Chapter 234

Su Bei and Li Shu exchanged glances, an unspoken mockery flashing in their eyes. He felt no sorrow for the death of his mother, who had raised him alone, and was even willing to treat her like an evil spirit for a bit of money. This son truly had no conscience.

Driver Wang, who was far more filial than the two of them, reacted much more strongly. Hearing the man’s words, he shot up in anger, his eyes wide, looking as if he was about to spout some choice expletives.

Before he could speak, Su Bei stopped him in time: “Teacher Wang, is your nicotine craving acting up? Go out and have a smoke to calm down.”

This sentence interrupted Driver Wang’s emotional outburst. He looked down, meeting Su Bei’s somewhat indifferent purple eyes.

For some reason, even though there seemed to be no emotion in Su Bei’s eyes, Driver Wang inexplicably felt a bucket of cold water being poured over him.

Calmed down, he finally realized that his emotional outburst had almost ruined Su Bei and Li Shu’s plan. Driver Wang looked somewhat flustered, forcing a smile: “I’ll go out for a smoke.”

After saying that, as if afraid he couldn’t help but curse the man, he quickly left the room.

Grandma Wang’s son was confused by Driver Wang’s unusual reaction. But before he could ask, Li Shu, as if completely unaware of the man’s earlier disdain for his deceased mother, actively comforted him: “Please accept my condolences. Losing a mother is indeed a very sad thing.”

Upon hearing this, the man perceived Li Shu’s attitude towards the matter, believing that Li Shu would sympathize with him over his mother’s death, making it easier to rent out their house. He immediately put on an act, choking up: “My mother and I have always had a deep bond since childhood, but unfortunately, our family was poor, and we couldn’t even afford a decent funeral.”

After humoring him for a few sentences, Li Shu asked another important question: “I heard your mother was killed by a monster. Will the monster come back to your house to kill again?”

“Of course not!” Fearing that Li Shu would not stay at his house because of this, the man immediately answered firmly. Then, as if realizing his attitude was too eager, he softened his tone: “The other two households also only had one person die. I don’t think that monster will make a return attack.”

Su Bei raised an eyebrow at this attitude, a flicker of interest in his eyes. This guy really did know something about Grandma Wang’s death, and it was certainly not just attributing it to a monster, as Officer Zhou had said.

Next, Li Shu asked several more questions about his mother’s death, but perhaps because the previous questions had made the man wary, he didn’t reveal any more flaws in his answers to the subsequent questions, essentially feigning ignorance about everything.

Feeling that there was probably nothing else to learn, Li Shu and Su Bei stood up to take their leave. They didn’t burn their bridges, telling him directly that they wouldn’t stay at his house. Instead, they said they needed to speak with the village chief first, as the village chief had originally made the arrangements.

Leaving Grandma Wang’s house, Driver Wang said apologetically: “I’m sorry, I lost my composure just now. I’m not as steady as you two students.”

“Just be careful next time,” Li Shu replied with a smile, but his pink pupils showed an inorganic coldness, like a venomous snake.

Driver Wang suddenly realized that despite their distinctly different appearances, Li Shu and Su Bei shared a common trait: an indifferent detachment. For people with whom they had little interaction, their reactions were identical.

They said they were going to the village chief’s house, but in reality, the three of them returned to Officer Zhou’s house. This was their pre-arranged meeting point. Along the way, they encountered several villagers. Li Shu asked them about Grandma Wang’s family and found that they were quite secretive about the matter, and not a single person spoke ill of Grandma Wang’s son and daughter-in-law.

Their behavior was clearly very strange. Grandma Wang’s son didn’t even give a proper funeral for his own mother, who had raised him alone. Such an act should have been universally condemned in the village. What was there to be secretive about?

If Grandma Wang hadn’t been a good person in life, that would be one thing. But from the words of the elderly aunts and uncles, it was clear that while Grandma Wang was a bit petty, she was actually a decent person.

Logically, neighbors and friends should have been willing to speak up for her. Why would they remain silent now, even though they clearly knew there was a problem? This could only mean they, too, had problems.

As the saying goes, when an avalanche occurs, no snowflake is innocent. In the face of evil, bystanders are like snowflakes, not entirely innocent. In fact, judging by their behavior, they were very likely beneficiaries, otherwise, it would be impossible for them to remain silent when someone investigated afterwards.

Back at Officer Zhou’s house, the other group of three had already returned. Seeing them, Jiang Tianming immediately began to share their findings. Grandpa Zhou’s family was very wealthy and populous, with three sons, two daughters, not to mention their respective children. In short, it was a large family.

They were not as enthusiastic about Jiang Tianming and his group’s arrival as others, as they didn’t need to earn a few paltry coins. However, they agreed to let Su Bei and the others visit the mourning hall, as a large crowd would make their family seem more prestigious.

