He had temporarily parted ways with the Shimen caravan and Li Qingge in Tai'an City. Those two groups continued northward, while He Lingchuan followed clues, leaving the party and making his way to Shuangyi City.
Before departure, Li Qingge had actually slipped him a formula.
It was an upgrade formula for the golden-armored bronze guards, somewhat different from what He Lingchuan had obtained in Panlong City.
Songyang Mansion was most skilled in metalcasting.
Evidently, after hearing about the transaction between He Lingchuan and Fu Shanyue, she had understood immediately what he needed.
That woman was truly remarkable.
Now that He Lingchuan had taken Fu Shanyue's reward, he had to search for the whereabouts of the messenger from Lingxu City on his behalf—and the clues obtained in Tai'an City pointed right here.
Right at that moment, the clanging of bells echoed from ahead.
The sound seemed possessed of a strange allure; every resident who heard it dropped their tasks and rushed toward the noise.
He Lingchuan even saw several shopkeepers leave their storefronts unattended, craning their necks as they broke into a trot.
"What's the excitement ahead?" The scene felt strangely familiar.
Jiao Yu the tiger demon had long grown used to such sounds. Licking his lips, he said, "Executing a criminal, of course."
Right. He Lingchuan remembered at once—when he first entered the territory of the Jeweled Tree Kingdom, he had witnessed an execution scene just like this, where young and old alike scrambled for the best vantage point in the front row, and the town was as bustling as New Year's.
It seemed this place was no different.
He Lingchuan strolled along with the flow of people and saw a high platform erected at the entrance of the vegetable market. A crowd already packed the ground below, while atop the platform, two bailiffs held a prisoner awaiting execution as a third read out the indictment.
Though he arrived late, a fierce tiger followed closely at his side, so the surrounding townsfolk—demons and humans alike—automatically stepped back more than a zhang away, none daring to draw near.
The bailiffs on the platform saw them too, watching them closely for a few moments, but refrained from speaking out.
As He Lingchuan listened, the charges were staggering:
Illicitly harvesting government medicinal fields and murdering the demons guarding them?
The prisoner on the platform had a face full of pockmarks, a sharp mouth, sunken cheeks, and shifty eyes. He looked like an idle vagrant whose boldest deed would be catcalling young women along the roadside.
Someone like him dared to kill the government's demons?
Could it really be that appearances were deceiving?
He Lingchuan stepped to the side and asked an old man who was craning his neck with hands behind his back to watch the excitement, "Old sir, is this prisoner from your town?"
"Nope."
Just as He Lingchuan thought the trail had gone cold, the old man continued, "That's a loman from Baiyang Township, surnamed Wang. Everyone calls him Wang Mazi."
"A loman?"
"Oh, that's local slang around here for a rogue, a ne'er-do-well." The old man coughed and spat on the ground. "The punk has grown quite the nerve, daring to harvest official fields and kill demons from Master Ling's household?"
Master Ling? "What did he use to do?"
"Petty thievery, nothing but worthless nonsense." The old man chuckled. "He's well into his thirties, and I hear he couldn't even manage to take a wife."
Just then, the bailiff on the platform finished reading the charges and pronounced the sentence:
Chisel execution.
In the demon kingdom, illicit harvesting of official fields or mines and stealing military rations were all capital crimes. Local officials did not need to submit reports for approval tier by tier; they could handle such matters themselves. Superiors would only send someone down after six months or a year to review the case files.
Hearing this, Wang Mazi's legs gave out, and he cried out,
"I've been wronged! I'm innocent!"
Yet what good did it do? He was quickly tied to the pillar at the center of the platform.
Flapping wings echoed above the vegetable market entrance. He Lingchuan looked up to find over a hundred crows circling in the air.
Just then, a deep, resonant voice rang out from below the platform:
"Seven or eight of my clansmen have vanished without explanation, and the county magistrate's office grabs a scumbag like this to take the blame, thinking they can brush us off?"
