Chapter 134: The Village Beyond the Bridge

It was early spring, and a biting chill still lingered in the air.

Upon arriving in Baibing County, Fang Yue headed straight for the county yamen.

After presenting his official credentials, Magistrate Mo of Baibing County personally came out to receive him.

"Welcome, young hero Fang, to our humble county."

Magistrate Mo seemed quite experienced in welcoming acolytes from the White Cloud Palace, which indirectly indicated that quite a few bizarre incidents had occurred within Baibing County.

Fang Yue did not stand on ceremony with him and said, "I have come here regarding the stone man incident at Behind-the-Bridge Village. You have seen the official document from above; I expect your full cooperation with my mission."

Magistrate Mo nodded and said, "Please rest assured, young hero Fang. Since such an incident has occurred under my jurisdiction, I naturally wish to resolve it as swiftly as possible. I will undoubtedly render my utmost cooperation to young hero Fang."

Magistrate Mo agreed with alacrity, though the degree of actual cooperation would naturally depend on the circumstances.

The external acolytes of the White Cloud Palace held no jurisdiction over imperial officials like them.

His current deference was simply born of respect for these external acolytes' abilities to resolve those headache-inducing and bizarre occurrences.

If the arriving person requested cooperation related to the matter at hand, Magistrate Mo would naturally cooperate to the fullest; as for other matters, it would depend entirely on the situation.

Naturally, Fang Yue was unaware of the petty calculations turning over in Magistrate Mo's mind.

Yet even if he knew, he wouldn't care. His sole purpose in coming was to deal with the stone man incident in Behind-the-Bridge Village. Seeking out Magistrate Mo was simply to enlist the cooperation of the villagers to facilitate his actions.

"Magistrate Mo, please assign someone to guide me to Behind-the-Bridge Village. I require the cooperation of the villagers to minimize any unnecessary trouble."

Upon hearing this, Magistrate Mo grasped Fang Yue's intent: he wanted the yamen to dispatch someone who could command the villagers' cooperation to lead the way.

This was a perfectly reasonable request.

Magistrate Mo agreed immediately, summoned a yamen runner, and commanded, "Jiang Fucheng, accompany young hero Fang on a trip to Behind-the-Bridge Village."

Turning back to Fang Yue, he added, "Jiang Fucheng frequently travels to Behind-the-Bridge Village and its surrounding area. The villagers there all recognize him."

...

"We are almost at the outskirts of Behind-the-Bridge Village. The causal entanglement with the ghost or monster behind this bizarre event should now be sufficient. I can use the Insight divine ability to peer into it."

As they neared Behind-the-Bridge Village, Fang Yue temporarily sent away Jiang Fucheng, the runner acting as their guide. Standing alone behind a large tree, he summoned the brass mirror and held it in his palm.

Previously, after accepting the mission, he had assumed the causal entanglement was already sufficient, yet the brass mirror had failed to reflect the figure of any ghost or monster.

If he had arrived close by and it still failed to reflect anything, it would be impossible to claim the causal entanglement was insufficient.

Either there truly were no ghosts, monsters, or other entities behind the stone man incident, and it was simply a manifestation of some bizarre power at work;

Or there was another hidden mystery preventing the Insight divine ability from perceiving it.

...

Fang Yue's plan was to use the Insight divine ability once more upon reaching the vicinity of Behind-the-Bridge Village.

If he still gained nothing, he would have no choice but to withdraw, report that the investigation yielded nothing, and submit his findings to the White Cloud Palace.

"The acolyte stationed in Tianbao Prefecture seemed to have investigated Behind-the-Bridge Village once before, and the reported result was also an empty-handed investigation with no discernible cause. Could it be that he possesses a ghost-peering ability similar to mine?"

This thought flashed briefly through Fang Yue's mind. Such matters could not be easily inquired about, so he ceased dwelling on it.

"Sacrifice."

Fang Yue chanted silently in his heart.

The yellowish mirror surface suddenly rippled, and an image materialized upon it.

"This is..."

The expression on Fang Yue's face froze for a moment.

...

Behind-the-Bridge Village.

Dressed in a cyan robe with a treasured sword hanging at his waist, Fang Yue arrived in the village accompanied by the runner Jiang Fucheng.

Fang Yue noticed that upon seeing outsiders, the villagers wore expressions of intense vigilance.

"Runner Jiang, please help summon someone; I wish to ask a few questions," Fang Yue said.

Jiang Fucheng replied, "Rest assured, young hero Fang. I will fetch someone right away."

Before long, Jiang Fucheng returned, leading the village chief of Behind-the-Bridge Village.

The village chief was a middle-aged man surnamed Wen, with the given name Dalong.

Most of the residents in Behind-the-Bridge Village shared the surname Wen.

Hearing that Fang Yue was sent from above to handle the stone man incident, Wen Dalong showed no trace of hopeful anticipation on his face.

"There's no saving us, no saving us. No one can escape; everyone is going to turn into a stone man."

Wen Dalong kept muttering these words to himself.

"Cut the nonsense and let's talk about the matter at hand. Tell me the details of the stone man incident once more."

Fang Yue frowned.

Jiang Fucheng shouted loudly, "Wen Dalong, stop dawdling! Young hero Fang is speaking to you. Quickly recount the sequence of events to young hero Fang."

Wen Dalong shook his head and said, "It's useless. No one can save us. This is the retribution of our entire village."

...

Jiang Fucheng stepped forward and slapped Wen Dalong heavily, sneering, "Wen Dalong, when told to speak, you speak. Stop spreading alarmist nonsense here."

That slap jolted Wen Dalong into a slightly clearer state of mind, and he began to recount the specific course of the stone man incident from beginning to end.

It all started when a farmer in the village unearthed a female stone statue in his fields.

The farmer brought the female stone statue home, and that night, he dreamed that the statue had transformed into a living person and led him on a tour through a bizarre world.

When other villagers heard that the farmer possessed such a statue, they came in droves to satisfy their curiosity.

Subsequently, those who had gone to look at the statue also dreamed of the female figure upon returning home.

Consumed by jealousy, the farmer's wife smashed the female stone statue into pieces with a hammer.

In retaliation, the enraged villagers bludgeoned the farmer's wife to death with stones.

Ultimately, the men who participated in stoning the farmer's wife to death—including the farmer himself—all turned into stone statues.

One night, tears of blood began to stream from the eyes of these stone men.

Yet this was not the end. For the rest of the villagers—regardless of gender or age, whether they had viewed the female stone statue or participated in the stoning of the farmer's wife—

A portion of the villagers began to exhibit signs of petrification upon their bodies.

Though the process was agonizingly slow, this petrification continued relentlessly, plunging them into despair.

The account of the stone man incident given by Wen Dalong matched the version Fang Yue had learned at the White Cloud Palace without any significant discrepancies.

The difference was that, as the village chief, he knew more and recounted it in greater detail.

After listening, Fang Yue remained silent, quietly evaluating the entire stone man incident in his mind.

Combining this with the imagery he had witnessed through the brass mirror, a tentative hypothesis began to form in his heart.

"Many thanks for Village Chief Wen's cooperation. I would like to inspect the condition of the victims; I wonder if Village Chief Wen might guide me to one of their households."

Wen Dalong remarked, "Actually, there is nothing much to see. They've simply turned into stone statues."

Jiang Fucheng reprimanded Wen Dalong, "Since young hero Fang asks you to lead the way, you shall lead the way. What is the meaning of all this endless prevarication? Young hero Fang is an emissary from above, here to deal with those stone statues in your village. Do not dare to delay his affairs."