"When the stationmaster saw her in ragged clothes and heavily pregnant, her eyes darting nervously and avoiding eye contact, he remembered the notice in the city and prepared to turn her over to the authorities. The woman burst into tears, wailing, 'I was just too hungry!' and 'I don't want to hurt you!' before bolting outside. The bailiff leader rushed to cut her off, only for a three-foot-tall monster to leap out of the cotton basket behind her. It slaughtered the stationmaster, the bailiff leader, and the grooms. As luck would have it, two of our patrol brothers were resting at the relay station. Hearing the commotion, they rushed out to help, but even they were no match for the monster—one was killed, the other gravely injured. Still, they managed to fling the monster out of the relay station, and at least a dozen travelers on the road witnessed it."
"And then?"
"The terrified travelers fled on the spot. By the time the constables arrived, both woman and monster were naturally long gone."
"Was she a monster-broodmother who escaped from Panlong City?" He Lingchuan mused. "Panlong City has been inspecting pregnant women strictly lately. Knowing there was no place left for her inside, she fled in advance."
Yet out in the freezing wilderness, a solitary pregnant woman had almost nowhere to go. She likely had to shelter in dilapidated shacks or abandoned huts.
Willow frowned. "From Xikou Village to the mine where we're headed is quite a distance. Could a pregnant woman survive that journey?"
"Maybe she could," Door Plank rumbled gruffly. "What's in her belly isn't human. Who knows what devilish tricks she might pull?"
Willow merely grunted.
Chifeng lay thirty li northwest of Panlong City—not a great distance. It was one of the most vital mines in the northwest, producing iron and copper of steady, superior quality. After years of development, a small settlement called Chifeng Town had formed at the foot of the mountain, home to a population of over a thousand.
Living off the mountain, the townsfolk were mostly miners, blacksmiths, officials, and their dependents. The excavated ore was smelted and cast right on the spot to save time and labor, then inspected and purchased by officials before being transported to the city.
Perpetually at war, Panlong City placed immense value on ironware. The moment word arrived of a mine collapse, men were dispatched at once.
The further northwest they rode, the sparser the trees grew and the rockier the terrain became, laying bare the undulating contours of the hill country. Some of the steeper peaks could not even hold the snow, exposing their dark, craggy bedrock.
Yet wildlife was abundant here. A large herd of wild deer pawed at the snow to eat lichens; seeing the riders gallop past, they did not panic in the least, remaining where they stood and chewing contentedly.
When He Lingchuan and his group reached Chifeng Town, they saw that the road leading up to the mine was indeed blocked, right near the entrance. To accommodate ore transport, the mountain road had been widened and graded for carts and carriages, but now snow cascading from the heights had brought down massive boulders of weathered rock onto the thoroughfare, choking it solid.
Clearing efforts, however, were already underway in full swing. He Lingchuan spotted two giant ice-rock golems digging through the fallen rocks and snow. Standing over two zhang tall, they were even more imposing than his gold-armored bronze automaton. Their bodies were forged of solid ice and rock, with palms broader than doors that made perfect shovels. Lacking lower limbs, they rolled on four or five huge ice wheels, making it far easier to haul heavy loads.
The cultivator who had summoned these two creatures had to be nearby; the longer they were maintained, the more spiritual power they consumed.
The reason manual labor was not used was twofold: first, the giant ice-rock golems possessed far greater strength and efficiency; second, rocks continued to tumble from the mountain now and then. The larger ones were wider than a dining table, while even the smaller ones were bigger than coconuts—if a laborer were struck, his skull would split like a melon.
Aside from the ordinary mules and horses hauling rock and ice, He Lingchuan was surprised to see more than a dozen massive shaggy bison. Curved horns topped their heads, and their shaggy coats hung down over their eyes.
These hulking beasts were immensely stout and looked anything but good-tempered, yet they docilely wore harnesses to haul rubble for humans, snorting puffs of white steam whenever they exerted themselves.
A single bison could drag a cart piled high with waste rock. With their help, the clearing went much faster.
While everyone marveled at the scene, Willow pointed up at a ridge. "Look, the mountain spirit!"
While all the creatures below toiled away, a giant sandy-yellow leopard crouched atop a jutting crag overlooking the mountain road.
It was larger than any ordinary male lion, lounging languidly as it bowed its head to groom the pads of its front paws.
Each paw was as big as a palm-leaf fan.
He Lingchuan marveled in surprise. "That's Chifeng's local mountain spirit?" It looked awfully familiar. Hadn't the beast that knocked his original self off the cliff also been a sand leopard, which incidentally set off his fateful connection to the divine bone necklace?
Wait a second—wasn't Zhong Shengguang's spirit pet a sand leopard as well?
"That's Commander Zhong's companion," Willow said, a note of reverent respect in her voice. "Legend has it that in his third year on the Panlong Wasteland, Commander Zhong subdued this sand leopard chieftain. It fought alongside Commander Zhong in battle and was later directly appointed the mountain spirit of the northwest."
When a man attains the Dao, even his dogs and chickens ascend to heaven—to say nothing of a leopard demon that already possessed genuine might.
With the mountain spirit presiding in person, it was no wonder the shaggy bison below were as docile as lambs, falling just short of letting humans pierce their noses with rings.
He Lingchuan could not help sighing in thought. The ancestors of that little leopard demon had been a mountain spirit holding an imperial appointment; how on earth had their descendants degenerated into a den of mountain bandits?
Each generation was worse than the last.
