Li Huaiyun looked around and said softly, "These corpses should have decayed normally, but something happened to them that caused the corpses to decay at a strange pace."
"Then why is this happening?" Wang Ziqian asked.
"There are several possibilities!" Li Huaiyun explained, "First of all, the few new corpses outside the ditch also fermented to produce ammonia. It can be seen that the progress of decay must be accelerated. This must be done before It only works under certain special circumstances, for example, there are fungus-like mushrooms on the ground,"
"Another point is that the body should have been disposed of, and the holes where the gas leaked were sealed with something similar to gum!"
Wang Ziqian was a little incredulous, "You mean, someone has been here and endured the stench to dispose of the body."
"Yes!"
"But what is the purpose of doing this?"
"To cultivate some kind of creature!"
Wang Ziqian had never heard of this speculation. Did he find it unusually novel? "Cultivation of some kind of creature?"
"Yes, there may be some kind of parasitic monster that needs sufficient food to survive. Therefore, some people are targeting people in the palace!"
"Wait a minute! So someone is raising this kind of creature in the palace? And in the later stages of cultivation, someone needs to be sacrificed, right?"
Li Huaiyun nodded and looked at the corpses piled up in the ditch, "Yes! At the moment, these are just participations. The most important thing is to see the autopsy."
He took a deep breath, then squatted down and carefully turned over the body at his feet, the one at the front.
This was a corpse with almost no complete body. Everyone was quite surprised by this. What could chew a body of flesh and blood into such a state.
The corpse in front of Li Huaiyun looked quite eye-catching. The entire body was bitten and mutilated, and more than half of the internal organs of this body were bitten off. There were no traces of tearing. There were still visceral crumbs on the ground. This It shows that the internal organs are chewed after being bitten raw.
It’s hard to believe that someone who behaves like this is human.
Every inch of skin up and down the body has bite marks, the blood-red tissue cortex in the exposed areas, the broken bones, and half of the head has been chewed off.
He reached out and picked up the broken bone and observed it carefully for a moment, then leaned down and looked at the skull. Judging from the cross-section of the bone, the teeth of this monster were quite irregular.
In addition to the scratches on the body, it can be judged that the nails on the monster's hands are also quite slender and sharp.
There was some mud at the wound. The monster should be hiding near the mud or in a well somewhere.
He dissected the stomachs and intestines from the internal organs of other corpses, then dug out the contents and turned them completely inside out.
Mu Yuan stood aside and frowned when she saw such a scene. She regretted asking this guy to come here. She had never been like this before.
Now, I never imagined that it would be so disgusting and make people feel physically uncomfortable.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"The second thing I just said is that there is something parasitic in this body. The stomach is in the middle of the human body, and this is the easiest place to get in."
Li Huaiyun lifted up the turned-out stomach and intestines. "The inner walls of these two organs have bite marks. Therefore, my judgment should be correct."
When Mu Yuan and Wang Ziqian saw this scene, they suppressed the fear in their hearts and leaned back.
This guy is really good! Why don't you feel sick at all? Mu Yuan thought to herself, and she also had a big question in her mind, how were these people brought here?
She always had this doubt in her mind. Then she glanced elsewhere, only to find a ray of light flashing past on the rock wall not far away.
what? She immediately shined the lantern in that direction.
"What's going on?" Li Huaiyuan, who suddenly lost half of his light, turned to Mu Yuan, "What's going on? What did you find?"
Mu Yuan did not respond to him, but took two steps forward, then squatted there and reached out to pick up things on the ground.
Seeing Mu Yuan's abnormal situation, Li Huaiyun immediately stood up and walked over, "Wait here for a moment!" He walked up and saw Mu Yuan holding something in his hand, and immediately asked, "What is this?"
"It's quite tough. It seems like it's probably the hair on a monster."
"Hair?" Li Huaiyun took what Mu Yuan handed him, and then rubbed it gently under the lantern. This hard texture did not look like that of ordinary people. With its thick thickness, it must be someone's. A kind of medicine is carried on the person.
Wang Ziqian couldn't hold back the curiosity in his heart and walked up, "What exactly did you find?"
"Nothing! Just a little hair!"
"Hair?"
"Yes, it was left on the monster's body!" Li Huaiyun said, "There is still mud on the hair. Obviously, it shows that the monster is hiding in a dark and damp place."
These words made Wang Ziqian suddenly feel a chill in his back, and he immediately looked around, fearing that the monster was hiding nearby and would suddenly attack. He didn't want to die here!
