Chapter 8: The Murder at Ren Manor

  "Ding ding... A murder has occurred at the Ren residence!" The sound of gongs and drums startled the whole town.

  The next day, a shocking news spread rapidly throughout the town: a murder had taken place! The victim was none other than Ren Lao Ye, the most prominent and influential person in the town. Upon hearing this news, Qiushui and others were shocked beyond words, and they quickly rushed out of Yi Zhuang, heading straight for the Ren residence.

  At this time, there were already many people watching at the entrance of Ren's house. Pushing through the crowd to enter the hall, only to see Mr. Ren's body lying in the hall, with all the dignitaries of the town standing beside it. Ren Tingting was crying with her head bowed, while Ah Wei, the captain of the security team, was comforting her by her side.

  Jiu Shu came forward, lifted the white cloth covering the corpse, and checked it immediately to confirm that it was killed by a zombie. Ah Wei hurriedly stopped him, saying "Hey, don't move randomly." Meanwhile, Qiushui looked at several corpses beside him and found that they were all reincarnators. When Qiushui lifted the white cloth, he quietly took an earring and two rings from three deeply capitalized reincarnators, while others got nothing, apparently being newcomers.

  Jiu Shu heard Ah Wei's stopping voice and responded with a sound, got up and shouted to the three apprentices to go aside, and whispered: "You three quickly go to Yi Zhuang to see if Lao Ye's body is still there!" The three of them took orders and hurried back to Yi Zhuang.

  At this time an old man with a high prestige asked Ah Wei: "Young Master Wei, what kind of evil instrument was Old Master Ren killed by?"

  He raised his head and said with a matter-of-fact expression, "Of course he was shot dead."

  Jiu Shu asked indifferently, "Did every shot hit the neck?" Ah Wei's expression changed slightly, and he immediately changed his words: "Oh, the killer was a martial arts master who was also skilled at throwing flying darts. He threw out a... a... Nine-Linked Golden Money Dart, which finally killed Old Man Ren."

  Jiu Shu sneered and asked, "Where's the evidence?" Ah Wei was somewhat angry at this point. Whoever is in a state of excitement when someone raises an opposing opinion that makes them lose face will be furious. His expression turned stern as he said, "Hey, don't interfere with my investigation. You're clever, tell me how he died."

  Ninth Uncle glanced at him and gestured with both hands, saying: "I'm telling you, he was killed by fingernails." Ah Wei was attracted to his hands while speaking, Ninth Uncle couldn't help but follow the gaze, only to see that his fingernails seemed not too short. His expression tensed up, and he quickly tried to withdraw his hands. However, Ah Wei had already caught him red-handed. Originally having a grudge against him, Ah Wei wouldn't let go of this opportunity. He raised his voice, pointing at Ninth Uncle: "Oh~~ killed by fingernails! That must be someone with relatively long fingernails who could do it. Which one of you fellow villagers has longer nails than him?" Ninth Uncle dug his own grave, forgetting that he had a habit of keeping his fingernails long.

  The elderly people around, with high prestige and respect, couldn't help but glance at their own long fingernails, and were shocked in their hearts. They hastily hid them away, shaking their heads hurriedly and saying "Nothing, nothing" to avoid implicating the innocent bystanders.

  "Awe-inspiring, with a wave of his hand, he said: 'Get him!' Then he came to the side of Ren Tingting, squatted down and said with a painful expression: 'Cousin sister, the suspect has been caught, cousin brother will definitely avenge cousin father.'"

  Ting Ting wiped away her tears with a handkerchief and urged in a choked voice, "Brother, you must investigate clearly and not wrong an innocent person."

  He waved his hand with a confident expression: "Of course, of course." Then he ordered the people under him: "Bring the coffin back." He glanced at Jiu Shu and said: "I'll let you stare at it every day to see if you're satisfied." Several security guards came out and dragged Jiu Shu away towards the door.

  At this time, Qiushui and Wenchai ran back with Autumn Born, both of them panting heavily, gasping for breath as they spoke in turns: "Master, the coffin..."

  "It's over." "The corpse......" "Is gone." But when he saw the situation of Ninth Uncle now, he was shocked again: "Master..."

  A Wei took a step forward and said, "You've been caught." The two men heard this and couldn't help but feel a surge of anger, their faces twisted in rage as they prepared to fight, "You..."

  Akane looked at the conversation in front of her and almost burst out laughing. Akane knew that Master wouldn't have any issues tonight, because tonight would be the night of the corpse transformation, and then it would become clear who was the murderer.

  "Uncle Jiu advised: 'Don't use force.' Then he turned to Ah Wei and said: 'Captain, can I say a word with them?'"

  "Ah Wei let out a soft hum and said: 'If there's anything you want to leave behind, say it quickly, don't make me seem like I'm not sentimental.'"

  A few people walked to one side, and Ninth Uncle immediately instructed his three apprentices: "Have you all searched everywhere?"

  Wencai hastily said: "I've even looked for other coffins, but there aren't any."

  "Alas! Tonight is doomed." Ninth Uncle sighed. "I know, Master will be imprisoned tonight." Autumn Water also chimed in from the side.

  "Going to jail is nothing, I'm afraid two zombies will appear tonight." Jiū Shū said seriously.

  "Master, there are a few more who were bitten to death by zombies. I think it's not just two zombies tonight!"

