Confucian and Taoist scholar

Chapter 98 Undercurrent
Outside Jiguana Mountain, in a dense forest.

Su Mei and Zhu Sha stood there quietly, looking at Jiguana Mountain in the distance.

They had been to Jiguana Mountain before and had done business with Bai Jin several times.

Among the local demon and ghost forces in Kaiyang County, Bai Jin provides the most Juyang Pearls.

So the two women came here first, wanting to inform Bai Jin so that he could prepare for the transaction.

Su Mei stared at the mountain and muttered, "I always feel like there's something different going on here..."

Zhu Sha said calmly, "Go quickly, we still have a lot of places to go."

Su Mei walked lightly out of the woods and came to a meadow. Then she took out a bamboo whistle and blew it.

In the past, whenever the whistle sounded, the demons from Jiguana Mountain would come.

But this time, Su Mei waited for a long time, but no one came.

She couldn't help feeling strange, so she walked closer to Jiguana Mountain and blew the whistle again.

The whistle echoed, but still received no response.

"This is really strange, could it be that the demons here have moved?"

Seeing that no demons or ghosts came to greet her, Su Mei went to Jiguana Mountain by herself.

As we walked along, we saw no trace of any demons or ghosts.

When they arrived at a passage at the foot of the mountain, Su Mei's beautiful eyes flashed slightly, and she immediately showed a look of vigilance.

Beside the passage, there lay the corpse of a black bear, emitting a strong stench of corpse, with many insects crawling on its body and signs of being eaten by wild beasts.

Su Mei frowned slightly and looked a few more times while suppressing her nausea.

He recognized that the black bear was the demon general Hei Xiong under Bai Jin's command, but he did not expect that he would die tragically at the entrance of the cave.

She became alert and quickly left Jiguana Mountain.

Zhu Sha waited there for a while, and when he saw Su Mei hurried back, his face looked a little ugly.

"Something happened?" Zhu Sha couldn't help but ask.

Su Mei lowered her voice and said, "I haven't seen a single demon or ghost on this journey. The black bear demon guarding the gate under Bai Jin's seat died at the entrance of the cave, and its body has rotted. I'm afraid something big has happened in Jiguan Mountain."

Zhu Sha's eyes flickered when he heard this, and he said, "Go and take a look."

The two women went all the way to Jiguana Mountain and soon arrived at the place Su Mei saw.

Zhu Sha floated to the black bear's body and examined it carefully.

Then he looked at the traces left around him.

After a moment, Zhu Sha whispered, "This black bear was attacked by a sword... but the attacker wasn't strong enough to hit it. He fought with the black bear for a few moves, leaving behind several footprints. It must have been a man."

Su Mei muttered, "Hey, could it be that some human swordsman is doing justice?"

Zhu Sha looked at the passage and went straight into it.

Seeing this, Su Mei hurriedly followed behind and took out a pearl to illuminate it.

As they walked along, the two women discovered traces of smoke and fire in the mountain.

Some of the poorly ventilated little demon nests were filled with thick smoke and dust.

"It's him!"

Zhu Sha suddenly spoke, his eyes dim and revealing a strange color.

"What did you say, who?" Su Mei asked curiously.

Zhu Sha whispered, "Lu Zheng, I sense a trace of his remaining aura here."

As a fierce ghost, Zhusha is extremely sensitive to the breath of living people.

What's more, she had had contact with Lu Zheng for a period of time before, and she could clearly identify the source of this breath.

Su Mei couldn't help but be stunned, "Him? He couldn't be captured here by a demon... and then the county magistrate sent people to secretly protect him. When they saw this kind of thing, they killed the demon in Jiguana Mountain?" Su Mei had an idea and imagined a big drama.

Zhu Sha did not make any judgment, but continued to go up to Bai Jin's cave.

When we got to the top, we saw the spacious passage filled with the corpses of monsters lying all over the place, each one burned to charcoal.

The two women walked closer to investigate and confirmed that these monsters were killed by the sword energy and died in one blow.

Su Mei was surprised and said, "It seems that he killed so many monsters in one second with just one sword. With such strength, he shouldn't have had to stab the black bear with several swords."

