Chapter 453: Lone Survivor

He Lingchuan did not stand on ceremony. He made use of the tiger’s intimidation to bolster his authority and pointed at Pockmarked Wang. “This man is suspicious. Don’t execute him yet. We will be questioning him further.”

The constable blurted, “But the county has already sentenced—” Both the tiger and the giant ram turned and glared at him at the same time. The man went pale and hurriedly corrected himself. “I mean, I’m sure the magistrate won’t object. Please, honored sirs, come sit at the yamen for a moment. This humble one will escort the prisoner back.”

The townsfolk who had come to enjoy the spectacle were instantly displeased. Still, with a tiger planted menacingly on the platform, literally tiger-eyed and watching the whole scene[1], no one dared kick up a fuss. They could only scatter while grumbling under their breath.

Pockmarked Wang had not expected salvation to fall out of the sky. Once he was untied, he dropped to his knees with a thud in front of He Lingchuan. “Lord Official, please save me! I really am innocent!”

Jiao Yu passed him and said coldly, “A single lie comes out of your mouth, and you’re dead.”

He Lingchuan, meanwhile, kept his eyes on the crows circling overhead. He walked to the pillar at the edge of the broken platform, pulled out a bag of jerky, and called up to them, “I want to ask you all about something. This jerky is compensation.”

The crows were still seething from having lost their chance to carry out the gouging punishment, so they gave no response.

A bag of dried meat? How could that possibly compare to the sweet, steaming flesh of a live human?

“Otherwise...” He Lingchuan snapped his fingers.

The goshawk perched on the cliff ram’s horn let out a sharp cry and shifted, preparing itself for flight.

The crow flock erupted in panicked caws. He Lingchuan exhaled, satisfied.

Soon, a huge, old crow swooped down and landed in front of him. “What do you want to ask?”

“About half a month ago, did you see an eastern imperial eagle around here? Came from the north.”

Crows loved crowds and commotion everywhere. They were true local busybodies, the kind of “neighborhood birds” that knew everybody’s business. If you wanted gossip and sightings, asking crows was the right move.

The old crow said flatly, “No.”

“Why don’t you think harder?”

That dismissal was way too smooth.

“An eastern imperial eagle is a vicious bird of prey,” the old crow snapped. “If it appeared around here, do you think we’d miss it? No. We did not see one.”

He Lingchuan could not help but feel a little disappointed.

But then another crow fluttered down and cawed a few times at the elder.

The old crow immediately amended, “But in the nearby hills, piles of bones sometimes appear for no reason, and our Little Seven... also went missing.”

“When?”

“Two months ago, maybe?” It rummaged through its memory. “A few days after the imperial nectar appeared.”

He Lingchuan gestured at the goshawk. “It wasn’t taken by a natural predator like this guy?”

“Big birds of prey are rare around here.”

He Lingchuan handed over the bag of jerky. “I’ll come find you again.”

The constables took Pockmarked Wang back to the yamen about two hundred paces away, and He Lingchuan strolled along after them.

He led the cliff ram by the reins, bringing along the goshawk perched on its horn, while a tiger padded at his side...

Four members to the party, and only one was human. It was such an absurd combination that it turned heads everywhere.

And of course, the drillwind beasts came too.

Master Ling could do whatever he pleased in his own territory, and no one would dare complain.

They called it a yamen, but it was tiny. It was just a little courtyard with four rooms, basically a town-level office. The jail was directly across the way, big enough to hold seven or eight people.

The constable invited He Lingchuan to the seat of honor and offered tea.

Most monsters did not care for tea, so that step was spared.

He Lingchuan waved it off. “This concerns confidential matters. Give me one room, and there can be no outsiders.”

He personally hauled Pockmarked Wang inside, then had the tiger monster stand guard at the door. It was not just outsiders that were not allowed in, but even the constables themselves were stopped outside.

But Master Ling stubbornly craned his neck, determined to watch.

