Chapter 881

In Uesugi Muneyuki's eyes, the world changed color.

Thick to the point of almost solidifying, the black-red resentment clung to every inch of land like viscous magma.

The sky was gray-white, but under the reflection of this resentment, the ground emitted an ominous dark red, like old cotton soaked in blood. In the gaps of the tin shacks, resentment seeped out like smoke, flowing along the ground, parting automatically at the tip of his shoes, like water flowing around a stone.

He did not move, and the resentment did not dissipate.

Shirakawa Mai stood beside him, seeing his expression and knowing what he had seen, her own expression grew much more serious:

"How much stronger than the hotel?"

"Compared to that, it's roughly the difference between Suntory -196° sparkling wine and Russian premium vodka." Uesugi Muneyuki stared: "The hotel was like scooping a cup of water from a river; here is the entire river's source."

"Call the police, call the police quickly, Mai-sama!" He repeated.

However, Mai Xuejie refused, shaking her head to signal us to go in and take a look first.

Mai Xuejie's body flashed with light, her original clothes changing into a red-and-white miko robe, her hand gripping tightly the symbol of the Head of the Kanto Shrine Alliance, Izumi Mountain Divine Bow.

Uesugi Muneyuki also summoned his Wisdom King Dharma Images, the spirit spheres in his hand ready.

The two walked toward the depths of the ranch, steps slow, eyes scanning every building, every tree, every stone.

The black-red resentment was thick in some places, thin in others, but nowhere was it clean.

Upon reaching the first row of tin shacks, he stopped. The windows were boarded up, the door chained with iron, a rusted lock hanging on the chain. He peered through the gaps in the boards into the dormitory.

Bunk beds with iron frames, moldy bedding, walls scratched with fingernail-carved characters.

"Save," "Pain," "Die," "Mom." Uesugi Muneyuki said in a low voice.

Shirakawa Mai stood behind him, saying nothing.

"This way!" Uesugi Muneyuki sensed, then immediately walked toward that dried spring.

The closer they got to the dry spring, the thicker the resentment became, so thick that Uesugi Muneyuki felt his own breathing grow difficult.

The dry spring was not large, about two meters in diameter, its mouth sealed by a thick layer of ice.

The ice surface was covered with snow, showing no abnormality, but in spirit vision, beneath the ice lay a surging, black-red, seemingly alive substance.

Uesugi Muneyuki crouched, using his glove to brush away the snow on the ice surface; in spirit vision, the ice was transparent, allowing him to vaguely see what lay beneath. He saw.

Many corpses, limbs intertwined, twisted and stacked, like sardines crammed into a can, every inch of space utilized to the extreme. Some faces were upward, eyes wide open, mouths agape, as if shouting something, lips frozen shut, but he recognized the mouth shape as one "assist woman".

Some curled into a ball, arms wrapped around knees, like a fetus in the womb, spine bent into an abnormal arc, likely broken when shoved in.

Some lay face down, only a patch of back exposed, the back covered in large dark patches resembling burns or frostbite, skin peeled back to reveal muscle and bone beneath.

They were packed into the eye of the dry spring, layer upon layer, stacked from the bottom up to near the ice surface, like a can desperately stuffed full of spoiled meat that had expired decades ago.

The topmost few had faces rotted beyond recognition of facial features, but their mouths remained open.

The Death Soul Contract did not glow, meaning they had been dead for many years.

Yet the surging cursed grudge told him that things here were not over.

Uesugi Muneyuki stood up, his legs feeling a bit weak.

This place, what exactly happened……

Is this the legendary Disabled Welfare Center?

You tell me this is Love Patsytan Island and I'd believe it!

He grew somewhat angry.

The anger drilling out from the bone gaps, making one's whole body tremble, wanting to tear something apart.

He drew a deep breath of icy air, the air tasting of snow, also of decay's sweetness, and an indescribable smell like something burnt. Those scents mixed together, drilling into his lungs, like a hand squeezing his organs.

Shirakawa Mai stood beside him, her complexion poor, but she did not look at the dry spring; she was looking at something else.

"Over there." She said, pointing to a distant building larger than the others: "Leave it to me!"

The building's door was locked tight, and moreover bore some kind of seal.

However, for Mai Xuejie this was no trouble; she drew her bow, nocked an arrow, and a full-power demon-destroying arrow shot out, striking the building's door, the gate bursting open with a boom!

The musty smell and decay's sweetness assailed the face, thick as if someone had placed a bowl of spoiled honey there.

The hall was empty, nothing inside, only a few faded posters on the walls depicting happy work scenes of disabled people, the poster corners curled up, revealing the yellowed concrete wall beneath.

Passing through the hall, inside was a smaller room, against the wall stood a desk, on it a lamp, a picture frame, several ledgers. Uesugi Muneyuki picked up the frame and glanced; the photo showed a middle-aged man standing among a group of disabled people, his smile radiant, beside him a few men in suits, likely local officials.

He put down the frame, his gaze sweeping the room, in the corner an old-style wardrobe, wooden, the lacquer mottled. He walked over and opened the wardrobe door, inside hung several pieces of clothing: a man's coat, a woman's scarf, a child's sweater.

In spirit vision, the lining of that coat emitted a thin layer of luster.

It was human skin.

