Chapter 376

The yamen runners hurried forward to block them.

Xiao Ningxun shouted loudly: "All, stop!"

At this moment, the refugees respected him all the more and immediately ceased their commotion.

Xiao Ningxun told those yamen runners: "Immediately issue orders to all nearby places sheltering refugees, and investigate according to this method."

"Don't startle the snake; you must investigate covertly. Anyone with the same ink mark behind both ears must not be let go."

"After capturing them, you must interrogate them publicly, so they speak the truth, letting the refugees discern right from wrong."

"I, your humble servant, obey!"

The yamen runners turned and left.

That night, the Daoist temple was brightly lit.

The yamen runners returned one after another to report, having captured a total of 137 people, of whom 38 were found carrying croton bean powder, all spreading the rumor among the refugees that Prince Ning had died.

Xiao Ningxun let out a long sigh.

If not exposed today, this rumor would spread with the refugees throughout the Fierce Kingdom, causing the people's hearts to scatter and the rear to fall into chaos.

He picked up Tuan Tuan and poked her little nose: "Thanks to our Tuan Tuan, otherwise, such a tiny mark would indeed be extremely hard to find."

Tuan Tuan clung to her brother's neck: "Third Brother, why are they so bad?"

Xiao Ningxun said softly: "Because some people, living in darkness themselves, want to blow out everyone's lights."

Tuan Tuan half-understood, burying her face in his neck crook, and muttered: "I miss Daddy."

"It's almost there; we'll be there soon."

Late at night, in the camp tent of the Da Xia border army, a messenger pigeon fell with a flutter.

The person in the tent removed the bamboo tube from the pigeon's leg, pulled out the slip of paper, and read it by candlelight.

Moments later, a crisp cracking sound of breaking pottery came from the tent, followed immediately by a torrent of cursing:

"Damn it! You can't even handle such a small matter!"

"How could you let a little child spot the flaw!"

"Over a hundred people were all caught! They're just over a hundred pigs! They couldn't even be caught all at once! Idiots! All idiots——!"

Everyone continued on the road, the carriage traveled another two days on the official road, and the scenery gradually changed.

The trees beside the road grew sparse, and the outlines of the distant mountains became steep and rugged.

Xiao Ningxun looked out the window and said softly: "Tuan Tuan, in another two or three days we'll be able to see Father."

Tuan Tuan's eyes sparkled: "Really? That's great!"

In the evening, the carriage entered a fairly large border city.

After the group found an inn to stay in, they went out to find a place to eat.

All that could be seen was that the city streets were orderly, most shops still open, yet the people coming and going all looked somewhat panicked.

The old man selling buns kneaded dough while frequently raising his head to look around.

The tea customers at the roadside stall gathered together to talk in low voices, occasionally shaking their heads and sighing.

A woman carrying a child hurried past, muttering continuously, "How could this be good! How could this be good!"

Tuan Tuan looked on, very puzzled: "Third Brother, what's wrong with them?"

Xiao Ningxun slightly furrowed his brow and gave Xiao Er a signal.

Xiao Er understood, and together with Lu Qi, approached an old man squatting in a street corner smoking a dry pipe: "Elder, sorry for the disturbance."

"May I ask what's happened in the city? Why do everyone's expressions seem off?"

The old man looked up at them, took a puff, and said: "You're from outside, aren't you?"

"Yes, just passing through."

"Then you should leave quickly." The old man pointed north with his pipe, "Don't go north any further; it's not peaceful there!"

Lu Qi asked further: "But is the war going poorly?"

The old man shook his head, then nodded, and finally let out a heavy sigh: "How the war is going, we ordinary folk have no idea."

"But, Old Heaven Lord has already told us."

"Old Heaven Lord? Elder, you're joking, aren't you?"

"Young ones, I'm not joking with you."

"In the eastern part of our city, there's the White Water River, and not long ago something strange happened."

"Strange? I'd like to hear the details."

"It's definitely strange! For seven or eight consecutive nights, the river surface glowed with multicolored lights, as if the Dragon Palace had opened its doors!"

"During the day, the river water gurgles and bubbles upward for half an hour at a time, as if something is trying to break through!"

"The day before yesterday, the authorities sent several good swimmers down the river to retrieve something; guess what they pulled up?"

Lu Qi felt a slight heaviness in his heart: "What did they pull up?"

"A huge stone tablet! It bore six large characters: Prince Ning perished, the fierce nation collapses!"

Xiao Er's pupils contracted.

"I was also there the day the tablet emerged from the water; I saw it with my own eyes!"

"That stone was covered in green moss, clearly having lain at the river bottom for an unknown number of years."

"But the characters looked as fresh as if they were carved just yesterday; would you say that's ominous?"

A woman carrying a vegetable basket stopped: "Don't speak nonsense! This is clearly the guidance of the Three Pure Ones!"

"Against Da Xia this time, we're probably not going to win."

"Exactly!" a middle‑aged vegetable seller passing by with a shoulder pole chimed in, his face turning pale, "My second uncle works as an official in the yamen."

"He said that after the tablet was pulled up, the magistrate's face turned green, and they hurried to cover it with a cloth, but what good is that? Now the whole city knows, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, we have to leave quickly," the woman said while pondering, "If the Da Xia people come over, how could we still keep our lives!"

"I heard that over at Xi Lu it's peaceful, there are many cattle and sheep, and you can get by without farming."

"Xi Lu?" Xiao Er and Lu Qi exchanged a glance and couldn't help rolling their eyes.

The vegetable‑selling man forced a wry smile, "The steppe road is far, and I have seven or eight family members, old and young—can we even make it? Besides, I only know how to grow vegetables!"

Panic, like an invisible spider web, tangled around everyone's brows and corners of their eyes.

Xiao Er and Lu Qi came back and recounted everything they had learned.

Xiao Ningxun's complexion darkened: "Let's go, we should head to the riverbank and take a look."

After asking for directions, the few of them arrived at the banks of the White Water River.

On a clearing beside the riverbank stood a simple wooden fence, and in its center a stone tablet nearly two people tall was tightly covered by several pieces of dark‑blue coarse cloth.

Two officials holding waist knives guarded outside the fence; when someone approached, they immediately stepped forward to block, "This is a government‑protected area; you may not come close!"

Xiao Ran fished a token from his chest and held it up before the two men.

The official was stunned, and after seeing the pattern on the token, immediately knelt, "Your servant wishes to see you, sir!"

Xiao Ran ordered, "Lift the cloth."

The official hurried to his feet, fumbling to untie the hemp rope that bound the corner of the cloth.

The coarse cloth slipped off with a "whoosh," revealing the full face of the stone tablet.

It was a natural boulder, its surface mottled with a slick layer of green moss, and its edges had been worn smooth by the water flow, perfectly rounded.

Anyone who saw it would believe it had been sleeping at the river bottom for decades, perhaps even longer.

Yet on the front of the tablet, six massive characters had been deeply chiseled.

Prince Ning perished, the fierce nation collapsed.