A group of people walked quickly through the damp forest.
There was a constant sound of sizzling water underfoot.
After walking far along the path covered with withered leaves, a long-abandoned manor quietly appeared in front of everyone.
The surrounding area was also deserted, with no people around.
The high wall standing on the ground is gray and black in color, with continuous patches of moss growing on the surface. Moistened by the rain, it looks even more sticky, slippery, and dilapidated.
The stone lions on both sides of the gate are also covered with moss.
The one on the left is missing half of its head, and there are dense insects crawling around in the cracks in the rocks, which looks a bit scary.
"Is this right here?"
Wei Tao slowly came to the mottled door and looked up at the crooked plaque above.
"Purple energy comes from the east."
He read out slowly and looked back, "Ouke Qing, are all the newly discovered human skin straws inside?"
"Yes, my subordinates found a total of eight corpses inside. After identification, it can be basically determined that they are all buddies who were keeping vigil on the battlefield."
Wei Tao nodded and looked at the other man behind him.
"Butler Quan, where is this place?" he asked.
The man was about fifty years old, his face was a little pale, and his voice was trembling when he answered.
"Replying to the deacon, this place used to be the summer resort of Master Qiu of Luoshui City."
"It used to be a summer resort, but what about now?"
There was a crunching sound.
The rusty door was pushed open, revealing the dilapidated scene inside that had not been repaired for a long time.
Wei Tao walked in slowly, feeling a cold and corrupt atmosphere pouring out from inside.
Butler Quan followed closely behind as if he was afraid of being left behind.
When I entered the door, I glanced left and right subconsciously, and my body couldn't stop shaking.
It was under Ou Yinglian's cold gaze that he suddenly came back to his senses and began to answer the questions.
"The summer before last year, Master Qiu and his newlywed wife came here for a summer vacation, but they met with misfortune.
The two of them, as well as the maids and servants, disappeared. Later, Master Qiu was so sad that he never came back again, and the summer resort became deserted."
"Master Qiu of Luoshui City, is he the one who runs a grain store in the city and builds a farm outside?"
Wei Tao observed the dilapidated courtyard. The ground was covered with weeds, completely covering up the original bluestone pavement.
Now that it is watered by rain, it may soon usher in a new round of crazy growth.
Butler Quan nodded repeatedly and spoke slowly, "Master Qiu later spent a large sum of money to invite experts from the Mingshui Gang to station in the manor together with the government's arrester, preparing to thoroughly investigate the matter and find the missing family members."
He paused here, then sighed and shook his head, "It's just that even so, we haven't been able to find out the whereabouts of more than a dozen people.
And not even a single clue could be found, as if they just disappeared suddenly without leaving any traces."
Wei Tao took a deep breath of moist air, closed his eyes and said, "It seems that there is more going on in this place than we already know."
Ou Yinglian sighed softly, "The more chaotic the world is, the more human life will be worthless, and all kinds of disasters will emerge in endlessly."
"Let's go and see the bodies of those guys."
Wei Tao waded through knee-deep weeds and quickly opened the second courtyard gate.
I happened to see Gan Liang coming from the depths of the manor, carrying a nearly broken stone tablet in his hand.
"Sir, I have found the real owner of this manor."
"Isn't it Mr. Qiu from Luoshui City?"
Wei Tao stopped and asked doubtfully, "Did Mr. Gan make some new discoveries?"
"My lord, please look at this stone monument."
Gan Liang carefully placed the stone tablet flat on the ground.
"If I read it correctly, this stone tablet should have been carved when the manor was just built.
What is written on it is that in the seventh year of Yuan Zhen, an official named Gui Shufang resigned and returned to his hometown, and built a manor here..."
"The seventh year of Yuanzhen?" Wei Tao frowned, recalling the knowledge he had learned from the private school.
After a moment, he breathed out a soft breath, "Doesn't that mean that this manor has stood here for at least nearly thirty years?"
"Butler Quan, you just told me that this is the summer resort of the Qiu family in Luoshui City.
So can you explain to me what the records on this stone tablet mean?"
Butler Quan was so frightened that he trembled all over and muttered, "My lord, deacon, I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to deceive you.
I only know that before anything happened to the young master of the Qiu family, Mr. Qiu would come here every year to escape the summer heat, and this had been going on for at least more than ten years.
Moreover, when the villain first came here with his master, Master Qiu set up a banquet here to entertain him.
But I really don’t know that before Mr. Qiu, this villa was built by officials from the capital city of Zhongfu.”
Gan Liang said, "Sir, it's normal that he doesn't know. After all, the old man chatted with the housekeeper and learned that he came to the gold tanning field to open a sand field, and it took less than ten years from beginning to end."
After looking at Wei Tao's thoughtful expression, Gan Liang immediately continued talking. It was obvious that he had already thought about many issues in a very short time after discovering the stone tablet.
"Sir, when I saw the name Gui Shufang, I recalled another thing.
That was the disobedience and rebellion incident that caused great commotion in Qizhou more than 20 years ago. Not only the Jiedushi envoy at that time was executed by the imperial court.
Subsequently, countless officials and people were implicated, and heads were slaughtered and blood flowed like rivers.
Among them, there seems to be a family named Gui, who ranks very high on the list of rebels listed by the imperial court.
I just don’t know if the Gui Shufang who built this manor and the Gui family who were almost wiped out are the same person."
As Wei Tao walked deeper into the manor, he listened to Gan Liang's account of the rebellion that had occurred in Qizhou.
Not long after, several people stopped in front of a row of houses.
Unlike other parts of the manor, this place looks relatively clean and tidy.
Even the railings and beams in the corridor are brightly colored, as if they had been recently painted.
However, for a house that has been abandoned for a long time, it seems very abnormal.