“Regarding Grandpa Zhou’s death, I think they might know something. Not everyone in that family is a good actor; a few people looked quite unnatural,” Jiang Tianming thought for a moment, then added, “Their sadness also seemed very fake.”

He spoke without mincing words, causing Officer Zhou to cough twice: “Ahem, actually, their family relations have always been poor. In his youth, Grandpa Zhou wasn’t very attentive to his children and wife. His wife’s death even seems to have been related to him; it’s rumored she died of anger after discovering his affair…”

These background details were unknown to Jiang Tianming and his group, highlighting the advantage of having a local insider in the village. Although Officer Zhou had been away working for a long time, he still had some knowledge of the village’s old affairs.

“That sounds like a strong motive for murder,” Li Shu said thoughtfully, then briefly recounted their findings at Grandma Wang’s house.

He hadn’t initially noticed the cigarette packs and cosmetics issue, but Su Bei had told him on the way back. For Li Shu, these details indicated “newly rich poor people.”

They had suddenly come into a sum of money, but being in a secluded village, they couldn’t spend it immediately, so they only improved their quality of life in small ways.

With this conclusion, the commonalities between the two cases became obvious: they both benefited after the death of the elderly family members. Grandma Wang’s family received unexpected wealth, while Grandpa Zhou’s family lost a father who had always treated them poorly and would inherit a large sum of money.

Beyond that, there was another common point: for both deceased, and even for the initial victim Xiao Chen, there was no one who genuinely grieved their deaths.

After they finished speaking, Ling You, who was usually silent, revealed her unique discovery: “That second daughter of the Zhou family must be very ill.”

Her ability was Plague. Although it wasn’t a healing ability, she was very sensitive to diseases and lesions. While she couldn’t determine the specific illness because it wasn’t a contagious disease, Ling You could tell its severity; it was at least mid-stage cancer.

“The Zhou family’s second daughter?” Jiang Tianming recalled, “The one in the black dress?”

This person had remained silent while her siblings occasionally bickered, standing pale in the corner, radiating a sense of quietness. One might have thought she was a maid about to be punished. If Officer Zhou hadn’t introduced her, they wouldn’t have known she was actually a daughter of that family.

“I didn’t expect her to be sick, but being sick should make her really need to compete for family property, right? But I saw that she was allocated very little property during the village chief’s notarization. Could it be that she already gave up?” Officer Zhou, learning this for the first time, asked in surprise and confusion.

“No, there’s another possibility,” Jiang Tianming calmly replied. “She already got what she wanted.”

If she had already stated her property distribution request—that she only wanted her illness cured and nothing else—then it would indeed make sense for her not to receive much during the property notarization.

Treatment matters could be privately agreed upon and didn’t need to be written into the property notarization.

“Then they acted really fast,” Li Shu’s expression wasn’t mocking, but it wasn’t benevolent either. “It’s as if they knew something in advance.”

Indeed, it was as if they knew their father would die, so they had completed the property division beforehand. Otherwise, with such a large family, just dividing the property would likely take several days of argument, so how could the procedures have been completed so quickly?

Clearly, whether it was Grandma Wang’s family or Grandpa Zhou’s family, the living members knew something. And not just them; the villagers probably knew something too.

But they wouldn’t just tell Jiang Tianming and the others the truth for free. To find out the truth, they needed a breakthrough.

“How about we visit the village chief’s and the Old Ancestor’s houses tonight?” Jiang Tianming suggested.

Li Shu immediately raised his hand: “I’ll go with you.”

With his eagerness, regardless of whether Jiang Tianming was happy about it or not, Su Bei was glad to see it: “Then you two go to the village chief’s house, and Ling You and I will go to the Old Ancestor’s house.”

After speaking, he looked at Ling You: “Is that okay?”

This allocation wasn’t purely because he wanted to watch the fun, but it was indeed the most suitable. The village chief’s house had people, and Li Shu’s ability could control them, allowing Jiang Tianming to search properly. The Old Ancestor’s house was empty, so Su Bei only needed to adjust their luck to ensure they didn’t encounter anyone on their way out.

“No problem,” Ling You naturally had no objection.

Seeing that they had already finished discussing, Jiang Tianming could only helplessly accept this grouping plan: “Then let’s go to the village chief’s house now; he should have arranged our accommodation already.”

As he said, the village chief had indeed made arrangements. The five of them were divided into two groups of two, distributed among three relatively affluent families in the village.

One of them was the village chief’s house, where Jiang Tianming and his partner naturally stayed. Driver Wang was assigned to another villager’s house. Su Bei and Ling You, however, stayed directly at Officer Zhou’s house, which would facilitate their nocturnal activities.

