The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, becoming a disciple of Yue Buqun.

The villagers all shook their heads.

"It's quite strange."

One of the villagers said, "Although that monster ate our livestock, I've never heard of it eating people."

“That’s right, that’s right. We’ve never heard of anyone being eaten in our village.”

They move at night and eat poultry but do not harm people.

Jiang Ning thought to himself.

"Hey."

An old man sighed and said, "Actually, if that monster doesn't hurt people, it wouldn't be a big deal if it ate some livestock. The main problem is that everyone is afraid."

"Yes."

Other villagers chimed in, "In previous years when the harvest was good, which village hadn't lost a few chickens or ducks? We'd just curse and move on. But now everyone's harvest is bad, and last year we even suffered from floods. Every household is tightening their belts. And now this monster has appeared, eating our chickens and ducks, and even a few of our oxen have been eaten. Who can stand this? What scares us even more is that we don't know if it will eat people. It's not eating people now, but what if it does in the future?"

Nobody wants to be eaten by monsters in the middle of the night or on the street; everyone is terrified.

Listening to the villagers' words, Jiang Ning frowned slightly and said, "I'll go to the scene first and see which families in this village have been affected?"

As soon as the Jiangning dialect was spoken, several villagers raised their hands.

"Me, me, me."

"And my family too."

Jiang Ning looked at one of them and said, "Take me to your home."

"no problem."

The man nodded repeatedly and then led the way, with Jiang Ning following behind, and the other villagers all followed.

"This is it."

Upon arriving at the villager's home, the villager led Jiang Ning directly to the cowshed.

"My cow was eaten."

The villager said with a bitter face.

His family was relatively well-off; they owned an ox for plowing, but the ox was gone, and he was worried about how to report the matter to the authorities.

Under the Ming Dynasty law, it was strictly forbidden for ordinary people to slaughter oxen. There was also a registration system for oxen. If an ox died or disappeared without a plausible reason, the government would hold the perpetrators accountable.

Jiang Ning entered the cowshed and looked around. He did find some marks on the ground. These marks were long and winding, and looked a lot like the tracks of a snake.

At this point, the other villagers also started discussing it.

"Look what this thing left behind?"

"It's definitely a snake."

"It's definitely not a snake."

The villagers were talking amongst themselves, and Jiang Ning turned to look at that villager.

"Where did you finally find it to go?"

"Over there, over there."

The villager quickly pointed in a direction.

Jiang Ning looked in that direction and saw it was the Qinling Mountains.

"Okay, I see."

Jiang Ning nodded and said nothing more.

There were too few traces here to see anything, so he decided to visit the other villages as well.

The villages at the foot of Mount Hua are not far apart. When we arrived at the home of a villager in another village, we found a similar situation, but we could clearly see the footprints of a large wild animal on the ground.

"See, I told you it had legs, didn't I?"

The villagers who witnessed this scene shouted.

The villagers who had previously spoken with absolute certainty are now losing confidence.

"What kind of monster is this? How come it sometimes has legs and sometimes doesn't?"

"I guess it's a snake."

Where did the snake's claw marks come from?

Listening to the villagers' chatter all around him, Jiang Ning squatted down and carefully examined the claw marks on the ground.

"These look like turtle claw prints."

After observing carefully, Jiang Ning muttered to himself.

Could there be two strange beasts?

Chapter 678: Searching for Beasts in the Mountains

Once the thought crossed Jiang Ning's mind, he felt that this was very likely the case.

None of the villagers were lying; it's just that they didn't see the same monster. Some villagers only saw a monster without legs, while others only saw a monster with legs, which is why their accounts differed.

With this thought in mind, Jiang Ning stood up and looked at the villagers.

Everyone looked at Jiang Ning, hoping to get a conclusion and see who was right and who was wrong.

"You're not mistaken, but you're not seeing the same monster."

Jiang Ning paused for a moment, then said.

"what?"

The villagers were taken aback, then one of them realized what was happening and asked uncertainly, "You mean...?"

