Chapter 1601: Origins

So Cao Wendao had to take demons for experiments, and it was best not to do it in Beijia. Dong Rui couldn't wait: "What kind of experiments are you doing?"

Yang Chi hesitated again.

Wanqi Liang performed a knife dance, *whoosh*, and scraped off his two eyebrows. Yang Chi felt cold light flashing before his eyes, so he had to say: "Jian beasts! My master is researching Jian beasts!"

"Researched to what step?" It was hard to meet a fellow traveler, and Dong Rui's eyes were shining, "What is the main direction of attack?"

Yang Chi opened his mouth several times, like a fish in water: "I, I don't know either! The core secret is only known to Master himself! He has a tightly locked experimental room in Red Hut, and never allows others to enter. And the Jian beasts and demon puppets we manufacture are sometimes sold to surrounding forces and armies. If they don't know how to drive them, Master sends us to guide the operation."

"Your service attitude is quite good." Selling such big killing weapons, and if the buyer doesn't know how to use them, the owner of Red Hut still has to send people to guide the operation?

"Uh, it's, it's okay."

He Lingchuan also understood: "You also take orders to kill people, right?"

"Yes. Master always complains that funds are insufficient, so he can only get them himself."

Demon puppet masters never had enough money.

"Who hired you to kill Situ Yu, and how much did it cost?"

Yang Chi answered truthfully: "Pi Xia. It seems like four or fifty thousand taels?"

"Truly not expensive." Buying the life of an alliance leader, it's a bargain.

He Lingchuan asked again: "Your master is doing research here, who provided the funds?"

Whether researching demon puppets or Jian beasts, they were all expensive projects. Every time Dong Rui wanted to research something, he would ask for at least fifty thousand taels.

If Cao Wendao didn't have someone to sponsor him, he wouldn't have saved enough funds even if he killed ten alliance leaders.

The carriage wheel hit a stone, and the carriage body shook. The corpse on the ground shook with it, and its head rolled onto Yang Chi's foot, scaring him into another tremor: "Ling, Lingxu City. But I don't know which part gave it."

They had already left the city and were walking on the official road, with few vehicles and pedestrians coming and going. Wanqi Liang put away the corpse, then opened the carriage curtain to let the air circulate.

He Lingchuan continued to ask: "Besides insect puppets, what else do you research?"

"Insect puppets are the most, then monkeys, sometimes people."

Dong Rui's eyes flickered: "Have you ever raised a Tong-Jian?"

"Ah, yes." Yang Chi nodded repeatedly, "Master raised a nest of five Tong-Jian, and only one was successfully modified."

"Xiao An?"

"Right, it's called 'Xiao An'."

"But Xiao An is a real person." He Lingchuan was also curious, "We checked her background."

"That's using the soul of a child, embedded in the body of a Tong-Jian." Yang Chi said repeatedly, "Master came to the Flash Gold Plain and spent several years before catching this nest of Tong-Jian. I happened to be by his side when he collected that little girl's soul!"

"Oh?" Dong Rui asked him, "Did Master kill Xiao An?"

"That's not it." Yang Chi waved his hand, "Before this, we tried more than a hundred times, injecting ordinary souls into the bodies of Tong-Jian, but without exception, they all failed. Finally, Master believed that this required a powerful but pure soul. Because the Tong-Jian itself is not an ordinary monster."

Powerful, but pure. He Lingchuan also scratched his head listening. A powerful soul is usually not pure.

Truly self-contradictory.

"One day, we passed by a village that had just been attacked by mountain bandits, and everyone in the village was dead. We also saw a mother and daughter in the back mountain, who couldn't be saved, but the little girl's soul was very tough. I estimate the bandits had already left for more than ten hours, but when we discovered her, she had just breathed her last. Master collected this soul, brought it back to Red Hut, and it fit perfectly. We had tried more than a hundred souls before, and none were as compatible as this one."

"She doesn't know she is a Tong-Jian?"

"During the soul injection process, there was a small problem." Yang Chi said softly, "The Tong-Jian's soul wasn't stripped clean either, but she has always suppressed it in normal times. Only when Xiao An's emotions fluctuate too much will the Tong-Jian appear, but at that time it loses its reason and kills wantonly!"

"Master only lied to this little girl, saying she was his daughter. But Xiao An's memory is incomplete, and it's inevitable that it's chaotic sometimes." Yang Chi sighed, "In any case, we have no way to summon the power of the Tong-Jian when she is calm."

He Lingchuan pondered: "A few months ago, the Yao Kingdom princess and a large number of civilians were killed. The Yao Kingdom determined it was the work of a three-tailed fox demon and even sent General Zhongwu to intercept and kill the three-tailed one."

"That was done by Xiao An." Yang Chi clarified, "My senior brother accidentally talked about the past twenty years ago, and Xiao An was deeply stimulated, turning into a Tong-Jian and rushing out of Red Hut! A lot of people died that time."

"Killing wantonly? Wait a minute, is Red Hut located near the Yao Kingdom?"

"West of the Yao border."

This location... He Lingchuan understood immediately: "The Ya Princess murder case?"

"Uh, y-yes."

"Sure enough, it was your doing."

A few months ago, the Yao Princess Ya, whom the Yao King loved dearly, was killed for no reason in a villa near the border, and more than a thousand civilians were killed. This case caused a sensation at the time, and the monarch was furious, which was why he ordered General Zhongwu to pursue the three-tailed fox demon.

In the end, the three-tailed one took the blame for the real culprit.

Yang Chi smiled bitterly: "Since then, Master has forbidden us from stimulating her even more. But Xiao An has been clamoring to go home, neither listening to Master nor willing to return to Red Hut, becoming more and more manic and not recognizing anyone. We went out several times, but couldn't catch her back."

Xiao An's village was long gone, and even if she could go back, she wouldn't find her family.

"Chen Village, Green Shanzhuang?"

"Yes, only when Xiao An is emotionally agitated can Master track the Tong-Jian. That's why there were these two incidents at Chen Village and Green Shanzhuang." Yang Chi scratched his head, "Half-demon puppets are not so easy to control once they are released and see blood."

He Lingchuan asked him again: "Why did Cao Wendao come to Tian Shui City?"

"Master said, this time there is a mission in Tian Shui City, to kill someone very hard to kill—the owner of the Yangshan Islands."

Dong Rui grabbed the question: "Who paid? How much did they pay?"

"I, I don't know."

Wanqi Liang's eyes widened, and the bloody sharp knife pressed against his ribs: "Speak!"

"I really don't know, really don't know!" Yang Chi shouted, "Such secrets, we only follow orders, how could Master inform us in advance! Also, also Master went out alone several times, I don't know where he went or who he met."

He Lingchuan smiled: "What's hard to guess? They are Beijia people."

Qingyang is also a Beijia person.

Dong Rui glanced at him: "I think, their target might not just be offending Beijia people."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1602 =====

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