Fox Demon?
Seeing Zhang Chaofeng crying with tears and snot streaming down his face, Shen Bai frowned.
They had only just dealt with a wave of fox demons, and now another had appeared. Whoever was behind this was quite interesting.
"Old Zhang, calm down first. Sit and tell me slowly," Shen Bai soothed.
Reassured by Shen Bai, Zhang Chaofeng found a seat and sat down, then recounted what had happened.
"I took my wife back to her family home. We'd only lived a few peaceful days when a fox suddenly appeared in the village."
"Every day, the fox brought good things to the village. The villagers all said it was the Fox Girl repaying kindness, an Auspicious Beast."
"But a few days later, the villagers began dying one after another. Every one of them died shriveled and emaciated."
"My wife and my child couldn't escape it either. Only I, since I wasn't from the village, survived by sheer luck."
The further Zhang Chaofeng went, the sadder he became. Unable to hold back, he began crying again, tears flowing without end.
Shen Bai stroked his chin. "Did you report it to the authorities after returning?"
Zhang Chaofeng shook his head. "Not yet. In this county town, you're the only old acquaintance I have, Shopkeeper, so I came to you first."
Shen Bai thought for a moment. "Come report it to the authorities with me first."
He knew the village where Zhang Chaofeng's wife came from. It was far from Ascending Cloud County, and a round trip took several hours.
Now that lives had been lost, Shen Bai felt they should report it to the yamen first.
"It seems there's more than one fox demon involved," Qin Shuang said.
It was as though Zhang Chaofeng had only just noticed Qin Shuang in the room. Once he realized it, even his crying quieted considerably. "This young lady is...?"
"We'll discuss that later. Reporting this to the authorities comes first," Shen Bai said.
Just as Qin Shuang had said, they had been able to produce two fox demons by the river. Another fox demon appearing now was perfectly normal.
When it came to information, the yamen had far more than Shen Bai did. They should report it first and see what the situation was.
With that in mind, Shen Bai took Zhang Chaofeng and Qin Shuang toward the yamen.
The county yamen.
"What? Everyone in an entire village is dead?"
Chief Constable Zheng's eyes widened, his face full of disbelief.
They had only just dealt with the fox demons by the river, and now an entire village had died. This case was growing bigger and bigger.
And the Heavenly Oversight Bureau was conducting an inspection right now. Even Chief Constable Zheng broke out in a cold sweat for the county magistrate.
He felt that the magistrate had truly lost all hope of promotion this time. It would already be quite good if he could keep his current position.
Of course, sweating over it was one thing. Since the matter had arisen, it had to be resolved.
"Zhou Qing, gather the men. We're setting out!"
At the side, Zhou Qing nodded and immediately went to summon the constables.
Before long, the constables arrived in the front courtyard of the county yamen.
Shen Bai had brought Zhang Chaofeng here, so he was waiting in the courtyard as well.
At that moment, Shen Bai noticed something was off and furrowed his brow.
"Something this serious happened, yet the county magistrate hasn't shown himself?"
By all rights, the county magistrate should have appeared for a murder case of this magnitude. Yet he was leaving Chief Constable Zheng to make all the arrangements. It seemed rather inappropriate.
Hearing this, Chief Constable Zheng explained, "The arrival of the Heavenly Oversight Bureau is a major matter right now. The county magistrate is still preparing all kinds of documents for inspection, so it isn't convenient for him to come out."
"Actually, even if he did come out over this matter, he'd still just send us to investigate."
Shen Bai nodded. "I heard the county magistrate has a nephew serving in the yamen. Why haven't I seen him either?"
Chief Constable Zheng's tone carried a trace of disdain. "Hah. He's busy seizing every moment to improve his strength. How could he have time for this kind of bitter drudgery? He's waiting to enter the Heavenly Oversight Bureau."
In this yamen, only Chief Constable Zheng would dare say such things.
The reason was simple. Chief Constable Zheng came from the martial world, and with his Three Treasures Realm strength, he dared to speak so freely even in the county yamen.
"Let's go. Shopkeeper Shen, will you be coming with us?" Chief Constable Zheng asked.
Shen Bai nodded. "My pawnshop's Chaofeng has suffered a mishap. Naturally, I must go."
Fox demons were strange entities. Although Shen Bai now had two strands of Killing Intent, one could never have too much of such a thing.
He needed it for appraisal, and he needed it for qualitative change as well. The more he could gather, the better.
If he had the chance to obtain another strand of Killing Intent, that would be fine too.
Chief Constable Zheng found that reasonable and turned his gaze toward Qin Shuang. "And this young lady...?"
"A distant relative," Qin Shuang said with utter certainty. "I'll be going too."
Chief Constable Zheng did not doubt her. After all, Shen Bai and Zhou Qing were close, so he said nothing further.
Once all the constables had assembled, the group hurried toward the village where Zhang Chaofeng's wife had lived.
Huayun Village was an extremely remote village even within Ascending Cloud County.
By the time the group arrived, it was already deep into the night.
Standing at the village entrance, Shen Bai caught a faint scent of blood.
Especially in the dead of night, the bloody smell was even more nauseating.
Chief Constable Zheng was a seasoned veteran of the martial world. He immediately waved his hand. "Let's go in and take a look."
No one hesitated. They raised their feet and entered the village.
The village was pitch-black.
In the deep night, it exuded a suffocating sense of deathly stillness.
The moment Shen Bai stepped inside, he saw the village's tragic state.
As far as the eye could see, there were corpses everywhere.
Every corpse was withered like dry firewood, as though its Essence, Qi, Spirit had been sucked away.
Fox demons had two methods of harming people.
One of them was to harm people under the guise of repaying kindness, gradually wearing away their Essence, Qi, Spirit.
The current situation was clearly one of those methods.
Seeing the horrific scene, Zhang Chaofeng seemed to have had the pain in his memories stirred up. He clenched his fists, sorrow filling his eyes.
Chief Constable Zheng drew the long saber from his waist and said slowly, "Search the entire village."
Zhou Qing and the other constables nodded, then began searching the village in groups of two and three.
After thinking for a moment, Shen Bai followed beside Zhou Qing, and the group proceeded together.
Before long, the many constables had searched the entire village from top to bottom.
Shen Bai and Zhou Qing found nothing, but one of the constables came rushing up to Chief Constable Zheng with a letter in hand.
"This subordinate found this letter in the village ancestral hall," the constable said.
Shen Bai examined it from afar and noticed that the ink on the letter was still fresh, with no signs that anyone had opened it.
Chief Constable Zheng opened the letter and read it carefully for a moment. Then he clenched his fist, crumpling even the letter in his hand into wrinkles.
His knuckles turned white, as though a surge of anger were slowly rising within him.
"Beast! What an absolute beast!"
Hearing this, Shen Bai stepped forward. "This matter concerns my pawnshop's Chaofeng. Chief Constable Zheng, may I see the letter?"
Chief Constable Zheng took a breath to steady himself, then handed the letter to Shen Bai.
After taking it, Shen Bai unfolded the crumpled letter and read it from beginning to end. Then he narrowed his eyes.
"This fellow is actually from Ascending Cloud County?"
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