After the Immortal Disappeared

Shan Youjun added from the side, "I heard the Mian Kingdom has been around for nearly a century. Their Royal Family is useless at everything except breeding like rabbits. After a hundred years of their family tree branching out, there must be far more than just thirty or forty thousand of them."

"That’s just the royal relatives who died in and around the Capital City, plus their maternal relatives, servants, and so on."

’Fair enough,’ he thought. He’d forgotten that the rich and powerful tended to be more prolific than rats. "You really get around. This wasn’t even a Beiga Kingdom battle, but you had to be there in person?"

"It was a task assigned by the National Preceptor, one I had to carry out." The captive lowered his head. "A battle like last night’s, for example, was between you and the Xunzhou people. I was only sent over as an Envoy of the Beiga Kingdom to collect Nightmare Qi. However, the amount I gathered was pitifully small."

"Are you saying not enough people died?" Jiao Tai sneered, driving a fist into the man’s stomach. "You bastard!"

The captive doubled over, dry-heaving. Shan Youjun barked at his companion, "Stop messing around! The Master is questioning him!"

Hee Lingchuan, however, focused on the words "pitifully small":

"What do you mean, ’pitifully small’?"

"Nearly two hundred people died last night." The captive finally caught his breath. "Normally, I should have collected over a hundred wisps of red light—you saw them too—but there were very few, ten-odd at most. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have lingered here for so long!"

"Fewer than expected?" Hee Lingchuan’s eyes shifted slightly. "Has this ever happened before?"

The captive shook his head.

’In other words, is something here preventing the Punishing Dragon Staff from collecting Nightmare Qi?’

On the surface, at least, Xinhuang Town was just an ordinary, unremarkable town.

He changed the subject. "The Xunzhou people don’t know about your mission?"

The captive shook his head.

"But they let you accompany them." Nian Zanli had defected to the Beiga Kingdom, also known as the Northern Demon Kingdom, so he obviously had no reason to refuse an Envoy sent by them. "So, you know which general led the surprise attack on Bailu Town?"

"He was originally a Grand General of the Beiga Kingdom named Hong Chenglu, who won countless military honors. Some of the Nightmare Qi I’ve collected came from battles he instigated." The captive’s voice was hoarse, and he motioned for water again.

"Give him some."

After wetting his throat with some water, the captive continued, "Later, he avoided battle and went into seclusion. I heard nothing about him for a long time. I don’t know what’s up with him this time, but now he’s back leading the Xunzhou Rangers’ operations."

"He devised the entire plan for the ambush?"

"Yes. The Xunzhou Governor ordered all the Rangers here to obey his command."

"You know where all their previous hideouts were, don’t you?"

"I’ve been to them, but—but I’m not familiar with Xiazhou. Once we left, I couldn’t find my way back," the captive stammered. "I just know they had a base north of Bailu Town. I think it was a logging camp. That’s where I met Hong Chenglu."

"Did they discuss what to do if the ambush failed?" Any offensive plan should include a contingency for failure.

The captive shook his head repeatedly. "I don’t know. They didn’t let me in on their operational planning."

"One more thing. Why is the Demon Puppet Master, Dong Rui, working with the Xunzhou Rangers?" Hee Lingchuan asked, confused. "Isn’t he a wanted fugitive in the Beiga Kingdom?"

"Uh, I heard he was offered a special pardon if he participated in our operation."

Hee Lingchuan raised an eyebrow. "Oh? He committed a serious crime. Can that really be pardoned?"

The captive mumbled awkwardly, "I don’t know the details."

"Does Chief Steward Hee know all this?"

Before the captive could answer, Shan Youjun spoke up, "The only ones who have heard the confession are the Master and the two of us."

Hee Lingchuan smiled slightly, knowing Shan Youjun was pledging his loyalty. "Good."

Next, he went to find Hee Chunhua and relayed the newly acquired intelligence.

When he heard that the Beiga Kingdom was sending people to collect "Nightmare Qi" to perform rites for the dead, Hee Chunhua sneered, "Are they trying to fool children? Who’d do that if there’s no profit in it?"

"My thoughts exactly." ’Like father, like son,’ he mused. "But it seems the people Beiga sends out actually believe it themselves."

"The most brilliant scams are the ones where you fool your own people, too," Hee Chunhua said scornfully. "Besides, after five hundred years of indoctrination, as long as they can say ’it’s tradition,’ the Beiga People themselves won’t question it, no matter how foolish it is."

He held up the short staff Hee Lingchuan had given him, examining it repeatedly and rubbing it several times. When his eldest son began to speak about Hong Chenglu, he smoothly tucked the staff into his robes, the motion perfectly natural.

Hee Lingchuan watched this with a subtle frown, but he didn’t seem to have a reason to object to his father taking the staff.

"Hong Chenglu? I have indeed heard that name." A thoughtful look appeared on Hee Chunhua’s face. "He’s skilled with troops and moves like the wind. Having an opponent like that is no blessing for Xiazhou. Mmm, it would be best if we could lure him out and eliminate him during this campaign. Otherwise, letting him cause trouble behind our northern front lines will be a major disaster."

He looked at Hee Lingchuan and said suddenly, "Chuan’Er, your subordinates Fuzzy Peach and Shan Youjun are both skilled at gathering intelligence. I want you to take a trip to Bailu Town for me. I need more information on Hong Chenglu."

The Xiazhou Army would be staying here until morning, so there was plenty of time. Hee Lingchuan agreed at once and went to assemble his men as soon as he left the tent.

