Xue Tong was eager to return to Xuanling, but the main reason for his uneasiness was the illusion of Miantu. He suspected that the illusion had been destroyed. Calculating the time, one year later, the Gan Tai Alliance found that the mirage was no longer there and would most likely cause trouble for him.
It is inconvenient to tell Xiao Yuer clearly about these things. It is safest and most appropriate for her to stay in Wuji Sect. Xue Tong summoned Huo Huang and set off in three days.
...Yanxia Mountain Teleportation Field.
"This is Xue's friend Huo Huang. Let's go to Chongguang." Xue Tong pointed at Huo Huang and said to the blue-skinned monk guarding the teleportation.
"Daozhang Xue is free." The leader of the guard was very respectful.
"Has anyone used Sogo Teleport before?" Xue Tong asked.
"Deputy Clan Chief Zhan specifically explained that there is only a one-way spell to go to Chongguang. The situation there is unknown and it may not be possible to send it back. Besides, it is not a good thing to attract Chongguang warriors. If you really want to go, it is better to take the Wanyu Sea Road."
"That's why it hasn't been used," the guard leader said.
"Okay, Xue, give it a try. If it's two-way, it will be transmitted back immediately. If no one is seen for half an hour, just report to Zhan Cheng."
"Yes, I understand." Xue Tong recited the teleportation spell and activated the stone plate. The teleportation fee is 200,000 spirit stones, but for Xue Tong and Huo Huang, there is no need to pay.
...In the hollow heart of the mountain, there is a lonely teleportation stone platform.
"Oh, there's no stone box containing the spell. It seems like the transmission is one-way." The stone platform shook slightly, and Huo Huang appeared.
The two looked around. During the inspection, the stone platform shook more and more, and the stone plate's light gradually died down.
"Stay far away, the mechanism seems to have been activated." The teleportation spell has a limited activation time. The moment the light on the stone plate disappeared, the stone pillars at the four corners of the stone platform rose into the sky and penetrated into the dome.
The holes in the mountain cover are exactly the same as those in Yanxia and Lingqu. Xue Tong looked around in the sky with flying dust.
The deserted mountains are overgrown with weeds. The two waited quietly, hoping that the shock and explosion would attract locals to investigate. There was no movement for half an hour.
"Let's go, let's find it ourselves!" Xue Tong collected the scriptures, stood up and said. At least you have to ask where it is before you know where to go east and west to Yunxiao Sect.
...Five hundred miles away in the mountain col, Xue Tong saw several wooden houses. The wooden houses have a special style and seem to belong to barbarian territory.
When the young barbarian woman saw the stranger approaching, she hurriedly threw away the clothes she was trying to dry, screamed, fled into the house, and slammed the door.
After a while, a barbarian man in his fifties walked out, looking extremely nervous.
"Fortunately, I learned the simple Barbarian language!"
"Duluo Mountain, Sibu territory." The man's voice trembled and he replied in barbarian language. Xue Tong compared the map and nodded in thanks.
He handed over the small gold nugget prepared in advance and said casually: "Why are you so nervous? I'm just asking something." The man took the gold nugget and was stunned for a moment, then suddenly said: "The guest doesn't know about the disappearance of a large number of barbarians." As soon as he said this , Xue Tong took back the steps he took.
"Can you explain more clearly that a large number of barbarians are missing?" The man gestured repeatedly, and Xue Tong's eyebrows tightened as he listened.
"More than a year ago, in several homeless villages in the Si tribe, entire villages disappeared. The warriors from the main village continued to investigate for months with no results. Even the entire team of warriors who investigated the case disappeared inexplicably, which shocked the entire clan."
"The situation is not getting better. The more people live in a village, the easier it is for people to go missing. Often when you wake up, your next door neighbor's whole family is gone."
"There are rumors among the tribe that maybe a demon has come to devour the barbarians."
"Feared and helpless, the tribe moved westward and lived in scattered places. My son-in-law disappeared while grazing, so I had no choice but to take my daughter and my relatives and flee here." Even though Xue Tong and Huo Huang were well-informed, they never I've heard such weird things.
