Everyone was taken aback.
His squadmates already had considerable trust in his judgment. Door Plank asked in surprise, "Why?"
Hu Min hurriedly chimed in, "Hold on, hold on! Bets down first, explanations after!"
Following He Lingchuan, he placed one liang of silver. A'luo thought it over and also put his money on "retreating west."
Door Plank fished out some silver, glancing this way and that. Hesitantly, he said, "Then I... I'll bet on..."
He wanted to bet on west as well, but his lips had barely pursed into the shape of "West" when he saw Willow's slender brows slant upright and her eyes narrow into slits.
He immediately switched tack: "I bet on advancing east!"
"What about Old Yu?" Beast tamer Old Yu was also in their squad.
Old Yu scratched his head. "I don't gamble."
Everyone scoffed, finding him a total buzzkill.
Once Hu Min had organized the silver, He Lingchuan cleared his throat:
"Jintao in the east is already prepared. I've heard the caliber of its troops is considerably higher than Xiji's, and the terrain is heavily mountainous. With favorable terrain and united people, this battle won't be easy."
Willow shook her head. "No matter how tough the battles were, haven't we fought our way through them all?"
"Furthermore, we lack a justified cause," He Lingchuan analyzed. "General Red led us with unstoppable momentum, but wasn't the spark for that the belief that the capital had summoned us home? Now the ruler has made it crystal clear: we are forbidden to return. Pushing east under these circumstances means defying a royal decree, and morale won't be as soaring as before.
"'Marching without cause brings not only defeat, but peril to oneself,'" he sighed. "Which brings me to my third point: Xiji's past provocations against us were all orchestrated by Baling. Now that we've wiped out Xiji, there's no guarantee Baling will stay idle. If we stall against Jintao while Panlong City comes under attack by Baling, we will be fighting on two fronts. That would be exceedingly dangerous."
Hearing this, the squad members all felt deeply aggrieved and unreconciled.
There was one more point He Lingchuan had left unsaid:
If Zhong Shengguang were to lead over a million people back to their homeland, such a massive population would inevitably deliver a catastrophic shock to present-day Xiluo.
So many people would need land to settle, food to eat, beds to sleep in, and trade to conduct, wouldn't they?
It was enough to form a kingdom within a kingdom.
Therefore, upon returning, Zhong Shengguang would at the very least have to carve out territory as a vassal lord. Having no land of his own within the borders, he could only seize it from others.
That would be the inception of a brand-new cycle of turmoil. Wasn't Xiluo chaotic enough already? Would they dare let Zhong Shengguang return to make matters worse?
His return to Xiluo would not be bringing charcoal in the snow; it would be piling frost onto the snow.
It would be strange if the ruler actually allowed them to return!
***
Early the next morning, Mount Yulun.
The straight-line distance from here to Youtian Town was only twelve li, but winding mountain paths intervened with eighteen hairpin turns; traversing it took well over an hour.
The County Magistrate of Baishi had sent a local villager to guide the way, nicknamed Zhao Dazui. He had hunted in Mount Yulun for the past twenty years and was even the person who discovered the incident last year.
Mount Yulun comprised over a dozen peaks. The further they went into the mountains, the richer He Lingchuan felt the spiritual energy become. Not only did breathing feel extraordinarily refreshing, but even walking seemed to stir the circulation of true power within him.
Cultivating here would be far more efficient than elsewhere. In this day and age, could this not already be called a blessed sanctuary?
No wonder the porcupine demons had refused to budge.
Not only was the flora lusher and taller than elsewhere, but exotic flowers and rare herbs were abundant.
He Lingchuan even saw a shadow flicker across a cliff face, resembling a human figure.
Yet that was a fully formed ginseng child.
As they walked, He Lingchuan asked Zhao Dazui, "Now that the porcupines' whole nest has been wiped out, which demons have taken over this territory?"
Zhao Dazui chuckled. "A land this good naturally belongs to the county now."
He Lingchuan was surprised. "Just confiscated?"
"Their ancestors performed meritorious deeds, which was why Mount Yulun was granted to them as a fief. Now that they've all been wiped out with no offspring left behind, Mount Yulun became ownerless land, so it was only natural for it to become county property," Zhao Dazui said. "The county sealed off the area as a treasury of wild medicinal herbs, forbidding demons and villagers from entering or harvesting without permission."
Cultivated herbs were never as good as wild ones—everyone understood that truth.
General Ling sighed. "It seems these porcupines had nothing beyond the meager merit accumulated by their ancestors, possessing neither connections nor backing in the township. No wonder no one cared after their deaths."
Everyone fell silent. The words sounded harsh, but the logic held true.
Because General Ling was involved, the disappearance of the wind-boring beast was a major case that the local authorities could not brush off without an explanation. Yet when over a hundred porcupines died in Zhitian Township, the county merely conducted a perfunctory examination and sealed the burrow to close the matter.
Connections, background, backing—it seemed these things were not exclusive to human kingdoms.
Along the way, He Lingchuan also saw the water source for Zhitian Township.
They were two long rivers like jade ribbons, winding through the porcupine clan's territory first before flowing down into the fertile soil of Zhitian Township. The water was exceptionally clear, and the channels had been widened, spanning at least five zhang across.
There was even a vast lake. He Lingchuan pointed at the embankment and asked Zhao Dazui, "Was this built last year?"
"Ah, yes. It was finished just this spring," Zhao Dazui replied honestly. "The township had long wanted to build two reservoirs to store water so there'd be no shortage in winter. But the porcupines fiercely opposed it, saying it took up too much of their land and felled too many trees. The matter was deadlocked for years, but now it's finally settled."
