Chapter 457: A Banquet Invitation

With mobility like that, it almost seemed as though only a flier could manage it.

The goshawk immediately denied it. “There are some who could, but they wouldn’t do something like this.”

“Oh?” He Lingchuan’s interest was piqued. “Which monster king are you talking about?”

“The ruler of the State of Shanyu is a red-crested giant eagle. There’s a record of it eating an entire elephant, though it didn’t swallow it whole. Also, the one who presides over the Winter Palace, State Preceptor Mian Bing, is a snow luan[1]. I’ve heard that State Preceptor Mian Bing can assume an enormous form,” the goshawk said. “Aside from those two, I can’t think of a third.”

Those two might have the capability, but given their status, it was highly unlikely they would sneak into the State of Chiyan to commit crimes.

The goshawk added, “Spirit qi is thin. It’s hard for the winged clans to produce true giants anymore.”

The larger a monster’s body, the denser the spirit qi it needed to sustain it. The present age simply lacked those conditions. This was no longer the era of colossal beasts like in the ancient days or the early Middle Era.

Even the ruler of the State of Shanyu and State Preceptor Mian Bing could only maintain their size thanks to the powerful origin energy nourishing them.

“Then it’s a land-walking monster,” He Lingchuan concluded.

Jiao Yu chimed in with his own counsel. “And it may not be just one.”

“That’s true as well.” He Lingchuan lowered his gaze in thought. “They struck at Mount Niutou. Why go out of their way to dump the bodies here?”

“A dense forest like this isn’t easily noticed, even if corpses appear,” Jiao Yu answered. “Besides, this is already within Baishi County’s jurisdiction. Even if someone finds the remains, there aren’t any missing person reports in the county. They likely won’t take it to heart.”

When out-of-town travelers, whether human or monster, died in the wilderness, no one cared.

It was not unique to Beijia; no state was any different.

And beyond officials simply not wanting to bother, there was also the practical difficulty. Information did not flow smoothly between provinces and counties, making coordinated investigations difficult.

The killer understood this well, so they exploited the gap, crossing county lines to dump bodies.

“Is that all?” He Lingchuan agreed with the logic, but a question remained. “But this place is already far from the county border, and it’s all wilderness around here. Why come this deep in just to dispose of the corpses here?”

“In your opinion?”

He Lingchuan stood and scanned the surroundings. “This place never sees the sun. The place is damp, and even the rocks are practically sweating. It seems like the kind of environment the killer prefers. Don’t forget, the previous sightings were all on rainy nights. Even if it strikes in many places, it should still have a lair or den somewhere, right?”

“Are you saying that its den is nearby?”

“Otherwise, why would it come all the way here to relieve itself?” He Lingchuan said dryly. “If you live in the east of the county, do you go to the west of the county to squat in a latrine?”

“...I don’t have that hobby,” Jiao Yu said, looking around. “And mixed with the stench, there’s a faint fishy tang.”

“It’s a pity you weren’t there the day those sheep thieves tried to steal the cliff ram,” He Lingchuan said as he climbed out of the pit. He rinsed his hands with water from his waterskin, then scrubbed them several times with scented soap. Otherwise, the stench of the corpses would cling to him. “By the way, between you and Fushan Yue, whose sense of smell is sharper?”

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Jiao Yu blinked, considered, then admitted, “It should still be the young master.”

He Lingchuan pulled a branch from his storage ring, the one that was still smeared with sticky slime. “Smell this. Is it the same scent?”

The tiger leaned in and sniffed hard, nose nearly pressed against the wood.

He Lingchuan believed the tiger’s words. Its posture alone showed that a ba’s nose was far keener.

At last, the tiger gave a decisive verdict. “Yes, it’s the same!”

He Lingchuan drew in a slow breath.

So the real sheep thief had been the murderer all along. Good, public duty and private debt can be settled together, and it seems that Fushan Yue had indeed commissioned the right man.

After a brief thought, He Lingchuan said, “Since we’re already here, I want to take a look at the porcupine nest.”

