Early the next morning, County Magistrate Lin rushed into the yamen and went straight to Bai Lixin’s study.
Bai Lixin was still asleep, but the fox’s natural hearing woke him up instantly. He rubbed his eyes and looked towards the door sleepily.
The moment County Magistrate Lin opened the door, he saw a young man with a tired face sitting at the desk piled high with documents. His skin was a bit pale, his eyes were a bit bloodshot, his hair was messy, and his clothes were wrinkled.
In that moment, all his anger dissipated.
“You stayed here all night?” He intended to scold, but seeing the tired young man in front of him, he felt grateful. Getting such a diligent helper was not easy. Moreover, he was introduced by his wife, and they were all relatives. What was there to complain about?
Bai Lixin rubbed his eyes. “Yes, I came to look for clues to a bizarre murder case. Brother-in-law, Zhang Biao gave me your message but I finished quite late last night and was afraid of disturbing the prince’s family’s rest, so I didn’t go over.”
“You didn’t… stay up the whole night, did you?”
“I’m just sharing the worries of my brother in law. If I don’t solve the case, how can I dare to sleep!”
‘I had to sleep, ah, otherwise, what would I do if I don’t sleep and turn into a fox!’
Suddenly, County Magistrate Lin felt guilty.
This child didn’t take a break. He was just one person; how could he divide himself into two? He asked him to help manage the yamen and be the private tutor for the crown prince. Wasn’t this pushing him to the limit?
He actually had the nerve to come over and scold him?
How could he still scold him?
“Bai Lixin, if you don’t have time to go to the prince’s mansion, I’ll go and decline for you.” After thinking for a while, County Magistrate Lin gritted his teeth, “Although the prince’s is a royal, I am the county magistrate of this town. He should still give me face.”
Bai Lixin: “But, won’t the prince blame brother-in-law for this?”
County Magistrate Lin: “He shouldn’t. At most, he’ll be angry for a few days. After a while, I’ll go in person to apologize and this matter will be over.”
“Oh, no need. I think I’ll go. I saw that the young prince didn’t want a private tutor either. I’ll just go to show my face.” Bai Lixin and County Magistrate Lin argued for a while, and unexpectedly, it was County Magistrate Lin who got turned down.
County Magistrate Lin was stunned. “Huh?”
‘So, do you want to go or not?
If you don’t want to go, just say it.
If you want to go, then go!
If you don’t say you don’t want to go and then go, isn’t this putting me in a tough spot?!’
Bai Lixin: “…”
‘That’s right, I wanted to put you in a tough spot.’
County Magistrate Lin took a deep breath. “Where’s Zhang Biao? Why haven’t I seen him?”
Bai Lixin: “He had something to do, so he went home.”
The anger that County Magistrate Lin couldn’t vent on Bai Lixin finally found an outlet.
“Okay, Zhang Biao, what time is it now? It’s early in the morning! Early in the morning, and you’ve gone home. Why did he go home at this hour?”
“It’s too much, this is just too much! Outrageous! He completely disregards me, the county magistrate!”
After shouting and scolding for a while, when all the anger was vented, County Magistrate Lin finally sighed in relief. “When he comes back, tell him to find me. I’m going back to my study!”
Bai Lixin: “…”
In a sense, the County Magistrate was somewhat like a mascot.
After finishing his morning routine, Bai Lixin passed by the courtyard. The atmosphere among the constables seemed gloomy, lacking the usual laughter. He stood in front of them and asked, “I need to go to Qingcheng Mountain today. Who is willing to come with me?”
The constables exchanged glances but none of them spoke up.
“Sir, I’ll accompany you.”
“I’ll go too!”
Two voices spoke up one after the other.
Bai Lixin looked towards the young constable and Chang Song. After a few days, the bruises on Chang Song’s face were almost healed, unlike the severed finger. It had not yet scabbed over and was wrapped in gauze.
“One is enough.” He said to the young constable. “You come with me.”
“Chang Song, stay behind. The constable head might need you later.”
“Need me?” Chang Song was puzzled. “Need me for what?”
