Chapter 252: Heavenly and Earthly Phenomena

Evil Seeds were originally a small matter in the Qingyun world. Two years ago, before the Qiling incident, such blood-thirsty corpses of the remnant race that didn't rot often appeared in forests everywhere.

Some mountain woodcutters and scholars passing by often lost their bones because of walking into the forest by mistake.

But for cultivators, this kind of blood-thirsty body, if there were only a few alone, wouldn't be a climate, and could be ignored.

But what the Immortal Supervision Bureau worried about was the same as before the Qiling incident, where Evil Seeds surged out in groups, leading to chaos in the world.

And when the supervisory team arrived at Sanli County, the County Magistrate of Sanli County had already brought government office runners to wait.

"My lord, Evil Seeds were indeed found in the county."

"?"

According to the County Magistrate, Shitang Village had been restless with livestock for some time. The government originally thought it was wild beasts in the mountains and didn't take it to heart.

But after hearing that the son of the Minister in the capital had an accident here, they immediately ordered a search of the mountain forest.

As a result, they really found a group of Evil Seeds, in the mountain stream between the Heng Mountains.

A group of mortals like them naturally didn't know how to deal with it, so they could only send people to guard, waiting until the supervisory team sent people

And following the arrival of the people from the Supervision Office with the government runners at the place where the evil seeds were discovered, they saw the evil seeds wandering between the mountain forests, pacing back and forth amidst the dense jungle.

The Tisi of the Supervision Office was named Mu Jing, also a newly promoted official in recent years, who had once worked with Xiang Kuangcheng to handle the matter of refugees fleeing to Shengjing after the Qiling incident.

After discovering such a number of evil seeds, Mu Jing did not dare to act rashly, but instead devised a plan to capture one and send it to Shengjing, subsequently dispatching men to seal off the area.

"What is the number of evil seeds in Sanli County?"

"Just what has been seen with the naked eye in these past few days alone amounts to a hundred."

Upon hearing this, the Supervisor He Jingyuan furrowed his brows: "Has there been any population disappearance in Sanli County?"

Mu Jing shook his head: "No population disappearance has been discovered."

"In that case, these evil seeds have not harmed anyone? The only one out of luck is Dou Yuankong, the son of Minister Dou?"

"These ghostly things, if they don't smell human scent, are basically in a state of lost soul and won't reveal too much of their bloodthirsty nature. Sanli County is sparsely populated and has many mountain ranges; the mountain forests where the evil seeds were discovered are basically uninhabited places. Perhaps it is precisely because of this that they have been safe and sound, and it is only because Dou Yuankong's luck was truly bad that he was tormented into this state."

Deputy Supervisor Peng Dongyang raised his eyes: "Another evil seed disturbance; could it be a batch that surged out from the ruins after the Qiling incident back then but was missed?"

Mu Jing pondered for a moment and then shook his head: "It cannot be determined."

"Then have you checked all the official documents filed in Sanli County after the Qiling incident?"

"I have checked. When our office, the Immortal Supervision Bureau, investigated the places where evil seeds appeared, this Sanli County indeed did not report anything."

He Jingyuan placed his teacup on the table: "These officials usually collude with local immortal manors and do things as simply as possible; they don't even report such disasters."

Mu Jing pursed his lips: "But there is one problem."

"What problem?"

"We did not discover any new ruins in the vicinity of Sanli County."

He Jingyuan glanced at Peng Dongyang: "The urgent matter is to first notify the Zhenbei Army, send men to exterminate this batch of evil seeds to avoid harming the common people, and then conduct a slow investigation."

Mu Jing nodded: "Yes!"

After the barbarian race abandoned large-scale border attacks, half of the Zhenbei Army was transferred back to be stationed outside Shengjing, while the other half remained in Fengzhou.

Upon receiving the message from the Immortal Supervision Bureau this time, the nearest major camp dispatched hundreds of experts deep into Sanli County, beginning a campaign to exterminate the evil seeds, casting their corpses into the wilderness after severing the heads of all the evil seeds.

