Splitting Up

After Bian Chunchou finished speaking, he smacked his forehead. "Oh no, I forgot to report the cost of hiring a spiritual physician to the sect—one hundred spirit stones! That's enough for a trip to the Heaven-Shattering Sword Sect." If he'd had that money back then, perhaps he would already have joined the Heaven-Shattering Sword Sect. Though... he had no talent for swordsmanship.

Wen Xu had suffered hardship too. Even though he had money now, he was still exceedingly thrifty. "It's fine, I'll report it. At any rate, I count as their little martial granduncle."

Bian Chunchou: ...Then perhaps they should forget it. Would the Divine Dragon Venerable think his friend was too stingy?

Wen Xu noticed. "Chunchou, you seem to hold my master in particular respect."

"Do I?"

"Just a tiny bit. At least more than you respect the sect master."

Bian Chunchou: How could those possibly be the same?! That was the Divine Dragon!

For the next three days, the weather refused to cooperate. The three of them were stranded in the city for three days and heard no news of any evil cultivators being captured. On the fourth day, the skies finally cleared. After squatting in Yueyu Forest for another two days, they finally gathered ten jin of Moonlight Grass.

"Finally done digging. I'm never taking another Moonlight Grass harvesting mission again." The difficulty was not high, but it truly ground one down. With that time, he could have completed ten or so errands delivering medicine.

Looking at it that way, Listening Crane Manor's medicine-delivery mission was practically the king of cost-effectiveness.

They bundled up the Moonlight Grass and placed it all in Wen Xu's storage ring. Mission Two was finally completed perfectly. Next came Mission Three, the investigation mission.

To be honest, after that strange incident of "a man becoming pregnant," Bian Chunchou's back went cold whenever he looked at this investigation mission.

"Wen Xuxu, do you think the people of Mist Mountain Village getting pregnant one after another could be related to evil cultivator parasites?" But Mist Mountain Village lay west of Langyuan City, while Yueyu Forest was to the southeast. One was east, the other west—the distance between them was rather great.

Besides, the mission did not say that men were getting pregnant one after another. It could not possibly be such a coincidence, could it?

Since Bian Chunchou could think of it, Wen Xu naturally had as well. He was always extremely cautious in his actions, so he said, "I don't know, but one can never be too careful. Do you remember the pair who abducted people?"

"Of course I remember. They should still be rotting in the city lord's government prison, right?"

"Let's ask them where they encountered that pregnant man at the tea stall."

That made sense. The three immediately headed back. With their identities as Yonglu Mountain disciples, there were practically no places in Langyuan City they could not enter. The moment Bian Chunchou revealed his identity, the yamen runners respectfully ushered him inside.

"What do immortals want with those filthy people? To be honest, they died two days ago."

Bian Chunchou was startled. "Died? How did they die?"

"They suddenly dropped dead. Perhaps they had done too much evil, and Heaven finally sent down retribution. Since no one claimed the bodies, they've been left at the charity graveyard for two days. If no one comes for them after a few more days, they can only be thrown into the mass grave."

Bian Chunchou immediately realized that something was very wrong. Yet when he arrived at the charity graveyard, let alone the corpses lying in state—even the entire charity graveyard... was gone.

Well, damn. They had wiped away the evidence clean as a whistle. No wonder that, with Yonglu Mountain's efficiency, there had been no news of any operations to capture evil cultivators these past few days.

So there was a mole in the city.

"Then are we still doing this mission?"

Wen Xu's fingertips lightly tapped against the tabletop without restraint, a small habit of his whenever he was thinking seriously. "We'll do it, but... we won't do it with great fanfare."

"Then how do we do it?"

Wen Xu looked up. "I've always felt that cultivators focus too much on cultivation and techniques, and in doing so forget the simplest, most straightforward method."

"What?"

"Beggars." Wen Xu closed his eyes, and no one saw the emotions churning within them. "When anything stirs in a place, the first to notice will never be ordinary commoners, nor will it be cultivators who hold themselves above others."

Splitting Up

Beggars, the impoverished at the very bottom of society.

They lived by begging. They had no dignity, no place to settle, and most did not even have household registration. When a beggar died, they simply died. Even if they were beaten to death, no one would seek justice for them. Most were tossed into mass graves after death. The few fortunate ones merely managed to be buried in the earth.

When Wen Xu was young, he had seen far too many beggars die for no apparent reason. Precisely because he had seen so many, he knew that, because of their humble place at society's bottom, beggars were the group best at reading faces and discerning danger in this world.

Human lives were as worthless as grass, and a beggar's life was worth less than grass.

Though the cultivation world bloomed in splendid profusion, this world would never lack poor people, nor would it lack beggars who lived by alms. Wen Xu had seen quite a few beggars in Langyuan City.

"You mean we should find beggars near Mist Mountain Village and ask them for information?"

Wen Xu shook his head. "There's no need to get too close. If Mist Mountain Village truly has suffered some calamity, the beggars will certainly have hidden far away."

Bian Chunchou had been poisoned by television dramas for too long, and his way of thinking had yet to fully break free of it. "What if that evil cultivator is utterly vicious and captures beggars to feed to the Jade-Bone Albizia Tree's evil seeds?"

"They wouldn't."

"What wouldn't?"

Wen Xu smiled. "Do you remember the man we saved? For the brothel's thugs to take notice of him, he must have been rather good-looking, right?"

Bian Chunchou understood. "Damn, evil cultivators are even picking and choosing these days? Look at how full of himself he is!"

What Wen Xu did not say was that beggars slept rough and lived from one day to the next, their appearances bedraggled. Even if the evil cultivator was not picky, they would not choose beggars as hosts for evil seeds. But there was no need to tell Chunchou that.

As for Chen Zui, he simply could not be bothered to use his brain. The moment he heard it was merely gathering information, he immediately lost interest. By then, he had already gone out to practice his saber.

After the three returned to the city and rested for half a day, they set out for the western side of Langyuan City.

Considering that Yonglu Mountain disciples' uniforms were far too conspicuous, and that Chen Zui truly was not suited to gathering information, Bian Chunchou and Wen Xu decided to split up. Still, Bian Chunchou was worried about Wen Xu's eyes. "Do you really not need Chen Zuizui to go with you? How about we act together instead?"