  "Jiu Shu suddenly thought of something and hastily instructed: 'Qiu Shui, bring your men to the yamen tonight to find me. Wenchai and Qiusheng, you two stay at Ren's residence to protect Tingting.'"

  "Are you done yet?" Ah Wei shouted impatiently.

  "Alright, alright," Ninth Uncle hastily agreed. He lowered his voice and added, "Remember the glutinous rice." Ah Wei arrived at Ninth Uncle's side, put his arm around his shoulder, and said to Qiu Shui and the others, "That's enough, that's enough. Whatever you have to say, save it for when we're burying him." It seemed he had made up his mind to drive Ninth Uncle to death.

  Watching Ninth Uncle being taken away, Autumn Life and Wen Cai looked at each other and asked Autumn Water: "What should we do?" Autumn Water said angrily: "What to do? Didn't Master say just now that we should go back and prepare the equipment?" After finishing speaking, he pulled Wen Cai and Autumn Life towards the Righteous Mansion.

  "Qiu Sheng and Wen Cai, you two go to Ren's house tonight to protect Ting Ting. Remember, if things can't be done, immediately run outside, don't delay. The zombies' primary target is the people of Ren's family, so they won't chase you." Qiu Shui instructed the two on the way.

  "Ah, you two are at a critical moment and still thinking about women. I'm going to rescue Master tonight, there are several zombies in the yamen, after Master and I deal with them, we'll rush to the Ren's house as soon as possible. Remember, if Master and I don't arrive at the Ren's house, you two should retreat if you can't hold on, got it?"

  After arriving at the Yi Zhuang, Qiushui instructed Wencai and Qiusheng to bring inkstone, yellow talisman, and chicken blood. They also went to the street to buy two hundred kilograms of glutinous rice. Qiushui gave one of the two demon-expelling swords obtained from Ling Shibo to Qiusheng. After all, Qiusheng was the most skilled in martial arts, so giving it to him would make the best use of it. Wencai took Master's peach wood sword. Now Qiushui and Wencai were armed to the teeth, even if they couldn't win a fight, they could at least escape. The Ren family's reincarnators had all died, leaving only one zombie, which wouldn't cause much trouble. As for the Taoist behind the zombie, I think he should have heard that Jiū Shū was locked up tightly in prison and shouldn't be able to make any moves from behind.

  Time passed quickly, and in the midst of several people's hasty preparations, the sky gradually darkened. It wasn't until Wenchai and Qiusheng left that Qiushui took out the things she had obtained from a few reincarnators today to observe them.

  Blood oath, no reaction? Could it be that my guess was wrong? Trying out the spell, thinking as I do, Akira closes her eyes and channels the magic into the few objects in her hand. Suddenly, only to see the three objects in her hand flash with light for just an instant before disappearing without a trace, while on Akira's hand appeared two rings and on her ear emerged a silver earring.

  After seeing the things inside, Qiu Shui realized that these few cycles were really poor. The two storage rings only had more than a hundred gold bars and some food and drink. There was also a book, which he took out to look at and found it was a diary. He thought to himself, "I'll read it later when I have time." It wasn't right that they didn't prepare anything, knowing they were fighting zombies. At least they could have bought some glutinous rice outside. Ah, those people hadn't prepared anything, probably because they had used everything up during the fight with the zombies last night.

  Hehe, just in time to save me some money. This storage ring is a great thing, I'll bring more stuff tonight hehe.

  Changed into the black night-traveling clothes from the original book, to be honest this outfit is really cool, and it won't restrict hand and foot movements when acting. Placed the demon-expelling sword on his back, then slung a bag over his shoulder, inside which were some things for dealing with zombies; as a precaution, he also put 100 kilograms of glutinous rice into the spatial ring, after all what they were going to deal with wasn't just one zombie, better safe than sorry.

  Yamen

  "Tell me why you want to kill your aunt's husband!" Ah Wei shouted menacingly at Ninth Uncle, who was tied up on the execution rack in the yamen.

  Jiu Shu heard Ah Wei's words and helplessly replied: "Why would I want to kill your uncle-in-law!"

  "Haha, your mouth is really hard, do you know what this character means?" Ah Wei sneered as he took out a branding iron with the character 'Jian' (meaning "treacherous" or "deceitful") from the brazier and waved it back and forth in front of Ninth Uncle's face.

  "Hey, don't mess around!" Ninth Uncle said anxiously. If he got branded, the pain was nothing; but if the characters on top were seared into his skin, he'd never be able to hold his head up again for the rest of his life.

  "Before, I used the word 'bad' to deal with enemies, now I've changed it to this one, fewer strokes but still clear, though the pain is still the same." Ah Wei said with a sly smile, then ordered the security guards on both sides to open Ninth Uncle's shirt.

  "Ah! Sizzle sizzle!" Waves of savory aroma wafted through the air accompanied by Ninth Uncle's cries.

  However, just a moment later, Ninth Uncle was relieved to discover that the pig skin had not been stuck on him, but rather on the two security guards standing next to him.

  "This is a treacherous character, if you don't want to be branded with this treacherous character on your chest like a piece of pigskin, then you must hand over the confession to me before dawn." Ah Wei said fiercely to Ninth Uncle.

  "If you don't let me out before dawn, you'll be responsible for all the consequences!" Ninth Uncle responded to Ah Wei's threat.

  "Ah, you're really stubborn!" "Someone come and hold him down for me!" Ah Wei said fiercely.