Bai Lixin: “You’ll find out soon.”
After leaving Chang Song with this cryptic statement, Bai Lixin left with the young constable.
According to the wonton vendor’s wife, they had ended up like that because of something behind Qingcheng Mountain. That meant there must be something in the water in the back of the mountain.
Qingcheng Mountain stood majestic and grand, resembling a dragon coiling on the ground when seen from a distance.
Looking up from the foot of the mountain, Bai Lixin could see a mysterious-looking group of buildings near the mountain’s peak.
As he and the young constable reached the mountain gate, a fork in the road appeared. Following the old woman’s account, Bai Lixin didn’t enter Qingcheng Sect. Instead, he continued along the smaller path.
They walked for about half an hour, and Bai Lixin began to hear the gushing sound of water and soon arrived at a cliff.
Looking down, he saw a massive lake beneath the cliff, shaped like a giant bowl. On the lake’s edge, there was a waterfall cascading down from the mountain top, immediately creating numerous white misty splashes upon hitting the water surface.
On the other side of the lake was a connected river. However, this river didn’t flow down to the lake source. Instead, it resembled a stair-like structure, breaking off from the middle of the mountain and forming an opening beneath the lake.
The waterfall flowed into the lake, and the lake’s water flowed out through the opening and into the river.
The river continued down the mountain, flowing into Qingcheng Town.
This river was the town’s mother river.
The young constable asked, “Sir, what are we doing here?”
Bai Lixin looked down at the cliff for a moment and quickly found a path. “Let’s go down and take a look.”
As he was about to speak, he suddenly saw a huge shadow moving in the lake below.
From this angle, it seemed like the silhouette of a winding dragon.
The image appeared for just a second before swiftly disappearing, as if it were merely the shadow cast by sunlight on the water surface, a trick of his own imagination.
“Did you see something swimming down there just now?” Bai Lixin asked, looking at the water’s surface.
“Yes, my eyesight is excellent,” the young constable quickly replied. “It was just ripples on the water surface, and there was a cluster of mist too.”
“Oh, I also saw some rocks.”
“…” Bai Lixin: “Let’s go down.”
‘It’s better to go check it out myself.’
They couldn’t reach the lake from here, so they planned to go around it when descending the mountain.
The two of them circled for a while, and by the time they finally reached the back of the lake, it was almost noon.
It was summer, and the midday temperature was rising. However, due to the continuous splashes from the waterfall, the place felt refreshingly cool. Bai Lixin even discovered a rainbow forming at the position of the waterfall.
The air here was pleasant, and the scenery was excellent.
Bai Lixin didn’t know the exact location where the old woman’s body had fallen. He briefly explained to the young constable what they were looking for. Just as they were about to split up and search, the young constable suddenly said, “But, sir, I can’t swim.”
“…” Bai Lixin looked at him with a puzzled expression. “Then, you stay here and keep watch for me.”
‘Why on earth did I even bring you?’ Suppressing this thought, Bai Lixin quickly sank into the water.
The lake’s surface was crystal clear, but the water became murkier the deeper he went.
He took out a flashlight from his backpack. The flashlight he obtained from the system was waterproof.
Turning on the flashlight and aiming it at the water’s surface, Bai Lixin finally saw something.
The bottom of the lake was covered in thick black mud. He grabbed a handful of it and examined it closely, finding the mud somewhat familiar.
After being stunned for a moment, he grabbed a large amount of the mud and swiftly swam towards the shore.
When he emerged from the water, the young constable was meditating by the lake, almost dozing off.
Bai Lixin directly slapped a lump of mud in front of the young constable.
“Wow, what’s that awful smell!” The constable jumped up from the ground, only to find Bai Lixin standing in front of him.
Bai Lixin, who was soaked, looked at him with a sly smile.
The young constable laughed awkwardly. “S-Sir, I was just keeping watch.”
Bai Lixin: “I was afraid you’d fall asleep like a log. Look down.”
The young constable covered his nose and looked down, scrutinizing the black mud. “What is this?”