As for the earlier hint given to Grandma Wang’s son, Su Bei stated that he hadn’t lied; it could only be blamed on the village chief for not including their house in the options. They couldn’t possibly go against the village chief’s wishes, could they?

Among the three accommodations, staying at Officer Zhou’s house was undoubtedly the most comfortable. Officer Zhou knew their identities and their purpose for coming, so they didn’t need to hide anything in his house and could act as they normally would.

After midnight, Su Bei and Ling You set off. Mountain villages generally lacked entertainment, and by this time, most villagers were asleep. As the saying goes, “A dark and windy night is a good time for murder and arson.” Now was the perfect time to go out.

Adjusting both their luck, Su Bei led Ling You leisurely outside. As expected, they didn’t encounter a single person along the way. The village was so quiet it seemed uninhabited.

“Su Bei,” Ling You’s clear, cold voice broke the silence of the night.

Hearing the call, Su Bei stopped and turned to look at her: “What’s wrong?”

Ling You’s brows furrowed slightly, her purple eyes fixed on him. After a moment, she asked succinctly: “You’re a bit strange.”

Upon hearing this, Su Bei raised an eyebrow, asking with interest: “How am I strange?”

This question seemed a bit difficult to answer. Ling You thought for a moment before replying: “You seem to be particularly interested in the Old Ancestor’s house.”

According to Su Bei’s usual habits, he should have been trying to find a way to do nothing, rather than actively volunteering to search the Old Ancestor’s house.

“Hmm, there might be something good there,” Su Bei didn’t try to hide it, but he didn’t mention the “Life Stone.” Nightmare Beasts, like Ability users, have all sorts of strange powers. Perhaps a casual remark from him could be detected by the enemy, who would then launch an attack with a Nightmare Beast army.

Although the villagers of Longevity Town were going to die anyway, their deaths because of Su Bei would be different from them dying on their own. That would be akin to Su Bei actively taking on the karma, which would have the same effect as him saving these people.

Su Bei had never saved so many people at once, so he didn’t know what price he would have to pay. But with Feng Lan’s previous warning, under non-essential circumstances, he would absolutely not choose to try it.

If the people in this village were all very kind and simple, Su Bei might genuinely not be able to resist. Fundamentally, he wasn’t the kind of pleasure-seeker persona he outwardly displayed. He could endure one human life, but for so many lives, even if it meant paying some price, Su Bei would try to save everyone while staying true to his persona.

However, were the people in this village truly worth saving? At least from what he had learned throughout the day, Su Bei couldn’t give a definitive answer.

He now strongly suspected that the deceased and these villagers were all involved. Even if the deceased had made mistakes, they didn’t deserve to die. Such a group of people, even if they died, would probably be reaping what they sowed.

“Good stuff?” Ling You looked confused. “What kind of stuff?”

“You’ll know when we find it,” Su Bei didn’t give a clear answer, hands in his pockets, leisurely walking into the Old Ancestor’s room.

To their surprise, the Old Ancestor’s house was not the well-kept old residence they had imagined. Instead, it was completely ransacked, as if it had been robbed.

Both were a little surprised and quickly stepped forward to check. A thin layer of dust covered the furniture, suggesting it hadn’t been tidied for some time, roughly a month ago by calculation.

Could there be something suspicious about the Old Ancestor’s death? Was it not natural causes, but a robbery?

That shouldn’t be the case. Officer Zhou had said that the Old Ancestor was highly respected in the village; a 150-year-old elder would likely be respected anywhere. If someone in the village had killed him, it was unlikely everyone would help conceal it.

So it was more likely that the villagers waited for the Old Ancestor to die naturally before coming to his room to search for things. The reason they were sure it was villagers searching was because the Old Ancestor’s room remained messy even now. If it had nothing to do with them, someone would have probably discovered the theft in the Old Ancestor’s room long ago, and even if they didn’t report it to the police for investigation, they would at least help tidy up.

Ling You suddenly thought of something and immediately looked at Su Bei: “Could they have already found what you’re looking for?”

“Possibly,” Su Bei nodded. He also suspected that the ‘Life Stone’ had already been taken by others. But what would a group of villagers do with such an item? The ‘Life Stone’ looks like an ordinary rock; even Ability users might not detect anything unusual, let alone ordinary villagers.

“Let’s search a bit more first,” Instead of leaving directly, Su Bei began to search on his own. In case the villagers had missed something, it could become a crucial clue.

Thanks to his good luck, it wasn’t long before Ling You found something useful: “I found something.”

