Chapter 172: Doubts about Death
The bodies of Li Tian and Li Yue were lying by the pond, with terrified looks on their faces and fear in their eyes.

When Li Daoxuan walked over, the villagers naturally made way for him.

"Xuan brother, come and see what's going on. How could the two sons of the Changde family drowned? I saw them yesterday, but I didn't expect them to be drowned today..." A middle-aged man in the village choked up, unable to believe what was happening before his eyes.

How could two healthy men fall into the water and drown?

"Don't worry, uncle. I will find out the situation." Li Daoxuan comforted him and walked to the bodies of the two brothers and squatted down.

Upon closer inspection, it was found that the two brothers had not been drowned for long. Although their faces had become pale and fat from being soaked, their bodies and limbs showed no signs of decay or swelling, and their clothes were relatively fresh.

Li Daoxuan asked the villagers some other things, and one of them told him that the bodies of the two brothers were found by someone when they were driving cattle to drink water, under the branches of the locust tree, both of them floating on the water.

"I understand." Li Daoxuan nodded and tapped lightly on the forehead of Li Tian's corpse. A coolness came from the forehead of the corpse, making him feel a little chilly.

"Is this... ghost energy?"

Feeling something unusual in the body of the deceased, Li Daoxuan was delighted. He immediately asked all the villagers who were surrounding the corpse and talking to retreat. After seeing that everyone had retreated more than ten steps, he returned to the corpse.

He made a Dao finger with his right hand, clenched his left hand into a fist with the palm facing downward, and hooked his right pinky finger with his left pinky finger to form a soul-hooking finger, chanting a spell: "Three soul-collecting masters and three boys, three soul-collecting masters and three boys. Hurry up and collect the soul and return quickly. Hurry up and collect the soul and return quickly. Li Tian's three souls and seven spirits, please return quickly! Hurry up and obey the command!"

After the curse, there was silence all around. The villagers were silent and watched Li Daoxuan's every move.

Li Daoxuan stared at the corpse, feeling the changes in the air around him, one breath, two breaths, three breaths. Li Daoxuan couldn't help but frowned.

"That shouldn't be the case. There's clearly still ghost energy left, and the soul must have left the body not long ago. Why is there no reaction?"

Li Daoxuan didn't think any more and immediately retracted the Soul-Hooking Finger. He changed the hand seals and pressed the middle fingers with the thumbs of both hands at the same time to form the Lotus Fingers. Then he intertwined his hands, hooked the index finger of his left hand with the index finger of his right hand, hooked the ring finger of his left hand with the ring finger of his right hand, and hooked the little finger of his left hand with the little finger of his right hand. He moved the finger seals forward to form the Soul-Hooking Finger.

He was young and serious. He continued to stare at Li Tian's eyes without blinking, and chanted: "The command of heaven belongs to my heart, and I will chase people's souls in the nine heavens. My palms turn the three springs, and my feet lead the souls from all directions. The two soul-snatching and spirit-urging generals listen to my orders, and the divine soldiers are as urgent as the law!"

As the spell was cast, black smoke began to rise from the corpse in front of him.

Li Daoxuan couldn't help but be stunned, but as soon as he touched the black smoke, he felt a trance in front of his eyes and a vague shadow came over.

A clay doll slowly jumped towards him, and then a strange smile appeared on the doll's face.

Li Daoxuan stared at the picture in a daze. After just a moment, everything disappeared and Li Daoxuan returned to reality again.

"Could this be the last scene Li Tian saw before he died? But why didn't his soul come, but he saw this?" Li Daoxuan muttered in his heart. Although he had no idea about the cause of death of the two brothers, he seemed to have some clues.

At this moment, he felt a soreness in his eyes. He moved his body, but found that most of his originally abundant energy was gone.

"I didn't expect this spell to be so mentally exhausting."

"Clay doll? Why is it a clay doll? When I met Li Tian, ​​he was also holding a clay doll like this in his hands. Is it related to that clay doll?" Li Daoxuan was also mentally exhausted, and his thoughts had returned to the moment he met Li Tian last night. He still felt puzzled, but he understood that the clue might be in this clay doll.

"The deaths of these two brothers were definitely not an accident. The jumping clay doll must be the key. It may also be related to the strange events in Lijia Village."

"I heard that these two brothers' family makes clay pots and clay figurines. Could this be the reason?"

Thinking of this, Li Daoxuan felt that he needed to go to Li Tian's house again to ask them about their experiences and what they had done in the past few days.

Perhaps these two brothers were exposed to something, which led to their tragic deaths.

But what puzzled Li Daoxuan even more was that he had indeed seen Li Tian last night, but it was only Li Tian, ​​not Li Yue.

