Chapter 457

This guy had recovered and started emphasizing his own importance. He Lingchuan didn't expose him, just frowned, but General Ling was much more direct: "More than a year? Old news from more than a year ago, what connection could it have with now?" This timeline was stretched too far, right? "Listen, you all listen," Wang Mazi didn't dare to keep them in suspense anymore, "There is a nest of porcupine demons on the east side of Zhitian Township, probably over a hundred of them. Their land is at the foot of Mount Yulun, and the area is very large. This group of monsters didn't have a good relationship with the locals and often caused trouble. The townspeople didn't like them, but they couldn't do anything about them either. This nest of monsters had lived under Mount Yulun for over a hundred years, and their seniority was much older than anyone else's; they were there even before Zhitian Township existed."

"And then?" He Lingchuan knew that although the Beijia Kingdom claimed to have demons and humans living together, in reality, most monsters were accustomed to living in groups based on their clans, with clear boundaries from humans.

This was the natural barrier of clan nature. For example, the old sheep beside him lived with his clan in a territory on the edge of the county town to eat and drink well, rather than living in the city.

"Last winter, Mount Yulun suddenly collapsed, and it seemed to have buried their nest." Wang Mazi said, "But no one entered the mountain at that time, so no one knew. It wasn't until the snow melted the following year that the people of Zhitian Township entered the mountain and discovered the collapse, and the nest of these monsters had also been destroyed."

He Lingchuan couldn't help but frown: "How does this count as a missing persons case?" Wasn't it just an ordinary human tragedy?

"I have a companion who is from Zhitian Township. When he was hired to clear the landslide, he discovered that the porcupine corpses in the nest were all piled together, as if they had died huddling together, and only their bones remained." Wang Mazi said, "Such a large nest, there were over a hundred of them. Not long after, someone in town was attacked by a porcupine demon, one dead and one injured. The government was alarmed and sent people down, but after searching for over a month, they didn't find any trace of them. Later, the matter was left unsettled."

After listening, He Lingchuan said: "This old news doesn't seem to have any connection with what happened at Mount Niutou."

Wang Mazi's face fell: "Even if they were crushed to death... My lord, you know that porcupines never like to huddle together, especially over a hundred of them."

He knew that the more effort he put in, the greater his hope of survival. Conversely, it was a dead end.

"The reaction of living beings when facing a desperate situation is usually hard for others to imagine." He Lingchuan changed direction, "You said you encountered a ghost-hitting-wall on the way back to Shuangyi Town and ended up at the government fields for no reason?"

"Yes, yes!"

He Lingchuan nodded: "Then you were plotted against." A ghost-hitting-wall is also commonly known as a maze formation, and its basic function is to make people dizzy and wander around randomly.

As for formations, they all need to be set up in advance.

Someone had set up a maze formation on their way home in advance, inducing these villagers to walk to the government fields and provoke the Zuanfeng Beasts.

"Who formulated this plan to steal goods for you?"

"My cousin Wang Ling." Wang Mazi said, "He told us that a group of greenhorns had come to Wudou Town, they were strangers to the area, and the goods were very good. As long as the robbery succeeded, he would give me two taels of silver this time!"

He explained again: "Greenhorns refers to outsiders who don't know our local market."

"Is Wang Ling already dead?"

Wang Mazi nodded, his face showing no sadness, only resentment: "He deserved it. I sprained my ankle that night, and he didn't even stay to help me!"

"Where did he get his information from?"

"I'm not sure, but it might have been in the gambling den." Wang Mazi said, "He ran there whenever he had money."

He Lingchuan thought for a while: "Then what about the targets of your theft, that group of greenhorns, how much information do you still remember?"

"Uh..." Wang Mazi had already reviewed this matter in his mind countless times, "It was a small merchant caravan, only thirty-some people, ten cargo trucks. We stole two of them, and they were filled with chewing tobacco, and in over a dozen bamboo tubes were stuffed with saltpeter. Wang Ling accidentally knocked one open, and the whole carriage compartment froze."

He Lingchuan rubbed his temples: "Smuggling chewing tobacco and saltpeter, where did you get the guts to touch them?"

Chewing tobacco is a high-profit commodity, and the Beijia Kingdom only allows official monopoly; private smuggling is a serious crime. As for saltpeter, it is an even more important military supply, one of the basic raw materials for making gunpowder. How could private transport by civilian merchants be allowed? "Occasionally... there are people who transport it." Wang Mazi argued, "We've all seen it, and before we also, also..."

"Also stolen it?"

Wang Mazi shrank his head and looked at Jiao Yu and General Ling on the side. Seeing they didn't express any stance, he gave a tacit agreement.

Yes, there are people who do business that leads to beheading, and small places are even wilder. Chewing tobacco and saltpeter are both small in volume. After everyone steals them, they divide them up, and each person only takes a little to sell, and they can quickly dispose of the stolen goods.

They were local thugs with their own channels.

"Aren't you doing business that leads to beheading?" He Lingchuan looked at him with a half-smile, "Regarding these merchants, what else do you remember? The more detailed, the better."

"The leader was about forty, not short or fat, his beard was trimmed neatly, he wore a jade ring on his ring finger, and at this position on his neck—" he pointed to his own neck to show He Lingchuan, "there was a flesh-colored mole."