“Mount Yulun?” Jiao Yu had been present during the interrogation of Pockmarked Wang and knew exactly what he meant. “That’s on the other side of Zhitian Township. It’s getting dark. Should we borrow lodging in the township for the night?”

“Yes.” So far, they had gathered plenty of information, but He Lingchuan knew they still lacked the most crucial thing: a breakthrough.

The perpetrator was careful. They left traces, but not enough to track.

Why was this monster devouring humans and monsters across the State of Chiyan’s territory?

Was it truly just hunger?

* * *

Zhitian Township’s revenue alone accounted for two-thirds of Baishi County’s total.

As a result, Baishi County’s yamen had been set directly in Youtian Town within Zhitian Township, for easier administration.

By the time He Lingchuan entered the town, dusk had already deepened.

Youtian Town’s streets were noticeably more orderly than Shuangyi Town’s. Streetlights hung from the roadside trees, guiding pedestrians through the night.

Every household had lamps lit. Walking the streets, He Lingchuan constantly caught the fragrance of cooking and heard voices murmuring in alleyways.

There were many large residences, some impressively large. Their outer walls were smooth, and their roof tiles were finely made. They were clearly the homes of wealthy families.

Jiao Yu introduced the situation as they went. “Most townsfolk grow medicinal herbs. A few major herb merchants made fortunes, then bought land and built estates.”

A town’s ecosystem was very simple. Some grew, some purchased, and some transported outward. Wealth here circulated that way.

He Lingchuan asked a different question, “Where do the monsters live?”

“Most nest in the forests on the town’s edge,” answered Jiao Yu. “If they work with humans in cultivating herbs, they’ll also live in these estates.”

There were several inns in town. Now that He Lingchuan’s travel expenses could be reimbursed, he naturally chose the biggest and most expensive.

Even the guest rooms had their own flavor, each with its own small, standalone courtyard. In the courtyard’s open-air well sat an old tree stump covered in purple ganoderma and white spirit mushrooms.

The crow did not dare compete with the goshawk for the stump and had to perch in a tree instead.

After settling in, He Lingchuan said to Jiao Yu, “I’ll have to trouble Lord Jiao to make a trip to the county yamen and report what we’ve found.”

Jiao Yu nodded. “You’re right. These cases are thorny. We’ll need the local officials’ cooperation.”

The tiger was gone for an hour.

When it returned, however, it brought an invitation.

The magistrate of Baishi County wished to host a banquet for the special envoy and General Ling, and respectfully asked them to attend.

He Lingchuan immediately rubbed his stomach, stood up, and accepted without hesitation, “Good, I just so happened not to eat dinner.”

It had been dark for quite a while, and he still had not ordered food. Jiao Yu strongly suspected he had been waiting for exactly this.

The banquet was held at the town’s finest tavern: West Hong Tower.

The Baishi County Magistrate stood at the entrance with seven or eight others. When He Lingchuan and his party arrived, the county magistrate hurried forward to greet them. “This must be the Crown Prince’s special envoy, welcome! General Ling, welcome! General Jiao, welcome! Lord Wu, welcome!”

Lord Wu referred to the goshawk.

He Lingchuan was just as quick at social niceties as he was with knives. Both sides greeted each other like old friends, exchanged a round of pleasantries, and then went upstairs to take their seats.

Only after the magistrate personally toasted He Lingchuan did he gesture to the men beside him.

“These are the local worthies of Zhitian Township. When they heard that the special envoy and General Ling had arrived, they insisted on coming to pay their respects.”

Even when he mentioned the special envoy, he always paired the title with General Ling, showing respect to the old ram.

General Ling merely hummed, lowered its head, and drank. It barely acknowledged anyone.

The human cups were too small for it. It demanded a large bowl instead, and with one dip of its head, it could drain half of it.

The magistrate seemed thoroughly used to its temperament. He simply introduced each man in turn, and each man raised a cup.

