Translator: CinderTL
"Alright," Jiang Cheng said. "No more playing around. We have important matters to attend to."
Lin Wan'er listened to Jiang Cheng's words and left with the others, leaving behind a bewildered Fu Fu.
Finding a secluded spot, Jiang Cheng and Wu Dali sat down. Although Wu Dali had retrieved his clothes, he didn't seem to be in a good mood. In fact, he looked rather worried.
Finally, Jiang Cheng broke the silence. "It seems you're quite familiar with Crippled Liu from Feng Manor." He tapped his fingertip lightly on the table, making no sound, yet creating an invisible pressure.
Wu Dali had originally planned to retrieve his clothes and then make an excuse to slip away. But now, he swallowed nervously, realizing things weren't as simple as he'd thought.
"Actually... it's not as close as you might think," Wu Dali said, scratching his head. He was wearing the clothes he'd just won back, and he lowered his voice. "Don't let Crippled Liu's appearance fool you. He's had a hard life, but he's a good person. He works hard too. Otherwise, the Feng Family wouldn't have kept him around, right?"
"When did he come to the Feng Family?" Huai Yi asked, organizing his thoughts.
"Oh, that was quite a while ago," Wu Dali said, lost in thought. "Must be about two years now."
"That's right, two years! I remember he was found in the dead of winter!" Wu Dali seemed to recall the event vividly, speaking with certainty.
Jiang Cheng seized on a key phrase in Wu Dali's words. "He was found?"
"Yes. Come to think of it, Crippled Liu is truly lucky to have survived that ordeal," Wu Dali sighed, a complex emotion flickering in his eyes.
This naturally didn't escape the notice of the others.
"I remember it was a winter two years ago. The weather was terrible, with heavy snow falling for days on end. Old Zheng—" Wu Dali paused, then explained, "Oh, that's our local hunter, the most experienced one. He was poaching in the Mountain when he found Crippled Liu."
"He was huddled under a big tree, already frozen stiff. The doctor later said that if they'd found him even a little later, he wouldn't have made it."
"That's how we saved him. He was barely clinging to life."
"Later, when Master Feng celebrated his birthday and wanted to accumulate merit by doing good deeds, he brought Crippled Liu into the manor and gave him some light work to do."
After a moment of thought, Jiang Cheng asked, "What did you mean earlier when you said he survived something that should have killed him?"
Jiang Cheng had noticed that Wu Dali's expression had changed noticeably when he spoke about this, as if he were deliberately concealing something.
Wu Dali's gaze met Jiang Cheng's briefly, his expression conflicted. After a long pause, he finally sighed, his fists clenched tightly on his lap. "I only heard this myself. Not many people in our police station know about it. You can listen, but don't repeat it to anyone else."
"Don't worry," Fatty said earnestly, nodding. "My lips are sealed."
"Outsiders all think Crippled Liu's condition is some strange illness, but it's not," Wu Dali whispered, his voice filled with resentment. "He was crippled by those damned Japs!"
"His condition is related to the Japs?" Huai Yi exclaimed, completely contradicting their initial assumption that Crippled Liu was a Disciple of the Door.
"Yes," Wu Dali nodded, his eyes momentarily unfocused, as if he had been transported back to that era of war and chaos.
After a long pause, he spoke in a mysterious tone. "Back then, the Japanese built a secret base in the nearby mountains. They captured many innocent people and used them for experiments. Crippled Liu was one of those they captured. They injected him with some kind of serum, and that's how he ended up like this."
"Secret base..." Chen Qiang mused, since they knew the Japanese had been mining gold in the mountains, this seemed to fit.
"The Japanese were ruthless. They didn't treat our people like human beings. They called them 'logs.' They'd kill a living person as casually as slaughtering a chicken."
"Later, the people inside plotted together. They figured they were going to die anyway, so they might as well fight back."
"So they planned their rebellion, waiting for the Japanese to let their guard down. At first, everything went smoothly, but then..." Wu Dali's tone changed. "At the critical moment, they encountered a formidable Japanese man, the leader of the group."
"He practiced sorcery. He was invulnerable to blades and bullets. He single-handedly killed over a dozen of our people with his bare hands."
"The last survivors were driven to desperation. To prevent those demons from continuing their atrocities and slaughtering our comrades, they detonated the base's ammunition depot, taking the Japanese with them."
"Crippled Liu was blown away by the explosion's shockwave. When he woke up, he was in a vast, white mountain range. He crawled with all his might, finally collapsing unconscious beneath a tree."
"He was the only survivor of that incident," Wu Dali sighed, unsure whether he was expressing relief for Crippled Liu's survival or lamenting the deaths of their comrades.
Compared to Crippled Liu's ordeal, everyone was more interested in the Japanese sorcerer and the abilities of his disciples, which ordinary people would have considered black magic.
"Do we know this Japanese man's identity?" Jiang Cheng asked.
"I think his name was Ancestor Yamamoto," Wu Dali replied uncertainly. Perhaps sensing the strange looks he was receiving, he quickly explained, "He once stayed in Grey Stone Town for a while and held great prestige among the Japanese in the area, so some information about him has been preserved."
"Was he a military officer?"
Hearing this, Wu Dali shook his head, his expression strange. "No, he's not a soldier." He glanced around cautiously before whispering, "Some people say they saw those Japanese secretly calling him 'Great High Priest.'"
"Great High Priest?"
Jiang Cheng's gaze sharpened as the clues connected.
Evil sorcery, Shinto priest... It seemed this man was the priest from Yangzi's hometown shrine, and those straw effigies were his creations.
He was the Disciple of the Door they had been searching for all along.
The ghost in this instance originated from the Gate within his body.
On the way back, the atmosphere within the team grew even heavier despite the connection between the clues. Fatty trailed behind, his large head swaying.
Only Pi Ruan seemed unaffected, constantly encouraging Fatty. His recent chattiness had given Fatty the unsettling feeling that Pi Ruan might have ulterior motives.
For safety, Fatty chose to stick close to the Doctor and Boss Lin.
Sure enough, Pi Ruan became much more subdued near Boss Lin.
"Heh, a secret base blown up, killing all the Japanese disciples along with it, and only a cripple survived?"
Fu Fu narrowed her eyes and said in a voice that was neither entirely male nor entirely female, "Crippled Liu is truly a lucky man!"
(End of the Chapter)
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