

(End of this chapter)