Doubts Arise, Clues Emerge

As his heart moved with his thoughts, the wooden stick in Lu Yang's hand now seemed like a long saber, tracing streak after streak of qi through the courtyard as his moves shifted and changed.

The saber traveled like dragons and snakes; as the blade danced, there was faintly the sound of wind and thunder.

Its might was more than ten times greater than the Great Perfection-level Mountain Splitting Saber Art. The saber moves possessed both offense and defense, and their exquisite intricacy opened Lu Yang's eyes wide.

"As expected of a High-grade Yellow Tier saber art. It's no longer as crude as those unranked saber arts. Looking at the previous Mountain Splitting Saber Art now, it's simply riddled with flaws!" Lu Yang sighed inwardly.

The stick moved with the man. When he reached the height of exhilaration, Lu Yang subconsciously poured in a bit of true qi. The wooden stick could not withstand it and snapped on the spot.

Looking at the broken wooden stick, Lu Yang could not help smiling. "If I had used this perfected saber art against Black Tiger back then, he probably wouldn't have lasted ten moves!"

After resting for two days in the small courtyard in the south of the city, the external injuries he had suffered on the trip to White Crane Ridge had basically healed, and the true qi within his body had also been adjusted to its optimal state.

Early on the third day, Lu Yang disguised himself and arrived at Black Stone Alley.

That group of beggars in ragged clothes were still holding their broken bowls, squatting at the mouth of the alley early in the morning. Looking around at a glance, however, he did not see Sheng San.

Lu Yang went up and tossed a few copper coins into one beggar's bowl. "Where is Sheng San?"

The beggar shook his head. "Haven't seen San for a few days. That kid recently got a sum of money. He probably ran off somewhere to enjoy himself, right?"

Lu Yang thought that fellow had most likely been silenced. There was no use searching for him, so he turned and went straight back to the county yamen.

In the Constable Office, Lu Yang saw Black Mountain County Lieutenant Lu Jue.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Lu Jue asked, "How is your investigation into the great clans coming along?"

Lu Yang cupped his hands and said, "It has been confirmed that the Wang Family colluded with the Demon Race in secret. Please report this to the County Magistrate, My Lord, and deal with the Wang Family!"

Lu Jue said, "Do you have evidence?"

"Half a month ago, the Wang Family set a trap to lure this subordinate out of the city and laid an ambush in the wilderness to kill me. This subordinate was lucky enough to escape with his life..." Lu Yang briefly recounted the process of how he had previously investigated the Wang Family, then been ambushed afterward, and narrowly escaped.

As for the matter of White Crane Ridge, he did not mention a single word.

For one thing, even if he said that he had killed Old Master White Crane, others might not necessarily believe it. For another, Niu Hanshan had been involved in this matter after all.

If a top-grade Treasure Weapon was coveted by others, disaster would inevitably be brought upon Niu Hanshan.

Hearing this, Lu Jue pondered for a long while before saying, "Your oral account alone is not enough. To move against a great clan, without solid proof, it will inevitably cause a backlash. You may withdraw for now. Next, this official will naturally order people to keep a close watch on the Wang Family. Once we catch them showing the horse's foot, we will immediately draw in the net."

"Yes." Lu Yang acknowledged and withdrew.

Lu Jue gazed at Lu Yang as he vanished beyond the doorway, his eyes slightly darkened, no one knew what he was thinking.

After leaving the yamen, Lu Yang went by the way to Captain Yan's home.

Yan Liu was an openhearted man, and over the past two years, he had taken good care of subordinates like them.

Previously, in the woods, if Yan Liu had been willing to abandon Lu Yang and the others and flee, he definitely could have gotten away unscathed. Yet he had insisted on fighting those Big Gray Rats even at the cost of heavy injuries.

Lu Yang had always remembered his kindness. Carrying good wine and good meat, he arrived at the gate of the Yan home.

But the one who answered the door was an unfamiliar woman.

"Who are you?" Lu Yang's brows furrowed slightly as he stared at the woman. "Where are Captain Yan and Madam Yan?"

The woman said, "Oh? You mean the family from before? They already moved away."

"Moved away?" Lu Yang frowned. "Do you know where they went?"

The woman shook her head blankly.

For some reason, Lu Yang faintly felt uneasy.

