Chapter 242: 235 Going and Coming

At dusk, two Doctors from the Qingtian Temple were drinking in gloom.

For the past two days, it had been Mai Shiyu's turn to be in charge of the city, and the situation had changed drastically; the two were half-exiled and ignored by everyone, so naturally, they were furious. They had the heart to leave the city and return to the capital, but they were wary of the great battle against the Demon Cult outside. Not knowing the outcome, they feared danger on the road and could only stay. Now, seeing that the day of the Demon Cave's descent was imminent, with no hope for their calculations and nothing to be done, they simply gave up on everything and found a tavern on the street to drink.

Nowadays, everyone was at the Dongjun Temple, and the taverns on the street were not open. But there was still plenty of wine, and the two Doctors could not care less; they kicked open the tavern door, pulled a jar from the counter themselves, and began to drink gloomily without even any side dishes.

As they drank, flushed with wine, Doctor Li sneered, "At the latest by the day after tomorrow, or as early as today, the Demon Cave will descend. No matter how arrogant that woman is, she will be unable to turn the tide. Just thinking about her wasting her Spirit in vain, unable to stop the Yin Calamity, and then wailing and crying to heaven and earth when the casualties are heavy—it feels satisfying!"

Doctor Wang slapped the table and said, "It's more than that. When we go back, we will pin the great crime of indulging the Demon Cave to cause harm entirely on her. We'll have the Gaoyuan Marquis arrest her and take her to the capital. Doesn't the Gaoyuan Marquis claim to love the people like his children and his soldiers like his children? On one side is his beloved general, and on the other are the common people; how will he choose? If he shields his own people, he should stop pretending to be a righteous official..."

Doctor Li had originally been quite steady and would not openly criticize the local Marquis, but now, fueled by wine and soaring resentment, he said, "That's right. I've long found everything in Yunzhou unpleasant. That 'the whole world is muddy while I alone am pure' attitude—what the hell are they pretending for? Do you, Gaoyuan Marquis, take less in taxes and levies? Do you conscript less labor? Do you act less like a tyrant? It's nothing more than eating a bit more elegantly and thinking you're a saint? I see they don't put the Imperial Court in their eyes at all. We might as well just break it all off. What does the Imperial Court's Qingtian Temple have to do with you? By what right do you use..."

He tilted his head back for a cup, then suddenly discovered a letter placed on the table and said, "Doctor Wang, did you bring this?"

Doctor Wang was drunker than him and slurred, "Who the hell brought it?" He reached out, grabbed it, tore it open, and looked; his drunkenness vanished by more than half, and he shouted, "Guo Lingtai!"

Doctor Li was also covered in cold sweat and said, "What is it? Where is Guo Lingtai?"

Guo Lingtai was the most troublesome and hot-tempered Lingtai Lang in their Qingtian Temple; whenever the two saw him, it was like a mouse seeing a cat.

"He... he wants us to go pay him a visit. The address is... is..."

The two were nearsighted from reading too much, and being drunk made it even harder to see clearly. They leaned in together and finally managed to see the small line of characters marking the address.

"It's correct, it's Guo Lingtai's handwriting; I recognize his script. Why did he come, and why did he call us over?"

"Is it because he thinks we are incompetent, so the Lingtai Lang came personally to supervise?"

Doctor Li was startled and hurriedly waved his hand, saying, "Go? That's absolutely impossible; there is no such precedent. How many people can die from a small Empty-Type Demon Cave? Is it worth a Lingtai Lang coming down? I think Guo Lingtai is traveling incognito and passing through here; seeing that the situation is wrong, he called us over to ask about the circumstances."

Doctor Wang said, "Exactly, exactly. That's perfect. I was just about to lodge a complaint against that bitch surnamed Mai. She has no respect for the Qingtian Temple at all. From now on, we won't calculate any Demon Caves in Yunzhou for them."

The two complained as they hurried away; since no one was there to collect the bill, they just left the tavern in a mess.

Fortunately, the two had wandered the city for several days and knew the roads by heart, so they quickly found the place.

It was a civilian house by the street, slightly different from the houses on either side. The two were bleary-eyed from drink and did not notice anything unusual.

They stepped forward and knocked on the door; the door opened automatically. No one came out to greet them, but the two did not find it strange and went in together.

The house was very narrow and had a peculiar layout. Upon entering, there was a corridor that turned and twisted; it seemed to be nothing but a corridor, with no open rooms.

The lighting in the house was poor, and there were no lamps lit. Even though it was daytime, the two felt it was dim. They groped their way forward with no road back, not knowing how many doors they had opened or how many walls they had turned around, when suddenly the daylight became bright and everything opened up.

They had actually walked back out into a courtyard!

The two touched their heads, both feeling dizzy, thinking they had turned back to the original path. It was only when they were hit by the cool, damp breeze that they realized something was wrong. Looking ahead, they saw a sparkling river, with weeping willows lining the banks—a pleasant scene.

Wait...

Wasn't this a street?

Did Xun City have such a river?

The two were even more confused. Looking back, they saw that behind them was not a street, but a straight, wide, and empty official road. Not far away were three or five buildings constructed along the wide road, including a guest house and a stable. This was no civilian house; it was clearly a post station.

What the hell?!

At this moment, the two were truly sober, and sweat poured down. Doctor Wang shouted, "Where... where the hell is this?"

His shouting startled the postman of the station, who hurried out. Seeing that the two were dressed in official attire, he hurriedly bowed and scraped, saying, "My lords, you have arrived at Qinghe Post."

The two were even more bewildered; the name seemed to be in their minds. Doctor Li slurred, "This is Qinghe Post? Then Xun City..."

The postman respectfully said to the two drunks, "So you two lords are going to Xun City. Follow this road, and you will arrive in seven or eight days. Since it is late now, why don't you two stay at the post station for the night?"

