Chen Mo bade farewell to Chen Wu and the others, then hurried with Haitang to the central courtyard, where he saw his parents.
After a simple greeting, Chen Mo asked directly, "Father, has Daoist Priest Li replied?"
Chen Yin Fu was in high spirits. "Daoist Priest Li said that Black Mountain Stronghold's skills aren't something ordinary people can learn. But the gift I sent was simply too valuable, and he couldn't very well refuse. He agreed to come to the manor tomorrow and put you through a test. If you pass, he'll agree to this."
Chen Mo let out a long breath of relief, but still felt a little anxious. "Did Daoist Priest Li say what the test would involve?"
Although Chen Mo had joined the Inner Family, Black Mountain Stronghold's skills were mostly focused on countering the uncanny and Evil Spirits. The test was likely to be very different from assessing a person's martial aptitude and talent, which left Chen Mo feeling rather uncertain.
Chen Yin Fu shook his head. "Daoist Priest Li didn't say. He only said we'd find out tomorrow night."
"Thank you, Father, for making these arrangements for me." Chen Mo cupped his hands in gratitude, looking forward to the next day.
After dinner in the central courtyard, it was already the Hai hour by the time he returned to the East Courtyard.
Chen Mo first practiced Black Tiger True Qi, but when he saw no progress, he stretched out lazily in the Drunken Old Man's Chair. He enjoyed the pastries Qiulan fed him as he opened the booklet Xie Lianghong had given him and began to read.
The booklet was quite thick. It recorded in detail the symptoms of every Mad Demon Disease corpse Xie Lianghong had dissected, along with his annotations, analyses, and conjectures.
After reading the first few pages, Chen Mo thought Xie Lianghong was a highly skilled coroner. But by around the tenth page, he was hooked and slowly sat up in the Drunken Old Man's Chair.
After performing a large number of dissections, Xie Lianghong had divided Mad Demon Patients into three types:
The first type, which made up the vast majority of patients, died just a few days after going mad.
The second type produced a kind of Guard Qi inside their bodies that could resist the toxins of Mad Demon Disease, allowing them to live for a long time. But their bodies also underwent all kinds of mutations: they might grow fur, rot, or turn into other monsters.
The third type produced something even more remarkable inside their bodies, something that could coexist with Mad Demon Disease. These patients were called Symbiotes. They looked no different from ordinary humans, but could draw all kinds of uncanny, unfathomable powers from Mad Demon Disease, and even master evil arts with ease.
By this point, Chen Mo was already deeply shocked.
Symbiotes... They looked no different from ordinary people, yet could gain all kinds of miraculous powers and easily master evil arts?
Chen Mo's heart gave a jolt as a figure surfaced in his mind:
Granny Li!
No wonder she knew all kinds of evil arts. She had been taking advantage of Mad Demon Disease all along.
And in Xie Lianghong's records, he had stated clearly that the only Symbiote he had ever seen was Granny Li.
Xie Lianghong had also made a conjecture: the most terrifying thing about Symbiotes wasn't that they could gain power themselves, but that their offspring were... Innate Variants!
The information above had already opened Chen Mo's eyes. But... what came next was the real crux:
[Of the Mad Demon Disease corpses I, Xie Lianghong, have dissected, there have been at least two hundred, if not three hundred. I have a strong premonition: the reason patients go mad and eat people when the disease strikes is not that the patients themselves want to eat people or go mad, but that it is the will of that Baby Face. Besides Symbiotes, there should be an even more terrifying existence—that is, a patient whose body and mind can bear the Baby Face's will and needs. In the end, the Baby Face will slowly transform and grow, becoming a real baby inside the patient. For now, let's call this baby the Spirit Infant Ghost Fetus.]
[The way Mad Demon Disease spreads is extremely strange. I suspect that somewhere in this world, there is a baby searching for a suitable host. That is why it uses Mad Demon Disease to screen them. Once it finds a suitable host, Mad Demon Disease may disappear, and... the true Spirit Infant Ghost Fetus will be born inside the host. That is Rebirth Through Another's Womb!]
Hiss!
When Chen Mo read this, he couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath.
