Chapter 403: Night Exploration of Shuangfo District

The room was very quiet. From the voice recorder came an exhausted man's voice, sounding as though he were talking to himself.

"The sound of dripping water in my ears, the human-shaped shadow on the ceiling—inexplicable phenomena like these keep happening more and more often. Let me think, when did they start?"

"When I witnessed the killer flaying skin? When I entered Li Family Manor? Or inside the Buddha tomb? I can't say for sure. By the time I realized it, it had probably already latched onto me."

"Today is the last time I'm going to investigate. The hidden cameras I planted earlier were discovered. Xinhu City is no longer safe for me."

...

There were three recordings on the voice recorder in total, and the last one was completely unintelligible. I checked the time, put everything back the way I had found it, pulled out the Skeleton Key, and left Zhang Heng's rented room.

After leaving the residential complex, I wasted no time hailing a taxi to Shuangfo District. Along the way, I learned a few things about the district from the driver.

Overall, Shuangfo District didn't cover much area, its economy lagged behind, and transportation was inconvenient. If Li Group hadn't taken a special liking to this plot of land and insisted on investing in its development, Shuangfo District would likely still be a barren wasteland today, much like the land where Xinhu High School stood.

Yet even with their heavy investment in construction, Shuangfo District's population still couldn't compare to that of the other districts. Once night fell, there were barely any lights to be seen. Most people who worked in Shuangfo District during the day went back to other districts after getting off work.

There were many reasons for this phenomenon. Experts in Xinhu had even analyzed it at the time and concluded it was an inevitable stage of economic development, so no one really paid it any mind.

I, however, kept the driver's words in mind. Nothing happens without a reason.

Shuangfo District looked just like any other district during the day, but at night, it was practically a ghost town. How could such a stark contrast be caused simply by economic factors?

Certain unconscious choices people make actually follow the basic principle of seeking safety and benefit; living creatures instinctively avoid danger.

To me, the fact that people stayed away from Shuangfo District—even moving to other districts only to commute back for work during the day—was strange enough in itself. The cost of living in both areas was roughly the same, so there was no need to do so at all.

After getting out of the taxi, I wandered around Shuangfo District alone. The streets were clean, but there were very few shops around. There wasn't much traffic on the roads either, just the occasional courier or meal-delivery vehicle speeding past.

"There are only three or four people within a few hundred meters. Even if it's not the evening rush hour, this still makes no sense."

I lit a cigarette and silently watched the passersby. Most of them were elderly, along with disabled people.

Relative to Shuangfo District's population, the proportion of disabled residents was unusually high. That was another very strange detail. "Is Shuangfo District a recuperation haven for Xinhu City's elderly?"

Watching a blind man with a guide dog walk past me, I began to stroll aimlessly through Shuangfo District, noting the location of every security camera.

Quitting time arrived soon enough, and a dense crowd poured out of the various buildings onto the streets almost instantly.

The roads grew busy, and traffic even backed up at the intersections. The surroundings became much livelier as the sound of chatter mingled with blaring car horns. Only now did it finally feel somewhat like a city.

However, this scene lasted less than an hour before vanishing completely. It was as if someone were directing them from the shadows—giving a single command for everyone to exit the stage.

The sidewalks were completely empty once again, with only the occasional car passing by on the road.

"This place is way too weird, isn't it?" I walked a long way before finally spotting a large shopping plaza. Most of the storefronts inside had "For Lease" notices pasted on them, while several others had their doors tightly locked. Across the huge plaza, only two or three shops were still open for business.

I went over to chat with the shop owners, but they merely said that business was tough, complaining about trivial everyday matters without revealing anything of value.

Shortly after eight o'clock in the evening, the last shop in the plaza closed its doors. The entire shopping center was left cold and deserted; only a few streetlights and flashing billboards told me that this was indeed a city inhabited by humans.

"Having fewer people around has its advantages, too. This way, there won't be too many people getting in my way." I had already sensed the unusual atmosphere of the place, and I had a rough idea why Zhang Heng refused to let Shuangfo District go. People who lived here year-round and were used to the local pace of life might not notice anything, but an outsider arriving here for the first time would immediately sense that something was off.

