Demonic Beast

Afternoon, outside the east gate of the marketplace.

When Li Yuan arrived, the three men were already standing by the side of the road.

Zhou Dazhuang was leaning against a door pillar, looking like he had not slept well, though he seemed a bit more energetic than he had during the guard rotation.

Standing nearby were Xu Mao and Lin Xiaowu. Xu Mao was in his early thirties, with a steady demeanor, quiet and dependable, and had worked in the patrol squad for several years; Lin Xiaowu was in his early twenties, the youngest in the squad, looking somewhat nervous as his hand kept touching the Dharma artifact at his waist.

Seeing Li Yuan approach, the three of them simultaneously cupped their fists in greeting.

Walking as he spoke, Li Yuan cut straight to the point: "A demonic beast's traces were discovered south of the spirit field district. The management office wants us to find out whether it's just passing through or has made a nest."

As Li Yuan spoke, Zhou Dazhuang lowered his head to feel for the water skin at his waist, unscrewed the cap, and took a gulp.

"After we arrive, we'll split into two groups. Zhou Dazhuang, you're coming with me to the south, searching outward from where the claw prints appeared. Xu Mao, take Lin Xiaowu to the east, make a circle along the edge of the spirit field district, and see if there are any other traces. If you run into the demonic beast, fall back first and gather to talk it over."

The three men acknowledged the order.

Following behind, Lin Xiaowu could not help asking, "Vice-captain, do we know what grade of demonic beast it is?"

"Not sure."

Zhou Dazhuang's expression appeared somewhat unnatural as he walked silently beside them, remaining quiet for a while before finally speaking: "Lately, everything's been running toward the edge of the marketplace. During last month's guard rotation, Sun Liang ran into a burrowing centipede while hunting beasts outside. He took a shockwave hit, his viscera were damaged, and he's still recovering inside the marketplace now."

Li Yuan glanced at him.

"He wanted a larger share of spirit stones and rushed to the very front."

Zhou Dazhuang shook his head. "He got five."

Trading one's viscera for five spirit stones could hardly be called worth it or not; it was Sun Liang's own choice.

The four of them walked along the dirt road for less than half an hour, arriving south of the spirit field district.

Farmer He was once again the first to come out to greet them, saying the traces were still there and that he had deliberately made sure no one had stepped on them.

Li Yuan had Xu Mao take Lin Xiaowu to the east, while he and Zhou Dazhuang followed Farmer He toward the south.

The claw prints were still there, just like yesterday, except their edges had been somewhat blurred by the wind.

Zhou Dazhuang squatted down to examine them for a moment: "There are plenty of demonic beasts with three-toed webbed feet, but bowl-sized ones—I haven't seen any in a month with the guard squad."

With that, Zhou Dazhuang glanced once more in the direction the claw prints extended toward: the barren grasslands to the south.

Li Yuan walked south into the barren grasslands, following the direction of the claw prints.

Leaving the edge of the spirit field district, the ground turned into hard-packed dry yellow soil and gravel, and the claw prints quickly became indistinct.

It was the same situation as yesterday. Relying on the naked eye for tracking, it was a dead end once you reached this point.

But today was different.

Li Yuan stopped in his tracks, feeling for the spirit detection disk from his sleeve.

The bronze-yellow circular piece rested in his palm.

Li Yuan had no intention of equipping it; things had to be done steadily, without exposing anything, even if the probability was very small.

He only needed to activate the Dharma artifact to scout the surroundings.

With a thought, his mana poured into the disc.

His perception suddenly intensified.

It was like walking the whole way with his eyes blindfolded, only to suddenly have the cloth strip ripped off.

It was not that he saw something; it was that he felt it. The spiritual qi fluctuations within a radius of dozens of zhang poured into his mind simultaneously.

A dozen zhang behind him was Zhou Dazhuang. His spiritual qi fluctuations were steady and deep, roughly at the level of the Qi Refining Third Level.

Further away, in the direction of the spirit field district, were extremely scattered and unclear weak fluctuations—the cultivation auras of the spirit farmers.

The barren grassland was quiet and still, with no spiritual qi fluctuations from any demonic beasts within a radius of dozens of zhang.

Holding the spirit disk, Li Yuan walked slowly forward toward the south, and after covering about seventy or eighty zhang, an anomaly appeared in his perception.

A mass of something appeared within Li Yuan's perception.

The concentration of spiritual qi was not high; on the contrary, it was extremely low, making it appear quite abrupt.

"South-southeast, follow me."

Without a second word, Zhou Dazhuang followed behind him.

The two of them pushed through waist-high wild grass, walking for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea.

Li Yuan stopped.

