Chapter 66: The Great Transformation—A Glutton’s Misfortune

Xu Wenshan was still pondering, while Lu Wuji was mulling over whether it would be most satisfying to simply cut down everyone present with a single stroke. Dusk was already approaching, yet the county constable and the registrar had not reached any conclusion in their argument.

At last, Xu Wenshan opened his eyes and said, “If I recall correctly, the priest mentioned that Song San died at dusk yesterday, did he not?”

When they examined the corpse earlier, the priest had used a spell to determine the time of death—it was precisely this time yesterday.

Lu Wuji replied, “So what if he did?”

Struggling to his feet, Xu Wenshan said, “Then I have an idea.”

The county constable and the registrar finally ceased their bickering to listen to Xu Wenshan's insight.

“First, Song San died at this time yesterday, when it was not yet dark… Look.”

Following Xu Wenshan’s outstretched finger, everyone gazed down the slope at the fields, where many farmers still worked with hoes and children played.

“What about it?” they asked.

Xu Wenshan continued, “Yesterday at this time, it was still light. If a murder had occurred here, those people would surely have seen it. We could just bring up one or two and ask them, couldn’t we?”

Everyone’s faces flushed. The county constable coughed twice and said, “I had already thought of that, but was delayed by this fool, so I hadn’t given the order.”

The registrar, fuming, retorted, “You!”

The constables brought up several old farmers and a few mischievous children. The county constable and the registrar interrogated them in turn, but all swore that nothing out of the ordinary had happened at dusk yesterday—no murders, nothing unusual.

As the two officials failed to elicit anything useful and were preparing to resort to their usual torture methods, Xu Wenshan shook his head. “You won’t get anything this way. Once you start beating them, however many you bring in, they’ll all confess to the crime just to end the pain.”

The registrar protested, “What else can we do? These people are lowly; they won’t confess unless beaten!”

Xu Wenshan replied, “Even if they do confess, you’ll only have another wrongly-accused ghost on your conscience. Do you think your nephew’s spirit will be satisfied with that?”

The registrar was left speechless by these words. Xu Wenshan went on, “Before you begin questioning, you must know what answers you’re seeking. If you yourselves are unclear, how can you hope to find the truth?”

He continued, “This case is actually very simple. The crime scene is between the fields; the time of the crime was dusk yesterday; the course of events: Song San was killed, and some of his flesh was eaten. Everything seems straightforward, but the difficulty lies in how outrageous the case appears. A man leaves the city gates in broad daylight and is not only murdered but eaten. If it were you, would you believe such a thing could happen?”

Everyone shook their heads. The mere idea was too shocking to believe.

“You see,” said Xu Wenshan, “you are all people who have seen many storms in life, and even you find this unbearable. How could these farmers possibly have witnessed it? They must not have seen any murder.”

The county constable and the registrar were furious. “You were the one who called these people for questioning, and now you say they know nothing?”

Xu Wenshan replied, “I said to question them, but I never said they saw ‘Song San murdered and his flesh roasted and eaten.’”

Suddenly growing solemn, Xu Wenshan said, “Listen carefully. Your blind spot is that you believe this matter to be unspeakably dark, evil, horrifying, and disgusting. You think it must have been committed by some heinous villain or demonic cultivator.

But for something so outrageous to occur, there can only be one truth: that nothing so outrageous actually happened.

Or, at least, that in the eyes of these farmers, nothing of the sort occurred.”

“…What are you trying to say?” the crowd asked.

“Try not to think of Song San as a person for a moment. Imagine him as livestock. A beast wandering among the fields, discovered by the people, who then tie it up, carry it up the hill, and slaughter it to share the meat—isn’t that much more plausible?”

Xu Wenshan’s words sent a chill down everyone’s spine.

The registrar, uncertain whether to be angry, asked, “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying it plainly,” Xu Wenshan replied. “There’s no evil farmer or sinister cultivator—only a group of gluttons who made a terrible mistake.”

“Transformation into livestock,” the priest suddenly interjected.

“What?” asked Xu Wenshan.

“The Beast-Making Spell,” Lu Wuji explained. “It’s a kind of sorcery that turns people into animals.”

“Indeed,” Xu Wenshan nodded. “That explains everything.”

The Beast-Making Spell was a powerful sorcery, capable of transforming people into animals.

The county constable, now excited, interrogated the farmers about whether anyone had caught and eaten livestock yesterday. One farmer confessed that he and two others had caught a stray yellow dog the previous day, taken it up the hill, and killed it for food.

The county constable and the registrar immediately ordered their arrest, and soon the three farmers were dragged up the slope in disgrace.

In tears, the three confessed everything, and the case became clear.

Song San had not been bewitched, nor was there any cannibalistic demon cultivator.

Song San, following the young lady through the fields, was transformed into a large yellow dog.

Three gluttonous farmers spotted the stray dog, caught it, and decided to eat it.

They borrowed a broken shovel from another farmer and struck the yellow dog’s throat several times, killing it on the spot.

Fearing others would come to claim a share, the trio carried the dead dog up the hill, gutted it, removed its organs, hung it up, sliced the meat into strips, and roasted it over a fire.

But as they ate, the magic of the Beast-Making Spell faded, and the yellow dog became Song San once more.

Terrified out of their wits, the three vomited all over the ground and fled in panic. That night, they snuck back to the hill to bury the shovel used to kill the dog.

Hiding in their homes, they dared not go out, praying the investigation would not lead to them.

But the net of justice is vast and inescapable—or rather, it was Xu Wenshan’s forceful intervention that brought the truth to light.

At last, the truth emerged. The registrar, weeping and shouting, demanded the severest punishment for the three, who trembled in fear.

Yet Lu Wuji, standing aside, was preoccupied with his own thoughts.

His true target was not these three foolish farmers, but the monster behind them who wielded the Beast-Making Spell.

For a monster capable of mastering such sorcery, its cultivation was already on par with a human cultivator at the Core Formation stage.

In Xu Wenshan’s words, this was a Class Three monster.

Lu Wuji’s excitement mounted. If he could slay this monster beyond his own level, the rewards would be immense—perhaps even enough to advance to the next minor realm.

Yet, to bring down this monster, he would have to make use of mortal strength.

Lu Wuji glanced sideways at Xu Wenshan.