The second room, the Bing room, similarly housed a pile of charred ashes.
This time, the writing Lin Sheng left in the room was noticeably sparser. It was clear that he struggled less while retaining his humanity, becoming more decisive instead.
【Hua Yingmei, a human trafficker.】
【Although she never actually killed anyone, she harmed countless lives. Who knows how many families were broken because of her, or how many parents washed their faces with tears because of her?】
【According to the Great Shun Laws, this person should also be killed.】
【Only by killing her can the people’s indignation be appeased.】
Walking over to the pile of ashes, Wang Ping nudged it with his foot. The writing hidden beneath was instantly revealed: 【I am right. Everything is being done according to the law.】
Wang Ping shook his head, exited the room, and walked toward the third room, the Yi room. This time, there wasn’t even any writing left to rationalize his actions. The room was completely empty. Only beneath the completely burned ashes was a single line written. The writer seemed to have used immense force, the strokes fragmented and broken:
【This person deserves to die.】
Looking at these characters, Wang Ping sighed inwardly, though it was expected. He felt as if he were watching a once-upright constable descend into madness through hunger.
The person imprisoned in the Yi room was a swindler.
Granted, his scam caused many people to lose their life savings, and he ultimately fled with the money… However, no matter what, this was not a capital offense.
According to the Great Shun Laws, the heaviest punishment for this was merely exile.
Yet Lin Sheng still committed the murder.
From this, it was evident that he had completely lost his initial resolve. He was no longer even bothering to find a suitable excuse; he just wanted to fill his belly as quickly as possible.
After a moment of silence, Wang Ping arrived at the final room of the mansion: the Jia room. According to the case file, the person in this room was undeniably a good person—kind to neighbors, always ready to help others, with a complete and happy family… However, to a bloodshot Lin Sheng, none of this mattered.
Standing at the door of the Jia room.
Wang Ping calmed his mind and focused his energy. If nothing unexpected happened, inside this Jia room there should be a corpse overflowing with resentment and a demon on the verge of birth.
I must be careful.
Come to think of it, he had yet to witness the “strange arts” of Great Shun. This might be his opportunity to uncover just how deep the waters of Great Shun truly were.
Creak…
Wang Ping raised his hand to push open the door of the Jia room, but an unusual resistance stopped his movement, preventing him from proceeding.
“…Locked?”
Wang Ping was taken aback. The door to the Jia room was actually locked from the inside. Was it done by the good person locked inside? No, that made no sense.
Because Lin Sheng knew martial arts.
The 【Three Demonic Sabers of Yama】, a mandatory martial art for county constables, was a sinew-tempering technique. Once mastered, one’s strength multiplied. A wooden door like this, even if locked, would be completely meaningless.
Wang Ping believed the people locked in the previous three rooms had definitely tried similar tactics, but it was completely useless against a martial artist like Lin Sheng… So why, when it came to the fourth room, didn’t Lin Sheng break the door down? Hunger should have already pushed him past his bottom line.
Could it be that he realized his errors and turned back at the very end?
“…Impossible.”
After pondering for a moment, Wang Ping shook his head. The murderer in the Ding room and the human trafficker in the Bing room—one could argue that killing them was somewhat justifiable.
But Lin Sheng killing the swindler in the Yi room proved he was no longer bound by morality or concepts of good and evil. How could he possibly suddenly turn over a new leaf?
It simply didn’t make sense. Wang Ping couldn’t figure it out.
Right at that moment, he suddenly sensed something. He turned to look toward the mansion’s tea pavilion, a look of surprise appearing on his face.
Inside the tea pavilion, there was actually another person.
It was a person who, despite a sallow complexion and a frail appearance, was still fully intact. Judging by his heartbeat, pulse, and physical condition, he didn’t seem to know martial arts either.
“…I see,” Wang Ping instantly understood.