"What are you doing? Don't be so careful! It shouldn't be possible here."
"Why?"
"If you think about it with your brain, you will understand. If you people from Dali Temple and the Ministry of Punishment were here, you would have suffered a long time ago. I am afraid ordinary people can deal with this thing."
Wang Ziqian thought about it carefully and felt that this guess was indeed correct. "Young master Li, you mean that this monster comes back here occasionally?"
"Yes." Li Huaiyun took a step forward, then took out some broken limbs from a ditch and threw them around. "You see, the degree of decay of these things is different. Some of them have only left Bones, some just starting to rot.”
"In that case, where should we start the investigation?"
Li Huaiyun pointed to his feet, "I'm afraid we have to start here, after all, the body is here."
Wang Ziqian looked around, "But the monster is not here now, how should we check?"
"You are also from the Ministry of Justice after all. Don't you want to give me some advice?"
"This..." Wang Ziqian was speechless for a moment, mainly because he knew very little about the case, and it was difficult for him to give an explanation.
"My opinion is to search nearby!"
It shouldn’t be! Do the people in the Punishment Department only have this much ability? Li Huaiyun was a little confused about this, and felt that something was wrong.
"It is true that being close to the murder scene is more helpful in finding the murderer!" Li Huaiyun said, he raised his hand and said loudly, "The three of us walked in other directions by ourselves, carefully observing the ground and walls, and Maybe we can find some other clues in the ditch,"
He gave one instruction, "Remember, if you find anything wrong, notify others immediately."
"Okay!" The three of them walked in other directions.
Li Huaiyun continued to walk in the direction of the ditch. A slight sound of wind blew through the cave, as if someone was blowing in his ears.
The further he walked inside, the more he felt that this place was quite strange, and he felt a little uneasy in his heart. At this moment, a rock wall appeared in front of him.
At one point on the rock wall, there is a protruding stone covered with Taoist talismans.
Li Huaiyun stepped forward curiously and put his hand on the stone. Suddenly, the blood in his body surged, and a picture appeared in his mind. He was submerged in the smelly blood pool and couldn't breathe.
The electric shock-like feeling made his arms tremble slightly. He retracted his hand, and his chest was rising and falling violently, as if his whole body had been drained of energy.
Could there be something hidden in this? He reached out and tried to break open the protruding stone, but found that the stone was motionless and could not be broken open at all. Could it be that he had to tear off all the talismans on it?
"There's a situation here!" Li Huaiyun shouted loudly, and his voice quickly spread throughout the sewer.
Mu Yuan and Wang Ziqian rushed over immediately.
"What did you find?" Wang Ziqian asked curiously.
Li Huaiyun stood there, pointing to the talisman paper beside him, "What seems to be sealed here? From the general position and size of the talisman paper, I judge that there should be some kind of instrument hidden in it."
He bent down and pointed at the talisman paper on it, "Judging from the density of the talisman paper, it is most likely some kind of murder weapon. Only in this way can the evil spirit inside be suppressed."
Wang Ziqian took a breath of air. Judging from this analysis, there was such a dangerous weapon hidden in the sewers of the palace!
"What could be in here!"
Mu Yuan immediately said, "I'm afraid we have to ask the people in the palace. Maybe Hunjun and the old man Sikyong, maybe some of them must know."
Li Huaiyun shook his head and disagreed, "They shouldn't know, otherwise, how could they not remind us."
"Then let's just get rid of the talisman and take out the things?"
"This risk is too great. We still need to tell Sikyong so that we can remember it for a long time." Li Huaiyun said, and he asked, "Where are you? What other discoveries have you made?"
Wang Ziqian shook his head, "I didn't find anything else. I just found a large area of blood stains on the wall."
"Isn't this a great discovery?"
"It should have been a place where monsters committed crimes. Except for some cloth on the ground and a small amount of skin, flesh and organs, there is nothing else."
Li Huai pinched his chin hard and looked at Mu Yuan, "Where are you?"
"Nothing found!"
"Really nothing was found?" Li Huaiyun asked.
"It's really nothing!"
"Go there first and take a look. Maybe you can find something else."
With Wang Ziqian leading the way, they walked towards the stone wall with lanterns in hand.
Li Huaiyun saw the blood stains on the stone wall that was one person high. He stood on the stone wall and gently wiped the blood stains on the stone wall with his hand, and he had some questions in his heart.
