sinovels Chapter 17
Chapter 17
【Wu Ke】
In the silence, there was a crisp and cold sound of water droplets tapping on the surface of the stone slab, which seemed to be intentionally matched with the echo of scattered footsteps.
It's raining again, in a season when it shouldn't be rainy.
It infiltrates into the stone crevices and spreads downwards, eventually converging into small pools in the hard stone slab depressions, and more of them overflow into the deeper soil along the cracks.The dungeon, which has been dark and poorly ventilated for many years, is filled with a disgusting smell of corruption. Moss and cobwebs have occupied and expanded in corners suitable for their own growth.
I don't like it here, but at the moment I'm sitting on a wooden chair in the rest room not far from a cell, waiting for a certain result.
It is said to be a rest room, but it is actually just a slightly open part of the connecting corridor in the middle of the underground cell. It is slightly separated, and simple furniture for the guards is placed inside.
In Yuejian, there are actually quite a few buildings with underground cells.Not only the prison facilities that have existed since ancient times remain in the main family residence of the Gogo family, but there are also some around the shrine and some public buildings.The reason is naturally because of the origin of the "Island of Exile".It is said that the largest prison equipped by a government agency left over from ancient times was demolished due to disrepair, and a commercial street was built on the original site.The old prison in the center of the town has been opened to the general public as part of the folk customs exhibition hall, but the cells and torture chambers of Yuwujia are not for viewing.
In order to facilitate the investigation, I brought Nishikujo Masumi here.According to Ma Canghao's instructions, it is necessary to "carefully investigate this young man who broke into the Forbidden Forest".
Now sitting here with me are several other priests, but they did not stay here like I did, but left a subordinate and came to check occasionally.
I didn't have much to say to them, they should have known my style for a long time, so they just glanced at me from the corner of their eyes carefully from time to time and then looked away.
assist?
What a joke.
It's not that complicated for a place as big as Yuejian, and the Ma Cang family doesn't need help from outsiders.What needs to be investigated is just a child. He doesn't even have a family member. The family he lived in Tokyo has already sent people to collect information. I believe that information will be obtained soon.What kind of assistance do you need for this kind of thing?
The delicate relationship between the five families is most obvious at this time.The so-called "assistance" must have been put forward by them rather than Ma Canghao's request. They just don't trust the Ma Cang family, especially the boy who is called "the son of the ghost".
If the officiant makes mistakes or neglects his duties during the preparation of the ceremony, the four families can remove the officiant priest and impose punishments. In serious cases, he will be sentenced to death, and the family will also lose the qualification to host the ceremony for a long time.
After the failure of the last ceremony, the resistance to Ma Canghao among the five families was already high. Now that he is re-elected as the officiant, many people must be dissatisfied and helpless.If you grasp a slight handle at this time, you can drag him down from the position of the officiant.It's not too difficult to see through this mentality, the problem is that it really upsets me.
When Ma Cangye had an accident three years ago, some people suspected that it was an internal manipulation of the Ma Cang family, so the side hall where Ye was located has always been strictly guarded by the priests directly under the five families.And now that the ceremony is approaching, the monitoring of the officiant priests is also increasing. They seem to believe that there must be some ulterior motives that are going on in secret. Now, the spearhead is obviously directly directed at this young man who suddenly appeared.While I was investigating Nishikujo Masumi, the priests of the other four families must also be searching for his relationship with the Asakura family, and at the same time sent someone to monitor the cell where the young man was imprisoned.
As a result, it was difficult for me to convey certain information to the boy, and it was difficult for me to conduct my inquiries, let alone follow good instructions.
And the thing that bothers me the most is the boy himself, why can't he be more like an ordinary person!
When encountering this kind of thing, you can still have that strange calmness, and even argue with me, completely unaware of how dangerous your situation is.That kind of excess sense of justice will not work in Yue Jian, I think he must not understand, after all he is just a teenager living in ordinary society.
Seeing his indifferent smile, I finally got angry and kicked his dinner that day. In fact, according to my character, I should have slapped him, but I hesitated for a moment and didn't do it.
Fool, he really is a hopeless fool.
★★★
Two days later, I received a reorganized investigation report, which of course was about Masumi Nishikujo.
The investigation this time is more detailed than before, because I need to understand the clues about the mysterious aura that cannot be solved on the boy, so I have to explore from a deeper angle.
However, the result is still nothing.
The Nishi Kujo family was very disciplined and did not make any suspicious actions during the Tsukimi period.Although he occasionally visits the shrine, he has never had contact with the priests of the five families.In the four years after leaving Tsukimi, his father continued to work in logistics in Tokyo, and Masumi was studying in a public middle school. Except for being excluded by classmates because of his light pigmentation, there were no other noteworthy incidents.
I read the file over and over several times, but still couldn't find a clue.
