After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 5: Chapter 5: An Adversary Not to be Trifled With

When his son was attacked and fell into a coma, Hee Chunhua had sent a swift message to the West Mountain Leopard Demon, but he received no reply whatsoever.

He sighed. ”Additionally, urgent reports from the interior have been cut off for about ten days. The Pingning Region was captured by rebels, and then came the floods. The post stations along the route are unusable, so all communications have been severed. Black Water City has been busy organizing its troops these past few days.”

Hee Lingchuan was taken aback. ”Are we going to war too?”

He’d heard about some unusual movements in the military camp recently but hadn’t paid them any mind. Qiansong County hadn’t seen a major battle in a long time, but minor skirmishes around Black Water City happened every other day. It was usually the Official Army going out to suppress bandits and deal with some clueless petty thieves, something both soldiers and citizens had grown used to.

”Hard to say,” Hee Chunhua said, his expression grim.

’Ah, forget it.’ Looking at his father’s somewhat haggard face, Hee Lingchuan couldn’t bring himself to truly blame this stand-in dad. The county’s affairs were overwhelming—grain production, commerce, border threats, defense, natural disasters—not a single one could be taken lightly. On top of that, he had to guard against rebels from the interior attacking. Hee Chunhua rose before the rooster and slept after the dogs; he was a diligent official, a true parent to his people.

’Even though he pours his heart and soul into Qiansong County, the worst news always comes from the heartland of the Yuan Kingdom!’

The kingdom was mired in internal strife.

”So, what did you call me here to see?”

”This.” Hee Chunhua pried open the leopard’s jaws.

The mouthful of sharp teeth was enough to make one’s blood run cold, but Hee Lingchuan immediately noticed something was 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 used its canines to store things. What’s more, that leopard’s internal injuries are very similar to this Leopard King’s.” He mused, ”The items from its fangs—where did you put them? Let me see.”

Back when the Hee Family found him at the bottom of the cliff, Hee Lingchuan had been unconscious and covered in blood, and the leopard was long dead.

So the Hee Family carried them both back, rushing to treat the living man and sending the dead leopard to be dissected. Hee Lingchuan had only gone out to hunt Rock Sheep but had come back with a Leopard Demon, so it was considered his kill. After Hee Chunhua examined the contents of the Leopard Fangs, he gave the items to his eldest son as a memento.

Demons have a need for storage, too, but most don’t wear clothes, so where can they hide things? The common practice is to refine a part of their own body into a Storage Space. This, of course, requires a natural aptitude for it. For example, Crocodile Demons like to use their stomachs as treasure pouches, while demons of the tiger, leopard, wolf, and jackal variety typically refine their canine teeth to conceal items.

Humans who knew of this trait would, of course, gouge out their canine teeth as trophies after killing a Leopard Demon.

Opening the Storage Space requires Spiritual Power. Hee Lingchuan, who had just transmigrated over at the time, was unaware of the details and had assumed the Leopard Fangs were truly empty.

”I left them in my room. I’ll go get them in a minute.” Now it was finally Hee Lingchuan’s turn to get to business. ”Dad, there’s something I need to report to you.”

He then recounted the whole story of the Guards from Donglai Prefecture who were investigating the whereabouts of the Sand Leopard.

The more Hee Chunhua listened, the more his brow furrowed. When he heard the name ”Donglai Prefecture,” he shot to his feet. ”What did you say?”

His expression changed drastically as he lashed out with a slap.

Hee Lingchuan instinctively took half a step back.

However, Hee Chunhua’s slap stopped in midair; it didn’t actually connect.

After a few seconds, his palm clenched into a fist and—SLAM!—he smashed it onto the tabletop.

”Conducting a private interrogation? This is utterly reckless!”

He knew his son was prone to reckless behavior and never learned from his mistakes. He was bound to cross the wrong person sooner or later. But he never expected it to happen this quickly or this pointedly.

The Grand Commandant!

’How could he have offended the Grand Commandant of all people!’

