Speculation

Chapter 24: Speculation

Jiang Li took off her shoes and carefully stepped onto Bai Yanliang's shoulders. However... she had clearly underestimated his strength.

Bai Yanliang looked like he had an average build, but his body was exceptionally well-trained. If he took off his clothes, Jiang Li wouldn't have any unnecessary worries.

"Ah..."

Jiang Li let out a soft cry. The shoulder beneath her feet suddenly rose higher as Bai Yanliang straightened up without even seeming to exert himself.

He's so strong...

A strange thought suddenly flashed through Jiang Li's mind.

"Can you reach it, Miss Jiang?"

Bai Yanliang's voice brought her back to her senses. She quickly grabbed the edge of the water tank and stretched up on tiptoe, pulling with both arms.

Fortunately, Jiang Li wasn't exactly a newcomer to Mist Gathering anymore. After their first encounter, people in Mist Gathering would train their bodies as hard as they could to stay alive. After all, sometimes running just a little faster was the difference between life and death.

So Jiang Li was in pretty good shape.

Her body slowly rose as she gradually put more strength into lifting the water tank's lid with her right hand.

The lid wasn't locked. With a little effort, she managed to open a narrow gap.

Jiang Li swallowed and carefully leaned forward to peer inside the tank.

It was cold...

It was dark...

Other than that, there didn't seem to be anything unusual.

But just as Jiang Li was thinking this, the water inside the tank began to churn!

In almost an instant, a ghastly white corpse floated up from the bottom!

Jiang Li's eyes widened. She forced herself to look through her fear and revulsion.

It was a woman.

A huge woman!

More precisely, it was a gigantic corpse!

A wave of nausea surged over her. One quick glance was all it took for her stomach to churn violently with bile.

The female corpse in the tank was badly decomposed, her lips bleached white from soaking in the water.

Her chest and abdomen seemed to have filled with water, bulging like a ball. Her limbs had swollen until they were thick and bloated.

But strangely, this revolting, rotting corpse gave off no stench at all.

"Put me down!" Jiang Li cried hurriedly.

Bai Yanliang didn't know what she had seen, but he heard the urgency in her voice and quickly lowered her.

Jiang Li climbed down from Bai Yanliang's shoulders and rushed aside before she even had time to put on her shoes. Bai Yanliang and Xu Zhi'an looked over at her.

She was bent over, retching nonstop.

Since she hadn't eaten much, all she brought up was stomach acid.

Once she had finally recovered enough, she said with a pale face, "It's a female corpse. I can't tell who she is. She's completely swollen from being soaked."

Jiang Li's words didn't faze Bai Yanliang, but Xu Zhi'an immediately started vomiting too.

He had just remembered breakfast.

That damn inn—were they using water from the tanks?

"Miss Jiang, was there only one body?" Bai Yanliang asked seriously.

Jiang Li nodded to confirm.

Bai Yanliang looked at the other two water tanks standing together. "Then... I'll have to trouble you two more times."

Jiang Li shook her head slightly. Bai Yanliang was the one who deserved sympathy.

Suppressing her nausea, she climbed onto Bai Yanliang's shoulders again and looked into the second tank.

Unlike before, this corpse didn't suddenly float up. The moment Jiang Li looked inside, she saw it floating in the water.

"Brother Xu! It's him! The horribly disfigured ghost you told us about!" Jiang Li called out as she fought back her disgust and examined the male corpse. The moment she looked at his face, she cried out.

Xu Zhi'an had said earlier that two ghosts had cornered him. One of them had disguised itself as Bai Yanliang, but its true appearance was a man with a bloody, mangled face, his features all smashed beyond recognition.

Bai Yanliang lowered Jiang Li again. This time she felt a little better. She was still retching, but at least she didn't vomit again.

There was only one water tank left. If it contained another female corpse, the situation would become clear.

Jiang Li had gotten the hang of it by now. Standing on Bai Yanliang's shoulders, she pushed the lid of the last tank open with practiced ease.

This time, though she had prepared herself, what she saw made all that preparation useless.

"Huh? There's nothing in this tank!"

As she spoke, Jiang Li checked again.

But... there really was nothing.

The dim water tank was full, but there wasn't a corpse inside, or even any debris floating on the surface.

This was bad.

Bai Yanliang's mind raced. There was a flaw in his reasoning.

Things... weren't that simple?

Bai Yanliang lowered Jiang Li. After putting her shoes back on, she exchanged a look with Xu Zhi'an.

Neither of them knew why Bai Yanliang's expression had suddenly changed. Such a shift in emotion was already remarkable for him.

After all, he was the kind of person who could fake a smile even when faced with a ghost.

"Mr. Bai, is something wrong?"

Xu Zhi'an thought for a moment, then finally asked.

Bai Yanliang came out of his thoughts and nodded.

Looking at the two of them, he said, "There are three ghosts, but only two bodies. One is missing."

Jiang Li and Xu Zhi'an exchanged another look, confusion in both their eyes. One body was indeed missing, but what did that mean?

Bai Yanliang saw that they didn't understand and explained, "The fundamental purpose of investigating a ghost is to find its one weakness—to figure out how it died and what weapon killed it. It will fear the thing that killed it. But now, we've found two bodies hidden in water tanks. That suggests they may have been killed by the same person. Or someone killed one of them and dumped the body in a tank, only to be discovered by someone else. That person then copied the crime and dumped the second body in another tank."

By the time Bai Yanliang finished, the two of them understood what he meant.

The third corpse—another female corpse—had yet to be found!

Who had killed her?

And how had she died?

Even if Bai Yanliang's second theory was right, there was still one more killer unaccounted for!

Seeing that Jiang Li and the somewhat weak Xu Zhi'an had also fallen into thought, Bai Yanliang said nothing more.

However, he had another theory he hadn't shared.

Why?

Why had all three of the dead become ghosts?

Was something wrong with this place, or was that simply how the rules of Mist Gathering worked?

If something was wrong with this place, then surely more than three people had died on the grounds of Ruyi Inn over the years!

So... it wasn't that Ruyi Inn had always been haunted. Had something changed later, causing everyone who died here to become a vengeful ghost?

Bai Yanliang frowned slightly. If anyone else in Mist Gathering heard what he was thinking, they would surely call him crazy.

Because... he was actually investigating where ghosts came from!

Thanks to the two friends who tipped and the readers who voted. Unless something unexpected comes up, I'll post two chapters every day, with occasional extra updates. Thank you, everyone.