Were the strange sensations felt from him meaningless?Then how to explain that he was able to enter the Forbidden Forest to reach the ceremony site without being affected by the enchantment?Is he a natural idiosyncratic constitution?
I thought over and over again, and finally stopped at one place: Four years ago, Masumi left Tsukimi due to illness, and the family moved to Tokyo.Tsukimi City Hospital confirmed that Nishikujo Masumi suffered from acute encephalitis and was hospitalized for several weeks. His condition deteriorated and he was transferred to Tokyo for medical treatment.It is said that after the recovery, the color of the hair gradually becomes lighter.
Four years ago, it was half a year before the last ceremony, right?What's the matter here?
Just when I decided to go to the municipal hospital to confirm the details in person, the subordinate priest reported that "the doctors and nurses who treated Masumi Nishikujo at that time are no longer in the hospital, and some have resigned and some have been transferred, so the source of information has cost a lot. Less hassle."
Although four years have passed, is there really such a coincidence?
It can't all be a coincidence...
I immediately asked my subordinates to continue to investigate the medical staff who had been in contact with the boy, and I also assigned personnel to secretly go to Tokyo to ask the Nishikujo family for the situation at that time.Faintly felt the direction of the incident, but that was the last thing I wanted to believe.
Nishikujo Masumi himself lost part of his memory due to encephalitis, and his body changed slightly due to that serious illness, all of which are understandable.But all of this cannot be an excuse for him suddenly gaining the ability to break into the barrier of the Forbidden Forest.
There is another person who is abnormal, and that is Ma Canghao.
Obviously, the young man could be directly executed or made into a "forbidden person" and thrown into the forbidden area for labor, but he deliberately handed it over to me for investigation.He used "the reason and method of the boy breaking into the Forbidden Forest need to be confirmed" as an excuse, but the answer I got here was "I went because I like mountain climbing".
Neither of them would tell the truth, and that's what pissed me off the most.
Are they really hiding something?
But there is one thing I can be sure of, that is: Ma Cang really does not want this young man to die.His original intention was that I must find a suitable reason and method to let this boy leave Yuejian after asking.
Well, I don't care what he thinks, but isn't it difficult to send this guy away from Yuejian now?
It would be fine if it was before the ceremony... but now that he was found to have broken into the dark festival... and Masumi Nishikujo himself is a stubborn fool, I guess I dragged him to Tsukimi before the ceremony He will not leave the port either, for reasons that remain unknown.
Just when I was worrying about how to find an excuse to send him away from Tsukimi, and even planned to contact Izumo's mother-in-law Kino to send someone to pick him up, the incident happened again.The subordinate in charge of the guard came to report that Xi Jiutiao had fallen ill in the cell, and the condition seemed to be serious.
Because "the investigation is not yet over", with the permission of the coordinating priest, the boy was sent to the municipal hospital for diagnosis and treatment.Even if he is seriously ill, I believe that Erling Warden must not be careless.
There were excavation marks on the stone wall in the cell, and he never gave up his plan to escape.Maybe this time is also part of his plan...
He clenched his fist hard until his nails strangled his palm so painfully.
Xikujo, what on earth do you want!
Once you escape from me and are discovered by the priests of the other four families, you must have never thought about how you will be treated!Those people will not just throw you in the stone room and let you think about it slowly. They have thousands of ways to make life worse than death. Do you just want to experience it?
As I expected, on the fourth day after entering the intensive care unit, the teenager somehow escaped the guards and escaped from the ward. At that time, I was listening to his diagnosis report in the office downstairs. .I don't know how he used that body to disappear from the sight of many watchers. Anyway, I failed.
It's not that I underestimate this boy who is two years younger than me, but that he is beyond my expectations.And there is only one thing I can do now, immediately mobilize the priests of the Ma Cang family to search for his whereabouts, and must bring him back before he is discovered by the other four families.After imagining where he might go, the subordinates immediately took action.
The subsequent developments can be said to have collapsed and out of control all the way.Because he couldn't expand the situation, his subordinates' search became passive, and the teams who went to several places to intercept him found nothing. He knew how to avoid the search very well.Just when we were at a loss, news of the Kurosawa family's search team's actions came.
Xi Kujo really ran to the police station. Although he barely escaped, his intentions were already clear.He wanted to make it all known to the public.After the failure, the next place he will go can only be the pier of Oki Island.
It rained that day, the heaviest it had been in a week.
Yue Jian's communication has been interrupted for a few days, and the only road out of the mountain has also been blocked due to landslides, but it is impossible for the boy to know all this.He must be trudging now on that path that carried all his hopes, not knowing that it was the precipice that would lead only to despair.
★★★
When my subordinates and I arrived in a hurry, there were still several people discussing on the suspended mountain path.Those people were the priests of the Kurosawa family.
The scene was washed away by the torrential rain and there were not many traces left, but the blood-stained rags were still spread beside the pile of rocks. They were the remains of the broken patient clothes, most likely, he was wearing them.
