Chapter 318: Hexagram

Chapter 318: Hexagram

After exiting the prison, Li Huowang arrived at the backyard of the Cangshui County Office. As soon as he stepped in, he saw Mantou sticking his head into the horse trough, competing with the horse for water.

The familiar scent reached him, and Mantou turned his head, looking innocently at him. He was hungry.

Li Huowang brought Mantou to the street. Although the theft of infants had caused widespread panic throughout Cangshui County, at least there were still people conducting business on the streets.

"Red oil dumplings?" Li Huowang looked at the unfamiliar dish and walked toward the second stall. "Thorn noodles?"

Two bowls of wide noodles, green with black specks, were served, topped with a generous layer of chili sauce that filled the air with its pungent aroma.

Only after seeing Mantou eat joyfully did Li Huowang take out chopsticks from the bamboo basket to begin eating himself.

These wide noodles were peculiar—numbing upon tasting, yet no Sichuan peppercorns were used. The numbness came from tiny thorns embedded within the noodles scraping against his tongue.

The green color of the noodles was actually dyed with thorns. Even more remarkable was how these thorns softened quickly once consumed.

As Li Huowang ate this specialty unique to Daliang, two men entered beside him. Their voices were low, accompanied by a particular male chuckle only men could understand.

"Really like that? What kind of man am I, to deceive you? There are not just male ghosts coming out of the gate of death, but female ones too~! That female ghost was stunningly beautiful, hehehe~"

"The female ghost was also quite distressed... hehehe~ Can't a brother just ignore it? The very next day I lost eight taels!"

Hearing this, Li Huowang frowned involuntarily. The people of this world lived in confusion and died in confusion, believing such gossip without knowing what truly happened around them.

Listening to one man boast about his romantic adventures, Li Huowang buried himself in eating his noodles.

After finishing the meal hastily, Li Huowang thought that since the talisman divination had worked before, he would try the same method again.

The talisman he had drawn was rekindled, and the ashes were swallowed down by Li Huowang once more. But this time, it didn’t work like last time.

"Why does this talisman sometimes work and sometimes not? Did I draw it wrong?" Li Huowang stared at the talisman book in his hands, pondering carefully.

Since he had only used the talisman twice, he was clearly unskilled.

"Sir, the owner of Shuxintang has also come to report to the authorities!"

The constable's voice was cut off immediately by County Magistrate Lou, who pulled him away. "Don't disturb the gentleman’s ritual!"

"I simply won’t believe it. Catching whatever creature steals infants is so difficult!" Since divination failed, Li Huowang resorted to a brute-force approach—keeping watch.

But after several days of surveillance, it seemed as though the thieves knew he was coming. The infant thefts in Cangshui County mysteriously stopped.

In a daze, Li Huowang was awakened by voices in the guest room. When he pushed open the window and looked outside, he saw a sea of people hurrying eastward along the street, their expressions unusually excited.

"This is..." Confused, Li Huowang left the room and followed them.

Not far behind those people, Li Huowang realized what they were going to do. They surrounded the crossroads tightly, and at the center stood a man bound to a wooden pole.

"Execution~!" With an air of righteous indignation, County Magistrate Lou threw a red stick, prompting cheers.

When he saw Li Huowang approaching, the authoritative Lou sat up straight and made way for him.

"Sir, you’ve arrived! Capturing this villain is all thanks to you!"

"Are they going to execute him? So soon? Wasn’t it supposed to be after autumn?"

Lou looked at the bound man, his face full of hatred. “This criminal is guilty beyond measure! How can we execute him?! For revenge on behalf of the people of Cangshui County, he deserves to be dismembered!”

At that moment, a sturdy man in a red short jacket stepped forward, drank a cup of yellow wine in one gulp, then raised his blade and began his work.

With each piece of flesh peeled from the bound man, the crowd erupted in cheers.

"What do those people stuffing copper coins into the constables’ pockets mean?" Li Huowang pointed to a corner with his hand.

"Oh, those are relatives of victims. They want to buy back the thief’s flesh to feed dogs, so the thief will never reincarnate. If it's deep hatred, some even eat the flesh and drink the blood of their enemies."

"Sigh, according to law, this doesn’t conform to the rules of Daliang, but thinking about how that scoundrel nearly defiled my precious daughter, even I want to bite him! It’s absolutely despicable!"

As the man’s body was gradually dismembered, becoming increasingly horrifying, neither men nor women, young nor old, showed fear—they grew more excited, cheering louder and louder. This scene was truly bizarre.

Each cut, accompanied by the cheers, brought forth piercing screams from the bound man.

Eventually, his eyes turned filled with hatred as he looked around. No longer screaming, he cursed loudly, the pain making his curses even louder.

"Acting all high and mighty! What’s wrong with playing around? I’ve played so many times, none have remained intact! You women are all sluts! All prostitutes!! All whores!!"

This drew furious anger and a chorus of abuse. If not for the constables holding them back, he might have been torn apart already.

"Hmm? Wait!" Li Huowang suddenly saw something and hurried down.

When he reached the bound man, he was shocked to see the bloody gashes on his body, perfectly forming the hexagram he had divined using human bones earlier. "You’re telling the truth?"

"If I’m lying, may I be cursed to die like a bastard dog! Over a hundred women, not one ever bled! Your women in Cangshui have long been corrupted by devils!"

It sounded like the ramblings of a dying man, but seeing the hexagram on his body, Li Huowang didn’t think so.

"Bleeding... bleeding..." Realizing something, Li Huowang rushed to County Magistrate Lou and said, "Magistrate Lou, you mentioned earlier that besides the women being violated and children stolen, other things were taken too?"

"Yes, what is it, sir?"

"Find everything that was stolen! How much, what exactly, I need to know everything!"

Hearing Li Huowang’s firm words, Lou hurried to comply.

While it was hard to retrieve stolen children, stolen goods were easy to count.

Soon, Li Huowang listed all the stolen items.

"Angelica... Cunyun... Cinnabar..." As he looked at these items, his brow furrowed deeper.

Recalling the bound man’s lack of bleeding, the ghostly woman mentioned by the townspeople, and the missing children,

Li Huowang took up a brush and wrote a few words on paper: Red Pill, Five Nectars, and Bone Rot.

Looking at his notes, Li Huowang’s eyes widened further.

"The medicinal properties... and this formula—it’s a pill recipe! Someone is using these ingredients to make pills!!"

(End of Chapter)