A Night Guard Squad Encountered a Funeral Procession

In the middle of the night, the shift changed, and the three returned to their posts.

Li Qingxian, in a last-minute cramming effort, opened the basic Daoist arts book given to him by Zhou Chunfeng and learned a technique called "Paper People Making." He then made four palm-sized paper dolls and placed them nearby.

The night passed peacefully.

On their journey once again, Li Qingxian deliberately lagged behind the group, using his Fate Observation and Qi Gazing to look at the middle-aged man named Nie Shan, who appeared to be Ye Han's henchman.

There is no Fate Projection Fortune or destiny.

I vaguely sensed two strange forces obscuring my Fate Observation and Qi Gazing.

Li Qingxian walked while simultaneously performing calculations.

"One of the forces has an aura close to Ye Han's, and our acquaintance stems from the protection of Ye Han's Fate Mold. To Nie Shan, Ye Han is a benefactor. The other force feels somewhat familiar; I should have sensed it somewhere before, but I can't quite recall where. Let me think..."

Li Qingxian pondered for a full hour, recalling the feeling of encountering the "Emperor Star Suppressing Fate" in the Imperial Prison.

"Yes, that's the feeling! It's not just Emperor Taining's personal power, it's a Grand Momentum Configuration. I understand, it's the imperial family, the relatives of the emperor."

Li Qingxian felt a chill run through his body. No wonder Zhou Chunfeng didn't mention the mastermind behind Ye Han, who was actually involved with the imperial clan.

Li Qingxian recalled the imperial relatives that Li Gangfeng had offended back then, and within a short while, he could think of seven, but he didn't know where to start. Forget it, he was too tired.

Li Qingxian secretly observed the other three as well, and the results were the same: they were all protected by Ye Han's Fate Mold and the royal family, with two of them being protected even more strongly by the power of the royal family.

As for Ye Han, Li Qingxian glanced at him but couldn't see anything.

Ye Han, now that he has reached a higher level, is no longer the same as before. Even if all the Fortune Fish were exhausted, they still couldn't enter his Fate Mansion.

Li Qingxian kept pondering.

"Nie Shan and the other three are protected by the Imperial Grand Momentum Bureau. Without external influence, even if we enter the Fate Mansion and see their Fate Star, we won't be able to see their destiny Fate Projection. Just like that day in the Directors' Hall, if the Commander of the Guards hadn't spoken up, I definitely wouldn't have been able to see Ge Chao's Fate Projection. If my rank were higher, and I could master more Fate Arts, I could secretly use various methods of countering, weakening, harming, and punishing them to take them down in no time. But right now, I really don't have that kind of strength."

"My first step should be to find a way to weaken their Imperial Grand Momentum Bureau protection..."

Li Qingxian pondered deeply, reflecting on the stories of Fate Arts Master, various rumors, and recalling the verses he had memorized. Unconsciously, his understanding of the relevant Fate Arts deepened.

The group moved slowly forward. Along the way, they could vaguely see some desolate villages. Occasionally, they would see disheveled people who looked like savages, glance at them from afar, and then flee.

Under the blazing sun, the group slowly made its way along the dirt road in the clear morning sunlight.

The sound of whips lashing the oxen grew more and more frequent.

After passing a patch of overgrown wasteland and turning a corner, a bright white, winding river appeared ahead, its shimmering water dazzling the eyes.

"There's a river!"

"Daren Wu, why don't you go take a bath and cool off?"

"Walking day and night is really unbearable."

"We can take it, but the cows can't!"

Wu Jingtian's expression softened, and with a wave of his hand, he said, "We'll rest by the river for two hours today!"

The crowd cheered.

After Wu Jingtian finished speaking, he carefully observed his surroundings.

Li Qingxian and Han Anbo also looked around.

The riverbed is low-lying, while the land on both banks is slightly higher and covered with lush vegetation. Only a dirt road separates the weeds and trees.

Thirty feet to the left, a gray-white stone bridge spans the river, connecting the dirt roads on both banks.