Bai Lixin: “Doesn’t it seem familiar to you?”
The young constable stared at the pile of rotten mud for a while before realizing, “It seems a bit familiar… like horse dung?”
Bai Lixin: “…”
‘Zhang Biao, where did you find such a wise young man?’
“Doesn’t it look like the black substance found in the mouth and under the nails of the bodies?” Bai Lixin asked.
The young constable focused on the lump of mud for a moment before understanding. “Sir, you’re right. It does resemble it.”
Bai Lixin: “It’s not a resemblance, it’s the same thing.”
This substance was probably not common. Even if it existed elsewhere, the smell and texture would not be identical.
This smell and texture were like those found on the corpses.
However, all the bodies had been discovered within the town.
When he had followed the river downstream while sitting on the lotus platform with Fanjia that day, he had investigated the riverbed. Even though it was nighttime, the moonlight and flashlight had illuminated the area, and there was no mud.
Moreover, the scale he had extracted from the riverbed didn’t have any unusual smell.
He had asked Zhang Biao about this too. They had investigated the entire river multiple times, and there was no such mud at any location underwater.
So, there was a possibility that the bodies had been here before.
Or not just the bodies, but living people.
Living people had come here, been submerged underwater, and buried in the black mud. In order to escape, they instinctively shouted for help and dug around, so the black mud entered into their mouths and between their fingers.
If that were the case, it could explain why most of the bodies were found near the riverbank, or their clothes were wet.
They had died here, and their bodies had flowed downstream through the river and entered the town, making it appear as if the bodies were found in Qingcheng.
If this was true, there was another question: why were they the ones who died? Apart from having connections with Qingcheng Sect, what was the reason they were chosen?
This didn’t seem like a vendetta.
Bai Lixin pondered for a moment and said to the young constable, “I’ll go down again. You search for clues on the surface.”
With that, Bai Lixin submerged himself in the water once more.
He quickly swam to the bottom and stirred the mud around for a while. When the water became even murkier due to his movements, he suddenly felt something.
It was hard and uneven.
He grabbed hold of it and pulled. As he pulled, the mud around it churned.
With a strong tug, he finally pulled it out from the ground.
Bai Lixin looked at it; it was a skeleton.
But not a human skeleton.
The bones were large and sturdy, and the flesh and tendons had already decayed. The head was firmly stuck together, showing no signs of falling apart.
Bai Lixin held the flashlight between his teeth, used both hands to hold the skeleton, and dragged it out of the water. This time, the young constable didn’t fall asleep, but Bai Lixin didn’t know where he had run off to. He didn’t have time to worry about him and after pulling the body out, he examined it.
From the bones, it resembled an animal from the canine family.
But this skeleton was noticeably much larger. If his guess was correct, this should be a monster’s bone.
He remembered that Miss Song had a small finger bone in her mouth. Initially, he thought it was a human finger bone, but now it didn’t seem to be the case.
Monster’s bones.
Was there a possibility that this place was used for trapping monsters?
People from Qingcheng Sect shared the meat with the townsfolk and threw all the bones here.
To verify this hypothesis, he went underwater again and dug around.
He randomly picked a spot, reached in, and grabbed on. Soon, another skeleton was pulled out.
This time, the bones were noticeably smaller. He couldn’t recognize what animal it was, so he swam up and piled the bones on the shore.
In the next half hour, he went in and out and retrieved many skeletons from the water.
After half an hour of retrieving, Bai Lixin slowly climbed ashore.
This was his second time diving to collect things. The first time was in the River God copy, where he retrieved two black skeletons embracing each other from the bottom of the river.
This time was the second, and it was even more extreme.
He had pulled out several skeletons from the river.
The shapes of the bodies on the ground were diverse, representing various animals. Some skeletons were unidentifiable even to him.
Things seemed to be getting clearer.
But there were still things he didn’t understand, like what were those beads? What was the significance of these bodies buried here? And what was the shadow he had seen just now—was it a dragon, a snake, or something else?
If it were the latter, could it be the red-clothed woman with a white umbrella?
