ninety thousand miles

Chapter 449 Situation

Zou Jingping said: "Let's talk somewhere else."

"Okay." Li Chuan said.

Li Chuan and the other two followed Zou Jingping to the east study room next to the second hall. As soon as they sat down, another man with two long and short knives hanging on his waist walked in.

Li Chuan recognized this man, his surname was Tang and his name was Su, he was a small leader in the Monster Hunting Department, a Monster Hunter. When Li Chuan was working in the Monster Hunting Department before, he had met him several times and chatted with him for a few words.

After Tang Su came in, he said, "Doctor Li, Junior Supervisor Bo asked me to come here. He said that what you are going to do in Yashan County is of great importance, and asked me to do my best to assist you."

"You're welcome, Brother Tang." Li Chuan said.

Tang Su glanced at Zou Jingping and said, "The Monster Hunting Division had never been able to enter Yashan County before. This time, they finally got in, but there were all kinds of obstacles. In addition, the news spread, hundreds of monster hunters came here one after another, causing a lot of trouble. Fortunately, Mr. Zou came and stabilized the situation."

Li Chuan quickly thanked Zou Jingping and said, "Thank you, Mr. Zou."

Zou Jingping said: "The situation in Yashan County is complicated. Lord Tang has just arrived. It is not easy for him to achieve this."

"By the way, this is Master Wen, whom you all know, and this is Master Yao, they are both here for this matter." Li Chuan briefly introduced the identities of Wen and Yao to Tang Su and Zou Jingping.

After the greetings, Li Chuan asked again: "What is the current situation in Yashan County?"

"Let me speak first." Zou Jingping said.

"Please speak, Mr. Zou," said Li Chuan.

Zou Jingping said: "After Prince Su was placed under house arrest, it was indeed the general's men who were stationed here, but the Great Jiang Dynasty has not seen war for more than 20 years. These people are nominally under the jurisdiction of the general, but it is difficult for the general to completely control them. I am not trying to excuse the general, but it is the fact and there is nothing we can do. Prince Su has been running Yashan County for many years, and he really knows how to manage his territory and treats his people well."

"So the people of Yashan County all think that Prince Su was murdered by a traitor. This traitor is the general, and..." Zou Jingping glanced at Tang Su and said, "And the Palace Supervisor."

"Fortunately, the harvest this year is good, so there won't be any chaos." Zou Jingping sighed.

He said: "After the Demon Hunting Division came in, the number of demons and ghosts causing chaos in various places in Yashan County suddenly increased. And this time, it was different from the previous year. Although there were many demons entering the human world that time, they all acted on instinct. Many of the things they caused were ridiculous, but they were not difficult to deal with. The number of cases that caused murders was still a minority."

"This time, the monsters seemed to have lost some kind of restraint, and as if they wanted to vent their anger, they were causing chaos in various places in Yashan County. After the monster hunters came in, the two groups started fighting, and they became more and more courageous as the fight went on. The civilians were the ones who suffered."

"I came here originally just to restrain the behavior of these soldiers and summarize the information from various places... But the situation has deteriorated to this point, and we can't let Yashan County really get into chaos." Zou Jingping took a sip of tea, moistened his throat, and said, "I have plenty of ways to make those soldiers obedient, but I have no way to deal with the monsters and the monster hunters. So I took the initiative to find Lord Tang and put forward some ideas."

"We must deter these monsters. We must also clearly distinguish rewards and punishments for the actions of monster hunters. Lord Tang agreed with my idea and roughly explained to me the strength of the Monster Hunting Department here. So we made a plan and spread the news."

"What news?" Li Chuan asked.

Zou Jingping said, "We found several letters in a secret place in Prince Su's palace. They mentioned some secret relics and magic weapons, and also contained words like escaping from the shell and making a comeback."

"In order to make the news seem credible, I arranged for the general's men to steal the letter from Lord Tang, and finally some monsters believed it." "Those monsters were also very interesting. When one was captured, the others came to rescue one by one. After killing more than a dozen monsters and letting them get the letters, they fled to other places."

Hearing this, Li Chuan understood why Xiao Xiang came to Tianju Mountain to seek refuge. He looked at Wen Guying, who nodded to him, and he knew that Wen Guying had seen this from Xiao Xiang's past.

Zou Jingping said: "Afterwards, we severely punished those demon hunters who acted recklessly and rewarded the demon hunters who made meritorious contributions in this matter. Although our reputation among the people is still difficult to change for a while, at least the situation has stabilized."

Li Chuan thanked him sincerely again: "Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Zou."

"It's just... because I put most of my energy and manpower into these things, I neglected other things." Zou Jingping said frankly: "The hunter went to the nunnery half a month ago and has not come out since then."

"He had been there once in the fall. He burned some paper and left. When I received the news, I thought he was there to pay tribute to his sister and didn't think much about it. Unexpectedly, he went there again."

Li Chuan asked: "Is there no one guarding over there?"

"There has always been," Zou Jingping replied, "but he is very skilled and familiar with the mountains and forests, so it is difficult to guard against him. The spies who followed him were also thrown off by him."

"There's really nothing we can do about it." Li Chuan understood Zou Jingping's difficulties and asked, "Have you sent anyone to look for him?"

"No," Zou Jingping shook his head and said, "I just asked people to continue guarding there. After the situation here stabilized, I informed Lord Tang about this matter, and Lord Tang took people to take a look."

"I entered the secret passage and found complex runes on the ground," Tang Su said. "The Monster Hunting Division can only kill monsters. I didn't dare to go deeper, and I was afraid that acting rashly would ruin things, so I retreated. I wrote down all the runes I saw. I wrote them down from memory, so I guess there are many mistakes and omissions."

As he spoke, Tang Su handed a few pieces of paper to Li Chuan.

After Li Chuan took a look at it, he handed it to Wen Guying, who then gave it directly to Yao Shuang and said, "Senior Sister Yao, have you seen similar runes?"

Yao Shuang carefully read through the papers and said, "It looks a bit like the runes on the stone platform in Heyuan Town. It's something from the demon clan."

Zou Jingping spoke again: "This is the current situation. Dr. Li, what are you going to do next?"

Li Chuan hesitated.

The nunnery is a trap, but...

He said, "I want to go to the nunnery first."

Wen Guying said, "I think we should go check it out, too."

Li Chuan asked Tang Su: "Brother Tang, has Master Wukong sent any news?"

Tang Su shook his head and said, "Not yet."

(End of this chapter)