Since the ram was also a victim in this whole business, He Lingchuan relented and let it in.

The problem was that the drillwind beast was too tall to fit through the doorway. It lowered its head and bumped straight in, shattering the window lattice.

Then it happily stuck its head through the window instead.

The government clerks all heard the noise, but nobody dared come out to protest.

“Tell me everything you know.” He Lingchuan then warned Pockmarked Wang, “Your life is hanging by a thread. It would be in your best interest not to lie.”

Pockmarked Wang knocked his head twice on the floor and poured everything out.

It turned out he and a few close friends from his township had gone to steal goods from traveling merchants passing through Wudou Town. The merchants were newcomers on this trade route, making them easy prey.

About a dozen of them stole the goods and even the horses, then started hauling everything back. Somehow, in the chaos, they blundered straight into an official medicinal field.

There happened to be zhima[2] there, already ripe, and they were treasures that had been literally glowing in the night. One of them could not resist and hugged two of them to his chest.

And that was when everything went to hell.

Official fields like that were guarded by Master Ling’s clan of drillwind beasts, a duty passed down through generations. These were not ordinary wild monsters you could bully or bluff. When they saw ten-odd humans stealing from state property, they chased immediately.

Pockmarked Wang and the others bolted in panic. It was raining hard, visibility was terrible, and they somehow ran into Mount Niutou.

And then, they saw two lanterns on the mountainside halfway up.

After his companions abandoned him, Pockmarked Wang did not just sit there and wait to die. He rolled himself into a patch of bushes with all the strength he had.

The night was pitch-black, and rainwater, mud, and crushed grass masked his scent. The drillwind beasts leaped right past him and never realized he was there.

They went after his companions instead.

Pockmarked Wang lay in the rain for ages, barely daring to breathe.

His companions never came back, and the same went for the drillwind beasts.

Later, he forced himself up and looked around, only to find the valley swallowed in darkness with no lanterns to be seen anywhere.

His foot was injured, so he could not walk properly, and he ended up stuck on Mount Niutou for two days. Finally, an herb gatherer ventured into the hills and carried him out on a donkey.

The rest, He Lingchuan had already heard from the constables on the road.

The official medicinal field had been looted, and the drillwind beasts that had been guarding it had vanished. The authorities investigated and traced it straight to Pockmarked Wang because the stolen goods were found near the field, and the entrance to Mount Niutou, where Wang had injured his foot, was only about 1.5 kilometers away.

There were clear facts and solid evidence, hence the death sentence.

He Lingchuan heard enough to know something was off. “How could a bunch of villagers possibly kill the drillwind beasts guarding an official field?”

Drillwind beasts were fearsome fighters and vicious-tempered. Ordinary people avoided them like they were the plague.

He Lingchuan’s whole family had lived in officialdom. The moment he heard the supposed evidence, he could already smell that Pockmarked Wang was a hapless scapegoat. It was no wonder Master Ling was furious.

He asked Pockmarked Wang, “If we take you back to Mount Niutou, can you point out where those two lanterns were?”

“Yes! Yes, I can!”

He Lingchuan had the tiger go negotiate with the constables.

While that was happening, He Lingchuan examined the injury on Pockmarked Wang’s foot. It was only a ligament strain, and after all this time, it had already healed sixty to seventy percent on its own.

Pockmarked Wang gave a bitter smile. “Cheap lives like mine are tough. Master He, please save me!”

Whatever Jiao Yu said to the officials worked. About a quarter of an hour later, He Lingchuan had a carriage, and they loaded Pockmarked Wang onto it and set out for Mount Niutou.

The drillwind beasts followed as well.

General Ling was friendly in a pushy way. After sizing up the cliff ram twice, it sidled closer and asked He Lingchuan, “Why would the Crown Prince send a kid like you as special envoy?”

“Because we get along by scent.”

This ram looks like the type who’s offended half the world.

