"Can we find it this way?" Di Jiu asked.
"I've just finished taking detailed statements," Xie Chuantang said. "One young man admitted he'd caught a glimpse of it. I'll search the east bank of the canal afterward. We should be able to find some traces."
"I can ask the Immortal Platform to send someone to help," Pei Ye said. "They're very professional."
Di Jiu tapped the table lightly and thought for a moment. "We haven't received any reports of civilians being killed so far. Li Zhao, go check again later."
After a pause, he added, "Ask around about missing livestock and the like, too."
Li Zhao accepted the order.
The western city.
With that enormous gang gone from the broad canal, some days of frantic adjustments were inevitable. It was slightly overcast today, the sky a cold, distant veil of haze that stretched beyond sight.
This river would not freeze, but the earth along its banks had already grown somewhat dry and hard. A breeze shook the withered grass and fluttered their clothes.
"Look, this is where it tore through the secret hold and escaped. The people aboard threw capture nets after it. These scratches were left when the hooks caught on the rocks." Xie Chuantang raised her sword to point. "At least twenty cultivators chased it more than two hundred meters along the bank, and there's no telling how many went into the water. But once they reached this spot, they suddenly doubled back."
This was the largest deployment Jingzhao Prefecture had made since Di Jiu took office. Dozens of officers were sent to the canal with little boats and fishing nets, told to look for things like claw marks and scales. Yet after several sweeps, they had found none of those things, though they had reconstructed most of