Holy Bone

Chapter 1537 Underground Passage and the Relics of the Former Dynasty

The reason why Jin An didn't do anything to the three bodies in the house was,

Use the corpse-driving technique to find the murderer.

First, the corpse-driving technique focuses more on fulfilling the obsessions of the deceased, and is not necessarily about finding true love;

The second reason was that his animal skills could obscure cause and effect and temporarily avoid the three disasters and nine calamities. He was worried that the culprit behind the scenes would not be able to kill Li Yan twice and would try to kill him a third time.

Indeed, Li Yan was greedy for money and treacherous, and his crimes were extremely serious.

He did not participate in the murder, nor did he subjectively participate in disposing of the body. He became idiot for the rest of his life, and used the suffering in the second half of his life to atone for his sins. This was what he deserved, and there was no need to kill him.

Outsiders don’t understand these things, but the old Taoist priest is clear about the details. He saw Jin’an’s good intentions and looked at him with comfort and approval.

God is merciful and kind, leaving only a glimmer of hope for the forty-nine people in Tianyan. People who like to kill everyone without leaving any room for others are mostly destined to be lonely.

Others could not understand the deeper meaning behind this. They only saw the magic of Jinan's Taoist technique of turning a living person into a foal, and after being shocked, they were surprised.

There is no need to say much about the brothers of the Criminal Investigation Department. In their eyes, Jin'an has long been omnipotent. They have already experienced walking the Yin and driving corpses, and now they have added the ability to create animals.

It was the first time that Li Dajin had seen such a magical Taoist magic. A living person could be turned into an animal just by saying so. This was much more bizarre and powerful than those magic tricks on the streets.

"Miracle! Miracle! This is turning decay into magic, this is bringing the dead back to life!"

After being shocked, Li Dajin's eyes turned firm: "The Five Internal Organs Taoist Temple is the real Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon! Commander, I want to convert to the Five Internal Organs Taoist Temple!"

Fatty Li pushed Li Dajin and said, "Wuzang Taoist Temple only accepts offerings from faithful men and women. You are still a suspect. Once you are cleared of suspicion, the door of Wuzang Taoist Temple will always be open to you."

Li Dajin hurriedly defended himself: "It's unfair. I really didn't know anything about this case. I was also a victim of deception. I lost a horse for no reason."

Fatty Li glared and said, "Whether you are wronged or not, it's useless to shout now. Once the case is thoroughly investigated, if you are truly innocent, I, Fatty, will personally take you to the Wuzang Taoist Temple to burn the first incense on the 15th of every month to help you get rid of the bad luck."

Li Dajin was greatly encouraged and rubbed his hands in joy: "My Lord, you said this yourself, don't regret it later. Everyone present has heard it and can help to testify."

The two were still arguing, and Jin'an called Li Dajin and asked where the carriage was and to harness the colt again. He needed the old horse to know the way and help him track down the murderer.

In order to enter the Wuzang Taoist Temple, Li Dajin kept his legs from weakening and his hands from shaking. He was full of energy and wanted to show off himself. He immediately found a carriage and personally harnessed the colt.

"My distant nephew, you have met a noble man like the Commander this time, who has rescued you from the gates of hell. You must behave well and help the Commander solve the case. When I get the fifteen sticks of incense from the Wuzang Taoist Temple, I will support you until you are old. As long as I have something to eat, I will never let you go hungry."

Li Dajin had mixed feelings about Li Yan who had become mentally retarded. He stroked the horse's head while feeding it grass. This means that if you want a horse to run faster, you have to feed it more grass.

After eating and drinking, the group got on the carriage and started chasing the murderer.

Li Dajin hugged the horse and clamored to go along, saying affectionate words like uncle and nephew are inseparable. Jin'an didn't hesitate for too long and agreed to take Li Dajin along.

"Deputy Commander Sun, you and your brothers continue to search the spice shop. No matter who comes today, no one is allowed to enter or leave the spice shop."

"I'll leave a few helpers behind to work in the spice shop with you."

