Chapter 415: Burial

"The Dao Ting Si's coroner entered the mine to examine the bodies and ultimately concluded that these miners were killed by demonic beasts, then eaten by them…"

"The Lu family has sent word that they will compensate with spirit stones."

"Once the miners' families receive the spirit stones, they'll stop causing trouble."

"Within the Dao Ting Si, this matter is temporarily settled…"

Sister Situ sighed helplessly.

Mo Hua's gaze darkened slightly, "It's not that simple…"

Leaving aside other things, those miners were certainly not eaten by demonic beasts.

Mo Hua frequently dealt with demonic beasts on Great Heishan, so he was certain.

Seeing no one else around, Sister Situ lowered her voice and said:

"That's right—the coroner lied."

Mo Hua frowned, "How do you know he lied?"

Sister Situ said, "I gave him spirit stones—he told me himself."

Mo Hua nodded.

Spirit stones do make people truthful.

He gave the broker for the cave purchase two spirit stones, and the man told him everything.

Sister Situ continued:

"The coroner told me these miners were first killed by someone, then eaten by something unknown…"

"The deaths occurred some time ago, and the cave was thick with foul miasma, so the stench of decay and death-miasma mixed together, making it hard to determine what had eaten them…"

Mo Hua's heart tightened slightly, then he felt a pang of admiration.

The miners had died in such a gruesome state, yet the coroner could still determine the cause of death—he truly had real skill.

In the hundred arts of cultivation, even seemingly insignificant, despised trades hold their own special methods and must not be underestimated.

"Then why didn't the coroner tell the truth?" Mo Hua asked. "Was someone silencing him?"

"Yes," Sister Situ nodded. "The Dao Ting Si's Zhao Diansi subtly warned him."

"Zhao Diansi?"

Sister Situ whispered, "He's more senior than I am—he's served as Diansi in the Nan Yue City Dao Ting Si for sixty or seventy years and enjoys the deep trust of the Zhou Zhangsi."

Zhou Zhangsi…

Mo Hua began to understand.

It was the Nan Yue City Zhou Zhangsi who ordered this matter suppressed, fabricating a "suitable" excuse to minimize it.

If a cultivator killed them, it was murder.

If demonic beasts killed them, it was an accident.

If it was an accident, it was unavoidable.

The Dao Ting Si wouldn't need to investigate, the Lu family's liability would be light—just pay some spirit stones.

The miners' families would receive compensation and stop causing trouble.

The matter would be settled…

On the surface, it was indeed "suitable."

Mo Hua glanced at Sister Situ's expression and saw her lingering unease; he whispered:

"Sister Situ, are you planning to keep investigating?"

Sister Situ hesitated, then nodded:

"You're right—this isn't that simple. We must find out who killed the miners and what ate their corpses."

Sister Situ sighed, "If we don't uncover the truth, more miners will die like this…"

Mo Hua said, "Your Zhou Zhangsi won't allow you to keep investigating."

Sister Situ shrugged, "I'm on rotation, backed by my family. I just need to appear respectful on the surface—I don't have to fear him."

Mo Hua nodded and praised, "Sister Situ, you have such a kind heart!"

Then he thumped his chest and said, "I'll help you investigate!"

Sister Situ gave Mo Hua another skeptical look, "What will you investigate?"

"The miners' cause of death."

Sister Situ frowned, "It's my duty to investigate—I'm the one who should do it. Why are you getting involved?"

Mo Hua thought for a moment, then said:

"I want to find Yan Jiaxi. He vanished in the mines too—perhaps his disappearance is connected to the miners' deaths."

"Besides, I want to uncover the truth—I can't let these miners die without justice."

Of course, there was another crucial point: the Absolute Array.

Mo Hua had sensed the sinister aura of the Absolute Array on the dead miners.

He desperately wanted to know what the Absolute Array was, and why it carried such malevolent energy.

And who exactly was using this array to harm people…

But Mo Hua did not mention the Absolute Array.

Sister Situ pondered deeply, then nodded, "Alright."

Then she warned him:

"But you must be careful—this matter likely involves far more than it seems. If things turn dangerous, run immediately."

"No matter how powerful they are, they're only strong within Nan Yue City."

"No matter how powerful their influence, it's limited to Nan Yue City."

"Once you leave Nan Yue City and return to Xiancheng, it's your own territory—you don't need to fear anything."

Mo Hua's gaze flickered slightly; it seemed Sister Situ had also sensed something.

Mo Hua nodded and said, "Good!"

……

Although they needed to investigate, the clues were extremely limited.

Mo Hua wanted to first examine the corpses of the miner cultivators.

He wished to use his spiritual sense to perceive the death-corrupt qi on the corpses—what exactly it was, and how it differed from ordinary heavenly and earthly qi.

