Capítulo 7: Chapter 6 Yu Feng_1
"This damn monster did it on purpose!" Feng Zhi's face wore a sullen expression as he spat forcefully on the ground.
Everyone had a clear understanding of this.
The killer could have easily killed Lin Lin, but torturing him was the chosen method. He was forced to watch his daughter get brutally devoured before his very eyes and then left to meet his own end to the same beast.
Pei Ye crouched down to scrutinize the beast's traces, which were frustratingly elusive. Only one clear trail leading to Lin Lin was discovered. Thankfully, the early morning rain had lessened, otherwise even this might not have been detected.
The paw print was slightly larger than his own hand, trigonal with four claws. Three lay ahead, one at the back. For some reason, Pei Ye continually felt the claw prints' subtly altering shape. Following the trail, they seemed as if they were...increasing in size?
Chang Zhiyuan glanced over, asking, "Which direction did it escape?"
"That's the strangest part, we couldn't find any traces of its passage," answered Pei Ye.
"What do you mean?" queried Chang Zhiyuan, his brow knitted in confusion.
"The footprints of the criminals go straight into the river, as though they escaped by boat. The river, plainly speaking, leads in and out of the city, so we can definitely trace them. But this beast didn't leave any paw prints; as if it disappeared after committing the crime...or never left at all," explained Pei Ye.
The final half sentence chilled them both. Looking around, it was broad daylight with bustling public servants, there was no sign of anything lying in wait.
Feng Zhi pointed out, "Look, to the south is the county town, the west is a large swath of river beach, and the east and north are all dirt roads and farmland. After a heavy rain, the area is all muddy. But the paw prints only appear here, I don't understand where the beast disappeared to?"
Pei Ye suddenly suggested, "What if it flew away?"
Feng Zhi paused, touching his goatee, he responded, "That's discredited too! Yesterday the rain was heavy, people were concerned about their crops getting ruined, so they were out in the fields draining the water early this morning. It was light by then, if something had flown over the fields surely someone would have seen it."
After a moment of fruitless contemplation, they decided to momentarily set aside this problem. Pei Ye crouched down and flipped through the single remaining robe several times. Then he knit his brows and muttered, "Something's off about this."
"What's off?" they inquired.
Pei Ye pointed, "The other three only wore light clothes that could have easily been ripped off by a beast's claws, so people 'disappearing completely, with their clothes perfectly intact' doesn't appear too unusual. But the deceased was clothed in a shirt and trousers, and yet the same is true here?"
Feng Zhi's pupils contracted; he understood Pei Ye's insinuation: a monster eating a person wouldn't be like a man skinning an orange clean before eating it. A being that would swallow a person whole, skin and bones, would leave all clothes intact? How could these blood-stained clothes be devoid of any tiny bits of flesh or bone?
A chilling image came to him; the victims melting into a puddle of goo and being slurped up clean, as a bee drinks morning dew, by that unidentifiable beast.
This scenario was immensely unsettling. Feng Zhi shifted his body uncomfortably, holding his tongue.
Just then, a flurry of horse hooves tore through the silence, stopping outside the forest. Everyone looked over to see Shen Yanping dismount and stride over to them, a book in hand.
"Gentlemen, I believe I've located that familiar sensation," said Shen Yanping, looking a touch pallid, his voice gentle and unassuming, "That symbol indeed signifies the victims."
"What do you have to prove it?" inquired Chang Zhiyuan.
Shen Yanping took a breath and recited in a moderate tone, "God knows who to love...a divine symbol on their forehead says my wisdom is unrivaled. Prophecy predicts a great fortune...three days remain before ascension."
"'The Air of Yu· God Knows Who to Love'." Chang Zhiyuan's eyes narrowed.
Feng Zhi paused, stroking his beard and tuning out the rest of the world.
Only Pei Ye looked around, dazed, "May I ask, my lords, what does this mean?"
"That is said to be a poem passed down from the ancient Yu Dynasty," began Chang Zhiyuan, his tone humane, "It's believed that when a divine spirit favors someone, a symbol gets inscribed on that person's forehead. Divination believes this to be a blessing, and the chosen one shall ascend to immortality within three days."
Instinctively, Pei Ye touched his forehead.
A divine spirit? An entity existing from the prehistoric Yu Dynasty, six thousand years ago, to today's modern era?
"Heh..." mumbled Feng Zhi, gritting his teeth, "What a brutal price to pay for being 'favored'."
Shen Yanping uttered softly, "An elder's 'favor' of an infant is one thing, a tiger or wolf's 'favour' is quite another."
Chang Zhiyuan ruminated for a moment, and then addressed the other two, "Speaking of which, I remember that during the times of Han, a wise man named Du made a minor annotation for this poem, something akin to a noted ceremony. Later, when a man of Jin named Hu Yi speculated it to be half truth and half false, it was classified under 'mystery' when compiling."
Feng Zhi shook his head, indicating no recollection.
Shen Yanping, on the other hand, lifted a book, "Precisely! This is the book, 'Annotations to the Three Dynasties' by Du Wuzhen. He mentioned that ceremony was for worshipping the gods. Within three days, the life and flesh of twelve - one, four, and seven, people respectively, would be utilized to please the divine spirit."
He furrowed his brows, "But for now, that is all I have. I extracted all of Du Wuzhen's books, and the rest are still being read."
Feng Zhi suddenly realized, "Right! Yesterday there was one and today their original targets were four. But because that boy managed to save himself, they resorted to capturing Lin Yue to make ends meet. But it led to Lin Lin's awakening."
"But there's another issue. At that point, Brother Pei had already passed the North Gate, why didn't the criminal capture him? Why did he go the extra mile to Sir Lin's home?"
Pei Ye looked up; this was a question he had been mulling over.
He just killed two 'kidnappers'. Since they could find him once, why didn't they send more powerful people to capture him again?
"Perhaps, this child was no longer the target of that 'divine spirit' after waking up?"
They all looked at the still shining fire mark on Pei Ye's forehead and simultaneously abandoned that guess.
Shen Yanping contemplated, "The target was selected not by the criminal, but by the 'divine spirit,' The perpetrators had no decision-making power. After Brother Pei woke up, his 'connection' to the ritual was severed. When the criminals requested re-selection, the 'divine spirit,' for unknown reasons, rejected him but selected Lin Yue instead."
No longer chose me?
Pei Ye stood still, memories of the dream the previous night suddenly rushing back to him.
He had no memory of how he had walked out of his home and out of the city, but the dream of riding the chi in pursuit was crystal clear.
"I will relieve you of this 'divine favor' tonight," the chi's words echoed in his ears.
Pei Ye had not thought much of it initially, considering it to be just a regular dream. He thought, perhaps he awoke due to a stone he kicked or some temporary discomfort.
Because this was far removed from the mountain city boy's knowledge of the world.
Even at his wildest fantasies, the most extravagant would have been, "Perhaps there really exist magicians in the world who could command fire and water."
But now, he was expected to believe that a divine chi could enter his dreams. This experience would invoke deep self-doubt in the young boy - in the face of such power, what good were his martial arts skills?
But on second thought, he remembered every detail of the divine beast, appearing just as real as the world he lived in.
More importantly, if there was one thing that could make him disappear from the divine spirit's vision, it certainly wouldn't be the basic martial arts he had used to defeat those two men. Instead, it might be the black chi that could enter a person's dreams.
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