Xiang Kuangcheng is a Tisi of the Reception Office and does not belong to the same system as the Supervision Office, but he was exceptionally concerned about this matter.

Because back when the evil seeds were a scourge, too many common people were eaten alive; he did not wish to see such a thing happen a second time.

Mu Jing and Xiang Kuangcheng had a good friendship, and the two discussed it for a long time during this period, with the focus of the discussion being the origin of this batch of evil seeds.

The appearance of such a large number of evil seeds is not common in the Qingyun world, unless a large ruin was opened by someone, but after the Qiling incident, large ruins capable of containing so many were basically all under guard.

After the Dou Yuankong incident occurred, Xiang Kuangcheng reviewed all case files regarding evil seeds from the past year and discovered that all large ruins had no unusual movements.

In order to confirm whether the news was true, Xiang Kuangcheng even specifically sent letters to the guardians of various places and the government offices, and the answers he received were all that everything was safe and sound.

Of course, there is also a possibility that evil seeds from some small ruins gathered here by coincidence.

But the problem is, if they came from all directions, it would be impossible for it to be so silent.

But Mu Jing quickly dispelled this speculation of Xiang Kuangcheng's, because following the extermination of the evil seeds, the Supervision Office went again and searched for dozens of miles around, without discovering any ruins not recorded in the files.

In Xiang Kuangcheng's view, the only clue might exist in the mouth of the unconscious Dou Yuankong.

It was not until early spring in the third month that Dou Yuankong, who had been rescued, finally woke up.

He is a cultivator; although his cultivation base is not high, having spiritual energy to protect his body makes him different from a mortal after all, and simple injuries or hunger are not fatal.

Dou Yuankong's behavior of making friends with cultivators over these years was not in vain after all; from time to time, someone would come to the Dou residence to circulate spiritual energy to protect his life, which allowed him to finally open his eyes on a dusk in the third month.

Upon learning the news, Xiang Kuangcheng arrived by carriage, and arriving at the same time were Wei Rui and Princess Changle.

The Nine Provinces have had constant rain recently, to the extent that water has accumulated throughout the city, enough to cover the ankles.

The three of them got out of the carriage holding oil-paper umbrellas; Wei Rui did not have much strength and her paper umbrella was immediately tilted by the bean-sized raindrops, and she was caught by Xiang Kuangcheng.

Princess Changle took a look and said nothing, but was the first to step into the Dou residence, and the two followed her in, passing through the connecting corridor to arrive at the eastern cross-courtyard; before their gazes could enter the courtyard, they heard a burst of screaming suddenly erupt.

They walked into the side room of the eastern cross-courtyard holding their umbrellas and saw Dou Yuankong curled up in a corner, shivering, screaming, and waving his left hand back and forth in front of him.

Minister Dou and his family were all in front of him, but because of his violent resistance, no one dared to move forward and could only look at Dou Yuankong in astonishment.

Seeing this scene, Princess Changle was silent for a long time, while Wei Rui's eye sockets instantly began to turn red.

Although Wei Rui did not like Dou Yuankong, they had grown up together after all, and she was not hard-hearted; seeing him in this state of being neither human nor ghost, with one sleeve empty and swinging constantly with his movements, it was inevitable that she would feel sad.

Seeing this, Xiang Kuangcheng took a silk handkerchief from his sleeve, hesitated for a long time, and then rolled it into a corner to gently wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes.

However, he did not feel sad in his heart.

Back then, Dou Yuankong plotted to harm Brother Ji, wanting to send Brother Ji abroad to die; although he did not get his wish in the end, Brother Ji's two arms were nearly crippled, and the danger involved can be imagined.

Xiang Kuangcheng has always felt that good deeds have good rewards and evil deeds have evil rewards; if they are not rewarded, it is because the time has not yet come.

