Chapter 8: The Feared Rival

When his beloved son was attacked and rendered unconscious, He Chunhua sent an urgent message to the West Mountain Leopard Demon, but received no reply.

He sighed, "Urgent reports from the interior have also been cut off for about ten days. The Pingning region was captured by rebels, and then hit by floods, making all relay stations along the route unusable and completely severing communication. Blackwater City has been busy reorganizing its troops these past few days."

He Lingchuan paused, slightly startled. "Are we going to war too?"

He had heard of recent unusual activity in the military camp but hadn't thought much of it. Qian Song County hadn't seen a major war in a long time, though skirmishes around Blackwater City were frequent, usually involving government troops suppressing bandits or petty thieves. Both the military and civilians had grown accustomed to it.

"It's hard to say," He Chunhua replied, his face grim.

"Never mind," He Lingchuan thought, observing his father's slightly haggard face. He didn't truly blame his adoptive father. The county's affairs were extensive: grain production, trade, border issues, defense, and natural disasters – none could be overlooked. On top of that, he had to guard against rebel incursions from the interior. He Chunhua was a diligent official, rising earlier than a rooster and sleeping later than a dog.

Even though he had exhausted himself for Qian Song County, the worst news often originated from the heartland of the Yuan Kingdom!

The country was mired in internal strife.

"You called me here. What exactly did you want to show me?"

"This," He Chunhua said, prying open the leopard's massive maw.

The maw full of sharp teeth was chilling, but He Lingchuan immediately noticed something different. "The canines are all gone?"

All four canine teeth had been forcefully pulled out, leaving only bloody sockets.

"The leopard demon that attacked you also stored things in its canines. Additionally, the internal injuries of that leopard are very similar to those of this leopard king," he mused. "Where did you put what was inside its canine? Let me see it."

When He Lingchuan was found by the He family at the bottom of the cliff, he was unconscious and covered in blood, while the leopard had long been dead.

So the He family brought both back. The living person was rushed for treatment, while the dead leopard was sent for dissection. He Lingchuan had only gone out to hunt mountain goats, yet he returned with a leopard demon, so it was considered his prize. After He Chunhua examined the items hidden in the leopard's teeth, he gave them to his eldest son as a souvenir.

Demons also had storage needs, but since most didn't wear clothes, where could they hide things? A common method was to refine a part of their body into a storage space. Of course, this required innate talent; for instance, crocodile demons liked to use their stomachs as 'treasure pouches,' while tiger, leopard, wolf, and jackal-type demons typically refined their canines to store items.

Humans who understood this characteristic, upon killing a leopard demon, naturally extracted its canines as spoils of war.

However, opening a storage space required spiritual power. He Lingchuan, having just transmigrated at the time, was unaware of this and believed the leopard's teeth were truly empty.

"It's in the room; I'll go get it right now." Now it was finally He Lingchuan's turn to speak of serious matters. "Father, I have something else I need to report to you."

He then thoroughly recounted how the Donglai Prefecture guards were tracking down the sand leopard.

The more He Chunhua listened, the tighter his brow furrowed. Upon hearing the three words 'Donglai Prefecture,' he abruptly stood up. "What did you say?"

His face contorted in anger, and he swung his hand, aiming a slap.

He Lingchuan instinctively stepped back half a pace.

However, He Chunhua's slap halted mid-air; it never actually landed.

A few seconds later, his palm clenched into a fist and slammed onto the tabletop with a 'thud':

"Conducting private interrogations—that's utterly preposterous!"

He knew his son was accustomed to reckless behavior, incorrigible despite repeated warnings, and would sooner or later 'kick a steel plate' – encounter serious trouble. But he hadn't expected that trouble to arrive so quickly and precisely.

The Grand Marshal!

How could he have possibly offended the Grand Marshal!

He Chunhua was always lauded as 'composed' in official circles, but in He Lingchuan's memory, his father often flared up at him, so he wasn't particularly intimidated. Instead, he argued, "Those two were asking around everywhere, and the city is full of loose-lipped gossipers. I was afraid they'd quickly trace the matter back to us."

At this moment, he somewhat admired He Chunhua's caution. Regarding the leopard demon incident, Governor He had not only kept it quiet but had also demanded that those in the know remain silent. Otherwise, the news of Blackwater City's 'Little Tyrant' single-handedly slaying a leopard demon would have already spread throughout the city, and those two wouldn't have even needed to ask.

Of course, there is no wall that can keep a secret forever.

"The Zhang Hongbin case, initiated by the Grand Marshal six years ago, involved one duke, two marquises, and seven earls, implicating over two thousand six hundred people. How many do you think survived that ordeal?"

His father's face was as dark as storm clouds. He Lingchuan cautiously replied, "It seems... not many, right?"

"Seventy-three people!" He Chunhua enunciated, syllable by syllable. "How many women and children were among them? Ha, only seventy-three barely survived!"

A chilling sensation welled up in He Lingchuan's heart.

Not to mention commoners, even the lives of dukes and and ministers were as cheap as weeds, to be cut down at will.

"Compared to that, our family's ordeal was hardly the worst..." He Chunhua sighed, then steered the conversation back. "When you received the message from the Red-White Dao, why didn't you report it directly?"

"I wanted to extract information before reporting," He Lingchuan's expression hardened, his eyes glinting with ruthlessness. "If these two had no significant background, it would have been best to simply take my revenge. If their backing was too strong, then it was even more crucial not to let them know the escaped sand leopard was in our possession."

He Chunhua had been filled with indignation, but as he carefully considered his son's words, his expression slowly softened, and he eventually showed a hint of approval. "Not entirely unreasonable," he conceded.

Whether to capture these two or not wasn't the main point. The root of the trouble was that what the Grand Marshal wanted might be in their hands.

He looked at He Lingchuan. "You're finally using your head to think things through."

Meeting his father's satisfied gaze, He Lingchuan grinned, deflecting the comment. "I'll go get the items."

Fifteen minutes later.

He Lingchuan returned with the leopard's teeth and emptied the stored contents onto the small table.

"This is all of it."

The sand leopard that had originally attacked He Lingchuan had left behind several demon cores of varying sizes and colors, a set of daggers sharp enough to cut hair, several pieces of mutton-fat white jade, a string of luminous pearls, some miscellaneous items of unclear purpose, and even over a dozen gold and silver ingots!

Demons weren't solely fierce; they also engaged in trade with humans. The He father and son were not surprised to find gold and silver appearing as hard currency.

"Surely the Grand Marshal doesn't want this string of beads?" He Lingchuan picked up the string of pearls and held it up to the light.

The pearls had a lustrous, enchanting glow, each slightly larger than a melon seed, subtly shimmering with a blue light under the sun. After only a short while of being out, a faint mist began to condense around the string, making anyone nearby feel cool and their breathing much smoother, as if they had arrived at a breezy coastline.

"It has a slight water-condensing effect, but nothing special about it." All living creatures need water, and in the dry desert, these beads would make the sand leopard comfortable, but the Grand Marshal likely wouldn't be interested in them.

He Chunhua's gaze settled on the pile of miscellaneous items. The last time he had sorted through them, he had set these aside, but now he intended to examine them closely.

But these items were fragmented: withered flowers and plants, half a dark lump of musk, gnawed bones, and objects that seemed to have come from human victims—a blood-stained ring, a broken hairpin, several packets of spices, over a dozen feathers, half a comb, and...

A large pile of dried insects, snakes, and lizards.