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墨書 Inktalez
“How could this be…” I muttered in shock.
“This is one of the training exercises we usually do. If I wanted to take something from you, you wouldn’t even notice.”
I was sweating profusely. It seemed that many ancient martial arts masters were also skilled thieves, able to steal whatever they wanted without anyone being aware. No wonder ancient heroes lived so comfortably without any jobs.
And besides, wasn’t there a professional thief right beside me? Sigh, but Night Phantom was confined by Autumn; when would I get to see him again?
Thinking of Night Phantom made me miss him a little.
“But the Great Search is a large-scale operation. Each of us needs to take several items from different people in an instant, which is quite challenging,” Luo Dachun said, pulling me back from my wandering thoughts and refocusing my mind on the case.
“If the strange thefts at Hongli Temple are part of Snowfall Villa executing the Great Search, then what is Snowfall Villa's objective?” I asked.
Luo Dachun replied, “That’s the question I’ve been pondering as well—what exactly is Snowfall Villa’s mission this time? I reviewed the six cases in chronological order and found that when looking at the Fisherman Case, Mushui Temple Case, and Hongli Temple Case together, they indeed seem to trigger a major mission for Snowfall Villa, and the outcome is rather terrifying.”
“What is it? What is it?!” My curiosity was immediately piqued.
“Let’s start from the beginning.” Luo Dachun sighed, returning to his seat and starting to sort through a stack of case files. “Let’s begin with the Fisherman Case from the eastern outskirts of Luoyang.”
“At first, I didn’t feel anything unusual about this case until that mysterious Wandering Physician appeared. The timing and location of his appearance were just too coincidental, and he could cure an unknown disease with ease—it was truly baffling.”
“Snowfall Villa has contact points all over, designed to promptly detect signs of disasters and calamities in various places. The distribution of these contact points is densest in Chang'an and Luoyang. Now, both the sick fishermen in the village and the Wandering Physician have been killed, and the manner of their deaths was particularly gruesome. The news would surely spread quickly among the common folk, reaching Snowfall Villa’s contact points almost immediately.”
A chill ran down my spine; this was something I had never considered before. What would happen when that news reached Snowfall Villa?
“Snowfall Villa will immediately be concerned with two questions: first, whether the villagers have contracted the Plague, and whether this Plague could spread and erupt. Second, whether the victim, the Wandering Physician, is a doctor specializing in Plague from Snowfall Villa.”
I nodded. Given what I had just learned about the mission of Snowfall Villa, this was a very natural inference.
“So, Snowfall Villa will definitely send people to the fishing village in the eastern suburbs to conduct a thorough investigation and clarify these two questions.”
A vague feeling rose within me, a feeling that frightened me because I felt as if I were being grasped by a hand, pulling me in some direction. However, I could not see where that hand was coming from or where it intended to push me.
It seemed I had indeed been thinking too simply.
Luo Dachun continued, “However, once Snowfall Villa arrives at the fishing village, they will certainly find nothing because the perpetrator has arranged everything too meticulously, leaving no clues behind. But Falling Snow should be able to confirm three things: first, that the Plague does indeed exist; second, that the physician is not one of their own; and third, since they are being harmed, there must be a force behind the scenes, and the Plague will definitely erupt.”
I was secretly shocked but managed to calm myself and posed a question: “How can you determine that the physician is not one of your own? Snowfall Villa can certainly tell if someone is one of theirs, but you should have no way to judge based solely on the case.”
Luo Dachun shook his head. “If he were one of their own, how could it be such a coincidence? It’s unlikely he would have brought exactly the right medicine with him or that he would have been killed so conveniently. If the killer's goal was to eliminate those four fishermen, why would they brutally dismember the physician? They could have simply killed him along with them. More importantly, if the physician were from Snowfall Villa, then everything would be purely coincidental, and this whole scheme would lose its meaning.”
I didn’t quite understand, so Luo Dachun continued to explain:
“The purpose of the Luoyang Fisherman Case is singular: to attract Snowfall Villa’s attention and compel them to investigate deeply. Therefore, the plague was planted by the perpetrator, and the physician was merely a pawn discarded by them. The sole aim was to draw Snowfall Villa in and make Falling Snow uncover certain facts for themselves; this is the most reasonable and least contradictory explanation.”
I was left speechless. Was there really such a setup?
Nie Qiuyuan interjected, “Under these conditions, Snowfall Villa will undoubtedly conduct an in-depth investigation, correct?”
Luo Dachun nodded. “Because Snowfall Villa has a mission to eradicate the Plague, they exist for this purpose. For these strange missions, everyone is willing to sacrifice their own lives. With an incident like the Luoyang Fisherman Case, how could they possibly not investigate?”
"Then their only clue remains one... that is, the four infected individuals happen to be the fishmongers selected by Village. Therefore, the common route taken by the fishmongers must include the location where the Plague originated. Thus, the special locations that the fishmongers came into contact with will be searched inch by inch," Nie Qiuyuan thoughtfully analyzed.
"Exactly," Luo Dachun continued, "If I were at the contact point in Luoyang, I would definitely do the same, starting from the fishing locations—rivers, riverbanks, villages, all the way to the final destination of delivery, which is the gathering place of fish stalls at Luoyang South Market. So, Falling Snow will eventually lead to..."
"Mushui Temple!" I exclaimed. "Next to the Luoyang fish market is Mushui Temple!"
"Yes, Snowfall Villa will unknowingly be led to Mushui Temple along this hidden line. And at that moment, if something catastrophic were to happen at Mushui Temple, what would happen then?"
Snowfall Villa would certainly begin a thorough investigation of Mushui Temple. They would discover that strange, rapidly decaying limb within the temple and might even take it back to understand just how terrifying this Plague is. If that happens, they will confirm the following information at Mushui Temple:
Once this Plague spreads, the consequences are extremely severe; this cannot be allowed to happen.
The other party has cleared out Mushui Temple, targeting those two boys. The two boys served the Holy Monk during the Ritual Ceremony, so the time and place of the Plague's spread should be related to the Ritual Ceremony. From the condition of the severed limbs, it appears that the plague's poison is hidden within the human body. Thus, Snowfall Villa will reach a conclusion similar to mine: someone intends to impersonate the Holy Monk and assassinate the emperor during the Ritual Ceremony without anyone noticing!
Perhaps whether or not the emperor dies is of no concern to Snowfall Villa. However, having studied the severed limbs, they will confirm that once this plan is executed, it is likely that the Plague will spread throughout Chang'an City, turning it into a dead city.
Why kill those two boys? Because once they are killed, Luoyang will inevitably conduct a re-selection. Therefore, among the two boys reselected by Luoyang, there must be an insider from their side.
Ultimately, in order to uncover their intentions and arrangements, Snowfall Villa will surely follow in these boys' footsteps to their next destination—Chang'an's Hongli Temple.
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