Chapter 6, Tools

Song Yang shook his head and said: "It is not I who have arranged them this way, but rather that in their final moments, they likely assumed these postures. Whatever they were like at that time, that is how I have arranged them... Now that they are lying down, they appear exceedingly awkward, but before their deaths, they were not necessarily all lying down."

Song Yang blinked and asked, "What else is there?"

The mountain stream barbarians possess robust physiques and innate great strength. Among their tribe, there are also peculiar martial arts that are extremely difficult to deal with. Moreover, the corpse drivers are all formidable among the barbarians. If it were not for relying on such a powerful and fearsome weapon, it would not be an easy task to eliminate twelve corpse drivers in one fell swoop

The young constable became increasingly spirited as he spoke: "It looks more like a 'ritual'; perhaps it is a method used by the mountain stream savages to punish traitors. Moreover, only the barbaric people who consume raw flesh and blood would employ such cruel means; we Han people could never do such a thing"

Song Yang smiled: "Hungry? There are only incense sticks here, afraid you might not be used to them"

Song Yang was not a monster, and he too was unwilling to linger in the haunted house. After finishing his words, he turned back to the front hall and continued to speak to the young constable: "As thin as a cicada's wing, yet sharp enough to cut flesh like tofu; such a blade could not be forged by the barbarian blacksmiths. The mechanism that can simultaneously unleash a multitude of sharp blades must be exceedingly complex; the barbarian carpenters likely do not possess such high skills... This murder weapon must certainly belong to the Han people. As mentioned earlier, the mountain stream barbarians are xenophobic and disdainful of the Han; no matter how good the Han's items are, they would never use them. Thus, it can be roughly concluded that the murderer is a Han person."

Song Yang replied with a smile, "You are quite extraordinary as well; in this place, you can sleep so soundly and still feel hungry. I cannot do that, and I truly admire you for it." The young constable liked to be serious but did not take such jokes to heart. He chuckled and said, "I was born with this flaw; once I feel sleepy, I must sleep, and when I get hungry... well, let's not talk about that. Just mentioning it makes my stomach feel like it's on fire."

The young constable was momentarily confused, mumbling "Incense candles?" It was only then that he truly came to his senses. He shot a glance at Song Yang and pointed inside, saying, "Is it done? Let me take a look!" Following that, he leaped up from the ground.

Is that all? There must be a reason or an explanation, right?" Song Yang retorted

Without allowing the young constable to refute or question, Song Yang continued: "First, observe the bloodstains in the room. From the ceiling to the walls, blood is splattered everywhere. After a person dies and is dismembered, the blood does not possess such force to spray onto the ceiling."

Finally, at dusk, Song Yang stood up.

Song Yang nodded: "After you have looked it over, you should go back first, I ... ... " Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly closed his mouth. Unbeknownst to him, the light drizzle outside had turned into a torrential downpour. Previously, Song Yang had been focused on his work and had not noticed the change in the weather.

Song Yang stood before the corpse, arms crossed, his gaze lowered in contemplation. Soon after, he let out a bitter smile, shook his head, and turned to leave this bloody scene, returning to the front hall. The young constable, curled up in a corner with his waist knife, had already slept for an entire afternoon. Song Yang approached and shook his shoulder. The young constable woke up, his eyes bleary and still half-asleep, not yet aware of his surroundings, and pitifully said to Song Yang, "I am hungry"

The young constable replied, "I was also puzzled about how you managed to arrange the corpses in such a strange manner." The twelve "piled" corpses were not lying on the ground "obediently"; instead, their limbs were splayed out, legs askew and shoulders tilted, their postures were quite bizarre.

I suspect that the murderer must possess a powerful mechanical weapon capable of releasing hundreds of razor-sharp blades in an instant. Only the forces of mechanisms, springs, and taut strings could distribute such power evenly, leaving knife marks of consistent depth; it is also due to the mechanism that the spacing of each released blade is equal, resulting in uniformly sized body parts. Twelve corpse handlers met their demise at the hands of this weapon. After the killings, the murderer calmly collected each of the blades that had been shot out before leaving.

The young constable, after finishing his words, looked pleased and turned to Song Yang: "Although the case has not yet been solved, you can rest assured. It is an internal conflict among them, and it has nothing to do with us. The barbarians will not cause trouble, nor will they come looking for trouble in Yanziping."

Song Yang was about to speak, but unexpectedly, the young constable raised his hand to stop him: "Don't rush to speak; let me guess first." As he spoke, the young constable squatted down, clasped his hands behind his head, furrowed his brow tightly, and put on a pained expression.

The young constable circled around the crime scene twice, and when he returned, his eyes were filled with admiration: "You are quite the smooth talker; I didn't expect you to be so meticulous in your work, managing to piece the body together like this." At this point, he paused slightly, scrutinizing Song Yang closely, and continued, "What is even more remarkable is that not a single drop of blood has stained your clothes. I couldn't do it; I am truly impressed."

