Chapter 150: Exhumation and Desecration

"Sir, all those people captured by Old Liu and the others have confessed."

Du Feng strode into the county magistrate's office, bowed to Shang Lu, and reported the latest situation from the prison.

"That was quick. I honestly thought those heretical fiends and evil cultivators had tougher spines and could hold out longer," Shang Lu sneered.

He put down his brush, handed the reviewed documents to a scribe waiting respectfully nearby, and then waved his hand.

Without a word, the scribes in the county lieutenant's office tactfully retreated, standing far away outside the hall.

Far from eavesdropping, they didn't even dare glance toward the hall, terrified of being suspected of gathering intelligence.

During the recent internal purge, those who were exposed as inside informants met extremely miserable ends.

With those examples serving as a warning, the people in the county office were now quite cautious.

Once the scribes had walked far away, Shang Lu said, "Speak, what information did you manage to get out of them?"

Du Feng stepped forward two paces and quietly reported the results of the interrogation regarding the various monsters and evil cultivators to Shang Lu.

Finally, he summarized: "There is a common thread in their confessions: whether they were bribed to scout out intelligence on the Yunhua Mountain secret realm, or promised heavy profits to cooperate in stealing resources and secret treasures from within with a split of the spoils afterward."

"This matches what the Blood-Age God confessed earlier. It's most likely those tomb-robbing spies from the State of Chu making trouble again."

Shang Lu let out a cold snort, his brows furrowing in puzzlement.

"Since these tomb-robbing spies from Chu have already had their covers blown, why aren't they running? Instead, they still want to sneak into the secret realm to steal treasures and plunder... Where do they get the courage? Or could it be they have other plans?"

Du Feng replied, "The secret realm contains spiritual energy, secret treasures, opportunities, and the like—all crucial resources urgently needed by various nations. The State of Chu is currently building up its military and needs these things badly, so it's not surprising that their spies are taking desperate risks.

Moreover, if they miss this window and wait until the secret realm exploration concludes and comprehensive security measures are established, it will become even harder to steal and plunder. They have no choice but to take a gamble right now!"

Shang Lu nodded slightly, finding this reasoning plausible.

Yet his intuition told him that things weren't that simple.

Those tomb-robbing spies from the State of Chu might very well have ulterior motives!

Although the secret realm of Yunhua Mountain had not yet been fully established, it was guarded by border troops dispatched by the imperial court, experts sent by the Wizard Academy and the commandery government, and wizard officials such as Feng Boyuan.

Such strength was certainly not something the tomb-robbing spies of Chu could handle easily.

Besides, spies were naturally cautious.

The last time he, Liu Zhi, and Du Feng caught them disguised as feng shui masters, attempting to use Qi-Devouring Centipedes to find a route into the secret realm through the earth veins—they surely wouldn't use that method again.

So what method would they use to deceive the experts of the commandery government and the Wizard Academy, sneak into the secret realm, and plunder its treasures?

Unable to figure it out, Shang Lu instructed Du Feng to hurry back to the prison and order the guards to continue interrogating the captured monsters and evil cultivators, striving to extract more intelligence from their mouths.

At the same time, he sent men to Yunhua Mountain to relay a message to Xu Tai, urging him to heighten security—not only guarding against surveillance from the sky and ground, but also paying close attention to underground movements.

Having arranged these matters and completed his official duties for the day, Shang Lu returned home to continue his cultivation.

On his way home, he stopped by a jewelry shop to buy a few pieces of jewelry for Sanniang, specifically purchasing a gold-inlaid jade anklet with a tiny bell.

Sanniang's fair, tender little feet were an absolute match for this anklet, especially since the small bell upon it could chime melodiously—the mere thought of it was quite thrilling.

In the blink of an eye, the next day arrived.

Over at the prison, no new information had been extracted yet.

Instead, the reconnaissance team sent someone back with a strange report.

"Sir, while patrolling near Yunxi Town, we discovered a patch of woods to the southwest outside the town, containing a large number of graves.

We made some inquiries and found that over the years, many people who died in Yunxi Town were buried in that grove. As time passed and more people were buried there, it grew into a large cemetery.

Because you previously instructed us that whenever we encounter graves, we must inspect them carefully and not be negligent, Military Centurion Feng and Constable Liu led us into the woods to thoroughly examine the place, and sure enough, we found something bizarre.

Several old graves in the woods had been dug open!

The coffins inside were either smashed or pried open, and the skeletal remains had been pulverized and scattered all over the ground.

Both Military Centurion Feng and Constable Liu felt this matter was deeply suspicious, so they sent me back to report to you while they continue further investigations..."

"Graves again?"

