The male supporting character was actually myself.

The rest of the group was taken to the hidden cave that the little white cat had discovered yesterday, and the whole person disappeared into the eerie inverted pentagram.

The farmer's wife is making meat patties this morning; the meat she got from the butcher the previous afternoon is from meat she ordered from him.

Both of them have loud voices; if they wanted to, the whole village might know them.

Therefore, the murderer may have already planned how to dispose of the body—to disgust this group of people.

"Oh my god!" As soon as Zhimeng entered the mysterious cave, she was startled by the things on the ground.

A pile of entrails was neatly stacked, and on top of it was Avia's head, her eyes closed and her face ashen.

Jiang Chen noticed that the edges of the severed head were uneven, and judging from the angle, the murderer should be left-handed.

Zhimeng suppressed the urge to vomit and shifted her gaze to the strange, blood-red symbols on the ground.

“This looks like it’s summoning demons from hell.” She examined it carefully but was still unsure. “I used to have a classmate who liked to play with tarot cards and pentagrams, and I’ve heard her talk about it.”

This symbol seems to represent the demons within, or rather, the dark side of a person, and so on…

Jiang Chen glanced at it and made a final summary: "The killer's bizarre form was summoned here."

As for how to do it, none of us are experts, so we naturally don't know.

And those bottles and jars, I don't even know what they are.

So we need to find the village witch; perhaps we can get clues from her.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Close Your Eyes When It Gets Dark 6

“Witches are hunted down by the church, so it will be difficult for us to find her, right?” Dreamweaver frowned and said dejectedly, “Our identity is too awkward.”

Ordinary people either avoid you or flatter you; it's not easy to hear even a single truth.

How are we going to bring these back?

Jiang Chen shook his head and said, "I won't bring it. I'll just leave it here."

Didn't you notice there was absolutely no strange smell in the cave?

This is very unusual for fresh internal organs and a bloody head. I suspect that there is some kind of formation or magic array on the ground, otherwise the murderer would not have stacked them so carefully.

My advice is not to act rashly on things you don't understand.

"Let's go check out the mine now. Firstly, it's very close; secondly, I want to know why the murderer was covered in something that looks like oil."

Emerging from the hidden cave, and passing through a dense forest, we saw Kane sitting on a wooden barrel, shouting loudly, "Hurry up, the more work you do, the more money you earn!"

Look at Jason, the smallest of them all! He earned a whopping seventy copper coins yesterday!

"Snapped!"

He cracked the whip in his hand and shouted cheerfully, "Make more money so I can go back and eat meat and drink wine with my wife and kids. It'll be so happy and carefree! Let's hurry up and finish the mission so we can all get some rest sooner!"

A group of young people with their faces covered by cloth were carrying buckets of black, oily substance out of the mine and then pouring it into large wooden barrels.

"What do you think of working here?" Jiang Chen asked a burly young man when he had a moment.

He was helping the transport workers seal his large wooden barrels, which he had filled, and then lift them onto the wagon along with the other barrels before they were pulled away.

"This is fantastic!" The burly young man pulled down his mask to breathe in the fresh air, and said in a relaxed and cheerful tone, "Although it's a bit tiring, I can earn a lot of money, and the payments are settled on time every day."

I don't think you could find a better job even in the city.

This stuff smells a bit, but you get used to it. I really don't know what the church will use it for, but as long as we can get money from it, that's enough for us. Why worry about anything else?

Of course, the elderly people in the village were not very satisfied with this matter.

Adults should be able to understand; older people are always resistant to new things.

Either they feel they can't keep mining anymore and are envious of the money young people can make;

Or they might think that black oil itself is an ominous substance.

Last night, my grandma told me that this was evil, polluted water from hell, and she insisted that I not touch it.

Jiang Chen pressed further, "Why did she say that? Did someone tell her something?"

"Probably not." The burly young man covered his mouth and nose with a cloth and chuckled. "It's probably just something the old folks made up. After all, this stuff is sticky, black, and smelly, which does make people think of bad things."

He went back to work, and Jiang Chen strolled over to Kane's side.

"Hey, I really envy you guys who don't have to deal with all this mess." Kane stroked his beard and muttered, "Avia went missing last night and we still haven't heard from her."

I hope she's alright.

I heard there are werewolves roaming around here, which is really bad news.

Have you ever met a carpenter?

"Please, kid, hurry up and make some new wooden barrels. To be honest, I'm really running out of them."

After going around in circles, when Jiang Chen and Zhimeng returned to the stone house, they found that Duan Chengze and his group were about to assemble a complete skeleton on the ground.

"Bring that piece over here so I can take a look," Lin Yuan said, giving orders like a lord with a straw dangling from his mouth.

Despite her long face, Liang Rumeng still used a piece of paper to hold a bone for him.

"It's pieced together perfectly, without a single mistake," Duan Chengze said quietly as he saw him come in.

Lin Yuan heard this, rolled his eyes at them, and said in a flippant tone, "I told you I'm a fashion designer, but you just wouldn't believe me."

Authentic fashion designers all need to study human anatomy!