These local worthies were, in truth, the township’s powerful gentry households. Needless to say, they were the ones footing the bill tonight.

They represented the highest level of wealth in Zhitian Township.

He Lingchuan took one look and saw that every last one of them was human.

After a few rounds of toasts, the dishes began to arrive one after another.

This tavern also carried Zhitian Township’s signature medicinal cuisine. There was old crab stewed with bloodvine, sheep kidneys stir-fried with eucommia bark, liver slices flash-fried with fleeceflowers, crispy-fried ground ginseng...

He Lingchuan seriously doubted a normal person could finish a whole table of such dishes without bursting into nosebleeds.

Fortunately, the wine served was not medicinal wine but a sweet rice wine. This wine was warm, mellow, and smooth, soothing the throat and quelling the body’s internal heat.

Earlier, Jiao Yu had already recounted the case to the magistrate. Now the magistrate said to He Lingchuan, “Reporting to the envoy, I have already ordered the drillwind beast case to be formally registered. We’re also comparing it against past records to see whether any new clues emerge.”

The wealthy locals exclaimed one after another, “Who would’ve thought something like this could happen in Zhitian Township?”

“That monster is outrageous! It’s bold beyond belief!”

He Lingchuan asked them, “Zhitian Township hasn’t filed any missing-person reports?”

They shook their heads. “Not in recent years.”

“And nothing unusual has happened lately?”

They exchanged looks, then shook their heads again. “Farming out in the fields and countryside has been perfectly normal. Nothing’s been wrong.”

He Lingchuan then said to the county magistrate, “Tomorrow, I want to go take a look at the porcupine nest beneath Mount Yulun.”

“The porcupine nest?” The magistrate was startled. “No one’s been there in a long time. Could this really be connected to the courier’s disappearance?”

“If it weren’t connected, I wouldn’t be here,” He Lingchuan said, and with that single sentence, the county magistrate’s scalp went numb.

“I heard that the entire porcupine nest died in their den last year. It was bizarre,” General Ling cut in, not in the least polite. “No thorough investigation was done?”

“That winter, heavy snow closed off the mountain,” the county magistrate explained. “By the time the townsfolk found them, it was the following spring. Their den had been crushed by a massive boulder from above, and that should have been the cause of their deaths. It’s all recorded in the case file. The envoy may check it.”

“What do you mean, ‘should have been’?” General Ling’s displeasure was obvious. “Either it was, or it wasn’t. Did you not send a coroner?”

“I did, I did,” the magistrate said quickly, unwilling to shoulder blame. “I sent the best coroner in the county. But it had been an entire winter and spring. The remains were already rotted through. There truly wasn’t anything else to be determined.” Only then did he sigh and say, “But still, how could a porcupine nest have anything to do with Lingxu City?”

He Lingchuan did not answer. Instead, he asked, “I’ve heard the porcupine had poor relations with the township?”

“Yes, not very good,” one wealthy local said. “Both water sources in Zhitian Township flow through their territory first before reaching our fields. Those porcupines often found excuses to cut off our water.”

“Did you come to blows?”

The locals looked at each other again. Finally, one of them said slowly, “They were the local tyrants. They injured many people. They got sued. In the end, they paid compensation, but none of us could do anything about them. The county custodian mediated many times, but in the end, it was still us who had to make some concessions.”

General Ling let out a cold laugh. “Concessions? I’d say the ones truly swallowing injustice were the porcupines. You lot are all slyer than monkeys.”

The wealthy man opened his mouth to protest, but someone beside him tugged his sleeve and stopped him.

After all, why argue with a greater monster?

He Lingchuan asked again, “What was the root of the conflict?”

This time, the local worthies fell silent. The county magistrate cleared his throat and said, “It was still... water sources.”

1. This is the same kind of mythical bird that has already been mentioned a few times throughout this novel, recall Crimson Luan and the Azure Luan. I probably shouldn’t have capitalized them in the past, but meh. Anyway, I’ll likely be leaving the newer mentions uncapitalized. ☜