Wang Mazi still couldn't wrap his head around it. "I know this ground like the back of my hand. I've walked it thirty times if not fifty. I just don't know what came over me that night, like some devil possessed me to wander over here."
He pointed eastward and said, "Wudou Town is over there, and I was heading back to Shuangyi Town. There was simply no way I should have ended up by the herb fields."
Wudou Town and Shuangyi Town were not far apart; detouring toward the herb fields more than doubled the journey.
Even on a rainy night, could a local peasant walking a familiar route home truly stray that far off course?
Soon, the party arrived at Mount Niutou.
"That night, was this where you entered the mountain?" Standing at the entrance, He Lingchuan understood immediately why Wang Mazi had gotten hurt. Valleys like this were also called Rolling Stone Valleys, strewn everywhere with rounded river cobbles large and small. Anyone treading on them would slip with the slightest misstep.
"Aye, this is where I slipped." The carriage could not enter the mountain, so Wang Mazi gestured from atop the rock sheep. "When the wind-boring beasts came, I rolled right into those bushes over there."
"Where were the lanterns?"
"F-further ahead."
Following Wang Mazi's directions, the rock sheep bounded higher and higher among the loose rocks.
Along the way, He Lingchuan spotted a small torn strip of cloth caught in a rock crevice, unable to tell who had snagged it there, while the tiger found a few tufts of fur on a tree branch—distinctly non-human.
General Ling leaned in to sniff it and said sorrowfully, "My boys!"
"They definitely went upward."
Finally, the rock sheep stopped halfway up the mountain slope. Wang Mazi said, "It was roughly here."
He Lingchuan followed up and took a look, his brow furrowing.
Where the rock sheep halted was merely a tiny mountain hollow open to the sky, barely able to hold four or five people at most. Once the tiger leaped up as well, it became cramped, leaving hardly any room to turn around.
As for General Ling, he suddenly displayed an unusual knack:
He took a deep breath, and his body shrank at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Only when he had reduced to the size of an ordinary goat did he give a light leap and land in the hollow.
"..." Wind-boring beasts had a trick like this up their sleeve? He Lingchuan was speechless. Why hadn't he used it earlier at the yamen instead of smashing their windows to pieces?
"There shouldn't be anything higher up. Stranded between the heights and the ground below, the light had to have shone right here on the mountainside."
He Lingchuan looked up. The rock face directly overhead was very smooth, not looking like a place where a person could gain a foothold.
"But you had thirteen companions, and seven or eight wind-boring beasts chasing them. How could a place this small possibly hold them all?"
Wang Mazi gave a bitter smile. "That's what the bailiffs said too. But I really wasn't lying, Master He! I truly saw light right here!"
This valley wasn't deep, and the bailiffs had already searched it without finding a single trace.
Jiao Yu the tiger suddenly drew close to the rock wall and sniffed. "Smells a bit fishy."
He Lingchuan reached out and scraped at the rock wall, brushing aside grass leaves, and noticed a faint glint of reflection on the protruding rock face.
"Traces of dried slime."
Wang Mazi took a look as well. "Could be slugs crawling past."
There were countless small mollusks in the mountain woods; wherever they passed, they left slimy trails behind.
Apart from this, the area was clean—there was nothing else.
The rock sheep let out a couple of uneasy snorts. He Lingchuan stroked it soothingly. "I know. I remember."
Not long after he had entered the Chiyan Kingdom, someone had tried to steal the rock sheep in the dead of night and even attempted to push Taozi off the cliff. Of the two sheep thieves, one died and one escaped. The one who fled leaped down the cliff and vanished, but traces of dried slime just like this had been left at the base of the cliff.
It seemed whatever was beneath the cliff that night had also appeared here a dozen days ago, taking away over a dozen peasants and seven or eight wind-boring beasts.
A close call. If Taozi hadn't happened to disrupt the sheep thieves' plot, his rock sheep would have vanished in the same way.
"Good, very good. An official matter has turned into a personal grievance." So the other party had crossed him long before this! "I will get to the bottom of this."
Official duties and personal scores would be settled together.
General Ling asked curiously, "How did it become your personal grievance?"
"Just after I entered Chiyan's borders, my rock sheep was nearly stolen. It appears there is a link to the culprit here."
General Ling looked him up and down, then realized. "I kept feeling something was off. Where are you from?"
"I am from Fu Kingdom."
"Such a tiny place?" General Ling couldn't understand. "Why didn't the Eldest Young Master use a Chiyan local?"
The old fellow truly paid no mind to the occasion when asking questions. He Lingchuan glanced at him. "Perhaps he couldn't trust them?"
General Ling was instantly struck dumb.
After that, He Lingchuan investigated even more thoroughly.
There were no bloodstains, no severed limbs, not even a trace of any struggle or fight. He Lingchuan felt that the bailiffs pinning the crime on Wang Mazi wasn't entirely unreasonable. In most cases, the sole survivor bore the greatest suspicion.
Jiao Yu the tiger suddenly said, "Wouldn't it be clear if we summon the mountain spirit to ask?"
He Lingchuan snapped his fingers. "Makes sense. Summon him."
So the fierce tiger scratched firmly at the ground, faced southeast, and let out three long roars.
The tiger roared in the mountain woods; He Lingchuan felt the solid rock beneath his feet shudder. The mountain forest instantly fell silent—the wind ceased blowing, the trees stopped swaying, the birds stopped calling, and even the insects in the rock crevices went quiet.
