Chapter 1645: The Old Woman by the Creek

But doing this was truly too righteous; whenever the palace guards mentioned Island Master He, their thumbs would almost be held up until they broke.

Only by comparison can one know the gap; compared to the chaotic Tianshui City, the current Yongquan Shanzhuang was simply as beautiful as a paradise.

West of Yongquan Shanzhuang, Peach Creek.

The creek gurgled, not caring about human sorrow.

A few days ago, Dong Rui and the owner of the Red Hut, Cao Wendao, had a decisive battle here, and the large pit blasted out of the ground hadn't been smoothed over.

The government originally sprinkled medicine powder for backfilling, burying the giant skinned fish that was blasted to death on the spot. But I don't know who dug up the ground again, exposing the fish corpse inside.

Fortunately, the weather was very cold, and the decomposition speed of the demon puppet corpse was slow, so there was no foul smell.

So there was a large patch of floating soil on the ground, and the trees broken around it remained as they were.

He Lingchuan approached in the moonlight, calling out twice in a low voice: "Old woman, old woman!"

He was somewhat worried because two new bonfire traces appeared by the creek. He bent down to break a half-charred piece of wood and found the cut was still a bit damp.

"Why act like a thief?"

A voice sounded, close at hand. He Lingchuan turned in surprise, only to find that a withered tree a zhang away had moved.

It changed color as soon as it moved, and leaned two steps toward him.

Zhu Danniang.

He Lingchuan gave her a thumbs up: "Old woman, your camouflage craft is becoming more and more exquisite."

"Hmmph." Zhu Danniang's figure was a circle smaller than it was on the Yangshan Islands. "Where is my wine?"

Zhu Danniang had been wandering around the Yongquan Shanzhuang; it could fast for a month after one full meal, didn't need to hunt frequently, and usually found a mountain cave to sleep in, with the supernatural power to hide itself, almost no one could discover its whereabouts.

But it liked to drink, and every few days, Dong Rui had to send it wine. Now that Dong Rui had left, the job of sending wine fell to He Lingchuan.

The personalities of the big sister and second sister were different, but both liked fine wine.

He Lingchuan took out good wine from his storage ring and placed it on the ground, a total of five jars.

This job of sending wine could have been handed over to subordinates like Wanqi Feng, but He Lingchuan felt that no matter how busy he was, he had to personally find the old woman to drink and chat. After all, this big monster had followed him from the Yangshan Islands to the Yao Nation just to protect him, which was worthy of respect.

He patted open the mud seal of the wine jar, scooped out the wine with a bowl, and the fragrance overflowed.

Zhu Danniang, on the other hand, extended its mouthparts directly, piercing the mud seal, and drank it happily.

"Not bad, gulp gulp, this wine is not bad." The old woman asked him while drinking, "Why did you come here, how did you shake off those followers?"

Dong Rui took the snail toad away, and He Lingchuan had no tool to escape underground. Although Zhu Danniang put an eyeball spider on He Lingchuan, this little thing occasionally had to take a nap and wouldn't be in a connected state every moment.

After all, this also consumed spiritual power.

He Lingchuan smiled mysteriously: "The mountain man has his own clever plan."

Zhao Song and the palace guards still thought he was staying in the Yongquan Shanzhuang, in his own courtyard.

Zhu Danniang didn't ask anymore; when this kid went back, wouldn't it know by taking a look with the eyeball spider?

He Lingchuan pointed to the bonfire on the ground and asked: "Who left this?"

"Refugees. There are really many refugees slipping out of the city recently!" Zhu Danniang said, "I was sleeping in the forest when six or seven refugees slipped over. I don't know where they found a shovel and started digging the soil, then cut the skinned fish corpse into pieces and roasted it to eat."

It paused: "They came into the forest to pick up firewood and almost came to break my leg hair."

Zhu Danniang disguised itself as a withered tree, and didn't move even when the refugees came. The people picked up branches and almost picked them onto its body.

He Lingchuan laughed: "These little geniuses."

Yes, the refugees couldn't fill their stomachs, so someone thought that there was a huge dead fish by Peach Creek, and it had only been dead for a few days.

In the freezing weather, let alone a dead fish of a few days, even two weeks, people would dare to eat it.

They were almost starving to death, so who would be picky? With the size of this skinned fish, feeding a hundred people was no problem.

"What these people felt was nothing more than the daily life of the Glittering Gold commoners, and they couldn't stand it." Zhu Danniang said lightly, "But they felt pain in their stomachs not long after eating, and then they died."

"..." The old woman's speech was as brief as ever. "Demon puppets are refined with divine blood; ordinary people eating them won't have a good end. So where are their bodies?"

"I threw them away." Zhu Danniang drank the first jar too fast and started to savor the second jar. "Dead bodies are an eyesore."

"Has Ashimona appeared in the last few days?"

"No." Zhu Danniang didn't lift its head. "I put some eyes around Youhu and Yongquan Shanzhuang, both in the dark forest and the hills, but I didn't find its whereabouts."

The government didn't receive any relevant reports either, indicating that this monster was quite secretive.

"However, when I was wandering in the south of the city, I found an empty camp. Looking at the traces on the ground, there might have been many people resting there, but there wasn't a single living thing left at that time. Several carriages were damaged and abandoned on the side, and only a few hooves were left of the horses pulling the carts, and the ground was full of blood."