On the surface, Xie Lianghong's deductions seemed wildly imaginative, like something out of a fantasy. But as someone suffering from Mad Demon Disease himself, Chen Mo had a powerful feeling that... this could very well be true.
Because Chen Mo knew that Mad Demon Disease wasn't an illness, but a ghost curse. And it was Resentful Ghost Qi.
If a baby was screening hosts through Mad Demon Disease, then it all made perfect sense.
That was terrifying!
Chen Mo couldn't help thinking to himself, You can choose and choose all you like, but just don't choose me... My Mad Demon Disease is almost cured. I really can't take this kind of torment.
Only after steeling himself did Chen Mo continue reading.
The next section discussed how Mad Demon Disease spread from one person to another.
[I, Xie Lianghong, have studied Mad Demon Disease for many years and know that the way it spreads is highly unusual. I have a bold conjecture: Mad Demon Disease spreads through what people see and hear. Perhaps those patients had heard of a certain story or person, or had seen a certain thing. What they saw or heard formed a triggering image in their minds, and then they became infected.]
By the time Chen Mo reached this part, he was utterly dumbfounded.
He was a modern person who had read countless stories and watched films about demons and monsters. He didn't think transmission through what people saw and heard was all that far-fetched.
But Xie Lianghong was a native of ancient times! His thinking was conservative, and he had never lived through an age of information overload. Yet he had managed to come up with such an outlandish mode of transmission based on what people saw and heard.
He was absolutely a genius!
Chen Mo felt a genuine surge of respect.
But he also felt a little regret.
Xie Lianghong's theories were far too advanced for their time, and he had no solid evidence to prove them. As a result, neither his family nor the officials accepted them. His family and the authorities had always looked down on him.
But Chen Mo had a powerful intuition: Xie Lianghong was right.
He was a great talent buried by the times.
If he and Xie Lianghong joined forces, they might be able to uncover the true cause of Mad Demon Disease. It might even be possible to find a way to prevent or cure it one day.
He pushed aside his distracting thoughts and continued to the final section.
This section explored the source of Mad Demon Disease.
[I have served as a coroner in the yamen for decades, and I have always been most attentive to cases involving Mad Demon Disease patients. My greatest wish is to uncover the cause and then devise a way to deal with it, bringing blessings to the people of this land. That way, I will have lived up to my master's instructions, and my decades as a coroner will not have been in vain. My family looks down on me, and the yamen treats me with contempt. Coroners have always been regarded as lowly, ill-omened people. So I want to spend my whole life proving that coroners can be of great use too.]
Reading this, Chen Mo felt a deep reverence well up in him, and the image of Third Master Xie, old and lonely, instinctively appeared in his mind.
There was one final passage.
[Mad Demon Disease patients have appeared in all sorts of places, without any pattern. There are cases inside the city, outside the city, and even in neighboring Qingwu County. I have no solid evidence pointing to the source, but I have a strong feeling that it is in Li Village, Qinghe Town! The records say that the earliest case of Mad Demon Disease in Honghe County did not occur in Li Village. But after investigating, I learned that the person had been to Li Village. I wanted to investigate in Qinghe Town, but it lies at the foot of Dayin Mountain and has now been sealed off by people from Black Mountain Stronghold. There's no way in.]
After reading everything, Chen Mo let out a long breath.
"The source is in Li Village, Qinghe Town... and the people from Black Mountain Stronghold have sealed it off!?"
"Xie Lianghong really is remarkable. The Xie Family looks down on him, and the yamen looks down on him... They're all terrible judges of character. My Chen Family can welcome him with the highest honors."
Thinking of this, Chen Mo called for Qiulan. "Qiulan, have the large carriage and horses I asked you to send to the Xie Family been delivered?"
Qiulan replied, "I already sent Ma San to deliver them. He should be back soon."
Chen Mo nodded and glanced at the Bronze Clepsydra in the distance. It was now the beginning of the Zi hour, late at night and almost morning.
Chen Mo couldn't wait any longer. "Go to the stables and get a carriage ready. I'm going to the Xie Manor with you in the middle of the night."
Qiulan nodded and said yes.
Just then, Ma San rushed in, gasping for breath and barely able to speak. "Young master, something... something terrible has happened at the Xie Manor."
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