"How many people are missing?"
"It's always in the thousands, the exact number is unknown."
"Okay, I got it. We both have to leave quickly. It will be bad if we meet the devil." Xue Tong didn't want to talk to the barbarian people, so he gave him another handful of gold and silver and said.
"Uh-huh, guest, go slowly."...
"Taoist master is going to take care of this matter" Huo Huang asked.
"The affairs of the barbarians are very complicated. They are divided into seven tribes. There are intertwined conflicts and bad relations with the human race. I can't control so much. Let them investigate on their own. Let's go to Jiayuan." The two of them took the ship and flew west. go.
But before he had gone a hundred miles, he was discovered by a large group of people below. The barbarian warriors took off to intercept. Xue Tong smiled bitterly, saying it was not appropriate to escape and was forced to stop the ship.
There are as many as fifty people in the Sibu patrol team, with the captain and deputy captains having innate levels.
"Who are you two? Why are you here?" the captain shouted in a human voice. He felt that Xue Tong and Huo Huang's martial arts were not harsh in their tone, but they were on high alert and gripped their iron spears tightly.
Xue Tong said directly that it came from an island tens of thousands of miles away, and that the teleportation disk exploded into a rocky mountain six hundred miles south-west. Normal people would find his words unbelievable, let alone barbarians who are not very good at handling things clearly.
The orc murmured with a completely unbelieving expression.
"Come with us or search yourself!" the captain said, shaking his spear. It was the first time for the patrol to see such masters as Xue Tong and Huo Huang. How could such a big fish escape so easily?
Xue Tong didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Huo Huang was not familiar with Wanyu and kept a straight face and remained silent.
"Where are you going to take us?"
"Western Camp!"
"Okay, let's go." Xue Tong couldn't bear to force himself and followed the captain's wishes. The barbarian warrior brought two deer camels.
"I won't ride. Fellow Daoist Huo, please ride." Xue Tong summoned the white tiger. The white tiger landed with a roar, opening its mouth and roaring violently.
Dozens of deer camels collapsed on the spot, shivering. The barbarian warriors did not have a particularly clear idea of the human martial arts, but they knew the power of the white tiger.
The whole group of people were shocked. The White Tiger was so powerful and terrifying that the captain and deputy captains combined were far from his opponents.
"Haha, I'll follow you from afar, and you guys will lead the way!" Xue Tong showed off his white tiger, intending to warn the barbarians: "If I were the bad guy you imagined, I could kill you all right now!" These people were entangled, and he had no interest in being verbose. , Let’s talk about it after we go to the camp.
...West Camp, four patrol teams gathered here. The captain, Tie Lu, was endowed with late-stage martial arts and was a deputy clan supervisor of the Si tribe.
When he saw Xue Tong and Bai Hu, he felt that they did not look like the villains that the division was searching for. He even thought Xue Tong's name sounded familiar.
"Xue Tong is the Taoist priest Xue who held the human sculpture of white bones and promoted the armistice."
"Well, since you remember, Xue won't explain much. I'll say goodbye." Xue Tong took out the orc bone sculpture and said.
Tie Lu rolled his eyes,
"Taoist Master, stay here. I feel that today's incident has something to do with Wan Qianguo. I can't rule out that the corpse-refining monster from back then will cause trouble again!" Xue Tong, who had just stood up, sat down again.
"Please tell me in detail!" The corpse demon was related to Wei Geng's death, and Xue Tong had to take care of it.
"The first village to be hit was near Wangan, and more than 200 people disappeared overnight."
"After the destruction of four villages, our troops found out and sent out a large number of patrols with high-ranking leaders the day after tomorrow. However, three times in succession, the 20-person patrol disappeared out of thin air, leaving only a few traces of blood on the scene."
"Either multiple people committed the crime, or a single person was innately capable of mid-level or above. The Si Department assembled eight large patrol teams and investigated for half a year, but found nothing."