"Ah?!"

Night fell, the moon rose and set, and the sky turned white.

As everyone knew, the descent of a Demon Cave must happen at night, with the Calamity Moon rising and the Demon Cave descending. Thus, the moonlit night gradually became synonymous with disaster in the marketplace.

On any moonlit night, even without a warning of a Demon Cave, most commoners would never dare to go out. If someone was caught breaking the curfew on the street then, out of a hundred, all would be beheaded, and at most one would be wrongly accused.

However, only the Empty-Type Demon Cave was different; its descent did not depend on the time of day. It could descend out of thin air from day to night. And it had almost nothing to do with the Sword Seed.

Therefore, the Empty-Type Demon Cave was the hardest to calculate, and the old methods of calculating by lunar time and celestial numbers were basically ineffective. For the past hundred years, Empty-Type Demon Caves had been called "Evil Dragons," taking the meaning of "the divine dragon sees its head but not its tail." But later, the Imperial Preceptor proposed a viewpoint, meaning "the accidental descent of an Empty-Type Demon Cave," implying that the source of an Empty-Type Demon Cave was not an invasion by Heavenly Demons, but a collision between this world and the outer realm causing spatial instability, thus opening an accidental channel between the two worlds. Therefore, the calculation of an Empty-Type Demon Cave should look to the sky. The previous Qingtian Temple Minister established a new set of calculation methods based on this, which finally broke the limitations of celestial number deduction. It was just that this set of methods was still quite novel; let alone ordinary officials or Lingtai Langs, even the current Junior Minister found it difficult to calculate accurately, and the Minister would not handle everything personally, causing the Empty-Type Demon Cave to remain in a state of being "free-range."

This time, the Qingtian Temple only sent two Doctors for the Empty-Type Demon Cave, intending to give up again. Fortunately, Xun City seemed to have good luck, and there was foreign aid descending from the sky.

Was the information received this time accurate?

Mai Shiyu took a deep breath of the cold air of the early spring morning.

She was currently standing near the address given by the information, surrounded by empty civilian houses.

According to the calculations, the Demon Cave would descend at sunrise, and she had led the Land Inspection Division clerks to start lying in wait here in the middle of the night.

At this time, the surrounding people were all praying for blessings at the Dongjun Temple, and the streets had been repeatedly confirmed to be empty. Only on the two bordering streets were bailiffs and officials arranged as an outer perimeter guard. The streets were filled with people from the Land Inspection Division.

If the calculation was correct and things went smoothly, after the Demon Cave, the people would return. Although some people would lose property, there should be no casualties. If the Imperial Court provided some relief, the Demon Cave matter would be over. The Land Inspection Division would have performed a meritorious service, and everyone would be happy.

If it was not accurate...

It wouldn't matter if the location was inaccurate; most of the civilian houses in the city were empty at this time. If it descended on other streets, it wouldn't hurt many people. The large mansions in the north had noble families guarding them, but they also had the power to protect themselves.

It would be troublesome if the time was inaccurate. An hour or two, or even half a day, would be fine; at most, the brothers would be tired and have to guard a little longer. But if it were off by a day or two, the activities at the Dongjun Temple could not be dragged out that long. If it dragged on too long, it would cause trouble.

The most terrifying thing was if both the time and location were wrong. That would prove that this whole thing was just nonsense from start to finish. Mai Shiyu had been busy running around, even gritting her teeth to offend people, only to be played for a fool in the end. If the other party was not just unskilled but had other conspiracies, the Land Inspection Division might suffer even more losses, or even be completely defeated.

In that case...

Mai Shiyu did not even dare to think about it. She could only call that a nightmare.

The closer the deadline approached, the more uneasy Mai Shiyu felt. Although the bet was already placed, until the dice cup was lifted, her heart remained suspended.

To distract herself, she looked at Tang Zhao beside her.

Tang Zhao's expression was calm, but Mai Shiyu could tell that the youth was also very nervous. He had not yet reached the level of not showing his emotions, and when facing a test, he would also show nervousness.

This was different from the nervousness of a Talisman lecture; back then, even if the lecture went poorly and he made a fool of himself, it was his own embarrassment. Now, with the Demon Cave descending, if there were any mistakes, it would be innocent people who suffered.

With such a heavy burden, how could he not be nervous?

Jiang Shenyi, on the other hand, did not look nervous; instead, he was radiant, full of excitement and curiosity. Tang Zhao was not confident, but Jiang Shenyi had faith in his junior brother; he was just curious about what ability his junior brother had to move the Demon Cave away.

His gaze fell behind Tang Zhao, where several jars containing various materials were placed. And in Tang Zhao's hand, he was holding an object, the first thing he would use.

Was that a bottle of "spring water"?

One Hundred and Eight Springs, is it?

Jiang Shenyi pondered, what kind of spring water could be used right now? It certainly wasn't the Good Luck Spring; Tang Zhao had already drunk quite a lot of it earlier, and his luck was already maxed out. Even when everyone added luck together before, there hadn't been any extra gains, so he didn't know why Tang Zhao still had confidence in adding luck now.

In any case, this bottle of spring water was definitely a useful item, only he didn't know how to use it.

At this moment, Jiang Shenyi was also holding something, which was a Strange Stone Compass used to sense Space Fluctuation. Although a Talisman Sword Master could not calculate the destiny of heaven, sensing real-time Space Fluctuation was never difficult.

Watching time pass bit by bit, the horizon grew whiter and whiter, and a First Layer of golden rim faintly appeared on the mountain peak.

The sun was about to rise.

Suddenly, it was as if a gust of wind blew across the surface of the Strange Stone Compass, and the needle began to tremble.

Space Fluctuation!

The Demon Cave was coming!