He Lingchuan sipped his wine: "Do you think Ashimona did it?"

"When it ate Dong Rui's No. 66, it swallowed it whole, which shows it likes to eat things this way. So the living people in the camp are all gone." Zhu Danniang analyzed, "The horses are quite large, and it couldn't swallow them in one bite, so it could only take them apart to eat. Although this is a clay demon puppet, I can feel its desire for flesh and blood."

"Several people, several horses, its appetite is really not small." He Lingchuan pondered, "Could it still be thinking of me?"

He was Cao Wendao's target.

"Not necessarily." Zhu Danniang explained, "Dong Rui told me that it hates Cao Wendao and also hates everything Cao Wendao forced it to do. So after it gained freedom, it first stayed away from you and away from Yongquan Shanzhuang."

"That's good. I really don't have the energy to worry about this thing recently."

Zhu Danniang asked: "Where has Dong Rui gone?"

Its eyeball spider had a range limit; if Dong Rui walked too far, it would lose contact.

"Based on my understanding of him, he should be at the border by now." The snail toad broke its leg, and Dong Rui injured his shoulder, but the ghost ape was still fine, and there was a bat demon puppet that could fly; their traveling speed was still much faster than ordinary people. "Perhaps he has gone straight to the Red Hut."

The Red Hut contained research materials left by Cao Wendao and his men, and perhaps there were experimental subjects. Dong Rui hoped these would help his demon puppet research, and even more hoped to peek into the secrets of the Heavenly Palace from them.

This fellow was slippery, and his safety basically didn't need He Lingchuan to worry.

"In the last two days, have any unusual people gone to find Qingyang?"

"No, she didn't have a single visitor."

He Lingchuan nodded. Since he was targeted by the Red Hut as an attack target, and with the skinned fish corpse as evidence, the King of Yao had strengthened his surveillance of Qingyang. Even Yuwen Xu mentioned when drinking with He Lingchuan that the officials who had dealings with Qingyang over the past few months had all been summoned for strict interrogation! Mentioning the names, He Lingchuan suddenly realized.

No wonder so many officials committed suicide; the root cause was here.

This was unimaginable last autumn. At that time, Qingyang still waved the reporting stick, pointing at whoever was panicked, even Xue Zongwu was uneasy, and the King of Yao didn't dare to be so rude to her.

Since the construction of the Youhu Shanzhuang and the start of the Tianshui eastern expansion project, her authority and prestige had plummeted, and the King of Yao had gradually gained the upper hand, also winning over most officials to his side.

At least on the surface, it was like this.

"The King of Yao should also be alert, so Qingyang accelerated the speed of her actions." He Lingchuan shook the wine in his bowl lightly, "The recent refugee riots are the work of Qingyang's group. The King of Yao has likely guessed it too, just can't find the evidence."

The King of Yao had arrested many officials recently, but he had always been unaware that Qingyang's accomplices were hidden among his "own people."

Zhu Danniang asked casually: "The grain famine and riots in Tianshui City these ten days, why are they getting worse the more they are suppressed?"

"Is it strange?" He Lingchuan drank a mouthful of bayberry wine, "If the grain famine is not handled properly, it will inevitably lead to riots. Didn't the Yuan Nation have this before? Hong Xiangqian's great uprising... oh, you haven't been to the Yuan Nation, you don't know these things."

If there were no famine, the Yuan Nation wouldn't have erupted in Hong Xiangqian's great uprising, state officials like Nian Zanli wouldn't have rebelled, and Sun Fuping and Nian Songyu wouldn't have gone to the Panlong Desert to plot against the Great Fanghu. He Lingchuan would probably still be his playboy young master in Black Water City. "A riot can often open countless causes and effects."

Zhu Danniang wondered: "The Yao Nation has been established for nearly two hundred years, it's impossible not to have encountered a grain famine, right?"

Didn't they accumulate experience? "The situation this time is special." He Lingchuan picked up a peach and washed it in the creek. There were five varieties of peaches in the Yongquan Shanzhuang alone, this one was called Dragon Blood Peach, small in size but as red as blood, and especially soft and glutinous when bitten.

Having fruit to eat during a grain famine, this peach was doubly sweet when gnawed.

He shook the peach toward the opposite side, but Zhu Danniang didn't want it. It only ate meat juice, and at most drank a little wine.

"The Yao Nation has always been prosperous in people's livelihood and trade, or rather, its foundation is very thick. Here, a grain famine doesn't equal a starvation famine." He Lingchuan took a bite of the peach, "According to the history of Tianshui City, the Yao Nation also encountered a sharp rise in grain prices forty years ago, with rice and flour rising to thirty-five wen per jin. Although it couldn't compare to the fifty wen today, it was still quite high. At that time, the Yao people were full of complaints, but it hadn't reached the point of people not being able to live."

"This high-rising period lasted for about three or four months, then slowly fell back. There were several conflicts and frictions between officials and the people in several places, but it didn't brew into a larger riot."

"Right, it could be thirty-five wen forty years ago, why can't it be fifty wen now?" Zhu Danniang never understood the human world.

"There are many differences. At that time, thirty-five wen was the limit, now it's just at the climbing stage, everyone can see that grain prices will continue to rise." He Lingchuan smiled, "Most importantly, the Yao people really have no money in their hands now."

"No money..." Zhu Danniang thought for a long time and let out a long "oh," "New City?" ===== CHAPTER 1646 =====