Chapter 156: Human Heads in the Well

After exchanging the items, Fang Yue began to check the available missions.

"There are actually quite a few missions here in Yannan Prefecture."

Fang Yue muttered to himself as he perused the mission list, falling into deep contemplation.

Because of the Martial Saint manual, Yannan Prefecture had plunged into total chaos. Several volumes of the Martial Saint manual had surfaced there. To seize these manuals, martial artists engaged in fierce combat, resulting in countless casualties. They had all gone mad in their pursuit of the sacred text.

Initially, wary of the hidden conspiracies behind the scenes, Fang Yue had no intention of getting involved. However, he had now broken through to the late stage of Xiantian, and reaching the peak of Xiantian in the near future faced virtually no bottlenecks. Beyond that lay the realm of the Martial Saint.

This profound state of a Martial Saint required comprehension from a Xiantian peak martial artist to attain. Fang Yue planned to fuse multiple Xiantian internal cultivation arts, blending various schools of thought, and attempt to use the Merit System to forcibly propel his own realm up to the Martial Saint level.

Yet, from the ravings of the deranged Qiu Rubai, Fang Yue learned that the cause of Qiu Rubai's madness was likely inextricably linked to becoming a "Martial Saint." Whenever Qiu Rubai's madness flared up, he would scream, "Do not become a Martial Saint." According to him, becoming a Martial Saint seemed to entail some terrifying horror.

Though he wanted to get to the bottom of it, given Qiu Rubai's current state, it was impossible to extract any answers. Had it been merely an isolated incident, Fang Yue would have simply maintained his cautious reservations; after all, it was not as though Martial Saints did not exist in this world. But subsequent events involving the Martial Saint manuals, coupled with the apparent shadows of the noble clans lingering behind the scenes, forced Fang Yue to think deeply.

"As a late-stage Xiantian martial artist equipped with various techniques, even if I face a Martial Saint or a Core Formation cultivator, while I might not win in a fight, I am entirely capable of escaping. Heading to Yannan Prefecture, as long as I do not directly meddle in the affairs of the Martial Saint manuals and draw the attention of the noble clans, the danger remains relatively low. On this trip, I might as well accept all the missions in Yannan Prefecture, take a trip there, survey the local situation firsthand, and discover where the danger of achieving the Martial Saint realm truly originates."

Having made up his mind, Fang Yue accepted all the uncompleted missions regarding Yannan Prefecture in one go.

"Let's map out the route first, starting from the closest location to avoid wasting time running back and forth."

With a thought, Fang Yue summoned the map of Yunzhou from the white jade slip and marked the mission locations.

"Judging by the distance, the closest mission should be the one in Longcheng County."

...

The Su family of Longcheng County operated a drapery business with stores spanning the entire Yannan Prefecture, making them one of the wealthiest households in the county.

The Su family's grand estate was imposing and lavish.

On this day, a servant of the Su family named Su Bai-san was drawing water by the well. He turned the windlass, hauled water up from the well, poured it into two wooden buckets, and then carried them on a shoulder pole to the back kitchen nearby.

Su Bai-san was a menial laborer for the Su family. He was somewhat slow-witted, but possessed tremendous physical strength, so most of the heavy lifting involving fetching water and chopping firewood fell upon him.

A maid dressed in luxurious garments was just stepping out of the back kitchen when she spotted Su Bai-san carrying the water. Named Yuncui, this maid served directly under the eldest young mistress of the Su family. The eldest young mistress came from a powerful family background; relying on her natal family's influence, she held immense sway after marrying into the Su family. Everyone in the household, including her parents-in-law and her husband, dared not go against her wishes in the slightest.

Even before her marriage, the eldest young mistress had been pampered and willful. After marrying in, she constantly complained that the Su family were mere merchants, picking faults and looking down on them, frequently throwing the household into turmoil. In short, the Su family had not taken a wife; they had welcomed home a female ancestor.

Like mistress, like servant. As the personal maid of the eldest young mistress, Yuncui was equally adept at putting on airs and throwing her weight around. She had gone to the back kitchen to urge the staff to quickly finish stewing the nourishing tonic meant to preserve youth and beauty, and deliver it to her mistress.

On her way back, she happened to run into Su Bai-san carrying water. Having just been scolded by the eldest young mistress over some trivial matter, Yuncui was in a foul mood. Suddenly, a notion struck her out of sheer boredom, and she decided to tease the slow-witted menial servant.

As Su Bai-san turned the corner with his load of water, she abruptly stuck out her foot to trip him. Unsuspecting and burdened with the heavy water buckets, Su Bai-san was sent crashing to the ground, scraping his chin until it bled.

"Pah, idiot," Yuncui cursed, feeling her spirits lift somewhat as she sauntered off.

Other servants in the back kitchen witnessed the scene, but no one dared to step forward and criticize Yuncui. That arrogant mistress was not someone to be trifled with, leaving Su Bai-san to accept his bad luck. Fortunately, Su Bai-san possessed a thick hide; aside from the bleeding scrape on his chin, he was unharmed.

However, the fall had shattered the two wooden buckets, sending the water spilling all over the ground. The cost of the damaged buckets would naturally be charged to Su Bai-san, as no one dared to cause trouble for Yuncui, the personal maid of the eldest young mistress.

Being slow-witted, Su Bai-san did not take the opportunity to slack off after such a fall. Instead, he replaced the broken buckets with a new pair and went right back to fetching water.

That was when the unexpected happened.

While drawing water from the well, after pulling up the bucket, Su Bai-san noticed some strands of hair floating inside the water. Pouring out the hair-contaminated water, he continued to turn the windlass and lowered the bucket down to draw water again.

This time, the bucket contained even more hair.

Su Bai-san dumped the water once more and kept drawing, until the bucket brought up a water-logged, horribly bloated human head.

And that head belonged to none other than Yuncui, the very person who had tripped him not long ago.

...

As the primary murder suspect, Su Bai-san was arrested by the Longcheng County yamen. Several servants in the back kitchen testified that they had seen Yuncui trip Su Bai-san. Furthermore, Su Bai-san had subsequently claimed to have discovered Yuncui's head in the well, providing him with a solid motive and leaving him inextricably linked to the crime.

Although there was a glaring discrepancy—less than half an hour had passed between the moment Yuncui tripped Su Bai-san and the time he allegedly found her head in the well, making it practically impossible for Su Bai-san to have avoided notice while murdering Yuncui, severing her head, and submerging it in the well—the victim was the personal maid of the eldest young mistress, whose shock and distress meant the county yamen dared not take the matter lightly.

Under torture and the three-board interrogation, the suspect Su Bai-san quickly made a full confession, admitting that he had murdered Yuncui out of resentment.

...

However, the matter did not end there. While Su Bai-san was locked away in the county prison awaiting execution in the autumn, another member of the Su family drew a human head up from the well while fetching water.

One might wonder why anyone in the Su family dared to draw drinking water from the well after Yuncui's head had already been found there. That was precisely the bizarre part: although the well had been temporarily sealed off, a Su family servant had inexplicably run over to draw water from it anyway. When asked why, the servant could not offer a coherent explanation.

With a second occurrence, a third and a fourth soon followed...

And every single time a head was hoisted from the well, it meant another member of the Su family had lost their head and died.