Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1314 Winter Arrives Early

The cold wave passed through, and overnight, dots of frost appeared on the window frames. In Xingyin City, there were fewer pedestrians, only a large number of peddlers walking on the streets, and every household closed their doors. Even the vendors had closed their stalls and retreated back home.

This was the scene that Ning Ke and Lin Xiyin saw when they walked onto the streets of Xingyin wearing the Demon Suppression Division uniforms.

"Where are the people?" Lin Xiyin yawned and looked around. Usually, there would be breakfast stalls before dawn, but today there was no one.

"Martial law." Ning Ke said.

"Oh, yes, martial law has been imposed... The governor of Xingyin is really ignorant. The emperor came here to understand the people's sentiments. You locked everyone up at home. The emperor will definitely be unhappy when he sees that there is no one in the city."

"If we offend the Holy King, it may not be as simple as being displeased."

Ning Ke and Lin Xiyin rushed back from the south, and naturally they were called up by the Demon Suppression Division. Because the emperor was about to go to Xingyin, the Demon Suppression Division had to wipe out the demons along the way to ensure the emperor's safety. This time, three of the same rank Qinchen, six of the same rank Juntian, nineteen of the same rank Quexie, and more than forty of the same rank Dianzheng led their subordinates to take action together, killing the demons along the way without mercy.

If we had this much drive to slay demons and eliminate evil on a daily basis, then the Wei Kingdom would have been peaceful long ago - these are Lin Xiyin's original words.

The Qinchen who was in charge of Xingyin City was Lin Xiyin's father, so she got this free patrol job. The city had been searched by the demon-suppressing officers, and there were no demons left. Even the evil spirit in the old palace had disappeared long ago. The two of them only needed to be on guard against the breeding of new demons.

"This winter is quite cold." Lin Xiyin exhaled a breath of white air, and then waved her hand to disperse the air. She had no interest in such a boring job, but she had to obey the official order of the Demon Suppression Bureau no matter what, unlike before when she could find an excuse to run away.

"In southern Xinjiang, the war seems to be over." Ning Ke said.

"Teng Liuyun really set the mountain on fire, how cruel. It's a pity that we couldn't find the Demon King. I wanted to see you kill the Demon King." Lin Xiyin said with a smile, "But the demons we killed did scare those old guys. Haha, when they were young, they didn't have the demeanor of you and me!"

Turning a corner, Ning Ke saw a family of three wrapped in straw mats lying at the foot of the wall, but they had already stopped breathing. After the weather suddenly turned cold, some refugees and beggars had no time to react. There were already 20 to 30 frozen bodies carried out of Xingyin City in the past few days.

Ning Ke picked up the whistle hanging around his neck and blew it, calling a few patrolling soldiers and asking them to dispose of the three bodies.

Lin Xiyin pinched her thick cotton coat, looking a little uneasy.

"When there is a suitable place to grow cotton seeds, there will be fewer people dying in vain." Ning Ke said to her, "Even if you really reach the position of Qin Chen, such problems cannot be solved by one person."

"I know..." Lin Xiyin rubbed his face and cheered up again, "We should be more careful about the demons that may be brought out by these tragic events. I feel that there is always something wrong with the aura of Xingyin City."

Ning Ke looked up at the gray sky. Although she didn't have such a premonition, this kind of weather also made her feel unhappy. And Lin Xiyin had this feeling, so she needed to pay more attention to it.

Hunyuan Yiqi has a natural sensitivity to all kinds of aura, destiny and other mysterious things. Lin Xiyin has been practicing it for so long that using this skill is as natural as breathing.

"If you think something is wrong, let's go check it out."

"The west side of the city, I can't quite tell the exact location, but it's probably that side." Lin Xiyin pointed.

"Okay, let's go and have a look together."

  =

"Destiny is always a wonderful thing." Outside the city of Xingyin, Zhao Yuqiao sat in a pavilion, drinking hot wine from a pot and watching the team slowly entering the city.

No matter how worried the governor of Xingyin was about what the emperor would see, he could not refuse outsiders entry. If the city was sealed without a serious reason, he would be the first one to be held accountable by the emperor.

Among the crowd, Zhao Yuqiao also saw some familiar people.

"Even though everyone has different missions, they will all eventually gather in Xingyin. Is this an intentional arrangement by the distribution center, or is it because Xingyin is now the place where the world's major trends converge? Spy Jiang Yao, can you tell me?"

