Chapter 257: Zhou Family Market

At the very front of the column was Qin Ze.

He had volunteered to lead the way.

Zhou Family Market is one hundred and twenty li from the canal and only fifty li from Zhan City.

Moreover, this town sits right beside the official road.

With a whip and a spurring horse, they arrived in a little over half a shichen.

This place was originally just a small village; after the official road was built, a "Great Market" spontaneously formed every half month.

People from surrounding villages, for their daily purchases that weren't worth a special trip to Fucheng, solved everything at this market.

The town was several times larger than Qihe Terrace, after all, it relied on Fucheng.

When they were three or five li outside the town, they began to see dead snakes broken in two along the road.

A glance showed they had all been crushed by carriage wheels.

Di Youzhi sneered: "Most carriages on this official road are freight wagons, loaded with immense weight; trying to cross the snake checkpoint on this road is truly asking for death."

As they moved forward a bit further, they saw seven or eight large snakes stretching their bodies across the center of the road.

Qin Ze shouted "Giddyap!", urged his horse forward, and without a word of explanation, controlled the steed to trample all those snakes to death.

Qin Ze, confident in his archery and horsemanship, controlled his mount like a display of skill; every hoof that fell landed precisely on a snake's head.

With a series of cracks, the snake heads were crushed to mush, and a foul stench spread out.

Di Youzhi couldn't help but scold: "We are investigating a case, stop playing!"

"Hahaha!" Qin Ze laughed triumphantly.

The column continued forward; everything in the town was normal, with roadside shops opening to welcome customers.

Some nearby villagers also carried loads, setting them down by the street to sell things produced by their own households.

A group of rascally children shouted "Oh oh oh!" as they ran past the front of the column.

The foremost child was about seven or eight years old, holding a bamboo pole high in his hand, with a dead snake tied to it.

This child had clearly failed the checkpoint.

Xu Yuan called out to stop the rascals: "Don't run, I have questions for you; whoever answers correctly gets a large coin."

The rascals were somewhat afraid of their official robes but greedy for that copper coin, so they stopped ten feet away.

"Where did you find this snake?"

The leader tilted his head, thinking seriously: "It seems it was in a stone crack beside the old well..."

But soon he scratched his head: "No, that one yesterday was caught by the well; this one today should have been caught on Wang Xiaoya's haystack."

The children around him immediately jeered: "Oh oh oh, you went to peep at Wang Xiaoya again, do you want her to be your wife?"

"I didn't!" The leader's face turned red as he shouted, absolutely denying it.

Xu Yuan asked again: "Are there many snakes in town recently?"

"There are many; we've been playing with them for several days."

"Specifically how many days?"

"This..." He scratched his head, looking as if he couldn't quite remember.

Xu Yuan took out five copper coins: "Think carefully; if you answer correctly, all five coins are yours."

The rascal then tried hard to recall: "Six days! That's right, it's been six days."

Xu Yuan handed him the coins: "Go play now."

The rascals picked up the snakes again, shouting "Oh oh oh!" as they ran off.

Qin Ze said: "Six days; calculating it, Fu Chongjiu must have arrived not long ago."

"He arrived in Zhan City, openly having Tiebei Gai scheme against us, while secretly organizing this matter?"

Xu Yuan gave no opinion, asking: "What about the person who bought the Fish Gang's evil spirit?"

"It's Zhao Langzhong at the south end of the town. I saw those dead snakes outside town yesterday and felt something was wrong, so I had the brothers wait outside while I took off my official robe, changed into plain clothes, and went in to take a look; I shouldn't have alerted that fellow."

Di Youzhi feigned surprise: "Yo-ho, Old Qin, you actually have a brain."

Qin Ze rolled his eyes: "I'm much sharper than you!"

"Heh!" Di Youzhi laughed out loud.

Xu Yuan waved his hand: "Go arrest Zhao Langzhong."

Zhao Langzhong was a small old man in his fifties.

Thin and short, with a goatee beard.

