Chapter 303 Grave Robbing and Tomb Desecration
“Hmm, the church sells these special bullets, they’re very expensive, and you need some connections to buy them. Normal gun stores generally only sell silver bullets,” Sebastian said.
“Actually, the strongest aren’t these bullets. The strongest are bullets made by mixing a Saint’s blood with mercury, but those bullets are even rarer, and the church basically doesn’t sell them outside, so I can’t get them either.”
So that’s how it is. I nodded, making a mental note. Perhaps in the future, I’ll have a chance to keep some of these bullets handy. Ordinary bullets might be difficult to use against otherworldly beings, so these special bullets should be necessary.
We started walking up the mountain, finally stepping into the cemetery grounds. Upon entering, we found the situation was even worse than we had imagined. Many graves had been dug open, with dirt scattered everywhere. We cautiously approached and saw that they were all empty. Some impoverished families might have buried their dead with just a shroud wrapped around them, while others had simply placed them in a coffin, but the coffin lids had been pried open, and they too were empty. However, most of these disturbed graves were simple mounds, and the ones with shattered crosses. Graves with mostly intact crosses had not been disturbed.
“Wah! These corpses, they haven’t all turned into zombies and crawled out, have they?” Claire said fearfully, looking around for any zombie attacks.
“Don’t worry, zombies don’t operate during the day, at least not in broad daylight,” Sebastian said. I looked up at the time; it was just past noon, and the sun was still high in the sky. Even the lingering resentment of the undead in the chaotic burial ground had been suppressed considerably.
“Besides, I don’t think these are signs of corpses reanimating,” Sebastian said as he crouched down to examine the disturbed graves. After looking from one to another, he examined three graves before concluding, “These graves were not opened from the inside, but dug open from the outside.”
“So, someone was stealing bodies?” Jayad asked. He knew that bodies were bought at high prices, and many of his colleagues were body collectors, even resorting to grave robbing when there weren’t enough dead bodies to sell.
“I don’t think this was done by humans. Look at these marks,” Sebastian said, pointing to some newly dug marks. Here, one could clearly see many claw marks, messy and deeply embedded in the earth. He then pointed beside him, and it was then that I noticed scattered bones throughout the graveyard, broken into pieces, looking as if they had been gnawed by hyenas.
If I had seen these broken bones on any other occasion, I would have found it commonplace, perhaps thinking they were cow or pig bones. However, considering their location, the implications were chilling; these were likely the remains of human bones, gnawed on after the flesh was consumed.
“These aren’t human hands. Was it some wild beast that dug open the graves and consumed the corpses?” I asked. The bones on the ground were too shattered to have been bitten by humans. I thought it must have been the marks of some large animal.
“I don’t necessarily think so. It could be some kind of otherworldly being,” Sebastian said.
Otherworldly beings? Could it be one of those? I started to recall which otherworldly beings were scavengers. Given that the graves with crosses were undisturbed, it should be some kind of evil creature, possibly even an undead. However, after looking around, aside from the particularly oppressive and somber atmosphere, we found no special undead or criminal who had been consuming corpses. The graveyard was eerily quiet, as if there was nothing unusual except for the heavy resentment. But that was the strangest part. With such strong resentment, there wasn’t a single sign of reanimation. Despite so many graves being dug up, the perpetrator was nowhere to be seen. There must be a reason for this abnormality.
“I think we should put aside the grave robber for now and focus on finding Madam Shirley, which is the real task,” I said. Perhaps, as Sebastian had mentioned, undead creatures didn’t come out during the day, and we could only see them at night. But who would dare come to this chaotic burial ground at night? It would be courting death. These villagers and I have no particular connection, and this criminal seems to only consume corpses, with no reports of them attacking villagers. Therefore, in terms of priority, finding Madam Shirley’s grave is more important. Rather, my current worry is whether Madam Shirley’s body is still intact and hasn’t been eaten by this grave robber. If I brought Lorna here and she saw her mother’s skeletal remains incomplete and broken, she would go mad.
“Alright,” Sebastian said with a hint of disappointment. He really wanted to find out who the grave robber was; his detective’s spirit was burning fiercely. But he didn’t forget that I had hired him to investigate Madam Shirley’s whereabouts, and at least one matter needed to be resolved first.
However, after looking around, we couldn’t find the Oliver family’s grave. According to the villagers, this grave should have been in a very conspicuous place and quite large, yet we couldn’t find it at all.
“Um, could it be that Madam Shirley’s grave has already been dug up? That’s why we can’t find it,” Claire voiced a possibility that I was reluctant to consider. I shook my head and said, “Even then, there would surely be traces left. We need to see the remains at least, even if it’s just leftover bones.”
So, we searched the chaotic burial ground again, even stopping at each tombstone to examine it closely, trying to see if it was the Oliver family’s grave. But it was none of them. After our search, as we reached the side of a small mound of earth, Claire, tired, sat on a rock and panted. She was, after all, just a child, and she had tried her best while searching. Let alone Claire, even I was feeling somewhat drained.
“Ah!” Just then, Claire suddenly stood up and looked back. Her reaction was exactly the same as mine when I suddenly turned around after feeling a gaze on my back.
“What is it?” I asked. Such a reaction usually meant she had discovered something.
“I feel like… something is speaking inside this small hill,” Claire said.
“Inside this dirt mound?” I looked at the bulging earth behind her in confusion. It was less of a small mountain and more of a dirt mound, about three to four meters high, covered with grass and vegetation.
“Wait a moment!” I suddenly thought, doesn’t this look a bit like an enlarged grave mound? Perhaps this was the supposed largest grave, the Oliver family’s grave? Moreover, this mound was also strange. I hadn’t noticed it before, but looking closely now, I realized that the mound was too flat. Although it was intentionally made to look uneven, it was hard to imagine it was naturally formed. In other words, it was man-made. Sebastian examined it, then picked up his cane and began to chisel at the layer of soil with its sharp tip. Soon, he dug out a whole block of mud. Beneath it was a layer of white stones. It turned out the grave had been covered with a layer of soil, disguised as a small mound.
