Chapter 475: Transfer Warehouse

They didn't rummage through boxes and cabinets, so that if Wan Song came home, he wouldn't be suspicious.

The next location was Wan Song's warehouse.

The Bai Shi County Magistrate also sent two government runners, requiring them to follow the special envoy's orders throughout. These two had been working locally for nearly twenty years, knew all the local characters, and had seen all kinds of strange things; they were pure local snakes.

This showed the degree of the Bai Shi County Magistrate's cooperation.

He Lingchuan asked the two runners directly: "Do you know Wan Song?"

"Know him too well." One of the runners, named Xu Dayou, said. "When he was selected into the White Peak Sect, Wan Xian-neng threw a banquet to celebrate for this nephew, and I even went to drink. It's a pity, he didn't amount to anything in the end and was kicked out. If I had known this bastard was secretly killing monsters, I would have split him in two with one slash!"

"You couldn't beat him." Another runner, Wu Huang, said bluntly. "He's just a rogue. We should have seen that this kid wasn't right; he didn't follow local rules since he was a child, and he was a desperado when he grew up."

Youtian Town wasn't big; running from east to west took less than two quarters of an hour.

Wan Song's warehouse was right by the medicinal herb fields, next to a small path, making transportation very convenient.

Wan Song's medicinal herb fields were planted with quite a few economic herbs, such as rattan yellow, bone-setting grass, etc., and he even hired a nest of small-eyed weasels as guards.

But there was no self-heal in his fields, and General Ling grinned at He Lingchuan: "He doesn't even plant it himself. You have times when you misjudge?"

"Is that so?" He Lingchuan said nonchalantly. "Let's wait and see."

The two runners stood forward and said a few words, and the weasels didn't dare to stop them from opening the warehouse.

The current official is not as good as the current manager.

Half of the space in the warehouse was already occupied, piled with bags of medicinal herbs of all kinds.

There were countless such warehouses in Zhitian Township.

He Lingchuan drew his blade and randomly chose a herb bag to open.

Fleeceflower root.

Self-heal.

Notoginseng.

Self-heal.

Self-heal.

He poked more than a dozen bags, only two were other herbs, the rest were all self-heal! Jiao Yu squinted at General Ling and said: "What do you think?"

General Ling simply stretched his mouth to grab a few stalks to satisfy his craving, chewing while saying: "The taste is not bad, quite fresh. Hmm, what does this guy want self-heal for?"

He Lingchuan had already figured out his previous confusion on the way here, so he grabbed a handful of self-heal and said: "This is feed, feed for that monster, and probably the reason Wan Song is stationed in Zhitian Township."

Everyone was surprised: "Doesn't that monster feed on monsters?"

"I'm afraid its diet isn't singular." He Lingchuan stared at the grass leaves in his hand. "This thing isn't ordinary; I might have seen its creator."

Yes, he remembered.

The last person to mention self-heal to him was Dong Rui.

When this person was developing medicine for Zhu Erniang in the Demon Nest Swamp, he mentioned in passing that he had made a monster puppet for someone in the Beijia Kingdom, numbered thirty-one.

Because it was made too hastily, this monster puppet had flaws and had to eat self-heal frequently.

"Otherwise it won't be maintained," was Dong Rui's original words.

"Who is it?"

"Have you heard the name Dong Rui?"

General Ling shook his head, while Jiao Yu said: "It is said to be a notorious monster puppet master, wanted by our entire Beijia Kingdom."

It was a bit surprised: "What does it have to do with this guy? Oh, you mean this monster is the monster puppet he created?"

"Very likely."

Dong Rui's works were strange, but they all had one characteristic: practicality.

As long as they were used properly, their power was not small.

"A mere monster puppet master, can the monster puppet he refined swallow more than a hundred porcupine monsters in one breath?" General Ling didn't believe it. "If he had this ability, would he still need to flee like a stray dog?"

"You're right." He Lingchuan wasn't in a hurry to refute him. "Dong Rui's monster puppets aren't that outrageous."

He had fought Dong Rui's ghost apes, strange birds, and werewolves; their combat power was not bad, but to say they could silently kill more than a hundred monsters, that was still far off.

Moreover, Dong Rui admitted that when making number thirty-one, it was too hasty, and its level of detail certainly couldn't keep up with the ghost apes and werewolves he kept by his side.

So where did the problem go wrong?

Jiao Yu sniffed around on the warehouse floor: "It's full of the monster's scent."

He Lingchuan wiped the warehouse wall: "There are also traces of dried mucus."

He walked out and summoned the nest of weasels to ask: "How often does the owner of this warehouse come?"

The weasels' small, dark eyes looked at the crowd and squeaked: "We can't remember."

Jiao Yu said coldly: "The Crown Prince's special envoy is investigating a murder case; if you dare to omit or conceal information, you are accomplices!"

Under his tiger-like glare, the weasels lowered their bodies and wanted to burrow into the soil.

He Lingchuan said in time: "The owner of this warehouse specifically hunts and kills mountain monsters and wild beasts, peeling their skin and refining their bones; he can be called extremely sinful. If you have clues, you must help us bring him to justice!"

Beijia Kingdom was a monster kingdom; if anyone dared to hunt monsters for a living here, they could indeed be called extremely sinful.

