Chapter 318: Embroideress

The Way of the Ghoul Immortal

"Hmm... this divination..." Li Huowang frowned, looking at the cracks on the skull. He then compared them to the patterns in the talisman book.

"Qian for Heaven, Tianfeng Gou, Tianshan Dui." This was the hexagram Li Huowang had divined.

Strangely, however, the book offered no instructions on how to interpret the hexagram. It only stated that the talisman paper should be burned to ashes and then swallowed.

Li Huowang glanced at Magistrate Lou, who was waiting nearby. After a moment of thought, he pulled out a fire striker from his pocket and vigorously struck it against a corner of the yellow talisman.

As the talisman ignited with an eerie green flame, Li Huowang instinctively leaned his head back, feeling a sudden discomfort throughout his body.

He then heard faint, thin voices speaking, but when he listened carefully, he heard nothing at all.

The talisman burned, and the remaining ashes did not scatter. Instead, they slowly twisted and contorted, gradually forming a black, crumpled mass that resembled a shriveled, dark infant.

Li Huowang gazed at the object in his hand, hesitated for a moment, then tossed it into a nearby teacup and drank it down in one gulp.

Afterwards, Li Huowang stood there, quietly waiting for something to happen, but nothing did.

Just then, a rooster crowed outside. Inside the room, Li Huowang and Magistrate Lou simply stared at each other.

"Is this talisman book even reliable? Wasn't this supposed to be divination? Where's the reading?" Li Huowang looked at the object in his hand, a hint of doubt beginning to surface in his mind.

Sensing Li Huowang's frustration, Magistrate Lou immediately offered sympathetically, "My lord, you've had a busy day. Perhaps you should rest for a while?"

Li Huowang, who was still deeply engrossed, had no intention of resting. He frowned slightly and continued to flip through the talisman book.

Just then, a small, delicate-looking girl emerged from the doorway, gently tugging on Magistrate Lou's clothes. "Father... why aren't you asleep yet?"

Faced with his daughter, Magistrate Lou naturally couldn't be firm. He quickly appeased her with a gentle smile. "Oh, my dear daughter, why don't you go have breakfast with your mother? I'll be there soon."

"No, I won't! You said that yesterday too, Daddy," the girl pouted affectionately at Magistrate Lou. Just then, a low growl made both father and daughter shiver.

When Magistrate Lou saw Li Huowang approaching, his face instantly turned pale. He quickly pulled his daughter behind him.

"M-my lord... this is my daughter."

Li Huowang pushed him aside and rushed to the girl. Under her stunned gaze, he yanked a colorful small cloth pouch from her waist.

He stared at the patterns on the pouch and asked, "Who made this?"

Part of the pattern on the small cloth pouch was surprisingly identical to the previous hexagram.

Magistrate Lou's daughter was clearly frightened by the fierce-looking man. She first glanced at her father, and seeing that he wasn't coming to her aid, her voice trembled as she said, "My embroiderer made this sachet for me."

"Embroiderer? Bring her here!" There was no way such a coincidence could exist in this world. Perhaps the talisman *had* worked; this was the interpretation Li Huowang needed!

Soon, the so-called embroiderer was brought before Li Huowang, escorted by the constables. She appeared older than Magistrate Lou's daughter, but looked frail and delicate, as if a gust of wind could knock her over.

"Did you make this sachet?" Li Huowang held the object and questioned the woman.

"Yes..." the embroiderer replied softly, her eyes downcast, not daring to look up.

"Why is the bird on this sachet patterned like this?"

"It's a mandarin duck..."

"I asked you *why* you embroidered this pattern!!" Li Huowang's roar startled everyone present.

The embroiderer looked as if she was about to cry, tears welling up in her eyes. "Mandarin ducks... are always... embroidered... like this..."

Li Huowang stood up and walked towards the embroiderer. With each step, the slow rasping sound of his sword against its scabbard became audible.

As the Zi Sui Sword was drawn, Li Huowang, radiating an aura of malevolence, appeared incredibly terrifying to everyone in the room.