Moreover, he carried him back personally. If there was something wrong with Li Tian, ​​there was no way he would not have discovered it.

But in the morning, Li Tian's younger brother Li Yue also came to the door and said something similar to Li Tian.

"The two brothers saw each other when they went to the toilet, but I only met one person. So who is the real one? Who is the fake one?" Li Daoxuan pondered in his heart, and felt that there was a fog in front of him, making him unable to find the direction at all. Even if he found that the clay doll might be the key, he could not figure out a clue.

"The village chief is here."

"village head."

"Hey! Village chief, you're here at last!"

He heard the villagers greeting the village chief. He looked behind him and saw the old village chief walking slowly towards him with a cane, without saying a word.

The old village chief walked up to the bodies of the two brothers with a slightly sad look on his face.

"These are the two kids from Changde's family. How did they get into trouble?" The village chief said in a low voice. "Someone told me about this just now, but I didn't believe it. I never thought it was true. I have watched these two kids grow up, but now they have suffered such a misfortune and drowned in the water. It really makes me sad."

As the old village chief was speaking, cries and shouts were heard from behind the crowd.

Then I saw a white-haired old man walking with several women. The old woman walking in front had a look of great pain on her face.

Her clothes were covered with yellow-brown mud, and because she kept wiping her tears with her hands, her face was also covered with mud mixed with clay and tears.

"My son! My Tian'er! My Yue'er! How could you be so cruel to leave me? How could this happen to you? What should I do in the future? How can I live on?" The old woman wailed, her voice extremely hoarse.

She threw herself on the two corpses, wailing loudly, and was already out of breath.

"Mother of the child, get up quickly, get up." The villagers who had retreated ten steps away gathered around her again. They wanted to comfort the woman, but they were speechless and didn't know how to persuade her.

"Hua Niang, please accept my condolences. None of us want to see this happen." The old village chief sighed. "It has already happened. Don't cry and hurt yourself."

The villagers tried their best to comfort the deceased with words, but the relatives of the deceased could not stop crying no matter what.

Li Daoxuan looked at this scene, sighed, and walked out of the crowd silently.

The death of the two brothers was beyond his expectations, but it also showed that the storm in Lijia Village was no longer impending, but that what was supposed to come had already come.

This is probably not just a matter of evil spirits, it is more likely to be man-made.

Li Daoxuan stood aside without saying a word. Seeing that the old village chief continued to comfort them and the people of Changde's family gradually calmed down, he walked towards the old village chief.

Looking at the old village chief wiping his tears, he felt a little regretful.

The two young and strong men not only married, but also had children. As the backbone of the family, they lived to support the family.

I didn't expect such a thing to happen. Half of the pillars of the Changde family are gone. Their livelihood will be difficult in the future, and I'm afraid their lives will change a lot.

"What a pity, what a pity!" sighed the old village chief. "The two brothers from Changde family were experts in making clay pots. I didn't expect them to be gone like this."

"They didn't drown themselves." Li Daoxuan told the old village chief his thoughts.

When the old village chief heard this, he was shocked and asked in disbelief: "Then, then who are they?"

"I suspect someone did it." Li Daoxuan said solemnly. "And as far as I know, the two brothers died in the same place as the boy last time, under this locust tree. I want to ask Grandpa Cheng, has anyone ever moved the locust tree by the pond?"

"Probably not." The old village chief thought for a moment and answered hesitantly.

There was a hint of sadness on his weathered old face, and in his cloudy eyes there was a sense of guilt that ordinary people could not detect.

"Grandpa Cheng, is it true that no one has disturbed the soil around this pond?" Li Daoxuan confirmed again and again.

"If I remember correctly, no one has moved here." The old village chief wanted to insist, but he couldn't help but tremble in his heart. "I can't remember whether anyone has been here, but it may be that I am old and have forgotten some things. Why don't you ask the villagers, maybe they know more than me."

"I see." Li Daoxuan nodded and looked towards the direction of the village well. "I wonder if Grandpa Cheng has found someone to explore the well?"

"We did find one person, but he went on a long journey these days and won't be back for two days." The old village chief replied.

"Please, Grandpa Cheng, try to expedite this matter. It cannot be delayed any longer. I suspect that today's murder is also related to this Yinshui Well." Li Daoxuan said with a serious face.

"Okay, I'll do my best." The old village chief nodded, and without paying any attention to the people talking and the heartbroken Li Changde family, he slowly left alone on his crutches.

Li Daoxuan stood behind the old village chief and rubbed his sword fingers across his eyes.

"Open your Qi-observing Dharma Eye."

(End of this chapter)