"If bad people sow discord, they will always deliberately leave clues, but there are no clues. Thinking back to the time when the bodies of more than 10,000 soldiers were stolen and exhumed, the Sibu suspected that the corpse-refining demon had returned and killed our people." Tie Lu choked up and couldn't continue.
"Well, that makes sense. Barbarians are strong, and their young adults are often better than human warriors. Corpse demons are vicious and will most likely continue to do evil." Xue Tong said.
"The barbarian tribes adjacent to Wanyu have greatly increased their vigilance, and they live in concentrated areas, or move the old and the weak to the interior. It has become more difficult for the zombie monsters to do evil, and they may have shrunk." Tie Lu said.
"How many people are missing in total?"
"Three thousand eight hundred or so"
"When was the last disappearance?"
“More than two months ago”
"Xue will pay attention to this matter and go to the royal city to investigate."
"Five hundred miles west and south of Duluo Mountain Col, the exploded stone mountain is a one-way transmission from Wanyu to Chongguang, and the barrier ruins have already had a transmission from Chongguang to Wanyu." Xue Tong deliberately revealed the news of the transmission.
...The west gate of the royal city. The two registered their names grandly, and Xue Tong noticed that the guards were particularly careful.
"Everyone coming and going in the royal city is registered in such detail," Xue Tong said dissatisfied.
"Senior, please calm down. This is exactly what you said above. The dynasty has an order. The higher the level of the warrior, the more detailed records must be recorded, including who the sect and sect are, what they are doing in the royal city, whether there is any place to live in the city, etc." the guard said.
"I'm worried that I will do something wrong."
"No, no, I'm just following the rules." Xue Tong didn't say any more and went straight to the Holy Alliance Garden. At Chaohui Palace, another shocking news was heard.
Deputy leader Jin Wei, who had some friendship with Xue Tong, exchanged a few words and said: "Not only have barbarians disappeared in large numbers, but warriors have also disappeared in Wangcheng, Yuancheng, and Binxu a few years ago. Only then did the Holy Alliance and the dynasty issue an order, a strict order All places pay close attention to the warriors entering and leaving the city."
"Oh, it seems that there are not enough rotting corpses. Not counting the corpse demons sneaking around and killing warriors, they have also developed to go directly to the barbarian lands to kidnap people." Xue Tong said.
"Can Taoist Master help me check it out?"
"Deputy Leader Jin, do you have a list of missing warriors and information?" Jin Wei hesitated for a moment and gave Xue Tong a copy.
"Okay, Xue will give it a try, but I'm not sure at all. Don't expect too much from the Holy Alliance."
"Yeah, but it doesn't hurt to try." Xue Tong stayed in Yingbin Garden, studied it carefully for several days, and took Huo Huang out of the royal city on the pretext that he had no clue and needed to do some personal things first.
Half a month later, at the east gate of the royal city, a Xiantian monk dressed as Jiayuan came, calling himself Jiang Zhaoxiong, and registered to enter the city.
"Jiang Zhaoxiong" lives in Liyuan in the north of the city. It is surrounded by mountains and rivers and has an excellent environment. It is worthy of being the leading luxury hotel in the royal city.
What others didn't know was that that night, Xue Tong sneaked into Jiang Zhaoxiong's private courtyard without anyone noticing.
Jiang Zhaoxiong went to major spiritual materials shops, sold dozens of fifth-grade elixirs, bought high-quality talisman paper and ink, and hired someone to make a top-quality shield at the weapon refining shop.
Jiang Zhaoxiong was naturally a disguised Huo Huang, and Xue Tong's trap to lure the snake out of its hole was planned to last for a month. If it didn't work out, he would really let it go and return to Zhiyue to deal with the Taoist affairs.
When planning, Xue Tong once said: "Fellow Daoist Huo, I am 50% sure. Whether it can succeed or not depends on luck. If the corpse demon is in urgent need of the innate monk's body, it may really come."
"It takes a month to refine the best shield, which is enough time for the corpse demon to start using it."
