Chi Shuyan racked her brain, but couldn’t think of anything. There were too many secrets hidden in this village. She looked back and forth between the two memorial tablets and was about to put them down, when she suddenly saw that there were also two drawings behind them on the wall.

Chi Shuyan immediately put the two memorial tablets aside and looked seriously at the drawings.

Judging from the style and strokes, this painting was indeed drawn by the artist on the fourth floor. Chi Shuyan thought that the artist would continue with the story. After scanning the pictures behind the memorial tablets, she realized that it wasn’t a continuation, but a repeat of the seventh drawing.

It was the drawing of a man sitting in a chair in front of a blue brick house and throwing a Buddha statue into a brazier. Compared with the sketchy drawing on the fourth floor that could just barely be made out, the drawing behind the memorial tablet was much clearer.

It also allowed Chi Shuyan to see that this man wasn’t the Xu son, but someone else. The seventh drawing on the fourth floor hadn’t had much detail – she had just barely been able to make out that it was a man, and couldn’t tell what he looked like at all.

In this drawing, the man clearly had a beard and a small bald spot on the back of his head. From these two features, it was impossible for him to be the Xu son.

Since this man wasn’t the Xu son, who on earth was he?

Why was he burning the Buddha statue?

Weren’t the villagers especially obsessed with worshiping this Buddha statue?

Chi Shuyan’s thoughts raced, and her eyes fell on the drawing of the man again.

A bald spot on the back of the head?

Chi Shuyan quickly remembered Brother Feng’s description of the man who had almost buried him alive. He had an average build and was in his forties or fifties. There was also a bald patch on the back of his head.

Realizing that the man in the drawing was most likely the same person who had tried to bury Brother Feng alive, Chi Shuyan’s face was very unsightly and solemn.

For now, she couldn’t guess who this man was or what role he played, so she simply examined the other drawing.

The other drawing was of a man with a Buddha statue stuck to his back. His whole body had suddenly caught fire and his face was filled with pain. In the end, he turned into a charred skeleton.

Even if it was just a drawing and the artist’s skills were amateur, Chi Shuyan was still so shocked that her hair stood on end, and she felt her blood run cold.

Chi Shuyan couldn’t guess the identity of the man in the first drawing, but the person in this second drawing should be the filial son of the Xu family. Looking at the memorial tablet in her hand, Chi Shuyan was 80 to 90% sure that the filial son of the Xu family hadn’t left the village back then.

It was very likely that the Xu son had died an unnatural death in the village and was burned to death.

With her son dead, his mother naturally wouldn’t have a good ending. Moreover, his mother was so old. Once something happened to the Xu family’s filial son, there was naturally a high chance that something would happen to her!

Chi Shuyan went over the story told in the nine drawings and speculated about what happened to the Xu family back then. The first drawing had nothing to do with the Xu family, but the second drawing depicted a person piously kowtowing in the temple and making a wish. In other words, the Xu son had indeed been a filial son back then. Because of his mother’s illness, he specially went to the temple to make a wish. For this reason, he even invited in the True Buddha Lord, in the third drawing.

The fourth drawing depicted a loving mother and son, as well as a broken bowl on the floor. Chi Shuyan hadn’t understood it earlier, but thinking about it now, what could make the Xu mother and son so excited and happy?

In other words, after the filial son of the Xu family invited the True Buddha in, the True Buddha indeed manifested. The Xu mother’s condition improved and was even cured. The broken bowl and spilt liquid was a veiled hint that she didn’t need to drink medicine anymore.

The fifth picture was of a man tying up a struggling mother and son inside the temple in front of many people. In other words, after the True Buddha ‘manifested’ and gave the Xu mother ‘guidance,’ the filial son of the Xu family completely believed in the True Buddha, and even sacrificed the lives of his wife and son to it.

The sixth drawing was of a monster and a dying child lying on the side. This drawing should be implying that the True Buddha in the village wasn’t a Buddha at all, but a ‘monster that ate children.’ The child of the Xu family had most likely been murdered. This made Chi Shuyan think of the first time she saw Sister-in-law Miao’s child and how she couldn’t detect a pulse from him.

The seventh drawing was of a man sitting in a chair in front of a blue brick house and throwing a Buddha statue into a brazier.

Wait, if she wasn’t wrong, the second picture here should be the eighth one that was missing details on the fourth floor.

As for the the Xu son’s murderer… Chi Shuyan’s eyes fell on the unfamiliar man in the first drawing again. She felt that there was more to this person, and it had a lot to do with the other drawing.

She looked back and forth between the two drawings again. Her eyes suddenly fell on the Buddha statue stuck to the back of the man in the second picture. Wait, she figured it out – if she wasn’t wrong, the True Buddha Lord that was thrown into the fire by the man in the first picture should be the Buddha statue that the filial son of the Xu family had invited in.

The Buddha statue was burned to a crisp, and so was he. This was the consequence of inviting in the True Buddha Lord!

In other words, the reason why the filial son of the Xu family died was because of the True Buddha Lord whom he believed in. Whether it was the True Buddha Lord or the person behind it, they had never thought of curing the Xu son’s mother at all, but wanted to kill his entire family.

At that moment, the sound of thumping rang out again. This time, Chi Shuyan was sure that the thing was upstairs. She could feel the vibrations even from here. Soon, the ‘thing’ slowly came down one slow step after another. There were nine stairs in total, and Chi Shuyan counted them down.

A huge shadow appeared on the floor. The thing swayed, and so did the big ‘bumps’ all over its body.

Chi Shuyan had yet to turn around to see the true face of this ‘True Buddha Lord,’ but she was already disgusted by its shadow. When she turned around, she saw a monster identical to the one she had seen in the Yu residence before.

There was a hideous smile on its face, which was 80 to 90% similar to the Maitreya Buddha. The pair of eyes took up half the face, so big that they were terrifying. The other features were squeezed into the bottom half of the face in a bizarre proportion.

When it opened its mouth to reveal thin, pointed teeth, it looked even uglier.

Not only that, the monster in front of Chi Shuyan was simply ten times the size of the one at the Yu residence. Its body bulged with densely packed pustules, and each pustule had the distorted face of a baby or a child. It was very terrifying.

This thing was covered all over in the pustules with human faces, from the top of its head down to its feet. Countless heads were squeezed together on the monster.

For the first time in her life, Chi Shuyan almost threw up in disgust when looking at a monster. She stared coldly at the evil thing in front of her, which was smiling greedily and strangely.

Moreover, she was very sure that this thing could see her and wanted to eat her.

Chi Shuyan didn’t know that although she wasn’t a baby or a child, ever since she embarked on the path of a cultivator, her entire body was filled with nourishing spiritual energy. To this evil creature in front of her, she was a supreme tonic, like a 1,000-year-old spiritual plant in front of an ordinary person.

The evil creature in front of her opened its mouth to reveal sparse, sharp teeth, and disgusting drool dripped from the corners of its mouth. Chi Shuyan’s eyes were filled with killing intent. She made the first move and flung out a stack of Exorcism Talismans.

The evil creature obviously didn’t expect her to still be able to make a move. When it was struck with the Exorcism Talismans, which pushed it back a few steps and burned its skin black, its greedy eyes turned angry. Its strange pupils glowed an angry red, and it opened its mouth and roared into the air. Unfortunately for Chi Shuyan, the large stack of Exorcism Talismans didn’t cause any real damage.

Chi Shuyan quickly took out another stack of Exploding Talismans and attacked the evil creature again. At that moment, there was the sound of a drum, and a human voice rang out outside the temple. “Someone barged into the temple and injured the True Buddha!”