He also wanted to perform further divination to see if he could uncover more clues about the Absolute Array.

After the mine tunnels were cleared, the miner cultivators' corpses were stored at Dao Ting Si.

Mo Hua followed Sister Situ to Dao Ting Si, but was told the corpses had already been sent to the families for cremation.

Mo Hua's gaze hardened slightly.

Sister Situ frowned tightly. "Who authorized this?"

"Who else could it be?" The coroner sneered, glanced around, then pointed upward with his hand.

Up above—that meant the Zhou Zhangsi of Nan Yue City.

Mo Hua silently calculated in his mind.

To dispose of the corpses so hastily…

This Zhou Zhangsi clearly had serious problems.

This also proved that these corpses indeed concealed some unspeakable secrets.

Sister Situ's eyes flickered; she clearly held the same thought.

They had no intention of confronting the Zhou Zhangsi directly, because such a move would be meaningless.

"Ask the families of the miner cultivators," Mo Hua suggested.

Sister Situ nodded.

These miner cultivators lived in houses near the mine.

These houses were extremely cramped, filthy, disordered, and filled with foul air.

The miner cultivators living inside were all unkempt and grimy.

It was noon; many were eating thin porridge with dark, hard pickled vegetables.

The porridge contained flour but barely a few grains of rice.

Children running through the narrow alleys were filthy all over.

Sister Situ's expression softened with pity.

Even Mo Hua, accustomed to the poverty of wandering cultivators, sighed slightly.

Even among wandering cultivators, these miners were among the poorest.

Mo Hua had always thought the wandering cultivators of Xiancheng were suffering enough.

But he hadn't expected that the farther he traveled, the more he saw, the lower the bottom of poverty became.

It seemed Elder Yu was right: "The wandering cultivators of Xiancheng suffer greatly, but outside Xiancheng, there are countless others who suffer even more..."

Mo Hua's gaze grew dim as he silently pondered something.

Sister Situ brought Mo Hua to a dilapidated house.

The house's door was closed.

Sister Situ asked the neighbors and learned that Dao Ting Si had returned the cremated remains, and this household had gone to bury the deceased miner.

The burial site was a large stretch of wasteland to the south.

It was a mass grave.

When Mo Hua and Sister Situ arrived at the mass grave, they saw a desolate ground littered with haphazardly erected tombs.

Some had steles inscribed with the names of the dead.

Others bore only wooden plaques, weathered and rotted by wind and sun.

Most had no markers at all—no one knew who was buried there or who had buried them.

In the mass grave, a new tomb was being lowered.

As Mo Hua and Sister Situ approached, they saw four or five families gathered together, dressed in white, burning paper money, whispering sobs.

Before them stood only one coffin.

After asking, they learned these five men had been torn apart, their bodies unrecognizable.

Dao Ting Si had mixed them together and cremated them as one.

So their families could only bury all five together in a single coffin.

Sister Situ angrily said, "How could they do this?"

A middle-aged woman, gaunt and carrying a thin child, said helplessly:

"Even if we separated them, we couldn't afford separate coffins. This one coffin was pooled together by our four families."

"But there were five families, weren't there?"

"One family—the wife already left with her son to remarry. No one buried him."

Sister Situ had no reply.

The woman sighed and said:

"We don't blame her. A widow with a young child—without remarrying, she couldn't survive."

Sister Situ frowned. "Didn't the Lu family pay compensation in spirit stones?"

"They paid a hundred. By the time it reached us, we got only twenty. And even these twenty won't last long."

Sister Situ's expression turned cold. "Who withheld it?"

The woman stammered but could not speak, only sighed with a sorrowful face.

Sister Situ asked again; the woman merely shook her head and fell silent.

Everyone fell into silence.

Between the desolate graves, stillness returned, broken only by weak, intermittent sobs.

After the graves were erected, everyone lit incense.

The incense smoke curled gently; the graves stood lonely.

The families of the mining cultivators wore sorrowful faces.

Mining cultivators struggle to survive; no one knows how long they will live.

At any moment, they may meet with accident in the mine, adding another grave to this mass burial ground.

In the end, all these graves will be nameless and faceless, standing amid this desolate hillside.

No one asks after them; no one comes to pay respects.

Just piles of unknown earth and rocks.

Mo Hua glanced around, a sudden sense of desolation and sorrow rising in his heart.

After a moment, Mo Hua froze.

He studied these families again, slowly frowning.

He remembered that when these mining cultivators' families had protested and demanded answers from Dao Ting Si, arguing with Sister Situ, they had been accompanied by several large men.

But now, these households consisted only of women, children, and the elderly.

A few young cultivators remained, but they were frail.

Where had those large men gone?

Mo Hua's gaze grew cold.

My schedule has been off, so I posted late. Sorry.

(End of Chapter)