Seeing the black spirit boat, Zhao Lin's heart sank, knowing that something was about to go wrong!
There are often spirit boats in the clouds. In order to avoid collisions, the same rules as for carriages and horses on the ground must be followed. Two spirit boats should never be so close.
Especially following others like this is obviously malicious.
Through the clouds and mist, three masked monks could be vaguely seen standing on the black spiritual boat. The man in the middle suddenly raised his hand and fired a formation spell towards the cloud platform.
"boom!"
A flash of lightning flashed across the bow of the ship, and dozens of formations lit up at the same time. Spiritual energy began to gather crazily, quickly condensing into a huge white ball of light.
This is a precursor to the attack circle accumulating strength and about to launch an attack!
Tang Zhengquan also noticed it, and immediately turned the bow of the ship and dodged quickly to the right.
It's a pity that the spirit boat has been locked, and at such a close distance, there is no way to escape.
Just hearing a loud "boom", the black spirit boat shot out a white ball of light, hitting the rear of the cargo spirit boat hard, knocking off a corner of the latter's stern.
The defensive array instantly failed, and the spirit boat swayed and fell to the ground like a kite with its string broken.
After hitting the target with one blow, the black spirit boat did not continue to pursue, but rose into the air and headed straight for the Hongyan Talisman.
Hongyan Fu sensed the crisis and quickly fled into the distance.
The scene in the True Meaning Jade Slip became increasingly blurry, and finally turned pitch black.
Zhao Lin put down the remaining talisman and remained speechless.
"Shopkeeper Zhao, I saw the emblem of Hanchi County on the downed spirit boat. I guess it should be the spirit boat of your store, right?"
Wei Zongchuan observed his words and knew that his guess was correct, but he still asked.
"Exactly."
Zhao Lin nodded and confirmed the matter, then took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, quickly sorted out the whole thing, and asked: "Senior Wei, when did you receive the Hongyan Talisman?"
Wei Zong thought for a while and replied: "About two-quarters of an hour ago, I sent someone to find you after reading it."
Zhao Lin had regained his composure at this time and his thinking became clearer. "This junior returned to Hanchi County once at the beginning of the year and has an impression of the place where the accident occurred. It is about three hundred miles away."
"With the speed of the Hongyan Talisman, it would only take as long as a cup of tea at most. In other words, it should not have been more than half an hour since the incident happened."
After saying that, he stood up and bowed to Wei Zongchuan, "I beg Mr. Wei to help."
The top priority is to find the fallen spirit boat. If Tang Zhengquan is still alive, rescue the people first.
This matter must be supported by the boss. If he goes to rescue alone, if the black spiritual boat is still at the scene, there is no difference between going and dying.
Chenghua Sect covers a vast area, and monks gather in places with spiritual veins. Ninety-nine percent of the territory is deserted.
Unless there is a major case, most matters are resolved by the parties themselves.
Of course, Zhao Lin could also ask the state and county where he belongs for help, but that would be a waste of time, and secondly, at best, he would just send someone to see what happened.
Wei Zongchuan understood what Zhao Lin meant and nodded slowly, "Fangshi is only responsible for the security of the surrounding hundred miles. It generally does not interfere in matters hundreds of miles away, and it does not have the ability."
"But Shopkeeper Zhao has a shop in Fangshi and is also a member of Fangshi. I can send two patrolling monks and Zhan Zhou to go with him."
Zhao Lin was overjoyed when he heard this, "Thank you so much, Master Wei!"
Wei Zongchuan immediately called two patrol guards and ordered them to dispatch a war boat to accompany Zhao Lin to check.
The two patrolling monks, one named Wu Lie and the other Yan Zhenguan, were both in the late stages of Qi refining.
Without further ado, Zhao Lin said goodbye, left the office, and walked outside Fang City with the two patrolling monks.
The three of them came to the dock and boarded a majestic war boat.
War boats are mainly used for combat. They have two biggest differences from ordinary spirit boats: one is that they are faster and have inherent advantages in pursuit and avoidance.
Second, it has stronger offensive and defensive capabilities. The hull is made of thick heavy iron wood, and multiple second-order and above attack and defense arrays are arranged.
Judging from the information sent back by the Hongyan Talisman, the black spirit boat was not a war boat, but had been modified to strengthen the attack array on the bow. It could bully an old cargo boat, but it was not good enough in front of a war boat.
Zhao Lin took out two hundred-yuan spirit coins and handed them to Zhang Lie and Yan Zhenguan without leaving any trace. "The two Taoist friends accompanying Zhao on this trip must have delayed their practice. A little thought is not respectful."
The two pretended to refuse, then took the spirit coins, their attitude was much more polite than before.
Zhang Lie shot a formation into the formation, and the war boat instantly rose into the air, without even spinning, and rushed directly into the clouds, flying to the southwest.
The war boat flew extremely fast, and it only took more than a quarter of an hour to reach the distance of three hundred miles.
Approaching the scene of the incident, he started flying at a low altitude and slowed down.
