Chapter 41: Three Steps to Soul Destruction

  "Those two red-clad ghosts suddenly appeared before me, and before I could even react, a severe pain shot through the back of my head. My eyes turned black and I fell to the ground. After that, I don't know what happened..." Miao Yu said, her two eyes staring at the leader of the theater troupe in terror, her expression not feigned.

  The host spread his hands and said, "Village head, you also heard it. It was the red-clothed fierce ghost that attacked Miao Yu, then Li Dai Tao Qi took the stage to perform. As for whether or not Eighth Grandfather was killed by the red-clothed fierce ghost, I don't know."

  The village chief let out a cold snort, his eyes fixed fiercely on the leader of the theater troupe. "Ridiculous!" he said. "If it really was the Red Robed Evil Spirit, then I ask you, why would the Red Robed Evil Spirit sing your theater troupe's opera? And what's more, sing it so magnificently? This couldn't be some pre-arranged scheme of yours, a desperate ploy to deceive us?"

  The village head said that I had thought of it earlier. As soon as the four words "Red Dress Evil Spirit" came out of Miao Yu's mouth, I knew that these two "ghosts" were definitely Jin Xiangyu and Qiu Yan without a doubt!

  Only Jinxiang Yu knows why she sang the opera script of the theater troupe, and whether or not it was her who killed my eighth grandfather is unknown to me.

  The leader of the troupe called out to Chui Tin-kwai, "This... this, how did I know again?"

  "Don't know? Hmph! Before the truth of the matter is investigated, I think it's best for you theater people to temporarily stay in our Huanglong Village, lest the villagers become confused and take extreme actions." The village chief's words were cold and devoid of any emotion, clearly a threat.

  The troupe leader hesitated for a moment and asked with a bitter smile, "Village head, is the play going to continue or not?"

  "Act! Why don't you act? You continue acting until I find the murderer who killed Eighth Grandfather!" The village chief said and walked out of the backstage with Yang Zheng, panting heavily.

  As the Eight Old Men of the Longevity Star have all died, why must this play continue? I don't understand what the village chief is getting at.

  The owner of the troupe shouted loudly to that group of dan, clowns and wusheng, "What are you still dawdling for? Hurry up and follow me onto the stage to perform!"

  The people in the opera troupe immediately dispersed and walked into the dressing room. I returned to the crowd watching the play, still standing not far from where Grandpa Ba's body was placed, feeling both shocked and fearful.

  I once told Xiao Ge that as long as I'm alive, Eighth Grandfather will definitely be alive. But at this moment, Eighth Grandfather has become a cold corpse, and I'm still standing here!

  Even if it was really Jinxiang Yumei who killed Eighth Master, she did it in a way that was imperceptible; how could I have defended against it?

  I was worried and frightened, but in the end I felt that all this was indeed too unbelievable, it was clearly something that could not happen at all. As I was thinking wildly, the crowd suddenly **got up**, and a person walked over from far away.

  That person was slender, with a strand of long hair tightly attached to his forehead, covering one deep and piercing eye. As soon as he approached the stage, a sudden surge of murderous aura spread over, making people's skin crawl.

  It's Xiao Ge! Xiao Ge is back! I was so surprised that I almost shouted out loud, but soon realized that in this situation, it would be quite inappropriate, and could only try hard to suppress the excitement deep down.

  The young man saw me standing in the crowd, nodded slightly and then ignored me, walking straight to where Grandpa's body was placed.

  "What's going on?" The young man pointed at the body of Eighth Grandfather and asked the village chief.

  Unexpectedly, his tone did not have the anger and sadness I had imagined.

  The village chief seemed to be somewhat surprised when he saw the young man suddenly appear, and stuttered in response, "I... I don't know either, watching the show, watching the show, Eighth Grandfather was killed by someone..."

  "Hmm!" The young man snorted and bent down, presumably to examine the body of Eighth Grandfather.

  Yang Zheng, who was standing beside him, suddenly said, "Little brother, tonight's matter is actually like this..."

  "What's going on?" The young man immediately straightened his spear-like body and stared tightly at Yang Zheng.

  Yang Zheng seemed to be scared by Xiao Ge, and involuntarily took two or three steps back before steadying himself, then hastily recounted what had just happened.

  The village headman kept saying on the side, "That's how it is..."

  "You're saying that Eighth Master was shot and killed by a dan (male lead) dressed as a red-clad fierce ghost, using a bowstring without a bow or arrow? This is the biggest joke I've ever heard! Let me take a look." As he spoke, Young Master bent down to carefully examine Eighth Master's icy corpse, then stood up holding a dark object.

  He held up the dark object in his hand, shook his long hair in front of his forehead and said loudly, "I believe our fellow villagers born and raised in Huanglong Village all recognize this thing!"

  "Three Steps Soul Piercing Stab?" Yang Zheng had already cried out in shock as soon as the words left Xiao Ge's mouth.

  "Yes, it was indeed the Three-Step Soul-Stabbing Stance. Eighth Master died under this very move! So Eighth Master's death has nothing to do with the dan (female lead) on stage; he was killed by a hidden murderer using the Three-Step Soul-Stabbing Stance!"

  How is this possible? At that time, I was standing right behind Old Man Ba, and the only ones sitting next to him were Village Chief and Yang Zheng. If someone had used the Three-Step Soul-Stabbing Stance to get close to Old Man Ba and kill him, how could they have escaped my eyes? Unless... I broke out in a cold sweat, unless it was Village Chief, who was sitting next to Old Man Ba, who used the Three-Step Soul-Stabbing Stance to kill Old Man Ba and then pretended to be innocent!