Bai Lixin stared at the skeletons on the ground for a while, then silently took out the scale from his backpack.
The scale reflected a dazzling golden light in the sunlight. Originally red, it now appeared as vivid as blood.
He aimed the scale at the lake’s surface, reflecting the sunlight onto the water and creating an excessively bright spot on the lake.
As he aimed at the lake for a while, suddenly, beneath the previously calm surface, there appeared a massive curved shadow.
The shadow wriggled around. If it were in modern times, it would undoubtedly be considered a water monster that would be great for scientific and technological exploration.
The shadow was clearly chasing after the light from the scale.
The creature’s head shook under the bright light for a long time. It hadn’t managed to catch the white light, and the creature became visibly frustrated, swimming restlessly.
Bai Lixin instinctively moved back two steps. The next moment, the water’s surface suddenly exploded, and something that seemed like a dragon but not quite, a snake but not entirely, emerged from the water.
It was entirely crimson, and it was twisting its body in mid-air.
Bai Lixin stared at the creature’s chest area for a moment, and noticed an obvious gap, something was missing there.
“Are you looking for this?” Bai Lixin shook the scale in his hand, and the light from the scale happened to fall into the creature’s eyes, catching its attention.
This should be the missing piece.
Stimulated by the strong light, the creature squinted its eyes and looked over. It then discovered there was a person on the bank.
It hovered in the air for a moment and then directly flew towards the shore.
Just as it was about to reach the ground, a red light radiated from its body, and with the blossoming of the red light, the dragon’s body shrank rapidly and rolled into the red light.
When the red light completely disappeared, a red-clothed woman appeared on the ground.
Bai Lixin recognized this face.
It was the face of the female ghost that had jumped into the river.
“Are you looking for this?” Bai Lixin asked again. The woman on the opposite side didn’t say a word, reaching out to snatch it.
Bai Lixin acted swiftly, retracting his hand while saying, “Hold on for a moment.”
The woman didn’t listen, and tried to rush over and snatch it again.
Early the next morning, County Magistrate Lin rushed into the yamen and went straight to Bai Lixin’s study.
Bai Lixin was still asleep, but the fox’s natural hearing woke him up instantly. He rubbed his eyes and looked towards the door sleepily.
The moment County Magistrate Lin opened the door, he saw a young man with a tired face sitting at the desk piled high with documents. His skin was a bit pale, his eyes were a bit bloodshot, his hair was messy, and his clothes were wrinkled.
In that moment, all his anger dissipated.
“You stayed here all night?” He intended to scold, but seeing the tired young man in front of him, he felt grateful. Getting such a diligent helper was not easy. Moreover, he was introduced by his wife, and they were all relatives. What was there to complain about?
Bai Lixin rubbed his eyes. “Yes, I came to look for clues to a bizarre murder case. Brother-in-law, Zhang Biao gave me your message but I finished quite late last night and was afraid of disturbing the prince’s family’s rest, so I didn’t go over.”
“You didn’t… stay up the whole night, did you?”
“I’m just sharing the worries of my brother in law. If I don’t solve the case, how can I dare to sleep!”
‘I had to sleep, ah, otherwise, what would I do if I don’t sleep and turn into a fox!’
Suddenly, County Magistrate Lin felt guilty.
This child didn’t take a break. He was just one person; how could he divide himself into two? He asked him to help manage the yamen and be the private tutor for the crown prince. Wasn’t this pushing him to the limit?
He actually had the nerve to come over and scold him?
How could he still scold him?
“Bai Lixin, if you don’t have time to go to the prince’s mansion, I’ll go and decline for you.” After thinking for a while, County Magistrate Lin gritted his teeth, “Although the prince’s is a royal, I am the county magistrate of this town. He should still give me face.”
Bai Lixin: “But, won’t the prince blame brother-in-law for this?”
County Magistrate Lin: “He shouldn’t. At most, he’ll be angry for a few days. After a while, I’ll go in person to apologize and this matter will be over.”
