The monsters of the Panlong Wasteland were either killed, beaten into submission, or recruited into the ranks. Even an ancient demon immortal like Second Madame Zhu did business with Panlong City.
Harass a village? Eat a few living people?
Within a few days, the Panlong Patrol would come knocking to settle the score.
"How could anyone have that kind of ability?" Wang Wei gave a bitter laugh. "Before the Julu Kingdom was founded, three powers fought over this region, squabbling and plundering. Boys under twelve were conscripted to fight. All their strength was spent fighting other humans—who would have had the spare hands to exterminate those bear monsters?"
He continued, "Back in those days, the bear and wolf demons didn't even need to hunt when they came down the mountain. The roadsides, wild lands, and villages were littered with corpses, more than they could ever eat. If food hadn't been so easy to come by, would Baimao Mountain have gathered so many savage beasts? Ah, I saw it all with my own eyes. I only pray I never have to live through such days again in this lifetime."
Everyone fell silent.
No one understood the cruelty of war better than they did.
When humans grew weak, monsters and ghosts thrived—as one waned, the other waxed.
Hu Min asked again, "Is that White Bear King very strong?"
"Supposedly formidable," Wang Wei replied. "Nine years ago in autumn, before the Julu Kingdom was founded, remnants of an army routed by our current monarch fled into Baimao Peak, presumably trying to head straight for the Dongmin Kingdom. However—"
He waggled a finger. "Over five hundred men, and not a single one came back out!"
"All eaten?" Only now did the others grasp how terrifying it was. No matter how weakened that remnant army had been, they were far better fighters than ordinary folk, and some probably possessed a measure of origin power.
Yet even they had ended up in the belly of the bears.
"What else?" Wang Wei sighed. "The monsters on Baimao Peak are especially vicious in spring and autumn."
Bears hibernated, so fattening up in autumn and foraging in early spring made them voracious eaters.
"The authorities didn't step in?" Wasn't the King of Julu supposed to care deeply about the people's livelihood?
"They tried, but this den of monsters is exceptionally cunning, and the terrain of Baimao Peak is treacherous. The government organized monster-slaying teams twice, but neither succeeded. Recently, the Dongmin Kingdom invaded our northwestern border again, so the royal court has no spare hands to dispatch against the bear demons." Wang Wei sighed. "Our land is plagued with disasters, and demons and ghosts are especially numerous. Even though war has temporarily subsided, everyone's lives are still tough."
He Lingchuan asked casually, "Demons are especially prevalent around here? Where else?"
Wang Wei wasn't wrong. The Shanjin Plain had less spiritual energy than other places, while losing far more nightmare energy. Combined with small, weak states and scarce origin power, it couldn't mitigate calamities.
In the long run, how could it not become a land of endless suffering?
"Two hundred li northeast of here lies the Screaming Forest. Word is it was once an ancient battlefield; the dead turned into vengeful wraiths, coming out to cause havoc every year."
A'luo spat out a chicken bone. "Can't the nearby residents just move away?"
A tree moved would die, but people moved would thrive.
"Ten years ago, we had tiger plagues here. Fierce tigers prowled through villages and towns, yet many people still wanted to flee into the mountains to live." Wang Wei waved his hand. "How many people can tigers eat in a year? But staying behind—alas! Before the Julu Kingdom was founded, if a farmer harvested ten jin of grain, he had to hand over eight jin in tax. What was left wasn't enough to eat. Some who couldn't bear the starvation ended up eating their seed grain; come next year, unless they sold their sons and daughters, the whole family would starve."
He had survived that era himself, and recalling it still made his heart flutter with lingering dread.
He Lingchuan offered some comfort: "Regardless, your new monarch is wise and capable. Life will gradually improve for all of you."
This was merely consolation, for he knew all too well the future of this land.
What future was there?
Wang Gesheng chimed in, "Father, you've only just returned, so you don't know that two months ago, the king issued bounties inviting experts and capable fighters from all over to hunt the monsters."
Hu Min chuckled. "If five hundred soldiers were devoured by mountain demons, wouldn't sending in two people just be delivering a pair of snacks?"
Marching to their deaths in pairs.
"No, no, they recruited capable fighters from among the populace to form hunting squads," Wang Gesheng said seriously. "Originally, they recruited several hundred people to ascend the mountain together."
Hearing this, He Lingchuan shook his head. "That group is too large and conspicuous. Are they going up to hunt monsters or be hunted by them? Dispersing into smaller groups would be much more nimble and effective."
