There Was No Forty-Two-Chapter Sutra...

As a man-eating monster, a Mountain Ogre posed an enormous threat to humans.

It was roughly like the "Ogres" in the world Pan Long had just visited, but far more vicious and dangerous. One adult Mountain Ogre could wipe out a small troop of soldiers. If it started causing trouble, it could easily frighten the people of several villages into fleeing. There was even a record from the Northlands of an exceptionally burly Mountain Ogre eating all forty or fifty people in a village.

When the experts sent to hunt it down arrived, it was still picking its teeth with a human finger bone.

If the "mountain god" on Mount Lu really was a Mountain Ogre, it was no wonder the locals feared it so much.

At that thought, Pan Long asked the waiter, "You said you've seen the mountain god. Did you notice how it walked?"

"Walked?" The waiter paused, then thought back for a moment. "Now that you mention it, there was something strange about the way it walked... Its knees bent backward."

Pan Long smiled faintly and looked at Han Feng. "That settles it. It's a Mountain Ogre."

"Long, how do we handle it?" Han Feng perked up at once. "Report it to the authorities, or kill it ourselves?"

He said "report it to the authorities" quickly and lightly, but drew out "kill it" with heavy emphasis. His meaning was plain as day.

Pan Long did not rush to decide. He looked at Li Qiang first.

"Qiang, when monsters or Demons turn up around Yong Province, do the authorities deal with them?"

Li Qiang shook his head. "Depends on the local official. Some will. Others... as long as the thing doesn't enter town and cause trouble or kill everyone in a village, they won't bother."

He sighed.