I suspect it was the work of a spy. I'll go check it out later.

Su Chen felt a slight wave of surprise.
This tree spirit... could actually speak?
It was even more impressive than that little squirrel fairy on Niugang Mountain.
"You are welcome."
Su Chen also extended a trace of his Daoist energy, gently intertwining it with that presence.
The man and the tree communicated amicably without any barriers.
Naturally, what the tree spirit talked to Su Chen about was the villagers of Qingshan Village making offerings to it, as well as its sickly, tearful adopted son.
Its voice was calm and steady, yet one could clearly sense its deep care and worry.
From its words, Su Chen could deduce that the tree had already gained sentience before being struck by lightning. After the lightning strike, it was severely damaged and on the verge of its spiritual essence scattering, but Sun family's incense managed to preserve its existence.
As a tree, its thoughts were extremely simple; previously, it had never considered where the incense came from. Just now, upon overhearing the villagers' conversation, it had even doubted its own existence as a tree and harbored thoughts of ending its life.
Fortunately, Su Chen had intervened in time, not only saving it, but that wispy strand of karmic merit also allowed it to be reborn.
That was wonderful.
It was a sensitive and kind-hearted spirit.
Su Chen found communicating with the tree spirit quite pleasant. When he asked about the giant snake transforming into a flood dragon on Dragon Mountain that Zhao Dongsheng had mentioned earlier, the tree spirit denied it.
Having lived in Qingshan Village for so long, the largest snake it had ever seen was only as thick as a bowl.
Zhao Dongsheng looked curiously at Su Chen, who was standing there with his eyes curved and the corners of his lips slightly upturned, smiling.
Yet following his gaze, he saw nothing but an extremely ordinary tree trunk.
Zhao Dongsheng: "..."
Master, the more you smile like that, the more spine-chilling it looks!
Having presumably just recovered, the tree spirit soon withdrew that wisp of energy.
Su Chen also retracted his Daoist energy.
Turning back to meet Zhao Dongsheng's curious gaze, he couldn't help but smile.
What a magical experience.
At least in his previous life, in that world of revived ghostly energy, Su Chen had only ever seen tree spirits mentioned in his sect's ancient texts; he had never encountered one in the real world.
It seemed that whenever he felt bored in the future, he could come to Dragon Mountain to chat with this tree spirit. He could tell the tree spirit about the outside world and the complexity of human hearts, while the tree spirit could share with him the bits and pieces of life in the mountains.
Only... there was still one more place.
After making a phone call to the village to have Sister Hong remind his parents, Su Chen led Zhao Dongsheng out of the village.
Although the night was dark, the mountain aura became clearer and more distinct.
When they arrived at the location of another dragon's eye, under the beam of the flashlight, piles of dense white bones lay exposed, shocking to the core.
Zhao Dongsheng knelt down to pick up a white bone, examining it closely: "Master, these are not human bones."
Su Chen nodded.
If they were human bones, such a massive quantity would be comparable to a pit of ten thousand corpses, and the resentment and hostility would be enough to give birth to a Ghost King.

Even if they were animal bones, slaughtering animals here would still breed a considerable amount of resentment. When resentment intertwined with death qi, the color of the aura wouldn't simply be grey.
Too bizarre!
"Could someone have extracted the souls of these animals?" Su Chen murmured to himself.
Zhao Dongsheng asked in confusion: "What?"
"Oh, nothing." Su Chen sighed, pondering how to disperse this death qi, before hearing Zhao Dongsheng cry out in astonishment: "Wait, this isn't right!"
What wasn't right?
"Master, I remember when we were looking for A-wang's remains earlier, the grass in that area grew much more lush than the surroundings. But in this area, with so many bones here, the fertilizer should be plenty, so why is it completely barren with not a single blade of grass?"
Su Chen squatted down, inspected it carefully, and came to an understanding: "A saline-alkaline land."
"What?"
"It's soil with a very high salt concentration, usually a barren wasteland. Moreover, if ordinary remains were placed in it, they should have mummified rather than turned into bare bones."
Zhao Dongsheng was stunned.
"Huh? Master, do you mean that the meat on these animals was all eaten up before they were thrown into this saline-alkaline land?"
He frowned as he said this: "That's not right. Cuichen has always been blessed with picturesque mountains and clear waters. When did it ever have saline-alkaline land? Shouldn't that only exist in the northwest?"
"That's why this is definitely man-made."
Su Chen said as he walked around the perimeter, soon pointing out a patch of faintly visible concrete to Zhao Dongsheng.
