Chapter 65: Where is the Entry Point?

I roughly calculated in my mind: the pool near Yangjia Village at that time should have been fed by running water; otherwise, a water plant wouldn't have been built there later. "Where did that pool lead to? Was it surface water or subterranean water?"

"It was surface water! Underground springs welled up to form the pool, and the water flowed out from the mouth of the pool into a nearby river."

I nodded and said, "Go on!"

The wild ghost continued, "Logically speaking, after someone drowns, the corpse should float to the surface within two or three days. But seven or eight days passed, and not a single one of the hundred-plus people from Yangjia Village came up."

"Around the ninth day, Mrs. Yang, who had taken Yang Chengjie back to her maiden home, returned with the child. Only when she saw that everyone in the village was gone did she report it to the authorities."

"Back then, it was the renowned detective Shi Chongguang who handled the case. He searched the village thoroughly but couldn't find out where the people of Yangjia Village had gone, so he had to classify it as a missing persons case first!"

What the wild ghost said matched Shi Chongguang's notes almost perfectly; Shi Chongguang had indeed failed to find any trace.

I deliberately asked, "Shi Chongguang didn't find a single clue?"

The wild ghost said, "You have no idea. When the people of Yangjia Village left, they didn't leave a single trace behind. Some people even took off their shoes before entering the water, only to turn back, pick up their shoes, put them on again, and then go into the water."

"I clearly saw that after some people went into the water, the clothes they were wearing floated to the surface. As a result, those people floated back up, grabbed their clothes, and then sank down again."

"This didn't just happen once at the time."

Hearing this, I couldn't help but draw a sharp breath.

Shi Chongguang's notes mentioned that his initial suspicion was that Yangjia Village had suffered a bandit raid and been wiped out. The best way for bandits to conceal corpses would be to sink everyone into the pool. He had even personally led men into the water to check, and not a single corpse was at the bottom of the pool.

It seemed that sinking into the pool in Yangjia Village was merely a smokescreen; those people were taken somewhere else right after entering the water.

I continued to ask, "Then why didn't Mrs. Yang return?"

The wild ghost said, "At the time, I heard Mrs. Yang crying and complaining to her family members who came to pick her up, saying that she had a fight with her husband and, in a fit of anger, took the child back to her maiden home, waiting for her husband to come and fetch her."

"Actually, someone had gone there once, saying it was to take her home. When she saw that the person who came wasn't her own husband, she refused to go back no matter what."

"After a few days, seeing that truly no one came to pick her up, she couldn't hold out any longer and took the child back to Yangjia Village."

"If you calculate the timeline, the day that person went to look for her happened to coincide with the time when the people of Yangjia Village were returning one after another."

I pressed further, "Who went to pick her up? When she refused to leave, did that person make any unusual moves?"

The wild ghost shook his head and said, "I didn't hear her mention that! An unworldly country woman from a remote village, how could she have so much cunning? Even if the other person made some moves, she wouldn't be able to tell."

I nodded and said, "What happened next?"

The wild ghost said, "After I told that person these words, he didn't ask anything else. He told me that if anyone ever asked me about Yangjia Village again, I should say I saw nothing at all. Just tell them that Yang Shijie came back to repair the graves for the villagers and often returned to offer sacrifices to his ancestors."

"If anyone asks where Yang Shijie lives, tell them the truth: Yang Shijie is in the machinery repair plant compound."

I asked in a deep voice, "Is that Yang Shijie still alive? What else did that person tell you?"

"Yang Shijie has been dead for over two years. His children probably found the road too long and didn't bury him here!" the wild ghost said. "The person who came to look for me also told me to make the act look convincing."

I sneered and said, "You certainly made the act convincing; you almost fooled me."

The wild ghost said, "Spare my life, Great Immortal! I was actually scared too!"

"How many years has it been, and no one ever came to ask about Yangjia Village, and now all of a sudden this storm blows up. Who knows who wants to do what?"

"As the saying goes, disaster comes from the mouth..."

"Shut up!" I cut him off before he could finish. "Nail him into the grave, and don't let him out anytime soon."

The wild ghost was terrified: "Great Immortal, you can't..."

Without a second word, Ye Huan grabbed him, hoisted him over his head, and fiercely slammed him down onto the grave.

The ghost was instantly thrown into the grave, and without waiting for him to beg for mercy, Ye Huan drove peach wood spikes into the head of the grave and all four corners of the burial mound.

Although Ye Huan driving the peach wood spikes into the grave wouldn't kill the wild ghost, he wouldn't be able to come out until the peach wood spikes rotted. If no one rescued him, the wild ghost would have to stay in the grave for at least two or three years.

After dealing with the ghost, I casually found a place to sit down and began to flip through Shi Chongguang's notes.

I read through them several times from beginning to end without finding any useful clues, so I simply tossed the notes aside.

Seeing that I was not speaking, Ye Huan asked, "Can't you find any clues at all?"

I waved my hand and said, "Let me sort things out first! There are three things I can't figure out."

"Looking at it now, there was indeed a third faction in Changchun City back then, and these people were the masterminds behind the disappearance case. However, although Shi Chongguang solved the case and caught the culprit back then, he didn't manage to find all the missing people, nor did he find out the motive of those who carried out the kidnapping."

"It wasn't human trafficking, and it wasn't extortion, yet they took away so many people and even massacred the village—what was their purpose?"

Pausing for a moment, I said, "The second thing I can't figure out is why the people of the Thirteen Ghost Gates wanted to find Shi Qi."

"Although the reason given by the Brocade-Clad Marquis holds water, it is not fully sufficient. I have always suspected that they have another ulterior motive."

"I have pondered over it several times and feel that they are looking for Shi Qi because Shi Qi conceals the key to solving the case."

"However, I still can't see where this crucial point lies."

As I spoke, I looked at Shi Qi. She shook her head in response, showing that she, too, could not figure out the other party's purpose.

I continued, "The third thing is, what should our next step be?"

"We have Shi Chongguang's notes in our hands. However, the people of the Thirteen Ghost Gates probably grasp more clues than we do. The places we can go and the people we can find are all things they can find as well, and they are always one step ahead."

"If we follow the established routine step by step, the final result can only be lagging behind at every turn. Not to mention a hundred days, we wouldn't be able to figure out the case even in a thousand days."

"If we want to reverse this situation, we must think of another way. This method must not only be seamless but also turn the passive into the active."

There was one more sentence I didn't say aloud: It would be best to set a trap and wipe out the people of the Thirteen Ghost Gates in one fell swoop.

That was simply too difficult.