Chapter 312

"The postmaster remembered the announcement in the city, seeing her clothes tattered, heavily pregnant, and her eyes flickering and not daring to look at people, so he wanted to hand her over to the official. The woman cried and made a scene, saying 'I'm just too hungry,' 'I don't want to harm you,' and ran out. The bailiff rushed to intercept, and as a result, a three-foot-tall monster jumped out of the cotton basket behind the woman, killing the postmaster, the bailiffs under him, and the groom. It just so happened that two patrol brothers were resting in the post station, heard the sound and came out to rescue, but couldn't beat the monster, one died and one was seriously injured. But they threw the monster outside the post station, and at least a dozen travelers on the road saw it." "And then?"

"The witnessing travelers were scared away on the spot. When the bailiffs arrived at the scene, the woman and the monster were of course gone."

"Is it a monster mother who escaped from Panlongcheng?" He Lingchuan pondered, "Panlongcheng strictly checked pregnant women some time ago, she knew she couldn't stay in the city, so she escaped first."

But the environment in the suburbs was freezing, and a lone pregnant woman had almost nowhere to go, probably only able to live in some dilapidated houses.

Willow frowned: "From Xikou Village to the mine mountain we are going to now, the distance is quite far, can a pregnant woman hold on?"

"Maybe she can." Door Panel said in a rough voice, "What's in her belly is not human, maybe it can use some ghost methods."

Willow hummed.

Chifeng is thirty miles northwest of Panlongcheng, the journey is not far. This is one of the most important mines in the northwest, the iron and copper produced are of good quality and stable, after years of development, a small town has formed at the foot of the mountain, called Chifeng Town, with a population of one thousand.

Relying on the mountain to eat from the mountain, the main body of the townspeople are miners, blacksmiths, officials and their families, the mined ore is smelted on the spot, saving time for labor and materials, and then inspected and purchased by the official, and transported to the city.

Panlongcheng has been at war for many years and attaches great importance to ironware, so upon learning that the mine collapsed, it immediately sent people to go.

The further northwest you go, the fewer trees and the more mountain stones there are, the ups and downs of the hilly area are fully displayed, some steep peaks can't even hang snow, revealing a dark background.

But there are many animals here, a large group of wild deer are digging for lichen in the snow to eat, seeing everyone running past, they are not surprised, still standing in place and chewing.

He Lingchuan and others rushed to Chifeng Town and saw that the road to the mine was indeed blocked, and it was blocked near the entrance. Because of the need for ore transportation, the mountain road here was specially widened and repaired to facilitate vehicle transportation, but now the accumulated snow on the high mountain fell down, bringing large pieces of weathered rock with it, blocking it tightly.

But now the clearing work is in full swing. He Lingchuan saw two huge ice-rock puppets digging and scraping falling rocks and snow, they were both over two zhang tall, even more majestic than his golden-armored copper men, their bodies were made of solid ice and rocks, two palms were bigger than a door panel, just suitable for use as a digging shovel, no lower limbs, replaced by four or five large ice wheels, which made transporting heavy objects more labor-saving.

The practitioner who summoned these two goods must be nearby, the longer they are maintained, the more spiritual power is consumed.

The reason why human labor wasn't used for digging is that, first, giant ice-rock puppets have greater strength and higher efficiency; second, rocks fall from the mountain every now and then, big ones wider than a round table, small ones bigger than a coconut, if a laborer were hit, their head could be split into eight pieces.

And responsible for transporting rock ice, besides ordinary mules and horses, He Lingchuan actually saw more than a dozen huge long-haired wild oxen, with a pair of curved horns on their heads, and hair almost covering their eyes.

These big guys are extremely robust, looking like they don't have a good temper, but they obediently put on vehicles, dragging engineering waste for humans, and spraying white steam from their noses when they use great strength.

One wild ox can drag a cart full of waste stones. With them helping, the clearing work is much faster.

Everyone is clicking their tongues in wonder, Willow raised her hand and pointed to the mountain top: "Look, Mountain Ze!"

All living things are busy, but on a protruding hard rock on the mountain road, there lies a huge sand-yellow leopard.

Its body size is bigger than an ordinary male lion, its lying posture is lazy, and it is lowering its head to clean its front paw pads.

Those claws are comparable to a cattail fan.

He Lingchuan was very surprised: "Is this the local Mountain Ze of Chifeng?" Very familiar, wasn't the sand leopard that caused his original body to fall off the cliff also a sand leopard, and it also happened to open his fate with the god bone necklace.

Wait a minute, isn't Zhong Shengguang's spiritual pet a sand leopard? "That is the partner of Lord Zhong." Willow's voice was full of respect, "Legend has it that it was the sand leopard leader subdued by Lord Zhong in the third year of his arrival at the Panlong Wasteland, who once fought with Lord Zhong, and was later directly appointed as the Northwest Mountain Ze."

When a person attains the Dao, even chickens and dogs can ascend to heaven, not to mention a leopard demon that originally had real materials? Mountain Ze personally sat in town, no wonder the long-haired wild oxen below were obedient, just short of letting humans put nose rings on them.

He Lingchuan sighed, the ancestors of that little leopard demon were Mountain Ze, with imperial titles, how did they end up as a nest of mountain bandits?

Each generation is not as good as the previous one.

