Chosen One, how did I end up as the villain?

北林

"Giddy up, giddy up..."

The fast horse galloped along the trade route, startling the birds into flight, causing leaves to fall slowly, and leaving what appeared to be footprints in the swaying grass and trees, blurry yet with clear outlines.

"In this direction."

Qin Huaiyu shouted, and the two turned their horses to the left and quickly followed the tracks.

about 15 minutes

With a neigh from the horse, the two stopped.

Ahead lay an abandoned courtyard. The gate was mottled, blackened, and rotten. Two lanterns hung from the eaves, their bamboo frames swaying gently.

A crisscrossing spiderweb was formed above the crossbeam, and four white characters in silk script could be vaguely seen engraved on the plaque hidden inside.

Beilin Mortuary

The smell of blood is so strong!

Qin Huaiyu sniffed the air, his brows furrowing. He immediately dismounted and said:

"Looks like this is the place, I'm sure of it."

Shen Wan'er nodded and jumped down as well.

The two tied their horses to the beams at the entrance and walked into the courtyard.

"Crunch"

The door was opened with a jarring sound.

The two stepped across the threshold one after the other, and what came into view was a desolate little courtyard. White silk ribbons hung on both sides. Over time, the white had turned yellow, and the silk was very old, with many places rotten and broken.

Underfoot was a stone-paved path covered with bloody footprints of varying shades, leading straight to the room.

The bloodstains even extended this far, into that room...

Qin Huaiyu's heart sank. He exchanged a glance with Shen Wan'er, then quickly walked into the room.

As soon as they stepped inside, a strong stench of blood mixed with the putrid smell hit them, and the scene before them made their scalps tingle. Shen Wan'er even gagged on the spot.

Inside the small room, there were dark red bloodstains everywhere—on the ceiling, the walls, and even on the broken doors and windows.

The ground was covered with puddles of uncongealed flesh, along with numerous broken pieces of meat of varying sizes and from different parts of the body—white, black, internal, external… scattered all over the ground.

The entire room was more terrifying than purgatory.

"Father, Father........."

Shen Wan'er stood up and ran in with tears streaming down her face. She searched frantically on the floor, her voice filled with sorrow and conflict.

Seeing this, Qin Huaiyu went up to him.

"Don't panic. This is just the scene of the incident; it's not certain your father was murdered. He might have escaped!"

He offered words of comfort, but he knew in his heart that the chances of escaping were extremely slim. This scene clearly indicated that no one was to be left alive, and it was already a miracle that a young master of the Shen family could escape.

Shen Wan'er clearly understood this as well, but she bravely wiped away her tears and said:

"Yes, Father must still be alive."

Sometimes, deceiving yourself is a way to make yourself feel better.

Looking at her red eyes and her forced expression, Qin Huaiyu didn't know what to say. Such sorrow could only be processed slowly by herself; no matter what others said, it would be useless.

All he can do is find the culprit.

With nearly twenty lives lost in the two caravans, this could not have been an accident; it must have been premeditated, and clearly targeted at those two caravans.

What are you plotting?

Qin Huaiyu sensed an inexplicable crisis. The Qin and Shen families were both prominent families in Pingxing Town, and ordinary forces dared not provoke them, let alone kill their people. This showed that there was an even more powerful enemy behind them.

For now, we can only start with the situation right in front of us.

He crouched down and looked at the scattered flesh and blood on the ground. The skin had changed color, but it was not yet severely decomposed. The time of death should have been around dawn.

This roughly coincides with the time when the young master of the Shen family escaped back.

Qin Huaiyu turned his head and glanced at the entire scene, his brows furrowed. The pieces of meat were severely pulverized, with many missing parts, clearly remnants. Where did most of them go?

No, that mark!

His gaze sharpened, and he picked up a piece to examine it closely. He saw jagged marks between the skin and flesh, like…

Bite marks!

Could it be...?

Qin Huaiyu hurriedly went to check the others, looking at them one by one. Almost every piece had it, but the teeth were not the same.

That's right!

"It's blood food!"

"Blood Eater, you mean Nightmare Devourer?" Shen Wan'er said, her eyes red.

Qin Huaiyu nodded. "That's right. Judging from the teeth marks, there's more than one; I'd estimate three or four."

"Don't they all live alone?"

The Nightmare Devourer is gluttonous and will not spare anything that possesses Nightmare power, whether it is a human or one of its own kind.

There is only one way to make three or four Devourers act simultaneously without being hostile to each other.

Qin Huaiyu thought of the Earth Goddess and raised an eyebrow, saying:

"They must have been enslaved."

"You mean there's someone behind this?" Although Shen Wan'er was sad, her thinking was not affected.

"right!"

Qin Huaiyu was very certain, and then continued:

"Why send these Nightmare Devourers to attack the caravan? Is it really necessary to go to such lengths just to eat people?"

"Not only that, it seems he has also targeted our two families. The previous incidents involving the caravans are probably also related to them!" Shen Wan'er analyzed, tears welling up in her beautiful eyes again.

It's really possible.

This means that the conspiracy surrounding the two families must have started long ago.

Qin Huaiyu frowned and carefully examined the scene. Apart from blood and chunks of flesh, there was nothing else. Even the bloodstains on the walls were basically the same, which meant that the caravan members all died in the same way.

"Something's not right. I feel like something's missing."

"What's missing?" Shen Wan'er asked hurriedly.

Qin Huaiyu pondered for a moment while glancing around, and said:

"The caravan is on a journey to purchase raw materials. Besides the caravan itself, it is also carrying..."

"The cash box!"

The two suddenly realized what was happening and said in unison.

It's one thing for Nightmare Devourers to eat people, but to take money as well? These things hold no appeal for them whatsoever. Could it be that the person behind this is after money?

The more Qin Huaiyu thought about it, the more he felt he was on the right track. The two caravans were carrying a huge sum of money on this trip.

"Anyone who can command three or four Nightmare Devourers must be a Mystic. Would someone like that be short of money?" Shen Wan'er asked.

Qin Huaiyu couldn't understand it either, but the money box had indeed been stolen.

"It seems there's more to this than meets the eye."

After he finished speaking, he glanced around again and, seeing that there were no more clues in the room, said:

"Let's go, let's take a look around the neighborhood."

Shen Wan'er nodded, deeply saddened. Among the flesh and blood, she found nothing to prove her identity; the fragments were too rotten to know whose they were.

Seeing her like this, Qin Huaiyu comforted her:

"Don't worry, we'll be back. Right now, the most important thing is to find out who's behind this."

Shen Wan'er was also someone who understood priorities. She wiped her red eyes and followed them outside.

The two of them left the mortuary.

Standing outside the door, Qin Huaiyu surveyed the surroundings. The bloody footprints had faded by the time they reached the doorway, almost completely worn away, making them difficult to trace. He could only confirm that they had left in the north.

Most of the footprints that came in came from the east side.

They all came from the same direction, but how did these evil spirits know the caravan's route?

Logically, this should be a redesigned route to mitigate risks.

"Huaiyu, wait, look here!"

Shen Wan'er, who was standing by the wall, bent over and exclaimed in surprise.

...........