Knife splashing

Chapter 55 The Truth of the Tragedy
"Corpse stench... is it a zombie?"

When Wang Daoxuan heard Li Yan speak, he immediately became alert.

Zombies are not so easy to deal with, especially in this deep mountain. They absorb moonlight and evil spirits and become invulnerable to swords and guns over time. They will still attack people even if their heads are chopped off, unless their evil spirits are dispersed.

Li Yan shook his head and said, "No, it's a dead person."

"Stay here, I'll go over and take a look."

After saying that, he lowered his body, disappeared into the bushes.

"Cuckoo!"

Not long after, a bird's cry was heard in the distance.

This was the code they had agreed upon in advance.

Two beeps mean safety, while three beeps mean danger is hidden.

Wang Daoxuan and others hurriedly followed, and under the guidance of Zhao Luzi, they soon found Li Yan.

Li Yan was seen standing under an old tree, bending over and looking at the corpse.

The corpse was highly decomposed, with black flesh mixed with mud. After drying and shrinking, its white gums were exposed, and it looked extremely hideous.

Sharifei looked at the wooden frame hidden in the tree and said, "He was a hidden spy of the bandits. How come no one came to collect his body after he died?"

Having said that, he started to look through it.

"do not move!"

Li Yan stopped him with a serious expression, then pointed around.

Next to the corpses, there were many corpses of insects and ants, and even a few dead mice in the distance.

"What a powerful poison!"

Sharifei gasped, "No wonder it wasn't taken away by wild beasts."

Li Yan stood up, sniffed the air a few more times, and said in a deep voice: "This bandit village has probably been destroyed long ago."

"Let's go and see what's going on."

A few people did not object and sneaked towards the bandit camp at night.

Going to investigate does not mean meddling in other people's business.

Yan Laojiu's group of bandits were able to survive the repeated encirclement and suppression operations by government soldiers, so they were naturally not that easy to deal with.

But now, he died here silently.

After finding out the cause, they will be able to take precautions when they go to Leopard Valley in case there is some evil going on.

With Zhao Luzi and Li Yan around, the dark forest was no obstacle at all.

Along the way, they saw several more bodies.

Some, like the one just now, were poisoned.

Some were torn into pieces by wild beasts, indicating that they were not poisoned.

Soon, the bandits' stronghold appeared before their eyes.

This is a village built on a cliff, with rammed earth walls and some wooden piles used to build watchtowers. It looks extremely crude.

The whole house was filled with the strong stench of corpses.

The gate of the village was wide open, and one could see a mess inside, with corpses everywhere. A rough count revealed that there were forty or fifty of them, all lying on the ground with knife handles in their hands.

"Shh!"

Sharifei suddenly signaled everyone to be silent, pointed to the big house on the right side of the village, and whispered, "Listen, what's that sound?"

It was quiet in the middle of the night, and the moonlight covered the entire village with a layer of white frost. Although the house was pitch black, there was a gurgling sound coming from it.

It sounds like someone is smacking their lips.

Suddenly, the sound stopped.

With a creaking sound, the wooden door slowly opened and a thing crawled out. Its face was covered by its messy hair and it crawled forward with difficulty, relying on its hands.

Moreover, it’s only half a body!
It looks particularly creepy under the moonlight.

Sha Lifei's forehead immediately broke out in sweat. He jumped directly behind Wang Daoxuan and stammered, "What...what is this?"

"Don't worry, if it's Qingfeng you won't see it."

Li Yan shook his head solemnly, "It's a person!"

"people?"

When he heard it was a person, Sharifei immediately came back to his senses. He was so angry that he went forward and cursed, "Are you crazy? You are pretending to be... Qingfeng in the middle of the night to scare people!"

As he said that, he grabbed the other person's head.

Under his messy hair, his eyes were just black holes, his face was haggard, and he was so thin that only bones were left. He looked like a ghost.

However, Sharifei was stunned:
"Commander Zhao!"

……

The only living person in the village was Zhao Cheng.

This Zhao family's eldest disciple, the Lu family's guard leader, had his eyes gouged out and his legs chopped off, living alone in the village like a demon. Wang Daoxuan and Li Yan looked at each other in bewilderment.

Wasn't it that Commander Zhao was a traitor, having an affair with the concubine in red, and before leaving he cheated her out of some money and absconded with the money?

Why are you here again?

……

"Cui Lan and I were both forced!"

When Commander Zhao learned the identities of Li Yan and his companions, he was shocked at first that they had escaped the disaster. Then he angrily recounted the whole story in a hoarse voice.

"The real thief is the concubine in white!"

"Her name is Yu Lian, but it must be a pseudonym. Now that I think about it, her many methods are clearly the 'Demon Black' of Yanmen!"

When Li Yan heard this, he suddenly became thoughtful.

Among the eight hidden gates, bees, hemp, swallows and sparrows are all liars.