I had excellent grades in school, so piecing together the basic structure was no challenge for me.

"It's really well done. Did you find anything?" Jiang Chen went over to take a look and found that apart from some small bones that had been bitten off, most of the bones remained intact.

Duan Chengze pointed to the marks on the bone and explained, "Look at these marks, from left to right, the force marks, I think the murderer should be left-handed."

The head and internal organs were not found, but judging from the integrity of the skeleton, the cause of death was most likely not external injury.

The murderer killed without hesitation and even dismembered the body into minced meat, suggesting that he was not an indecisive or fearful person.

The axe and knife marks on the bones are quite intriguing.

“Not enough strength.” Jiang Chen stroked the fresh, bloody bone fragments and judged, “The multiple slashes were not because of hesitation, but because the murderer’s strength was insufficient to slash down in one go.”

Judging from his height and strength, apart from his strange behavior during the crime, the murderer should be a person of average height and not very strong.

An elderly person or a woman.

I've seen four people in the village who fit the height criteria.

The peasant woman who cooked for us, the carpenter's grandmother, the old blacksmith, and an old lady who lived at the very back of the village.

Song Gang added, "The old priest in the church also fits the bill, but I think the killer might not be human at all. After all, this instance has werewolves and witches, so I suspect the dog more!"

"Then kill it. You can't just kill a dog if you can't kill a person?" Lin Yuan said, piecing together the skeleton, his tone full of sarcasm. "You're not even afraid to kill a dog, are you?"

Song Gang glared at him fiercely.

Dreamweaver added in a low voice, "We found Avia's internal organs and head in the mysterious cave that Jiang Chen discovered."

Seeing that everyone was looking over, she blushed and looked at Jiang Chen before lowering her head and remaining silent.

“It’s like a mysterious ritual. I don’t usually do anything without understanding it,” Jiang Chen explained. “I’ve examined the internal organs and the specific condition of the head. I believe Avia died from a punctured heart.”

The killer acted quickly and accurately; I think he must have had a good understanding of the human body.

People in this era don't know much about human organs and bones.

I think that's also a direction for investigation.

Zhimeng added in a low voice, "Jiang Chen said we could try to find the village witch; perhaps she can help decipher the strange array symbols in the cave."

There were also traces of what appeared to be oil on the killer's body.

The cave is some distance from the mine; to cover oneself in oil would require a special trip there. The killer must have had some ulterior motive for going to such lengths.

After saying that, she glanced at Jiang Chen's face and saw that he wasn't angry. She quickly retreated to Liang Rumeng's side to look at the skeleton that Lin Yuan had already assembled.

“I agree with Jiang Chen’s statement. The murderer must have a very good understanding of human anatomy.” Lin Yuan wiped the blood off his hands with a wet towel and pointed to the skeleton on the ground, saying, “He’s no less knowledgeable than me.”

To maintain the integrity of his bones, he even sawed off the ligaments at the joints.

The process of removing meat with a boning knife is much smoother.

If he had the strength, he could have dismembered the body even more perfectly.

Chapter Thirty: When it gets dark, please close your eyes. (7)

"Could it be the old butcher?" Song Gang scratched his head, his face full of confusion. "There don't seem to be any doctors in this village, and would medieval doctors have dissected bodies?"

No one answered his question, and Jiang Chen didn't know the answer either.

"Let's start by checking based on height characteristics," Duan Chengze said after a moment's thought. "There aren't many people in the village who match the characteristics. We've already narrowed it down. We can find about one person for each of them."

I'll go talk to that elderly woman living alone behind the village first; my gut feeling is that she's not an ordinary person.

The little white cat stroked its ears and muttered softly, "Host, under the influence of the protagonist's halo, he usually chooses the right people. Should I go and see for myself?"

As Jiang Chen walked out of the stone house, he shook his head and said, "Although I don't understand medieval things like pentagrams, the fact that the murderer's special form came out of the formation and then went back in means that his body can be remotely controlled."

I think it's very likely similar to a teleportation array.

The murderer could activate the altar from his own residence, and whatever was summoned always appeared in the cave.

Go to every household in the village and search for similar things, including patterns and strange liquids. Let me know if you find anything.

In addition, we thoroughly investigated the living conditions of all the people in the village who matched the suspect's characteristics.

When the killer reappears tonight, go and check everyone to see who seems out of sorts.

"Okay!" The little white cat stood up and hopped away.

Liang Rumeng and Zhimeng decided to bury Avia's body. They chose a beautiful hillside with clear water and lush mountains, picked some wildflowers, held a simple ceremony, and buried her bones first.

As for the head and internal organs, since they are related to a strange formation, no one dares to touch them casually. They can only wait until the murderer is found before they can be laid to rest.

Jiang Chen visited the old priest in the church.

He was quite old, with a snow-white beard and hair, a kind face, and wearing small, round reading glasses. He was intently reading a scripture.

"Collecting black oil?" The old priest lowered his head slightly, his slightly cloudy eyes looking at the young man in front of him from above his glasses, and revealed a kind smile. "Of course, it's a good thing for our village."