Jiang Ning nodded and said, "There should be two monsters, but you only saw one of them."

"Both ends?"

The villagers were in an uproar.

The appearance of unknown monsters in the village was scary enough, but now they're being told there are two of them?

The villagers were somewhat bewildered.

Jiang Ning looked at the villagers and said, "The monsters are nowhere to be found now, and we don't know where they are hiding. It's hard to say whether these two monsters will hurt anyone. Everyone should try not to go out after nightfall, and don't be curious even if you hear any noises."

The villagers nodded repeatedly, and one of them asked, "When will we be able to catch those two monsters?"

Two enormous, unknown monsters roamed between the villages, causing great fear among the villagers.

The other villagers also looked at Jiang Ning with anticipation.

Jiang Ning was aware of their unease, but he couldn't give a specific timeframe, so he could only say, "The Huashan Sect will search for the whereabouts of the strange object as soon as possible."

Hearing this, the villagers were somewhat disappointed, but there was nothing they could do but turn around and leave. From then on, they could only listen to Jiang Ning and try not to go out after nightfall.

"Senior brother, should we tell Master about what happened here?"

Lin Pingzhi had also come with Jiang Ning to investigate the situation in various villages, and asked at this moment.

Jiang Ning nodded: "Yes."

Jiang Ning initially thought it was just wild animals from the mountains coming down to steal poultry from the village, and that he could easily handle it. However, the current situation is clearly beyond his expectations, so it needs to be reported.

"After you return, report the matter to your master and send people to be stationed in each village to search and protect the villagers as soon as possible."

Jiang Ning said.

Lin Pingzhi asked in surprise, "And what about you, senior brother?"

"I'm going to go into the mountains to search."

Based on the traces and claw marks on the ground, both of the strange beasts eventually entered the Qinling Mountains. Jiang Ning wanted to follow these traces to search for them and see if he could find them.

Lin Pingzhi was somewhat worried upon hearing this.

"Isn't this too dangerous? Should we wait until we have enough people before going in?"

"It's alright."

Jiang Ning shook his head.

He went in just to search and wouldn't encounter much danger.

Seeing Jiang Ning say this, Lin Pingzhi had no choice but to nod and then rushed back to Mount Hua to report the situation.

After leaving the village, Jiang Ning headed straight towards the Qinling Mountains.

The mountain path was rugged and difficult to traverse. At first, there was a road, but later it almost disappeared. However, Jiang Ning actually found several houses inside, where hermits lived in seclusion.

Jiang Ning stepped forward and talked to these people. Some of them were reclusive scholars who lived in seclusion in the mountains, some were officials who had resigned and lived in seclusion here, and some were ordinary people who had lived here for a long time.

Jiang Ning wasn't surprised, after all, there were many hermits in the mountains. When Jiang Ning mentioned the strange beasts in his conversation with them, these people either didn't believe it or were skeptical, all saying they hadn't seen them. Only one person provided some clues.

"A strange beast?"

A middle-aged man dressed in a scholar's robe lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then looked up and said, "Young friend Jiang, I do not know the strange beast you are talking about, but I did hear some strange noises a couple of nights ago."

Jiang Ning replied, "Please speak, sir."

"Three nights ago, I was snoring in my sleep when I suddenly heard a strange noise outside. I got up to check, but found nothing. I didn't think much of it at the time. The next day, when I went into the mountains to search for the poem, I found a long mark on the ground. The surrounding grass and trees were all bent to both sides. I think it was left by a snake. I wonder if it is the strange beast you mentioned."

This middle-aged man was a scholar who came here to live in seclusion in search of inspiration for his poetry.

Thank you.

Having determined the direction, Jiang Ning bowed and expressed his gratitude.

"It's alright."

The middle-aged man smiled and asked curiously, "Young friend, since you say it's a large, strange beast, it must be very dangerous. You seem quite young; aren't you afraid?"

Jiang Ning smiled.

"This strange beast appeared in the villagers' homes and ate a lot of livestock. There's no guarantee it won't harm people, so we want to find it."