Keqing, it’s just cultivating immortality, is it that difficult?

"I heard from the refugees nearby that a few months ago they saw people from Qu County transporting food from outside to inside in batches." He paused, "I don't know if it's true or not, but it can't be groundless. There must be food inside and a lot of it."

"Other counties have already stopped operating. Some have been swept away by refugees, while others are completely deserted. But Qu County is different... The yamen runners there are well-dressed and well-fed, and all the escort agencies are open as usual. The county magistrate's son is actually still openly buying those sexy girls and children outside! What a scoundrel! A wine-drinking, meat-eating glutton!"

Speaking of this, a trace of disgust flashed in Wang Xu's eyes, as well as disappointment with the world and the Great Zhou.

Regardless of whether the grain was real or fake, they saw the wealth of the city residents. It was also true that the county magistrate's son blatantly bought young boys and girls, and there were various entry fees that required fifty taels of silver to enter the city.

All these things made him feel disappointed and sad about the state of the world.

After hearing what he said, Keqing realized that maybe there was something really strange about Qu County. Could it be that... she guessed right? Did she find the target the first time?

Why did a small county town expand its granary a few years ago? The number of households under Qu County did not increase, so why expanded it? Could it be that the magistrate of Qu County could predict future natural disasters? There was obviously something wrong. Moreover, a small county town actually had an escort agency, and it had escorted grain for several months. How could an escort agency with hundreds of people appear in the small Qu County?

There are also members of the escort agency who occasionally go in and out of the city gate once every two weeks. Every time the escort agency returns to the city, it will attract a "gift" of buying and selling young girls and children.

Keqing soon realized that the so-called escort agency members were probably the real private soldiers, and the escort agency was just their disguise. As for the buying and selling of young girls and children, even if the county magistrate's son indulged in wine and women, he was just one person. Did he need so many people?

I'm afraid it's for those private soldiers, and the timing is right.

It seems to be in Qu County.

Keqing had previously judged that one of the possibilities was Qu County. As the saying goes, the darkest place is under the lamp. Qu County is the closest county to the grain transfer point, so it aroused her suspicion.

Don't think that private soldiers are guys who obey military orders and follow strict military discipline. These people can serve as private soldiers because they have either been brainwashed since childhood or have received adequate treatment. Who likes to hide secretly in the mountains? Doing so will only make these private soldiers more dissatisfied and out of control.

Now, the escort agency has been hidden in the county, which can not only allow these private soldiers to seek benefits, indulge in enjoyment, and work for themselves with peace of mind, but also have the supervision of the county magistrate to prevent them from getting out of control. It can be said that it kills two birds with one stone, and it is hidden in the city. Who would have thought that these

The members of the escort agency are actually private soldiers.

This makes sense.

Then, Keqing carefully asked Patriarch Wang for more detailed information, and finally confirmed that the group of people was in Qu County, and those from the escort agency had also stayed in the county for several days.

The escort agency was divided into two groups, one in the county and the other somewhere unknown. According to information obtained by Patriarch Wang, there would be an exchange every half a month. The people from the escort agency would escort something out to do business, and it was not known which county they were doing business with, but the exchanges were frequent.

Normally, there wouldn't be such frequent exchanges. It might be due to the appearance of refugees, natural disasters, or concerns about the iron mine getting out of control, so the exchanges have become more frequent.

And Keqing's interest in this matter soon attracted Wang Xun's attention.

"You little girl seem to be very concerned about the affairs of Qu County?" Wang Xun was a little puzzled. "Speaking of which, Qu County is indeed very abnormal. There are escort agencies with hundreds of people. Logically, such escort agencies should be very famous. As a branch of the prefecture, they should be well-known, but I have never heard of them."

"But if it weren't for the semicolon, it would be a bit strange for a escort agency with hundreds of people to be confined to a small place like Qu County. I don't know where they get their business. They have to go out once every two weeks and then transport things back. It looks like they are quite heavy and well-equipped."

When Wang Xun said this, he looked at Keqing meaningfully, but Keqing seemed not to see it. She blinked and looked back. Her bright and moist eyes seemed to be able to speak, and they were filled with starlight.

"Is there anyone who can go and watch it?"

Patriarch Wang withdrew his gaze as if nothing had happened and shook his head slightly.

"Who dares to follow? If they find someone following them, they will kill them directly. Even if they die, there will be no explanation."

"Besides, who cares about that? They just want to live well, not to explore things they shouldn't know out of curiosity. We are not fools. We all know how to seek benefits and avoid harm."

