Chapter 94 - 93: Cause and Effect

Chapter 94: Chapter 93: Cause and Effect

What kind of deep-seated hatred would drive a person to do this?

The people of Hua Country have believed since ancient times that the dead should be laid to rest in peace.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been so many corpse herders before the nation’s founding.

The seven corpses before the coffin weren’t just kneeling on the ground in mourning clothes—they were also filled with mercury and bound with red ropes.

Without a deep-seated blood feud, none of this would make any sense.

He Xiaotian suddenly remembered that the hotel owner, Li Wencai, had said he kept the hotel open because he was waiting for his son and grandson.

His grandson had already become an evil spirit, only to have his soul obliterated by a single swing of He Xiaotian’s hammer.

’Then his son... could he be inside this mahogany coffin?’

When he had killed the old man with one blow, the system had notified him that Li Wencai was apparently a Daoist.

’Could he have been using some dark art to refine a corpse?’

He Xiaotian couldn’t think of any other explanation that made more sense.

’Interesting. Ever since the world changed, all sorts of freaks and ghouls have come out of the woodwork. Awakened superhumans, Daoists who can cultivate, evil spirits and monstrosities, and even an evil organization from the Netherworld.

If I can level up my martial arts to their peak just by using Experience Points, then something as paranormal as corpse refining isn’t really a big deal. On that note, if Experience Points could also scan Daoist arts and Divine Techniques, wouldn’t immortality be within my grasp?’

Of course, this was all just wishful thinking. He Xiaotian had tried scanning such books before, but every attempt had ended in failure.

The only things that worked were learnable martial arts manuals.

It didn’t even matter if they were incomplete, as he could just spend Experience Points to fill in the gaps.

Fake manuals, however, were a no-go.

Besides, even if learnable Daoist scriptures did exist, they wouldn’t be passed around freely for the public to find.

Especially now that Daoists had discovered they could actually cultivate.

He put the tablet and hammer into his storage space and began to carefully inspect the basement.

’If the Art of Corpse Refining is real, then the old man, Li Wencai, must have left something behind.

This basement is incredibly well-hidden. An ordinary person would never find it, let alone get inside.

So where could be a safer place to hide a secret?’

A short while later, He Xiaotian found an old, yellowed tome and a diary.

The tome’s contents were written entirely in traditional characters.

While it was a bit of a struggle to read, it wasn’t a major obstacle. At least it wasn’t written entirely in ancient seal script.

After quite a while, He Xiaotian tossed the old tome into his storage space.

As for the diary, he burned it on the spot.

’Jeez. I don’t know whether to say Li was lucky or just paying for sins from a past life.’

The diary detailed the full story of how Li Wencai obtained the *Art of Corpse Refining*, as well as his actions over the years.

He had fought in a war when he was young. After being wounded on the battlefield and separated from his unit, he was saved by an old Daoist who lived deep in the mountains.

It took a full three months of recuperation before he started to recover.

Sensing his own life was coming to an end, the old Daoist passed down the secret manual, the *Art of Corpse Refining*.

Honestly, Li Wencai didn’t want it. Regardless of whether it was real or not, the very idea of it was repulsive to any normal person.

But to repay the debt of having his life saved, he accepted it anyway.

He also promised that he would never let the secret out.

After the war ended in victory, he returned to his hometown.

With the agro-tourism business in Zhou family Village booming, he opened a hotel and was practically rolling in money.

It’s easy for people to lose their way when they come into money.

Li Wencai, however, remained grounded. He ran his hotel honestly and kept to himself.

But his son was a disappointment who got involved in gambling.

He even went so far as to secretly run a gambling den with a fellow villager, Jinwang.

Later, a dispute broke out while they were dividing the profits.

His son ended up dead.

Afterward, arrests were made and sentences were handed down, and that should have been the end of it.

At least he still had his grandson.

But fate had other plans. On the seventh day after his son’s death, his only grandson disappeared.

The old man searched frantically, but found no trace of him, dead or alive.

Then Li Wencai remembered the old tome the Daoist had given him. The *Art of Corpse Refining* didn’t just describe how to refine corpses.

It also contained some simpler Daoist arts, such as soul-summoning.

Logically, how could an ordinary person like him, with no spiritual power whatsoever, possibly perform such a feat?

And yet, against all odds, the man actually succeeded.

The grandson’s soul returned and told him the whole story.

It turned out that Jinwang’s son had lured him out, knocked him unconscious, and abandoned him in the wilderness.

He hadn’t intended to kill the boy, only to vent his anger about his own father, Jinwang, being arrested.

But as it turned out, Li Wencai’s grandson was incredibly unlucky. While unconscious, the boy was found by wild dogs.

What happened next needs no description. In a word: brutal.

The old man reported it to the police. After an investigation, they arrested Jinwang’s son, who was only ten years old.

But by then, the *Juvenile Protection Act* was already in effect.

In less than two weeks, the boy was released, acquitted of all charges.

From that day on, Li Wencai was a broken man.

He bribed someone at the funeral home to secretly retrieve his son’s body.

He had kept it frozen in a freezer in his basement ever since.

For years, constrained by the law, he hesitated about whether to kill Jinwang and his family.

He vaguely remembered the words of his commanding officer upon his discharge: be a contributing member of society, and don’t break the law.

Ten years passed in the blink of an eye.

Then, six months ago, a figure in a black robe appeared before him.

The mysterious figure made a promise: if Li joined their organization and sacrificed the lives of everyone in the village, they would provide him with the materials needed for corpse refining and, in a way, resurrect his son.

As a show of good faith, the figure brought his grandson back into the world in the form of an evil spirit.

That sealed his decision.

And so, everyone in Zhou family Village died.

’So, why did he hesitate for so long? First, there was his commanding officer’s warning. Second, he knew that even if he got his revenge, it wouldn’t bring his son and grandson back. Killing Jinwang’s family would only lead to another tragedy.

But now that he had a chance to "resurrect" his son and grandson, there was no more room for hesitation.’

’So that’s it? One thought is all it takes to become a monster?’

A man who had suppressed his desire for revenge for ten years turned into a fiend capable of sacrificing over a hundred lives to a Demon, all in the span of a single night.

He Xiaotian didn’t know what to make of it.

’Li Wencai should have just killed Jinwang back then!

At least he would have vented his anger instead of getting the entire village killed.’

’Gourmet Kitchen... their intel is terrifyingly good. I’ll have to be more careful from now on. I can’t let my identity be exposed.’ As the thought faded, He Xiaotian pulled two sledgehammers from his storage space. His body now wreathed in roaring cyan flames, he walked step-by-step toward the mahogany coffin.

’The people of Zhou family Village... they probably never imagined, even in their final moments, that they were dying because of something that happened ten years ago.

Now, let me be the one to bring this absurd tragedy to its unceremonious end.’