"Mr. Zhao, why are you here if you're not going into the city?" A woman with a gentle voice jumped down from the pavilion and landed right in front of Zhao Yuqiao.

"Of course, it's because now is not a good time to enter the city." Zhao Yuqiao took a sip of wine. "I am a disciple of the Qihuang Sect. After entering the city, I saw those frozen and sick refugees. If I don't treat them, people will always say that I am heartless and unethical. If I treat these colds and other diseases, it's really boring."

"Mr. Zhao deserves the description of being heartless and unethical for speaking like that." Jiang Yao still spoke softly, but her comments were quite merciless.

"Haha, I don't like it, so I avoid it. What about you? You hide your identity and try to get confidential information without showing your true colors. What are you trying to do?"

"Make some preparations." Jiang Yao looked at Zhao Yuqiao, "It's just out of curiosity. The knowledge and talents of tourists can change the world. If Mr. Zhao is interested, it is possible to disrupt the situation in Xingyin."

"Li Duanyu has also entered the city."

"I can't keep an eye on him, and no one in the entire palace can keep an eye on Li Duanyu." Jiang Yao said.

Zhao Yuqiao laughed, "It seems that you have classified me as the second most threatening person after Li Duanyu? Jiang Yao, Jiang Yao, you are still a little young. Were you also present when the descendants of the Demon Cult, the demons and monsters caused the disaster and Zhenjian Villa was overthrown? You should pay attention to the tourists who are really on the enemy side, not neutral people like me."

"Mr. Zhao, the identity of that tourist has not been ascertained yet." Jiang Yao said in a low voice.

Zhao Yuqiao frowned: "It has not been found out yet? Aren't you the direct disciple of Dongtian Mingjing? Can't you count how many tourists there are?"

"There were twelve visitors. According to their origins, four were officials, four were civilians, and four were thieves. However, someone concealed the secret, so three of the four thieves were not counted. One thief was executed, so only four officials and four civilians were recorded."

"Hidden secrets?" Zhao Yuqiao put down the wine pot and asked, "Are you sure it's not the work of the distribution center?"

"If the gathering place didn't allow it, I wouldn't be able to predict anything. I did have some feelings a few days ago, but I had important matters to attend to at that time, so it was inconvenient to confirm his identity. When I wanted to find him later, he was no longer in Xingyin City."

"Then we'll have to think about it carefully. Thank you for telling me. This pill will be my thank you gift." Zhao Yuqiao threw a porcelain bottle over. Jiang Yao took it and nodded slightly: "In that case, Mr. Zhao, why don't you go into the city?"

"Come in." Zhao Yuqiao stood up, "The secret agents of the imperial palace have specially invited me, I can't be ungrateful." After saying that, he carried his medicine basket and walked towards the city gate. Jiang Yao watched him leave before disappearing.

"Tsk, these young people of Hongmeng Tiandao are really scary." Zhao Yuqiao muttered to himself as he walked to the back of the line. He scratched his beard and grinned, "Four thieves...haha, don't tell me that little girl Wen Rong is included in it. Fortunately, I didn't show my weakness, otherwise the spy would have seen through the clues."

  =

Han Younian followed the crowd into Xingyin.

After all, he was a handsome young man in Jianghu, and his clothing style was different from ordinary people, so he was not harassed at the city gate. Nowadays, the inspection for entering Xingyin City has become much stricter, and many people have been stopped outside the city and are not allowed to leave.

  When he walked into the city, he felt a little lost. From what he had heard, Xingyin was not a particularly prosperous but not bad city. How come after the rumor that the emperor was coming, it became... like an empty city?

The sun was approaching noon, and the streets were still sparsely populated. The few shops that were open had no customers. There were not many people who had entered the city before, as if they had all blended into the empty streets.

"The mission is... to find the traces of demons and report to the Demon Suppression Bureau." Han Younian silently recalled his tasks in the new stage and felt it was quite difficult.

He thought it would not be particularly difficult to find the traces of demons, but unexpectedly, the Demon Suppression Division swept away all the demons all the way to Xingyin. Now the remaining demons are probably those with extraordinary means. If he really found any traces, he didn't know whether he would live to report it.

He walked into an inn and booked a room first, planning to wander around Xingyin first and familiarize himself with the local terrain.

As soon as he got the key and went upstairs, he saw a man walking down the stairs. Although he still had a sword on his waist, he looked very different from when they first met.

"Han Younian?"

"Ah... we meet again, Lu Ning."

