47: Chapter 47 News, Eyes and Ears

Baishan County, Lotus Pier.

Half a month later, bad news arrived one after another on Wang Yaozu's desk.

First, several farms in the eastern part of Baishan County were attacked by Yao Beasts. Although the disciples sent by the Wang Family arrived in time and no lives were lost, a few acres of spiritual rice that had just sprouted ears were ruined in a terrible mess.

Soon after, something happened to the spiritual field estate in the west as well; the ridges were deliberately destroyed overnight, and most of several plots of spiritual fields nearing maturity were ruined.

Then, several Loose Cultivators rushing from Funiu County to listen to the lecture were intercepted and robbed by a group of masked men halfway. Their Spirit Stones and Medicinal Pills were thoroughly looted. Though they weren't physically injured, they were frightened out of their wits.

Wang Yaozu sat behind the desk in the council hall, reading through these messages one by one.

Wang Yaowu stood opposite him, having just been urgently called back. A cloth towel was still draped over his shoulder, but his face carried little warmth.

"Have you found out anything?" Wang Yaozu put down the last message, a layer of anger suppressed beneath his calm voice.

"Over at the spiritual field estate, it was man-made. The perpetrator's methods were crude, looking like a Loose Cultivator, but Loose Cultivators wouldn't dare touch the Wang Family's spiritual fields."

When Wang Yaowu reached this point, his tone abruptly turned cold.

"As for those robbed Loose Cultivators, they said the attackers were masked, but one of them wore a cyan-iron thumb ring on his hand."

"Cyan-iron thumb ring?" Wang Yaozu frowned.

"Every single guard in the Yan Family's medicine garden has one; I've seen them on the Yan Family's territory."

Wang Yaozu was silent for a moment. "No need to investigate further. The Yan Family and the Ning Family—one releases Yao Beasts and the other digs up field ridges; they really have joined hands."

Wang Yaowu let out a cold snort and gripped the hilt of the saber at his waist. "Eldest Brother, give the word, and I'll take people to the Yan Family to ask for a clear explanation."

"What's the rush? Yaowen has already taken people to investigate. It won't be too late to talk after the evidence is conclusive."

Wang Yaozu closed the letter correspondence. "The more anxious they are to make a move, the more it proves that our path is correct.

Head of the Yan Family Yan Bosong is quite adept at doing business, but he lacks courage.

If he dared to make a move, the Ning Family must be backing him from behind. Instead of entangling with the Yan Family now, it's better to deliver a fatal blow all at once.

As long as one of the Yan Family's feet remains stretched outside, there will always be a day it gets chopped off. A fence-sitter like the Yan Family can only realize who rules the sky in the Three Counties once they are beaten hard enough."

He raised his head, his gaze crossing outside the window toward the direction of the stone platform on the mountainside.

There were still Loose Cultivators meditating on the stone platform. Ever since Wang Chongyang's lecture concluded, Loose Cultivators had successively built grass huts here, Cultivating day and night, reluctant to leave.

Looking from afar, there were dozens of grass huts with wisps of cooking smoke curling upward, abruptly resembling a small market.

Although the entire Wogui Mountain was the Wang Family's settlement, Wogui Mountain was exceptionally huge, by no means inferior to some famous mountains and great rivers. The Wang Family primarily managed Lotus Pier at the peak of the mountain.

Building a market on the mountainside was truly a good idea, and the benefits therein were naturally immense; otherwise, the Three Sects wouldn't have been willing to waste manpower and material resources to carve out territory.

It's just that the Wang Family lacked the experience of running a market.

"This matter cannot be rushed. How could a market be so easy to build? Aside from reputation, site selection is also of paramount importance. Otherwise, besides the large markets within the cities, there would only be a single Qingfu Market existing across the entire Three Counties."

"Third Brother, you continue to keep an eye on both sides and report any slightest disturbance at any time.

Send more people to ensure safety on the side of the Loose Cultivators. As for the spiritual fields, have people set up several early-warning formations around the estates and lead a few spiritual hounds over there."

Wang Yaowu's face showed entanglement: "Eldest Brother, there's no such thing as being on guard against thieves for a thousand days."

Wang Yaozu waved his hand. "We can only do this for the time being. The spiritual fields are scattered. Although the clan has some skilled experts, they can't watch over all the spiritual fields. Both families saw this point, and now we can only hope for timely early warnings to reduce some losses.

