Chapter 540: Justice

Approaching the pagoda.

In the extremely deep night, the faint light shrouding the sky canopy also completely vanished.

In the darkness, only a faint, thin wind sound remained, along with the breathing of five people.

Xiong Hanzi shuddered all over after hearing his words.

"What... what does that mean, Captain Lin?"

"We were just talking about Madame Huang committing murder, right? How did it turn into a ghost?!"

Lin An looked at Xiong Hanzi, somewhat amused and somewhat speechless:

"Originally, this matter is probably just a meme incident."

"Don't you remember what I encountered when I first entered the instance?"

"For Huang Youwei, whether it's a meme or a supernatural entity, it's all a ghost."

"Moreover, it's actually quite normal."

"The first half of the incident is indeed a murder case wrapped in 'ghost talk,' but the second half is a meme."

"After Yuan Ying's death, due to Madame Huang's fear, it transformed into a meme and thus appeared."

"There's nothing strange about it."

Seeing Xiong Hanzi unable to wrap his head around it, still standing there dazed, Lin An simply explained more clearly:

"Weren't you an ordinary person before becoming an Awakened One?"

"Wasn't Mo Ling an ordinary little girl before becoming an Undead Body?"

"Likewise, whether it's a supernatural incident or a meme incident, they initially evolved from non‑supernatural events."

After a brief pause, Lin An simply gave Xiong Hanzi some time to think.

This guy's head is full of muscles; using his brain a bit would be good.

Actually, from this matter, Lin An also gained a slight insight.

That's right; any unsolvable event's predecessor is a solvable ordinary event.

When solving incidents like dolls and ghost infants, I actually instinctively start from the initial ordinary event, think, and resolve it.

Just like a dimensional strike.

In the face of the supernatural and anti‑logic, a player's strength is useless, or severely restricted and cannot be exerted.

But we can completely change our approach, solving the initial ordinary event of the three types of incidents.

In a sense, this also conforms to the law that missions must always give a hint of hope.

Even...

Perhaps resolving catastrophes and the apocalypse also starts from this line of thought.

That's thinking a bit too far.

Not intending to waste too much time, Lin An simply answered all of Xiong Hanzi's remaining questions, also organizing his own thoughts in the process.

After all, the speculation time was too short; maybe Xiong Hanzi could find an error in his reasoning.

Divergent thinking is never wrong.

"The matter of throwing the child to death is simple."

"After Huang Youwei had the Daoist put on a show, he then thought of curing his wife, Madame Huang."

"But he is after all an ordinary person; after doing such a thing, he inevitably feels some fear."

"He also fears that Yuan Ying might truly become a ghost and take revenge on him—what would he do then?"

"In the process of consoling and enlightening his wife, he also came under Madame Huang's influence."

"So, when Yuan Ying died and transformed into a meme appearing before him, he suffered a mental breakdown."

While speaking, Lin An paused briefly.

The mechanical Bagua was summoned accordingly, swirling around his body.

One after another, invisible array formations were laid out; under spiritual perception, they resembled a laser barrier.

Just in case, before thoroughly resolving the deserted village incident, it's always good to make more preparations.

After finishing the setup, he continued:

"If lies are repeated often enough, even one comes to believe them—especially since Huang Youwei's mental state was already off."

"Combined, he unwittingly really took Yuan Ying's origin to be the story he kept telling."

"Yuan Ying is a ghost, and 'I' have been bewitched by a ghost."

"Then, the child naturally cannot be human."

"That's a ghost fetus!"

"In this line of thinking, the couple threw the child to death and then both jumped into the well."

"Afterward, Huang Youwei deeply engraved the idea that Yuan Ying is a ghost into his mind."

"To dispel his fear, he even convinced himself to forget about having the Daoist fake things."

"Just like PTSD, psychological emergency defense—he truly took the truth to be the same story he told the villagers."

"After all, in that set of lies, Yuan Ying was suppressed."

"He was safe..."

"Precisely for this reason, the couple's fear greatly diminished, causing the meme's power to be insufficient."

"They knew Yuan Ying was a ghost, thereby keeping the meme existent."

"But in their thinking, they also believed Yuan Ying was sealed, posing no threat."

"Thus, the meme incident has so far caused no deaths and really poses little threat."

It's a very simple story.

In the story, Lin An, from an objective standpoint, could not even find right or wrong.

Does Huang Youwei have fault?

His contracted wife was bought by him, not seized.

In a sense, he could also be considered a good man of this era, knowing how to protect his wife.

But he is too obsessed with having a son, obsessed with leaving an heir.

Does the Huang family have fault?

She was already mentally broken, constantly under the villagers' pointing fingers and worldly gaze.

Among the village population, she personally killed her own child, simply because it was a girl.

What pain, what distortion.

When faced with the possibility that Huang Youwei might keep the purchased wife and she herself could not bear a son, she completely broke down.

She lived in fear all day long.

And the leper who sold Yingying in the incident was merely an ignorant, pitiful person.

He could not retrieve his wife anymore, possessing nothing.

If there truly is fault, then the fault likely lies in this ignorant era.

He remained silent for a while.

Seeing Lin An's strange behavior, it seemed as if he were manipulating something.

The three Huang family members bound together could no longer suppress the fear in their hearts.

That Buddhist pagoda was originally their nightmare.

"Sir! Please let us go! We really haven't done anything!"

They wept bitterly.

I don't know if it's because of proximity to the Buddhist pagoda, plus Lin An's demeanor of getting to the bottom of things.

Huang Youwei and his wife seemed to recall something, trembling as they clung tightly together.

They dared not think of the truth of the facts.

They also could not understand what Lin An actually wanted to do.

"Team Leader Lin, what should we do?"

He felt heavy-hearted.

Under Xiong Hanzi's straightforward narration, he also figured out the whole course of events.

Looking at the three people on the ground, Old Man Huang pleaded bitterly, while the couple's faces were ashen.

"How should we handle this?"

Lin An lowered his head, then turned his gaze complexly toward that Buddhist pagoda.

"It's very simple."

"I will open the Buddhist pagoda and let them see the corpses inside with their own eyes."

"There is Yingying, and there are children."

"If the Huang family's pregnancy is not false, then there is also a baby girl."

"I will tell them."

"You killed people."

"Using a mechanical compass to trap the white shadow, then restoring the truth once more, eliminating their fear that Yingying is a ghost in their perception."

"Doing this, the mission should be able to be completed."

Having said that, Lin An, without hesitation, lifted the three and came before the Buddhist pagoda, his expression solemn.

Killing someone, one should pay with one's life.

He, Lin An, cannot achieve 'justice'.

What he can do is only a life for a life.