Patriarch Wang paused for a moment and suddenly said, "I remember that they should send people out again in three days..."

No matter what the little girl wants to do, she won't harm them. No matter what the little girl comes to Qu County for, it is their benefactor who gave them a way out, isn't it?

Unlike the county magistrate of Qu County, who had so much grain but did not give them any relief at all, if they didn’t know that there was so much grain in Qu County, why would they come here.

Unfortunately, no matter how useful the food is, it has nothing to do with these refugees.

Instead, it was the little girl from Hengshan County who came here from afar to give them a chance to survive.

But...didn't the tribe say that Hengshan County was just a lower county? How could they be so bold? You know, Qu County is just a middle county, and they didn't dare to open grain relief.

Aren’t you really afraid of being blamed by the court?

Along the way, Patriarch Wang was vaguely aware of something, but after thinking about it, he stopped thinking about it.

Life is full of confusion, so they should go to Hengshan County early to look for a glimmer of hope... The journey is too difficult, and they have been traveling for two months, and they are already physically and mentally exhausted.

Patriarch Wang smiled slightly, and then went on to talk about various questions that he knew about. Even if he didn't know, he would send people to ask the refugees.

I gave them food just now, so those refugees would not refuse to tell me any information. Thanks to this, Keqing learned a lot and became more and more certain that Qu County was the hiding place of those private soldiers.

Now it's time to get started.

It is unrealistic to ask everyone to go to Hengshan County because not everyone may believe what you say.

However, if there is food as an inducement, then the feasibility will be greatly increased. Even if they don't believe it, people will follow for the sake of food. It's nothing more than moving from one county to another. So what?

And Qu County doesn't care about the refugees outside at all, and no one cares even if they leave.

As long as the large army follows, people will think, under the herd mentality, that they are all going to Hengshan County, and maybe Hengshan County really has food. Why do everyone stay outside the county? Isn't it just for the hope of survival?

As a result, the movement of Patriarch Wang leading his clansmen and refugees to leave Qu County and rush to Hengshan was very smooth, so smooth that it was unbelievable.

The soldiers guarding the gate of Qu County were also surprised. Why were there so many fewer refugees this morning? Where were the people?

Normally, he could see those refugees kneeling pitifully in front of him, kowtowed to him three or nine times and begging for food. In contrast, he felt very satisfied.

However, it was only one night and most people didn’t see it. What happened?

However, it was a bit embarrassing for them to question the refugees, so the soldiers guarding the gate did not ask any more questions.

Humph, where can those refugees run to? They will probably go looking for tree bark or something.

However, by noon, the people had not returned, and the gatekeepers felt something was wrong. They pointed at a group of refugees at random and asked with disdain and arrogance:

"Hey, where are those refugees? Where have they gone?"

When the refugee heard the adult at the door calling him, he hurried forward eagerly.

"Your Excellency, are you asking about those missing refugees?"

"Nonsense! Are you deaf?"

The soldier frowned and scolded him, and the refugee quickly apologized and then told the reason why the refugee was not there.

“You mean a clan said there was food in Hengshan County and gave them relief food?

They were lucky enough to hunt and kill many wild boars to distribute to other refugees as food for their journey!"

The soldier scratched his ears, still a little unconvinced!

He called another refugee, and after receiving the same answer, he suddenly laughed sarcastically.

"Where did the food come from? These idiots must have been cheated! If there really was food, could we give it to them?"

If he remembered correctly, Hengshan County was a small county. A small county usually had only about 2,000 households, and the granaries were not very big. How much grain could they store?

"Tsk! What a bunch of idiots, just following the crowd. Forget it, just leave! Standing at the door is annoying anyway."

Thinking of the hunted wild boar, he felt unhappy. How could they get it? It was a wild boar. It could have been sold for a lot of money before the disaster year, let alone now. If the other party had not hunted it at night, he could still find an excuse to snatch it away.

What a pity! Those pigs got a bargain.

You're dead anyway, what's good to eat?

Thinking about this soldier being a little confused, I just felt that such a good thing was wasted.

Thinking of this, he felt very annoyed, but at this moment, the refugee came forward without any tact.

"Sir, can we open the city gate? You see, all the refugees have left, and only these few hundred people are left... We don't have much food to eat, please give us a way to survive."

"Yes! They have all left. Can the county magistrate relax the conditions and let us enter the city..."

The county magistrate had previously said that there were too many refugees outside the city and that the county could not bear it and had no food to provide, and they believed it.

But now everyone has left and there are not many people left, so we should be able to let them in.

