Chapter 470

Zhongsun Mou asked him: "And you?" "I want to look for clues around here to see if there are any suspicious personnel." He Lingchuan said, "How about we divide the work? You chase the culprit, and I'll chase Mr. Mai."

Zhongsun Mou hummed, not objecting, and walked out as soon as he opened the door.

But he didn't walk two steps before reaching out to He Lingchuan: "Hand it over."

"Hand over what?"

"What you took from the curio shelf." Zhongsun Mou said, "I need to take it back to inspect it together."

He Lingchuan took out the ivory ball, turned it a few times in his hand, his face showing hesitation.

But in the end, he handed it over.

Zhongsun Mou took it, not noticing that a small spider had also been handed over by He Lingchuan and had quietly crawled into his sleeve.

Returning to the courtyard, the guard stepped forward to whisper a few words, and Zhongsun Mou glanced at the study again before leaving with his subordinates.

General Ling specifically went to the study for another walk, then came out and said to He Lingchuan: "This fellow who hides his eggs took the opportunity to have his subordinates empty the entire study; nothing is left!"

"Did they take the vase too?"

"Huh? What vase?"

"Forget it, don't mention it." He Lingchuan waved his hand, "The other party left calmly, so they surely wouldn't leave any clues."

Although Mr. Mai fled in advance, the study was orderly and had not been ransacked.

What exactly startled him? He Lingchuan returned to the main point: "By the way, General Ling, why did you call him a fellow who hides his eggs?"

"When a merman enters the water, he turns back into a fish tail, and when he goes ashore, he splits into human legs, but that thing is hidden deep in his abdomen, completely different from us land creatures." General Ling grinned and chuckled, "Isn't that a thing that hides its eggs and reveals its tail?"

He asked He Lingchuan: "What should we do now?"

Being special envoys as well, He Lingchuan felt much more approachable to him. He had been hanging out with He Lingchuan for a few days, and had already entered "acquaintance mode."

"This matter has many contradictions that don't match up." He Lingchuan was also trying hard to think, "Just now, when Zhongsun Mou heard your name, General, he seemed somewhat irritable. Do you know why?"

General Ling shook his head: "How would I know what he's thinking? But he's not the only one who gets irritable when he sees me."

That's right, with this old sheep's temper, he is a thorn in the side of many people.

He Lingchuan walked back to the study, took a mirror from his bosom, and shone it all around.

General Ling saw this and said: "Your mirror is a pretty good magic treasure."

"Have you seen it before?"

"The patterns on it, hmm, seem to be unique to a medieval immortal sect." General Ling pondered for a long time, "Where have I seen it before? Hey, I can't remember."

He Lingchuan was slightly startled, remembering that the Soul-Absorbing Mirror's origin was not legitimate and seemed to be related to Lingxu City as well. It seems that in the Beijia Kingdom, he cannot just show the mirror casually.

He said calmly: "It's a replica."

After the Soul-Absorbing Mirror scanned the room, it gave him feedback: "No remnants of eavesdropping supernatural powers or objects."

This mirror is a sharp tool for anti-surveillance.

Just as General Ling said, the study had been almost completely emptied; the bookcases were all gone, the curio shelf survived because there were few things originally placed on it, and the inside of the desk had also been hollowed out. Perhaps Zhongsun Mou's subordinates lacked sufficient storage space and couldn't fit such a large desk inside.

He Lingchuan specifically looked at the position where the vase was originally located; hmm, empty.

Only a circle of dust remained on the floor.

Is this Lord Zhongsun a locust?

He Lingchuan had the two Drilling Wind Beast guards block the door, and he took several scrolls out of his storage ring and placed them on the table.

General Ling asked curiously: "Where did these come from?"

"They were placed in the vase on the curio shelf." He Lingchuan rubbed his hands, "I was just about to check the curio shelf when Zhongsun Mou rushed in."

Jiao Yu was also curious: "Why only collect these few scrolls?"

"The vase was placed in the very corner, and the bottle body was covered in dust, but only these few scrolls... strictly speaking, the shaft head of this one was as smooth as new, without a speck of dust." There were three scrolls, so he packed them all away together to save a second trip. He untied the rope and slowly unfolded the scroll, "That is to say, Mr. Mai opened it often."

The scroll was not large, only about two square feet.

It was a painting, but it didn't depict common flowers, birds, insects, fish, mountains, rocks, or pine waves, but a round jar without a lid.

And this jar seemed to be transparent, because there was a red jade thumb ring, several booklets, and several round balls inside the jar.

Red round balls.

How could anyone paint these things? The more General Ling looked at the round balls, the more familiar they seemed: "This ball looks quite like a blood pearl."

He Lingchuan, however, looked at the red seal on the side of the painting.

Honestly, this didn't look much like a seal, but rather like a talisman drawn on it.

He pressed lightly on the painting.

Every part had the texture of soft paper, except—

Except for the jar in the painting.

Both the tiger and the sheep exclaimed.

As soon as He Lingchuan's hand moved onto the jar, it sank in.

A hand had actually appeared in the painting, hanging right over the jar.

And it was drawn quite realistically.

"There is a mystery within the painting." He Lingchuan simply reached out and took all the red balls out of the jar.