"Feng" refers to an organized group of scammers, "Ma" refers to a lone old scammer, "Yan" refers to a person who uses women to cheat, and "Que" refers to a professional criminal gang.

The bee, hemp and swallow clans mostly only target money, while the "sparrow" clan is unscrupulous and has sophisticated means, which include cheating for money and killing people.

As for the "Ye Hei" of Yanmen, it refers to young women.

They have two methods:
One is to use a four or five-year-old child, pretending to be lost and crying, and then meet a compassionate person to take him home. The woman then claims to be the child's mother and goes to the door to inquire about the child's whereabouts. After receiving the child, the person expresses gratitude and goes to the door the next day to express gratitude with gifts, secretly keeping an eye out for things that can be stolen and ways to get there, and a thief comes that night.

The second method is to use pretty women, pretending that they ran away from home because they were abused by their parents-in-law or husband, and pretending to be pitiful to win the favor of the wealthy family. They would stay for a few days as servants, and after getting familiar with them, they would join forces to rob.

There was an old senior from the Liu Clan who knew about this method but was reluctant to expose it, so he made up a legendary story about a fox demon or evil ghost who disguised himself as a woman and sneaked into people's homes to cause trouble.

The so-called painted skin is a beautiful appearance with an evil heart.

Of course, there is an even more outrageous scenario, which is to rely on one's beauty to marry into a wealthy family, and then recruit a large group of Yanmen sisters to indulge in promiscuity day and night. Before long, the rich man will die, and his property will be taken away openly.

Sharifei was also curious and asked, "The 'Yaohei' usually only takes property, why is he colluding with the bandits again?"

Zhao Cheng said sadly, "I had a secret love affair with Cuilan. She said she would knock the master unconscious so that we could escape at night. We were so grateful to her at that time."

"After the bandits entered the house, they killed everyone and asked Mr. Lu about the whereabouts of an ancient painting. Mr. Lu was afraid, so he took them to the treasury, but unfortunately the painting had been stolen by Yu Lian and was nowhere to be found."

"Later, when we went to report to the police and defraud money, we were also held hostage by the bandits and given poison. There were people watching us, so we dared not move rashly. Our purpose was to lure Yu Lian out!"

"When we failed, Yan Laojiu took us up the mountain, chopped off my legs, and peeled off Cuilan's skin. He is a beast!"

As he said this, he couldn't help but burst into tears.

Seeing this once high-spirited man being forced into a state where he was neither human nor ghost, everyone felt sad.

Li Yan calmed down and looked around, "What happened here?"

Zhao Cheng murmured, "I don't know either."

"I was blinded by them and they made fun of me all day long. I am living a life worse than death."

"That night, the bandits suddenly blew up their camp. Someone screamed 'Cockscomb Snake', and then there was chaos. In less than half an hour, everyone was dead."

"I heard a man approaching me and asking me what happened. I told him everything. He said I betrayed my master and deserved this retribution. He wanted me to have a taste of this, and then he left."

"I have survived until now by catching rats that eat dead human flesh. I am fighting for my life in the hope that someone can tell me the truth about Gushui Village!"

"The ones who took action included several gangs of bandits from Guanzhong and bandits from Qi and Lu. I overheard that they gathered here under the order of a man called 'Lord Luo' in the capital!"

After saying that, he laughed sadly, "Master, I have disappointed you!"

Bang!
As soon as he finished speaking, he used all his strength to hit his head against a rock, his brain bursting and he died completely.

Everyone shook their heads slightly but did not stop him.

This person lives like a ghost. I'm afraid that once his wish is fulfilled, he will no longer have the desire to live.

"Cockscomb snake?"

Sharifei suddenly asked, "Is it the one we met on the road?"

Zhao Luzi was obviously also shocked by this bizarre tragedy. He shook his head and said, "Cockapoos are mostly hidden in ancient tombs. I heard from my father that in the Xunyou lineage of treasure hunters, someone inherited the evil magic of Fang Xiandao and can drive cockapoos."

Sharifei shook himself and cursed, "Damn, that sounds really weird. What kind of ancient painting could lead to so many things? It must be worth a lot of money!"

“No matter how good it is, it is also the source of disaster.”

Wang Daoxuan shook his head and said, "Let's go. This happened a long time ago, and the man is probably gone. We shouldn't stay here for long."

Li Yan nodded, then pressed the Yang Jue again, endured the stench of corpses all over the floor, took a deep breath, and pointed to the hall of the bandit village:

"Uncle Sha, there are good things under the tree on the right side of the hall!"

Sharifei knew Li Yan's abilities, so his eyes suddenly lit up. He took off the pickaxe on his back and rushed over.

Ding!
After a lot of digging, the sound of metal collision was heard.

There was a small box buried under the soil, only half a foot long.

Sharifei was a little disappointed at first, but when he broke the iron lock and lifted up the box, his eyes widened and he murmured, "I got rich..."

The box is full of neatly arranged small yellow croakers!

(End of this chapter)