He Lingchuan noticed the bronze medallion on Jiao Yu's neck glowing again, helping carry the tiger's roar further and wider than usual.
He held an official post; channeling origin power could likely summon the mountain spirit.
So everyone waited in silence.
Half an incense stick of time passed.
A quarter of an hour passed.
He Lingchuan stood up and brushed the bits of grass from his palms. "Looks like the mountain spirit has no intention of coming."
"Failing to answer a superior's summons—does this mountain spirit wish to be punished?" the goshawk spoke up from the side.
With Jiao Yu's booming voice, there was no way the mountain spirit hadn't heard.
"What kind of demon is the mountain spirit here?"
"A giant ground sloth," General Ling replied. "Including Mount Niutou and the official herb fields, a hundred qing of mountain forests are its territory."
He Lingchuan asked in wonder, "Aren't those things ridiculously slow? How can one be a mountain spirit?"
"You're thinking of a tree sloth," the goshawk corrected him. "A ground sloth is bigger than a bear, with two-foot claws. Though somewhat slow, its tough hide is impervious to blades and spears. I've heard the mountain spirit here has three hundred years of cultivation, and the locals have even erected a shrine to it."
Hearing this, Wang Mazi asked meekly, "Are you gentlemen speaking of the Wushuang mountain spirit?"
"Wu...?" A contraction of Wudou Town and Shuangyi Town? These people were truly lazy with naming; didn't the mountain spirit object? "Probably. What of it?"
"I heard from my cellmates that the memorial tablet enshrined in the Mountain Spirit Shrine snapped a few days ago."
"The Wushuang mountain spirit is dead?" He Lingchuan was startled.
He had experience with such things. Back when the old turtle demon of Xianling Lake was bitten to death by the Crocodile God, the shrine tablet in the Water Spirit Shrine had snapped as well.
These sheep thieves were quite arrogant, daring to kill even a mountain spirit.
Well, calling them sheep thieves wasn't quite fitting anymore.
Jiao Yu realized. "No wonder it wouldn't answer the summons."
"Does the town know about this?"
Wang Mazi scratched the back of his head. "I don't know."
General Ling said gruffly, "I haven't heard either. Those idiots in the government never do an honest day's work!" Eating the bread of idleness, incapable of digging up any useful information.
"If alive, show the person; if dead, show the corpse." He Lingchuan gazed into the valley. "Over twenty hefty living beings—how could they just vanish into thin air without leaving a single trace?"
Over the past few days, he had also browsed through the case dossiers left by Fu Shanji.
Truth be told, there wasn't much material. With the diligence he had honed in Panlong City, he had finished reading them in less than half an hour.
Fu Shanji had commanded far greater manpower than he ever could, and had ordered the northern commanderies and counties to compile statistics.
There were no direct leads on the missing courier case, but upon tallying the numbers, it became apparent that sporadic disappearances had occurred all across Chiyan.
Dushan County: two humans and three demons missing.
Baishanyuan: one demon missing.
Kuli: one young girl missing; three demons suspected missing, all from the same roost of bat demons.
And fourteen or fifteen other unlisted locations.
Yet beside some missing individuals, annotations like "armed brawl" or "found" were jotted down, evidently added later.
Tallying it up this way, at least ten humans and twenty-three or four demons had vanished, though because they were scattered across various regions of Chiyan, it had not drawn much attention.
Beijia's laws punished conflicts between demons and humans strictly, while infighting among demons had proven impossible to suppress despite repeated bans.
It was nature at work, impossible to suppress by force.
Beside the dossier, Fu Shanji had drawn a red circle and noted:
*Where demons go missing, humans do not necessarily go missing.*
The remark seemed to have neither head nor tail, but looking closely at the regional tallies, indeed, wherever demons went missing, humans did not necessarily disappear.
In other words, far more demons had vanished than humans.
Why had Fu Shanji compiled statistics on this from all over?
He Lingchuan hadn't quite understood initially, but hearing Wang Mazi's ordeal here and learning that the Wushuang mountain spirit's tablet had broken, how could he fail to grasp it now?
Including the courier from Lingxu City, what connection was there between all these missing individuals across Chiyan?
Regrettably, Fu Shanji was killed by his elder brother before finding the answer.
Wang Mazi echoed in agreement, "Aye, aye! All of them just vanished into thin air, and no one knows how!"
"All of them?" He Lingchuan's gaze narrowed slightly. "Were there other disappearances?"
Wang Mazi swallowed hard. "My lord, can you really save my life?"
"The more truthful information you provide, the higher the chance I catch the real culprit."
Wang Mazi dropped to his knees before him once more. "You were sent by the Crown Prince's Mansion. I beg you to spare me from death directly! I will work like an ox or horse for you!"
Though the tiger demon was ferocious and the goshawk majestic, there was no doubt that He Lingchuan was the one in charge.
General Ling kicked him onto his back with a hoof. "Bah! You take me for air, do you?"
Yet he had measured his force; Wang Mazi merely bumped his head painfully. Otherwise, with the general's strength, a casual kick could have killed him.
He Lingchuan remained unmoved. "That depends on your performance."
Wang Mazi wracked his brains. "There is one matter. I don't know if it counts as a disappearance, but it was truly bizarre."
He Lingchuan noticed Wang Mazi's expression clearly hesitated. "Let's hear it."
"Over a year ago, I heard that a strange thing happened in Zhitian Township, thirty li from here." Wang Mazi licked his lips. "Folks around here rarely leave home. If not for the many friends I associate with, probably no one would have ever heard of it."
Chapter 446