"This doesn't feel like a district within a city at all. It's too eerie." I pictured the map of Xinhu City in my mind: Shuangfo District lay in the southern part of Xinhu, very close to Jiangcheng, and Xinhu High School was built right between Xinhu Double Buddha District and the outskirts of Jiangcheng.

"When the Two-Faced Buddha was laying out his scheme in Jiangcheng, Xinhu High School was his most important node besides Lanjiang Dam. Now Shuangfo District sits quite close to Xinhu High School, and I've heard that Shuangfo District has been under continuous development over the years. If something hadn't happened to Li Changgui, Li Group was even planning to invest another massive sum of money to expand Shuangfo District. What on earth is so special about this place that it's worth the Two-Faced Buddha putting in so much effort?"

"Zhang Heng's voice recorder mentioned that Shuangfo District is the Two-Faced Buddha's territory. Li Group invested heavily here, so the relationship between the two is already crystal clear. Li Jingyu was pushed out of upper management without anyone objecting, most likely because she didn't know about the dealings between her father and the Two-Faced Buddha." Following that train of thought, I slowly arrived at a deeper layer. "Back then, Lu Xing's father adopted Xiaofeng for her Red Phoenix Heavenly Jubilee. In that case, when Li Changgui adopted Li Jingyu, was it for her fate pattern right from the very beginning?"

I felt increasingly certain of it. That would also explain how Lu Xing managed to kidnap Li Jingyu from Xinhu and bring her to Jiangcheng in such a short time. From the moment she was born, her fate was already sealed.

At that thought, I shuddered. Li Jingyu was thirty-nine years old this year. If she had been part of the Double-Faced Buddha Plan all along, then I needed to reevaluate the Two-Faced Buddha's power.

With nearly forty years of groundwork behind it, just what kind of terrifying faction was I about to face?

Circulating the Profound Truth Mental Method, I calmed my mind and steadied my breath. Following the address I had memorized, I headed toward Li Group's private manor.

Compared to the Two-Faced Buddha, my advantage lay in having the help of the Underworld Live Show. Moreover, I was operating in the dark—my fate pattern was unknown, and my identity remained obscure.

"According to Li Jingyu, that place has been sitting vacant ever since what happened to Li Changgui. Li Chunqiang dismissed the security team and Li Changgui's private doctor. Right now, that place should be completely deserted."

There wasn't a single taxi on the road. By the time I walked to Li Family Manor, it was already ten o'clock at night.

The location was remote, close to Henshan. "The richest man in Xinhu left a fortune of over a hundred million sitting there instead of enjoying it, just to hole up in a place like this and build a vacation manor?"

There was a hint of sourness in my tone. After all, from birth until now, my eight characters had always clashed with money. I had taken on quite a few commissions, yet I had only just managed to pay off the four hundred thousand I owed for buying the dog.

The manor sat at the foot of Henshan, surrounded by lush vegetation. Someone must still have been tending the grounds during the day; the trees were leafy and thriving, and the paths were spotless, without a single fallen leaf in sight.

I walked halfway around the manor and noticed that only a small fraction of the security cameras on the walls were still functioning normally.

Finding a camera blind spot, I vaulted over the wall and dropped inside. Cultivating the Dao and practicing martial arts had indirectly strengthened my physical constitution, so a two-meter-high wall couldn't stop me at all.

There were many buildings inside the manor, most of them pitch-black, though faint light shone from two of the rooms.

Hiding in the bushes, I activated my Judging Eye. I could faintly see a human figure moving behind the window.

"Who would show up past ten o'clock at night in a manor where someone died? Isn't this place Li Changgui's private property?" Having someone else in the manor wasn't necessarily a bad thing for me. Although the risk of exposure had increased, I might be able to get something unexpected out of them.

Lightening my footsteps, I hugged the wall and made my way toward the light.

The window was half-open, and the night breeze rustled the curtains.

With my back against the wall, I stood sideways by the window and took out my phone, aiming its camera inside the room.

I watched the feed on my phone screen. It was a bedroom. The bed and wardrobe looked completely normal, except that an offering table stood directly facing the window. On it, beside Li Changgui's black-and-white memorial portrait, sat a Double-Faced Buddha Statue.

Unlike the one I had seen in Jiangcheng, this Buddha statue held out two calligraphy scrolls in its hands. The one in its left hand read, "Returning from the Jade Pool," while the one in its right hand read, "Hard to Cross the Yellow Springs."