CHAPTER 596: CHAPTER 110

Because he had accelerated the progression of the event,

more information had begun to surface.

Li Zhiyuan’s mind gradually outlined the whole situation,

though it was still tenuous, he had finally constructed it,

not lost in a fog anymore.

The graveyards on those three mountains corresponded to three households, or rather three surnames;

now only the Xue family was known, while the other two remained unclear.

Certain periods of ancestral worship seemed to trigger some mechanism,

like the dream divination Mr. Xue had just received.

But for some reason, the triggering of this mechanism also initiated a counter mechanism,

such as the "self-delivering" Big Fish.

Li Zhiyuan believed that if he hadn’t arranged for Mr. Xue’s birthday celebration in advance,

then the fish wouldn’t have been delivered today;

If they had followed the normal course, a month later on Mr. Xue’s big birthday,

after he had visited the ancestral graves,

the fish would have appeared before Mr. Xue as either the young fishing neighbor

or through some other reasonable means, ending up on the Xue family’s dining table.

Two mechanisms were in contention,

or to be more precise, one was contaminating the operation of the other.

The logic behind the original mechanism seemed to resemble a Sisyphean generational seal.

The purpose of the contamination was to break this seal.

Logically speaking, Mr. Xue should be preparing to head to Zhengmen Village by now.

But it was now clear that Mr. Xue had no desire to go.

The earlier exploration team incident deepened Mr. Xue’s fear of Zhengmen Village,

and the false dream divination concocted by Li Zhiyuan greatly diminished the sanctity of the actual divine dream.

However, there was another possibility:

according to the original plan, a month later when Brother Liangliang returned,

he and his father would go to worship at the ancestral graves together,

and Qingxia would likely head for Liangliang.

With Liangliang’s experience and temperament,

after receiving the dream divination, there was a significant chance he would accept this mission to Zhengmen Village,

and a very high likelihood he would contact Li Zhiyuan to join him in fulfilling this ancestral duty.

Of course, a more extreme scenario was that Brother Liangliang would go alone,

and his life or death would remain unknown;

then Li Zhiyuan would learn the news and come to his home to investigate the mystery of Brother Liangliang’s disappearance.

In any case, the only person who could involve Li Zhiyuan was Brother Liangliang,

as Mr. Xue was not a suitable candidate.

Right now, naturally, Li Zhiyuan was not willing to take Mr. Xue with him to Zhengmen Village for two reasons:

first, because he was Xue Liangliang’s father, and second, because he was a burden.

Fortunately, it seemed it wasn’t necessary for Mr. Xue himself to go, just the bowl of his blood.

Blood offerings referred to the killing of livestock for their blood used in sacrifices,

while a blood bowl meant offering one’s own fresh blood, placed on the offering table.

The amount didn’t need to be large; a small bowl would suffice,

a cut to the palm, enough blood to cover the bottom of the bowl.

This amount of blood was nothing for his pet Xiao Hei,

and surely Mr. Xue would face no issues with it either.

Li Zhiyuan had the methods and materials to make the Black Dog Blood Seal,

ensuring that as long as the blood donor was alive during collection,

the blood could be preserved for a very long time to later be used as a blood bowl.

Given the situation of the Xue family, did the other two families also need to visit Zhengmen Village to offer their blood bowls?

Then, was the purpose of the contamination to eradicate these three families in advance,

or at least to contaminate their bodies and blood?

However, there was a temporarily unsolvable paradox:

if the Corpse was planning to break the seal, why would it actively bite the bait?

Granny Yu, confident yet early extinguished by Li Zhiyuan, just left,

would the next one continue to make the same mistake?

"Xiao Yuan, Xiao Yuan?"

Mr. Xue’s voice interrupted Li Zhiyuan’s thoughts. Looking up, the youth saw concern and panic in Mr. Xue’s eyes.

"Yes, Uncle Xue, what’s wrong?"

"Xiao Yuan, tell Uncle, what were you just thinking about?"

"I was thinking, Zhengmen Village is really scary, it’s right of Uncle Xue to not want to go, I wouldn’t dare to either."

Hearing this, Mr. Xue let out a sigh of relief. He had indeed been afraid that the young man would take interest in Zhengmen Village like those university students before.

"Yes, we should live our own honest lives, not meddling with those unnecessary things."

"That’s right, that’s what I think too."

But the problem is, you won’t be able to live that honest life anymore.

Even if one could hide on the first day, they could not evade the fifteenth,

once the mechanism completely collapses and that thing comes out,

the remnants under the mechanism will face purging and destruction.

Li Zhiyuan had decided to use force later to collect some blood from Mr. Xue,

and then personally take care of the matter.

"Uncle Xue, does your family have a genealogy book?"

"Yes, we do. Why, do you want to see it?"

"Yeah, I like looking at genealogies."

"If you want to see it, I’ll go get it for you later."

"Thank you, Uncle Xue."

"Ha ha ha, continue the feast, continue the feast!"

The idiot outside was still laughing.

Li Zhiyuan went outside to the courtyard.

The idiot seemed to be only about thirty, scruffy and filthy.

While others were shirtless, he was wearing a dirty, tattered cotton jacket, his hair a mess like a dog’s nest.

At the moment, he was taking candy out of his pocket and handing it to the children who had come to eat today.

The parents forbid them to take it, as they found the idiot unclean, but the children didn’t care; they took the candy and ran, tearing the wrappers and popping it in their mouths.

The idiot ran along with them, thoroughly enjoying himself.

The neighbor who had brought over the fish,

wanting everyone he met to marvel at the size of the fish he had caught that day,

did not omit the idiot from his audience.

"Idiot, you’ve got fish soup to drink today. I caught a big fish, it was this big!"