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"What!" Fang Zigui and Shen Tong stood up together, "When did this happen?"
Lin Mingchang picked up the cup in front of Shen Tong and drank it in one gulp. "This morning. I went to see the body; the victim's eyeballs had completely turned blue, as if..."
"As if their entire brain had been melted by blue liquid!" Ruan Xiaoshuang's voice suddenly came from the doorway, clutching an old newspaper in her hand.
The four of them quickly shared their findings in the back hall of Fang Zigui's clinic.
"Let me start with my discovery." Lin Mingchang opened a small notebook. "We visited over thirty patients, and without exception, all of them had drawn water from the Arai at Qi Yun Temple. It is said that last month, a person claiming to be 'Guiyuan Dao Ren' funded the redevelopment of an abandoned ancient well at the temple."
"Has anyone seen this Dao Ren?" Shen Tong asked.
Lin Mingchang shook his head. "No one has seen him in person. According to the Daoist at Qi Yun Temple, this 'Guiyuan Dao Ren' left a bag of money and a note at the temple gate, stating that the money was for repairing the ancient well."
"That's really strange," Fang Zigui said as he paced. "I found a type of parasite in my ancestral medical texts called Zhangqi Gu Chong, which is very similar to what Shen Tong and Wang Qi observed. However, this parasite requires specific temperature and humidity conditions to survive, so it shouldn't have suddenly caused such a large-scale outbreak..."
Lin Mingchang immediately added, "So if it really is this Zhangqi Gu Chong, then there must be some human factors involved?"
"My findings might help answer that question." Ruan Xiaoshuang spread the newspaper on the table. "I found an old report at the newspaper office: ten years ago, a similar epidemic occurred in Yu Family Village east of Spring City. Nearby clinics were helpless, and over twenty people died. Later, word spread from Wanfu Temple that there was a spell to drive away the plague, and it actually cured this strange illness. Of course, it wasn't free; local villagers paid quite a bit of 'Incense Money.'"
The four exchanged glances, and Shen Tong quietly said, "It seems this time could be the same trick. First create an epidemic, then use Qi Yun Temple's so-called 'spells' to treat the people and profit from it. But..."
"But they never expected someone like Fang Zigui would come along!" Lin Mingchang interjected, raising an eyebrow at Fang Zigui.
Fang Zigui shook his head with a wry smile; he never imagined he would be the one to disrupt someone else's plans. "So what do we do next..."
"Next, regardless of whether our speculation is correct or not, we need to go check that Arai tonight."
Lin Mingchang didn't want to alert the ambiguous figures at Qi Yun Temple. After thinking for a moment, he decided that the best approach was to sneak in under cover of night.
As dusk fell, the four of them made their way along a narrow path at the foot of the mountain towards Qi Yun Temple, with Lin Mingchang leading the way holding a flashlight.
Arriving at a side gate of Qi Yun Temple, Lin Mingchang pulled out a long piece of iron wire from his pocket and quickly pried open the small door. The four held their breath as they filed in.
They followed the corridor, bypassing two small side halls until they finally saw the well.
In the moonlight, a stone well stood quietly beneath a large tree in the courtyard, surrounded by scattered wooden buckets and hemp ropes.
Lin Mingchang signaled everyone to be cautious and led them slowly towards the ancient well.
Suddenly, Shen Tong reached out and grabbed him. In her line of sight, a thick blue-purple "sickness" was surging out from the well like a living thing, forming swirling clouds above its opening.
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