Chapter 5: The Untouchable Adversary

When his beloved son was attacked and fell into a coma, He Chunhua also sent a message via flying talisman to the leopard demon of the West Mountain, but received no reply at all.

He sighed: "Furthermore, urgent reports from the interior have been cut off for over ten days because the Pingning region was occupied by rebel forces, and then it was hit by floods; the post stations along the way are unusable, and communication is completely severed. Heishuicheng has been busy reorganizing troops these past few days."

He Lingchuan was slightly stunned: "Are we going to join the war too?"

He had indeed heard of some unusual movements in the military camp recently, but hadn't taken them to heart. Qinsong County had not seen a major battle in a long time, but sporadic fighting around Heishuicheng occurred every few days; it was mostly the government troops going out to suppress bandits, fighting small-time thieves who didn't know any better, and both the military and civilians were accustomed to it.

"It's hard to say." He Chunhua's expression was heavy.

"Forget it." Looking at his slightly haggard face, He Lingchuan didn't truly blame this convenient father of his. The county affairs were heavy—grain production, commerce, border threats, defense, natural disasters—none could be neglected, and he still had to guard against the rebel forces from the interior attacking. He Chunhua rose earlier than the chickens and slept later than the dogs; he was a diligent official.

Even though he racked his brains for Qinsong County, the worst news often came from the heartland of the Yuan Kingdom!

This country was trapped in internal strife.

"You called me here, what exactly do you want to see?"

"This." He Chunhua pried open the leopard's large mouth.

The mouth full of sharp teeth was chilling, but He Lingchuan immediately noticed the difference: "The canines are all gone?"

The four canine teeth had been forcibly pulled out, leaving only bloody holes.

"The leopard demon that attacked you also used its canines to hide things. Besides, the internal injuries of that leopard are very similar to this leopard king." He pondered, "Where did you put the things from its canines? Bring them for me to see."

When they were found by the He family under the cliff at that time, He Lingchuan was unconscious and covered in blood, while the leopard was already dead.

So the He family moved both back; the living was rushed for treatment, while the dead leopard was sent for dissection. He Lingchuan had only gone to hunt rock sheep but brought back a leopard demon, so this was considered his prey. After He Chunhua looked at the collection inside the leopard teeth, he gave the items to his eldest son as a souvenir.

Demons also have storage needs, but they mostly don't wear clothes, so where can they hide things? The common practice is to refine a certain part of their own body into a storage space. Of course, this requires the support of talent; for example, crocodile demons like to use their stomachs as treasure bags, while demons of the tiger, leopard, wolf, and jackal types usually refine their own canines to hide things.

Humans who understand this characteristic will naturally gouge out their canines as trophies after killing a leopard demon.

And opening a storage space requires spiritual power; He Lingchuan, who had just transmigrated at the time, didn't know the truth and thought the leopard teeth were truly empty.

"They are in my room; I'll go get them right away." Now it was finally He Lingchuan's turn to talk about serious matters, "Father, I have one more thing to report to you."

Afterwards, he recounted the matter of the Donglai Prefecture guards tracking the whereabouts of the sand leopard from beginning to end.

The more He Chunhua listened, the tighter his brows furrowed, and when he heard the three words "Donglai Prefecture," he stood up abruptly: "What did you say?"

His expression changed violently, and he swung his hand to slap him.

He Lingchuan subconsciously stepped back half a pace.

However, He Chunhua's slap stopped in mid-air and didn't actually land.

After a few seconds, his palm curled into a fist, and he slammed it onto the table with a "bang":

"Private interrogation, this is simply nonsense!"

He knew this son was used to acting recklessly and refused to change despite repeated instruction; sooner or later, he would kick an iron plate. But he hadn't expected the iron plate to come so quickly and so accurately.

The Grand Marshal!

How could he have offended the Grand Marshal!

He Chunhua's reputation in official circles had always been "steady," but in He Lingchuan's memory, it was common for his father to lose his temper at him, and he wasn't very afraid, instead arguing back: "Those two were asking around everywhere, and the city is full of loose-lipped scum; I was afraid they would soon track it back to us."

At this moment, he admired He Chunhua's caution. Regarding the leopard demon, not only did the County Magistrate He not make it public, he even demanded that those in the know keep their mouths shut; otherwise, the news of the Heishuicheng little tyrant killing a leopard demon alone would have spread throughout the city, and those two wouldn't even have needed to ask around to find out.

Of course, there are no walls that don't leak.

"The Zhang Hongbin case initiated by the Grand Marshal six years ago involved one Duke, two Marquises, and seven Earls, implicating over two thousand six hundred people; how many survivors do you think there were in the end?"

His father's face looked like black clouds pressing down; He Lingchuan said cautiously: "It seems... not many?"

"Seventy-three people!" He Chunhua said word for word, "How many women and children were among them? Heh, in the end, only seventy-three people survived!"

A chill rose from the bottom of He Lingchuan's heart.

Not to mention commoners, even the lives of dukes and ministers were like cheap grass; if they wanted to cut them down, they cut them down.

"By comparison, our family's encounter is not even the most miserable..." He Chunhua sighed and returned to the topic, "After receiving the message from the Red and White Path, why didn't you report it directly?"

"I wanted to find out the truth before reporting." He Lingchuan's expression tightened, his eyes flashing with ruthlessness, "If these two have no background, it would be best if I could take revenge easily; if their backing is too strong, then we must not let them know that the escaped sand leopard is in our hands."

He Chunhua was originally full of anger, but after carefully pondering his son's words, his expression slowly eased, and in the end, there was even a hint of approval: "Not without reason."

Whether to catch these two or not was not the point; the root of the trouble was that what the Grand Marshal wanted might be in the hands of this father and son.

He looked at He Lingchuan: "You are also starting to use your brain to think about things."

Facing his father's gratified gaze, He Lingchuan grinned to avoid it: "I'll go get the things."

A quarter of an hour later.

He Lingchuan had already returned with the leopard teeth and poured all the stored items onto the small table.

"That's all of it."

The belongings of the sand leopard that had attacked He Lingchuan included several demon cores of varying sizes and colors, a set of daggers sharp enough to cut hair, several pieces of mutton-fat white jade, a string of pearl necklaces, some miscellaneous items whose uses could not be determined, and even over a dozen gold and silver ingots!

Demons are not just fierce; they also trade with humans. The He father and son were not surprised that gold and silver appeared as hard currency.

"The Grand Marshal wouldn't want this string of beads, would he?" He Lingchuan picked up the bead string and held it to the light.

The luster of the pearls was warm and charming, each slightly larger than a melon seed, faintly emitting a blue light in the sunlight. Just by taking them out for this moment, a faint water vapor began to condense around the bead string; one felt cool just being near it, and even breathing became much smoother, as if one had arrived at a breezy coast.

"It has a slight water-condensing effect, nothing special." Every living thing needs water; in the dry desert, this string of beads could make a sand leopard feel comfortable, but the Grand Marshal shouldn't be interested in it.

He Chunhua's gaze was fixed on the pile of miscellaneous items. During the last inventory, he had piled these aside, but now he had to take a good look.

But these things were fragmented, such as withered flowers and plants, half a piece of dark musk, ungnawed bones, as well as blood-stained rings that seemed to have been obtained from human victims, broken hairpins, a few packets of spices, a dozen feathers, half a comb, and also...

A large pile of dried insects, dried snakes, and dried lizards.