She turned back to ask He Lingchuan, "Where is that monster?"
"A patrol guard came running at the noise and offered to turn it in for me," He Lingchuan sighed. "Looking back on it now, something was very wrong with that man."
"What was wrong?"
"When he drew near, the monster I caught stopped squawking."
Sun Fuling did not even look up. "Perhaps it was merely a coincidence."
"I hope so." He Lingchuan scratched his head. "Still, I don't understand why these monsters keep congregating here."
"Here?"
"Think about it. We alone have run into three of them and captured two, whereas only six have been caught in the entire city." Panlong City was vast; why weren't the monsters going elsewhere?
Sun Fuling pondered for a moment. "Could their nest be somewhere nearby?"
"Perhaps." He Lingchuan had considered that as well. "The sparrowhawk said earlier that according to the apothecaries summoned by Commander Zhong, these monsters are still in their infancy. Judging from their bone age, they haven't even reached the stage where they ought to be born."
"Moreover, on that monster just now, I caught a strange, salty, fishy stench—wet and sticky, almost like..." He Lingchuan wore a strange expression.
"Like what?"
He Lingchuan hesitated, truly reluctant to utter the word.
"Amniotic fluid?" Sun Fuling brought it up quite matter-of-factly.
He Lingchuan could only say, "Just a guess."
"If even the most senior apothecaries say they are unborn infants," Sun Fuling said, feeding dried meat to the sparrowhawk with earnest care, "then your guess is perfectly reasonable."
"Does that mean they possess such immense combat strength right after birth?"
This defied biological common sense. While some animals, like crocodiles, could hunt and survive on their own straight from hatching, their young were comparatively frail and frequently became another creature's meal.
"Strength and weakness are relative," Sun Fuling analyzed. "Perhaps compared to their adult parents, they appear utterly puny like this."
A newborn giant whale was over a zhang long and weighed tens of thousands of jin; wouldn't knocking a human flying be the simplest thing in the world for it?
Put another way, the prey of these infant monsters—humans—was simply far too weak compared to them.
"Then we need to apprehend them as soon as possible." Otherwise, disaster would strike Panlong City. "No wonder Three... No wonder they're so hard to catch no matter how thoroughly we search. Where does one look for an unborn creature?"
No wonder even the Three Corpse Worms couldn't find them—they were hiding inside a mother's body!
The Three Corpse Worms only crawled into the seven orifices, or at most one more; why would they bore into a mother's belly to inspect an unborn fetus?
"Wait!" He Lingchuan paused, a sudden realization striking him as odd.
"What is it?"
"Well..." If the Three Corpse Worms could detect their mother, why hadn't they raised an alarm to the master of the Dafang Pot?
Could the monsters' mother... not be a monster at all?
Sun Fuling finished feeding the dried meat. "We can look for the mother."
"..." She went straight to the heart of the matter.
"For so many days now, every corner of Panlong City has been turned upside down and searched several times over, yet nothing turned up," Sun Fuling said as if it were obvious. "In that case, someone must be hiding her."
"True." What He Lingchuan realized was that the higher-ups of Panlong City understood the wonderful uses of the Three Corpse Worms far better than he did. They must have deduced long ago that the monsters' "mother" might be human.
He had merely been worrying himself sick over matters outside his pay grade.
"The question is, why are these monsters sneaking into the city?" While lighting the hearth, He Lingchuan had heated some water. Sun Fuling poured a bowl of hot water and placed it beside the sparrowhawk. "Panlong City is extremely hostile toward unlawful intruders. What kind of monster would willingly risk death to enter?"
He Lingchuan let out a breath. "In the end, we simply have too little information on hand."
Without sufficient intelligence, analysis was nearly impossible; most of it came down to guessing.
"Which is why cabbage-eaters like you and me shouldn't fret for those dining on fine meat," Sun Fuling remarked leisurely. "All right, I'm heading back to take a bath. Don't come over to borrow anything for a while."
He Lingchuan blushed. "Do you need soap pods? I have some."
Sun Fuling chuckled softly and was about to walk out when she suddenly remembered something. "Right, today is Panlong City's Heavenly Sacrifice Day, with Master Wen Daolun presiding over the rites. Do you want to come along? You might even have a chance to seek answers from him."
*Wen Daolun?* He Lingchuan thought for a moment before recalling that this seemed to be the strategist at Commander Zhong's side, reputed to be proficient in divination as well. "Yes, of course!"
Only then did he ask, "What is Heavenly Sacrifice Day?"
Sun Fuling gave him a steady look.
He Lingchuan rubbed his nose. "I wasn't originally from Panlong City." He didn't know the local customs.
"Three years ago on this very day, Lord Commander Zhong sacrificed his only daughter to the gods to secure the attention of the deity Mitian, which allowed Panlong City to endure to this day," Sun Fuling said softly. "Panlong City has held a living sacrifice only once, and it was Lord Zhong's own flesh and blood. Filled with gratitude and reverence, the city's people go to pay homage on this day every year. Starting this year, Panlong City designated this date as Heavenly Sacrifice Day."
"If we're going to pay our respects," He Lingchuan pondered, "I'll buy some flowers and fruits."
"Where would you find flowers in this weather?" Sun Fuling laughed. "I've already bought the fruit and pastries."
...
An hour later, the two set off in a donkey cart.
Neither spoke a word along the way.
When He Lingchuan kept quiet, Sun Fuling remained silent as well, leaving only the rumbling creak of the cart wheels.