Lu Ning looked at Han Younian who was walking up to her, and for a moment she was considering the identity of this Mr. Han.

Neither she nor Wen Rong could conclude that this Mr. Han was a tourist, but seeing him again in Xingyin at this time made her more suspicious. There are few such coincidences in the world, and the task of the distribution center is probably to subtly connect these people. She took the initiative to come here to find Lin Xiyin, and Han Younian also came to Xingyin for some unknown reason.

"Why did Mr. Han come here?" Lu Ning asked.

"This... I am also looking for my father. I heard about the incident in Xingyin and thought that my father might be interested in coming here, so I came to try my luck. How come Miss Lu is here too?"

"There are some important matters that I need to discuss with the demon-suppressing officer here."

Han Younian's eyes lit up when he heard this: "Miss, do you know any demon-suppressing officials? Can you introduce one or two to me?"

"What do you want to do with the Demon Suppression Officer?" Lu Ning asked back.

"I have heard that the Demon Suppression Officer secretly protects the country and the people, and knows many secrets that ordinary people don't know. Maybe I can find out where my father is from the Demon Suppression Officer, so..."

"I need to ask first." Lu Ning did not agree directly, "Are you staying here for the next few days?"

"Yes, I live in Room 3, and I should be here for the next few days. There is a curfew in Xingyin, so I won't go out at night."

"Okay." Lu Ning nodded, walked past Han Younian and went downstairs.

Lu Ning came all the way here and asked the demon-suppressing department where Lin Xiyin was, and found out that she was in Xingyin. But when she came here today, she found nothing - the soldier on duty said that Lin Xiyin had gone out on patrol early and had not returned yet.

Xingyin City is now unusually clean. Lu Ning has gotten used to the fact that many places have a bit of evil spirit in them. But now Xingyin has become a truly clean city in her eyes, which makes her more alert.

After all, after seeing how the demons in Sanxian Island and Tianwaitian were kept hidden, even if they were human, there was no guarantee that there would be no problems. In addition to her demon eyes, she had not encountered a second method that could easily tell the difference in demonic energy in a person.

From the south to the north, she felt the harshness of the weather. People often froze to death in winter even when the Wei Dynasty was prosperous, let alone now? Those beggars walking on the street would probably become corpses on the roadside before the emperor came.

Every morning and evening, there were porridge stalls at the gates of the four cities, but how could that little food be enough for a day's activities? And if there was no warm place to stay overnight, it would be easy to fall asleep.

The disaster relief work of the Xingyin prefect was not done very well, and some local wealthy families did not dare to show up under the current situation. Lu Ning read some panic in the air, but did not know what they were wary of.

She didn't know where Lin Xiyin had gone, so she could only go to the old palace to check.

According to the records I saw in Zhenjian Villa, there was once an evil spirit called Minggao causing trouble here, but now it is gone. It either ran away or was killed by the demon-suppressing officer. After all, it is probably not at the level of a demon king. Lu Ning could only look outside the old palace, because a large number of craftsmen had already moved in to repair the palace, and the periphery was guarded by soldiers. The spirit of these soldiers was comparable to that of Teng Liuyun's personal soldiers she had seen in southern Xinjiang, but such a strong force was placed here to guard the construction site...

She didn't go forward and get herself into trouble, but looked outside, didn't see any evil spirit, and left.

  After walking for a while, she suddenly heard a loud noise and became curious. In the current state of Xingyin City, there is actually a lively place?

When she walked towards the sound, she found that this was actually the brothel in Xingyin City.

That can still be lively.

Lu Ning even saw a few people in official uniforms flash past the window. These officials probably came here in advance to prepare for the emperor's arrival. They all knew how to have fun, but didn't care about the lives of the people. Lu Ning frowned slightly and didn't go in. She only glanced at the turtle slave who was splashing water at the door of the outermost door.

This turtle slave had a lame leg, but he was pretty decent, at least not disgusting at first sight. After he splashed the water, he seemed to notice Lu Ning's gaze, and looked over here. When he saw that it was a woman, he lost interest, turned around, carried the basin, and limped back into the building.

Lu Ning just took a quick glance and felt that the turtle slave's face looked a little strange.

"how……"

Never one to ignore her instincts, she paused again, waiting until a madam appeared at the door, when that strange feeling returned.

Logically speaking, now that her eyesight has improved, she should be able to notice anything strange, but there was nothing wrong with the old procuress's facial features, yet she still felt a sense of weirdness.