Among his subordinates, Shan Youjun had been getting more of the spotlight recently, and Hee Lingchuan took him everywhere. Fuzzy Peach, an old hand, felt a bit slighted. Hearing that the Master was going to Bailu Town, he spoke up before assignments were even given: "Take me, take me! When it comes to dealing with common villagers, you still need me."

Hee Lingchuan smiled, adding Jiao Tai to round out his three pillars. There was no harm in bringing more men to gather intelligence in a strange place.

Lingguang also leaped onto a horse’s rump, sitting more steadily than a person. As for a terrifying beast like the Rock Wolf, it was left behind at the camp.

The group headed west.

...

Strangers had come to Bailu Town again, and the gazes from the townspeople were wary and distant.

Hee Lingchuan and his men had come from the east. Along the way, they found fallen bodies, most of them in Xiazhou Army uniforms. Some had been gnawed on by coyotes and other wild animals.

Upon entering Bailu Town, they found the temporary camp set up by the Xiazhou Army had been burned to cinders, with bodies strewn about haphazardly.

Wu Shaoyi had been chased off and hadn’t returned. The Xunzhou Soldiers certainly weren’t going to clean up after their enemies, so the bodies of the Xiazhou Army were still left out in the open. The arrival of Hee Lingchuan’s group startled away a great number of crows, as well as the skulking wild dogs in the woods.

The men searched the battlefield but found no survivors. Some of the corpses had clearly been finished off. Evidently, Hong Chenglu’s team had done a thorough job, leaving no one behind.

The methods he used here were similar to what Baili Qing had done in Xinhuang: first, blow up the leader, then crush the disorganized mob. Wu Shaoyi had already lost half the battle before he even had time to react.

As for the other half, with the current quality and standards of the Xiazhou Army, that too would have been hard to save.

According to the feedback Shan Youjun and the others gave Hee Lingchuan, more than half the dead had their fatal wounds on their backs. In other words, they were killed while turning to flee, unable to even mount a decent resistance.

The supplies, of course, had been burned to a crisp. However, Fuzzy Peach still found fresh footprints near the supply wagons. These tracks, pressed into the burned cinders, had clearly appeared after the battle was over.

Furthermore, they were civilian footprints.

This meant the people of Bailu Town had entered the battlefield, scavenged for anything edible or useful, and left.

Having failed to find any more useful intelligence on the battlefield, Hee Lingchuan entered the town.

Unexpectedly, aside from five or six houses near the temporary camp that were caught in the crossfire, Bailu Town hadn’t suffered much damage. The town’s flatbread shop had opened for business in the morning, its owner kneading coarse grain dough, and idlers were still wandering the streets.

When Hee Lingchuan’s group arrived, the townspeople kept their distance, their gazes exceptionally cold.

He jerked his chin at Fuzzy Peach, who understood the signal and headed for the flatbread shop.

The others walked halfway around the town before Shan Youjun whispered, "I see the doors and windows on the houses here are all intact. They haven’t been looted."

’The Xunzhou people didn’t loot civilians? What in the world?’

These Rangers were operating deep behind enemy lines with few supplies of their own. They usually looted and ate wherever they went.

Who did they loot? Civilians and wealthy local families, calling it "living off the land" to make it sound better.

’But Bailu Town is fine. Could it be that the Xunzhou people hit the jackpot with the supplies in Wu Shaoyi’s camp and had already looted their fill?’

But Jiao Tai pointed to a large gate in an alley. "Who says? Look at this place."

The house’s two ebony gates were quite grand, suggesting it belonged to a prominent local family. There was even a plaque on the lintel, but half of it had been smashed off. The gates stood wide open with not a soul in sight, free for anyone to enter.

Jiao Tai went inside and slipped back out a moment later.

"It’s a complete mess inside. It’s been looted. Even the worthless things were smashed, and there’s blood and hair on the ground."

Hee Lingchuan nodded and ordered his men to disperse and gather information.

He tried to ask people himself, but the townspeople he encountered all kept their distance. The moment he got close, they would run. Otherwise, they would just shake their heads and say, "I don’t know, I really didn’t see anything."

He touched his own face. ’I’m a handsome young man. Could I possibly look as ferocious as Rock Wolf Luu Xin?’

Later, he saw a boy of about six, with a large head and a small body, drawing graffiti in an alley. His "masterpiece" on the wall was a mess of lines drawn with a long piece of charcoal.

’Hmm? Charcoal?’

Hee Lingchuan walked over, putting on his best "big bad wolf" smile. "Little one, where did you find that piece of charcoal?"

The boy turned at the sound of his voice, gave him a wary look, but didn’t say anything or run away.

"Want some candy?" Hee Lingchuan poked Lingguang with a finger. The monkey reluctantly took out a paper-wrapped candy from its medicine pouch and held it out to the child.

The child snatched the candy, unwrapped it with his charcoal-stained hands, popped it into his mouth, and pointed with his other hand toward the camp. "Picked it up over there."

"When the bandits came last night, did they come into town to loot?"

The child shook his head.

Hee Lingchuan asked him again, "Did you recognize any of the bandits?"

The child went quiet, his eyes darting back and forth. He was clearly thinking.

Without needing a reminder from its Master, Lingguang took out another piece of candy and dangled it in front of the boy. The child reached for it, but how could he possibly catch it?

’It’s not easy to be more nimble than a monkey,’ he thought.

"There’s plenty more candy." ’Lingguang is too stingy, it should have offered a whole handful.’ "Just tell me the truth."