"When you were scouting, did you hear them say where their destination was?"

Wang Mazi thought for a long time: "No, no?"

"Alright, go back." During He Lingchuan's interrogation of Wang Mazi, the Zuanfeng Beasts brought by the goshawk and General Ling went to search the valley, but returned empty-handed in the end.

The murderer's ability to clean up was first-class; staying here any longer wouldn't lead to any useful clues.

After returning to the inn, He Lingchuan took out Fu Shanji's data again, wanting to see if he had any omissions.

The Chi Yan Kingdom was so large; trying to find a missing bird was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Before He Lingchuan set off, Li Qingge had shared some newly obtained intelligence with him: a month ago, Beijia suffered a setback on the eastern front.

It was said that because the two armies commanded by Beijia did not coordinate in time, a major tactical error occurred, and the opponent seized the opportunity.

Yes, one of the teams was the Chi Yan Kingdom's army.

Thinking of the Emperor's anger, it wasn't hard for He Lingchuan to guess that perhaps it was because the white-shouldered eagle went missing that the intelligence for coordinated operations could not be transmitted to the Chi Yan Kingdom in time, thereby causing huge losses on the battlefield.

Lingxu City, of course, would not tolerate such things.

He was very curious about the source of the intelligence, but Li Qingge obviously wouldn't reveal it.

On the data compiled from various places, Fu Shanji had also written a few keywords in red ink:

The first word—

Rainy night!

He was quite careful, finding the common point of missing persons cases in various places, which was that they all happened on rainy nights.

He Lingchuan recalled the day the rock goat was nearly stolen; it was indeed a night of continuous rain, and it didn't stop until after the hour of the Ox.

These people only acted on rainy nights, why? The second keyword Fu Shanji summarized was "countryside".

These missing persons cases all happened in the suburbs and mountain forests, far from the city and human habitation.

Humans have the habit of living in groups, while many monsters like to travel alone, far from human settlements. If these murderers specifically chose to attack in the suburbs, then indeed more monsters were harmed than humans.

From this, one can also see the murderer's caution.

Then the third keyword was "multiple places at the same time".

Comparing the time and space of individual cases, some cases happened very close in time, only a day or two apart, but the locations were very far, separated by over a hundred li.

The murderer traveled over a hundred li within a dozen hours to commit another crime; what was the point of this?

After experiencing the sheep-stealing incident, He Lingchuan was more inclined to believe that these people were likely acting in separate groups.

In other words, this was very likely a cross-regional gang crime! That was all Fu Shanji's deduction; perhaps he hadn't found new clues, or perhaps Fu Shanyue had given him a head-on blow at this time...

In He Lingchuan's view, Fu Shanji's top-down way of investigating cases was destined not to have any gains.

What is the efficiency of government work? An old ox pulling a broken cart is faster than it, not to mention various omissions.

If only government manpower and government data were used, the day of solving the case would be remote.

Let alone the motive, the location of the crime, the target chosen, the timing of the attack... if the pattern couldn't be grasped, the gang couldn't be caught.

Their actions were truly very secretive. If the Lingxu City courier hadn't been involved this time, I'm afraid no one would have noticed these missing persons cases scattered everywhere.

Let alone the demon kingdom, even if a villager went missing occasionally in various parts of the Yuan Kingdom, it would be common and not worth mentioning.

These days, there are simply too many reasons for living people and monsters to go missing.

So should he go to Wudou Town, where Wang Mazi and the others were set up, to see what was going on? He Lingchuan was still thinking hard, but a tapping sound came from the window.

He got up and opened the window, seeing over a dozen crows standing outside.

"Something up?"

The largest crow poked its head in to look, confirming the goshawk wasn't inside, and then it boldly jumped in and took two steps: "Are you still researching the strange things at Mount Niutou?"

He Lingchuan nodded: "Do you have new clues?"

"That depends on what reward you offer," the crow said brazenly, "No reward, no clues!"

He had been dealing with this kind of creature since Sanxinyuan and knew they were typical robber personalities, bullying the weak and fearing the strong.

"Why don't you name a price and let me see?"

"Three hundred jin of beef and mutton every month, one hundred Baoling Pills!" The crow had thought it through before coming, "Also, we want that forest south of Shuangyi Town as our habitat; no other birds are allowed to build nests except for the crow flock!"

He Lingchuan raised his eyebrows: "I am the Crown Prince's special envoy; seeing me is like seeing him in person. How dare you open your mouth like a lion?"

"How wealthy is the Crown Prince; pulling out a hair is thicker than our thighs!" The crow sneered, "A few hundred jin of meat and one hundred pills a month is nothing at all!"

"That's true." As soon as he finished speaking, He Lingchuan pursed his lips and whistled, then flicked his hand.

A burst of energy swept across and closed the window.

This separated the crow leader from its dozen or so subordinates.

The big crow saw the situation was bad but didn't attack He Lingchuan, just slammed into the window paper, intending to escape through the window.

He Lingchuan predicted accurately and spread a net in front of it, making it seem like the crow had thrown itself into the net.

Congratulations to classmate @Dong Jiangshuang on your engagement! Golden wind and jade frost, better than countless people in the world.

(End of chapter)