The helper Jin'an was talking about was exactly the clone transformed from the Holy Fetus of Lead and Mercury.

With so many masters in the late third realm guarding the Spice Shop, the Spice Shop is unbreakable, unless someone in the fourth realm attacks the Spice Shop by force.

This is the capital city. If someone from the fourth realm really wants to attack the spice shop, there is no need for Jin'an to take action. The elders from Yujing Jinque, Zhenguo Temple, and Tianshi Mansion will come out in full force to help suppress the enemy.

Deputy Commander Sun felt regretful for not being able to take part in the entire manhunt, but he finally obeyed orders and left, intensifying the blockade of the spice shop.

Afterwards, the old Taoist priest, Fatty Li and Li Dajin acted as temporary coachmen, driving the Penglai Inn carriage in front, with Jin'an's Bi'an carriage behind. A large group of brothers from the Criminal Investigation Department led the way, and under countless pairs of surprised gazes from the Spice Shop, the team left the Penglai Inn in a mighty manner.

Especially when people saw that Li Dajin, the owner of Penglai Inn, actually drove the car himself and led the way for the Criminal Investigation Department, it attracted many people's curiosity and discussion.

The pony that Li Yan transformed into pulled the carriage and first came to the South Asian spices that he had been purchasing. He stayed for a while and then left. He was acting according to his previous life trajectory.

Fatty Li was a smart man. Without Jin'an's instructions, he took a look at the Nanyang spice store and ordered people to seal off all the Nanyang spice stores nearby and not allow anyone to enter or leave.

hum-

hum-

The horseshoes stepped on the smooth blue brick road, and the carriage was pulled in circles in the spice shop, just like Li Yan's previous rigorous and cautious life trajectory.

Afterwards, the carriage passed through a dim alley, stopped for a while, and then continued on its way, circling in the alley.

Because the alley was narrow, the Bi'an carriage could not enter, and the Bi'an carriage that Jin'an was riding in stopped at the entrance of the alley. When he saw Li Yan pulling the carriage on the road again, the Bi'an carriage followed slowly outside the street.

The Bi'an carriage followed for about quarter of an hour. The pony that Li Yan turned into began to slow down and finally stopped in a bamboo forest.

There was a dry and abandoned canal outside the bamboo forest. At this time, the Bi'an carriage was parked on the river bank.

Jin An lifted the curtain with one finger. From his perspective at that moment, he could just see Li Yan's transformed colt stopping in the bamboo forest, eating grass with its head down.

While looking at the bamboo forest where Li Yan was, he was also looking around at the surrounding environment.

This place is remote, with no tall buildings around, only a few shacks built along the river. Some of these shacks are occupied by people, with figures hiding behind the windows, quietly looking at the sudden visit of the Criminal Investigation Department. Some shacks are dark and empty, and a few shacks look like they have just been burned by a fire, with traces of burnt black.

As soon as the Bi'an carriage stopped, an unpleasant and pungent smell wafted into the air, including the smell of sulfur, saltpeter, and other complex and pungent smells.

These smells were wafting from the dried-up canal. Several inspectors shone torches into the canal and saw mountains of garbage, which were the residue left over from processing various spices.

In addition to being used as a condiment to add flavor to food, spices can also be used to make incense, sachets, and powders. The latter three are the most profitable, but the refining process is often very complicated and inevitably produces a lot of waste residue.

Take the most common rouge and powder as an example. It not only uses red pigment extracted from natural herbs such as red vine, safflower, hollyhock flower, heavy crimson, and mountain flower, but also adds appropriate amounts of auxiliary materials such as cinnabar, ochre, realgar, lead and mercury to enhance the preservative and fragrance-enhancing effects.

If you want rouge with complex and diverse colors to win the favor of the ladies in the mansion and show your noble status, you will also use more expensive mulberry silk, pearl powder, Nanyang precious flower dew and other precious raw materials to make your skin white and creamy, and have a moisturizing effect in autumn and winter...

