Sword drawn from the constellations, poison as its edge.

Chapter 262 The Leigushan Massacre

Jiang Mingzhe sensed something was wrong and became suspicious. He turned to his brother and said, "Third brother, something seems amiss. Keep a close eye on everyone. I'll go ahead and investigate."

After saying that, he used his lightness skill and soared up like a breeze. Before long, he entered a valley. The valley was full of pine trees. After walking along the forest path for a while, the view suddenly opened up. Under a very tall and thick pine tree, there were three wooden houses. The houses were dilapidated and looked as if they had been ravaged by a typhoon.

In front of the wooden house, a huge blue stone had been overturned, with one side exceptionally flat, carved with a crisscrossing chessboard.

The stench grew stronger, and Jiang Mingzhe followed the smell to the back of the wooden house. There were dozens of earthen graves standing in rows. Judging from the color of the soil, they were probably all new graves from the last month or two, with just a few tender grass sprouts emerging.

A wooden plaque stands in front of the earthen grave, with the words "Tomb of the Deaf and Mute Heroes" written on it in black.

Jiang Mingzhe frowned slightly, thinking that the Deaf-Mute Sect was a sect created by Su Xinghe after he swore to pretend to be deaf and mute. It was also a branch of the Free and Unfettered Sect. Judging from the appearance, it had been completely wiped out here.

These low, earthen graves reeked of a foul odor. Jiang Mingzhe guessed that they were mostly the remains of people who had collected the bodies. In their haste, they hadn't prepared enough coffins, so they simply buried the bodies naked, and the graves weren't deep enough, which is why they smelled as they decomposed.

These dozens of earthen mounds are divided into two large sections, seemingly guarding both sides, with a small path in the middle. At the top are two large tombs. The tallest one has a stone tablet inscribed with: "Tomb of my late husband Wu Yazi". The second tallest one is inscribed with: "Tomb of my beloved teacher Su Xinghe".

Jiang Mingzhe narrowed his eyes, thinking that this was interesting. Looking at the inscription on the stele, he realized that it was erected by Li Qiushui and the Eight Friends of Hangu Pass.

He tried desperately to recall the original story, and fortunately, this part of the plot was so captivating that he remembered it quite clearly.

According to Wu Yazi's account to Xu Zhu in the original novel, Ding Chunqiu colluded with Li Qiushui and suddenly attacked him, knocking him into a deep valley. Fortunately, Li Qiushui had a change of heart and stopped Ding Chunqiu from continuing his poisonous act. Furthermore, his eldest disciple Su Xinghe pretended to be deaf and dumb and tricked Ding Chunqiu with various secret divine skills of the Xiaoyao Sect, which allowed him to survive for another thirty years.

It is also said that Wu Yazi has been seeking revenge for the past thirty years. However, although Su Xinghe was originally quite talented, he was led astray by his master. He became distracted and lost his ambition, and could no longer learn superior martial arts. He could only try to find another smart and honest disciple to inherit his mantle.

However, after searching for thirty years, they still couldn't find it. Wu Yazi felt that his time was coming to an end and he couldn't wait any longer. He could only ask Su Xinghe to send out disciples of the Deaf-Mute Sect to post notices everywhere, inviting talented people to come and solve the Zhenlong puzzle, hoping to select a closed-door disciple to inherit his mantle.

Moreover, since there was no time to teach martial arts in detail, it was necessary to find a smart and handsome young man so that he could learn from Li Qiushui...

At this point, it becomes even clearer how utterly useless the Free and Unfettered Sect is, aside from its divine skills and unique abilities!
The deaf-mute disciples sent out messages haphazardly, even trying to send them to Quan Guanqing, the leader of the Beggars' Sect. Quan Guanqing, having heard about playing chess, had no interest and instead gave the message to Duan Yu.

Wu Yazi made it clear that he needed someone intelligent, honest, and handsome, but in the end, apart from Duan Yu and Murong Fu, no one else qualified.

Duan Yanqing, the eldest son of the Duan family, and Kumārajīva—none of them were honest or young, not to mention that they directly attracted their archenemy, Ding Chunqiu.

And somehow, even though it was clearly stated that Li Qiushui stopped Ding Chunqiu from killing him back then, Ding Chunqiu was convinced that his master was already dead.