Uesugi Muneyuki reached out and touched it, the sensation smooth and delicate, softer than any animal leather, carrying an indescribable warm quality that should not be the temperature of clothing.

He closed the wardrobe door, not looking again.

At the end of the corridor was a larger room, dim lighting, the air filled with the strange aroma of incense and rotting meat mixed together. On the walls hung a huge thangka, two skulls embracing and dancing, three eyes wide open, heads crowned with five skulls, hair buns bearing a crescent and treasure umbrella, right hand holding a skull vessel, left hand holding a treasure staff, posture graceful yet bizarre, as if dancing, yet as if coupling.

Before the thangka's offering table stood incense burners, candles, and several skull vessels, the vessels containing dried, blackened bloodstains, and fine, bone-ash-like particles.

Before the offering table, a mandala made of human leg bones stood, center holding a skull, the skull containing some dark red, viscous liquid, glowing with an oily sheen in candlelight.

On the walls hung several strings of bone beads, beads varying in size, irregular in shape, likely because each came from a different person. Shirakawa Mai's voice came from behind Uesugi Muneyuki, carrying a rare, oppressive chill: "It is the Lord of Shitōrin. Protector deity of Esoteric Buddhism, governing the corpse forest and sky burial. Believers of the pool think that by offering corpses and flesh they can gain supernatural power. But this one" she gazed at the arrangement on the offering table and the mandala on the ground, brows knotted: "This is not ordinary offering. This is the ritual to become a god. Someone is using these disabled people's bones, trying to make themselves a god."

"Do you still remember that host Takigawa Tsubasa from before? We've always wondered where he got his inheritance and Golden Body Dharma Image?","Now we know."

Uesugi Muneyuki did not respond.

In spirit vision, that thangka was no longer a flat painting, but a three-dimensional, textured thing, as if breathing. The robes' eyes were bottomless pits, within which something looked at him, without malice, without kindness, an absolute, indisputable gaze transcending good and evil.

As if saying one—you came spicy?

Uesugi Muneyuki took out his phone, dialed the number of the Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters.

When the call connected, his voice was calm, but each word sounded as if fished from ice water: "I am Uesugi Muneyuki. Aomori Prefecture Hakkodasan, 'Aomori Seven South Power Ranch'. Discovered a large number of corpses, preliminary estimate over thirty, need support. Please immediately contact Aomori Prefecture Police Headquarters and National Police Agency, dispatch the Forensic Identification Division and Mobile Unit."

The other end fell silent for two seconds, the officer taking the call probably verifying if the caller ID was really: "U-Uesugi Chief? You're not out filming a TV drama, are you? You said you found corpses? Still over thirty?"

"You, you are serious?"

"Not just thirty or more. Possibly more." Uesugi Muneyuki looked at the sealed dry spring: "There are bodies in the sealed dry spring, and there may be more underground. We need a professional forensic team to excavate."

"Please, please wait!" The other party gestured, indicating this matter I cannot handle!

The voice on the other end of the phone changed, becoming more steady, more weighty.

"Uesugi Chief, I am Criminal Investigation Department Chief Uchimura Kanji. Please allow me to confirm once again: can you guarantee that you have confirmed the scene conditions are true?" Uchimura Kanji said seriously: "Is it confirmed, definite, and affirmative—must we immediately contact headquarters and dispatch the mobile unit right away?" "I confirm." Uesugi Muneyuki's voice remained as calm as ever: "Please dispatch personnel immediately."

Uchimura Kanji fell silent for a moment on the other end of the phone.

If it were anyone else, he would think the person on the other end had a problem with their head.

But this person is Uesugi Muneyuki.

MD, Onoda just died, and now there's a case even as the year ends?

This Uesugi Muneyuki—wherever he goes, the big hand of fate keeps striking again and again!

Over thirty corpses……For the Metropolitan Police Department, which is rushing to boost performance at year-end, this is really……Taisu la!

"Understood. The Metropolitan Police Department will immediately contact the Aomori Prefecture Police and the National Police Agency. Please remain on guard at the scene, do not disturb the scene, and wait for reinforcements to arrive."

After hanging up, Uesugi Muneyuki put his phone back in his pocket, turned around, and looked at Shirakawa Mai.

Shirakawa Mai was still standing in front of the thangka, looking at the two skeletons, her expression solemn: "The ritual to condense the dharma image, the ritual of divine ascension." "The ritual of divine ascension." Uesugi Muneyuki walked to her side: "Are you sure?"

Shirakawa Mai did not answer directly, but pointed beneath the offering table, where there was a dharma formation drawn in fresh blood, with a name engraved at its center—Takigawa Tsubasa.

The lines of the dharma formation were not drawn in one go, but repeatedly traced over many times, each trace covering the previous one with a new layer, bloodstain upon bloodstain—the lowest layer already turned black, the topmost still bright red.

"Someone wants to become a god." Shirakawa Mai's voice was very soft: "He believes that with enough corpses and resentment, he can open that door—the gate to the High Plain of Heaven, able to tear through the Logic Tide—but these people do not know that what comes out after the door opens may not necessarily be a god."

Outside the window, snow was still falling, and the icy surface of the dry spring reflected a grayish-white light, as if countless pairs of eyes were watching them.

Both people swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

This will be……the largest and most heinous case in Aomori Prefecture's history!