"Exactly! Mr. He, you've hit the nail on the head!" Wang Gesheng looked at him with newfound admiration. "The White Bear King was crafty and stayed out of sight the whole time. The monster hunters hardly encountered any wolves or bears, but were instead harassed relentlessly by the White Bear King and his followers, losing dozens of men. After suffering such a heavy loss, the hunting groups changed tactics. Small squads of twenty to thirty men now enter the mountain, setting traps and laying bait while searching separately."
He Lingchuan cracked open a peanut. "Bear monsters are lazy, gluttonous, and undisciplined. The White Bear King can keep them in line for a short while, but not for ten days or a fortnight."
When he was a patrol guard on the Chipa Plateau, he had slain plenty of bear monsters. Furthermore, Fan Bao, the Third Commander of the Tongxin Guard in Lingxu City, was also a giant bear.
No one knew the nature of bear monsters better than he did.
The subordinates of this White Bear King were definitely not as obedient or disciplined as Second Madame Zhu's offspring.
"Indeed, dividing and conquering made things much easier. Over these past two months, the hunting teams turned in over thirty bears, more than five hundred wolves, and numerous lesser monsters for bounties. I hear the king was overjoyed."
The Julu Kingdom's calculation was to use private hunting parties to prune the White Bear King's claws and fangs first, making it far easier to deal with the king itself later.
Only civilian fighters could spend so much time roaming the mountains, playing cat-and-mouse with the bears and wolves. Julu's army couldn't afford to circle around the mountains for two months just to hunt monsters.
"The Julu Kingdom must have grown wealthy." Could anyone pull this off without money? Fighting the Dongmin Kingdom on the western front, throwing money at bounties for monsters on Baimao Mountain, while still tending to domestic livelihoods.
Why were small countries constantly constrained, unable to accomplish anything?
In the end, wasn't it always a lack of funds?
"Who knows? Perhaps because these past few years have been peaceful and stable?" Wang Wei scratched his head. "Though we did suffer a flood five years ago."
"The White Bear King seems to have been provoked. Several hunting squads never returned after entering the mountain, and rumors say they ran into the White Bear King." Wang Gesheng drank another cup of wine, a bit too hastily, and coughed several times. "In previous years, when bear monsters came down the mountain, they only raided nearby villages. But a few days ago, the White Bear King went to Rong Town."
Wang Wei's eyes went wide. "Rong Town? They went to Rong Town?!"
Where was Rong Town? The out-of-towners had no idea.
"Less than twenty li from the royal capital. A wonderful place famous for growing melons and fruits," Wang Gesheng explained to them. "Now it's a ghost town. The White Bear King attacked by night. Over six hundred people in the town, young and old, were wiped out. Most were simply slaughtered, not eaten."
It was revenge—sheer, blatant revenge.
"Ancient great demons were said to devour entire cities," Hu Min shook his head. "If this White Bear King keeps going, it won't be far off."
"Once news got out, even the capital was thrown into panic. The king was furious and dispatched the capital garrison to hunt the monster."
Wang Gesheng turned toward Wang Wei, swallowed hard, and said, "Father... I signed up too."
Wang Wei spat out his mouthful of wine with a loud sputter. "You *what*?!"
"The bounty is enormous! If I—"
"Cancel it!" Disregarding He Lingchuan's presence, Wang Wei turned red in the neck and slammed the table as he sprang to his feet. "Is our family so starved for coin that you need to trade your life for it? What kind of monster is the White Bear King? Regular troops can't even touch it! You've only studied special abilities for a few days, and you dare seek it out? That's not monster hunting; that's suicide! Cancel your registration right this instant! You are not going!"
Wang Gesheng seemed to have anticipated his father's reaction and said softly, "Once registered, it can't be canceled."
"Just signed your name and it can't be canceled?" Wang Wei scoffed. "I know your guard chief! His daughter studies at my academy! Let me go ask him whether it can be canceled or not!"
Having said that, he suddenly remembered He Lingchuan and the others seated beside them. Feeling awkward, he was about to apologize and leave the table.
He Lingchuan spoke up: "Master Wang, don't lose your temper. Your son is very clever."
"But..."
"Before, it hid in Baimao Mountain, playing hide-and-seek on its own turf, making it difficult to hunt. Now it has come to your territory. For one thing, the vicinity of the royal capital is no place for it to linger; the White Bear King must eventually return to the mountain. As long as its return route is anticipated, it can be ambushed and caught off guard." He Lingchuan said with certainty, "It never should have come out.
"Furthermore, with the White Bear King pushing so close to the capital, the monarch has no choice but to eradicate it. The capital garrison possesses origin power and will spearhead the hunt. As long as your son doesn't get greedy or overextend himself, the danger will be greatly reduced."
For Wang Gesheng, this was indeed a rare opportunity. He scratched his head in slight embarrassment, surprised that He Lingchuan had seen right through his thoughts.
