Chapter 5: The Opponent You Can't Afford to Offend

When his beloved son was attacked and fell into a coma, He Chunhua also sent urgent messages to the West Mountain Leopard Demon, but received no reply.

He sighed. "Additionally, urgent dispatches from the interior have been cut off for about ten days," he said. "The Pingning region was captured by rebels, followed by floods, rendering all postal stations along the way unusable and completely severing communications. Blackwater City has been busy mobilizing its troops these past few days."

He Lingchuan was slightly taken aback. "Are we going to war too?" he asked.

He had heard about some recent movements in the military camp, but hadn't paid much attention to it. Qian Song Commandery had long been free of major wars, but skirmishes around Blackwater City were common, mostly involving official troops suppressing bandits and minor thieves. Both soldiers and civilians had grown accustomed to it.

"Hard to say," He Chunhua replied, his expression grim.

"Never mind," He Lingchuan thought. Looking at his somewhat haggard face, He Lingchuan didn't truly blame this surrogate father. The commandery's affairs were arduous: grain production, trade, border issues, defense, natural disasters—none could be neglected. He also had to guard against rebel attacks from the interior. He Chunhua rose earlier than a rooster and slept later than a dog; he was a diligent official.

Even though he worked tirelessly for Qian Song Commandery, the worst news often came from the heartland of the Yuan Kingdom!

The country was plagued by internal strife.

"What exactly did you call me here to see?"

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

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

All four canine teeth had been forcibly extracted, leaving only bloody holes.

"The leopard demon that attacked you also stored things in its canines," He Chunhua said. "Furthermore, the internal injuries of that leopard are very similar to those of this leopard king." He mused, "Where did you put the things from its canine teeth? Let me see them."

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 was long dead.

So the He family brought both back. The living person was promptly treated, while the dead leopard was sent for dissection. He Lingchuan had only gone out to hunt rock sheep but had brought back a leopard demon, so it was considered his prey. After He Chunhua examined the items hidden in the leopard's teeth, he gave them to his eldest son as a keepsake.

Demons also have storage needs, but most don't wear clothes, so where can they hide things? A common method is to refine a part of their body into a storage space. Of course, this requires innate talent; for example, crocodile demons like to use their stomachs as treasure pouches, while tiger, leopard, wolf, and jackal-like demons usually refine their canine teeth to conceal things.

Humans who understand this characteristic naturally remove the canine teeth of slain leopard demons as trophies.

Opening a storage space requires spiritual energy, and He Lingchuan, having just transmigrated, didn't understand this and thought the leopard's teeth were truly empty.

"I put it in the room. I'll go get it right away," He Lingchuan said. Now it was his turn to get to the point. "Father, there's something else I need to tell you."

Then, he thoroughly explained the matter of the Donglai Prefecture guards tracking the whereabouts of the sand leopard.

The more He Chunhua listened, the more tightly his brows furrowed. When he heard the three words "Donglai Prefecture," he abruptly stood up. "What did you say?" he demanded.

His face changed dramatically, and he swung his hand, aiming a slap.

He Lingchuan subconsciously stepped back half a pace.

However, He Chunhua's slap stopped mid-air and didn't actually land.

A few seconds later, his palm curled into a fist and slammed onto the tabletop with a bang:

"Setting up private torture? This is absurd!"

He knew this son was prone to reckless behavior, was beyond correction, and would sooner or later hit a snag. But he hadn't expected the snag to come so quickly and so precisely.

The Grand Marshal!

How did he manage to offend the Grand Marshal!

He Chunhua was always known as "composed" in official circles, but in He Lingchuan's memory, his father often lost his temper with him, so he wasn't particularly afraid and instead argued, "Those two were asking around everywhere, and the city is full of gossips. I was afraid they'd trace it back to us quickly."

At this moment, he somewhat admired He Chunhua's prudence. Regarding the leopard demon incident, Governor He not only kept it quiet but also required those who knew to remain silent. Otherwise, the news of Blackwater City's little tyrant single-handedly killing a leopard demon would have spread throughout the city, and those two wouldn't even have needed to inquire.

Of course, there are no secrets under the sun.

"Six years ago, the Zhang Hongbin case, initiated by the Grand Marshal, involved one Duke, two Marquises, and seven Earls, implicating over two thousand six hundred people," He Chunhua stated. "How many do you think survived in the end?"

His father's face was like a dark cloud looming. He Lingchuan cautiously replied, "Apparently... not many?"

"Seventy-three people!" He Chunhua said, enunciating each word. "How many women and children were among them? Hah, only seventy-three survived!"

A chill rose from the bottom of He Lingchuan's heart.

Not to mention ordinary commoners, even the lives of dukes and high officials were like cheap weeds, to be cut down at will.

"Compared to that, our family's misfortune isn't even the worst..." He Chunhua sighed, then changed the topic. "When you received the message from Hongbaidao, why didn't you report it directly?"

"I wanted to get information first, then report it," He Lingchuan said, his expression hardening and a fierce look in his eyes. "If these two have no significant backing, it would be best for me to take revenge on the spot; if their backing is too strong, then it's even more crucial not to let them know that the escaped sand leopard is in our hands."

He Chunhua was initially filled with indignation, but as he carefully considered his son's words, his expression slowly softened, and he even showed a hint of approval. "Not entirely without reason," he conceded.

Whether these two were captured or not wasn't the main point. The root of the trouble was that what the Grand Marshal wanted might be in the father and son's possession.

He looked at He Lingchuan. "You're actually using your head now," he remarked.

Meeting his father's approving gaze, He Lingchuan grinned to avoid the topic. "I'll go get the items," he said.

A quarter of an hour later.

He Lingchuan had returned with the leopard's teeth and poured out all the stored items onto the small table.

"This is all there is," he said.

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

Demons weren't always vicious; they also engaged in trade with humans. The presence of gold and silver as hard currency didn't surprise the He father and son.

"Surely what the Grand Marshal wants isn't this string of pearls?" He Lingchuan said, picking up the string of pearls and holding it against the light.

The pearls had a warm, alluring luster. Each was slightly larger than a melon seed and subtly glowed blue in the sunlight. In just the short time it was out, faint water vapor began to condense around the string, making the air feel cool and easing breathing, as if one had arrived at a breezy coast.

"It has some water-condensing effect, but nothing special," he mused. All creatures need water, and in a dry desert, this string of pearls could make the sand leopard comfortable, but the Grand Marshal likely had no interest in it.

He Chunhua's gaze fell on the pile of miscellaneous items. During the previous inventory, he had put them aside, but now he wanted to examine them closely.

But these items were fragmented and varied: shriveled flowers and plants, half a dark piece of musk, bones not completely gnawed clean, as well as a blood-stained ring that seemed to come from a human victim, a broken hairpin, several packets of spices, over a dozen feathers, half a comb, and...

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