The warning array on the war boat can expand the spiritual consciousness to a thousand feet away. With this ability, the fallen spirit boat can be found quickly.
"over there."
Zhang Lie pointed down, and Zhao Lin looked down in the direction of his finger and saw a vaguely spiritual boat lying quietly in the bushes in the woods beside a large river.
The war boat circled around the spirit boat to make sure there were no human traces nearby or that other spirit boats were lurking before slowly landing.
Zhao Lin was the first to jump off the boat and walked to the damaged spirit boat. He saw that the boat was empty and not a single piece of cargo was left. He couldn't help but clenched his fists!
This spiritual boat for transporting goods was transferred from Hanchi County by Zhou Hongfang, and the shop has been borrowing it until now.
In fact, Zhao Lin had long been interested in buying a new spirit boat, but all the profits from the shop last year were used to repay the principal lent by Lu Yuanxiu.
I finally made a profit this year, but I didn’t expect that something would happen at this juncture.
Zhao Lin walked from the bow to the stern and found no traces of fighting or any useful clues.
"I'm afraid I encountered a bandit cultivator."
Yan Zhenguan stayed on the war boat. Zhang Lie came over, glanced at the situation on the boat and said, "These people only save money and generally don't kill people. Your people may still be alive."
"I hope so."
Zhao Lin sighed lightly, boarded the spirit boat, walked to the cloud platform and tried it out. He found that although the spirit boat was seriously damaged, the flying magic circle could still be used.
After playing the formation technique, the spirit boat staggered and flew up.
"This old thing is quite sturdy!"
Zhang Lie praised him and walked quickly back to the war boat.
Zhao Linchao bowed his hands to the two of them and controlled the spirit boat to fly towards Fangshi, looking for Tang Zhengquan along the way.
Zhang Lie and Yan Zhenguan took war boats to escort them at high altitude.
Because it was flying at a low altitude, the spirit boat flew very slowly, and Zhao Lin was worried about missing Tang Zhengquan, so he kept moving forward in a zigzag pattern.
When we returned to Fangshi, the sun had set and the sky was dark.
Zhao Lin stopped the spirit boat and jumped down gently. Suddenly he saw a figure not far away, stumbling towards him.
"Brother Tang!"
Taking advantage of the lights in the market, Zhao Lin saw the face of the visitor clearly and rushed forward with a single stride.
Tang Zhengquan also saw Zhao Lin and couldn't hold on any longer and fell down.
Zhao Lin quickly supported him and asked, "Brother Tang, how are you?"
Tang Zheng's face was pale and dejected, and he said with difficulty: "The goods are all gone, I..."
Zhao Lin interrupted: "I know everything. It's good that you are here. Are you injured?"
Tang Zhengquan took a breath and said, "I was blown away by the turbulent flow of evil energy, so it's not a big problem."
He wanted to say something else, but Zhao Lin raised his hand to stop him, "It's not a trivial matter for evil spirits to enter the body. Let's go back to the store first."
He turned to Zhang Lie and Yan Zhenguan and said, "Thank you two fellow Taoists. Zhao is grateful. I'll say goodbye."
"You're welcome, Shopkeeper Zhao, let's go first."
Zhang Lie and Yan Zhenguan said goodbye and returned to the administrative office to resume their duties.
For them, since there was no loss of life and only some goods were lost, there was no need to pursue the case.
Haishi has passed and all the shops in Fangshi have closed.
When Zhao Lin and Tang Zhengquan returned to Jindan Hall, Gude Zhao was standing in front of the door and kept looking around. He made a special trip to the office during the day and learned about the attack on Lingzhou. He was like an ant on a hot pot all day long.
When he saw the two returning, he calmed down for a moment and came up to them and asked, "How's it going?"
"Ah, Brother Tang is injured?"
Gu An and Li Sancai also came over and asked with concern.
In order not to affect the store's operation, Gudzhao did not disclose the information to others, but seeing this situation, several people also knew that something big had happened.
Zhao Lin helped Tang Zhengquan walk into the shop and said, "Brother Tang, the evil spirit has entered your body. Get a Clear Evil Pill."
Li Sancai responded, trotted to the warehouse, took a bottle of Qingsha Pill and gave it to Tang Zhengquan to drink.
Everyone came to the backyard and sat down, while Tang Zhengquan was doing exercises to drive away evil spirits.
Zhao Lin took advantage of this time to tell the story of the robbery of the cargo spirit boat, Tang Zhengquan Hongyan's letter, and how he and his people rushed to the scene for rescue.
Everyone was shocked and speechless after hearing this.
After a long while, Gude Zhao asked: "Is there not a single piece of goods left?"
Zhao Lin slowly shook his head.
Gudzhao smiled bitterly, "This is the last purchase before the end of the year. Half of the valuables include fifty sets of robes alone, three hundred cans of high-grade spiritual tea and fifty pieces of true meaning jade slips!"
When everyone heard this, their faces changed color.