Alas, it would be great if we could find out in advance where they are preparing to strike."

Wang Yaowu acknowledged, and just as he was about to turn around, a burst of hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.

Wang Yaowu acknowledged, and just as he was about to turn around, a burst of hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.

A disciple of the Shou generation walked quickly into the council hall, cupped his fists and said, "Family Head, Second Master has returned, and he brought along a Loose Cultivator who says he has an urgent matter to request an audience."

Wang Yaozu and Wang Yaowu exchanged a glance, both seeing a trace of surprise in each other's eyes.

Wang Yaowen had taken people early this morning to investigate the matter of the destroyed spiritual fields. They originally thought he wouldn't return until at least dark, but they didn't expect him to turn back so quickly.

"Let them in."

Not long after, Wang Yaowen strode into the hall, the cyan robe on his body still stained with dust from the mountain path.

Behind him followed a lean, middle-aged Loose Cultivator wearing a washed-out, grayish-white short jacket. His face was dark and rough, making it clear at a glance that he was a hunter-cultivator who made a living in the mountains and wilds year-round.

Wang Yaowu recognized this Loose Cultivator; he was precisely the Loose Cultivator whose Meridians were personally unblocked by Wang Chongyang on the fourth day of the lecture, surnamed Shi, with the single given name Shi Yong, at the fifth layer of Qi Refining.

As soon as Shi Yong entered the door, he bowed and cupped his fists. Although his etiquette was rough, his attitude was extremely solemn.

"Family Head Wang, the two Masters, this humble one has been running business in Wanshan County these past few days and accidentally bumped into a matter. After thinking it over and feeling something was amiss, I specifically came to report it."

Running business? Wang Yaozu and Wang Yaowu exchanged a glance, both seeing a smile in each other's eyes.

What kind of business could a Loose Cultivator possibly have? It was nothing more than gathering some Spiritual Plants to sell for money.

However, the two of them felt no contempt; Loose Cultivators all had it difficult.

Wang Yaozu signaled him to sit down and speak, but Shi Yong didn't dare to sit. Instead, he pulled a crumpled piece of straw paper from his bosom and spread it out on the table.

Drawn on the paper was a sloppy map marking seven or eight locations, mostly distributed within Wanshan County near the Wang Family area.

The ink marks were new and old, clearly not the work of a single day.

"This humble one usually resells Yao Beast hides in Wanshan County and is very familiar with this area.

In the past few days, this humble one discovered that near several Loose Cultivator lodging spots outside Wanshan County city, quite a few unfamiliar faces suddenly appeared.

Those people wore the clothes of Loose Cultivators, but their actions didn't resemble Loose Cultivators. Loose Cultivators mostly traveled alone when lodging, yet they traveled in groups of twos and threes, changing batches every few days as if taking shifts."

He pointed to a location marked outside the west gate of Wanshan County on the map.

"This place is a small inn outside Wanshan County city where Loose Cultivators often stay. Yesterday, this humble one saw two people go in with his own eyes, and today two new faces came out instead.

This humble one kept an extra eye out and quietly followed one of those groups."

Hearing this, Wang Yaowu's brows were already tightly knitted: "Where did you follow them to?"

"An abandoned kiln factory in the suburbs of Wanshan County." Shi Yong's finger tapped on a red circle on the map, his voice lowered to the extreme.

"There are at least five or six people there; they don't go out during the day and only move about at night.

This humble one didn't dare to get too close, but from afar, I saw large iron cages inside their house, and there were faint sounds of beast roars."

He groped out a piece of ragged cloth from his bosom and unfolded it, wrapping a small piece of a broken scabbard fragment inside.

"This was dropped by that group of people by the roadside."

Wang Yaowen took the fragment, examined it for a moment, and said coldly,

"It's a saber from the Ning Family's Artifact Refining shop, engraved with the Ning Family's unique flame pattern. It seems this group of people are indeed not Loose Cultivators; they are the Ning Family's scouts."

Shi Yong continued: "This humble one only probed one location, but according to other Fellow Daoists who run businesses, over the past half month, there are at least seven or eight similar suspicious lodging spots around the border area of Funiu County and Mount Xiao.

Today, when Second Master was investigating the matter of the spiritual fields and asked if anyone among the Loose Cultivators had seen suspicious persons, this humble one followed Second Master over here."