Su Bei leaned over to look, seeing Ling You standing in front of the desk, holding a crumpled draft paper that had been unfolded. Some scattered text was written on it, but it seemed to be a discarded draft, otherwise, it wouldn’t have been crumpled up and thrown under the desk.

“Only my ability can seal the aura of this thing, but what will happen after I die?” Su Bei read the first sentence word for word, his expression becoming serious.

Without a doubt, “this thing” on the paper referred to the Life Stone. This explained why the Life Stone hadn’t been discovered by Nightmare Beasts even after being taken away for so long: because the Old Ancestor’s ability could conceal its aura.

And when the Old Ancestor died, the Life Stone’s aura naturally dispersed, causing the Nightmare Beast rampage.

There were two other sentences on the paper: “Perhaps I should hand it over to the government in time, that’s the best solution…” and “If only I could live forever, then no problems would arise.”

These two sentences didn’t contain much information. Although they were highly suggestive, Su Bei didn’t intend to interpret them casually without other evidence.

So the question arose: why did the Old Ancestor hide the Life Stone for so long? According to the information provided by the Knowledge Nightmare Beast, that thing was almost useless to humans; even if obtained, it was just a useless rock.

Even if he kept the Life Stone because he didn’t want to strengthen the Nightmare Beast population, he could have joined the government and protected the Life Stone with them. At the very least, when he sensed his life was nearing its end, he could have handed the Life Stone over to the government. From the notes on the paper, the Old Ancestor had considered this method.

What made him abandon this plan?

Another point: what did the villagers want to do by stealing the Life Stone? They would certainly not act without benefit; they must have taken the Life Stone because they believed it was useful to them.

“Longevity Town…” Su Bei murmured to himself.

Hearing his words, Ling You repeated what Su Bei had said earlier: “Longevity Town, long life.”

That’s right! The lifespan of this entire village far exceeded that of normal people. Especially the Old Ancestor, who lived for over 150 years. Even Ability users, with their good physical constitutions, generally don’t live that long.

If it was the effect of the Life Stone, then it made sense. Su Bei guessed that long-term contact with the Life Stone could grant humans the benefit of extended life.

Although the Knowledge Nightmare Beast said the Life Stone had no effect on humans, their Nightmare Beast kind probably wouldn’t experiment with such a precious item on humans, and such an experiment would take many years to show results. Hence, they were unaware of this effect of the Life Stone.

The Old Ancestor, who discovered this somehow, settled down in the village where he had lived since childhood. While extending his own life, he also benefited the villagers.

Su Bei felt he had guessed the truth. If he continued to deduce based on his guessed truth, the villagers’ motive for stealing from the Old Ancestor’s room became obvious.

After all, the Old Ancestor had lived in the village for so long, and the matter of the Life Stone probably wasn’t kept a secret. The villagers, knowing he possessed such a treasure, naturally wanted to claim it for themselves after his death.

As for how they shielded the Life Stone’s aura, and why they killed those people, Su Bei thought there might be a causal relationship, but to verify his hypothesis, he would have to see if Jiang Tianming and the others could find anything.

Unlike him, Ling You didn’t know about the Life Stone here, so she could only draw a relatively one-sided guess: “This Old Ancestor had a treasure that granted longevity, and it was taken by others?”

Her guess matched his thoughts; it was the most basic logic. Su Bei nodded: “That should be the case.”

Ling You hesitated to ask: “So it’s not related to the case?”

“Not necessarily,” Su Bei shook his head this time, but didn’t elaborate. He wouldn’t bring up the Life Stone matter now. Since he couldn’t talk about it, it would be like removing the most important link from the deduction, and the conclusion would naturally be impossible to state.

Seeing that Su Bei didn’t continue to explain, Ling You knew he didn’t want to say more, so she didn’t ask again. But she had another question: “Are you pursuing immortality?”

This question made Su Bei silent for a long while before he tilted his head: “In a sense, yes.”

Ling You was indeed a very smart girl. Although her usual reticence masked this, at certain moments, her cleverness would always emerge: “Whose immortality are you pursuing?”

If Su Bei was only pursuing his own immortality, he would have simply nodded just now; Su Bei wasn’t someone who would be evasive about such things. Since he gave such an ambiguous answer, it proved that Ling You’s question was only half right.

And in that question, only the subject was vague. So she believed the subject was wrong. Su Bei wasn’t seeking immortality for himself, but for someone else.

But who would make him have such a goal? His parents? Close friends? Or a lover?

A question closer to the truth made Su Bei silent for even longer. He hesitated, wondering whether to tell the truth. Was it really necessary to say this now? How would he explain it later?

Forget it, he always had to reveal his purpose. Thinking of his previous decision to plant foreshadowing, Su Bei finally chuckled softly and gave an answer that completely surprised Ling You: “Humanity’s longevity.”