Chapter 318
Chapter 318
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 318
>Chapter Title: Divination
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Chapter 318: Divination
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> Hearing Li Huowang’s disbelief, a trace of embarrassment appeared on the peddler’s face.
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> “That’s just what I heard from the old folks at the village head. They say that ghost wants to reincarnate, so it stole a bunch of kids not even a year old. And since it’s been cooped up in the underworld for so long, it’s come to torment all the young virgins.”
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> “So, kids have gone missing in Cangshui County, and quite a few women have been defiled, right?”
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> “Hey, exactly! A Daoist like you is sharp—one sentence from you is worth several from me.”
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> Li Huowang’s brows furrowed. Stolen children and defiled women—if that was really all there was to it, the local magistrate should’ve just sent out bailiffs to catch the culprit, not alerted the Supervising Heavens Bureau. There had to be something more, something this traveling peddler didn’t know about.
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> Li Huowang cracked his horsewhip, striking the horse’s rump. The carriage lurched into motion.
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> Just before the city gates closed, Li Huowang finally reached Cangshui County. The gate guards spotted the Supervising Heavens Bureau token Li Huowang flashed and hurriedly fetched a bailiff to escort him straight to the magistrate’s office.
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> “Hua hua hua~” Disorderly footsteps echoed sporadically around Li Huowang.
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> Watching the able-bodied young men hurry past the carriage with torches in hand, Li Huowang called out to the bailiff leading the horse up ahead. “Who are these people?”
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> The bailiff clasped his hands in a fist. “Reporting to Your Excellency! These are the night watchmen the magistrate drafted from the county. Cangshui County is in a panic now—curfew’s in effect. Anyone caught wandering outside gets nabbed on the spot!”
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> Li Huowang nodded in understanding and fell silent.
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> “Wu...” The unfamiliar surroundings seemed to unsettle Mantou. It kept shoving its big black nose into Li Huowang’s lap.
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> Yet as Li Huowang scanned the desolate streets, he spotted nothing out of the ordinary.
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> Soon, Li Huowang arrived at the Cangshui County yamen. The magistrate had clearly been informed of his coming and was waiting at the entrance alongside a crowd of officials, right by those two massive stone lions.
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> “This lowly official greets Your Excellency!” As the neatly attired magistrate bowed, his secretary, deputy, registrar, and clerk all lowered their heads behind him.
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> Li Huowang looked down from the carriage at the magistrate. The man appeared to be in his forties, but unusually short—even among the group, he stood out glaringly.
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> “No time for chit-chat. Let’s go inside. Business first.” With that, Li Huowang took charge and strode in ahead. The others hurried after him.
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> “Hua~ hua~” The rustle of turning pages filled the hall as the group hunched over, watching Li Huowang pore through the files with utmost caution.
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> Once the tea on the side table had cooled, Li Huowang set down the documents. “Nine children missing, five young virgins defiled?”
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> The magistrate stepped forward at once. “This official believes the number of defiled women far exceeds that. It’s just that they’re too ashamed to report it, so...”
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> “That’s it? Nothing else?” Li Huowang fixed his gaze dead on the magistrate’s eyes.
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> A bead of cold sweat trickled down the man’s forehead. He first saluted Li Huowang, then turned to the others. “All of you, out. Constable Zhou, have men surround the yamen.”
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> The clatter of footsteps faded away, leaving Li Huowang alone in the room with the magistrate.
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> “This lowly official is surnamed Lou. Though I’m not a native of Cangshui County, my ancestral home is also in Jiangnan Circuit. As a parental official, seeing my people in such terror tears at my heart! I beg Your Excellency to save the common folk from this fire and flood!” Tears welled in Magistrate Lou’s eyes as he dropped to his knees before Li Huowang.
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> This courtesy was rather heavy—and from the last incident, Li Huowang knew the magistrate wasn’t technically his subordinate.
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> He couldn’t tell if the words were genuine or just a show for his benefit. “Get to the point. Besides these matters, has anything else happened in Cangshui County?”
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> “There’s been some theft, but it’s trivial! Your Excellency, please look.” Magistrate Lou fetched a map from the nearby table and slowly unrolled it before Li Huowang.
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> It was a detailed map of the entire Jiangnan Circuit. Right beside it lay Zongluo Circuit, home to Yinling City and Cow Heart Mountain.
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> Great Liang had six circuits in total, varying in size, with Jiangnan being the smallest.
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> “Your Excellency, look here.” Magistrate Lou pointed to some dots on the map. “This isn’t just happening in Cangshui! The surrounding counties—Pingcheng, Anshan, Panshui, a total of fifteen—have all seen the same troubles!”
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> Staring at the scattered dots on the map, Li Huowang finally understood why Tuoba Danqing had been called in for something so minor.
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> No matter how small the issue, pile on enough of them, and it stops being small.
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> Li Huowang picked up the map for a closer look. “So many places—how many children is that?”
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> “A total of fifty-seven, and the number’s still climbing. This official has kept a tight lid here in Cangshui, but elsewhere, some rabble-rousers are already stirring up trouble over it.”
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> “Stealing kids not even a year old... what for?” Thinking back to his own experiences in this world, Li Huowang had a grim feeling about their fate.
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> “Your Excellency, I beg you to save the common folk from this fire and flood!!” Magistrate Lou bowed his head low once more.
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> “No rush. Didn’t you say some women were defiled? Bring them here—let me see.” Since the two incidents were happening at once, he needed to get to the bottom of it.
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> Soon, a dazed woman was brought before Li Huowang. But when he questioned her, she couldn’t make sense of it.
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> Couldn’t say who defiled her, nor when. If her parents hadn’t noticed something off, she might never have reported it at all.
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> For a moment, Li Huowang felt utterly at a loss.
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> They said every trade has its master, and investigating this sort of thing really wasn’t his forte.
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> “No, I might have a way after all.”
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> Watching the woman’s retreating back, Li Huowang thought for a moment, pulled out his talisman booklet, and flipped through it. He turned to Magistrate Lou beside him. “Do you have any human bones here? Wide ones.”
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> Since Blind Chen had said these talismans could divine, maybe they’d work in a situation like this.
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> “Human bones?” Though puzzled, Magistrate Lou still ordered the bailiff to fetch some.
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> As dawn began to lighten the sky, the human bone Li Huowang wanted arrived—a skull.
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> “Your Excellency, rest assured, it’s definitely human. Freshly dug from the wild graveyard.” The bailiff carrying the skull beamed with fawning eagerness.
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> Li Huowang clamped his hand into his robe and drew out a sheet of ocher paper. He bit his fingertip to draw blood and swiftly inscribed the talisman.
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> “Racing haste, waxing and waning of the moon—by this commanding decree, I invoke and ward off calamity!”
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> A copper coin pressed onto the completed talisman atop the skull. With a crunch, cracks spiderwebbed across the bone.
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> Li Huowang gravely examined the fractures on the skull, cross-referencing the records in his talisman booklet as he interpreted the reading. “Hmm... this hexagram...”
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> (End of chapter)