Hee Chunhua had always been described as ”composed” in official circles, but in Hee Lingchuan’s memory, his father often lost his temper with him, so he wasn’t particularly afraid. He even argued back, ”Those two were asking questions all over. The city is full of gossiping scoundrels. I was afraid they would trace things back to us before long.”

At this, he had to admire Hee Chunhua’s caution. Regarding the Leopard Demon incident, Hee Prefect hadn’t publicized it at all. Instead, he had ordered everyone in the know to keep their mouths shut. Otherwise, news that the Little Overlord of Black Water City had single-handedly slain a Leopard Demon would have spread through the city long ago, and those two men wouldn’t have even needed to ask around to find him.

Of course, there’s no such thing as a perfect secret.

”Six years ago, the Zhang Hongbin case, initiated by the Grand Commandant, involved one duke, two marquises, and seven counts, implicating more than twenty-six hundred people. How many of them do you think were left alive in the end?”

His father’s face was as dark as a thundercloud. Hee Lingchuan ventured cautiously, ”Probably... not many?”

”Seventy-three!” Hee Chunhua said, enunciating every syllable. ”And how many women and children were among them? Hah. In the end, only seventy-three people were left to struggle on!”

A chill ran down Hee Lingchuan’s spine.

Never mind the common folk—even the lives of dukes and high ministers were treated like worthless weeds, to be cut down at will.

”In comparison, what our family has endured isn’t even the worst of it...” Hee Chunhua lamented, before returning to the topic. ”After you received the message from the Red and White Dao, why didn’t you report it to me directly?”

”I wanted to get some answers out of them before I reported to you,” Hee Lingchuan said, his expression hardening and a ruthless glint appearing in his eyes. ”If those two had no significant backing, it would have been the perfect chance to get my revenge. If their backer is too powerful, then it’s all the more reason we can’t let them know the escaped Sand Leopard is in our hands.”

Hee Chunhua had been filled with simmering anger, but as he carefully considered his son’s words, his expression slowly softened. In the end, there was even a hint of approval in his voice. ”That’s not without reason.”

Whether those two men were captured wasn’t the main issue. The root of the problem was that the item the Grand Commandant wanted was very likely in his and his son’s possession.

He glanced at Hee Lingchuan. ”So you’ve started using your head to think things through.”

Meeting his father’s gratified gaze, Hee Lingchuan deflected with a grin. ”I’ll go get the items.”

「A quarter of an hour later.」

Hee Lingchuan returned with the Leopard Fangs and emptied their contents onto a small side table.

”This is everything.”

The possessions of the Sand Leopard that had attacked Hee Lingchuan included several Demon Cores of varying sizes and colors, a set of daggers so sharp they could sever a falling hair, a few pieces of Mutton Fat Jade, a Bright Pearl Necklace, some miscellaneous items of indeterminate use, and even a dozen or so gold and silver ingots!

Demons weren’t just mindlessly ferocious; they also engaged in trade with humans. Neither of the Hees, father or son, was surprised to see gold and silver used as hard currency.

”The Grand Commandant couldn’t possibly be after this string of pearls, could he?” Hee Lingchuan lifted the strand, holding it up to the light.

The pearls had a gentle, captivating luster. Each one was slightly larger than a melon seed and seemed to shimmer with a faint blue light in the sun. In the short time it had been out, a light mist had begun to condense around the strand. Being near it felt cool and refreshing, making it easier to breathe, as if one were standing on a coast caressed by a gentle breeze.

”It has a slight water-condensing effect, but that’s nothing special.” Every living creature needs water, and in the arid desert, this necklace would have made the Sand Leopard more comfortable. But the Grand Commandant shouldn’t have any interest in it.

Hee Chunhua’s gaze fell upon the pile of miscellaneous objects. When he’d first inventoried the items, he had simply pushed these aside. Now, he decided to take a closer look.

But these were all just odds and ends: shriveled flowers and herbs, half a block of dark musk, a half-gnawed bone, a bloody ring that looked like it had been taken from a human victim, a broken hairpin, a few packets of spices, a dozen or so feathers, half a comb, and...

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