A patch of grass in front of them had been flattened by something, two or three zhang square—not large, but very distinct.

The surrounding wild grass was waist-high, but only this patch was depressed, as if a large creature had been lying on top of it for a while, flattening all the grass completely.

On the ground were several clear claw prints—identical to those in the spirit field district, three-toed and webbed, the size of a bowl.

These were not traces left by something just passing through in a hurry.

"This isn't just passing by." Li Yuan straightened up.

Zhou Dazhuang's gaze shifted away from the claw prints and looked toward the spirit field district.

From this position to the south of the spirit field district, only a stretch of wild grass lay in between, with no obstructions whatsoever.

Standing here, one could directly see the movement in the spirit field district.

"This thing has been watching the spirit fields," Li Yuan stated flatly to the ground.

The grass stems at the very bottom had withered, turned yellow, and become brittle, their breakages dry—they had been flattened at least several days ago.

Covering them on top was another layer of freshly broken grass, the broken ends still tinged with blue-green—at most a day or two old.

"And it may have come more than once."

Zhou Dazhuang's expression sank completely, and Li Yuan saw Zhou Dazhuang instinctively glance toward the southwest, the exact same direction as that glance when they had first arrived at the spirit field district.

There were no other anomalies within a radius of dozens of zhang; the main body of the demonic beast was not nearby.

"Let's head back first."

The two returned the way they came. By the time they reached the edge of the spirit field district, Xu Mao and Lin Xiaowu had already circled back from the east.

"The east is clean," Xu Mao shook his head. "Both the field ridges and road surfaces are fine. No claw prints, no traces of demonic beasts."

Li Yuan briefly recounted what he had found in the south—they had found traces of the demonic beast lingering, and that position could directly observe the spirit field district; it was not a chance passing.

Afterward, Li Yuan notified several spirit farmer households near the spirit field district one by one. They were to finish work before dark, avoid spending the night in the fields, and run toward the marketplace if they encountered anything abnormal.

Farmer He grabbed Li Yuan's sleeve and asked twice whether a demonic beast was really staring at his fields.

After giving the notices, the four returned to the marketplace and went to the headquarters to report to Wang De.

After listening, Wang De was silent for a few breaths.

"Staring at the spirit field district?"

"Most likely. It found a spot to lie down in the southern barren grassland, and that angle gives a direct view of the spirit fields."

"Why would this demonic beast be staring at the spirit field district for no reason? The spirit grain isn't even ripe yet."

Wang De tapped his knuckles twice on the desktop and picked up his brush to write a few lines on the document.

"We'll temporarily step up patrols in the spirit field district, and arrange a group of men to make a round there every day. You'll lead the team."

"For now, we still can't determine this demonic beast's grade. You should go borrow a Fa—never mind, the Dharma artifacts are all over at the guard squad's place. I'll assign a few more men to you."

Li Yuan led the three of them out.

As they walked out of the courtyard, Li Yuan swept a sidelong glance at Zhou Dazhuang.

From the afternoon until now, Zhou Dazhuang had been completely on edge, as if he had something stuck in his throat that he couldn't spit out.

When they dispersed at the entrance, Zhou Dazhuang took two steps before turning back, pulling the water skin from his waist to take a swig.

"My wife is two months pregnant, and her morning sickness is severe right now."

Li Yuan did not pick up the thread.

Zhou Dazhuang wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, staring down at the ground with his head lowered.

"She throws up everything she eats, and she's lost a huge amount of weight. She's a commoner; her constitution was never as good as a cultivator's. I wanted to stay home and look after her, but instead I got rotated into the guard squad and couldn't get away."

"I was frantic with worry, and it messed up my patrol."

Zhou Dazhuang's wife was a commoner, living in the commoner residential area in the southeastern corner of the marketplace. Marriages between cultivators and commoners were quite common among the lower rungs.

Female cultivators were few; taking a commoner as a bride could get you an extremely pretty one.

Especially for cultivators like Zhou Dazhuang, whose cultivation was low and hopes of a breakthrough nil, quite a few chose to find a commoner to live out their days with.

"We finally managed to tough it through, but lately..."

The sentence broke off unfinished, and Zhou Dazhuang let out a sigh before turning away.

Li Yuan watched Zhou Dazhuang retreat into the distance.

Returning to his residence, he bolted the door and sat down by the edge of the bed.

Sitting cross-legged, he circulated the Spirit Guiding Art. The spiritual qi entering his body was pure and devoid of impurities, and his circulation through the macrocosm was swift.

Li Yuan adjusted his pacing, maintaining his cultivation at a comfortable intensity.

Outside the window, dusk settled, and only the sound of even breathing remained inside the wooden cabin.