Chapter 5: The opponent who cannot be provoked

When his beloved son was attacked and unconscious, He Chunhua also sent a flying message to the sand leopard in the Western Mountains, but there was no reply.

He sighed: "In addition, the urgent reports from the interior have been interrupted for more than ten days, because the Pingning area was occupied by rebel forces, and then they encountered floods, and the post stations along the way could not be used, and all communication was interrupted. Heishuicheng has been busy reorganizing troops these days."

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

He had heard that there had been some movements in the military camp recently, but he didn't take it to heart. Qiansong County has had no major battles for a long time, but the sporadic battles around Heishuicheng are every three days, mostly government troops going out to suppress bandits, fighting small thieves who don't have eyes, and both soldiers and civilians are accustomed to it.

"Hard to say." He Chunhua's face was heavy.

"Forget it." Looking at his slightly haggard face, He Lingchuan didn't really blame this cheap old man in his heart. The county affairs are heavy, food production, trade, border troubles, defense, natural disasters, none of which can be neglected, and he also has to guard against rebel forces from the interior attacking. He Chunhua gets up earlier than a chicken and sleeps later than a dog, and is a diligent parent official.

Even if he is exhausted for Qiansong County, the worst news often comes from the interior of the Yuan Nation!

This country is trapped in civil strife.

"Why did you call me here, what exactly do you want me to see?"

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

The full mouth of sharp teeth made people shudder, but He Lingchuan immediately saw the difference: "The canine teeth are all gone?"

The four canine teeth were all forcibly pulled out, leaving only bloody holes.

"The leopard demon that attacked you also used its canine teeth to hide things. In addition, the internal organ injuries of that leopard are very similar to this Leopard King." He pondered, "Where did you put the things hidden in the leopard's teeth? Take them out and let me see."

When He Lingchuan was found by the He family under the cliff, he was unconscious and covered in blood, and the leopard was long dead.

So the He family moved both back. The living were rushed to be rescued, and the dead leopard was sent for autopsy. He Lingchuan just went to hunt rock sheep, but brought back a leopard demon, so this can be considered his prey. After He Chunhua saw the collection in the leopard's teeth, he handed this object to his eldest son as a keepsake.

Monsters also have storage needs, but most of them don't wear clothes, so where can they hide things? The common practice is to refine a part of their 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 monsters like tigers, leopards, wolves, and jackals usually refine their canine teeth to hide things.

Humans who understand this characteristic kill leopard demons and naturally gouge out their canine teeth as trophies.

And opening the storage space requires spiritual power. He Lingchuan, who had just traveled here, didn't know the reason and thought the leopard teeth were really empty.

"It's in the room, I'll go get it right away." Now it was finally He Lingchuan's turn to talk about business, "Old man, I have one more thing to report to you."

Afterwards, he told the story of the Donglai Mansion guards tracking the sand leopard's whereabouts from beginning to end.

The more He Chunhua heard, the tighter his brows wrinkled. When he heard the words "Donglai Mansion," he stood up suddenly: "What did you say?"

His face changed greatly, and he slapped him with a slap.

He Lingchuan instinctively retreated half a step.

However, He Chunhua's slap stopped in mid-air and didn't really hit him.

After a few seconds, his palm clenched into a fist and smashed it on the table with a "bang":

"Private interrogation, simply nonsense!"

He knew that this son was used to being reckless and never changed, and would sooner or later kick an iron plate. But he didn't expect the iron plate to come so fast and so accurately.

Grand Marshal!

How did he offend the Grand Marshal!

He Chunhua has always been evaluated as "steady" in officialdom, but in He Lingchuan's memory, it is common for the old man to get angry at him, and he is not afraid, but instead argues: "Those two were inquiring everywhere, and the city was full of gossiping scum. I was afraid they would soon track us down."

At this time, he somewhat admired He Chunhua's caution. He didn't publicize the leopard demon incident, but instead asked those who knew to keep their mouths shut, otherwise the news of the Heishuicheng little bully killing the leopard demon alone would have spread throughout the city, and those two wouldn't have needed to inquire.

Of course, there is no wall in the world that doesn't leak wind.

"The Zhang Hongbin case initiated by the Grand Marshal six years ago involved one Duke, two Marquises, and seven Earls, involving more than 2,600 people. How many survivors do you think there were in the end?"

The old man's face was like dark clouds pressing down, He Lingchuan was careful: "Seems... not many?"

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

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

Not to mention the common people, even the lives of public officials were like cheap grass, and they were cut down if they wanted to.

"In contrast, our family's encounter is not the most miserable..." He Chunhua sighed and turned back to the topic, "Why didn't you report directly after receiving the message from the Red and White Path?"

"I wanted to find out the things before reporting." He Lingchuan's expression condensed, his eyes revealing a fierce look, "If these two have no background, it's best for me to take revenge; if their backing is too hard, then I can't let them know that the escaped sand leopard is in our hands."

He Chunhua was originally full of anger, but after carefully pondering these words of his son, his expression slowly eased, and finally he even had two points of approval: "It makes sense."

Whether these two are caught or not is not the point. The root of the trouble is that the things the Grand Marshal wants may be in the hands of their father and son.

He looked at He Lingchuan: "You can also 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, pouring all the stored things onto the small table.

"That's all."

The relics of the sand leopard that attacked He Lingchuan included several demon pills of different sizes and colors, a set of daggers that could cut hair, several pieces of mutton-fat white jade, a string of pearl necklaces, some miscellaneous items whose uses could not be seen, and even more than a dozen gold and silver ingots!

Monsters are not just fierce, they also do business with humans. Gold and silver appeared as hard currency, and the He father and son were not surprised.

"The Grand Marshal doesn't want this string of beads, right?" He Lingchuan picked up the bead string and shone it in the light.

The luster of the pearls was warm and charming, each slightly larger than a melon seed, and faintly glowing blue in the sun. Just taking it out for a while, water vapor began to condense around the bead string, and people felt cool in it, and even their breathing was smooth, as if they had arrived at the coast blown by the breeze.

"There is a little effect of condensing water, nothing special." Every creature needs water, and in the dry desert, this string of beads can make the sand leopard feel comfortable, but the Grand Marshal shouldn't be interested in it.

He Chunhua's gaze was on the pile of miscellaneous items. Last time he counted, he piled these aside, and now he had to take a good look.

But these things were fragmented, such as withered flowers and plants, half a piece of black musk, bones that hadn't been gnawed clean, and blood-stained rings that seemed to have been obtained from human victims, broken hairpins, several bags of spices, more than a dozen feathers, half a comb, and...

A large pile of insect dried, snake dried, lizard dried. ===== CHAPTER 6 =====