Chapter 1214: Chapter 1123 County Magistrate Man Gu

Man Gu’s letter was lengthy, filled with all sorts of references that should not have been referenced, and ended with superfluous classical embellishments.

Stripping away the frivolous content, Lu Yang condensed the message. It roughly meant — the town’s haunted troubles can’t be resolved, Senior Brother, save me.

Lu Yang found it quite preposterous. Man Gu was a formidable Void Refinement cultivator, how could he be unable to deal with a mere haunting... Oh, right, Void Refinement. Indeed, he couldn’t handle it.

"Old Meng, Junior Brother Man sent me a letter saying their town’s troubled by ghosts," said Lu Yang as he sought the specter-banishing expert.

Ten days had passed since Meng Jingzhou’s explosive encounter, and he had just consolidated his realm after emerging from seclusion.

"Did you get one too?"

Meng Jingzhou also had a copy of the letter from Man Gu.

Upon comparing the dates on their letters, they figured out what had happened: Man Gu first sent a letter to Meng Jingzhou, but it arrived while Meng Jingzhou was in seclusion, so he sent another to Lu Yang.

However, considering Man Gu still took the time to craft verbose phrases in his letter, it probably wasn’t an urgent matter.

"What do you think?" Meng Jingzhou asked.

Lu Yang displayed a profound smile, a habit he had acquired since advancing to the Tribulation Passing Stage, "After a stillness comes movement; it’s time to get out and about."

"That makes sense."

"Senior Ma..."

Lu Yang initially intended to call for Old Ma but scanned around and didn’t see him.

"Senior Ma has gone back to his hometown in the East Sea to break through in seclusion," Meng Jingzhou reported, "Looks like he’s poised to ascend to the Transcendence Tribulation Stage."

"That’s truly a cause for congratulations," Lu Yang laughed. Senior Ma, as Old Meng’s Protector, had worked hard despite not having to intervene much.

They would have to send a congratulatory gift to the Dragon Horse clan to celebrate Senior Ma’s breakthrough.

Old Ma’s breakthrough pleased Meng Jingzhou as well: "Uncle Ma has even moved onto the Transcendence Tribulation Stage, and here old dad is still stuck at the Body Integration Realm. If dad had run away from home with me back then, he’d be at the Transcendence Tribulation Stage by now!"

"... Do you even listen to yourself?"

Sometimes Old Meng’s thoughts were so lively that Lu Yang felt his own were too rigid.

"It’s fine without Senior Ma; after all, you are at the Transcendence Tribulation Stage now."

"Right, with your stage of cultivation, what’s there to fear?"

They generously complemented each other.

After a hearty laugh, the two decided to set out immediately.

Considering their notoriety with full-page spreads in newspapers, they had to disguise themselves before stepping out.

Man Gu was in charge of Quyi County in Da Xia Huangzhou Zhongshan County.

The two raced there at lightning speed, arriving directly at Quyi County.

On the way, they accidentally encountered the opening of an ancient battlefield relic. This site was said to be a relic from the Great Qian’s last period when the world vied for supremacy. Although the souls of its warriors were long gone, their indomitable wills remained. The ancient battlefield was scattered with countless opportunities, accessible only to those of virtuous conduct and exceptional talent who could earn approval from the lingering wills and become the masters of the relics.

They ventured into the ancient battleground and used the Recording Orb to broadcast the Captive Peak footage, telling the unyielding wills that it didn’t matter whether they were Great Qian Cultivators or Great Yu Cultivators, they should behave themselves and stop the constant conflict. Both The Controller and Guan Shanhai were imprisoned in Captive Peak.

The unyielding wills were quickly subdued by the pair, who then took control of the ancient battlefield relic, donated it to the Great Xia Court, and proposed that Gold Core Period Cultivators under the age of twenty-two should be allowed to train at the relic site.

They also discovered an Immortal Artifact Fragment within the relic. It was of unknown origin according to the wills but contained the essence of Yin and Yang, which could aid those cultivating the Yin Yang Path. This fragment had once incited a fierce battle among Semi-Immortals over its possession.

According to Immortal Fairy Eternity, it was confirmed to be a recording device of Immortal Jiuchong observing the mating of the Golden Crow and the Jade Rabbit.

