Chapter 49: The Patern

Chapter 49: Chapter 49: The Patern

"Look at their birthdays. Doesn’t it seem like their birth charts share an unusually strong Yin alignment?" Sui Sui said, his gaze moving over the records.

Because he had spent so much time researching his own constitution, he was naturally familiar with how a person’s Yin and Yang work and how alignment could be determined from their birth chart.

The Yin and Yang alignment of a birth chart could be determined by looking at all four parts of a person’s birth—the year, month, day, and hour. Each carried its own attributes, and when combined, they could reveal whether a person’s birth chart leaned more heavily toward Yin or Yang.

For the year, the most Yin-aligned years included the Year of the Pig, Ox, Rabbit, Snake, Rooster, and Goat, with the Pig Year carrying the strongest Yin influence among them.

The month also carried its own Yin and Yang tendencies. The most Yin-aligned were the 2nd lunar month, or Rabbit Month; 4th lunar month, or Snake Month; 6th lunar month, or Goat Month; 8th lunar month, or Rooster Month; 10th lunar month, or Pig Month; and 12th lunar month, or Ox Month.

The day of birth was another important factor. Among the twenty-nine lunar days, the 2nd, 6th, 10th, 14th, 18th, 22nd, and 26th days were considered more strongly Yin-aligned, with the 14th day carrying the strongest Yin influence because it fell closest to the full moon.

Finally, there was the hour of birth. The Yin-aligned hours were Chou Shi (1:00–3:00 AM), Mao Shi (5:00–7:00 AM), Si Shi (9:00–11:00 AM), Wei Shi (1:00–3:00 PM), You Shi (5:00–7:00 PM), and Hai Shi (9:00–11:00 PM). Among them, Hai Shi was considered the most Yin-aligned.

Thus, determining whether someone possessed a Yin-heavy birth chart would be based on these details. The year, month, day, and hour all had to be considered together, and the stronger their individual Yin or Yang attributes were, the more pronounced the overall alignment of the birth chart would become.

As someone with an Extreme Yin Physique, Sui Sui himself had been born in the Year of the Pig, during the tenth lunar month, on the fourteenth day, at Hai Shi. With each part of his birth chart carrying an exceptionally strong Yin influence, his birth was practically the most Yin-aligned combination possible.

No one outside his family knew about this. Thinking about it now, Sui Sui suspected that his parents had probably known about his constitution for a long time. They simply never told him and had deliberately kept it hidden from everyone else.

After all, once someone’s Extreme Yin Physique was exposed, their fate rarely ended well.

On the other hand, people who were only slightly Yin-aligned were not in nearly as much danger. Their Yin Qi was not concentrated enough to offer much benefit to other cultivators, so they were rarely targeted for their constitution.

At most, their natural affinity would make them more suited to absorbing Yin Qi and cultivating Yin-based techniques. Their bodies might be somewhat frailer than those of ordinary people because of the coldness of the Yin-Qi, but they could still begin cultivating normally from birth.

This was completely different from an Extreme Yin Physique, which required a special method to properly regulate and control the overwhelming Yin Qi within the body before cultivation could even begin.

Sui Sui narrowed his eyes and began rearranging the records according to their birth information rather than the order in which they had disappeared.

Once he placed the victims’ birth dates side by side, the pattern became much clearer. Some had been born in Yin-aligned years, others in Yin-aligned months, while some had Yin-aligned days or hours in their birth charts.

The degree varied from person to person, but every single victim had at least one significant Yin-aligned element in their time of birth, with a few even possessing particularly strong combinations that made their birth charts even more Yin-aligned.

Individually, any one of these details could have been dismissed as coincidence, but with every confirmed victim sharing at least one Yin-aligned element, the pattern was far too consistent to ignore.

"This shouldn’t be a coincidence." Sui Sui murmured, touching his chin as his gaze remained fixed on the records. His mind was already turning over the possibilities, trying to figure out why someone would go to such lengths to select people based on their birth charts.

Yizhou nodded, his expression remaining indifferent as he glanced over the scattered records. "Yes. From this, we can say that someone is deliberately selecting people with Yin-aligned birth charts."

Sui Sui’s fingers paused against his chin. He looked at the records again, then slowly raised his head. "Then what could their reason be for doing this?"