"Don't you find it strange? The blood stains on the stone wall are too obvious. This place is located in a sewer, it is damp and dark, and the stone wall is wet all year round. Why can these blood stains remain?"
Wang Ziqian straightened up suddenly, yes! Why didn't I think about this? "Is there something wrong with the blood stains, or are these just paints sprinkled on?"
"Come here to spread paint? Doesn't it make people feel that their brains are abnormal?"
"That..."
Li Huaiyun pondered for a moment, "Then there is a possibility. These blood stains existed when the sewer was not so wet."
ah! Wang Ziqian and Mu Yuan were both quite surprised by this statement, "Has it already existed?"
"Yes!" Li Huaiyun explained, "Perhaps when this sewer was built, some living sacrifices were needed so that the gods in the ground could bless the integrity and smoothness of the project."
"That and the bodies in the ditch..."
"It shouldn't have much to do with it! But it might have something to do with the murder weapon sealed by the talisman."
"I can't figure out what the two have to do with each other!"
Li Huaiyun spread his hands, "If you think about it carefully, could it be that the people who built the sewers used that murder weapon to process the sacrifices?"
After saying this, they all felt that it made sense, but immediately, there was still something they couldn't explain.
The murder weapon was suppressed by such dense talismans, and it didn't look like it was used casually to handle sacrifices.
Wang Ziqian said, "It seems like we can only ask someone who has been in the palace for a longer time for advice."
"No need to go to such trouble! I'll go directly to the emperor and see what he says." Mu Yuan volunteered.
Li Huaiyun interjected, "It's also best to ask Sikyong. If they don't want to say anything, then you can go to the palace's warehouse and look for those historical books."
He thought to himself that it would be a good time to look through the warehouse to see if there were any cases related to the fire.
Just when they were about to exit the sewer, a low hum sounded, the sound was unusually sharp, followed by a climbing sound.
Li Huaiyun immediately became alert. He gathered the true energy in his body into his arms and said loudly, "There is something!"
Mu Yuan directly loaded the crossbow on his wrist. The sound of the sharp nails scraping against the stone wall made people's scalp numb. This was definitely not a sound that normal people could make.
Wang Ziqian is an ordinary person, so his reaction is relatively slow, "Is there someone down here?"
"It's not anyone! It's a monster that came here."
"Monster!" When Wang Ziqian heard this, he immediately became nervous. In the ditch where the corpses were placed in the distance, there were corpses that had been bitten.
His hair stood on end, and he pushed the lantern as far out as possible, hoping to see the trace of the monster. The constant sounds made his body tremble.
"I can't see any trace of the monster."
Li Huaiyun quickly swung the lantern, "Nonsense, of course you can't see it! That thing is still climbing on the stone wall."
Continue walking towards the steps, "Don't let yourself be distracted by fear."
At this moment, Mu Yuan shot several crossbow arrows directly into the distance. The metal arrows collided with the wet stone wall, and suddenly, several flames jumped out.
Li Huaiyun turned his gaze to the place where the fire occurred, "Did you see it?"
"No! I felt that guy's aura. When I tried to judge the direction of the other party's action, I found that the aura was sometimes absent! This is a headache."
"You really think too much! That thing shouldn't be that simple!" Li Huaiyun said, "We'd better leave as soon as possible."
Li Huaiyun became extremely alert, and he said loudly, "We may have fallen into trouble."
Just as he was preparing everyone to clean the sewer, some noises came from not far away.
Mu Yuan turned his head smartly, raised his hand towards the stone wall above, and fired a crossbow arrow. After a crisp sound, the crossbow arrow fell directly to the ground in front of him, emitting a faint light of fire.
"Feel some breath again?"
"Yes! But I have never been able to be sure of the other party's location."
"Be careful, otherwise, I'm afraid the crossbow arrows will be empty by the time we get there."
"Yeah! I know."
Then, there were those bright eyes on the rock wall. It seemed that there was a pair of eyes on the rock wall above, staring at them, which made people feel uneasy.
The people below have to raise their heads from time to time and look above to see if anyone is really observing them.
At this moment, the sharp voice, from near to far, and then himself, heard the pulse in the palace.
In the sewers, that thing really doesn't see the light of day.
"Lean behind me!" Li Huaiyun said loudly. He didn't want the people from the Criminal Department to be caught and eaten.
After Wang Ziqian heard this, he immediately stuck to his back. At this time, he didn't care whether it was hot or not, and he didn't care who the people behind the fat man were.
ah! Ouch! The sharp cry sounded from above again, making people feel chilling.