Both were keen to view Immortal Jiuchong’s recordings, but during their dispute, they accidently fell into a ravine below and got lost, so they had to give up.

A local Divine Archer, a young hunter renowned in the mountains, shot an arrow through a rabbit.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Following the direction of the fletching, he found a delicately crafted fragment with unknown inscriptions next to the rabbit.

"What is this?"

He picked up both the rabbit and the fragment, and as the rabbit’s blood accidentally stained the fragment, it shone brightly, projecting a beam of light into the boy’s forehead.

The child recited the information contained within the fragment, "Extreme Yin Cultivation Method first layer?"

"And there’s the Extreme Yang Cultivation Method, too. Why only the names without content?"

"Could it be because this is a fragment, and we need to find the other pieces to put together the complete cultivation technique?"

"And this Golden Crow and Jade Rabbit Visualization is covered by a layer of thin mist. Is it because I’m not a cultivator that I can’t see it?"

Although the origin of the fragment was unknown, from the names of the cultivation technique and the visualization, it was clear that it was no ordinary item.

"Look, told you not to grab it, you lost it, didn’t you?"

"Like you didn’t grab it."

Both of them were still going on about the incident on the road even after they arrived at Quyi County, although, in truth, they were just looking for an opportunity to bicker.

After all, what was lost wasn’t something very important. The Extreme Yin Cultivation Method wasn’t much use to the two of them, only the Golden Crow and Jade Rabbit Visualization held some interest.

"This place seems to be quite well managed by Man Gu," the two commented as they walked along the main street towards the government office. It was daytime, the perfect moment when the County Magistrate would be presiding over the office.

The roads were clean and tidy, children were playing around, and the sounds of reading aloud could be heard along with officers patrolling the streets.

As they reached the government office, they happened to catch Man Gu holding a court session.

Man Gu was tall and broad; his official attire seemed somewhat out of place, especially since he had rolled up his sleeves, revealing his muscular arms.

Man Gu sat up straight and imposingly slapped his palm on the table, yelling out for the session to begin.

After he finished, he remembered he had forgotten to use the justice wood to bang on the table, but then decided it didn’t make much difference.

Two women were holding a child, weeping and wailing.

Lu Yang stood among the crowd at the entrance to the county government office and roughly understood what had transpired.

One of the women claimed her child had been lost since infancy, and just yesterday, she found another family’s child who greatly resembled her own. She insisted that the child was hers, but the other family refused to agree, declaring the child to be their biological offspring.

The dispute continued until it reached Man Gu, who was begged to make a ruling.

The Chief Clerk whispered to Man Gu, "My lord, you could order someone to beat the child, and the harsher the better. Whichever woman feels the most distressed for the child should be the true mother."

Man Gu looked at the Chief Clerk with a strange expression, "Does this method really work? Not to mention the child will have to suffer a beating, but even if the child isn’t biologically related to that family, having raised him for several years, they would still feel distressed for him."

"Then what does my lord suggest?"

"Of course, bloodline verification."

"Ah? I heard bloodline verification isn’t very accurate."

"It’s quite accurate, I believe."

Man Gu had each woman and the child drop a drop of blood into a bowl, then activated his mana to cause a drop of blood to explode, presenting the information contained within the blood before everyone while concurrently providing an explanation.

"There are three hundred million unit components within the blood; the arrangement of these components varies, but only among blood relatives is the sequence identical."

"Three hundred million components?" the Chief Clerk stuttered, "How can we compare these?"

"Of course, you look with your eyes." Man Gu said matter-of-factly, seriously observing the arrangement of the tiny units, and quickly reached a conclusion.

"Strange, why do all three of your sequences look almost identical?"

"Oh, I see now; you three are from the same family."

Man Gu pointed to one of the families, "You’re actually over fifty years old, aren’t you? You appear younger because you’re a cultivator. Have you lost a daughter before?"

The family nodded repeatedly.

Then Man Gu pointed to the other woman, "Were you picked up as a child?"

The woman also nodded.

Man Gu banged his gavel and pointed towards the family, "Then that settles it, she is your mother."

"In other words, you’re the child’s mother, and she’s the child’s grandmother."