Yizhou fell silent for a moment. His gaze shifted slightly, his eyes narrowing as he considered the connection. Then, without much hesitation, he gave the answer.

"The Soul Bell."

Sui Sui’s eyes immediately widened. The moment he heard those words, the scattered clues in his mind seemed to fall into place.

The connection made sense. A soul was naturally Yin in nature, and the Soul Bell was an ancient spiritual artifact capable of sensing fluctuations in the soul. Its ability to detect and affect souls would naturally be more effective against people with a stronger Yin affinity.

If he remembered correctly this artifacts has many uses and not just for controlling souls, there were other different method how to wield it, it wouldn’t be out of character if it had one ability that needed the souls of Yin aligned people as nourishment.

Sui Sui leaned back slightly, his fingers tapping against the edge of the table as he went over the records again. The realization also explained why the victims had seemed completely unrelated at first glance. Their identities, families, occupations, and places of residence had nothing in common because none of those things mattered to the culprit.

What mattered was when they were born.

"The Soul Bell consumes souls. That should explain how the victims were killed," Sui Sui murmured, his fingers resting against the records. His expression soon turned thoughtful. "But that still doesn’t explain how they knew which people to look for. Even with the Soul Bell, finding targets with specific birth charts shouldn’t be that easy."

Yizhou’s eyes narrowed slightly and hummed in agreement to Sui Sui’s conjecture. "mhmm."

The room fell quiet as the two considered the problem.

Knowing that the culprit was deliberately searching for people with Yin-aligned birth charts only solved part of the mystery. A person’s birth chart could not be determined simply by looking at them.

Unless the culprit personally knew every victim and somehow knew their exact year, month, day, and hour of birth, they would need access to records containing that information.

And such records were not something just anyone could obtain.

Sui Sui pulled out another blank sheet of paper and began writing.

"Let’s assume the culprit is either an outsider or a local resident. Either way, they would need to know each victim’s exact birth year, month, day, and hour, as well as enough information to locate them afterward. There should only be a few places with access to that kind of information."

Sui Sui pulled a blank sheet toward him and began writing down the first possibility.

Government Registry Bureau.

"The government keeps records on every household," Sui Sui said, tapping the paper with his finger. "Birth dates, family members, addresses, marriages, deaths... They should have almost everything."

He paused, then frowned slightly. "But accessing those records would leave traces. And with thousands of files in the registry, it wouldn’t be easy to find specific people without knowing exactly what you’re looking for."

"Unless the culprit works there," Yizhou said calmly, "or has another way to access the records."

Sui Sui stopped writing and nodded. That was certainly possible.

Yizhou picked up the brush and added another possibility beneath the first.

Matchmaker Association.

"The matchmakers?" Sui Sui asked curiously while glancing at the new entry.

"People seeking marriage often provide their birth information," Yizhou explained. "Not merely their birthdays. Their complete birth charts are needed when determining compatibility."

Sui Sui’s eyes brightened. That also made a lot of sense.

In this world, marrying young was not particularly common. Cultivation took precedence over marriage for most cultivators, and those with longer lifespans had little reason to rush into starting a family.

However for Xuan Shuang City it was different, Most of its population consisted of ordinary mortals with much shorter lifespans, so marrying at a younger age was fairly normal. Here, fifteen was already considered a suitable age for marriage, while some even gets engaged before they were even born

With birth charts taken seriously when arranging marriages, a matchmaker would naturally have access to exactly the information the culprit needed.

More importantly, people seeking a match would usually provide their current residence, family background, and other personal details. For someone trying to find suitable targets among the city’s population, the Matchmaker Association would therefore be a convenient source of both birth information and leads on where those people could be found.

Sui Sui immediately added it to the list.

"The Matchmaker Association definitely needs to be investigated."

Yizhou then added one final possibility beneath the list.

Local Temple.

"This is also plausible. Temples often keep records of birth information for people seeking divination, blessings, marriage compatibility, and similar matters," Sui Sui said. "A feng shui master or diviner would also be able to recognize someone with a particularly Yin-heavy birth chart."

Sui Sui looked over the three names written on the paper.

Government Registry Bureau.

Matchmaker Association.

Local Temple.

These were the three places most likely to possess the information the culprit needed.

Sui Sui glanced back at the investigation records, his thoughts already connecting the pieces together.