The more complicated the production, the more waste residue is produced. The spice shop is doing a booming business, so there must be a place to dump the waste residue. In addition, distillation and purification also pollutes the water source. Over time, the rivers and canals here are polluted, dried up, and turned into a place for dumping garbage. Dozens of pungent smells mixed together, and this place slowly became a dark corner where no one dared to live.

Under the torches, the dry river channel turned into a stinking ditch full of sewage, with rats and insects growing wildly. A few dirty rats with long gray tails raised their heads and bared their teeth at the criminal prosecutor holding a torch, squeaking fiercely, and then slowly crawled into the cave on the river bank, not afraid of people or fire. "What a big rat, it's almost as big as my seven-year-old cat!"

"This big rat is not afraid of people or fire. Could it be that it has become a spirit?"

The inspectors wanted to look for the giant rat, but it had already gone into its hole and could not be found.

"Commander-in-chief, this place is very suitable for killing people and disposing of corpses. Even if the corpses rot and stink, outsiders will not be able to find them easily." Someone said to Jin An in the Bi'an carriage.

Just at this moment, Li Yan, who had stayed in the bamboo forest for a while, turned into a pony and walked towards the river bank, attracting everyone's attention.

There is a stone arch bridge over the dry canal. Li Yan pulled the carriage and wanted to cross the bridge to the other side, but the bridge had steps and the carriage could not go up.

Fatty Li and the old Taoist priest worked together to take the harness off the horse's neck.

Without the restraint of the carriage, Li Yan turned into a pony on all fours and easily got onto the stone arch bridge. The horseshoes made a crisp sound in the dark night, like a hammer hitting people's hearts one after another, making their hearts beat faster.

At this time, Jin'an had already gotten off the Bi'an carriage and came to the other side of the dry canal with the old Taoist priest, Fatty Li and others.

After reaching the other side of the canal, the pungent smell in the air became stronger, and it soon made people's throats sore and uncomfortable.

At this time, the old Taoist priest took out the yellow talisman paper from his Tai Chi Bagua bag again, soaked it with Sanyang wine, and then stuffed it into his nose. He immediately felt much better.

Just don't breathe through your mouth.

Suddenly, there was a blazing fire in the distance. A simple shack was on fire. Then a figure covered in flames was seen in the shack. He broke through the shack and jumped into the stinking ditch under the dry river. Although the fire was out, there was no movement from the person and no one was seen climbing ashore.

Fatty Li ordered a few people to go and rescue the people, while the rest continued to follow the pony that Li Yan had transformed into to chase the criminal.

Li Yan was an experienced man who knew the way and could find the way clearly even in the dark. When he walked past five river embankment steps and reached the sixth river embankment step, he suddenly walked down the stone steps and went down into the smelly ditch of the river.

"what?"

Everyone was shocked.

Just as everyone was about to follow them down the steps along the river bank, the inspectors who had gone to the canal to search for the drowning person came back carrying a smelly man whose body was burnt to pieces by the fire.

"Commander-in-chief, this man is already dead. What should we do with him?" The Criminal Investigation Officer put down the charred corpse on his back.

The charred corpse looked miserable, with most of its hair lost and its body covered with abscesses. Thick, steaming water was still oozing out of the ruptured abscesses cooked by the fire, and it smelled terrible.

"What a poisonous body! This is a person who often lives with poisonous substances. He has suffered systemic sequelae and is already terminally ill and beyond cure." The old Taoist priest exclaimed and hurriedly took out his homemade antidote pills and asked the inspectors who had come into contact with the corpse to swallow them.

"What happened to that fire?" Jinan asked about the fire.

Several people answered, "These shacks are occupied by cosmeticians who cannot afford the high rent of the perfume shop. This person must have accidentally started the fire while distilling and purifying the flower dew."

Recalling the several shacks that were burnt black by the fire and uninhabited, Jin An nodded in understanding: "Find a stretcher and take the charred body back to the morgue of the Criminal Investigation Department. Let the coroner Han Lao check the specific cause of death. When you go back, take a shower and change into clean clothes to avoid being infected by this person's poison."