Now seeing Dou Yuankong become like this, he only felt that he was getting what he deserved.

But thinking of this, Xiang Kuangcheng's brows could not help but begin to furrow tightly.

Dou Yuankong is insane, so some things cannot be asked.

A mentally deranged person, let alone being unable to speak normally, even if he could, there would likely not be many valuable clues.

However, seeing Dou Yuankong again did serve as a reminder to Xiang Kuangcheng.

He had previously been obsessed with where the evil seeds came from, but had forgotten to think about why Dou Yuankong would appear in Sanli County.

Dou Yuankong is a noble descendant, accustomed to a life of luxury; even if he left the capital because he was frightened by Brother Ji, he should have gone to some prosperous place to drink and make merry.

This Sanli County is extremely poor, and there are no prosperous major cities nearby; Dou Yuankong also had no habit of hunting, so why on earth did he run into these deep mountains and wild forests?

Unless he was taken there by someone, or was abducted.

But what was the purpose? What was the point of throwing him into that kind of place?

If Dou Yuankong really did not go there voluntarily, then would his appearance and the appearance of these evil seeds be related? Xiang Kuangcheng pondered for a long time and still felt that something seemed to be missing, so much so that these things could not be connected.

The only thing Xiang Kuangcheng hopes for at present is that those evil seeds in the mountains were truly just omissions from the initial investigation, and not a reappearance.

Because if they were just omissions, they have been completely slaughtered by the Zhenbei Army, and no major events should occur subsequently.

Xiang Kuangcheng subsequently left the Dou residence and returned along the road with Wei Rui.

Because there were things he could not understand, Xiang Kuangcheng had no heart to cook; it just so happened that Wei Rui was following him, so the two entered a restaurant.

Because it was a rainy day, there were no customers in the restaurant, and the waiters in the hall were all gathered at the entrance of the back kitchen, gesturing wildly, looking incredibly busy.

"Where did so many cockroaches come from?!"

"It must be Chef Zhang; every time he finishes using the stove, he doesn't put the oil ladle away properly. Fortunately, there are only a few; hurry and stomp them to death, stomp them to death!"

"Shopkeeper, buy some medicinal powder; just stomping is useless."

"Buying medicinal powder costs money!"

"Shopkeeper, don't blame me for speaking bluntly..."

"Then will you blame me for being heavy-handed?" "You really can't do without buying medicinal powder. There's a saying in my hometown that when you see one cockroach, there's actually already a nest in the house."

"?"

Wei Rui, looking at Xiang Kuangcheng at this moment, could not help but speak softly: "Shall we change to another place?"

Xiang Kuangcheng raised his head upon hearing this and discovered that where Wei Rui's gaze was directed was a cockroach: "A restaurant actually attracting cockroaches; this is a place Brother Ji likes to eat at very much."

"I'm afraid the kitchen is no longer clean."

"Then let's change to another place."

The matter of evil seeds being discovered in Sanli County quickly spread, and because of the occurrence of the Qiling incident, the major immortal sects and noble families were also concerned.

But as the Immortal Supervision Bureau submitted the investigation case files, and no further evil seed matters occurred thereafter, it did not stir up any major waves.

And Xiang Kuangcheng also felt slightly relieved, temporarily putting aside the doubts in his heart, and returned to Fengzhou under the escort of Cao Jingsong.

Spring plowing in Fengzhou had already begun for a long time; because a large number of migrant workers had been hired during the winter, the people of Fengzhou still had to reclaim a large amount of farmland to expand the scale of planting.

In addition, when Ji You left, he had told Xiang Kuangcheng that with the increase in grain production, he wanted to engage in animal husbandry.

Thus, the matter of the farm also had to be started; amidst such busyness, Xiang Kuangcheng was escorted back to Fengzhou by Cao Jingsong and his party.

Supervising the reclamation of farmland, checking the construction of the farm, Xiang Kuangcheng and the others even went to attend a marriage ceremony along the way.

