After discussing the case and eating, it was indeed getting late. The three of them rested for a night at the county magistrate’s residence.
Before sleeping, a young maid said she was sent by the old master to “help” Wei Changtian “change his clothes,” but he chased her away.
Ha! Xu Qingwan was in the next room, after all.
Nothing much happened that night.
The next morning, the three of them followed the two constables to Liu’s Village.
However, Zhou Cheng’s face looked a bit fatigued throughout the journey.
Wei Changtian found an opportunity to tease him, “You’re not steady, your footsteps are light. What did you do last night?”
“Cough, I just had a few drinks alone in my room.”
“Originally, it was like that. But, brother Zhou, as martial artists, we should still drink less on a daily basis.”
“Thanks for your concern, brother Wei…”
Zhou Cheng was taken aback, suddenly seeming to understand something, and looked at Xu Qingwan along with Wei Changtian.
The latter gazed ahead, oblivious, with a red ribbon in her hair fluttering gently in the morning breeze.
…
Liu’s Village had several dozen households, mostly farmers.
Although they had some gains from killing the chicken demons, several men were injured, and after discussing it, the villagers reported it to the authorities.
After asking a few villagers about the situation, they learned that these chicken demons were cunning and often launched surprise attacks, visiting the village every two to three days.
However, they hadn’t come in the past two days.
With such an uncertain situation, Wei Changtian and the others definitely didn’t have the time to wait around, so they decided to take the initiative to attack after discussing it.
Of course, they needed to prepare beforehand.
Monsters loved human blood and flesh, and although they couldn’t find human flesh, human blood was readily available.
The two constables volunteered, taking a wine bag to collect blood from the villagers, and soon returned with a bag of fresh blood.
A selfless blood donation for the safety of the entire village.
How noble.
Carrying the blood, led by a villager, the group quickly entered Wulong Mountain.
The morning forest was quiet, with only occasional bird calls and the sound of footsteps echoing through it.
After walking for about two hours, the leading villager finally slowed down and pointed to a dilapidated land temple hidden in the woods.
The yellow tiles on the temple’s roof were broken, and the walls were overgrown with weeds, with a statue of a land god missing an arm and a leg faintly visible through the broken door.
“Gentlemen, those chicken demons often appear around this temple. I’ve seen them several times before.”
It seemed that demons liked to choose scenic spots to practice their dark magic.
Wei Changtian curled his lip, while the shorter constable had already quietly entered the temple, pouring out all the blood, and then retreated.
Now, all they could do was wait for the demons to appear.
After a brief exchange, the five of them dispersed and hid around the area, with the villager too afraid to return to the village alone and hiding beside Zhou Cheng.
The forest soon returned to silence.
The sun slowly moved above, and the dew on the leaves slowly evaporated.
It had been nearly half an hour, but the chicken demons still hadn’t appeared.
Damn, it seemed that unless you were the main character, doing anything was a hassle…
Leaning against a large tree with a trunk as wide as two people, Wei Changtian rubbed his slightly sore eyes and habitually began to compare himself to Xiao Feng.
Although there were many monsters in this world, there was still no good solution for detecting and finding them.
Even professional institutions like the Liu Ye Agency could only use human blood to lure them, a clumsy method.
Ultimately, it was because they lacked tools to detect monster auras.
But Xiao Feng was different.
He knew that Zhang Hongwen was raising monsters and that Yang Liu was a fox demon, all because he had a magical tool – the Demon-Detecting Compass.
Within a one-mile radius, it would react to the presence of monsters, even indicating their direction.
From noble mtl dot come
With the special divine power of “炼妖”, my upgrade is simply too fast.
If I had this thing, I wouldn’t need to be stuck here waiting; I would’ve gone to capture those chicken demons long ago.
Sigh…
Next time, if I can catch Xiao Feng again, I’ll kill him first, but at the very least, I’ll search him thoroughly and take all the good stuff.
It’s my first time being the villain, and I’m still inexperienced…
Wei Changtian let out a long sigh, looking around at the few people hiding in other positions.
The two tall and short constables couldn’t see clearly due to the angle, Zhou Cheng looked just as bored as I did, and the villager was sleeping soundly beside him.
As for Xu Qingwan… this woman was indeed dedicated, still intently staring at the movements of the land temple, even her actions were identical to before.
Like a clay Bodhisattva.
Thinking of the clay Bodhisattva, Wei Changtian’s gaze fell on the land god statue that had lost its head, and he felt a bit puzzled.
The land god was a deity in Taoism, and it shouldn’t have suffered such treatment in a country like Da Ning that valued Taoism over Buddhism.
Even if no one worshiped it and it was abandoned, ordinary people shouldn’t have dared to do something as blasphemous as destroying a god statue.
Was it natural damage?
But the broken temple, although dilapidated, still had its main structure intact, and the statue was sheltered from wind and rain, so how could its head have fallen off?
Wei Changtian thought more and more that something was off, his eyes fixed intently on the statue.
Then, in an instant, he saw something move inside the statue through a crack in its chest.
What the…?
Is there a demon hidden inside the god’s body?
Wei Changtian didn’t jump to conclusions, observing carefully for a while before finally confirming that there was indeed something inside the statue.
Of course, it wasn’t necessarily those chicken demons, but since they had been waiting in vain…
“Whoosh~”
The branches shook, and Wei Changtian stood up, taking slow steps towards the land temple.
The others, although unsure what he was doing, quickly emerged from their hiding spots and followed him.
It wasn’t until Wei Changtian stopped ten steps away from the statue that Zhou Cheng, who was behind him, whispered, “Brother Wei, what did you discover?”
Wei Changtian, still cautiously watching the statue, replied in a low voice, “There seems to be something inside the statue.”
“Impossible…”
Zhou Cheng was shocked: “This kind of statue is made of solid clay, and it’s too small for so many chickens to hide inside anyway…”
“I don’t know either.”
Wei Changtian shook his head: “But I did see something move earlier.”
“This…”
Zhou Cheng was about to say something, but Xu Qingwan suddenly interrupted him.
“Let’s take a look; we’ve been watching this place, and if those chicken demons are really hiding inside, they wouldn’t have escaped by now.”
She seemed a bit dissatisfied with Wei Changtian and Zhou Cheng’s hesitation, and after speaking, she walked forward directly, not even drawing her sword.
“Wait!”
Wei Changtian opened his mouth to stop her, but it was too late.
He had originally planned to throw a stone or something to break the statue open from a distance, because if there was something strange inside, it would be safer that way.
But before he could say anything, the land god statue suddenly burst open, and a short, black shadow shot towards Xu Qingwan’s chest.
“Boom!”
A dull sound, and her slender body flew backward.