Wu Yazi himself was also confused. He passed on his internal energy to Xu Zhu, but instead of guiding him to learn from Tianshan Tonglao, he actually thought of having Li Qiushui teach him.

Jiang Mingzhe pondered these events, thinking that logically, at least a year should have passed after the Xingzilin incident before the Leigushan storyline began. Now, only a few months had passed since the Xingzilin incident, and Wuyazi was not yet at the point of his lifespan and making a final stand. Why would someone come to kill him silently in this desolate wilderness? Then he thought again, Li Qiushui had hurriedly left Dengfeng with the Eight Friends of Hangu Pass. Could it be that she had learned that Wuyazi was in danger and rushed to his aid?

Judging from the current situation, it was already too late when Li Qiushui arrived, but she must have discovered some clues. Otherwise, not to mention Li Qiushui, the loyalty of the Eight Friends of Hangu Pass to their sect would not have been buried so hastily.

Among the Eight Friends of Hangu Pass, there was a skilled craftsman like Feng Asan, a master gardener like Shi Qinglu, and a scholar like Gou Du.

Logically speaking, with all these trees covering the mountain, how difficult would it be to arrange a coffin for each of the disciples of the Deaf-Mute Sect? There should also be an epitaph on the tombstone, some flowers and grass to decorate the cemetery, and the three dilapidated wooden houses should be tidied up. That would be considered fulfilling filial piety.

Therefore, there is only one possibility: Li Qiushui figured out the killer's identity from the traces at the scene or the murder method, and thus hurriedly chased after him with her eight friends.

If Jiang Mingzhe and his group hadn't rushed over because of Azi's refining of the cold poison, they might have encountered Li Qiushui.

Duan Yu and the others finally arrived at this moment, and were all astonished by the scene.

Jiang Mingzhe then shared his speculation, shaking his head and smiling bitterly: "I learned the old monk Murong's kung fu for nothing, and agreed to help him punch Wuyazi a couple of times. Who knew that Senior Wuyazi also had the ability to foresee the future, and he fled to the underworld in one breath. So the debt of those two punches had to be left unresolved."

Azi suggested, "Big Ginger, you're so honest. Why don't you just punch him a couple of times on his tombstone?"

Duan Yu quickly said, "Absolutely not! The dead should be respected. Besides, Second Brother, we have received many benefits from Senior Wuyazi. Logically speaking, we should kowtow to him."

He was honest and true to his word. Sure enough, he went to Wuyazi's grave and kowtowed three times. After he finished, he murmured to himself, "Senior Wuyazi, it seems my second brother doesn't want to kowtow. Don't be angry. He and I are brothers. If I kowtow, it's the same as him kowtowing. I'll kowtow for him."

After saying this, he kowtowed three more times before standing up and sighing, "I wonder who has harmed so many people."

Azi sneered, "If you ask me, the murderer is most likely our master, the Star Immortal!"

Jiang Mingzhe had already vaguely suspected it was him, but after hearing Azi's words, he became even more certain and nodded, saying, "That's right! I met Yu Yan's grandmother in Xuchang and told her I could heal her old facial wounds. She immediately went to Taihu Lake to find her master and ask for the Heavenly Silkworm Silk..."

Ah Zi exclaimed "Ah!" and continued, "Master and she were old flames, and naturally, they couldn't forget each other when they met. But the chubby grandma was only concerned about her own face and rushed to Shaolin Temple to find you. Master, that old thing, thought it over and over and was very worried, so he also came to Shaolin Temple to chase after his lover. The place where our great master was hiding happened to be not far from Mount Song. It was probably because he was unlucky. His disciples were running around at the foot of the mountain when our master happened to see them and followed them up to commit this crime!"

Jiang Mingzhe praised, "That's right! If that's the case, Master must have used a lot of poison skills to deal with his master, senior brother, and these deaf-mute disciples on his own. Whether it's Yu Yan's maternal grandmother or Xue Muhua, a little observation would not be difficult to determine that it was his doing!"

The two analyzed the case, one after the other, and Duan Yu sighed, "Alas, it sounds reasonable, but we don't even know where they've gone. What should we do now?"

(End of this chapter)