There was a cellar beneath the tea pavilion. The spiritual sense the paper figure double could carry was too weak. Coupled with the interference from the resentful malevolent qi in the mansion, the person had actually managed to hide from him.
The next second, the other party spoke.
“Do not open that door.”
“You are… Li An,” Wang Ping slowly uttered the man’s name. “The person originally living in the Jia room. Lin Sheng actually didn’t eat you.”
Hearing this, a visible look of profound sorrow appeared on Li An’s face. Still, he choked out, “Do not open the door to the Jia room. This was Benefactor’s final request before he died. If you open it, something terrible might happen that could endanger the county town outside the mansion.”
“Before he died… Lin Sheng is dead?”
Wang Ping was even more surprised and asked in a low voice, “He locked himself in the Jia room? Even though he had already abandoned his resolve, he held back at the very last moment?”
As soon as he spoke, tears streamed down Li An’s face.
“No, Benefactor never gave up!”
Hearing this, Wang Ping subconsciously shook his head: “What are you talking about? He already killed the person in the Yi room… Ah.”
His voice came to an abrupt halt.
The next second, Wang Ping’s gaze fell squarely on Li An: “The swindler in the Yi room… wasn’t killed by Lin Sheng. You did it?”
…
Regarding the four people in the Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding rooms, there was a causal link deliberately concealed by Xu Bingzheng and omitted from the case files.
That link was—
“I was one of the victims scammed out of my entire family fortune by Pang Yue… the swindler in the Yi room. Because of him, my wife committed suicide.”
At this point, Li An’s tone was eerily calm.
“So when I discovered that the person locked in the Yi room was him, I was ecstatic, because he would be killed by Benefactor just like the other two.”
“However… Benefactor refused.”
“Even when I told him about the grudge I had against that bastard and begged him to strike, he consistently refused… So in the end, I chose to do it myself.”
“He deserved to die!”
Only at the very end did strong indignation leak into Li An’s voice, instantly making Wang Ping think of the line carved into the Yi room.
【This person deserves to die.】
“You left that line of writing,” Wang Ping sighed.
Li An nodded and continued: “After killing that bastard, I brought his corpse to Benefactor, hoping he would eat that bastard.”
“I could see that Benefactor was enduring immense agony.”
“And after killing that bastard, I didn’t want to live anymore. Taking a life requires a life in return anyway. So I told Benefactor not to hold back anymore and just eat me too…”
Wang Ping closed his eyes.
How… vicious.
He began to regret killing Xu Bingzheng and Li Yiran with a single punch earlier. Given another chance, he definitely wouldn’t let them die so easily.
This causal link was deliberately concealed by Xu Bingzheng.
To completely break Lin Sheng.
Imagine for a moment: if Lin Sheng was resilient enough to stop at the door of the Yi room, choosing starvation over murder to fill his belly, what would happen?
Undoubtedly, Xu Bingzheng’s plan to cultivate a demon would fail.
So he set up an insurance policy.
Even if Lin Sheng pulled back from the precipice and resolutely refused to kill Pang Yue in the Yi room, Li An in the Jia room would take the initiative to commit the murder due to this grudge.
As long as Pang Yue lived, Lin Sheng might be able to hold back. But what if Pang Yue died? Consuming a dead body—and one not even killed by his own hands—would undoubtedly severely shake Lin Sheng’s psychological defenses. At the same time, the morally flawless 【good person】 Li An would become a murderer as a result.
The reason to exercise restraint vanished in an instant.
This was the final straw Xu Bingzheng specially prepared to break the camel’s back. It was meant to be the decisive blow that completely shattered Lin Sheng’s psychological defenses!
“…Hmm?”
At this thought, Wang Ping suddenly opened his eyes again.
Wait, something was wrong.
He turned to look at Li An. The Yi room only contained a fire pit, which meant that in the end, Lin Sheng still ate Pang Yue’s corpse. Xu Bingzheng’s plan had succeeded.
But why?
Why was Li An still alive?