“Oh, no need. I think I’ll go. I saw that the young prince didn’t want a private tutor either. I’ll just go to show my face.” Bai Lixin and County Magistrate Lin argued for a while, and unexpectedly, it was County Magistrate Lin who got turned down.
County Magistrate Lin was stunned. “Huh?”
‘So, do you want to go or not?
If you don’t want to go, just say it.
If you want to go, then go!
If you don’t say you don’t want to go and then go, isn’t this putting me in a tough spot?!’
Bai Lixin: “…”
‘That’s right, I wanted to put you in a tough spot.’
County Magistrate Lin took a deep breath. “Where’s Zhang Biao? Why haven’t I seen him?”
Bai Lixin: “He had something to do, so he went home.”
The anger that County Magistrate Lin couldn’t vent on Bai Lixin finally found an outlet.
“Okay, Zhang Biao, what time is it now? It’s early in the morning! Early in the morning, and you’ve gone home. Why did he go home at this hour?”
“It’s too much, this is just too much! Outrageous! He completely disregards me, the county magistrate!”
After shouting and scolding for a while, when all the anger was vented, County Magistrate Lin finally sighed in relief. “When he comes back, tell him to find me. I’m going back to my study!”
Bai Lixin: “…”
In a sense, the County Magistrate was somewhat like a mascot.
After finishing his morning routine, Bai Lixin passed by the courtyard. The atmosphere among the constables seemed gloomy, lacking the usual laughter. He stood in front of them and asked, “I need to go to Qingcheng Mountain today. Who is willing to come with me?”
The constables exchanged glances but none of them spoke up.
“Sir, I’ll accompany you.”
“I’ll go too!”
Two voices spoke up one after the other.
Bai Lixin looked towards the young constable and Chang Song. After a few days, the bruises on Chang Song’s face were almost healed, unlike the severed finger. It had not yet scabbed over and was wrapped in gauze.
“One is enough.” He said to the young constable. “You come with me.”
“Chang Song, stay behind. The constable head might need you later.”
“Need me?” Chang Song was puzzled. “Need me for what?”
Bai Lixin: “You’ll find out soon.”
After leaving Chang Song with this cryptic statement, Bai Lixin left with the young constable.
According to the wonton vendor’s wife, they had ended up like that because of something behind Qingcheng Mountain. That meant there must be something in the water in the back of the mountain.
Qingcheng Mountain stood majestic and grand, resembling a dragon coiling on the ground when seen from a distance.
Looking up from the foot of the mountain, Bai Lixin could see a mysterious-looking group of buildings near the mountain’s peak.
As he and the young constable reached the mountain gate, a fork in the road appeared. Following the old woman’s account, Bai Lixin didn’t enter Qingcheng Sect. Instead, he continued along the smaller path.
They walked for about half an hour, and Bai Lixin began to hear the gushing sound of water and soon arrived at a cliff.
Looking down, he saw a massive lake beneath the cliff, shaped like a giant bowl. On the lake’s edge, there was a waterfall cascading down from the mountain top, immediately creating numerous white misty splashes upon hitting the water surface.
On the other side of the lake was a connected river. However, this river didn’t flow down to the lake source. Instead, it resembled a stair-like structure, breaking off from the middle of the mountain and forming an opening beneath the lake.
The waterfall flowed into the lake, and the lake’s water flowed out through the opening and into the river.
The river continued down the mountain, flowing into Qingcheng Town.
This river was the town’s mother river.
The young constable asked, “Sir, what are we doing here?”
Bai Lixin looked down at the cliff for a moment and quickly found a path. “Let’s go down and take a look.”
As he was about to speak, he suddenly saw a huge shadow moving in the lake below.
From this angle, it seemed like the silhouette of a winding dragon.
The image appeared for just a second before swiftly disappearing, as if it were merely the shadow cast by sunlight on the water surface, a trick of his own imagination.
“Did you see something swimming down there just now?” Bai Lixin asked, looking at the water’s surface.
“Yes, my eyesight is excellent,” the young constable quickly replied. “It was just ripples on the water surface, and there was a cluster of mist too.”
