Chapter 169 Preparation before departure
Hiding the residual spirit and the witchcraft with him, Shang Lu left the Thief Cao's Office and went to the nearby Sheriff's Mansion.
He found the official who had come to Cao Cao's office to deliver orders and asked about the address of Liang Jihu's hometown.
These days, Liang Jihu has been taking care of his sick elders in his hometown and has not returned to the county magistrate's mansion as an errand.
Shanglu didn't know when he would come back, so he simply sent the letter Wu Zhu asked him to send to Liang Jihu before going to Feiwu County.
Even if it takes a little detour, it doesn't matter.
"Liang Jihu's hometown is in Xipinggou below Yunhe Town."
When the official saw that Shang Lu was going to find Liang Jihu, he not only gave him the address, but also pulled out a map of counties and counties.
After some searching, he pointed to a small village above the mountain.
"Well, Xipinggou is right here. After you leave the city, follow the official road and you can get there in just one day."
Phytolacca wrote down the location and route, and thanked him.
"Why bother saying thank you for such a trivial matter?" The official waved his hands repeatedly and asked Shang Lu to help him say good things to Liang Jihu's sick elder after meeting Liang Jihu.
"This is natural." Shanglu nodded in agreement.
Seeing that the official still had work to do, he took the initiative to leave.
I had just left for a business trip and was about to return to Cao Cao's office when I was stopped by someone.
"Shang Cao Cao, why are you free today to come to the governor's house?"
Shang Lu looked around and saw that it was Lu Yang.
"I've met Senior Brother Lu."
Shang Lu came forward and bowed, then expressed his intention.
"I was entrusted by someone to bring a letter to Liang Jihu. I happened to take over the errand of the trial and was going to Feiwu County, so I thought of sending the letter along with it."
"Going to Feiwu County?"
Lu Yang raised his eyebrows: "But assisting the great witch Zhongli in catching the mountain ghost?"
"Senior Brother Lu also knows about this?"
Phytolacca was a little surprised, but reacted immediately.
"You took this job too?"
Lu Yang smiled and nodded: "I am also a postal supervisor in the county governor's mansion. It is my duty to inspect the place, eliminate obscene worship, and hunt down monsters and ghosts."
When Shangluca heard this, what else did he not understand?
Lu Yang's approach was based on Wang Chao's advice to him, which was to combine the errands of the Yamen and the Wuyuan.
Contribute and get two cents.
Shang Lu said happily: "That's great. With Senior Brother Lu going with me, my errand for the trial will definitely be settled."
Lu Yang laughed loudly. Although he knew that Shangluca was flattering, the flattery was said by Shangluca with his clever tongue, which made him very happy.
After chatting for a while, the two agreed to meet in Feiwu County.
Shangwei had to take a detour to Xipinggou, and Lu Yang had to make arrangements for the errands at hand before he could set off. Calculating the time, he arrived at Feiwu County in time, so they could move together.
After the agreement was made, Lu Yang sighed: "You have only been in the witch academy for a short time, and you have successfully refined your qi and entered the inner mountain. I think back then, I had to practice hard in the outer courtyard for more than a year before I succeeded in refining my qi."
"It's just my luck."
Shang Lu said modestly: "I made many meritorious deeds in Luoshui County before. The imperial court and the witch academy rewarded me with a lot of elixirs and spiritual fluids. I was also valued by noble people and gave me more help. I was lucky enough to succeed in refining my Qi."
Lu Yang didn't think so.
He shook his head and said: "It's your ability to be rewarded for your meritorious service!"
But he did not continue the topic, and instead asked about one thing: "At the execution ground, I saw that you brought two ghosts with you. Are they the ones killed by Zhao Qi?"
"Yes."
Shang Lu told Lu Yang about the situation of Qin's mother and daughter.
After hearing this, Lu Yang nodded and said: "I guess it's them too, no wonder they gave you the Yin Pearl."