"If it were a natural saline-alkaline land, one would have to account for the impact of rainfall. But if rainwater is intercepted, that problem wouldn't exist."
"Beneath this area should be a huge concrete pit."
Zhao Dongsheng widened his eyes in astonishment.
"No, who on earth would do this? What for, making such a huge commotion?"
Su Chen turned around and looked at the mountain forest shrouded in the night.
"Slaying a dragon!"
"Or perhaps, capturing a dragon."
Stifling the dragon's neck and blinding its eyes would allow one to easily manipulate this tiny mountain-qi dragon.
It seemed this was the handiwork of someone from the Xuanmen.
Su Chen frowned slightly.
This was the first time he had discovered traces of Xuanmen practitioners in this world.
The tiny mountain-qi dragon represented the vitality of Dragon Mountain, yet the other party laid out such a formation regardless of the consequences, which ran completely counter to his own principles.
He let out a soft sigh: "Let's go."
"Ah? Master, are we just going to leave it alone?"
"We have to deal with it, it's just that we don't have any explosives on hand."
"Explosives?"
"Mhm, blowing up this concrete pit so that after rain falls, the salt-laden water will wash downward. Once the concentration drops, vegetation should gradually begin to grow again—though the plants underneath might also be affected and die off if they can't adapt. Still, given enough time, it will eventually recover."
"Of course, the best method is actually to dig out the entire concrete pit along with the white bones and soil inside."
Zhao Dongsheng said in a deep voice: "Then let's dig it all out together. How big can a single concrete pit be anyway?"
Su Chen looked him up and down.
"Are you going to dig it?"
"Hehe," Zhao Dongsheng scratched his head, "I'll still have to consult the boss about that. But Master, doing this counts as doing a good deed, right?"
Upon receiving an affirmative answer, Zhao Dongsheng clapped his hands together: "There you go then! The boss is very fond of doing good deeds; he'll definitely agree."
"If all else fails, I can make some explosives and bring them into the mountains to blast it later."
"Anyway, Master, you can rest assured. I guarantee this problem will be solved for you."
Su Chen couldn't help but chuckle.
"Very well, let's head back first then."
When they returned to Qingshan Village once more, Zhao Xiaoting's corpse had already been carried out, and those opium poppy seedlings had been uprooted entirely, filling a full twenty sacks—along with some seeds and dried fruit. The shade of the banyan tree was packed with people.
Seeing them return, Zhang Ming exchanged a few words with Bureau Chief Zhou and squeezed through the crowd.
"Master, where did you two go just now?"
Zhao Dongsheng recounted what had happened, prompting Zhang Ming to frown: "Was this the work of spies, I wonder? I'll go check it out later."
He then gave Su Chen his assurance: "Master, we will handle this matter."
"Alright, good."
The municipal bureau had brought around twenty people into Dragon Mountain this time. The group marched down the mountain in a grand procession. Passing by the hillside where the array had been set up earlier, Su Chen paused briefly, pulling Zhao Dongsheng along to search the woods for a bit. Sure enough, they found a crude doll hanging from a tree, with Sun Zhiyuan's exact birth characters inscribed on its back.
"Damn it! And here I thought this punk was just a tough nut who kept his mouth shut ever since he got caught. Turns out he really is one."
"Who on earth taught him this kind of evil magic? You killed someone, and the vengeful ghost comes looking for payback, so you make a substitute to escape? That is utterly disgusting! Absolutely no sense of responsibility whatsoever!"
Zhao Dongsheng was filled with righteous indignation.
Su Chen advised him: "Don't worry, it won't last long. Besides, if this doll is burned, he will suffer a backlash."
Zhao Dongsheng's eyes lit up: "Really?"
"Mhm, so you should take it. Wait until Captain Zhang and the others finish their interrogation; if he isn't sentenced to death, we can burn it then."
Zhao Dongsheng gave a thumbs-up: "Master, brilliant idea!"
With that, he couldn't help but sigh with emotion.
"What a pity for that Zhao Xiaoting. Who knows how she provoked that scumbag—she even bore him a son only to be murdered by him. That Sun Zhiyuan is simply... worse than a beast!"
Grumbling and cursing, the group descended the mountain.
By the time they finished giving their depositions at the municipal bureau, it was already 11:00 PM.
Zhao Dongsheng had just opened his mouth to ask Su Chen if he wanted to go grab a late-night snack when a flurry of police sirens wailed ahead.
A jolt went through his heart as he hurriedly turned around, grabbing a passing police officer to ask: "What happened?"