Chapter 229: Exorcising Evil

The rain poured down, and there were very few pedestrians on the road.

Liang Qu stopped several pedestrians in straw raincoats in succession before he had some clues about the identity of the deceased.

The pedestrians were initially badly frightened by the head, their speech stumbling, but later they spoke more and more fluently.

"It's Old Man Zhao; he has a donkey cart, and he loves to brag about his precious donkey the most, saying it can endure hardship better than a mule and is more robust than a strong horse.

In the past, he basically relied on delivering firewood to others to make a living, and it was the same after coming to Yixing Town.

I heard that he occasionally brings a few fish to sell now, because he doesn't have to pay a stall fee, the price is a little cheaper than others, and his life is quite good."

"Are you sure?"

The passerby hesitated, endured the fear, looked at the head a few more times, and nodded hard.

"Sure, there can be no mistake; I was a fellow villager with him before, our families were separated by a street, and later we fled together."

"Do you know where he lives now?"

"Hmm." The passerby frowned and thought hard, "We don't meet much after coming to Yixing Town, I remember it's a small dirt house next to Huangni Lane in the southeast.

Oh, his house should have a small donkey shed, and it's a newly built house, the yellow mud is very new!"

"Thank you."

Liang Qu took out a few copper coins and handed them to the passerby.

"No problem, no problem, thank you, Lord Liang, thank you, Lord Liang." The passerby took the copper coins and thanked him repeatedly; he opened his mouth, hesitated, but still spoke,

"Lord Liang, don't blame me for being talkative, what happened to Old Man Zhao? He died... if it's not easy to say, then I won't ask, I won't ask."

It was because Liang Qu's appearance was heroic and his reputation was good that he dared to ask this.

If it were someone else, being stopped to identify a head on a rainy day, they might have been scared out of their wits and gone home to get seriously ill.

"He died because of me, I accidentally implicated him, so I have to let his family know."

The passerby was dumbfounded, opened his mouth, and bowed.

"Lord Liang is righteous."

"It should be like this, what righteousness or not."

Liang Qu shook his head and pulled the reins toward Huangni Lane.

Watching the departing cart, the passerby sighed.

"Alas, Old Man Zhao is also miserable; his eldest son died at the hands of a spirit monster, destined to be a lonely ghost, and it was not easy to settle down... the world is truly not peaceful."

Liang Qu's ears moved, and he accelerated the cart.

The cart entered Huangni Lane in the southeast of Yixing Town, bypassing house after house.

A dirt house with a straw shed, a feeding trough, and a newer color came into view.

It was eight or nine out of ten that this was the house.

Knock, knock, knock.

"I'll open the door, who is it."

A teenage boy in a straw raincoat rushed forward in the rain to lift the door bolt, and was extremely surprised when he saw Liang Qu.

"Lord Liang! Lord Liang, why are you here?"

The sudden tragic news made a whole family gather at the door.

A twelve or thirteen-year-old boy, an old woman over fifty, and a middle-aged woman holding a four or five-year-old boy.

A total of four people.

If the eldest son in the passerby's words and Old Man Zhao hadn't died, a family of four men, two strong laborers, one young and strong laborer, would have been a quite prosperous family.

Liang Qu put down the money bag in his hand, which contained all the cash he had on him, about forty taels.

"Please accept my condolences; that donkey should not be found, there are about forty-two taels of silver in the money bag, enough to buy a new big donkey, pulling goods on weekdays can earn a lot of money, counting as a livelihood.

Take the rest to save an emergency, live a life. If someone comes to eat the family's inheritance, just say this money was given by me, no one in Yixing Town dares to move it.

If you have the ambition to learn martial arts, come to the Yang Family Martial Arts Hall to find me, learn two moves to bluff people."

Those who wear no shoes are not afraid of those who wear shoes.

As long as you are lazy and thick-skinned, plus have some strength, people like Scabby Zhang can never be eliminated.

Latest address

But with Liang Qu's words, such ruffians wouldn't dare to come to the door, otherwise he would have truly lived in vain for so long.