Across the way, a continuous earthen slope rises, and behind a grove of trees, the roof of a white wooden building emerges.

Han Anbo said, "There's a village ahead."

Wu Jingtian nodded and said, "Let's ignore them. We're here to hunt demons. We'll talk about it when we get to Dadong County."

The group quickened their pace to the riverbank, and the old ox also quickened its pace. After the cart shaft was removed, it ran straight into the river, mooing as it drank.

More than half of the people took off their clothes and plunged into the river when they reached the riverbank.

Some rushed into the deep water to swim, some fished and caught shrimp in the shallow bay, and others took a refreshing bath.

Li Qingxian stood on the shore and noticed that Ye Han and the other four people had not gone into the water.

Suddenly, someone cursed, "You son of a bitch, Liu Xiang, I'm drinking water down here, and you're pissing upstream?"

"Bullshit, how could you see my pee?"

"I can't see the urine, but I can see you lying in the water shaking that soft spout."

"..."

Everyone laughed and cursed together.

The group emptied the water from the bamboo tubes and went upstream to fetch more water, cursing Liu Xiang as they went.

Ignoring the curses from others, Liu Xiang lay smiling in the water, enjoying the sunshine, occasionally splashing water onto his face.

He was robust, but his eyebrows and eyes were delicate, with a beauty mark under the corner of his right eye. His light brown eyes reflected the shimmering surface of the river.

Li Qingxian looked at the naked Night Guard in the water and felt a little envious.

After thinking about it, I decided that if Ye Han wouldn't go into the water, I wouldn't either.

Splat splat...

As the sun dipped below the horizon, a large, gleaming snowman waded through the shallow water and plunged into the river with a splash, echoing like a thunderclap from the riverbed.

Everyone looked over and saw Yu Ping emerge from the water in the center of the violent waves, comfortably wiping the water off his face.

Han Anbo cursed, "Yu Ping, if you had used any more force, the resulting wave would have knocked me over!"

Everyone burst into laughter.

After playing for a while, several young Night Guard, led by Yu Ping fishing and catching shrimp.

Not long after, just as the Night Guard were preparing lunch, a funeral procession dressed in mourning clothes appeared on the opposite bank, making a lot of noise as it slowly moved forward.

Some people held up white cloth banners, some scattered paper money everywhere, and some held up everlasting lamps. The people at the front of the procession cried and wailed, while several strong young men carried black coffins behind them.

Han Anbo glanced at it and said, "That person was killed by a demon. Look at the coffin; there are diagonal marks carved with a knife. That's the Yan Prefecture people imitating the shape of wolf claws, hoping that their family members will not be killed by demons again."

Wu Jingtian, "Is it dangerous?"

Han Anbo glanced at the people dressed in mourning clothes in front of him and said, "The family members have dark skin, rough hands, and are very thin. Their mourning clothes are all old, indicating that the deceased was a poor person. The fact that even an ordinary person's death warrants a funeral suggests that not many people died. If many people had died, they would have been hastily buried. The funeral procession includes men, women, and children, so they must not be afraid of demons. This means that the demon is not strong, and is likely a lone wolf, no higher than the Tenth Rank. It dared not enter the village and only killed a lone one."

Wu Jingtian frowned and said to one of the Night Guard beside him, "Go to the ranks and call over a village head, ward chief, or manager. Bring them here and ask them what happened. After all, we are from the Demon-Hunting Office; we need to investigate."

That Night Guard met the funeral procession, while the others gradually got dressed and went ashore.

Before long, an old man dressed in coarse brown clothes under a white mourning robe followed the Night Guard over. When he got closer, he saw the iron rhinoceros armor on Wu Jingtian's chest, and then looked at the brocade clothes on everyone's bodies. He knelt down with a thud and cried out, "I beg you, Daren Night Guard, to save Fangyuan Village! Two people have died in the last ten days!"

"What's your name? Tell me what happened," Wu Jingtian asked.