Yan Liu, like him, had come from the bottom, with no kin and no one to rely on.

His wife was a peasant girl from outside the city. Her parents had passed away one after another in recent years, and he had never heard of any relatives she could seek shelter with. Moving for no reason was truly somewhat strange.

Lu Yang immediately returned to the yamen quietly. After some investigation, he discovered that the corpses of those several colleagues in the mortuary had unexpectedly vanished as well.

Lu Yang then called over Zhao Hu and Wang Fang.

"Were the bodies of those colleagues in the mortuary buried?" Lu Yang asked. After all, more than half a month had already passed. According to procedure, if those three had been buried, that would be reasonable too.

"They were buried," Zhao Hu said. "Those corpses only remained at the yamen for three days before they were sent back to their widows together with the court's relief payment. By now, they've probably long since been buried."

Lu Yang gave an mm, then turned and left the yamen again.

This time, he went to Li Yan's home.

Li Yan had been one of the constables who died that day.

Li Yan's wife, Madam Li, was holding a hoe and turning the soil in her family's garden to plant vegetables. Seeing Lu Yang, she hurriedly rose to greet him.

After a round of pleasantries, Lu Yang slipped over a small pouch of silver pieces as a token of his feelings and said, "Brother Li and I were colleagues for a time. I wonder where he was buried. I'd like to go before his grave and offer a few cups of wine."

Madam Li accepted the silver. As if her emotions had been stirred, she nodded tearfully and led Lu Yang to Li Yan's grave.

When they reached the place, Lu Yang lit incense, offered wine, and said a few proper words. Then the two of them each departed.

Half an hour later, he returned alone, carrying a shovel, and began digging up the grave.

The instant he opened the coffin lid, Lu Yang felt his heart go cold, his hands and feet icy.

It was not because he had been frightened by a rotting corpse, but because—the coffin was actually empty!

Amid the turmoil of his emotions, he faintly sensed that there seemed to be a pair of eyes spying on him from the shadows.

That feeling was extremely uncomfortable; it did not seem like a human gaze.

After cultivating the Returning Origin Art, his senses had grown far sharper than before, and after mastering the Demon Subduing Saber Art, Lu Yang was especially sensitive to demonic qi.

Though it was only the faintest thread, Lu Yang was certain that whatever was secretly following him was very likely a demon!

In other words, a demon had slipped into Black Mountain County's town!

"Who's there?"

Lu Yang drew his long saber. In the space of a few breaths, he had chased several dozen zhang behind him.

But that aura from just now suddenly scattered, impossible to track any longer.

Lu Yang's thoughts flashed like lightning. He quickly slipped from the remote area into a crowded street, circled around at random a few times, and sure enough, that feeling of being watched gradually faded.

After confirming the hidden presence had already left, Lu Yang did not return to his residence. Instead, he once again went to the mixed-bag South City and found a new place to settle down.

If he went home now, he was very likely to be targeted again.

Over the next few days, Lu Yang disguised himself several times, blending into the markets and alleys as he investigated and asked around bit by bit.

After this round of probing, Lu Yang became more and more alarmed.

Over the past several years, the constables and captains at the yamen had actually been changed several times, far more than in the past!

And those constables had either died or gone missing!

Back then, he had only thought the monsters were vicious and the wilderness dangerous. But now, the more he investigated, the more he felt something was wrong.

Especially to verify the guess in his heart, he did not hesitate to turn himself into a "grave robber."

The result, however, was that the graves of those constables who had died in battle were nine empty houses out of ten—there were no corpses at all!

There were also many constables who, for some unknown reason, had inexplicably disappeared outside the city, and even their families had vanished with them.

This situation was cut from the same cloth as the disappearance of Captain Yan's wife and children.

After asking around in many places, Lu Yang finally seized a single thread of cause and effect amid the thousand tangled strands.

The last time those vanished people appeared, it seemed they had all been connected to someone called "Qian Wu."

And that "Qian Wu" was precisely a servant in the household of Qian Yikang, the County Assistant Magistrate of this county!

For this reason, for several days in a row, Lu Yang did nothing else. He restrained the aura on his body, dressed as a beggar, and kept watch day and night in a dark alley near the Qian Family residence.

Heaven did not fail the diligent. On the fifth day, he finally happened upon that "Qian Wu" leaving the Qian Family residence.