  But why did the village chief have to do that, I couldn't think of a reason, and I vaguely felt that this matter was not as simple as it seemed on the surface.

  "The murderer took advantage of everyone's attention being drawn to the flower dan on stage and then killed Eighth Grandfather." Little Brother continued.

  "So, it wasn't someone from our troupe who killed the person in your village, but rather there's another culprit. What do you say now? Village chief, as a respected member of this village, how do you evaluate this situation? Should we continue with the play or not? Do you still want to keep us here in Huanglong Village?" The leader of the troupe had somehow appeared beside Xiaoge and the village chief, his face full of indignation.

  The village chief waved his hand in a helpless manner, "Since that's the case, then you all do as you please. As for the reward, since everyone is dead, do any of you have any ideas?"

  The troupe leader sneered, "Reward? What's the point of mentioning a reward? As long as you, Village Chief, let our troupe go scot-free, I'll be eternally grateful!" He bowed and said, "Farewell!"

  In a little while, the leader of the troupe led the performers to quickly pack up their things and leave the village, disappearing into the night.

  A few giant candles made of tallow still shone on the empty stage, shining down at the villagers below who were staring in terror with their mouths agape.

  The village chief cleared his throat and said to Xiaoge, "Then according to you, who is the murderer?"

  The young man ignored him, his expression cold and stern, and threw the three-step soul-stabbing spear that was still dripping with blood to the ground. He looked at the crowd of people with a cold gaze and said loudly, "Everyone knows that the Three-Step Soul-Stabbing Spear is only found on the Broken Soul Cliff in the Broken Soul Mountain in our Huanglong Village. As long as we find out who has entered the Broken Soul Mountain and gone to the Broken Soul Cliff in the past few days, we can find the murderer who killed Grandpa Ba!"

  As soon as the young man finished speaking, a murmur of voices erupted from the crowd.

  "Don't look at me, I haven't been to Duanhun Mountain for days!"

  "Me too! I've never dared to enter the Soul-Breaking Mountain, let alone go to the Soul-Breaking Cliff!"

  "Who was it? Who went to Duanhun Cliff and brought back these three moves of Duanhun Stab?"

  "Really? Really?"

  ……

  Duanhun Mountain? Duanhun Cliff? Just this afternoon, I still sneaked to Duanhun Mountain with Yaotou, went to that dead village. Little brother won't be talking about us, will he? My heart suddenly felt like it had fallen into an ice cellar, my body trembling uncontrollably.

  No, in Dead Village I also met Jin Xiangyu and Qiu Yan, they want to come from Dead Village to Huanglong Village, must pass through Duanhun Mountain, could it be that they ventured to Duanhun Cliff to pick up the Three Steps Duanhun Stab and killed Eighth Grandfather? If things were really like this, at that time Jin Xiangyu was performing on stage, then the one who could have killed Eighth Grandfather must have been Qiu Yan...

  But I didn't see the shadow of autumn geese appearing in front of me?

  My thoughts had just fallen when I suddenly heard the village chief say in a mysterious and eerie tone, "That's right, these three steps of the Soul-Breaking Stab are indeed as you said, growing on the Soul-Breaking Cliff. But in our village, ordinary people don't even dare to approach the Soul-Breaking Mountain, let alone the cliff. And according to my information... Hehe..." The village chief chuckled twice and stopped talking, but his eyes were fixed on Xiaoge without letting go.

  The young man furrowed his brow and asked, "What's the situation like?"

  "What's going on?" the village chief suddenly raised his voice, "Didn't you and that kid named Lan Tian come out of Duanhun Mountain two days ago and return to the village?"

  The village chief's words couldn't be more obvious, and he actually shifted the topic to me and Xiao Ge, implying that Xiao Ge and I were highly suspicious.

  This scoundrel... I am both shocked and enraged!

  "So you're saying that you suspect me of being the murderer who killed Eighth Grandfather?" The young man's words were icy cold, without a hint of agitation.

  "The village chief waved his hand, 'I didn't say that! I was just thinking, before the village was always peaceful, why did you come back and suddenly there's a warning bell, the mountain is haunted, one after another death, now even Old Man Eight has died. I just can't figure out what's going on? Can you explain it to everyone?"

  The village chief's voice was not loud, but enough to be heard by all the villagers in the field. I saw the villagers below the stage casting venomous glances at Xiaoge, those glances seemed to want to devour people, and I couldn't help but shudder.

  The young man let out a cold snort, "A straight body is not afraid of a slanted shadow. I haven't done anything wrong, so naturally I'm not afraid of someone spitting blood at me! Instead, I'd like to ask all the neighbors, who was sitting next to Old Man Eighth during the play tonight, and who was the first to discover Old Man Eighth's death? In my opinion, the murderer is shouting 'thief' but it's not necessarily true!"

  The young man's words were quite straightforward, but unexpectedly, the village chief didn't get angry and instead smiled, "Young man, I didn't say you're the murderer who killed Old Man Eight. Why are you so nervous? Everyone in the village knows that I'm an honest person, this Three Steps to Soul Piercing Stab is something I wouldn't even dare touch normally, how could I use it to kill Old Man Eight? And as for you, all the villagers know that your martial arts skills are exceptional, your moves are unpredictable... Hehe, it's hard to say..."

  The village head's words seem calm and peaceful, but are actually extremely poisonous and provocative! Forbidden to the evil spirits.

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