After the immortal disappeared

The guy recovered and began to emphasize his importance. He Lingchuan didn't point it out, just frowned, but General Ling was much more direct: "More than a year? How can the old news of more than a year be related to the present?"

Is this timeline too far?

"Listen, you guys, please listen." Wang Mazi didn't dare to lie any more, "There is a nest of pig demons in the east of Zhitian Township, probably more than a hundred of them. Their land is at the foot of Moon Mountain, and it covers a large area. This is The group of monsters have a bad relationship with the locals and often cause trouble. The townspeople don't like them, but there is nothing they can do about them. This group of monsters has lived under the Moon Mountain for more than a hundred years, and they are much older than the others. They are not as good as Shibata. They’ve been around since before.”

"Then?" He Lingchuan knew that although Bejia Country is known as a place where monsters and humans live together, in fact, most monsters are still accustomed to living in separate ethnic groups, with clear boundaries between them and humans.

This is the natural racial gap. For example, the old sheep next to me wanted to live with his tribe in the territory near the county seat, but did not want to live in the city.

"Last winter, there was a sudden landslide in Moon Mountain, which seemed to have buried their nest." Wang Mazi said, "But no one went into the mountain at that time, so no one knew about it. When the snow melts next year, people from Zhitian Township will go into the mountain. Only then did I realize that the landslide had caused the monsters’ lair to be destroyed.”

He Lingchuan couldn't help but frown: "What kind of disappearance case is this?" Isn't it just an ordinary human tragedy?

"I have a companion who is from Zhitian Township. When he was hired to clean up the landslide, he found that the corpses of pigs in the nest were all piled together, as if they died in a group, and only the bones were left." Wang Mazi said, " There were hundreds of pigs in such a big nest. Not long after, someone in the town was attacked by the Pig Demon, killing one and injuring one. The government was alerted and sent people down. After searching for more than a month, no sign of them was found. What happened later Just let it go.”

After hearing this, He Lingchuan said: "This old news seems to have nothing to do with what happened in Niutoushan."

Wang Mazi's face fell: "Even if they were crushed to death... Sir, do you know that pigs never like to be crowded together, especially when there are hundreds of them?"

He knew that the more he contributed, the greater his chances of survival. On the contrary, it is a dead end.

"It's usually hard for others to imagine how a creature reacts when faced with a desperate situation." He Lingchuan turned around and said, "You said you encountered a ghost on the way back to Shuangyi Town and walked to Guantian inexplicably?"

"Yes, it is!"

He Lingchuan nodded: "Then you have been tricked." The Ghost Wall is also commonly known as the ecstasy array. Its basic function is to make people dizzy and take random detours.

The formation must be arranged in advance.

Someone laid a enchantment array on their way home in advance to induce these country people to go to Guantian and provoke the wind beast.

"Who gave you this plan to steal goods?"

"My cousin Wang Ling." Wang Mazi said, "He told us that a group of geese came to Wudou Town. They were unfamiliar with the place and the goods were very good. As long as the robbery is successful, I will be given two or two of them this time. Two taels of silver!"

He further explained: "Lengtou Goose refers to foreigners who don't know what's going on here."

"Wang Ling is dead?"

Wang Mazi nodded, with no sadness on his face, only anger: "You deserve it. I sprained my foot that night, and he didn't stay to help me!"

"Where did his news come from?"

"I'm not sure, but it might be in a gambling house." Wang Mazi said, "He runs there when he has money."

He Lingchuan thought for a while: "So what about the target of your theft? That gang of geese, how much information do you remember?"

"Uh..." Wang Mazi has already replayed this matter in his mind countless times, "It is a small caravan, with only more than thirty people and ten trucks. We stole two of them, which were filled with chewing tobacco. , and there were more than a dozen bamboo tubes stuffed with saltpeter. Wang Ling accidentally opened one tube, causing the carriage to freeze."

He Lingchuan rubbed his temples: "How dare you touch the merchants who smuggle chewing tobacco and saltpeter?"

Chewing tobacco is an ultra-high-profit commodity. The Bega Kingdom only allows official smuggling, and private smuggling is a serious crime. As for saltpeter, it is an important military resource and one of the basic raw materials for making gunpowder. How can private and commercial smuggling be allowed?

"Occasionally... people get lucky." Wang Mazi said, "We have all seen it before, and..."

"Stealed too?"

Wang Mazi shrank his head and looked at Jiao Yu and General Ling beside him. Seeing that they didn't express their opinions, he acquiesced.

Yes, there are people involved in the beheading business, and it’s even more wild in this small place. Chewing tobacco and saltpeter are both small in size. After everyone steals it, they will share it. Each person only takes a little and sells it, and the stolen goods can be sold quickly.

They are local gangsters and have their own way.

"Aren't you also engaged in beheading business?" He Lingchuan looked at him with a half-smile, "What do you remember about these merchants? The more detailed the better."

"The leader is probably in his early forties, neither short nor fat, with a neatly trimmed beard. He wears a jade ring on his ring finger. On his neck -" he pointed to his neck to show He Lingchuan, "there is a flesh-colored mole."

"When you visited the location, did you hear them say where their destination was?"