Their hearts were filled with excitement, and they looked at the soldiers in front of them with hopeful eyes. However, the soldiers were so angry about the loss of wild boar meat that they didn't care about them at all.

When he saw this group of refugees, he was so angry that he kicked them.

"what!"

The refugee, who was already skinny and had little strength left, flew out and rolled on the ground.

"what……"

The refugees cried out in pain.

"Bah! You disgusting pigs still want to enter Qu County? Dream on!"

"You are a bunch of lowly people. You have good intentions, but you don't even see what kind of people you are."

When he thought about the fact that he had no chance to eat wild boar meat but these refugees got it, he became furious. Why could they eat so well?

The soldier immediately rolled up his sleeves and rushed forward, ready to vent his anger on the refugees in front of him, while Keqing pursed her lips when she saw this scene in the dark.

She picked up a small stone, wrapped it with her internal energy, aimed at the evil soldier's leg joint and fired it out.

With a whoosh, it pierced his knee in an instant.

"Ah! What is it!"

Severe pain hit him and he lost his balance and fell to the ground, doing a doggy style landing. He then rolled over in pain, holding his knee.

On the other side, the refugees saw this and took the opportunity to climb up.

The fellow soldier noticed something was wrong and rushed over to see his comrade screaming in pain with a hole in his knee. He quickly stepped forward and grabbed the refugee's clothes. "You, did you do this?"

The refugee was terrified and kept saying that it was not him. However, the soldiers would not believe him. He wanted to draw his sword and kill him, but at this moment, another stone was shot out and pierced his wrist. The same severe pain came, and blood splattered all over the refugee's face.

"what--"

The soldier wanted to do something, but several stones flew towards his shoulders, knees and thighs.

The refugees saw that the soldier was about to draw his sword viciously, but suddenly blood rushed out of his body as if he was possessed by something. Wounds kept appearing all over his body and he rolled on the ground. They were so scared that they ran away quickly.

However, he suddenly thought of something, rushed back and kicked the soldiers on the ground hard several times.

"Bah! You deserved it!"

Then he shuddered and looked around.

"Thank you, Great Immortal, thank you, Great Immortal!"

Having said that, he quickly put it aside and returned to where his family was.

"Let's hurry up and follow those people! Maybe we can catch up!"

Although his family didn't know why he changed his mind, they immediately followed suit.

All this was witnessed by other refugees. They looked at each other in bewilderment. They did not expect such a thing to happen suddenly. Could it be a ghost? Or was it really some great immortal?

No matter what, it's no use staying here. It's better to leave with the main force. Didn't you see those soldiers trying to chop people with knives just now? As he said that, he quickly packed up his things and left.

Keqing never expected that her actions would make the refugees who still had a glimmer of hope of entering the city completely give up their thoughts and follow the large army to Hengshan.

After she punished the evildoer, she saw that the refugees were not seriously injured. She then infused her true energy into the soles of her feet, stepped up, leaped, and flew up. She climbed over the city wall in just a few steps and entered Qu County.

After looking around and seeing that there was no one on duty, Keqing observed the terrain from the city wall. She then transformed into a ray of darkness and fell from the city wall into the shadow of a corner inside the city. She then flew towards the county government city, passing through various alleys like a gust of wind without leaving a trace.

Chapter 576 Ore Refining (1 update)

Walking through the alleys, Keqing also looked around the interior of the county with her naked eyes. Unlike the chaos outside, Qu County was indeed much more stable. There were no beggars wandering around, and no people in tattered and poorly dressed clothes.

But the city seemed a bit lifeless, as if there was no life at all. All the shops on the street were closed.

The only shops open were those that were noble and had good backgrounds, such as the Taotie Restaurant and the Quxian Grain Store.

"Grain store, is there still a grain store in Qu County now?"

Keqing stopped and looked at the sign at the door which indicated the price of food.

Rice bran, thirty cents per pound.

Coarse grains, eighty cents per pound.

Fine grain, two hundred and fifty coins per pound.

Keqing smacked her lips. The price marked on the screen made her shake her head.

A pound of rice bran costs thirty cents, this is really a rip-off...

With such food prices, can the people of Qu County really survive? Keqing was very skeptical. After all, the county town was too clean. She didn't believe it.

You have to know that the city gate not only locked in the refugees outside, but also the people inside.

"Hey, miss, do you want to buy some food?"

Seeing a little child dressed in a long satin dress and dressed extraordinary appear in front of him, the shopkeeper inside hurriedly asked with a smile.

"Have your prices always been like this? Why are they so expensive?"

Keqing asked with a frown, but the shopkeeper raised his head proudly with a smile on his face.