Chapter 1339: Being Attacked at the Estate

Chapter 1325: The Attacked Manor

He Lingchuan asked him, "Was it seven or eight?"

"Seven! Oh no…" County Lieutenant Li recalled carefully. "Eight, it was definitely eight!"

"Lead the way."

The site of the incident was Chen Family Manor, located in the outskirts of Liuxian County, more than a mile from the nearest rural road.

To reach Chen Family Manor, one had to take a fork in the road and head into the mountains.

Wild mountains, secluded fields, with rabbits and rodents occasionally seen in the tall grass.

"What are the main products of Chen Family Manor?"

"Grains, tangerines, wool, lamb… things like that," County Lieutenant Li thought for a moment. "Manors around here generally produce these. Chen Family Manor also has a mountain behind it."

"What about the yield?"

"I’m not sure about that," County Lieutenant Li scratched his head. "That’s not my area of responsibility."

He Lingchuan looked around. "Its location is a bit remote, and it’s quite far from Liuxian County."

Transporting goods from here to Liuxian County would be inconvenient.

"Indeed," County Lieutenant Li pointed ahead. "We’re here."

He Lingchuan himself had owned manors before and knew that many suburban manors were inhabited by extended families who built walls and prepared weapons to defend against outsiders.

Chen Family Manor was no different. The five to six hundred descendants of the Chen family living there made it seem like a small town when its gates were closed.

After the incident, the Chen family continued to live there, guarding the manor gates and prohibiting outsiders from entering or leaving.

Had County Lieutenant Li not cleared the way, He Lingchuan would have found it difficult to enter openly.

The manor primarily consisted of residences, along with threshing grounds, livestock pens, workshops, warehouses, and wells. It even had a tavern and eateries, indeed not much different from a small town.

Everyone observed carefully and noticed that many buildings bore signs of attack. For instance, they had just passed a farmhouse with three deep claw marks on its wooden door.

Upon hearing that County Lieutenant Li was accompanying the Imperial Censor to investigate the case, the Chen family patriarch immediately came out to greet them.

According to him, the night of the incident was calm, starlit but moonless, and very dark. Suddenly, several monsters appeared in the manor, attacking anyone they saw.

Over forty strong men from the Chen family’s security team grabbed their weapons and rushed over, but they were no match for the monsters. In an instant, seventeen or eighteen people were bitten to death.

The manor fell into chaos, and the Chen family patriarch himself lost two sons.

The others had even less courage to resist, and the manor’s high walls became an obstacle to their escape.

The remaining people thought they were doomed, but then the monsters suddenly howled loudly, leaped over the walls, and headed west.

They left and never returned.

The Chen family, still shaken, had maintained strict vigilance ever since.

He Lingchuan listened carefully, then raised a point of doubt: "Exactly how many monsters were there?"

"I saw three," the Chen family patriarch said. "But some of my clansmen claimed to have seen five, and others seven. It was too chaotic and dark that night, and they were very fast, so no one saw them clearly." He added that the monsters varied in size and appearance.

"What did the three monsters you saw look like?"

"One looked like a fierce tiger, but its tail was black, bare, and resembled large shears, capable of attacking people."

He Lingchuan recalled the claw marks on the wooden door. He glanced at Dong Rui, who shook his head, indicating he had never heard of such a creature.

"And the others?"

"Another one rolled around, round and covered in thorns. I’ve seen a strange plant in the south called a ‘cactus,’ and it was a bit like that." The Chen patriarch turned and went inside. A moment later, he returned with five sharp spines, handing them to He Lingchuan. "These are the kind of spines; they can be shot out to injure people!"

He Lingchuan took them, and several people gathered to examine them.

The shortest spine was seven inches long, the longest reaching three feet. They were black and white, with barbs at the tip. Just imagining what it would feel like to be impaled by one sent shivers down their spines.

The Chen patriarch also said, "It caused the most injuries. The subsequent treatment was agonizing."

To remove the spines, one first had to cut the flesh, adding another layer of pain for the injured.

"And another one could burrow, emerging from underground."

"You have high walls and gate access here. How did the monsters get in?"

"They scaled the walls," the Chen patriarch said with a wry smile. "I asked the gatekeepers who were on duty that night. One of them personally saw the tiger-like creature run from the woods, climb over the high wall like an ape, and attack the guards."

"According to your account, these attacking monsters must have been drawn away by something, which allowed you to survive," He Lingchuan mused. "Before that, were there any suspicious individuals or events inside or outside the manor?"

The Chen patriarch shook his head. "No, our manor has always been peaceful."

"Have any outsiders visited?" Places like this are usually quite exclusive; if outsiders entered, the Chen family couldn’t possibly be unaware.

The Chen patriarch thought carefully this time, but still shook his head. "No."

He Lingchuan looked out the window at the livestock pens below. "When was the last time your manor shipped out goods?"

"We just returned five days ago," the patriarch replied. "We transported a batch of wool and fruits."

"Did you encounter any anomalies or strange occurrences on your journey there and back?" He Lingchuan asked him. "Perhaps these monsters were also drawn here."

