Hearing my words, Wang Qian looked around and muttered, "Is it true? Who would tamper with this mass grave."
I glanced at Wang Qian and said helplessly, "Forget it, I won't tell you, it's a waste of breath."
Saying that, I walked into the mass grave. As I scanned the entire mass grave with my eyes, I already understood. Someone had used the soul-summoning flag to capture the lost souls and wild ghosts in the mass grave. On the surface, it seemed like a good deed to prevent these lost souls and wild ghosts from harming people.
But in reality, it might not be so.
Because, not only legitimate Taoist priests use the soul-summoning flag, but also evil people. I just hoped that Long Lanxiang's body hadn't been affected.
Thinking of this, I suddenly took out my phone. Earlier, when capturing the information of Long Lanxiang's address, I also took down Long Lanxiang's date of birth and death. With these two things, it wouldn't be difficult for me to find Long Lanxiang's grave.
Scanning the group of unmarked graves in front of me, I had already taken out a small yellow-paper man, about the size of two fingers, from my backpack. Then I took out cinnabar and a brush, quickly writing down Long Lanxiang's date of death on the paper man's body.
As I stopped writing, I suddenly threw the paper man into the air and recited a spell: "Dust to dust, earth to earth, living seek mountains, and the dead show the way."
After finishing the spell, I shouted out loudly.
At that moment, something eerie happened to the floating yellow paper man in midair. Because out of nowhere, an eerie wind arose in midair. Then, the paper man was blown around by this eerie wind until it finally landed steadily on one of the graves.
"It's there." I pointed to the grave where the paper man was, and quickly walked over. Wang Qian looked puzzled but followed me.
"Did you find Long Lanxiang's grave?" Wang Qian asked in confusion.
I nodded and said, "Of course, don't you see who helped out?"
Wang Qian rolled her eyes and looked speechless. I said, "Go on, don't just stand there, get me a hoe and a shovel."
"What for?" Wang Qian asked, puzzled.
I couldn't help but sigh and said, "My dear leader Wang, didn't I tell you that we came to find Long Lanxiang's corpse? How can we get the corpse without digging up the grave?"
Wang Qian glared at me and said, "You seem to be getting bolder the more I listen to you. In this desolate place, where do you expect me to find these things for you?"
I looked around helplessly and sighed, "Forget it, I'll go myself."
With that, I turned and left the chaotic burial ground. Coincidentally, not far from the chaotic burial ground, there was a man in his 40s doing farm work, so I hurried over to borrow a hoe from him. Since it was someone I knew from town, I got what I needed without much trouble.
"Xiao Mu, what do you need a hoe for in this desolate place?" Despite lending me the hoe, the man couldn't help but ask.
"Oh," I replied, "Nothing, just need it over there."
"Over there?" His expression immediately turned grim. "Isn't that the chaotic burial ground? Xiao Mu, you're not planning to dig up a grave, are you? Let me warn you, it's very ominous to randomly dig there."
"Where do you get that idea?" I pretended to be silly and said, "Uncle, don't worry, I'll give it back to you shortly."
With that, I quickly ran back to the chaotic burial ground and started to vigorously dig up Long Lanxiang's grave. The graves in this chaotic burial ground were different from ordinary ones.
After all, in the chaotic burial ground, when burying the corpse, they couldn't be bothered to dig a hole, so they just placed the body on the ground and covered it with soil. Therefore, with a heavy rain, many graves would be washed away, and even the bones inside might occasionally be exposed.
After several hoe strikes, I had dug about half of Long Lanxiang's grave. However, at this point, I faintly felt that something was wrong, because even though half of the grave had been dug up, I still hadn't seen any bones.
So, I suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?" Wang Qian asked, puzzled.
I gently shook my head and said, "Nothing."
With that, I exerted more force, digging even harder. After a few more hoe strikes, the grave was entirely dug up. However, there still weren't any bones inside the grave.
At this point, even Wang Qian on the side had noticed something was wrong: "Duan Mu, could it be that you made a mistake? Why is there nothing inside this grave?"
I frowned, "No, I definitely did not make a mistake. As for why there are no Long Lanxiang's remains inside this grave, I think..."
Wang Qian asked, "What is it?"
"Hmm," I suddenly glanced at the spirit-capturing banner, and suddenly realized. I thought, who would inexplicably plant a spirit-capturing banner here, it turned out there was indeed a reason. Finally, I said, "I'm afraid it has been dug up by someone."
"Ah?" Wang Qian was stunned, "Are you kidding? Besides you, who else would be interested in a corpse?"
"I..." I almost swore, straightened my clothes, and said, "Captain Wang, if you have no understanding, don't make unfounded remarks. Do you think Long Lanxiang's body is just an ordinary corpse?"
A corpse, it might be difficult for ordinary people to understand, they might truly not comprehend its significance. But for cultivators, the meaning of a corpse is just too significant.
Firstly, a corpse is the shell of a person, and besides that, it actually harbors numerous crucial weaknesses. These weaknesses are not only aimed at living people, but even at dead ghosts and monsters.
No matter how fierce an evil spirit is, as long as one controls its corpse and applies special methods, it can even easily make the evil spirit obedient and even eliminate it.
For such a fierce evil spirit as Long Lanxiang, if a cultivator knows the location of his body, they might even compete to seize his corpse. Because by controlling Long Lanxiang's body, they can effortlessly control Long Lanxiang and make him do their bidding.
However, what I just said are the actions of evil practitioners. Righteous practitioners absolutely wouldn't do such things.
Thinking about this, I felt uneasy. Who could have stolen Long Lanxiang's body? What did they want by stealing it?
"Let's go back to the town." I lifted the hoe and said to Wang Qian.
"Are we just going to leave it like this?" Wang Qian asked.
I nodded, "The body is gone, what else can we do?"
"But..." Wang Qian hesitated, "Didn't you say that Long Lanxiang is now harming people? If we don't find Long Lanxiang's body, how are we going to deal with her?"
"We?" I couldn't help but glance at Wang Qian, "When did this become 'we,' it's clearly just me."
With that, I suddenly smiled at Wang Qian, then squatted down and grabbed a handful of soil from Long Lanxiang's grave before saying, "Don't worry, the body is just missing, I'll find it for you in no time."