Wang Ping was certain that after Li An personally killed Pang Yue, the bottom line in Lin Sheng’s heart was completely shattered. It would be impossible for him to continue enduring the hunger.
Finally, he looked toward the Jia room.
The answer lay inside.
Thinking of this, Wang Ping took a deep breath and arrived at the door again. Seeing this, Li An hurriedly stepped forward: “Benefactor said it might be dangerous…”
“He severely underestimated himself.”
Wang Ping activated his spiritual sense vision and said softly, “The resentful malevolent qi in this room is the weakest of all. Rest assured, there won’t be any danger.”
With that, he circulated his spiritual sense.
His spiritual sense penetrated the door, allowing Wang Ping to see the scene inside. A swallow-tail saber had been wedged into the door, acting as a bolt to lock it shut.
Wang Ping used his spiritual sense to gently nudge it out.
The next second, accompanied by a creak, the room’s door pushed open, revealing the scene inside—a mangled, broken corpse lay on the floor.
It was Lin Sheng.
Pain still lingered on his face. Even in the final moment of his life, the maddening hunger had continued to torment him.
His feet were completely twisted and broken, making it impossible for him to stand. His hands were severed from the elbows. Dark brown, coagulated blood was scattered all around. His final posture before death was that of crawling toward the door, though he had perished before reaching it.
This was a torture bordering on becoming a “human swine.”
Similarly, around Lin Sheng’s corpse, Wang Ping saw dense clusters of writing, recording everything that happened after he locked himself in the Jia room.
【I can’t hold it back anymore.】
【Li An killed Pang Yue. By the time I realized this and snapped out of it, the hunger was gone… In the end, I still ate Pang Yue.】
【Li An also became a murderer.】
【Taking advantage of the fact that I just filled my belly, am not hungry, and still maintain my sanity, I must do something. Otherwise, everything will truly be irretrievable.】
【I locked myself in the Jia room, kicked Li An out, and bolted the door from the inside… It’s not enough. This can only stop Li An from coming in, but it can’t stop me from leaving… It seems I can only break my own legs and find a spot furthest from the door, severing any possibility of me walking out.】
This was the initial writing, located in the corner of the room.
However, the writing soon changed.
【I’m hungry again.】
【Perhaps because I lost too much blood after breaking my legs, I got hungry very quickly this time… Come to think of it, Li An doesn’t want to live anyway, and he offered himself to me.】
【Tch, broken legs are such a hassle. Fortunately, I can still crawl over and use my hands instead of my legs. With my martial arts, catching Li An should be easy.】
The writing spread from the corner to the center of the room, and then changed again.
【My luck is good. Perhaps because I was too hungry, I actually ate my own broken legs. This brought me back to my senses a bit at the crucial moment.】
【Giving me just enough time to break my hands too.】
【There’s no problem now. I’ve confirmed it. In this state, it’s impossible for me to move, and my martial arts are basically crippled. I can’t kill anyone anymore.】
The writing stopped here for a while.
The subsequent text gradually became chaotic, distorted, and crooked.
【Bastard!】
【My hands and feet are all broken. I’ve lost too much blood. Even if I used my internal force to stop the bleeding, I can’t move easily for a while, or it will only accelerate my death.】
【But… I am so hungry.】
【Why did I break my own hands and feet in the first place? It was incredibly stupid. Just to protect a murderer? According to the Great Shun Laws, he deserves to die!】
【I don’t want to die… I want to live.】
【I want to eat…】
Wang Ping didn’t read any further. He even casually waved his hand, erasing the writing on the ground—this wasn’t left by Lin Sheng. Lin Sheng had died long before writing this.
What remained was merely an empty, crazed shell.
At the same time, Wang Ping finally understood why, at the very beginning, his martial artist’s divine intent told him there was “no danger.” Because there truly was no danger.
Because Lin Sheng held on.
He held on until the very last moment of his life, refusing to become a human sacrifice for a demon.