Mu Yuan raised her head, stretched the lantern upwards, and illuminated a rock wall above. After all the effort, she finally saw the full picture of this monster.
This is a monster with a scaly body, climbing on all fours, with a protruding and slender face, similar to an ape, but with the inheritance of the monster clan. There are several holes on his neck, and the entire eyeball is yellow, and his mouth is jagged. The teeth are straight, with some small protrusions at the end.
The monster opened its bloody mouth and roared. The mouth was full of blood foam, and the gaps between its teeth were filled with flesh residue.
"Quick! Go quickly!" Li Huaiyun urged, "Mu Yuan, you are responsible for watching over the people from the Criminal Department. Don't let that thing get close to him."
"If something comes over, just shoot that thing!"
Mu Yuan raised his hand and fired a crossbow arrow at the monster, but it was easily dodged. To put it simply!
"You can tell from the size of that guy. It's definitely not that simple. He can be shot by you casually."
He yelled, "Hurry! That way!"
Mu Yuan pushed Wang Ziqian and said, "Stop holding your head and run over there!"
At this time, something unexpected happened. Two identical monsters jumped in front of them, opening their terrifying mouths.
Mu Yuan hurried forward and fired several crossbow arrows, but the accuracy was very poor. "No! It's too dark here, and I can't aim well at all."
"Go forward!" she urged, but was suddenly frightened by the monster appearing beside her. She took a step back and fired the crossbow again.
But apart from the sound the crossbow arrow made when it hit the ground, nothing else happened.
Mu Yuan gritted his teeth, "Damn it! These things are too flexible and can't be shot at all."
At this point, Wang Ziqian had been attacked by many monsters, and there were bloody marks on his body and face with fingernails.
Those monsters seemed to be quite smart and would choose the weakest to attack. Fortunately, Wang Ziqian dodged in time and avoided many critical attacks.
Suddenly one opened its arms and pounced on him. If he was knocked down, he would probably be swarmed by this monster and bitten to pieces.
At the critical moment, a fierce punch, like a heavy artillery bomb, directly hit the monster that was about to pounce on Wang Ziqian.
The huge force tore the monster's body apart, and dark red blood splashed out in the air.
Li Huaiyun clenched his fists and frowned deeply, "Is everything okay?"
The other two people were shocked by this powerful punch, "This... this is too strong."
"There's no time to be surprised. Keep moving forward and leave here." Li Huaiyun said. He reminded Mu Yuan, "Don't attack directly. This monster reacts very quickly. We can only deal with it briefly and wait for them to come forward." After the attack, we can directly counterattack."
"What?" Mu Yuan thinks this method is too constrictive and cannot take the initiative at all. "As long as you take action first, there will be no problem!"
You've died so many times and you still can't figure it out?
"Don't you understand?" Li Huaiyun shouted loudly, "This thing is too responsive. You can only wait patiently for the opportunity. If you don't want to waste the crossbow arrows, just listen to me."
The three of them formed a group back to back, and then slowly walked towards the steps.
Li Huaiyun was in charge of the rear, and looked up at the rock wall from time to time, seeing many monsters crawling towards him quickly.
He punched them all to pieces, temporarily scaring other monsters from coming up.
Just when they were about to reach the steps, these monsters suddenly became bold again, and pounced directly without fear of any danger.
According to the previous instructions, as long as this kind of monster takes the initiative to attack, it will be easier to deal with.
The accuracy of Mu Yuan's crossbow has also improved a lot, and Li Huaiyun's Supreme Fist can tear several monsters into pieces in an instant.
However, the eyes of those monsters have turned blood red, and they seem to have entered a violent state.
"Quick! Get up! These monsters are getting crazy!"
Mu Yuan and Wang Ziqian walked up the steps. At this time, Mu Yuan's crossbow had finished shooting, and she now had no fighting power.
Li Huaiyun stood in front of the steps and stopped a group of monsters who wanted to attack the other two people.
His body sank and he raised his arms, "No one is allowed to take another step forward, otherwise, I will let you die without any body parts."
He punched out, shattering the monster that crossed the line, "I warned you!"
These monsters lying on the ground made slight hissing sounds from their mouths!
Li Huaiyun looked at the dozens of monsters crawling in front of him. Where did these creatures come from? Why did it suddenly appear in the sewer?
Neither the Criminal Department nor Dali Temple were here before. I had seen them before. Why did they suddenly appear? It must have been some kind of mechanism that was triggered during our investigation, or there must have been some special smell or sound.
ah! The shouts of the other two people came from the steps. When Li Huaiyun looked up, he found that some monsters climbed up the steps along the rock wall.