“Oh, I also saw some rocks.”
“…” Bai Lixin: “Let’s go down.”
‘It’s better to go check it out myself.’
They couldn’t reach the lake from here, so they planned to go around it when descending the mountain.
The two of them circled for a while, and by the time they finally reached the back of the lake, it was almost noon.
It was summer, and the midday temperature was rising. However, due to the continuous splashes from the waterfall, the place felt refreshingly cool. Bai Lixin even discovered a rainbow forming at the position of the waterfall.
The air here was pleasant, and the scenery was excellent.
Bai Lixin didn’t know the exact location where the old woman’s body had fallen. He briefly explained to the young constable what they were looking for. Just as they were about to split up and search, the young constable suddenly said, “But, sir, I can’t swim.”
“…” Bai Lixin looked at him with a puzzled expression. “Then, you stay here and keep watch for me.”
‘Why on earth did I even bring you?’ Suppressing this thought, Bai Lixin quickly sank into the water.
The lake’s surface was crystal clear, but the water became murkier the deeper he went.
He took out a flashlight from his backpack. The flashlight he obtained from the system was waterproof.
Turning on the flashlight and aiming it at the water’s surface, Bai Lixin finally saw something.
The bottom of the lake was covered in thick black mud. He grabbed a handful of it and examined it closely, finding the mud somewhat familiar.
After being stunned for a moment, he grabbed a large amount of the mud and swiftly swam towards the shore.
When he emerged from the water, the young constable was meditating by the lake, almost dozing off.
Bai Lixin directly slapped a lump of mud in front of the young constable.
“Wow, what’s that awful smell!” The constable jumped up from the ground, only to find Bai Lixin standing in front of him.
Bai Lixin, who was soaked, looked at him with a sly smile.
The young constable laughed awkwardly. “S-Sir, I was just keeping watch.”
Bai Lixin: “I was afraid you’d fall asleep like a log. Look down.”
The young constable covered his nose and looked down, scrutinizing the black mud. “What is this?”
Bai Lixin: “Doesn’t it seem familiar to you?”
The young constable stared at the pile of rotten mud for a while before realizing, “It seems a bit familiar… like horse dung?”
Bai Lixin: “…”
‘Zhang Biao, where did you find such a wise young man?’
“Doesn’t it look like the black substance found in the mouth and under the nails of the bodies?” Bai Lixin asked.
The young constable focused on the lump of mud for a moment before understanding. “Sir, you’re right. It does resemble it.”
Bai Lixin: “It’s not a resemblance, it’s the same thing.”
This substance was probably not common. Even if it existed elsewhere, the smell and texture would not be identical.
This smell and texture were like those found on the corpses.
However, all the bodies had been discovered within the town.
When he had followed the river downstream while sitting on the lotus platform with Fanjia that day, he had investigated the riverbed. Even though it was nighttime, the moonlight and flashlight had illuminated the area, and there was no mud.
Moreover, the scale he had extracted from the riverbed didn’t have any unusual smell.
He had asked Zhang Biao about this too. They had investigated the entire river multiple times, and there was no such mud at any location underwater.
So, there was a possibility that the bodies had been here before.
Or not just the bodies, but living people.
Living people had come here, been submerged underwater, and buried in the black mud. In order to escape, they instinctively shouted for help and dug around, so the black mud entered into their mouths and between their fingers.
If that were the case, it could explain why most of the bodies were found near the riverbank, or their clothes were wet.
They had died here, and their bodies had flowed downstream through the river and entered the town, making it appear as if the bodies were found in Qingcheng.
If this was true, there was another question: why were they the ones who died? Apart from having connections with Qingcheng Sect, what was the reason they were chosen?
This didn’t seem like a vendetta.
Bai Lixin pondered for a moment and said to the young constable, “I’ll go down again. You search for clues on the surface.”
With that, Bai Lixin submerged himself in the water once more.
He quickly swam to the bottom and stirred the mud around for a while. When the water became even murkier due to his movements, he suddenly felt something.