Hundreds of sharp blades instantly sliced through this group of corpse drivers, and before their strength had dissipated, they struck the wall, leaving these knife marks. However, upon closer inspection, all the knife marks are of similar depth... This is peculiar; even if there were an exceptionally skilled master capable of launching hundreds of hidden weapons simultaneously, it would be impossible to evenly distribute the force across each weapon. The marks left on the wall should vary in depth.

Song Yang laughed silently: "Isn't this a bit exaggerated?"

"Regarding the case, you have identified the deceased as a corpse handler from the Shanquan Miao ethnic group; deduced that the perpetrator is Han; and guessed that the murder weapon is a formidable contraption. Are there any other findings?" The young constable, still intrigued, seemed to find the story quite captivating and intended to continue listening.

To verify their identities, those who met a tragic end here were all corpse drivers from the mountain streams. Moreover, they were merely corpse drivers; among the dismembered bodies, there were none of the corpses they had brought. During the "puzzle" assembly, Song Yang had observed closely that the flesh of the dismembered bodies was all "fresh." There is a significant difference between a recently deceased body and an old corpse preserved with drugs, which is not difficult for him to distinguish.

Song Yang nodded slightly and pointed to the stone wall directly opposite the door: "Take a close look, what do you see on that wall?" The young constable carefully avoided the pile of corpses on the floor and walked up to the wall, only then managing to see clearly that the wall was marked with horizontal cuts and vertical lines, each over a foot long, totaling no less than several hundred cuts upon closer inspection.

The deaths of these corpse drivers are exceedingly tragic, far surpassing ordinary vendettas or robberies, rendering the scene akin to a barbaric blood ritual, which is quite reasonable. However, the young constable's method of solving the case is entirely inverted; while others deduce conclusions based on clues, he simply "guesses" a result and then seeks evidence to support it

The knife marks are extremely fine, as thin as a cicada's wing. The light in the Yin family's inn is dim, and coupled with the splatters of blood on the walls, the young constable had never noticed the traces on this wall before.

The young constable was puzzled, but did not ask further for the time being. Instead, he raised his arms and spread his legs, mimicking the posture of the corpse in front of him. After a moment, he suddenly realized: "This is the posture of a leap!"

Following this, Song Yang pointed to the piles of corpses on the ground: "Take a closer look at them; don't you find it strange?"

Uh... the reason is certainly there, just listen to me..." The young constable's eyes flickered as he looked around for a moment, and finally thought of something: "Killing someone is not enough; it must be dismembered into a thousand pieces, truly dismembered into a thousand pieces! Even if there is a deep-seated grudge, one would not dismember to vent their anger in such a uniform manner; the size of the body parts is almost the same.

Unexpected heavy rain caused Song Yang to furrow his brows slightly

After being pieced together, the tattoos on the corpse's back became vaguely visible, the patterns being ancient and fierce, which were indeed the markings of the mountain stream barbarians; on each person's left index finger, calluses had formed, as the corpse handler used this finger to hang the ghostly gong, and over time, calluses naturally developed.

In the lengthy discourse, the young constable listened with great interest, his eyes sparkling as he nodded continuously. When Song Yang fell silent, he hurriedly asked, "What else? Please continue."

Before him lay a pile of haphazardly assembled corpses, a total of twelve victims.

Then, Song Yang's voice continued without pause, saying: "The twelve corpse drivers gathered here suddenly encountered a formidable enemy. They all rose to pounce on the adversary, but the opponent unleashed thousands of sharp blades in one strike... Before these corpse drivers could even reach the ground, they were completely shattered like a row of water-filled barrels, resulting in this bloody scene."

Song Yang stood at the door, not advancing with the young constable. He had spent the entire day in this room, and all the circumstances were clear to him: "The gravel is pale, all are fresh marks... the posture of struggle before death, the blood splattered at the time of death, the knife marks left on the stone wall after death; the situation at that time is not difficult to infer."

In the midst of casual conversation, the young constable found a few incense sticks left behind by the barbarians, lit them, and then ran back to Song Yang, reaching out to pull him back to the crime scene. Pointing at the site, he asked, "After a whole day of work, have you found anything?"

The young constable replied, "You don't understand," and then ignored him, beginning to ponder deeply. After a while, he suddenly looked up and exclaimed, "It's infighting among the barbarians!" Upon stating this conclusion, his expression returned to normal.

I truly hope that things are as you say. Song Yang said with a bitter smile: Unfortunately... the murderer is most likely Han Chinese, and this time, Yanzi Ping is in quite a bit of trouble

An entire day

Taking a deep breath, Song Yang directly stated his conclusion: "A thousand blades strike simultaneously, and the chaotic blades dismember!"