The groom is a cultivator from the Tianyuan Mountain Villa, named Zhang Pingyang, a descendant of the Zhang family of Yunzhou, a cultivator in the Realm of Condensation and Transformation, and also one of the first batch to join the combined harvesting team.

But the woman he married was not from an immortal sect, but a farm woman named Lanlan.

Zhang Pingyang is now the squad leader of the Fifth Brigade of the combined harvesting team, responsible for the farm work in Lanlan's village; Lanlan often went to the fields to deliver tea, and the two had been familiar with each other for a long time.

Among descendants of noble families, even those from collateral branches who are not famous, very few marry mortal women.

Many people don't know what he was thinking, but they saw that he was very happy on the day he got married.

Xiang Kuangcheng felt that this was perhaps what Brother Ji wanted to see.

Brother Ji said back then that whether they are cultivators or mortals, they are actually all human, but he didn't know why cultivators later increasingly stopped considering themselves human.

Now that Fengzhou is in this state, it will certainly get better and better, just as Brother Ji thought.

It was just that what Xiang Kuangcheng did not expect was that in the following Nine Provinces, heavy rain poured down for several consecutive months.

This kind of weather rarely appeared in the history of the Qingyun world; the pitch-black sky was low and heavy as if it were about to collapse, making the people of the Nine Provinces uneasy.

Subsequently, water disasters occurred frequently in many places, and the official business of the Immortal Supervision Bureau began to become increasingly heavy.

Lingzhou is the mouth of a hundred rivers entering the sea, and places where dikes burst appeared frequently, especially on the Nujiang River, where waves were surging, submerging all directions.

After spring plowing, large tracts of farmland had not yet grown green seedlings; one flood passing through meant a whole year of no harvest.

But fortunately, the Spirit Sword Mountain sent elders over.

Using sword Qi to open mountains, moving earth and stone to cast dikes, they bound the river water amidst the continuous heavy rain, and there were experts of the Upper Five Realms who used great magic power to lead the flow into the sea.

"This weather, I don't know why it suddenly began to become capricious."

"The wind and clouds are changing; I'm afraid the Heavenly Dao is inconstant."

"Where did that saying come from?"

"It's spread like this among the common people, saying that the Heavens are angry."

"What do mortals know? I see it must be that some great power has achieved great success in practicing the Four Symbols Method."

Lingzhou is where the dojo of Spirit Sword Mountain is located, and the water disaster naturally also disturbed Spirit Sword Mountain.

It was Yan Shuyi who ordered the disciples in the mountain to go down and assist the Immortal Supervision Bureau in managing the water disaster; while casting dams and building dikes, they also saved many common people.

It was just that the duration of this heavy rain truly exceeded imagination; no one could determine exactly when it would be able to stop. If it continued like this, Lingzhou was afraid it would have one-third of its area submerged.

Especially the area approaching the Profound Sea, which was originally a low-lying location.

However, the good thing was that this heavy rain did not continue, but gradually turned into light rain on an afternoon in mid-sixth month, and subsequently subsided at dusk.

On the morning after the rain cleared, although the weather was still gloomy, it was at least much brighter than before.

It was just that there was still surging accumulated water on and off the mountain, and even the waterfalls between the mountains became surging and continuous.

However, after experiencing a violent storm, the many cultivators who missed the sunny days still could not help but walk out of their rooms; they originally wanted to wait for the sunny day when the clouds dispersed and the fog cleared, but as soon as they stepped out, they were attracted by the direction of the coastline, and after their eyes widened, they could no longer move them away.

After Yan Shuyi knew that the heavy rain had stopped, her mood relaxed slightly, so she meditated and practiced until noon; after opening her eyes and being silent for a long time, she began to flip through the secret technique under her pillow.

While reading, she suddenly heard a burst of footsteps ringing from outside the hall, so she hurriedly stuffed the book under the pillow and put on the expression of a cold and arrogant Inspector.