It was hard and uneven.
He grabbed hold of it and pulled. As he pulled, the mud around it churned.
With a strong tug, he finally pulled it out from the ground.
Bai Lixin looked at it; it was a skeleton.
But not a human skeleton.
The bones were large and sturdy, and the flesh and tendons had already decayed. The head was firmly stuck together, showing no signs of falling apart.
Bai Lixin held the flashlight between his teeth, used both hands to hold the skeleton, and dragged it out of the water. This time, the young constable didn’t fall asleep, but Bai Lixin didn’t know where he had run off to. He didn’t have time to worry about him and after pulling the body out, he examined it.
From the bones, it resembled an animal from the canine family.
But this skeleton was noticeably much larger. If his guess was correct, this should be a monster’s bone.
He remembered that Miss Song had a small finger bone in her mouth. Initially, he thought it was a human finger bone, but now it didn’t seem to be the case.
Monster’s bones.
Was there a possibility that this place was used for trapping monsters?
People from Qingcheng Sect shared the meat with the townsfolk and threw all the bones here.
To verify this hypothesis, he went underwater again and dug around.
He randomly picked a spot, reached in, and grabbed on. Soon, another skeleton was pulled out.
This time, the bones were noticeably smaller. He couldn’t recognize what animal it was, so he swam up and piled the bones on the shore.
In the next half hour, he went in and out and retrieved many skeletons from the water.
After half an hour of retrieving, Bai Lixin slowly climbed ashore.
This was his second time diving to collect things. The first time was in the River God copy, where he retrieved two black skeletons embracing each other from the bottom of the river.
This time was the second, and it was even more extreme.
He had pulled out several skeletons from the river.
The shapes of the bodies on the ground were diverse, representing various animals. Some skeletons were unidentifiable even to him.
Things seemed to be getting clearer.
But there were still things he didn’t understand, like what were those beads? What was the significance of these bodies buried here? And what was the shadow he had seen just now—was it a dragon, a snake, or something else?
If it were the latter, could it be the red-clothed woman with a white umbrella?
Bai Lixin stared at the skeletons on the ground for a while, then silently took out the scale from his backpack.
The scale reflected a dazzling golden light in the sunlight. Originally red, it now appeared as vivid as blood.
He aimed the scale at the lake’s surface, reflecting the sunlight onto the water and creating an excessively bright spot on the lake.
As he aimed at the lake for a while, suddenly, beneath the previously calm surface, there appeared a massive curved shadow.
The shadow wriggled around. If it were in modern times, it would undoubtedly be considered a water monster that would be great for scientific and technological exploration.
The shadow was clearly chasing after the light from the scale.
The creature’s head shook under the bright light for a long time. It hadn’t managed to catch the white light, and the creature became visibly frustrated, swimming restlessly.
Bai Lixin instinctively moved back two steps. The next moment, the water’s surface suddenly exploded, and something that seemed like a dragon but not quite, a snake but not entirely, emerged from the water.
It was entirely crimson, and it was twisting its body in mid-air.
Bai Lixin stared at the creature’s chest area for a moment, and noticed an obvious gap, something was missing there.
“Are you looking for this?” Bai Lixin shook the scale in his hand, and the light from the scale happened to fall into the creature’s eyes, catching its attention.
This should be the missing piece.
Stimulated by the strong light, the creature squinted its eyes and looked over. It then discovered there was a person on the bank.
It hovered in the air for a moment and then directly flew towards the shore.
Just as it was about to reach the ground, a red light radiated from its body, and with the blossoming of the red light, the dragon’s body shrank rapidly and rolled into the red light.
When the red light completely disappeared, a red-clothed woman appeared on the ground.
Bai Lixin recognized this face.
It was the face of the female ghost that had jumped into the river.
“Are you looking for this?” Bai Lixin asked again. The woman on the opposite side didn’t say a word, reaching out to snatch it.
Bai Lixin acted swiftly, retracting his hand while saying, “Hold on for a moment.”
The woman didn’t listen, and tried to rush over and snatch it again.
