Chapter 178 Deception

I stopped short. "Old Liu, are you sure you've been to Yuanshan Village?"

"Of course! I've been there several times!" Old Liu explained, "I came here when I was helping the Wang family with their wedding. That's when I met an old fellow in the village, and we hit it off. We've been in contact ever since."

"Sometimes I come to see him and bring him some fresh fish, and sometimes he comes to see me for a few drinks. Why are you asking about this?"

I quickly asked, "Which of you visited the other more often?"

"He came to see me more often!" Old Liu still answered truthfully, even though he didn't know what I was getting at. "I have to watch the water, especially during the flood season. I can't leave the riverbank. So, he came to see me. I only got away a few times a year."

I narrowed my eyes slightly. "Each time you came, did you enter the village on your own, or did someone meet you?"

"The old fellow met me..." Old Liu’s tone changed midway. "How come I always happened to run into that old fellow every time I came?"

The first time Old Liu came to help with the wedding, it was expected that someone would be waiting outside the village to guide them in; that was just proper etiquette. But if someone met him every single time, that was suspicious.

"Because no one guided you, you couldn't walk in." I pointed to the coffin on the hillside. "Evil spirits guard the gate, the road is divided by life and death, dragons coil and tigers crouch, every step is fraught with danger. There are術道 (Shu Dao – Taoist arts) experts in this village. You've all been deceived!"

My voice deepened. "When you came to get the bride, what betrothal gifts did you bring?"

"Well, the 'three golds and four silvers,' pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, and three fish..." Old Liu suddenly realized. "We brought three live fish in water tanks. I saw a golden carp in one of the tanks. We didn't bring the dragon fish here, did we?"

I looked at Old Liu with a half-smile and asked, "What do you think?"

I had long heard that families living by the water prepared several good fish for weddings and funerals. Especially in places where people lived by fishing, the fish had to be alive, and there were requirements for their size, weight, and color.

If the Wang family had brought the dragon fish in a water tank, no one would have suspected anything. That's how the Wang family transferred the dragon fish.

"Impossible... impossible..." Old Liu shook his head repeatedly. "What you're saying makes sense, but the five family ancestors aren't fools. Wouldn't they know if the dragon fish was gone?"

I asked again, "Are you sure that the person who comes back for the New Year is really your family ancestor?"

"Don't forget, almost two generations of sorcerers from Fish Basket Village died suddenly. Did the ghosts of those dead sorcerers ever come back?"

"Besides them, who has actually seen what your own family ancestor looks like?"

"There are over three hundred graves in the cemetery on the mountain, but less than two hundred of them actually have ghosts. Besides the six ancestors, there should be a group of older ghosts, right? Where did those ghosts go? Did they all reincarnate?"

Yesterday, when I saw the Wang family ancestor issue an order and immediately make those ghosts attack their descendants, I found it strange. Even tigers don't eat their cubs. How could those old guys kill their own descendants so easily?

At the time, I thought they were too deeply poisoned by feudal ethics, but now it seems that's not the case.

More importantly, the strength of those ghosts I killed was clearly not on the same level. The Wang family ghost could fight me for a few moves, but the remaining five ghosts were killed by me with one strike. Is that normal?

Although Zhao Zhuang and the others hadn't seen much of the world, they weren't fools. After hearing my question, they reached out and dragged out the ghost of the Wang family's old lady.

Zhao Zhuang grabbed the old lady with bloodshot eyes and asked, "Tell me, what's going on? If you keep talking nonsense today, I'll go into the village and chop up your grandson. Mr. Li promised not to kill the idiot, but I didn't."

The old lady finally couldn't hold on any longer and cried miserably. "It was all the old master's idea! He said that if seven people share one bun, no one will be full. It's better to eat it yourself and enjoy it."

"Back then, they seven swore an oath of allegiance, but he was the only one who played tricks. Others couldn't kill him, but he could kill others."

"At that time, the old master felt that the underground palace matter was about to be completed, so he took action. Who knew that it wouldn't work out!"

The old lady pleaded, "Those things were all done by the old master. It has nothing to do with Zhu Zi and the others. Let the person who committed the crime pay the price. You can't kill innocent people indiscriminately!"

That made sense. The Wang family ghost thought he could reap the rewards, so he designed to kill all the sorcerers. The Wang family ghost probably made some kind of agreement with the water ghost, just like Zhao Zhuang, but was instead schemed against by the water ghost.

However, he was smarter than Zhao Zhuang. Not only was he not schemed to death, but he also stabilized his position and continued to confront the water ghost.

After that, he felt that Fish Basket Village was no longer safe, so he used the guise of marriage to transfer the dragon fish.

This Yuanshan Village is probably the Wang family ghost's real lair.

I asked in a deep voice, "What is the name of the Wang family ghost?"

The old lady said with some guilt, "Wang Hao, courtesy name Yuanshan!"