"Inspector, blood mist."

"What blood mist?"

Ding Yao stood in the hall and panted slightly: "This morning, many fishermen saw a red fog appear over the Profound Sea, so they reported it to the government, and the government came to report it to us; it is said that disciples on our mountain also saw it, covering the sky and the earth..."

Yan Shuyi furrowed her brows and subsequently floated up from the hall.

The Boundless Realm can ignore distance within a certain range; Ding Yao knew the Inspector had gone to the Profound Sea, so she turned around and was about to follow.

However, in the next instant, following a fluctuation of spiritual energy in the air, Yan Shuyi returned to the hall.

Ding Yao: "?"

Yan Shuyi looked at her diligent maid: "Cui'er, you are not allowed to tidy my bed."

Cui'er, who was just planning to fold the quilt, had her expression stiffen, and a trace of confusion appeared in her eyes, but she still obediently let go of her hands and said softly that she would obey.

Amidst the flickering of profound light, the Little Inspector of Spirit Sword Mountain appeared on the shore of the Profound Sea, her skirt fluttering as she landed, looking toward the sea surface.

The Profound Sea is vast, so wide that it has no boundaries; after the wind and rain stopped suddenly, the sea tide gradually subsided, but there were still houses and fishing boats washed away on both banks, looking scattered and broken.

Countless fishermen gathered at the coast, looking out into the boundless distance.

Yan Shuyi also turned her head to look at this time, with golden immortal light vaguely condensing in her gaze.

Within her line of sight, the sky in the extreme south was bright red; that was already the great fog those fishermen spoke of, only it had already retreated at this time.

And according to the fishermen on the shore of the Profound Sea, this red fog had actually spread to the coastline in the morning.

Ding Yao and Zhuo Wanqiu were also looking at the direction everyone was watching at this time, and subsequently turned their heads to look at Yan Shuyi: "Inspector, what is going on?"

"First there was continuous heavy rain, and subsequently there was blood mist filling the air; such a natural anomaly, if not man-made, then it is an abnormality of the Heavenly Dao. I think it won't be anything good."

Yan Shuyi pondered for a sentence and then spoke: "Ding Yao, you go and check the historical records of my Spirit Sword Mountain to see if there are any records about red fog on the sea."

Ding Yao nodded: "Yes, Inspector."

Yan Shuyi turned her head again to look at Zhuo Wanqiu: "Ask the mountain-walking disciples in various places to see if there have been any strange things happening recently."

Zhuo Wanqiu subsequently bowed: "Yes, Inspector."

Yan Shuyi stood by the sea for a long time, subsequently waved her sleeves and left, landing on the Profound Sword Peak, looking out over the Nine Provinces from south to north, her beautiful brows furrowing slightly.

Ding Yao returned at dusk, holding a book scroll and arriving before Yan Shuyi: "Inspector, I did not find any records about red fog on the sea; flipping through it, there are mostly records of red tides."

"In other words, this is the first time blood mist has appeared over the Profound Sea?"

"Reporting to the Inspector, according to the books read, it should be so."

Yan Shuyi's brows furrowed slightly, with light and shadow flickering in her eyes.

Heavy rain, violent wind, sea tides, and thick fog all belong to the Four Symbols Laws, which are the most intuitive laws in the Heavenly Dao.

Now that this kind of anomaly appears, it represents the disorder of the Four Symbols and the unease of the Heavenly Dao; in the customs of the Qingyun world, this belongs to a harbinger of disaster, not an auspicious sign.

The key is that this kind of anomaly had not been recorded before, so not knowing what it represents makes it even more concerning.

While pondering, Zhuo Wanqiu hurried over: "Inspector, the government office down the mountain reports that evil seeds have appeared in the western part of Lingzhou."

"All ruins in various places are under surveillance; why would there still be evil seeds appearing?"

(End of chapter)