Simultaneous travel: I am rampant in the domestic area

Chapter 84: Asking for a Seal
"Ning Yan was worried about you, Deputy General, so he asked us two to come and help." Song Tingfeng explained.

"You guys, are you worried about me?" Russell glanced at Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao who were in the middle stage of Qi Refining, and then turned his gaze to Xu Qian'an who was trying to break through the Spirit Refining Tribulation. If they really encountered troubles that he couldn't handle, these three brothers would just be asking for their lives.

Just like what happened just now, the monster hidden underground was not weak and also had the strength to refine Qi. The three of them rushed over so rashly, without realizing it. In just the first round, one of them might lose his combat power.

"Deputy General Luo, where is the village?" Xu Qian'an noticed something strange in the village and asked hurriedly.

"Disappeared." Russell said in a deep voice: "I will explore the village and ask the three Tongluo to see if there are any survivors."

Xu Qian'an and the other two looked at each other, realized the seriousness of the matter, and took action immediately.

Russell first came to the pool of blood in the north of the village, picked up a little with his hand and put it under his nose to sniff. It was indeed human blood, but it was not from a recent death. The owner of the blood was conservatively estimated to have been dead for more than three days.

From the time he received the briefing, except for chatting with Xu Qian'an and the other two at the city gate for two or three minutes, he did not delay any further. Even if the time for uploading the briefing was counted, the farm was still safe at least the night before yesterday.

And according to his daily experience of cosplaying Hannibal, the owner of this blood is not an ordinary farmer, but a warrior in the realm of refining essence.

Interesting, someone wants to make the fake look real?
Russell raised his eyebrows. They deliberately fabricated the illusion that a monster killed people and left the monster behind to be caught. Was this to cover up the truth about the disappearance of the villagers?
Then he went into the mud and wooden house built by the farmer and explored around.

Although the village was in chaos, as if it had been looted, the inside of the house was unchanged from before.

"Xu Tongluo, have you found anything?" Russell found Xu Qian'an outside a house, and Xu Qian'an shook his head silently.

"This damn beast!" Song Tingfeng pounded the low wall angrily. Everyone, including Xu Qian'an, believed that it was the Qi-refining snake demon that had just massacred Qingtian Manor.

Russell didn't say anything. How could he not know whether the snake demon ate humans or not?

He mounted his horse and said to the three men, "I have a feeling this is no accident. I'm going to the surrounding farms to investigate. Would you three like to join me?"

"Of course." Xu Qian'an agreed without hesitation. It would be fine if he didn't know it in advance, but since he had already gotten into it, he naturally wouldn't give up halfway.

The three of them did not stop and rode their horses along the predetermined route to investigate the surroundings.

For three whole days, they searched nearly fifty farms around Chengzhou City, Chizhou City, and Yanzhou City. They found that the situations in five of them were very similar to Qingtian Farm. In all of them, the villagers disappeared overnight without leaving any trace.

"Some forces are plundering the population!"

Xu Qian'an reacted immediately.

This was no small matter. If it was really what he thought, it would be even worse than the Yang Chuannan case they were investigating.

The accusations against Yang Chuannan were nothing more than secretly colluding with bandits, supplying military supplies to gain profits, and nurturing the bandits for his own benefit.

But the nature of the looted population is completely different.

Throughout the dynasties, stockpiling population and ensuring logistics were all preparations for rebellion.

"Think about it from another perspective. At least they are still alive, right?" Russell joked. He almost guessed in his heart that it was Qianlong City's doing.

"That's true." Upon hearing that, Xu Qian'an could only force a smile.

It’s true to think so. Anyway, Yunzhou’s current situation is no different anywhere.

Along the way, they were still in Yunzhou, but Baidi City was different from other places. Baidi City was a city where men lived, with singing and dancing, prosperity and blooming flowers. However, in the counties and prefectures they passed through, there were large tracts of abandoned farmland and dilapidated villages with no one around.

Life is so difficult! In this world, it’s impossible to survive anywhere. What difference does it make whether you’re an official or a gangster?

"Let's go. The last farm is at the foot of Luxia Mountain ahead. After we find it, we can go back to Baidi City." Russell put away the map and rode his horse in front, followed closely by Xu Qian'an and the other two.

Since they deduced that someone was hoarding people rather than monsters causing trouble, Russell and Xu Qian'an undoubtedly relaxed a lot.

Since they took the people back as captives, they generally would not kill them.

In today's troubled world, it might not be a bad idea to change the way you live.

……

The moonlight was shining, the stream was gurgling, and a slight cold wind was blowing, rolling up a few dead leaves, filling the air with the solemn and auspicious feeling of autumn.

When Russell and his four companions were riding their horses along the Luxia Mountain Road, a black cloud emerged from the horizon and obscured the moonlight filtering through the leaves in the forest.

A weasel the size of an adult jumped out of the woods, looked around, and finally locked its gaze on Xu Qian'an, making a gesture to bow.

"Yellow weasel?" Xu Qian'an hurriedly reined in his horse. He never expected to see a weasel in Yunzhou.

Damn it! I can’t move…

Waves of cold air emanated from the weasel's body, and an invisible pressure pressed down on Xu Qiyan and the other two, making them unable to move. Especially Xu Qiyan himself, he felt that the weasel in front of him was extremely tall, and fear rose in his body and mind.

"You yellow-skinned man, just take a look at whether I look like a human or a god. I may become a martial god in the future." Before the yellow-skinned man could speak, Russell spoke first.

This sound was like a sudden thunder and a wake-up call, which shocked the three people who were blinded by the illusion.

As soon as these words were spoken, the yellow-skinned man froze on the spot, and he had just made the gesture to bow, but he didn't know whether to bow or not.

A human skin asking for a title?
Xu Qian'an's mouth twitched. He thought it was outrageous enough to encounter a yellow-skinned man asking for a title in Dafeng, but he didn't expect that this Lieutenant General Russell was even more abstract.

Russell didn't think that he did anything wrong. When it comes to asking for a title, whoever says it first is right. Whoever said it was the only family that could ask for a title?

"I think you will die early. You should die on the spot today." The weasel demon, who was as tall as a man, did not say anything before an extremely cold voice came from behind it.

A black gas was seen swirling from behind it, transforming into a short old man with a pointed chin and monkey-like features. The old man's eyes were flashing with green light, and his eyes were filled with cold murderous intent.

He was originally one of the guardians of the Wushen Cult outside Shanhaiguan, and came to Yunzhou on the orders of the great wizard to plan major events.

For the great cause of Wushen Cult, he gave up Yunxia Mountain, one of the seventy-two caves, and moved his entire clan to this desolate land, where they lay dormant for half a year.

Now that his great cause is finally about to be accomplished, he meets a person with great fortune, so he sends the most talented descendant of his clan to ask for a title.

The art of seeking a title is a secret of the Huangxian clan. Every member of the clan has a chance to be conferred a title by a person of great fortune or magical power before transforming. Once the title is successfully conferred, the future path of cultivation will be twice as effective with half the effort.

He, Ben Shu, is the best example. The one who bestowed the title on him was Ilbu, one of the three great spiritual masters of the Wushen Sect. It was also because of Ilbu's bestowal that he was able to cultivate to the fourth level in just a hundred years.

However, the technique of conferring the title is extremely harsh, and once it fails, there will be no next chance.

The request for the title, which was about to succeed, failed because of Russell's words. How could this not make the old yellow-skinned man angry?

(End of this chapter)