"The place where the body was dumped should be here. Boss Li, you can follow here. You can go back to the Criminal Investigation Department with them. If I don't see you in the Criminal Investigation Department after I get back, I will assume that you are absconding from the crime and order a city-wide arrest warrant for you." Jin'an said this to Li Dajin, the owner of Penglai Inn.

Li Dajin opened his mouth to speak, but was scared back by Jinan's cold gaze.

After watching a few people leave, Jinan led the remaining people down into the dry canal.

In just a moment's delay, the foal that Li Yan had transformed into was about to disappear in the dirty canal.

When they caught up with Li Yan, they saw the colt sticking up its hooves and digging in front of a garbage mountain. A pile of yellow, green and white powdery waste was dug out, emitting a turbid and foul odor mixed with many pungent smells.

Seeing this, Fatty Li brought a few people to help, and then Fatty Li shouted in surprise: "Master Jin'an, there is something wrong here, there is a hidden passage!"

It was a passage that was half buried by waste slag powder. The passage was very deep, and even the light from a torch could only illuminate a few steps away. Beyond the light was a deep darkness where one could not see one's hand in front of one's face.

"Why is there a passage here? Is it a flood discharge drainage channel during the rainy season?" Fatty Li did not rush into the passage rashly. He first threw the torch in his hand into the passage. Seeing that the torch did not go out and was burning steadily, he nodded to Jin An, indicating that there was enough air inside.

The interior of the passage is very spacious, not cramped at all, and it seems to get wider as you go further.

Jin'an's six senses are far more acute than those of ordinary people. Even in a dim environment, he can notice many details. Suddenly, he stopped and reached out to touch the stacked stone slabs on both sides of the passage.

"These stone bars look older than the stone bars in the river channels outside. The stone carving craftsmanship is not as sophisticated as that in the river channels outside. They feel rough and do not look like they were built at the same time. In other words, they are not from the same dynasty." Jin'an's eyes lit up, and thoughts in his mind flashed like many shooting stars.

Hearing this, Fatty Li checked in surprise. The more he checked, the more surprised he became. There was indeed a huge difference.

"If it was not built in the same dynasty... Taoist Jin'an, are you suspecting... that this place might be a relic of a previous dynasty?" Fatty Li's face became serious.

Once it involves the previous dynasty, no matter what the matter is, it is not a small matter.

Jin An recalled the time when he attacked the lair of the Holy Land of No Life and the scene he saw when he was walking in the underworld in the capital. The capital in the underworld was full of layers of buildings, hundreds of buildings stacked on top of each other. Hundreds of floors like an abyss were exposed under the cracks in the streets, and there were also many hundreds of floors on the ground.

Those buildings are both new and old, some are jade-like buildings with green tiles and red eaves, brightly lit, and some are ruins and dark and gloomy.

New dynasties were established on the basis of old ones, and new capitals were built on the old sites. As the ancient capital of seven dynasties, the capital was rebuilt time and time again on the ruins.

Thinking of the capital city in the underworld, he also thought of the imperial palace in the underworld. The imperial palace in the underworld had no royal luck to suppress it, and the yin energy was so terrifying that even he did not dare to take the risk to get close to it.

Strange stories about the imperial palace, such as the phantom of a palace maid, the well of Concubine Zhen, strange things happening in Chuxiu Palace, the faceless corpse, the doorman, the Yin-Yang Taoism, fishing in the North Sea, and human shadows, have been circulating for a long time.

Jin An continued to follow Li Yan and asked as he walked, "Fatty Li, the capital city was destroyed and rebuilt after wars. There should be some relics of the previous dynasty left under the new site, right?"

Fatty Li caught up with Jin An and said, "Yes, but those are forbidden areas, and they are guarded by special personnel. There is no one guarding this place, it seems to be a place that has been missed... or... a newly appeared secret passage?"