Andrew Walker's wealth was well-known throughout all of Jiulian City. The news that the The Walker Family and the The Wright Family were about to become in-laws had already spread across the entire city, and even people from the neighboring Zihua City to the west had come to deliver congratulatory gifts.

Such a sensational event had now turned into this kind of situation.

At this moment, Andrew Walker's expression was extremely grim, his eyes filled with deep exhaustion and worry.

"Go and tell Constable Baker in detail about what happened yesterday."

He stepped aside, making room for a bearded man who approached.

Henry Walker's mind kept echoing with what he had heard Samuel Wright say yesterday; he felt that the water ghost case must be connected to the deaths in the The Wright Family.

So he recounted everything about his conversation with Samuel Wright from the previous day.

He didn't hide anything.

Chief Constable Baker frowned deeply, but couldn't seem to make sense of it.

Seeing there was nothing more to ask, Henry Walker took his leave.

Before leaving, the yamen officers began collecting the corpses.

Henry Walker stood by and watched for a while. When he saw Samuel Wright being carried directly onto a stretcher, he sighed, stepped closer, and found a constable to ask,

"Brother, is there anyone left in the The Wright Family?"

He thought to himself, if there were any survivors from the The Wright Family, he would take care of them on their behalf—perhaps he could even get some useful information from them.

"No one left... it's all over. Even the entire family of their maternal relatives was implicated. Maybe there are a few distant relatives over in Zihua City."

The constable shook his head and replied in a low voice.

Henry Walker quietly slipped him a small piece of silver, then took Grace and joined his family in getting onto the carriage.

The carriages gradually made their way home.

But the tragedy of the The Wright Family still lingered in everyone's minds.

Frank Walker and Andrew Walker, as the heads of the family, gathered everyone for a family meeting and announced that the engagement with the The Wright Family was hereby canceled. He told the women to comfort Grace more, then returned to his room alone, looking dejected, to rest.

The young people in the family all went out—some to the city’s taverns, some to the brothels, or to the music houses. After such a shock, this was often how they numbed themselves.

The women, on the other hand, all went out to the nearby Honglian Temple to burn incense and pray for peace and protection.

It would be best if they could obtain a talisman from Daoist Master Honglian to protect the family from evil.

The entire The Walker Family was in a state of anxiety.

Henry Walker did not go out carousing.

He took Grace and made his way to the family’s large study, where the books were kept.

The study was very quiet.

He pushed the door open and entered. Inside, a plump woman was dusting and cleaning the bookshelves.

The vermilion bookshelves, the furniture, and the dim light from outside the window all made the place seem a bit gloomy.

Henry Walker entered, walked around the round wooden screen with a bird-and-flower motif that blocked the doorway, and breathed in the faint scent of wood in the study.

"You all go out for now. I'll read for a while and rest."

He gave the order.

"Yes, sir."

Grace obediently replied, then left with the plump cleaning woman.

Henry Walker stood alone in the study, looking at the rows of bookshelves before him, and let out a slight sigh.

He began searching the shelves one by one.

Soon, he found local gazetteers and similar record books.

He took all these books out and began to look through them one by one.

By the faint light from the window, he quickly finished reading through one of the booklets.

"In the seventy-second year of the Great Song, a man appeared in the suburbs of Jiulian City, who, in a fit of madness, killed twelve people with a knife before being surrounded and killed by the yamen officers."

"In the eighty-fifth year of the Great Song, in the bustling district of Jiulian City, a man’s head suddenly separated from his body in the street, cause of death unknown."

"In the ninety-first year of the Great Song, travelers went missing at a ruined temple outside the city. After the number reached fifteen, the case remains unsolved to this day."

"In the ninety-fifth year of the Great Song, the head of the music house in Jiulian City disappeared. His four limbs were found in four different places outside the city. Only four days after death, the body had already decayed to bare bones."

"In the one hundred sixteenth year of the Great Song, the sound of a child crying was heard at night outside the city. All who went to investigate disappeared. The crying lasted for three days and then ceased on its own."

...

Reading through these records of cases big and small,

Henry Walker grew more and more alarmed, feeling increasingly uneasy.

In a world like this, a world where danger lurked at every turn, it was truly remarkable that people hadn’t all gone mad and could still live their lives.

He opened another booklet.

This one was even more astonishing than the last.

"In the one hundred nineteenth year of the Great Song, a blizzard struck Jiulian. It was said that the Dragon King manifested his spirit, and the snow stopped within three days. After three days, the blizzard that had lasted for dozens of days suddenly ceased."

"In the one hundred twenty-eighth year of the Great Song, a thick fog appeared on the main road toward Zihua City. Those who entered lost their way and would inexplicably find themselves on the white icy shore dozens of miles away. Ten days later, the fog disappeared."

After reading this, Henry Walker was almost certain that this world was not as simple as he had thought—monsters and ghosts might really exist.

At least, at his current level, he could see no way for anyone in this world to influence the weather.

He shifted his chair, picked up a fire striker, and lit the candlestick on the table.

The bright yellow candlelight cast shifting shadows across his face.