Forty-plus taels were enough for the family in front of him to get through the difficulty of having no adult labor.

As for learning martial arts, the possibility of becoming a martial artist was not great.

Liang Qu could tell at a glance that the boy's bones were average, but learning two moves to bluff people was fine.

The few couldn't care about the sadness and thanked him repeatedly; Liang Qu couldn't bear to accept this courtesy, only left a few words and hurried away, carrying the corpses, and transferred to the River Office to exchange for merit.

The River Office's new government office was located in the riverside area between Pingyang County and Yixing Town.

The basic layout was about the same as the county government office, all following the "civil on the left, military on the right" set, only a new pier appeared not far from the door, with wooden piles inserted, filled with the standard small boats of the River Office officials.

On the other side of the government office, Liang Qu also saw two large cows he had never seen before walking nearby, grazing in the rain.

Those cows were extremely large, at least a zhang high, their muscles bulging, the ground trembling slightly as they walked, scaring the water snakes hidden in the grass into fleeing quickly.

Their pair of horns didn't look like buffalo horns, nor like yellow cattle horns, but rather like musk ox horns, and their short, dense velvet hair was oily and smooth under the washing of the rain, obviously raised extremely well.

Seeing someone coming, the two cows raised their heads and mooed twice, flicking a short tail, and the rain splashed.

"River-Opening Cows?"

Liang Qu remembered the introduction in the River Office files.

River-Opening Cows, gentle in nature, naturally strong, often used to plow the land, only they don't plow the land to grow crops, but are used to open up river channels.

Two River-Opening Cows are enough to open a river channel from Pingyang County to Yixing Town in ten days.

Hadn't seen them before; could it be that the River Office had the idea of opening a new river channel and had transferred them from elsewhere?

Liang Qu guessed inexplicably, his footsteps didn't stop, carrying the two corpses across the gate of the River Office.

Many people whispered.

The result of the swimming duel after the auction had long since flown all over the River Office like it had wings; whether they had seen it or not, everyone was fresh about it.

Didn't expect the person involved to turn around and bring back two corpses.

What's the situation?

Ignoring the gazes of the crowd, Liang Qu hurried to the left, found the new file room according to the plaque on the door.

The acquaintance Registrar Li and another colleague were classifying files; upon learning that Liang Qu had killed two good hands of the Ghost Mother Sect, they ran to notify Ran Zhongshi.

"Good lad, just finished the swimming race, and brought two heads over?"

The person hadn't arrived, but the voice did; Ran Zhongshi jumped down from upstairs and squatted beside the two corpses to check their pulses.

"All dead? Didn't leave a living mouth?"

"Couldn't keep them."

Ran Zhongshi didn't doubt it.

The aura strength remaining on the corpses proved they were Galloping Horse Upper Stage without a doubt; winning two against one must have been a difficult hard battle, and it was indeed difficult to leave a living mouth.

And looking at the poisonous sore on one person's neck, maybe he used some means, but even so, it was already very remarkable.

After asking about the location and general content, Ran Zhongshi nodded.

"It's the Ghost Mother Sect's style, and the motive is also very consistent; are you injured?"

"A little minor injury."

"Really?"

Ran Zhongshi looked Liang Qu up and down, seeing that he was indeed unharmed, his evaluation in his heart rose another level.

He waved his hand, and the two corpses were moved away.

"You fought two Galloping Horse Upper Stage alone; report it up, and it's another great merit!"

"Both people are dead, will there be difficulties in identity verification?"

"There used to be, but now it's simple; this matter was recently discovered by Ke Wenbin, the blood of Ghost Mother Sect people can react with mugwort juice and change color."

Mugwort?

"Why is that?"

Liang Qu knew that mugwort was just a very common plant, seen everywhere, and very useful for repelling mosquitoes.

"We guess it might have something to do with mugwort being able to exorcise evil."

"Exorcise evil?"

Latest address ===== CHAPTER 230 =====