Wang Mazi thought for a long time: "No, no?"

"Okay, let's go back." While He Lingchuan was interrogating Wang Mazi, the goshawk and the wind drill beast brought by General Ling went to search the valley, but in the end they returned without success.

The murderer's ability to clean up the aftermath is top-notch, and he can't find any useful clues if he continues to stay here.

…

After returning to the inn, He Lingchuan took out Fu Shanji's information again to see if he had made any omissions.

The country of Chiyan is so big, trying to find a missing bird is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Before He Lingchuan set off, Li Qingge shared the newly acquired information with him:

A month ago, Bega suffered a defeat on the eastern front.

It is said that major tactical errors occurred because the two armies commanded by Bega failed to coordinate in time, and the opponent seized the opportunity.

Yes, one of the teams is the army of Chiyan Kingdom.

Thinking of the emperor's anger, it was not difficult for He Lingchuan to guess that perhaps it was because of the disappearance of the White-shouldered Eagle that the information on coordinated operations was not transmitted to the Chiyan Kingdom in time, resulting in huge losses on the battlefield.

Of course Lingxu City would not tolerate such a thing.

He was curious about the source of the information, but Li Qingge obviously would not reveal it.

On the information compiled from various places, Fu Shanji also wrote several keywords in red pen:

The first word -

Rainy night!

He was very attentive and found out what the missing cases had in common: they all happened on rainy nights.

He Lingchuan recalled that on the day when the blue sheep were almost stolen, it was indeed raining continuously at night, and it stopped raining only after Chou.

These people only go out on rainy nights. Why?

The second key word that Fu Shanji summed up is "countryside".

These disappearances all occurred in the suburbs and mountains and forests, far away from the urban population.

Humans have the habit of living in groups, but many monsters like to live alone and stay away from human settlements. If these murderers specifically targeted the countryside, they would indeed have killed more monsters than humans.

This also shows the caution of the murderer.

Then the third key word is "multiple places at the same time".

Comparing the time and space where the cases occurred, some cases occurred very close in time, only one or two days apart, but the places where the cases occurred were far away, more than a hundred miles apart.

The murderer went hundreds of miles away to commit another crime within a dozen hours. What was this plot?

After personally experiencing the sheep-stealing incident, He Lingchuan was more inclined to believe that these people probably acted separately or in groups.

In other words, this is probably a crime committed by a cross-regional gang!

Fu Shanji could only infer so much. Maybe he didn't find any new clues, or maybe Fu Shanyue gave him a slap in the face at this time...

According to He Lingchuan, Fu Shanji's top-down investigation method is destined to yield little.

What is the efficiency of government affairs? Even an old cow can drag a broken cart faster than it, not to mention all kinds of omissions.

If only official manpower and official information are used, the day when the case will be solved is far away.

Not to mention the motive, the location where the other party committed the crime, the target chosen, the timing of the attack... If you can't figure out the pattern, you won't be able to catch this group of people.

Their actions are really secretive. If Lingxu City's messenger hadn't been involved this time, no one would have noticed these scattered disappearances.

Not to mention the Demon Kingdom, even if a few villagers occasionally disappear from various places in the Kite Kingdom, they are so commonplace that they are not worth mentioning.

These days, there are not many reasons for the disappearance of living people and monsters.

Then should he go to Wudou Town where Wang Mazi and others were tricked to find out what happened?

He Lingchuan was still thinking hard, but the sound of peeling and pecking came from the window.

He stood up and opened the window and saw a dozen crows standing outside.

"Is something wrong?"

The biggest crow poked its head in to take a look and made sure that the goshawk was not inside. Then he boldly jumped in and took two steps:

"Are you still studying the strange things in Niutoushan?"

He Lingchuan nodded: "Do you have any new clues?"

"Then it depends on what reward you offer." Crow said carelessly, "Without reward, there will be no clues!"

He has been dealing with this kind of creatures since Sanxinyuan, and he knows that they have a typical character of bandits, bullying the weak and afraid of the strong.

"Can you give me a price?"

"Three hundred kilograms of beef and mutton, and one hundred elixirs every month!" Crow came after thinking carefully. "Also, we want the woods south of Shuangyi Town as a habitat. No other people are allowed except crows. Birds build nests!”

He Lingchuan raised his eyebrows: "I am the Crown Prince's special envoy. When you see me as if you saw him coming in person, how dare you open your mouth?"

"The prince is so rich, his hair is thicker than our thighs!" Crow sneered, "Hundreds of kilograms of meat and a hundred pills every month are nothing to worry about!"

"That's true." As soon as he finished speaking, He Lingchuan pursed his lips and whistled, then stretched out his hand to brush.

A force of energy swept across and closed the window.

This separated the crow leader from a dozen of his subordinates.

Seeing that the situation was not going well, the big crow did not attack He Lingchuan. He just slammed into the window paper and planned to escape through the window.

He Lingchuan's prediction was accurate and he cast a net directly in front of it, as if the crow had thrown itself into the net.

Congratulations to @Dongjiangshuang Children’s Shoes on your happy engagement!

The golden wind and jade frost have won countless victories in the world.