The weasels looked at each other and were shaken. Although they didn't belong to "mountain monsters and wild beasts," they were also the weak, and it was inevitable that they would have fear.

Most importantly, He Lingchuan took out a bag of small dried meat and handed it over: "Take it to grind your teeth?"

The weasels immediately stretched out their claws to take it, weighed it, and said: "He comes once every seven or eight days, sometimes half a month."

"When was the last time?"

"Six days ago, I think."

"No, five days ago!" another weasel refuted. "That night the moon was full."

General Ling couldn't help but say: "Then the next time is coming soon."

He Lingchuan saw that the self-heal in the warehouse was half full, which matched the time the weasels said.

"Who would transport medicinal herbs to this warehouse?"

"Several herb farmers nearby." The weasels said. "They live within a radius of ten miles." Then they reported a few names.

The runner Xu Dayou immediately said: "I know where those people live."

He Lingchuan nodded at him, then asked the weasels: "You guard the fields here, have you felt anything wrong in the warehouse?"

"Yes." another weasel replied. "Every time Wan Song comes over, we feel that the warehouse is cold and chilly, as if some strange and terrible thing has appeared, and no one wants to get close."

Their monster power was not strong, but their spiritual sense was not weak, and they were born with the alertness peculiar to small animals.

He Lingchuan got the information he wanted, so he thanked them and stood up.

Returning to the warehouse, Jiao Yu asked in a low voice: "What does that mean, can Wan Song release this monster at any time?"

"Should be." He Lingchuan said. "I've seen several of Dong Rui's monster puppets; their size can change, and they even have their own spiritual consciousness."

"Having their own spiritual consciousness, is that still a puppet?" The reason it's called a "puppet" is precisely because it has to obey orders to move, just like a marionette.

General Ling looked at the self-heal occupying most of the warehouse space: "As long as we don't alert the enemy, Wan Song is still very likely to bring the monster puppet back to eat grass."

"No." He Lingchuan shook his head. "Wealthy Wan doesn't know how Wan Song and the monster puppet operate, so they are clearly directly controlled by Mr. Mai; Mr. Mai escaped in advance, which means he knows Wealthy Wan was arrested, and Wan Song probably knows too."

"Wealthy Wan was arrested, so the properties Wan Song entrusted to him are not safe, including this warehouse. If he is a smart person, he shouldn't take the risk to get the self-heal." He Lingchuan then said, "But we should still give it a try; what if he really is that stupid? Head Constable Wu, please send people to move these self-heals away and set up traps."

Having experienced so much, he knew very well an old saying: one kind of rice feeds a hundred kinds of people.

Never underestimate the stupidity of others.

Wu Huang responded and left.

He Lingchuan asked Xu Dayou again: "Where else in Zhitian Township is self-heal often stored? And in large quantities."

"Large quantities?" Xu Dayou thought for a moment. "Maybe Luocang?"

He added: "That is a transfer station for the export of five towns, with many large warehouses, and all kinds of medicinal herbs. Self-heal is not a precious thing in Zhitian Township; if there is a collection, it would probably be there."

General Ling asked He Lingchuan: "Going to Luocang now?"

"Make some arrangements first."

Next, He Lingchuan had Xu Dayou collect all the self-heal from the nearby herb farmers—less than eight hundred jin—and together with all the medicinal herbs in Wan Song's warehouse, piled them in the wild and burned them clean.

The good news was that none of these herb farmers had seen Wan Song recently.

He Lingchuan also discussed a matter with the Bai Shi County Magistrate, who readily agreed.

In addition, the government also found Wan Song's lover, Qing Gu, in the Red Pavilion, and interrogated her.

According to Qing Gu, Wan Song was generous and always had a few friends around him.

But only those few.

A few days ago, Wan Song came to drink, depressed from beginning to end; Qing Gu asked and found out that two of his friends had met with disaster outside.

She also revealed that Wan Song only had two companions left.

Once, the three of them were drinking heavily, and a black fat man surnamed Lai said he had already set up a business in White Peak Mountain, preparing to take over a carriage firm, and the price had been negotiated; Wan Song said he already had three lovers in Zhitian Township, but not one of them had laid an egg for him.

The black fat man said, I'm afraid those women are too old and not useful.

Wan Song also planned to go to Wan'an Town in the autumn to buy a few delicate maids, striving to bloom and bear fruit next year.

After hearing this, He Lingchuan took a few monsters and twenty or thirty plainclothes runners and rushed to Luocang.

Zhitian Township was responsible for one-third of the medicinal herb revenue of Chi Yan; the larger the industry scale, the more complete the facilities, procedures, and processes, and the more refined the division of labor.

Here, even specialized transfer warehouses had appeared, and there was even a town that specifically did warehousing business.

This town was called Luocang.

When He Lingchuan arrived, he saw that the roads were built wide and straight, with warehouses and freight stations everywhere, and the turnover of goods was very busy.

Traffic was heavy, and people were coming and going.

Everyone was in a hurry, as if they had endless work to do.

If such a scene happened in the Yuan Nation, how good it would be. He Lingchuan sighed softly, thinking of the guards and carriage drivers outside the large grain warehouses in Dunyu who were so idle they were about to catch fleas.

Because many friends were interested, today in Chapter 229, I added a picture of a candy snail (Easter egg chapter).

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 476 =====