Bone Divination

Seeing that Li Huowang didn’t believe him, the peddler’s face twisted into an awkward grin.

“Well, that’s what the old folks at the village head told me. They say the ghosts want to be reborn, so they’ve been stealing babies under a year old. And since they’ve been cooped up in the underworld so long, they’ve come out to molest all the young maidens.”

“So in Cangshui County, children have gone missing, and quite a few women have been violated?”

“Ah, right, right! You Daoists sure are sharp—one sentence from you is worth ten from me.”

Li Huowang frowned. Stolen children. Violated women. If that was truly all there was to it, the local magistrate should have sent constables to hunt down the criminals, not notified the Supervisory Heavenly Office. There had to be something else going on, something this itinerant peddler did not know.

Li Huowang raised his horsewhip and struck the mare’s rump. The cart lurched forward.

He reached Cangshui County just before the city gates closed. The gatekeepers, seeing the Office token Li Huowang produced, hurriedly summoned a constable to escort him to the magistrate’s residence.

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. Disordered footsteps sounded around Li Huowang from time to time.

Watching torch-bearing young men hurry past the cart, Li Huowang addressed the constable leading the horse at the front. “Who are those people?”

The constable clasped his hands in salute. “Reporting to the honored inspector! These are the night watch conscripted by the magistrate from the county. Cangshui County is under curfew now—everyone is terrified. Anyone caught roaming outside is arrested on the spot!”

Li Huowang nodded in understanding and said nothing more.

The unfamiliar environment seemed to unsettle Mantou. It kept shoving its big black nose into Li Huowang’s chest.

But Li Huowang’s gaze swept the desolate streets without finding anything unusual.

Soon, he arrived at the Cangshui County yamen. The magistrate, clearly already informed of Li Huowang’s arrival, was waiting by the entrance with a retinue of men, flanked by two large stone lions.

“This official greets the honored inspector!” As the clean-robed magistrate bowed, his secretary, assistant magistrate, recorder, and police chief all lowered their heads in unison.

Li Huowang looked down at the magistrate from the cart. The man looked to be in his forties, but he was oddly short, standing out conspicuously among the crowd.

“Spare the pleasantries. Let’s go inside. Business first.” Li Huowang took the lead and strode in, making himself the host, and the others quickly followed.

Rustle, rustle. The sound of flipping paper filled the hall. A cluster of men all bowed at the waist, nervously watching Li Huowang as he examined the case files.

When the tea on the side table had stopped steaming, Li Huowang set down what he was holding. “Nine children missing. Five young women violated?”

The magistrate hurried forward a step. “In my humble opinion, the number of violated women is far greater, but they are ashamed to report it, so—”

“Is that it? Is that all?” Li Huowang’s gaze bored into the magistrate’s eyes.

A bead of cold sweat slid down his forehead. He clasped his hands toward Li Huowang, then turned to the others. “All of you, leave. Constable Zhou, have the yamen surrounded.”

The shuffling footsteps receded. Only Li Huowang and the magistrate remained in the room.

“This official’s surname is Lou. Though I am not a native of Cangshui County, my hometown is also in Jiangnan Circuit. As the parent-official of these people, seeing my subjects so terrified and unsettled, my heart feels as if it is being twisted by a knife! I implore the honored inspector to save the people from fire and flood!” Tears glistening in his eyes, Magistrate Lou dropped to his knees before Li Huowang.

The courtesy was heavy. From the last incident, Li Huowang knew that magistrates and inspectors like himself were not strictly superior and subordinate.

He had no way of knowing whether the words were sincere or merely a show for his benefit. “Get to the point. Aside from these incidents, what else has happened in Cangshui County?”

“Some thefts, but those are trivial! Honored inspector, please look.” Magistrate Lou took a map from the side table and slowly unfurled it before Li Huowang.

It was a detailed map of the entire Jiangnan Circuit. Beside it lay Yinling City and Zongluo Circuit, where Niuxin Mountain sat.

The Great Liang Realm had six circuits in total, each of different sizes. Jiangnan was the smallest.

“Honored inspector, look.” The magistrate pointed to some small dots on the map. “This is not limited to Cangshui alone! The counties around Cangshui—Pingcheng, Anshan, Panshui—fifteen counties in all, have experienced similar incidents!”

Li Huowang studied the scattered dots on the map. Now he understood why something this minor required Tuoba Danqing’s personal attention.

No matter how small a problem, when it piled up, it was no longer trivial.

Li Huowang picked up the map and examined it more closely. “So many places… how many children have been lost in total?”

“Fifty-seven so far, and the number is still rising. I keep a tight hand on Cangshui, so it is manageable here, but elsewhere, some rumormongers have already started using this to stir up trouble.”

“What are they doing with the babies…” Tying it to what he had experienced in this world, Li Huowang had a grim feeling that the children’s fate would be very cruel.

“Honored inspector, I implore you to save the people from fire and flood!” Magistrate Lou prostrated himself once more.

“No rush. You mentioned that women were violated. Bring them here. I want to see them.” Since both incidents were happening at the same time, he needed to question them to understand what was really going on.

Soon, a dazed-looking woman was brought before Li Huowang. But when he questioned her, she could not explain clearly.

She could not say who had violated her. She could not say when. If her parents had not noticed something was wrong, she probably would never have reported it herself.

For a moment, Li Huowang felt at a loss.

There was a specialized trade for everything. This kind of thing was not really his forte.

“No. That doesn’t mean I have no way.”

Watching the woman’s retreating back, Li Huowang thought it over, then pulled out the talisman manual from his bosom and flipped through it. He turned to Magistrate Lou. “Is there any human bone here? Something wide.”

If Blind Chen said these talismans could perform divination, maybe now was the time to try.

“H-human bone?” Though he did not understand why, Magistrate Lou still ordered the constables to find one.

By the time the sky began to pale, the bone Li Huowang had requested arrived. It was a skull.

“Honored inspector, rest assured, it is definitely human bone. Freshly dug from the potter’s field.” The constable carrying the skull wore a fawning expression.

Li Huowang reached into his bosom and drew out a sheet of yellow paper. He bit open his fingertip and began drawing on it rapidly.

“Hurrying, bustling, the Great Yin is inconstant. I hold the command, to divine and flee desolation!”

He pressed a copper coin onto the finished talisman, then slapped it onto the skull. With a cracking sound, fissures split open across the bone.

His expression grave, Li Huowang studied the cracks on the skull, comparing them to the records in his talisman manual to interpret the hexagram. “Hmm… This divination…”