Unaware that He Lingchuan was secretly gossiping about it, the leopard spirit stretched on the boulder, then let out a roar toward a bison that was slacking off.
The rasping, saw-like bellow startled the bison into immediately ducking its head back to work.
He Lingchuan had watched for only a few breaths when a cheer rose from the mountain road: the first blockage had been cleared.
Someone in the town was waving at them, so He Lingchuan and his squad urged their horses over.
This was the headman responsible for managing Chifeng Town—a lean, dark-skinned man with prominent cheekbones and a face naturally etched in misery.
He said to He Lingchuan, "Three teams in total, right?"
He Lingchuan glanced into the town and indeed saw other patrolmen. Ever since defeating Meng Shan, He Lingchuan had made a name for himself among the warriors; most of the patrolmen recognized him and were currently nodding in greeting.
Door Plank answered for him, "That's right."
"Then everyone's here." Headman Hu beckoned the other patrolmen over and led them into the town temple. This temple was dedicated to Goddess Mitian, and its rear hall was spacious enough that over twenty people did not feel cramped inside. "My humble surname is Hu, and I oversee matters both large and small in Chifeng Town. By orders from above, I'm here to brief you all on the situation.
"Our mine here isn't buried very deep and is close to the main thoroughfare, so we can mine it even in winter. Further in, there are several rich deposits, but heavy winter snow locks down the mountains and keeps us from entering." This was one of the reasons the Chifeng mine was prized by Panlong City. "It snowed heavily over the past three days, but the road up to the mine was fine until yesterday, when an avalanche suddenly hit. The slide was massive—it choked at least two or three li of the mountain road, making clearing it a monumental task."
Headman Hu continued, "The trouble is, the mine shafts never stopped working. People were inside the whole time. According to the laborers who managed to escape, it seems some kind of monster slipped into the tunnels—and it eats people."
"Eats people?" Several squad leaders exchanged glances. "What does it look like?"
"No idea. It's pitch-black in the tunnels and the thing moves lightning fast, so they couldn't see it clearly at all. Sometimes they'd hear a companion shriek, but when they rushed over, the person was already gone."
He Lingchuan asked, "Could it be a demon or wild beast?"
"With the spirit leopard mountain spirit presiding, local demonic beasts dare not attack humans, and even ordinary beasts give people a wide berth," Headman Hu replied. "The mountain spirit asked its subordinates, and all of them said they haven't eaten anyone.
"Oh, and before the avalanche, some townsfolk heard strange noises, like a baby wailing. At first, folks thought it was wildcats in the woods in heat, but the more they heard it, the weirder it sounded." Headman Hu swallowed hard. "Actually, over the past fortnight, two people have gone missing from town. Well, three originally, but one had just wandered too far gathering firewood, got trapped by the blizzard, and took two days to get back..."
Another squad leader, Xu Chun, interrupted him. "Are those two missing or dead?"
"One went out for supplies eleven days ago and never came back. The other, surnamed Ding, lived right here in our town. When folks got up the next morning, his front door was standing wide open, and he was gone."
"Any bloodstains?"
"No blood, and no signs of struggle or fighting," Headman Hu said. "The footprints led out from his house, heading west for forty or fifty feet before vanishing completely. The snow was thick, so the tracks were plain as day."
In other words, forty or fifty feet outside his door, Old Ding had vanished into thin air?
He Lingchuan considered that the town was tucked in a valley with little space to spare, so the dwellings stood pressed tightly against one another. Their soundproofing was probably only a tiny bit better than his wood-grade house in Panlong City. If the missing man had been attacked, the neighbors should at least have heard a scream.
Could he have been attacked in his sleep, completely stripped of any power to resist?
Willow stood up. "Which house does the man who vanished from town live in?"
Headman Hu pointed it out to her.
Willow turned to the others and said, "I'll be right back."
As she went to scout, Headman Hu said with a bitter smile, "Ever since Old Ding disappeared, the townsfolk have been terrified, unable to sleep soundly at night. And now with this business in the mine... Please, patrolmen, you must slay the monster. Otherwise, there's no way we can meet the iron-casting quotas handed down from the city."
Every month, the Chifeng mine was required to turn over a fixed quota of iron goods.
Just as Xu Chun was about to speak, an old woman carrying in hot water chimed in, "Headman, why haven't you told the patrolmen about that woman? She arrived half a month ago too—the timing matches perfectly!"
Headman Hu glared at her. "What nonsense are you babbling? Don't make a mess of things here!"
How could the patrolmen overlook any clue? "What woman?"
"Don't mind this gossiping old woman, officers. Seventeen or eighteen days ago, a woman came to town claiming she was here to stay with relatives. But those relatives had passed away long ago. Seeing her big belly and taking pity on her, we spared an empty room for her to stay in."
Heavily pregnant? The patrolmen exchanged wary glances, their vigilance piqued. Hadn't Panlong City been investigating pregnant women recently? The timeline indeed matched.
He Lingchuan suddenly asked, "Did she look to be in her fifties, skinny, and short?"
"She was a bit short and thin, but surely not fifty?" Headman Hu blinked, caught off guard. "Around thirty or so."
The old woman carrying water piped up out of nowhere, "She had fair skin, too."
He Lingchuan was surprised.
He had thought it might be the old crone he had encountered before.
Xu Chun pressed on, "Where is she now?"
"She left a few days ago." Headman Hu shook his head. "She claimed she was five or six months along, but to our eyes, she was at least nine months—frighteningly huge. How could she stay with us for long?"
Chapter 306