He Lingchuan then asked, “General Ling, how old are you?”

“One hundred and nineteen!” The ram shook its head. “Next year, I’ll celebrate my grand birthday!”

“General Ling looks vigorous and hale, far stronger than most humans,” said He Lingchuan.

A human nearing 120 would be ancient and fragile. Forget fighting on the front line, being able to walk briskly at all would be a blessing.

General Ling roared with laughter. “Don’t compare you humans to me!”

He Lingchuan noticed the beard under its jaw had been braided and neatly bound with golden thread. Its left ear even had two gold rings punched through.

Clearly, General Ling cared about grooming and led a refined life.

Everyone knew sheep did not have hands, so it could not have braided its own beard.

This meant that General Ling must keep servants, attendants who took care of such things.

He Lingchuan had long heard that greater monsters in Beijia often possessed their own landed fiefs, households of servants, underlings, and wide-ranging privileges, and sometimes even exemptions from ordinary law.

There were not many greater monsters to begin with. Today, he was finally seeing one up close.

Jiao Yu had already told him that this was not some meaningless “general” title. General Ling was the vanguard general of the State of Chiyan’s Feitian Army, which was a high-ranking military post. The Feitian Army was mostly composed of drillwind beasts. Their numbers were not large, but they were a specialized force.

It was then somewhat to be expected that General Ling did not even put the local government in its eyes.

Still, by rights, General Ling should have been on the road to the eastern front already, not loitering back home.

When Jiao Yu asked again earlier, General Ling had gotten impatient, saying its troops were already on the move and it would follow soon.

“The Crown Prince isn’t even forty, so he’s a little brat too. Despite that, he actually sent someone even younger to handle a case? Ridiculous!” General Ling complained right to He Lingchuan’s face. “What did you do that made him value you?”

“Nothing much,” He Lingchuan replied. “Helped him get Fushan Ji killed, that’s all.”

General Ling’s eyes bulged. “What?!”

Even if it was recuperating in its homeland, the death of the second prince was far too big to be hidden from it. Its first instinct was disbelief, but then it glanced at Jiao Yu. The tiger’s ears did not twitch, showing no reaction at all.

In other words, what the young man before it said was highly likely to be true.

“How did you manage it?”

He Lingchuan had already asked Jiao Yu about the other party. General Ling was politically neutral at court, but leaned slightly toward the eldest prince. That was why He Lingchuan felt safe letting the feat slip.

Most monsters were straightforward, and trying to be subtle with them was like flirting with a blind man.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Strength was what earned their respect. Otherwise, a born troublemaker like this general would never cooperate.

He Lingchuan did not answer. He asked instead, “Those missing juniors of yours, how strong were they?”

“Not weak,” General Ling said grimly. “They were core fighters of the Feitian Army. They’ve gone through multiple battlefields with me. They shouldn’t have vanished without a sound.”

It paused, then added, “Without them, the Feitian Army is down to only seventy-some members. Our combat strength has taken a serious hit.”

He Lingchuan nodded.

No wonder it’s seething.

Soon enough, they passed the official medicinal field that was under the drillwind beasts’ protection.

It was a wide stretch of farmland tucked into the belly of the mountains. The soil was richer than ordinary farmland, and over a dozen medicinal crops grew here now, some covered by blue cloth screens so you could not see what was underneath.

Plenty of humans worked the rows.

The drillwind beasts held the contract for the field, meaning they were responsible for guarding and managing it as a privilege and duty, but the delicate daily labor still required human hands.

He Lingchuan frowned slightly. “This medicinal field is in a pretty obvious location. How did your people ‘blunder’ into it?”

1. This phrase is the literal translation to the common idiom “虎视眈眈,” which usually translates to “eye with hostility” or simply glower ☜

2. Some made-up plant. The name literally translates to sesame horse, but note that the zhi 芝 here does commonly appear in fictional magical/spiritual plants. ☜