When he retracted his palm from the painting, everyone looked, and there were several bright red beads lying in his palm.

"It really is a blood pearl!" General Ling could not mistake this scent, "What exactly is this thing used for?"

Jiao Yu said: "Take that booklet out and look at it too."

He Lingchuan took out the booklet and opened it, only to see that it was full of entries, listing the year, month, and day, how many pulp pearls were collected, and where the pearls were harvested.

"It's an account book."

He Lingchuan flipped to the back and found that every page was full, with no blank pages.

"The ink has faded a bit; these are all old account books."

Jiao Yu gasped: "They actually hunted so many demon citizens!" A rough flip-through showed that a single account book recorded the hunting records of more than two hundred demons, and there were seven full books here.

That is at least a history of fourteen or fifteen hundred demons meeting their demise.

Although Beijia claims to be a Demon Kingdom, the number of demon citizens is less than one-tenth that of humans. These more than a thousand demons disappeared without a sound, and even Jiao Yu felt a bit heartbroken after seeing it.

General Ling bit out a book: "This one is new."

He Lingchuan flipped through it, and this one indeed had fresh ink, with the latest record clearly stating "Niutou Mountain, Drilling Wind Beast, two."

Judging from the date and the location of the hunt, this was the record of the demise of General Ling's juniors.

General Ling muttered a curse, then said: "Why only two!"

He Lingchuan glanced sideways: "Is your focus wrong?"

"These juniors of mine were full of vitality, strong and spirited, all in their prime; how could seven or eight of them only yield two red pearls? That nest of weak and incompetent porcupine demons could yield a blood pearl with just a few." General Ling paused here, "What exactly is it called, pulp pearl or blood pearl?"

"It says pulp pearl on here." He Lingchuan also remembered this, "Wan Dahu said blood pearl."

Naturally, Mr. Mai's record should be taken as the standard.

However, although General Ling's complaint was strange, it made sense; was there a mistake recorded in this book?

Although He Lingchuan had never met Mr. Mai, he felt that he should be a cautious person, otherwise he wouldn't have fled at the first sign of danger, running ahead of him and Zhongsun Mou.

Would such a cautious person get his main business wrong?

If he didn't remember wrong, then did Wan Dahu embezzle the extra blood pearls? He Lingchuan took out the red jade thumb ring again.

The jade was good jade, with tiny patterns on it that looked like capillaries. But the ring was not a storage ring; it was just an ordinary thumb ring, worn just for looks.

General Ling subconsciously stuck out his tongue and licked the scroll; this was a habit of a mountain goat when encountering paper or grass.

However, something on the painting was actually licked off by it.

That bright red seal.

"Huh?"

He Lingchuan picked up the seal and found that it was a layer of soft parchment, very tough and not easy to break.

This thing was movable and detachable? He reached out to press the painting again.

It solidified; the painting was just a painting, and the small space inside was gone.

The remaining items in the painting also froze, becoming a still-life sketch.

So the things in the painting can become real, relying on this strange red seal? He Lingchuan looked closely, and the seal said "Guaranteed Authentic" in ancient immortal language.

He put the seal back on, and the things in the painting could be taken out again.

This thing is interesting.

He Lingchuan casually took another piece of paper, drew a picture of a chick pecking at rice, and then stuck the seal on it.

Would the chick be caught out?

Experiments proved it could not.

A painting is just a painting; the things you draw cannot be "taken out."

But they clearly took out the red pearls and the account books.

He Lingchuan felt a stir in his heart, went to the kitchen to grab a handful of rice, and came back to press it onto the painting.

The rice grains disappeared without a trace.

One person and two demons looked closely, and many rice grains appeared out of thin air around the chick in the picture.

Before He Lingchuan could reach out, a caramel-colored tiger-striped paw reached over from the side, digging and digging in the painting.

The person and the sheep watched as a tiger paw appeared in the painting, grabbing and clawing at the simplified version of the chick.

When Jiao Yu retracted its front paw, there were indeed more than ten grains of rice lying on the paw pad.

"So only external things can be put in and taken out." He Lingchuan peeled off the red seal, "Tearing this thing off seals the contents inside. Interesting."

Even in this era of weak magic, there are still many strange little gadgets.

Back to the main topic, attention turned back to the account books.

Jiao Yu widened its tiger eyes and browsed, then suddenly said: "These account books have times, quantities, and harvest locations, but no delivery locations."

"Lord Jiao, look carefully! This is because the delivery location does not need to be recorded." He Lingchuan knew it in his heart after one look, "That is to say, they only trade here."

Jiao Yu couldn't believe it: "Could it be that there is only one team hunting demon beasts?" Otherwise, the account book should also record the teams.

"They must have an extraordinary magic treasure in their hands." Only then could they roam around the entire Red Yan country committing crimes in a short period of time.

General Ling was also stunned: "Can't be, right? Didn't the old man who swept the courtyard say that people often come to find Mr. Mai?"

"Perhaps it's a front?" He Lingchuan thought for a moment, "Mr. Mai also does ordinary business."

At this point, he instructed the two demons: "Do not share this information with Zhongsun Mou for now. I always feel that his sudden appearance here is too suspicious."

Hey, happy Lantern Festival~~~!

Are you eating tangyuan or dumplings today?

(End of chapter)