Chapter 22: Disaster Spreading

East of Luohe City, a large group of refugees in rags was slowly moving toward this century-old ancient city.

These refugees were sallow and emaciated, their hair matted into a ball, their bodies exuding a foul odor, and their eyes were lifeless, just mechanically and numbly moving their feet.

Along the way, if they encountered suitable wild vegetables or tree bark, someone would immediately swarm up and pull them to stuff into their mouths.

Hunger, disease, despair, and pain had completely turned people into irrational wild beasts.

And now, Luohe City had become the last hope in their eyes.

This year's drought was more severe than in previous years, no longer limited to a single province; more than a dozen provinces in the east and south were all affected significantly.

Among this group of refugees, several men and women also dressed as refugees were mixed in.

It was just that their purpose was completely different from that of the ordinary refugees who were seeking survival; instead, they kept repeating the most simple words.

"Everyone, work harder! We'll be at the Luohe City boundary soon!"

"There's a river there! There's food!"

"I heard the harvest there is good, even ordinary farm families have food to eat, water to drink, and extra grain to sell!"

"..."

As these words reached the ears of the refugees, their originally numb eyes finally had a glimmer of light.

——————

"I heard a large group of refugees has come from Jin Province in the east again."

"Isn't that so? Last time, the refugees caused trouble for several months before being driven away. This time, I'm afraid it will be even longer!"

"Must hurry up and buy some grain to take back. Once the refugees come, the city will probably be in chaos again."

In a simple tavern in Luohe City, Lin Feng, who had just finished a job of digging a hole and burying a person, was drinking here.

Listening to the conversation of the drinkers at the next table, Lin Feng couldn't help but feel some complex emotions.

His predecessor was one of the previous batch of refugees they spoke of. That difficult life-seeking journey left a deep impression on his predecessor.

This era was far from his previous life. How small human power was; facing natural disasters and ghost disasters, besides passively enduring, the only choice was to flee.

But people who left their hometowns often had a very difficult time surviving in the strange world outside. Dying in some foul ditch one day or being eaten by wild dogs was a normal thing.

"I should also buy some grain to take back. Being prepared is the best."

Thinking of this, Lin Feng drank the rough wine in his cup, then took out money to pay the bill, and then walked toward the shop selling rice and grain.

It had been four days since he last entered the city to save people. The matter of the Wang family's third young master being murdered had caused a huge stir, and it hadn't stopped until now.

If it weren't for the fact that he was very clear about the Ghost Suppression Division's way of handling cases and had cleared the traces he left behind, he might have really been dragged out by the Divine Catcher of the Ghost Suppression Division.

Of course, Lin Feng was not particularly afraid of this now. According to what he knew, the strongest person in the Luohe City Ghost Suppression Division was only a Grandmaster-level expert.

As for the Wang family, it seemed to be related to some Ghost-Driving family. However, Lin Feng was not particularly clear about it.

The corpse fragments of the Wang family's third young master that he took away that day had already been secretly buried by him when he had time.

It was just that the other party was actually a complete fool in the Wang family and didn't know much secret information.

"Today's grain is sold out!"

"Go, go, go, don't squeeze! Don't squeeze! Closed, already closed!"

However, what made Lin Feng somewhat speechless was that as soon as he arrived at the rice and grain shop, he saw a group of people squeezing in front of the shop, and the shop assistant impatiently pushed away those who came to buy grain.

"What sold out, talking nonsense with eyes open!"

"That's right, there's plenty of grain inside the shop!"

"Profiteers, not only raising prices, but now not even selling!"

"..."

The people surrounding the shop kept cursing; clearly, this was not something that could be fooled in a few words.

However, just as they were making a scene, several strong men ran out of the shop. They were each wearing coarse cloth short shirts and holding jujube wood sticks as thick as wrists, looking like people from a gang.

"Heh, these unruly people, do they dare to force buying and selling?"

"I, Mountain-Descending Tiger, will put it here today: whoever dares to cross this door, I guarantee I'll beat their overnight meal out of them!"

The leading man with leopard eyes spat and said loudly.

Seeing such a scene, those who were timid directly backed down, preparing to go to other rice and grain shops to buy grain.

Lin Feng found it uninteresting. He had never liked to get involved in such things, so he followed others to other shops.

"How is a person supposed to live in this day and age!"

"Damn it, yesterday a catty of grain was five copper coins, today it's eight, and they aren't even selling!"

"This damn world, is it trying to force us to death?"

"..."

Amidst the complaints, Lin Feng came to another shop. There was also a large crowd of people here, but at least they were still selling grain normally.

So Lin Feng also squeezed in from the outside. Relying on his movement technique, others couldn't squeeze past him, and soon he came out carrying a small half-bag of brown rice.

This half-bag of brown rice was only thirty catties, but it cost him half a tael of silver.

And even so, it wasn't that he didn't want to buy more, but the grain shop wasn't willing to sell more, and with other people around fighting to buy grain, Lin Feng just let it be.

Carrying the burlap bag out of the city, Lin Feng looked at the yellowish-brown scene outside the city and couldn't help but sigh.

Luohe City was still like this with water channels for irrigation; one could imagine how miserable other places were.

"Forget it, this is not something I should care about..."

Shaking his head, Lin Feng walked toward the graveyard. He was just an ordinary gravekeeper; it was better to leave these things of worrying about the country and the people to those sitting in high positions.

On the other side, in the Wang family courtyard of a wealthy family in Luohe City.

The Silver-Badge Catcher Li Chengsong, who was in charge of this case, had an extremely ugly expression.

The Wang family, who had been incomparably polite to him, had become increasingly unreasonable as he had made no progress in the past two days.

Especially the mother of the Wang family's third young master; the look in her eyes when she looked at him was like seeing an enemy.

Coming out of the Wang family courtyard, Li Songcheng greeted his subordinates with a face full of bad luck: "Let's go drink. Damn it, whoever wants to manage this broken matter can manage it!"

"Boss, if we do this, I'm afraid we'll provoke the people of the Wang family?"

A trusted catcher beside him reminded him cautiously.

"Afraid of a ball! No matter how capable the Wang family is, can they interfere with our Ghost Suppression Division?"

Li Songcheng's face darkened, and then he glared at him directly.

"Yes, yes, yes, but, Boss, we'd better report to Lord Xia. The person who took action was able to take away all the traces and corpses; I'm afraid they are not an ordinary person."

"Even if we want to let go and not care, we must be prepared with an excuse. If it really doesn't work, we have to find a scapegoat. Anyway, there are quite a few wanted criminals on the run in the government office..."

This catcher was quick-witted and quickly persuaded Li Songcheng.

Li Songcheng also understood that what he just said was just angry words. As long as they were still making a living in Luohe City, they couldn't avoid dealing with the Wang family.

Because in this city, the Wang family's influence was not much weaker than the Ghost Suppression Division! ===== CHAPTER 23 =====