Li Huowang stood before the embroiderer, and the almost palpable pressure emanating from him instantly crushed her composure.

"I don't know! My grandmother taught me to embroider them this way! Mandarin ducks have always been embroidered like this since ancient times," the embroiderer cried, squatting on the ground, tears streaming down her face.

But then, silence fell over the room. Both the constable clutching his saber handle and the scribe stroking his beard stared wide-eyed at the embroiderer.

The first part of her voice was fine, but the latter part was distinctly a man's voice!

The constable immediately rushed forward, forcefully grabbed the embroiderer's chest, then turned to Magistrate Lou with a look of utter shock and exclaimed, "My lord! This woman has a penis!"

Hearing this, Magistrate Lou was instantly aghast and immediately looked at his daughter.

Li Huowang grabbed the cross-dressing embroiderer by the neck and slowly lifted him. "Magistrate Lou, it seems the fellow who defiled those women has been found!"

"T-take him to the dungeon, and interrogate him! Interrogate him thoroughly!" Magistrate Lou's voice was distorted by rage, and his hands trembled uncontrollably.

Having finally found a clue, Li Huowang naturally wouldn't let it go. He followed the male embroiderer, who was being escorted by a group of constables, towards the prison.

Before long, the prison in Cangshui County echoed with the male embroiderer's agonizing screams.

"Speak! Who are your accomplices? Where are they hiding now? Why are you stealing infants?!"

Li Huowang couldn't help but frown as he watched the red-hot branding iron sizzle against skin and saw the whip soaking in a bucket of saltwater.

"Alright, everyone, step back," he stood up and walked towards the disfigured male embroiderer.

Completely ignoring the branding iron the clerk offered with both hands, Li Huowang approached the embroiderer and removed the conical hat from his own head.

His injuries were healing quickly; most of the skin on his face had recovered. However, this only made Li Huowang appear even more terrifying.

The male embroiderer, exhausted and broken by torture, seemed to gain a burst of strength upon seeing Li Huowang's appearance. He strained desperately to lean back, as if terrified Li Huowang would devour him.

"Clank~" With a metallic clatter, Li Huowang's bag of various torture instruments slowly unfolded from beneath his robes. "Speak."

"I truly don't know! I admit to defiling the women! But I swear I didn't steal any infants!" The male embroiderer was so frightened he wet his pants, but his words remained unchanged.

"Is that so?" Li Huowang picked out a small saw. He pressed the embroiderer's head against the wall with one hand, then placed the saw against it and began sawing back and forth.

If the embroiderer's previous screams had been those of a human, then for the next period, his cries utterly transformed into demonic howls.

Half an hour later, Li Huowang recited the Hu Ao True Scripture, beginning to heal the dying embroiderer.

"Strange, why is this? Does this fellow truly not know?" Li Huowang was certain the man was telling the truth; he doubted even he could have endured that round of torture.

"Could it be... that the defilement of women and the infant abductions are actually the work of two different groups? And they just happened to occur simultaneously, leading to the mistaken belief that they're related?"

The moment this possibility occurred to him, Li Huowang's mood soured considerably. The clue had gone cold again.

This was the first time Li Huowang had felt such a strong sense of difficulty. Regardless of the opponent's strength, their refusal to show themselves was incredibly vexing.

Only now did he realize that the work of the Jiantian Division was different from what he had previously imagined.

Just then, Li Huowang's stomach rumbled. He hadn't eaten for three meals, and if he didn't eat soon, he feared his body would suffer from hunger.

After another glance at the unrecognizable male embroiderer, Li Huowang turned and walked out of the prison.

The bewildered clerk, seeing Li Huowang about to leave, didn't go to see him off. Instead, he abruptly kicked a nearby jailer in the backside.

The visibly flustered jailer had no choice but to force a smile and respectfully see Li Huowang off.

"Safe travels, my lord. Please visit often, my lord. My lord... you have such skillful hands!"