Am I late?
The men with twinkling eyes behind me were about to sneak away, but I stopped them.Glaring at those people, I asked unceremoniously:
"Where's Masumi Nishikujo?"
"This...we don't know..." The leading man cowardly tried to get away with it, I immediately kicked him in the lower abdomen, he wailed and fell backwards, and my subordinates grabbed his arms to hold him back.
"Tell me! Where is he?" I looked down at him coldly: "You know who I am, right? The chief priest ordered me to investigate Xi Kujo, I will not allow you to mess around like this!"
"Cough... this... I... we are also following orders..." His voice became lower and lower, his face pale.
"Where is he? Don't make me ask again." I raised my right hand and formed the Thunder Curse Seal. I didn't have the patience to waste time with him.Seeing the flashing arc of spiritual energy at my fingertips, he hurriedly said:
"...has...already...dealed with...as per Kurosawa-sama's instructions..."
Although he had expected such an ending, his heart still sank suddenly, and a sense of guilt deeper than dereliction of duty stung his nerves.In the end, I still couldn't let him avoid this result...I really...
Nishi Kujo, you big idiot.
Are you satisfied with this?Are you relieved?
The sound of the turbid stream resounding through the mountain stream behind him ignited in my ears, and the turbulent water rushes down with mud, sand, rocks and residual branches. The straight cliffs on both sides are washed and soaked by the rain and appear dark gray. There is no trace of the youth in the field of vision. Mark of.
I slowly retracted my gaze and looked at the broken piece of clothing again.In the silence, the priests of the Kurosawa family in front of me looked at each other in blank dismay, their frightened expressions did not fade, and a trace of doubt emerged in my heart unconsciously.
"What are you still doing here?" Staring into the man's eyes, he immediately flinched and looked around: "No...nothing..."
"Why didn't you leave after finishing the process? What happened? Tell me the detailed process immediately!" I raised his collar and asked sharply.
★★★
It was almost evening when I rushed back to the Tsukiyomi Shrine, transportation or communication tools were not available in the mezzanine world, and now I couldn’t hand over the things I had to do to Shikigami, it was an event that had to be confirmed in the side hall immediately, and I couldn’t put it into words To describe how it will have a huge impact on the moon.
What I heard from the priests of the Kurosawa family was shocking news: when Nishikujo Masumi was thrown into the valley, a dazzling crimson aura radiated from the boy's body, and the priests present immediately noticed that it was an extreme act. Traces of complex spells.The priests who realized that the boy might not be an ordinary person immediately went down the mountain and found the body flowing down the river, but it was no longer the flesh and blood boy they had left behind, but a broken doll.After the head priest took the doll away, they were ordered to clean up the scene and look for the missing wreckage.
I have never heard of this technique of turning a puppet into a human being. Even Ichiko himself finds it incredible, but apparently the priest of Tsukimi doesn't think so.
This is indeed an extremely complicated secret technique, but there is indeed one person who can do it in Yuejian, and that is the puppeteer Ma Cangye.
Why did such a puppet appear, and how did it become a boy named Masumi Nishikujo?Why did Asakura leaf do this?
All the mysteries point to the boy who has been sleeping in the Tsukiyomi Shrine for four years. Only he knows the secret.
When I rushed to the side hall, I noticed something strange. The patrol teams usually stationed outside the hall had been withdrawn, and only a few priests of the Ma Cang family who looked flustered were wandering outside the hall.After careful questioning, I learned that the representatives of the four families had already been here, and Hao was also there.
The head of the Kurosawa family and the other great priests led a large group of people into the palace with the sealing technique. Hao, who was about to be furious, was stunned when he saw the dilapidated doll.After a few words, the priests of the four families stepped forward to lift the still unconscious boy out of the side hall, but Ma Canghao didn't say a word, nor stopped their actions, which surprised all the priests of the Ma Cang family.After the four families left, Ma Canghao dismissed everyone and locked himself in the side hall, forbidding anyone to enter.
Faced with this sudden change, there is only one possibility that everyone can guess:
Four years ago, Asakuraha, who entered the Tsukiyomi Shrine as one of the chief priests, was supposed to dedicate his body and mind to the gods and fulfill the duties of an imperial son to protect the seal, but he made an escape sacrifice due to ulterior reasons the behavior of.Using a taboo secret technique to make everyone think that they were killed, so as to escape from Yue Jian, and finally caused an irreversible tragedy.
Abandoning his relatives, betraying his brothers who shouldered the same mission as him, betraying Yue Jian who gave birth to him and the trust of many people, he has already lost his qualifications as a priest!
No, such despicable behavior will brand him as inferior to monsters and beasts.Even if he was knocked down to the deepest hell in Huangquan Biliangzaka, he still couldn't wash away that deep sin.