Looking toward the sound, He Lingchuan saw five or six giant sheep parting the crowd and stepping forward.
These were no tender young goats raised on a hillside farm. They were massive beasts the size of tall horses, their coats entirely cyan save for a single black arc running along their flanks. The leading ram stood well over a zhang tall, well-proportioned lines of muscle visible beneath its hide.
One look was enough for He Lingchuan to tell that these creatures likely excelled in agility and speed, which meant their offensive weapons were the long, spiral horns atop their heads. These great horns curved forward, their tips sharp as daggers with a small prong halfway up, clearly meant for tearing open enemies to bleed them out.
It was the first time He Lingchuan had seen sheep with such a ferocious appearance. Anyone gored by such a monster would be cursed with eight lifetimes of rotten luck.
According to Tales of the Middle Ancient Era, this demon was known as the "wind-boring beast," adept at committing crimes into the wind—no, killing into the wind. Its innate talent was "Windstriding," which allowed it to summon wind to boost its speed and lighten its own weight.
Like the bo beast, these creatures could eat meat.
He Lingchuan remembered the book mentioning that wind-boring beasts had terrible tempers, and even apex predators frequently died under their horns. Looking closer, the leading giant ram stepped forward a few paces, tilted its head, and slammed its horn into the platform, nearly snapping the support pillar.
The bailiffs and the prisoner on the platform cried out in terror together.
Instead of getting angry, the bailiffs immediately put on appeasing smiles. "Why be so upset, Master Ling? The county never said this case was closed."
"Not closed?" the giant ram rumbled. "Is that your word, or the county magistrate's?"
Not daring to shoulder the blame, the bailiff could only reply, "Once this one is executed according to the law, if further evidence is found, we will continue investigating!"
The giant ram glared. "And if you don't find any, you just drop it?"
"No, no, we will certainly pursue it to the very end!"
Such perfunctory words were intolerable even to He Lingchuan, let alone a wind-boring beast. "The government's mouth is a deceitful ghost! I've tolerated you for days. Hand him over right now, and I'll take him back to interrogate and track down the culprit myself!"
"Ah... this?" The bailiff was shocked. "Master Ling, you're snatching a condemned prisoner! That is a grave crime!"
The wind-boring beast delivered another headbutt against the pillar, clearly entering an "I'm not listening, I'm not listening" mode.
With a loud crash, the platform collapsed, kicking up plumes of dust.
The surrounding crowd and other demons scattered in all directions, none willing to cross these giant sheep.
The bailiffs and the prisoner rolled down like tumbling gourds.
Standing farther away, He Lingchuan asked the old man beside him in a low voice, "Do wind-boring beasts live here too?"
"That massive swath of territory at the eastern end of the county belongs to their family," the old man said, thoroughly familiar with the situation. "Master Ling serves as a general in the imperial court. When there's no war, he returns home to recuperate. The wind-boring beast clan holds immense sway around here—"
He lowered his voice. "They're the local tyrants; even the local government fears them. Even the county's largest and most valuable medicinal field has been entrusted to them to manage and guard."
Just as the bailiff scrambled to his feet, coughing incessantly, another wind-boring beast lowered its head and lunged straight at the prisoner.
Yet it did not gore the prisoner to death. Instead, it clamped its jaws onto the ropes binding his hands and yanked him over.
With their prey snatched away, the crows cawed loudly in protest.
Only then did people realize that the crows had circled in the sky repeatedly without landing because atop a rooftop beside the platform perched a goshawk with a black head and grey back.
Seizing this chance, the prisoner yelled, "I'm really innocent! Those spirit beasts disappeared on their own; it had nothing to do with me! I'm crippled from a fall—how could I possibly kill them?!"
As he tried to walk, he limped noticeably; indeed, his legs were impaired.
He Lingchuan had long learned not to meddle in others' business, but hearing the word "disappeared" stirred something in his mind.