Zhu Sha shook his head and said, "The sword wounds are different. They weren't done by one person."

The two women came to the Baijin Cave Mansion again. The originally magnificent cave mansion had become a mess, charred and filled with the smell of fireworks.

Zhu Sha searched for a while before he found Bai Jin's body. He died in a miserable state and was burned beyond recognition.

After examining him, Zhu Sha said, "The sword wound on Bai Jin's body is the same as Black Bear's, both were caused by the same person."

Su Mei was amazed. "Who did this? Could it be the county magistrate's men... Forget it, let's go find out if there are any more Sun Gathering Pearls."

These monsters and ghosts died, Su Mei didn’t care at all. What she cared about was the Juyang Pearl.

So the two women searched everywhere, but naturally found nothing.

Seeing this, Su Mei felt a little headache. The master had given them a task. If they could not collect enough Yang Juzhu, it would delay the master's important matter, and they would suffer.

Even if the destruction of the Jiguana Mountain demon ghost was an accident, that person would not care about it and would only care about the results.

"What should we do now?" Su Mei whispered.

Zhu Sha said, "Let's go somewhere else. We'll report back on what happened here when we get back... Now that things have come to this, there's nothing we can do."

The deal at Jiguana Mountain could not be done. The two women had no choice but to make a wasted trip and go find other monsters to make deals.

When passing by Bailuze, the two women found that there were many fishing boats in the lake.

In the past, this place was occupied by the monsters from Jiguana Mountain. It has only been a period of time that so many people dare to come here to fish.

Zhu Sha couldn't help but frown and whispered, "Did the people here dare to come here because they knew that the Jiguan Mountain demon ghost had been destroyed? Go and ask them what's going on."

Su Mei became curious after hearing this, so she changed into another disguise and quietly ran to a fishing boat. She hypnotized the fishermen on the boat with magic and asked them about the matter.

After a while, Su Mei returned to Zhu Sha with an expression of disbelief.

Zhu Sha saw that Su Mei was always startled and asked, "What happened again?"

Su Mei took a deep breath and said, "Lu Zheng did it! Lu Zheng once came here with a female warrior..."

Su Mei told what she had heard, including the rumor that Lu was catching ghosts and doing good deeds in other places.

Su Mei said, "Although no one witnessed the incident at Jiguan Mountain, Lu Zheng would not take credit for others' achievements. Moreover, the common people saw with their own eyes that Lu Zheng was wearing a long sword at his waist, and that the female knight was carrying a whip."

The two women looked at each other and thought of Bai Jin's death, but they didn't dare to imagine that it was Lu Zheng who did it.

How can a scholar who has just broken through to the highest level of heaven and earth kill a third-level monster?
Su Mei blinked and speculated, "I think the county magistrate must have given Lu Zheng some treasure for self-defense, otherwise how could he have killed Bai Jin?"

Su Mei paused, then continued, "I heard he's done a lot of good deeds, giving away cultural treasures to the poor as if they were free. I also heard he's going to other places to slay demons and exorcise evil spirits. Tsk tsk tsk, he really wants to carry a three-foot sword, what kind of manly man is he?"

Su Mei still clearly remembered the events of Mingyue Tower. Some time ago, there were rumors that Lu Zheng went out to study and slay demons. She thought it was just talk and he wanted to avoid the limelight.

Now it seems that Lu Zheng really did something.

Zhu Sha said, "The Juyang Pearl is gone. I'm afraid he has learned about our situation."

Before, Cinnabar had confused Lu Zheng's mind and used the Yang Gathering Pearl to take away Lu Zheng's yang energy.

If the destruction of Jiguana Mountain was really caused by Lu Zheng, he must have noticed something and might have been investigating them.

Su Mei raised her eyebrows and said quickly, "Then we have to hurry. If he messes up the mission our master has given us, we won't be able to explain ourselves."

Su Mei didn't think that Lu Zheng's knowledge of the matter would affect that person. Instead, she thought that Lu Zheng would affect their transaction.

(End of this chapter)