Shang Lu raised an eyebrow, couldn't help but suspect whether this incident was related to the tomb-robbing spies from the State of Chu.

After brief consideration, he decided to make a personal trip to the graveyard outside Yunxi Town to see what was actually going on.

"Du Feng, take the reserve squad and come with me."

Shang Lu strode out of the county lieutenant's office and called out to Du Feng, who was standing guard below the hall.

"Understood!"

Du Feng acknowledged loudly and turned to summon the men.

Shang Lu first went to the armory to collect equipment and then turned to the stables behind the county office.

By then, Du Feng was already waiting there with seven men.

These seven were all elite fighters handpicked from Xu Tao's subordinates.

Among them was Tu Pi, the shield-bearing squad leader from before.

Tu Pi had been thoroughly subdued by Shang Lu. Hearing that Shang Lu was selecting men, he gave up his position as a squad leader just to serve as Shang Lu's personal guards.

Although Shang Lu told him that a county lieutenant was not yet qualified to have personal guards and that he was merely recruiting a reserve squad, Tu Pi wouldn't hear of it.

In Tu Pi's eyes, the reserve squad was directly commanded by Shang Lu, which made them a personal guard unit in all but name.

Seeing Tu Pi's firm attitude, Shang Lu didn't refuse and even appointed him as the captain of the reserve squad.

This touched Tu Pi deeply, making him feel that Shang Lu valued him greatly. He was burning with ambition to achieve a notable feat and repay Shang Lu.

Over the past few days, although the reserve squad had no official tasks, Tu Pi hadn't been idle.

Not only did he lead the reserve squad in training within the county office every day, but he also incorporated Du Feng and other bailiffs into the drills, training them using border army methods.

Du Feng welcomed this eagerly, as he had long wanted to improve his strength.

However, the bailiffs groaned under the grueling training.

In the past, they trained voluntarily, and the county magistrate and secretary never cared about their combat effectiveness anyway. As long as they failed performance evaluations, they bore the consequences themselves.

Though the bailiffs had plenty of complaints, they didn't dare disobey because they couldn't beat Tu Pi.

When someone tried to complain to Shang Lu, they were sharply rebuked and told to follow the training diligently—more sweat in peacetime meant less blood in wartime.

Tu Pi memorized these words and repeated them constantly.

Precisely because of this, seeing Shang Lu lead Tu Pi and the others gallop out of the county office, many bailiffs let out a long sigh of relief.

It seemed there would be no training today, allowing them to slack off a bit.

Lately, Tu Pi had worked them so hard that upon returning home every day, they had no energy for anything else and just wanted to collapse into sleep.

The bachelors had it easy, but those with families hadn't even the mood to fulfill their marital duties, and their wives had long been complaining.

With no training today, they could go back and properly appease them...

On the other side, after leaving the city, Shang Lu had the messenger who brought the news lead the way straight to Yunxi Town.

The official horses moved at top speed, and an hour later, they arrived at Yunxi Town.

Without entering the town, they bypassed it and headed directly for the woods to the southwest.

From afar, Shang Lu spotted the forest.

It was quite large, with lush, verdant trees showing no signs of having been logged.

This was highly unusual.

In this world, timber was a consumable resource. Wood was needed for everyday firewood and for building houses.

If it were a forest farther from towns, it would be fine, but woods close to towns were heavily logged.

Sometimes, due to over-logging, the government and local elders would even issue logging bans to protect the forests.

Riding closer, Shang Lu finally understood why this forest showed no signs of logging.

The woods were densely packed with graves from end to end.

Visiting such a place even in broad daylight gave one a chilly, eerie sensation.

Anyone in poor health who visited would surely fall ill afterward.

Furthermore, those buried here were all the ancestors of the residents of Yunxi Town.

Even if they needed firewood, people wouldn't cut trees down right on top of their own ancestors' graves.

That was why the trees in this place grew with such exceptional vigor.

Entering the forest and walking a bit further, Shang Lu finally rendezvoused with Feng Nan, Liu Zhi, and the others, laying eyes on those excavated graves.

Before even hearing their report, Shang Lu detected anomalies first.

The resentment in this vicinity was unimaginably heavy, almost on the verge of condensing into baleful qi!

Other graves elsewhere in the woods showed no such phenomenon.

Just looking at the condition of the surrounding soil revealed the clues.

The soil everywhere else was covered in moss and small grass.

Yet this particular area was completely barren, devoid of even insects!

Even the large trees standing beside the graves showed signs of withering and dying.

A level of resentment like this could never be caused by ordinary grave-robbing and corpse desecration!

No wonder Military Centurion Feng and Constable Liu considered the matter bizarre and sent someone to report to him.