Yet her presence was striking.
Sun Fuling had changed into a fresh outfit. Her damp hair had long dried, falling in soft, dark clouds and emitting a fragrance akin to pine—fresh, neutral, and pleasant. Closing his eyes, He Lingchuan felt as though he were standing in a mountain forest again.
He had only ever heard of young ladies bathing with floral scents; the woman beside him was truly distinctive.
The donkey cart was quite small, forcing them to sit close together. Sun Fuling rested her chin in her hands and gazed outside, so whenever He Lingchuan turned his head, he found himself close to her slender neck.
Her skin was delicate and fair, with faint bluish veins visible beneath.
By all accounts, she was a young woman in the prime of her youth.
He Lingchuan could not help recalling the various suspicious clues surrounding her, and finally broke the silence: "By the way, have you been out enjoying yourself these past few days?"
"I left the city a few days ago, and yesterday I went to clean my brother's house." Sun Fuling sighed. "Even though it was only an earth-grade house, the authorities will probably reclaim it."
Indeed, lodging in Panlong City had always been tight. Aside from the mansions, other homes were assigned and managed by the authorities; in theory, everyone was merely a tenant. When a resident like Sun Jiayuan died, the officials would reclaim the dwelling and reassign it to someone in need.
"Did you move his things back?"
"He didn't have much to begin with." When a person died, their flame went out, leaving behind no trace in the world.
Silence fell once more; they seemed to have talked the conversation into a dead end.
Yet a knot of doubts tangled within his mind, until one finally broke free regardless of the abruptness: "Miss Sun, do you also practice martial arts?"
"Mm, yes." Sun Fuling turned to look at him, seeming a little surprised. "I studied mystic arts, trained hard in combat, and even served as a patrol guard. I came close to joining the Gale Army."
She paused briefly before continuing, "In Panlong City, many women cultivate and train in martial arts; there's no shortage of them in the patrol guards or the Gale Army. Many of the young girls I've taught made it their goal to join the Gale Army once they grew up."
He Lingchuan thought of his squadmate Willow, whose fierce toughness surpassed that of most men. Panlong City had to muster the strength of the entire populace to repel foreign aggression, and had held out for over a decade. As long as it defended hearth and home, women had to take to the battlefield as well.
"Then why did you turn to teaching afterward?"
"I was severely wounded in battle, and my brother urged me to leave martial pursuits for scholastic ones. It happened that Shumin Academy was recruiting lecturers with generous pay, so I..." She tapped her temple. "Going to the front to slay enemies is important, of course, but nurturing future warriors isn't bad either." She spoke softly, "Even if the Panlong Wasteland is a harsh environment, I believe Panlong City still has a future."
As long as the people remained, hope remained, and this place would have a future.
At least for another seventeen years.
He Lingchuan knew the average lifespan in the Yuan Kingdom was only about thirty years. To most commoners, seventeen years was already half a lifetime.
Sun Fuling suddenly pointed ahead. "Isn't that your shop?"
They had already reached the bustling main thoroughfare, where carriages and crowds flowed like water. He Lingchuan looked where she pointed, and sure enough, there stood the storefront he had spent a large amount of military merit to acquire.
Last time, after clearing out the shop's clutter, he had handed it over to the authorities for managed leasing. Now, having been renovated, the storefront had reopened for business, bearing a sign made from a broad piece of tree bark inscribed with green characters:
Yunling Island.
From the sign alone, it was clear they were not selling food or clothing. Customers bustled inside, and He Lingchuan recalled that the first month's rent had already been delivered to his hands—a very handsome sum.
One storefront could easily support a family for twenty years. A household of four would need no other work; this shop alone would feed and clothe them, with enough left over to save up for a daughter-in-law's betrothal gifts.
Panlong City frowned upon those who reaped without sowing, so commercial taxes were high, though having family members in the military granted tax exemptions based on specific quotas.
Sun Fuling grew quite interested. "Shall we go down and take a look?"
He Lingchuan certainly had no reason to refuse.
As Sun Fuling stepped off the cart, however, her foot slipped on a stone, and she stumbled.
He Lingchuan instinctively supported her by the arm. "Careful."
Her almond eyes curved into what must have been a smile, and only then did He Lingchuan notice the candy snail shell hairpin adorning the left side of her hair. Her plain attire only made that splash of bright color stand out all the more.
Stepping inside, He Lingchuan discovered that it was a magic artifact shop. It not only bought and sold various magic artifacts, but also provided after-sales service, repairs, and maintenance.
As expected, the shop catered primarily to practitioners; most commoners who stepped in came merely to look around. He Lingchuan even ran into several familiar faces from the patrol guards.
After greeting him, those men winked and nudged each other playfully, seeing Sun Fuling right beside him.
The proprietor was a plump, fair-skinned man named Bai Guo, sporting a round belly and a beaming, welcoming smile—the very picture of a respectable merchant.
It turned out this was his third branch in Panlong City.
Rent on Wanglin Avenue was staggering. Only two kinds of shops could survive here: those with booming, high-volume trade, or those whose expensive goods remained in steady demand. Yunling Island belonged to the latter.
The moment he learned He Lingchuan was the landlord, Bai Guo's warmth doubled. He poured tea, fetched water, and promised that should the landlord fancy any magic artifact in the shop, he could purchase it at a ten percent discount—
Provided the rent next year remained fair and generous.
Chapter 280