Chapter 1 I Suspect the Corpse Has a Secret

I said in a low voice: "Old Liu, try to get something out of him, ask if the Wang family has anything else of value."

"No need!" Old Liu shook his head and said, "The Wang family's valuables were all squandered by the old woman to build a house. What else is there besides these pots and pans?"

I circled around the Wang family's house, inside and out, and sure enough, it was as bare as the walls.

Old Liu knew I was looking for something and said, "Let me tell you, there are a few dishonest people in the village who actually tricked this idiot. They asked him if his family had any treasures."

"Later, they tricked a censer out of the idiot's house. Those people wanted to sell the censer, but the antique dealer threw it back, saying it wasn't worth a penny."

"If you ask me, those guys were tricked by the idiot. They fed him well for almost half a year just to get a censer. I even beat those guys up for this. Tricking even an idiot, that's just too immoral."

Old Liu spat on the ground twice, but I became interested in the censer: "Where is that censer?"

"It's in the inner room!" Old Liu led me into the inner room and found a bronze tripod censer in the place where the Wang family worshiped their ancestors.

The censer looked quite old, but bronze products certainly wouldn't be worth much. No wonder those people got a scolding.

I picked up the censer and looked at it a few times: "Let's go, let's go back to your house first!"

I walked out with the censer in my arms, and Er Zhu followed behind us, begging incessantly: "Give me back the censer... give me back the censer..."

I turned around and flicked my wrist. The Soul-Chasing Cord in my left hand shot out, wrapping around Er Zhu's wrist twice. The dragon head on the Soul-Chasing Cord then latched onto the chain again, and Er Zhu closed his mouth.

Old Liu was so frightened that he quickly pleaded: "Mr. Li, he's just an idiot, don't hold it against him."

"You don't need to worry about him, Er Zhu can't do anything. When those guys tricked him, he cried and chased after them, but he didn't dare to hit anyone. I can coax him."

I shook my head and said, "Old Liu, it's not that I want to hold it against him. It's that I can't let people call after me like they're summoning souls. Now that ghosts are entering the village, can you be sure whether the people speaking behind us are alive or dead?"

"I...I..." Old Liu didn't dare to speak either.

I dragged Er Zhu back to Old Liu's house and threw the censer on the table: "Old Liu, light the lamp. Add some rhinoceros horn powder to the lamp oil. I'll try to see if I can see anything."

Old Liu held up the oil lamp: "What could there be in a censer?"

I said in a deep voice, "The corpse under the willow tree must have entered the village through the hole dug from your watchman's hut. The place where he came out is the Wang family's house."

I gently tapped the censer twice with my knife: "Why didn't he choose another place, why did he have to choose the Wang family's house? Either there's something he wants in there, or there's something special about the Wang family?"

Old Liu said, "Didn't that person die outside?"

I waved my hand and said, "You yourself said that the Wang family built a house. What was the original place where the corpse was lying?"

"The Wang family's yard!" Old Liu suddenly realized: "That place was the Wang family's yard. I went there when I was a kid."

"The Wang family's willow tree was originally planted in the middle of the yard. When the Wang family's old woman renovated the house, she didn't have that much money. So she reduced the size of the yard and demolished a side courtyard. The place where they live now should be the Wang family's inner courtyard."

In ancient times, the houses of wealthy families had side courtyards. The Wang family's ancestor was a Qianzong (Lieutenant Colonel), a proper sixth-rank military officer. His house certainly wouldn't be too small. After I entered the Wang family's house, I estimated the approximate area of the Wang family's ancestral house.

The place where the corpse was lying should be inside the house, and also the location of the ancestral house's killing formation.

Old Liu suddenly became energetic: "Then let's go back and take a look!"

I shook my head and said, "Even if we go back, we won't be able to solve the Wang family's secret. It's better to put some effort into other aspects."

The reason I didn't tie up the corpse's hands at the time was because I felt that there was no ghost in the corpse.

Facts proved that my guess was correct. I set fire to the corpse's hands, and he didn't react at all. If the soul in the corpse was still there, he would have attacked long ago.

A demon corpse that can enter the village along the water, its soul has been extracted, and the corpse is left outside. It's hard not to be suspicious.

I think the entity that extracted the corpse's soul is in the Wang family, but they are hiding too well.

Old Liu probably understood what I meant and silently retreated to the side.

I looked at the censer over and over again, but couldn't see anything unusual.

In a flash of inspiration, I pressed my hand on the opening of the censer and forced a surge of Yin energy into it.

Not long after the Yin energy entered the censer, a sound of water actually came from inside!

This censer can condense Yin energy into liquid?

If I fill the censer with Yin energy, what will happen?