Yes, he had joined precisely because he deemed the opportunity too good to pass up.
Hearing this, Wang Wei was stunned. His anger abated somewhat, but he still insisted, "I... I'm going out for a moment."
With that, he hurried out of the house.
Seeing his back disappear past the doorway, He Lingchuan asked Wang Gesheng, "Does anyone know the White Bear King's cultivation age?"
"Some say three hundred years, others say five hundred. But a teammate's father saw it a few years ago and said it isn't very large, only one size bigger than an ordinary white bear. No one knows why it's so formidable, invulnerable to blades and spears." Wang Gesheng sighed with emotion. "It once led bear monsters to attack a town that had been a military garrison, equipped with siege ballistas on the gatehouse. The local garrison aimed a siege ballista and struck the White Bear King, but to their horror, it emerged completely unscathed! Seeing that, the defenders lost all will to fight and scattered in chaos."
The most direct indicator of a monster's cultivation was often its size.
For some monsters, deeper cultivation meant greater size; for others, the opposite was true.
Yet based on He Lingchuan's experience over these past years exterminating bears in the Panlong Wasteland and the Maohe Plain, the larger a bear demon's bulk, the deeper its cultivation usually was. With so many monsters under its command and having wiped out an army of five hundred men, the White Bear King was clearly a major demon lord of the region—at the very least, it should be more powerful than King Siwen.
Yet its size was only one notch larger than an ordinary white bear? That sounded rather improbable.
Door Plank chimed in from the side, "Maybe the guards saw wrong and hit another white bear."
Real combat was often chaotic; mistaking one target for another was commonplace.
"No, no. The White Bear King has a diamond-shaped black mark on its chest, extremely distinctive. Word has it the soldiers on the wall aimed right at that dark patch, and the siege ballista definitely struck the White Bear King."
"A diamond-shaped black mark? What's that?"
Wang Gesheng answered honestly, "I don't know either."
After a moment's thought, he left as well.
He Lingchuan and his companions took a few strolls around Julu Port, experiencing customs and local flavor completely different from later eras, while stocking up on fruit and dry rations. Door Plank also bought a large sack of walnuts along the way.
Bear monsters descending the mountain, slaughtering people, and pushing right toward the capital was the hottest topic at the port today, discussed everywhere. The port guards were patrolling in full battle gear, and many others, clad in armor and bearing weapons, hurried to and fro. They were not government troops; they looked very much like the monster hunters Wang Gesheng had described.
Panic hung in the air and public fervor ran high; this time, the Julu Kingdom was locked in an irreconcilable feud with the White Bear King.
When He Lingchuan returned to the Wang family residence, he nearly collided head-on with Wang Gesheng before even entering the courtyard.
The youth had a saber at his waist, a bow and arrows on his back, and a bundle slung over his shoulder, looking poised for a long journey.
Wang Wei stood behind him, his face etched with worry.
"Where are you off to?"
"The White Bear King attacked He Town last night!" Wang Gesheng said in a rush. "The royal court found traces of the monsters and is now summoning all monster hunters to join the capital garrison in hunting the White Bear King down! The force will number at least three thousand men—Father, you have nothing to worry about!"
By the last few words, he had already stepped out the front gate.
Behind him, Wang Wei heaved deep sighs, clearly having lost the confrontation between father and son.
He Lingchuan offered him a few comforting words. Without even bothering to change his clothes, he led Hu Min and the others to rent several horses and departed Julu Port, riding northward.
Now that it was confirmed that the White Bear King had left Baimao Peak, this was his golden opportunity to retrieve the Bright Lantern Cup.
Compared to later eras, the condition of this commercial road was roughly the same, with hardly any extra bends. Though not bustling like the main thoroughfare of Blade Harbor, merchants and travelers came and went in an unbroken stream. Evidently, at this time, it shouldered the heavy burden of transport between the coast and the interior.
Thanks to the Julu Kingdom's effective governance, this road did not harbor as many bandits as in the future.
Hu Min asked him:
"Is our target inside the White Bear King's lair? Would that monster collect Bright Lantern Cups too?"
Did monsters have to pass through inner demon trials in their cultivation? Hu Min had never considered that question before.
"Hard to say," He Lingchuan said, riding comfortably on horseback. "We didn't arrive at the right time—it's not the ripening period for Bright Lantern Cups."
The Bright Lantern Cup ripened once every thirty years. Its next ripening would not be for another thirteen years.
"Then...?"
"There's good news, at least for us. The White Bear King seized Baimao Mountain twenty years ago. In other words, the Bright Lantern Cup ripened during its reign over the mountain, so it most likely wasn't harvested by humans."