He tried hard to put on an air of "immortal wind and Dao bone," but however you looked at him, he was utterly despicable.

When the Captains of the Pollution-Dispelling Bureau broke down the door, the little old man was so frightened he nearly wet his pants.

"I confess, I confess everything!"

Without the Pollution-Dispelling Bureau needing to torture or coerce him, he dropped to his knees with a thud, saying repeatedly.

This fellow called himself a doctor, but in reality, he had just read a few medical books and started treating people by trial and error.

Over these few decades, he barely qualified as a barefoot doctor.

His case was cleared up in two or three sentences.

He indeed bought an evil spirit from the Fish Gang.

It was a one-eyed water snake; stared at by that eye for even a moment, a person would be "bewitched."

The evil qi would enter the brain.

Dazed and confused, unable to tell north from south, one would accidentally slip and fall into the river to drown.

But this evil spirit had no other powers.

The Fishermen's Guild wrapped it in a black cloth hood, bound it with a tattered fishing net, and handed it over to Zhao Langzhong.

The price was set at ten taels of silver.

Zhao Langzhong immediately resold it to an out-of-town guest in the town.

Fifty taels!

Zhao Langzhong had spent his whole life treating patients and had only managed to save twelve taels of silver.

Moreover, it was the out-of-town guest who had come to his door to buy this evil spirit.

Zhao Langzhong had long known that the Fishermen's Guild was secretly engaged in this trade.

But he had never gotten involved—nor was there truly any demand for it.

He never expected this "big deal" to come crashing down on his own head.

He had never thought the matter would be exposed, because in Zhao Langzhong's "vision," the Fishermen's Guild was an immense power.

Since they dared to conduct this business, they must have smoothed things over with everyone up and down the line, ensuring absolute safety.

He never expected that mere days after receiving the silver, he would be arrested by the Evil-Exorcising Bureau.

"When did that out-of-town guest find you?"

"Six days ago," Zhao Langzhong answered honestly. "The next day, I gave him that one-eyed water snake."

For Zhao Langzhong, this was an overwhelming fortune, so he handled the matter with great speed.

Xu Yuan waved his hand: "To the inn."

There was only one inn in the town; the Evil-Exorcising Bureau burst in, and Qin Ze, like a wolf or an eagle snatching a chick, dragged the owner out.

The owner trembled all over, muttering to himself: "I knew it, the town is not at peace; there are snakes everywhere..."

Xu Yuan asked: "Bring out the guest registration ledger."

The owner immediately went behind the counter to retrieve it; after asking the owner a few more questions, they confirmed that guest was staying in Room Four of the East Wing of the inn.

The registered name was "Zeng Youben," a native of Shunhua City.

All useless information.

He checked out and left the very day he received the one-eyed water snake.

The owner recalled carefully: "... He was very tall, with a mole under his left eye; otherwise, there was nothing special about him. His behavior was quite normal. He said he was here to collect mountain produce; I host people like that every year, at least eighty if not a hundred."

Everyone's spirits were low; there was no way to pursue this person further.

Xu Yuan then asked the owner again: "You said the town is not at peace?"

The owner immediately replied: "Yes, you can meet a snake after just two steps... Hey! Right, it actually started on the day that out-of-town guest arrived."

"And after the snakes increased, the thunder seemed to increase too; the western mountains kept rumbling with thunder but no rain fell..."

Just as he spoke these words, a clap of thunder was heard, and the ground trembled slightly.

Xu Yuan and the others' faces changed; they immediately rushed out and looked toward the western mountains.

Faintly visible, flames were rising from within the mountains.

"Let's go, let's take a look!"

Everyone mounted their horses and charged out of the town to the foot of the western mountain; when the horses reached halfway up, they could go no further, so everyone dismounted and climbed the hilltop together.

In the valley below, a great fire had already broken out; dozens of large trees were engulfed in flames.

Suddenly, a huge snake shot violently out from the flames, with two heads and two tails, a ring of red fur growing around its neck, and a pair of twisted black evil horns atop its head!

(End of this chapter)