He stepped forward and called out in a raised voice, "How did they disappear?"
Wang Mazi had feared everyone would remain numbly indifferent, leaving him to play a one-man tragedy until his death. Now that someone had actually responded, he grew as excited as a drowning man catching a life-saving straw: "There was light on the mountainside! They chased after it and vanished! There must be an even more powerful demon up there!"
The wind-boring beasts were in no mood to indulge his excuses and moved to drag him away.
At that moment, two crows could no longer contain their cravings. They swooped down, extending their beaks to peck at Wang Mazi's face.
They had originally intended to pluck out his eyeballs, but unfortunately Wang Mazi thrashed from side to side and refused to cooperate, so they only managed to chisel two bloody holes into his face.
Only now did He Lingchuan understand what "chisel execution" actually meant.
There were still a hundred crows in the air above. If all of them descended, Wang Mazi truly would be chiseled to death alive.
The penal system of the demon kingdom was indeed creative; suffering this torment was hardly any different from death by a thousand cuts.
He pursed his lips and blew a whistle. The goshawk atop the nearby roof abruptly abandoned its leisurely spectator stance, spreading its wings and swooping down at an angle.
As it swept past the platform, it frightened the two crows into taking flight back toward the sky.
Then, the goshawk came to rest on the great horns of He Lingchuan's mount—the rock sheep.
Having regained their wits, the bailiffs brushed off the dust from their bodies and rushed over, shouting, "Master Ling, don't do something foolish! Release the prisoner!"
General Ling ignored them entirely, having his subordinates drag Wang Mazi as they turned to leave. Behind him, several wind-boring beasts turned toward the bailiffs, lowering their heads and pawing the dirt in preparation to charge.
How could the bailiffs dare advance?
Right at that moment, a tiger's roar resounded from behind the crowd!
The soul-shaking roar instantly subdued the chaotic scene.
The old man beside He Lingchuan clutched his chest, nearly knocked to the ground by the vibration.
Then, the fierce tiger leaped forward, took two strides, and spoke in human tongue: "I am the Household General of Baishan, handling a case by order! Who dares to make a move?"
As this striped tiger suddenly drew near, the bailiff was frightened back two steps by its ferocious aura before noticing a bronze medallion tied around its neck, which was emitting the distinctive glow of origin power.
Seeing the inscription on the medallion clearly, the bailiff was first startled, then overjoyed. "Lord Baishan, you've arrived at just the right time! Here—"
"Step back."
"Right away, sir." The bailiff clamped his mouth shut at once and happily retreated.
When the sky falls, let the tall ones hold it up—how wonderful! It was about time someone put those arrogant wind-boring beasts in their place.
However, he was bound for disappointment.
The seemingly hot-tempered leader of the wind-boring beasts did not lash out. Instead, he spoke leisurely, "Lord Jiao, long time no see."
Eh? The onlookers were instantly disappointed:
These two knew each other?
Jiao Yu nodded to the giant ram. "General Ling, your military orders should have arrived. Why haven't you set out yet?"
"The juniors of my clan vanished for no reason—how could I just ignore that?" Master Ling glanced at the bailiff and spat on the ground. "With me right here, these dregs still dare shirk responsibility and drag their feet. Once I accept orders and march out, won't this case just fall through the cracks?"
He then asked Jiao Yu, "You didn't come to investigate my clansmen's disappearance, did you?"
Though bad-tempered, he possessed self-awareness. How could the disappearance of seven or eight wind-boring beasts ever draw the attention of the Eldest Young Master's subordinates?
"No, but there might be a connection."
Master Ling was thrilled. "Good, good! A connection is all that matters! Investigate it thoroughly for me!"
Jiao Yu stepped back to He Lingchuan's side. "This special envoy of the Crown Prince is the one truly in charge. I am merely accompanying him under orders."
Chapter 444