Chapter 78

"Do you recognize us brothers?" the tall guard sniffed with his nose upturned. "The scent on you is indeed very familiar, it seems... it seems to be who, again?"

At this point, Xie Shouzheng could no longer hide his identity. He shouted sternly, "Swiftly as the law commands, Heavenly Net, withdraw!"

He flipped his palm upward abruptly, and the net trapping the three of them instantly soared into the air, contracting wildly in mid-air until it turned into a black shadow the size of a fist, then "whooshed" back into his hand.

He was so angry he laughed instead, scolding, "Damao, Ermao! You two little brats, have you even learned to show off your skills before an expert?"

The two people opposite were stunned.

"How can you control our Demon-Subduing Heavenly Net?"

"That's right, how can you?"

"And our nicknames, how do you know them too? Who exactly are you?"

"Who exactly are you!"

Lin Qingyue couldn't help but say, "They look like they aren't very bright. Who recruited them into the Xuanjing Division? How irresponsible!"

Xie Shouzheng touched his nose with a guilty conscience: "I recruited them."

Lin Qingyue: "Heh, no wonder."

Even Dongfang Yan sighed: "Next time you recruit people, pay attention to testing their IQ!"

"Yes, yes, the Young Master is right to lecture me!"

Xie Shouzheng walked up angrily and kicked each of them: "Open your little eyes and look clearly! I am Xie Shouzheng, we met just a few months ago! Have you forgotten so quickly?"

The two men's small eyes lit up at the same time, and only then did they suddenly realize, shouting in unison: "Lord Xie!"

These two brothers were actually mole spirits; their eyesight was poor, but their sense of smell was keen. They were originally neighbors of Dami and practiced cultivation together in the mountains. The tall one was called Damao, and the short one was called Ermao.

Later, Dami joined the Xuanjing Division and walked the righteous path. When he heard that the underground branch was short of manpower, he thought of his neighbor brothers. Thus, he recommended them to Xie Shouzheng to join the Xuanjing Division.

After testing them, Xie Shouzheng felt that although these two were cowardly and had low IQs, their sense of smell was keen, and they could still be of much use, especially since their character was quite good, so he passed them.

A few months ago, the brothers Damao and Ermao were on vacation and specifically brought local specialties to the capital to visit Dami, and incidentally gave Xie Shouzheng a large bag of peanuts.

Unexpectedly, such a farce happened tonight.

After recognizing Xie Shouzheng, the two hurriedly came over to salute.

The tall Damao was more socially adept, so he hurriedly apologized: "Lord, please forgive us! We brothers really didn't expect to run into a high official like you here."

The short Ermao echoed: "Right, we've never seen a high official!"

Damao asked again: "Lord, why did you come to our small place?"

Xie Shouzheng naturally wouldn't reveal his true purpose, only saying: "This official is on an incognito inspection to observe the situation of the various branches of the Xuanjing Division. I happened to hear that a strange case occurred here, so I came to investigate."

"Since I've met you, just tell me the specific details of the case. It will save me from having to run to the yamen again."

So Damao told him everything that had happened recently.

The matter had to start from a month ago.

At that time, one could still often see some stray beggars on the streets of the county town, but from that time on, the stray beggars began to disappear one after another.

Because they had low status and no family or friends, no one reported the cases when they disappeared, and people thought they had just left the county.

It wasn't until later, when more than twenty local residents and passing travelers disappeared one after another, that it attracted the attention of the authorities.

The authorities were also incompetent; they investigated for a long time without finding any problems.

Once, they even specifically disguised one of their constables as a traveler, preparing to lure out the culprit.

A team of men was secretly watching in the dark, just waiting for the kidnapper to appear to capture them in one fell swoop.

Who knew that after waiting for a long time, until everyone was drowsy, a gust of sinister wind suddenly blew up, whipping up countless flying sand and stones, making it impossible for people to open their eyes.

A moment later, when the wind and sand passed and everyone looked again, they found that the little constable sent out as bait had disappeared into thin air.

Only then did everyone realize that it might involve strange powers. So they immediately sent people to the Xuanjing Division for help.

The branches of the Xuanjing Division are mainly established in the prefecture; when nearby counties, towns, or villages encounter trouble, they arrange for people to go and handle it.

And Damao and Ermao were sent to Fengnian County to handle the strange disappearance case. They were demon-bodied to begin with and had keen senses of smell, so it was appropriate to send them to handle this case.

"But we brothers have been here for almost half a month, and we haven't seen the culprit come out to make trouble again. I don't know if they were scared off by our illustrious reputation."

"That's right, scared off!"

"But we brothers also have many things to do in the Xuanjing Division and can't always stay in Fengnian County wasting time."

"That's right, can't waste time!"

"However, we haven't been without discoveries during this time."

Damao rolled his eyes and lowered his voice to say to Xie Shouzheng, "I think the attitude of the county magistrate is very strange. We brothers were invited by the County Lieutenant to help settle the matter. But that Magistrate Lu not only didn't cooperate with our work, but also kept putting pressure on us. He said we were a mob, didn't know etiquette, and were of no use at all. He even insisted that this was just an ordinary disappearance case and there were no strange or supernatural things at all."

"Ermao was once angered by him and almost wanted to reveal his true form in front of him to let him see the world, so he wouldn't say all day that our Xuanjing Division is a yamen that pretends to be gods and ghosts!"

Damao had a lot to say, and once he started, he wouldn't stop. I don't know if being wordy is a traditional virtue of the Xuanjing Division.

The non-wordy Ermao would only echo from the side: "Right, that's right, the magistrate is hateful!"

Everyone understood.

"You are right in your thinking; the other party hasn't made a move during this time, surely because they know that someone from the Xuanjing Division is involved in this case." Lin Qingyue said, looking at Dongfang Yan.

Dongfang Yan said tacitly: "Then let the people from the Xuanjing Division leave temporarily, and wait for the other party to make a move before capturing them in one fell swoop!"

Damao slapped his thigh and said: "Good! That's really a good method, why didn't I think of it before?"

Ermao: "That's right, why didn't I think of it before?"

Damao was impatient and immediately grabbed Ermao to go find the magistrate: "We brothers will go to say goodbye tonight!"

Xie Shouzheng said: "Since we're already out, let's go to the county yamen and see."

Mainly, he always felt that the two brothers didn't look very bright and was worried about them.

It was already the third watch of the night, and the county yamen had long since extinguished its lights.

Damao and Ermao didn't care about that; they banged on the door to see the magistrate, and then, unsurprisingly, were driven away by the guards.

Although they came from the prefecture, their positions were only ordinary guards, so the magistrate naturally didn't need to give them face. Therefore, in the middle of the night, they couldn't enter the county yamen.

Damao and Ermao's thinking was different from ordinary people, and they didn't care about being shut out, turning to say to Xie Shouzheng:

"Lord, you guys wait a moment, we brothers will go dig a big hole in the front wall, and then we can all drill through the hole together. Can this damn county yamen stump us?"

"... Don't dig, we don't want to drill through a dog hole."

Xie Shouzheng was fine, as his original form was a wolf and related to dogs, but what about the Crown Prince? Could he also be expected to drill through a dog hole? If this reached the Emperor's ears, his dog head would be gone!