Ou Yinglian said, "My lord, my subordinates and Wu Yin came here and noticed the difference in this row of houses, so they went in to investigate carefully, and found those corpses."
Wei Tao nodded, and through the half-open door, he saw a figure writing at his desk, sitting there motionless.
His pupils shrank, "Is this the pose you put on after peeling off the skin?"
"Your Majesty Mingjian, my subordinates didn't even notice it at first glance, and even asked a few questions.
It wasn’t until I walked in and took a closer look that I realized that it was just a piece of human skin filled with..."
Ou Yinglian paused for a moment, her expression became a little strange, "The stuffing inside is all hair, not straw."
"So, these corpses should actually be called skinned and haired, not skinned and haired."
"Skin and hair are peeled off. How many people's hair does it take to fill a whole human skin..."
Wei Tao stepped forward slowly and carefully looked at Fu An's motionless body.
Even if it was only a few steps away, it could be clearly identified that this was not a living person, but a human skin corpse like a wax statue.
Soon after, he looked into other rooms.
Different corpses are put into different poses.
It's like a family doing different things after dinner.
Coming out of the last room, Wei Tao stopped in the corridor.
"Master Gan."
"My subordinate is here."
"When you get back, look for the housekeeper and try to ask for details about the disappearance that happened in the manor."
"My subordinate understands."
"Also, regarding the name Gui Shufang, we need to conduct a detailed investigation again..."
He half-sentenced and remained silent without any warning.
Suddenly a strong wind blew up.
Penetrating the fine rain curtain, he rushed out of the corridor quickly.
boom!
It was so fast and powerful that it tore out a straight hole in mid-air.
After a while, it was filled with raindrops falling again.
Only then did Gan Liang and Ou Yinglian realize what they were doing, and they immediately used their own methods to chase after him.
The two of them had just jumped out of the corridor.
Then a muffled roar was heard.
I saw a big hole in the side courtyard wall in the distance.
Deacon Wei didn't even want to waste time jumping over the wall, so he walked directly through the wall.
Along the way, strong winds blew, and trees and rocks flew everywhere.
He forced himself through a straight passage and shot towards the woods in the distance.
In most cases, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.
Now he is walking straight along this straight line.
All obstacles blocking the front, as long as they were not too thick trees or too huge roadblocks, were all knocked away, penetrated, and crushed by him.
Farther away, there was an erratic figure, escaping crazily forward.
Bang!
Wei Tao suddenly stopped at the top of a rocky slope.
Heat was rising all over his body, like a human-shaped stove.
His feet sunk deep into the ground.
The hard rock is as crisp as a biscuit, and has dense cracks when stepped on.
Click!
A pitch-black sharp claw struck from the side like lightning.
It was in front of you in an instant.
The five fingers seemed to be smeared with ink, and at the same time exuded a strong fishy smell.
From the wrist to the forearm, you can vaguely see the tangled knots of hardened muscles, like dense scales growing on the surface of the skin.
At this time, Wei Tao had just landed on the top of the slope. Before he could stabilize his body, he was faced with a sudden gust of wind.
The precise timing of this attack, the rapid speed, and the cunning and cunning technique of this attack are enough to show that the person who struck it is no ordinary warrior.
Faced with a sudden claw.
Wei Tao's mind moves as his heart moves, and his body moves as he wants.
Snap!
His right hand pierced the rain curtain, tore the air, and appeared in front of the Black Claw's path without any warning.
He spread his fingers and grabbed each other in exactly the same posture.
The muscles swelled instantly, and the black and red colors were intertwined, like steel bars twisted together.
Dang!
The two claws clashed.
It's like gold and iron clashing together.
A muffled hum suddenly sounded.
A figure retreated sharply.
Without even thinking about it, Wei Tao raised his right hand and turned it into a claw. He stepped forward and struck the ground with a thunderous hammer.
Breaking the rain curtain, there was an explosive roar.
The figure couldn't retreat in time, and the wind roared in his ears, and the explosion exploded, and he was suddenly shocked.
In a panic, he had to use both fists to face the falling fist.
"Why did his fist suddenly become so huge!?"
In the flash of lightning, such a thought flashed through the mind of the masked man in green.
Immediately afterwards there was a series of clicking sounds.
Mixed with unbearable howls.
Just swinging on the top of the rocky slope.
The man in Tsing Yi's arms were bent and his bones were broken.
The whole person suddenly fell to his knees, his whole body shaking violently.
"Who are you and why are you here?"
Wei Tao took a step forward and asked.
But at the next moment, his pupils shrank, and he saw large amounts of dirty blood pouring out of the man in green, and he looked like he was already dying.
He slowly exhaled a hot breath and stood there in silence.
Soon after, Ou Yinglian and Gan Lin came panting.
Standing behind, watching with him the man in green who was already frozen on the ground.
The two of them cast their eyes on Wei Tao from time to time, feeling not only shocked but also shocked.
In their thoughts, they originally thought that they had already regarded the town deacon very highly.
But until today, I saw him chasing for a long distance, taking action at will, and killing people brazenly.
Only then did I realize how gentle and kind Deacon Wei was in front of them.
"Check the body. Be careful that there is poison hidden in this person."
Wei Tao restrained his breath and said slowly, "Also, during the pursuit, did you see a person with long hair covering the ground and stiff movements?"
"No." They both shook their heads.
He glanced back and frowned slightly, "You two came over but left Butler Quan himself there?"
Gan Liang and Ou Yinglian's expressions suddenly changed, and they subconsciously looked towards the dilapidated villa in the distance.
Under the dim sky and in the thin curtain of rain, the dark and mottled buildings stood quietly.
From a distance, it looks like a sleeping monster, trying to swallow up all the life that enters.