Hearing this, Shang Lu hurriedly asked: "Did Senior Sister Gongshu tell Senior Brother Lu?"
"That's right." Lu Yang said with a smile, "She suspected that the Yin Pearl was made by you who took an evil path and killed people to capture their souls. She came to me to ask about the situation. I said you are not that kind of person."
Shang Lu cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, Senior Brother Lu, for testifying for me." Lu Yang waved his hand and sighed, "You are also brave, and you dare to provoke Senior Sister Gongshu. When her temper exploded, she was the doctor and student in the witch college. They can't avoid it either.
If there is really something wrong with that Yin Pearl, she will really tear you apart. However, she is indeed good at refining weapons. If you ask her for help, it is even more reliable than asking the doctor of weapon refining in the witch academy. ”
After chatting for a few words, Shanglu said goodbye to Lu Yang and left the governor's mansion.
As soon as they returned to Cao Cao's office, Shen Tu came up to him with a file of cases in his arms.
"Sir, I have just investigated cases related to Feiwu County in the past two years with the clerks in the government office.
It's just that our Thief Cao Department is mainly responsible for theft and thief affairs. Even if there are ghosts causing trouble in Feiwu County, we will report it to the witch temple and ask the witch officials to deal with it. There are very few ghost cases reported to us.
Only at the beginning of this year, several villages in Feiwu County reported to the police that there was banditry.
We sent people to investigate, and when they arrived, the banditry was gone.
The local villagers said that the mountain god appeared and helped them get rid of the banditry. ”
"The mountain god appears?"
Shang Lu raised his eyebrows when he heard this.
At the beginning, Zhao Qi also worshiped mountain ghosts as gods.
Could it be that the mountain god that the villagers call him is actually the fake mountain ghost?
But, will the evil mountain ghost also protect one's safety?
"How did those bandits die?"
Phytolacca wanted to find some clues from the bandit's death.
But Shentu said: "The people who went there did not see the corpses of the bandits."
"Why?"
"The person who led the team at that time was the thief Cao Li Fang Yi.
I just asked him about the situation. After he told me, he only saw the camp left by the bandits, but not a single body.
People in several nearby villages and towns all said that the mountain god used his magical power to take away the bandits.
Oh, right. At that time, they also saw that people in those villages and towns were offering sacrifices to the mountain gods to thank them for their manifestations.
Afterwards, Fang Yi and the others reported the matter to the Feiwu County Witch Temple.
People in the witch temple looked up relevant information and said that what the villagers described and worshiped was indeed a recorded mountain god. ”
Shang Luxin said that even if there is such a righteous god, it is not necessarily Him that the villagers worship.
After all, that mountain ghost is not only good at deceiving people, but also very good at pretending to be a god.
Shang Lu thought for a while and asked Shentu to call Fang Yi and ask him if he had seen anything weird in those villages and towns at that time.
"Weird thing?"
Fang Yi recalled it carefully, shook his head and said: "There is nothing weird..."
Speaking of this, I remembered something.
"By the way, they used live animals for sacrifice.
At that time, there was a sacrificial goat. It kept barking at us and even knelt down at us, as if begging us to save it.
We saw that it was quite spiritual and wanted to spend money to buy it, but the local villagers refused, saying that it would ruin the results of the sacrifice, so we had no choice but to give up. ”
A spiritual sheep that begs for mercy?
Shangwei was thoughtful, but did not say much, but asked some more questions.
After carefully recalling, Fang Yi answered one by one.
Unfortunately, there aren't many clues.
Finally, Shanglu asked Fang Yi to write down the specific locations of those villages and towns, as well as the addresses of the places where sacrifices were held, on paper.
He planned to report to the Great Witch Zhongli after arriving in Feiwu County, or to investigate with Lu Yang.
See if you can find some clues related to the mountain ghost in these places, and then trace the whereabouts of the mountain ghost, and even find out where it may be hiding.
(End of chapter)