"Everything was normal during the trip," the Chen patriarch said with a hint of anger. "If someone truly lured monsters to attack Chen Family Manor, that would be utterly insane!"

He Lingchuan asked a few more questions but found no clues. Then he said, "Do you have the complete information on the deceased?"

"Yes," he replied. More than a month had passed, and the Chen family had recovered from the initial panic. "But it’s only basic details: names, birth dates, ages, residences, and household members. All written on slips of paper and tucked into the family genealogy book."

He Lingchuan looked out the window; it was already dark. "We’ll need to stay the night at your manor. I’ll also review the information."

The Chen family patriarch had no objections and cleared a small courtyard for him and Dong Rui to stay.

That night, He Lingchuan and Dong Rui took out their luminous spores and began poring over the victims’ information.

It went without saying that sixty percent of the manor’s residents were related by marriage. Beyond that, however, no commonality seemed to be found among the victims bitten to death by the monsters.

After nearly an hour of reading, Dong Rui couldn’t help but rub his eyes. Ling Guang promptly handed him a small bottle of eye drops. "How do these people write? It’s like scribbles! Deciphering these characters is so straining on the eyes."

"In the countryside, it’s already good if people can read and write," He Lingchuan urged him. "Have you found anything?"

"At first glance, these monsters seemed to kill randomly, eating as they went. Even a grizzly bear just out of hibernation wouldn’t have such a voracious appetite," Dong Rui said. When he had performed the autopsies in Liuxian County, the constables assisting him had vomited multiple times upon seeing the mangled corpses.

These monsters completely treated the Chen Family Manor residents as food, tearing at them and only consuming the nutrient-rich internal organs.

"It wasn’t until I had a sudden inspiration to categorize the attack locations," Dong Rui explained. The two men were sitting in the courtyard, and Dong Rui casually drew a diagram in the sand. "This is a rough map of Chen Family Manor, and these are the locations where the victims were found. Do you notice anything?"

He poked dozens of small holes in the sand, each representing a victim’s residence. It was late at night when the incident occurred, and most people were sleeping in their homes. Even if startled and fleeing, they wouldn't have gone far from their houses.

He Lingchuan leaned closer to look. "Hmm, the monsters jumped over the wall from the east, but they consumed more people in the western part of the manor, and hardly visited the south or north… Are there residents living in the east, south, and north parts of Chen Family Manor?"

The last question was directed at Old Li, who was standing nearby.

The Chen patriarch had specifically assigned a local expert to him to answer the Imperial Censor’s questions. This old man, though wrinkled and slightly hunched, was actually nimble-legged, sharp-eared, keen-eyed, and quick-witted.

Old Li didn't know how high-ranking an "Imperial Censor" was, but since he was an official sent to investigate the case, he cooperated, saying, "Yes, people live there. There are several large threshing grounds in the west, so more people live in the east than in the west."

"So the monsters didn’t stay in the more populated east but went to the west to unleash their carnage?" He Lingchuan said, pointing at the sand map. "Finally, they all left from the west as well."

If all the monsters behaved this way, it indicated a common pattern.

"Therefore, there must be something in the manor that attracted them."

Dong Rui looked pleased with himself. "Your turn. You haven’t spent an hour looking and found nothing, have you?"

His discovery was remarkable. Although stating the obvious might seem trivial, deducing this clue from a jumbled pile of information and a stack of illegible papers certainly tested one’s intellect, didn’t it?

Having followed He Lingchuan and witnessed countless cases, big and small, he was no longer the same as he used to be.

He Lingchuan smiled and pulled out a stack of paper slips. "County Lieutenant Li’s information is incorrect. The number of people who died peacefully was not seven or eight, but five in total. Here, these five people."

While others died horribly, the fact that these few died "peacefully" stood out markedly.

"They are all men, aged between twenty-five and fifty-three." He asked Old Li, who was nearby, "Old Li, do you know all five of these people?"

Old Li was illiterate. Only after He Lingchuan finished reading the five names did he nod. "Yes, I know all of them. Three are bachelors, one is married, and another lost his wife a long time ago."

The twenty-five-year-old was married with children, the others were bachelors, and the fifty-three-year-old victim was a widower whose wife had died ten years prior.

"Did all five of these people live in the western part of the manor?"

"No, no, only Chen Fu’ang, the one who is married with children, lived in the west." Of the other four victims, two were in the east, and one each in the south and north.

The sample size was too small to be representative.

He Lingchuan pondered for a long time before asking, "What was the usual relationship between these five people? Among them, who traveled far recently?"

"Chen Fu’ang and his two paternal cousins, who are similar in age, are relatives," Old Li explained. "The other two always drank with them and went out to do small businesses. Most people living in this manor are somewhat related."

Most of them shared the Chen surname; decades ago, they were one family.

"Have any of them left Chen Family Manor recently?"

"I’ll go ask," Old Li said, then left the courtyard.

He returned half an hour later, saying:

"Chen Fu’ang and his two cousins usually traveled with the manor’s caravan, and they returned with the caravan just a few days ago."

Chen Family Manor had dispatched a large shipment of wool and fruit just a few days prior.