"That's not solving the problem," He Lingchuan said. That was solving the one who raised the problem... or pig. "Two lakes? Where's the other one?"
"Seven or eight li to the east. They're still digging it, so it's not in use yet," Zhao Dazui said. "I passed by twice, and people have been working there non-stop. Supposedly, it won't be ready to store water until next year."
Soon, Zhao Dazui led them to the porcupine nest.
No visitors had been here for a long time. Weeds choked the crevices in the ground, and saplings three feet tall had even sprouted up.
Yet this did not prevent He Lingchuan from taking in the terrain.
There were originally several ground fissures—or rather, a honeycomb of caverns arranged in three dimensions across multiple tiers, seemingly eroded by ancient waterways or glaciers.
Accommodating over a hundred porcupines would have been more than ample.
Now, however, the honeycomb caves were completely collapsed under more than a hundred massive boulders, the largest of which stood over three zhang high.
Regardless of one's cultivation level, being struck by such a thing falling from the sky left no chance of survival, did it?
He Lingchuan looked up to see sheer rock walls rising like cleaved stone above.
"Could snow even accumulate on a cliff face like that in winter?" He recalled that county records attributed the incident to an avalanche.
"If it wasn't an avalanche, it was a rockfall—what's the difference?" Zhao Dazui was not one for meticulous inquiry. "Either way, getting crushed means death."
"Why did you report it as an avalanche back then?"
"Uh..." Zhao Dazui scratched his head. "There seemed to be quite a few avalanches last winter, and people were killed in two towns. The scene looked pretty much like this—snow and falling rocks mixed together."
Turns out the fellow had just guessed.
He dared to guess, and the county dared to file it as such. He Lingchuan was caught between laughter and tears.
He said to Jiao Yu, "Let's go in and take a look."
Zhao Dazui let out an "Ah?" and asked, "We still have to go down?" His legs refused to cooperate. How long had it been since that happened? "The entrances are all sealed."
He Lingchuan simply flashed half an ingot of broken silver.
Zhao Dazui immediately said, "Allow me to lead the way!"
He led He Lingchuan and the others inside through a side cave entrance.
When the county discovered the entire nest of porcupines had been crushed to death, they had not dug them out. They merely blocked off several entrances and exits, counting that as their burial.
Though corners were cut, there was nothing improper about it.
Only living humans were particular about being buried in the ground to rest in peace.
He Lingchuan took out a sledgehammer and shattered the entrance open with a few resounding thuds.
Through this, one could see the water-eroded tunnels had originally extended in all directions—wide enough for two or three people to walk abreast at their broadest, yet too narrow to squeeze in a watermelon at their tightest.
However, the tunnels had suffered cave-ins everywhere under the falling boulders, turning many into dead ends.
Zhao Dazui led them crawling into a rocky hollow and pointed ahead: "Right here! Back then, they were piled up right here, just like a small hill."
In this place, a human could not stand straight at all.
He Lingchuan could only advance with a hunched back.
As for the wind-boring beasts, they had shrunk back to the size of ordinary mountain goats, able to move in and out as freely as the tiger.
The stone hollow was spacious, but packing over a hundred porcupine demon corpses into it made it cramped. The tiger Jiao Yu took one look and said, "Wang Mazi was right. The way they were piled on top of each other was far too bizarre."
These were porcupines! Even if they shared the closest bond, it was out of the question for them to huddle together like that.
That wasn't intimacy; that was mutual injury.
He Lingchuan asked Zhao Dazui, "Did many people come down here?"
"Not many." Pinching his nose, Zhao Dazui racked his brain to recall. "Just me, the county coroner, and a few laborers." For such foul and filthy work, few people were willing to come down.
Thus, the scene was preserved rather intact.
Though the boulders had cracked open ground fissures, the stench here was still overwhelming. Zhao Dazui dry-heaved a few times and couldn't help begging, "My lord, when can we go back up?"
"Wait a little longer." Jiao Yu was inspecting the bones while He Lingchuan surveyed the perimeter of the hollow. Scattered everywhere were porcupine quills, each ringed in black and white and needle-sharp.
The quills had barbs and venom; anyone pierced by them would suffer miserably.
A few quills were even lodged deep into the stone wall.
Even He Lingchuan had to exert considerable effort to pull them free, showing just how great the force had been when they were driven in.
He asked Jiao Yu, "How do porcupine demons attack?"
"Them?" Jiao Yu thought for a moment. "A rapid backward dash, or simply firing venomous quills."
"How many can they shoot at once?"
"Dozens," Jiao Yu said. "All at the same time."
"Impressive." He had once thought about forging Torrential Pear Blossom Needles, but it turned out porcupines came with them naturally.
"These fellows wouldn't just shoot them inside their own nest for fun, would they?" Not to mention damaging the plants, shooting their fellow clan members wouldn't be good either.
Jiao Yu walked over, inspected the area, and sniffed. "An enemy entered their nest. The way these porcupines died is the same as the wind-boring beasts."
General Ling also said indignantly, "After slaughtering the porcupines, the culprit threw them back into the underground burrow, not even bothering to cover up the clues. Those bastards in Zhitian Township are utterly incompetent—they couldn't even see something so obvious!"
He Lingchuan looked thoughtful.
The subterranean space was dim, but fortunately, several bundles of fluorescent grass illuminated the surroundings in sharp detail.
He Lingchuan pointed at the rock wall studded with quills and asked, "This red isn't blood, is it?"
Patches of red stained the cliff face, but they did not look like bloodstains.
Chapter 453