Li Huaiyun was so anxious that he wanted to turn around and run up, but at that moment, a monster pounced directly on him and bit him on the neck.
At that moment, the sharp teeth penetrated into the flesh of his neck, and blood was emerging from the wound.
He felt a sharp pain in his neck, and directly grabbed the monster's upper and lower jaws with his hands, and then with a strong force, he directly tore the monster's mouth open.
"Have you never seen a strong man in the Hedao realm?" Li Huaiyun's body was covered with a layer of light yellow light, and the muscles on his body became particularly prominent and strong.
He threw the monster aside with a flick of his hand, and then stepped back step by step. As long as any monster dared to step forward, he would use the Supreme Fist to deal with the monster properly, so that those monsters would not dare to move forward.
Li Huaiyun strode up the steps, and then directly dealt with several monsters biting Mu Yuan and Wang Ziqian.
He threw the body down and helped Mu Yuan up, "Is everything okay?"
Mu Yuan looked shocked, then shook her head, "It's okay! Fortunately, I have some protective equipment on me."
She pointed at Wang Ziqian, "That guy is not good! He was bitten in many places."
"Take him out quickly and find the doctor. I wonder if there is any poison in this thing?" Li Huaiyun's body was fine, but he just thought there might be something wrong with this monster.
He reached out and pulled up Wang Ziqian who was lying on the ground, "Can you leave?"
Wang Ziqian trembled all over, "But...it's okay! I'm just a little weak."
"Fortunately, no vital parts were touched, otherwise, you would have died here!"
"Quick! Leave quickly!"
The three of them looked at the monsters crawling on the steps and on the rock wall above their heads. They immediately cheered up and rushed outside.
When Li Huaiyun came out, he immediately tightened the cover on the steps, then moved hundreds of kilograms of stones, pressed them on top, and then sat down on the ground.
He then breathed a sigh of relief, "Can you still leave? If you can, I will take you away. If not, just wait here while I call the guards and the imperial doctor."
Mu Yuan looked at the blood marks on his arms and said, "It's okay!"
Wang Ziqian also seemed to be fine for the time being, but as soon as he said a few words, he felt his chest felt heavy and a stream of blood spurted out of his mouth.
"good!"
"Stop trying so hard! If you're like this, I'm afraid you might die on the road after just a few steps!"
"Then I'll be a safe group here."
Li Huaiyun's body was quite weak due to using too many supreme fists. This kind of boxing is extremely strong and yang, so it consumes a lot of physical energy. . . For a moment, he wished he could lie on the ground and not get up.
"Then you wait here right now. I'll have someone notify the Demon Slayer Department and Sikyong to come and beat them immediately."
"Okay!" Wang Ziqian fell to the side with blood marks all over his body, "Hurry up! I feel like I can't hold on anymore!"
Li Huaiyun helped Mu Yuan up, "Okay! Let's call someone quickly!"
They ran towards the Yangxin Hall.
"How did this monster get inside?" Mu Yuan endured the pain and asked softly.
"I don't know. They definitely didn't come in from outside, otherwise you wouldn't be able to explain that there are so many monsters in there suddenly."
"Why didn't they show up before? Now they do?" Mu Yuan looked quite worried, not knowing what the final result would be.
Li Huaiyun explained, "As I explained before, this parasite was previously parasitic in the decaying body, and will only be completely released at a specific time.
Including this body, it was destroyed by some kind of poisonous mushroom, otherwise, it would not be so listless! "
"In addition, the appearance of this kind of creature requires certain inducements, such as the fragrance or the spores emitted by the fungus."
"So where were these things hidden in the first place?"
"In this whole huge sewer, where else do you think it could be hidden?"
"In the sewage!"
"Yes!"
Cold sweat broke out on Mu Yuan's head, which meant that those things made her feel even more disgusted.
They came to Yangxin Hall and informed the emperor. Emperor Zhou Sheng directly ordered the area to be surrounded. After hearing what Li Huaiyun said about this situation, as the king of a country, he made an immediate decision without any hesitation.
"How is your investigation going?" Emperor Zhou Sheng asked optimistically, "Has the case been investigated clearly?"
"No! No! It's just that these monsters appeared inside and were difficult to deal with. That's why I came here to find the emperor."
Li Huaiyun briefly talked about what happened in the sewer.
"So you still haven't found any special clues?"