A robe is worth five hundred to a thousand spiritual stones, and dozens of pieces are worth tens of thousands of spiritual stones. High-quality spiritual tea and true meaning jade slips are also valuable.
Zhao Lin looked at Mr. Accountant and said, "Wan Lao, if we lose this batch of goods, will the store still make a profit this year?"
Wan Jingsheng said "Hey", "I'll make more money this year. If I can afford it, don't worry about dividends."
Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but feel mixed emotions. Tang Zhengquan's life was saved and the store could continue to operate. Unfortunately, the dividends were gone, which was really heartbreaking.
Compared to the loss, Zhao Lin was more concerned about who did it, so he took out the remaining talisman of the Hongyan Talisman and slapped it on the table.
"Everyone, let's take a look and see if we can find any clues. We can't let this loss go in vain. Even if the goods can't be recovered, we still have to know who to ask for debt collection in the future!"
Everyone took the remaining talismans one after another and looked at them with their spiritual consciousness. They couldn't help but shake their heads after reading it.
Gudzhao sighed and said: "The sect requires that all traveling spirit boats must display their numbers on the bow and stern. Black Boat has obviously been tampered with, and there are no marks at all."
Gu An also echoed: "The faces of these guys were covered, and they didn't cast a spell from the beginning to the end. They really couldn't see the way out."
Zhao Lin knew that this was the case and couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
Just when everyone had no idea, Tang Zhengquan finished his exercise, got up and walked over.
Gude Zhao quickly brought a cup of spiritual tea, and Tang Zhengquan took two sips, and some color returned to his face.
Zhao Lin came back from his thoughts and said: "Brother Tang, we only looked at the jade slips, and we can't observe it as clearly as you on the spot. Can you explain the process in detail again?"
"That's fine!"
Tang Zhengquan cleared his throat and recounted what happened again.
It turned out that he set off from Hanchi County this morning. Near noon, he suddenly found a spiritual boat following behind him.
Tang Zhengquan quickly activated the warning array, making a buzzing sound to remind him, and at the same time moved to one side to avoid it.
Unexpectedly, the other party ignored him completely and instead accelerated to follow him.
Tang Zhengquan looked back and found that the monk on the black spirit boat was actually covering his face. Knowing that something was wrong, he immediately released the Hongyan Talisman.
"You have also seen what happened next. The spirit boat was shot down, and I had no choice but to jump into the boat to escape."
Gudzhao thought for a while and asked, "They didn't chase you?"
Tang Zhengquan shook his head, "No, I deliberately fell into the woods and released two escape talismans. I don't know if it was for this reason, but they didn't chase me."
Guzhao twisted his beard and said: "Maybe he is a bandit cultivator who only seeks wealth and does not kill people."
Zhao Lin felt that the matter was not that simple, and said, "Brother Tang, think about it again, did the three masked men say anything or do anything special?"
Tang Zhengquan still shook his head, "They didn't say a word from the beginning to the end, but when it was falling, they thought our spirit boat was out of control, and they pushed it down directly with the earth."
"I took the opportunity to use the magic circle to release flying spears and attack the belly of their ship. Unexpectedly, I actually hit them."
"A piece of the skin on the stern of the black boat was torn, revealing a pattern."
Zhao Lin perked up, leaned forward and asked, "What pattern?" He immediately asked someone to bring pen and paper and spread it out on the table.
Tang Zhengquan picked up the pen, recalled it carefully, and drew a strange pattern on the paper: a crescent moon in the upper part, and three plum blossoms in the lower part, arranged in a "pin" shape.
Zhao Lin felt like he had seen it before, but couldn't remember where he had seen it before. He stared at the pattern for a while and found that the number of petals was different. Some had five petals, some had six. He asked, "How many petals does the flower have?"
Tang Zhengquan said: "The situation was urgent at that time, so I took a look and only remembered the general shape."
Zhao Lin looked at Gu Guzhao with inquiring eyes, "Have you seen Gu Gu?"
Guzhao frowned and thought hard for a while, then shook his head, "Judging from the shape, it seems to be an emblem, but there is no such emblem in any state or county of our Chenghua Sect."
"As for the Immortal Cultivation Family, there are too many various emblems and family seals. They are so diverse that I don't know much about them."
Zhao Lin nodded, thinking: "This is the only breakthrough."
He put away the paper, stood up and said: "Brother Tang, have a good rest. The evil spirit has entered your body and you want to recover as soon as possible. You need elixirs and spiritual stones. All expenses will be charged to the store's account."
"By the way, Gu An, take Brother Tang to the Medical Academy tomorrow."
Gu An quickly said yes.
Tang Zhengquan said gratefully: "Thank you so much, Shopkeeper Zhao."
Zhao Lin said seriously: "Brother Tang was injured while transporting goods. The store should pay for it. You should take good care of yourself and don't worry about other things."
After speaking, he looked around at everyone and said, "I will handle this matter. Don't disclose it to the outside world. The store will operate as usual." (End of Chapter)