Hearing this, Door Plank grew curious as well. "So the White Bear King picked it?"
"Unlikely," He Lingchuan smiled. "Bright Lantern Grass is very intriguing. If you cut a red cord into two halves, tie one half to the Bright Lantern Grass, and recite a secret incantation, then the next time you ascend the mountain, as long as you have the other half tied around your wrist and repeatedly chant the incantation, you are guaranteed to find it. But without that—"
He shook his head. "You could walk until your legs break and never find a trace."
Door Plank clicked his tongue in wonder. "Can this grass run?"
"Why couldn't it? It just doesn't walk on two legs like humans," He Lingchuan said. "Although the White Bear King lives on Baimao Mountain, it never tied a cord with the Bright Lantern Grass beforehand, so the spirit grass probably won't pay it any heed. On Baimao Mountain, they are neighbors who never cross paths.
"Besides, Baimao Mountain wasn't originally called that. It was known as 'Dragon Head Mountain.' Legend has it that the ancient forebears saw a black dragon fall from the heavens and perish right here."
Hearing the legend, the guards found it intriguing: "What a coincidence—we have a Black Dragon totem in our city too."
In truth, this record hadn't been relayed back to Panlong City by Shao Jian; He Lingchuan had learned it from Shao Jian's notes in the later era.
Hu Min added, "If a black dragon perished here, Dragon Head Mountain's geomantic energy ought to be exceptional."
As the saying went: when a whale falls, myriad things thrive.
What about the fall of a dragon?
He Lingchuan shook his head. "How could the place where a dragon fell be considered a treasured feng shui site? Places where a dragon rises are what's truly auspicious. As they say: when a hidden dragon ascends to heaven, its momentum is unstoppable."
Yet in his mind, another deduction was turning over:
How did the Dafang Pot reproduce the history here?
Previously, whenever he entered the Panlong World, he was either in the Panlong Wasteland, the former lands of Xiji, or Yuheng City—all not far from where the Dafang Pot was situated. The Dafang Pot had lived through that history itself, so there was nothing strange about it manifesting those events.
But what about Julu Port? What about the Shanjin Plain?
This place should not have been within the range of the Dafang Pot's perception in the past; in other words, the Dafang Pot ought to know nothing about this region.
Why could the Dafang Pot recreate the history of this unknown realm in such vivid, convincing detail?
He Lingchuan also noted a specific detail:
This segment of history only began to unfold after he had stepped foot in Julu Port in reality.
Was it because the divine bone necklace had arrived here, thereby reading the past history of this region?
Where exactly did the Dafang Pot obtain this history?
Still, there was one thing that reassured He Lingchuan:
The history recreated by the Dafang Pot likely had minimal discrepancies or errors, serving as a reliable reference and aid for his actions in the real world.
In this way, he gained another angle from which to observe the Shanjin Plain:
The dimension of history.
The more angles one had to observe from, the less likely one's conclusions were to go astray.
Door Plank asked him, "Boss, where are we heading now?"
Hu Min immediately piped up, "If the White Bear King doesn't have the Bright Lantern Cup, we naturally go look for the person with the lead—namely, the holder of the red cord?"
He Lingchuan gave him an affirmative nod:
"Correct."
The message Shao Jian had sent to Panlong City stated that he had located the holder of the red cord.
He Lingchuan didn't know how he had tracked the person down, but Shao Jian was always resourceful.
This person lived in Dao Town near Julu Port and had inherited both the red cord and the secret incantation from his father.
He was very willing to sell both items to Shao Jian, but Shao Jian had had no way to verify their authenticity, because the man refused to ascend the mountain—
What a joke; Baimao Mountain was infested with man-eating bear demons, where anyone who went would surely die without exception. No matter how valuable the Bright Lantern Cup was, he had no way of entering the mountain.
Slaying demons was not Shao Jian's forte, and besides, he had more important duties on hand, so he had sent word back to Panlong City.
And so, He Lingchuan had come.
Dao Town was an ordinary small town with fewer than two hundred residents, but it sustained itself on freight transport tied to Julu Port. As Julu Port flourished over recent years and cargo volume surged, the townsfolk's livelihoods had noticeably improved.
Following Shao Jian's directions, He Lingchuan found the cord-holder tied to the Bright Lantern Cup.
He was merely an ordinary commoner, his summer vest bearing three or four patches. When an enthusiastic villager led He Lingchuan to his doorway and yelled, "Old Liu!", the man happened to be climbing onto his roof to patch thatch, preventing leaks on rainy days.
His dwelling was barely seven or eight square meters larger than He Lingchuan's wood-grade house in Panlong City.
Chapter 1108