Chapter 202 - 12: Disappearance, Search, Black Buddha Temple

Chapter 202: Chapter 12: Disappearance, Search, Black Buddha Temple

At its peak, the Puppet Sect’s Sect Leader possessed twelve Lifebound Puppets known as the Twelve Primordial Stars, each possessing strength on par with an Inner Realm master.

Relying on this terrifying puppet army, they ran rampant across several southern provinces, committing heinous, bloody crimes that incurred the wrath of both heaven and the people.

Finally, over a hundred years ago, the Great Yan Dynasty’s National Guardian Sect, Celestial Sword Manor, led a coalition of dozens of Righteous Sects to encircle and annihilate the Puppet Sect.

In that battle, the Righteous Alliance Army paid an extremely heavy price to finally breach the Puppet Sect’s gates, slaughtering everyone within, down to the last person.

After that battle, the Puppet Sect vanished completely, and no news of them was ever heard again in the Martial World.

Everyone thought this cancerous tumor had been completely eradicated. Unexpectedly, remnants still survived.

Chen Ye closed the file, his gaze turning profound.

The file also mentioned that the Puppet Sect’s Core Technique involved raising one’s own Cultivation by refining Lifebound Puppets.

The stronger the refined puppet, the stronger the master’s power became.

And to refine the highest-level Ghost Puppet, an extremely special material was required—a Pure Yin Spirit.

’Pure Yin Spirit...’ Chen Ye silently committed the term to memory.

He had a feeling that the Wang Family Village case wouldn’t end so simply.

The green-robed entertainer who went to such great lengths to massacre a village and refine so many Blood Soul Puppets probably had a goal beyond just killing.

He had to be plotting some greater conspiracy.

In the following days, thanks to the Demon Slayer Department’s tight security and the passage of time, the panic caused by the Wang Family Village massacre finally began to subside.

Although the murderer still hadn’t been found, at least no new incidents had occurred.

The common people still had to go on with their daily lives.

It was just that everyone had become more cautious and vigilant than before.

The nights in Yu Huo County became unprecedentedly quiet.

However, the disturbance came faster than anyone had imagined.

Just seven days later, a shocking piece of news once again shook the entirety of Yu Huo County.

The daughter of the city’s wealthiest man, Landlord Zhang, had disappeared!

This Landlord Zhang was immensely wealthy, a renowned figure in Yu Huo County, and was said to have considerable connections even in the Prefecture City.

His daughter, in particular, had been doted on since birth, so pampered it was said he feared she might break if held or melt if kept in his mouth.

According to the servants of the Zhang Mansion, Miss Zhang had gone to the Black Buddha Temple on the outskirts of the city yesterday to offer incense and pray for blessings. She was accompanied by several maids, old nannies, and family guards—a group of more than ten people in a horse-drawn carriage.

But the group had not returned by evening.

Landlord Zhang sensed something was wrong and hurriedly sent people to the Black Buddha Temple to search for them.

However, the monks at the Black Buddha Temple said they had never even seen Miss Zhang’s party.

The men Landlord Zhang sent out searched the road to the temple all day long but didn’t find a single trace.

It was as if this large group of people, along with a big carriage, had vanished into thin air right on the road.

Now, Landlord Zhang was in a complete panic.

He mobilized all his household guards to search everywhere while also running to the County Yamen to report the incident.

A living person—and a prominent landlord’s daughter at that—along with a large group of servants, had just bizarrely disappeared.

This matter was far more serious than a bunch of mud-legged peasants dying in Wang Family Village.

The County Magistrate dared not be negligent. He immediately ordered all the constables in the county to mobilize and, at the same time, sought out Cong Bo of the Demon Slayer Department once more.

When Cong Bo received the news, his head throbbed.

"Dammit! Not again!"

He felt like he must have been having a run of bad luck lately; otherwise, why would he keep getting these ridiculously bizarre cases?

The murderer from Wang Family Village was still at large, and now someone had pulled a vanishing act.

And the one who disappeared was Landlord Zhang’s daughter.

You have to understand, this Landlord Zhang was a major patron of the Demon Slayer Department. His annual donation of silver coins accounted for thirty percent of the department’s entire yearly budget.

Now that the patron’s daughter was gone, if he couldn’t find her, how could he have the face to ask for money in the future?

With no other choice, Cong Bo could only brace himself and personally lead a team to the scene to investigate.

After Chen Ye got the news, he also quietly blended into the crowd.

If he couldn’t solve this case and catch that puppet entertainer, he wouldn’t get his fifty taels commission. So, as soon as he heard about it, Chen Ye rushed over.

He had a premonition that Miss Zhang’s disappearance was very likely connected to the Wang Family Village case.

Cong Bo led his men to search the road from the Zhang Mansion to the Black Buddha Temple back and forth, meticulously, three times over.

They didn’t even miss a single wheel track on the ground.

Yet, they still found nothing.

The scene was spotless. There were no signs of a struggle, nor any residual Demon Qi, Ghost Qi, or evil energy.

It was as if the carriage had just flown into the sky or tunneled into the earth halfway through its journey.

After busying himself for half the day and finding nothing, Cong Bo, with a dark expression, led his men to the final stop—the Black Buddha Temple.

He wanted to see if there was any funny business going on there.

The Black Buddha Temple was situated on a small hill on the outskirts of Yu Huo County Town.

The temple wasn’t large, one might even say it was a bit dilapidated, but it was unusually popular with worshipers.

It was said that the Buddha enshrined in this temple was very efficacious, granting every prayer.

Therefore, on a normal day, the stream of devout men and women coming here to burn incense and worship Buddha was endless.

When Cong Bo and his men arrived, there were still quite a few worshipers in the temple.

The temple’s abbot was an old Monk in his fifties with a kind face and benevolent eyes, whose Dharma name was Liao Chen.

Upon seeing Cong Bo, Abbot Liao Chen put his palms together, his face a picture of helplessness and apology.

"Amitabha, Lord Cong. This humble Monk has already said that we truly did not see Donor Zhang and her party yesterday."

"Your Lordship’s men have already searched the temple from top to bottom. It is truly... *Sigh*..."

He sighed, wearing an expression that said, ’I’d love to help, but I’m truly powerless to do so.’

Cong Bo’s expression darkened further.

His men had indeed turned this small Black Buddha Temple upside down, inside and out.

Never mind hiding more than a dozen living people; even a hidden mouse would have been dragged out.

But they found nothing.

The monks in the temple had also been questioned one by one, and their accounts all matched Abbot Liao Chen’s.

There were no inconsistencies.

But not searching wasn’t an option either, so Cong Bo once again began to search personally with his men.

Chen Ye was also mixed in with the group, but he didn’t join the search. Instead, he quietly observed everything around him.

His gaze fell upon the Buddha statue enshrined in the Great Heroic Hall.

That was no ordinary Buddha statue one would find in a temple. It was a Buddha that was pitch-black from head to toe, with a majestic face, and behind it burned a great, black sun.

It was the Dark Sun Tathagata!