That Mountain Ze leopard demon didn't know he was arranging it in his heart, still stretching on the giant rock, and then roared at a lazy wild ox.

The saw-like roar startled the wild ox, and it buried its head in work.

He Lingchuan had only watched for a few breaths when a cheer came from the mountain road: the first blockage point was cleared.

Someone in the town waved at himself, and He Lingchuan and his party drove their horses over.

This person was the village head responsible for managing Chifeng Town, black and thin, with high cheekbones, a naturally sorrowful face.

He said to He Lingchuan: "Three teams in total, right?"

He Lingchuan looked around the town, and sure enough, he saw other patrol guards. Since defeating Meng Shan, He Lingchuan's reputation had opened up among martial artists, and most patrol guards recognized him, and were now nodding to him.

Door Panel answered for him: "Right."

"Then everyone is here." The village head greeted other patrol guards to come over and enter the temple in the town. This temple was dedicated to the Mitian Niangniang, the back hall was very large, and more than twenty people didn't feel crowded. "My surname is Hu, I manage the size of affairs in Chifeng Town. Following the order, I want to introduce the situation here to everyone."

"Our mine is not hidden deep, it's close to the main road, and it can be mined in winter. Going deeper, although there are several rich mines there, the mountain is blocked by heavy snow in winter, and we can't get in." This is also one of the reasons why the Chifeng mine is valued by Panlongcheng, "It has been snowing heavily for the past three days, but the road to the mine has always been fine, until yesterday when there was a sudden avalanche, and the collapse face was very large, the mountain road was blocked for at least two or three miles, and the clearing difficulty is very great."

Village Head Hu continued: "The problem is that the mine hasn't stopped, there have been people inside. We heard from the laborers who escaped that monsters seem to have mixed into the mine, and they eat people."

"Eat people?" Several captains exchanged glances, "What do they look like?"

"Not clear, it's pitch black in the mine, and the thing moves fast, they can't see clearly at all. Sometimes they hear companions screaming, and when they rush over, the person is already gone."

He Lingchuan asked: "Is it done by demons or wild beasts?"

"With the spiritual leopard Mountain Ze here, the local demon beasts dare not attack humans, and even wild beasts avoid humans by three points." Village Head Hu said, "Mountain Ze also went to ask his subordinates, and they all said they didn't eat people."

"By the way, before the avalanche, townspeople also heard strange sounds, like a baby crying. At that time, everyone thought it was a wild cat in the forest, but the more they listened, the stranger it got." Village Head Hu swallowed a mouthful of saliva, "Actually, two people have been lost in the town in the past half month. Hmm, originally three, but one went far to pick firewood, encountered wind and snow, and was blocked for two days before returning..."

Another captain, Xu Chun, interrupted him: "Were the two lost or dead?"

"One went out to buy things eleven days ago and didn't return; another named Ding lived in our town, and the next morning everyone woke up and found his door open, and the person was gone."

"Any bloodstains?"

"No bloodstains, no signs of struggle or fighting." Village Head Hu said, "The footprints at his house were going out, and they disappeared after going west for four or five zhang. The snow is very thick, and the footprints can be seen very clearly."

That is to say, after walking four or five zhang out of the house, Old Ding disappeared?

He Lingchuan thought that this small town was built in a mountain valley, with little space, so the residential houses were one next to another, and the sound insulation was probably only a little better than his wooden house in Panlongcheng. If the missing person was attacked, the neighbors should have at least heard screams.

Could it be that he was attacked while sleeping, with no resistance at all?

Willow stood up: "Where is the house of this person who disappeared in the town?"

Village Head Hu pointed it out to her.

Willow said to everyone: "I'll be right back."

She went to investigate, Village Head Hu smiled bitterly: "The people in the town are uneasy after Old Ding disappeared, and they don't dare to sleep at night. Plus this matter in the mine... please patrol masters must eliminate the monsters, otherwise the iron casting mission sent down from the city is really hard to complete."

How many iron pieces the Chifeng mine has to hand in every month, these are all quantitative indicators.

Xu Chun was about to speak when the old woman who brought hot water suddenly interjected: "Village Head, why don't you tell the patrol masters about that woman? She also came half a month ago, the time matches!"

Village Head Hu glared at her: "Don't talk nonsense, don't make trouble here!"

How could the patrol guards let go of any clues? "What woman?"

"Patrol masters, don't listen to this old woman's nonsense, a woman came to the town seventeen or eighteen days ago, saying she wanted to rely on relatives. But her relatives had long since passed away. Seeing her heavily pregnant and pitiful, we allocated an empty house for her to live in."

Heavily pregnant? Everyone looked at each other, feeling alert in their hearts. Didn't Panlongcheng check pregnant women some time ago? The timeline does match.

He Lingchuan suddenly said: "Is it looking like fifty years old, thin and short?"

"A bit thin and short, but not fifty, right?" Village Head Hu was stunned by him, "About thirty."

The old woman who brought water added coldly: "She looks quite fair."

He Lingchuan was surprised.

He thought it would be the old woman he had met.

Xu Chun asked: "Where is she?"

"She left a few days ago." Village Head Hu shook his head, "She said she was five or six months pregnant, we saw at least nine months, it was scary big, how could she live here for a long time?"

(End of this chapter)