Chapter 1196: County Magistrate Barbarian Bone

Mang Gu's letter was excessively long, littered with inappropriate allusions, and peppered with archaic particles at the end of sentences. Disregarding the extraneous details, Lu Yang distilled the message to its core: the county town is haunted, and he can't resolve it, so he's asking his elder brother for help.

Lu Yang found it quite absurd. Mang Gu, a formidable expert at the Void Refinement stage, couldn't even handle a haunting. *Ah*, the Void Refinement stage, then it made perfect sense he couldn't.

"Old Meng, Junior Brother Mang sent me a letter about a haunting in his area," Lu Yang said, letter in hand, as he sought out the resident ghostbuster.

Ten days had passed since Meng Jingzhou's incident; he had just emerged from seclusion after consolidating his cultivation.

"You received one too?"

Meng Jingzhou also had a letter from Mang Gu in his possession. Comparing the dates on the letters, they understood the sequence of events: Mang Gu had first sent a letter to Meng Jingzhou, but since Meng Jingzhou was in seclusion, he then sent one to Lu Yang. However, judging by Mang Gu's penchant for flowery language in his correspondence, it didn't seem to be a matter of great urgency.

"What are your thoughts?" Meng Jingzhou asked.

Lu Yang displayed a knowing smile, a habit he'd developed since reaching the Tribulation Transcending stage. "It's time to stretch our legs," he said.

"Indeed," Meng Jingzhou agreed.

"Senior Ma—" Lu Yang began. He had intended to call him Old Ma but couldn't spot him anywhere.

"Uncle Ma returned to his ancestral home in the East Sea for seclusion to attempt a breakthrough," Meng Jingzhou explained. "It looks like he's aiming for the Tribulation Transcending stage."

"That's truly wonderful news," Lu Yang chuckled. Senior Ma, as Old Meng's guardian, hadn't had much to do but had certainly worked hard. He decided to send a congratulatory gift to the Dragon-Horse clan later to celebrate Senior Ma's breakthrough.

Meng Jingzhou was also delighted by Old Ma's breakthrough. "Uncle Ma has reached the Tribulation Transcending stage, yet my father is still stuck at the Body Fusion stage! If he had run away from home with me back then, he'd be at the Tribulation Transcending stage by now!"

"...Do you even hear yourself?" Lu Yang interjected. Sometimes, Old Meng's active mind made Lu Yang feel his own thoughts were too rigid.

"It's fine if Senior Ma isn't here; you're already at the Tribulation Transcending stage anyway," Lu Yang reasoned.

"True, with you, a Tribulation Transcending expert, by my side, what is there to fear?" Meng Jingzhou concurred.

The two men exchanged lavish praises. Laughing heartily, they decided to set off immediately. Given their past experiences of appearing in newspapers, sometimes even occupying entire pages with their portraits, they realized they needed to travel in disguise.

The county Mang Gu governed was Quyi County, located in Zhongshan Prefecture, Huangzhou, within the Great Xia Dynasty. They traveled with immense speed, arriving directly at Quyi County.

Along the way, they stumbled upon an ancient battlefield ruin that had just opened. Legend had it that this battlefield dated back to the tumultuous late Great Gan Dynasty. Though the souls of the fallen warriors had long vanished, their indomitable will persisted, and countless opportunities were scattered within the ruins. Only those who displayed noble character and exceptional talent could gain the recognition of the unyielding will and become the master of the ancient battlefield ruins. Taking a detour, they entered the ruins. There, they took out a scrying orb and played a recording of Prison Peak, informing the unyielding wills: "Whether you were cultivators of Great Gan or Great Yu, settle down and stop fighting. Siming and Guan Shanhai are both locked up in Prison Peak." The indomitable wills quickly submitted. The two then claimed the ancient battlefield ruins, donated them to the Great Xia imperial court, and suggested that Golden Core stage cultivators under the age of twenty-two be allowed to train there.

From the ruins, they also acquired a fragment of an immortal artifact. The unyielding wills explained that its origin was unknown, but it contained the essence of Yin and Yang, proving highly beneficial for cultivating the corresponding path. It had even led to fierce disputes among demigods in the past. Immortal Buxiu identified it as a recording device used by the Ninefold Immortal to observe the mating of the Golden Crow and Jade Rabbit. Both wanted to view the Ninefold Immortal's recordings, but during their squabble, they accidentally dropped the fragment into a ravine below, losing track of its exact location. They had no choice but to give up.

Meanwhile, a child of a mountain hunter, known as a skilled archer in the area, was hunting. He shot an arrow that pierced a rabbit. Following the direction of his arrow, he discovered a finely crafted fragment, adorned with unknown carvings, lying next to the rabbit.

"What is this?" he wondered.

As he picked up both the rabbit and the fragment, a drop of the rabbit's blood accidentally splattered onto the relic. The fragment instantly flared with light, projecting a beam directly into the child's forehead. The child then recited the information transmitted from the fragment: "Extreme Yin Cultivation Method, first level?"

"There's also the Extreme Yang Cultivation Method, but why is there only a name and no content?"

"Could it be that this is a fragment, and I need to find the others to complete the full cultivation technique?"

"And this Golden Crow and Jade Rabbit Visualization Diagram is covered by a thin mist. Is it because I'm not a cultivator that I can't see it?"

Though he didn't know the fragment's origin, the names of the cultivation methods and diagram suggested it was far from ordinary.

"See? I told you not to snatch it. Now it's lost, isn't it?"

"As if you weren't trying to snatch it yourself."

Even after arriving in Quyi County, they still reminisced about their journey. Of course, they were simply looking for an excuse to bicker. After all, what they lost wasn't particularly important; the Extreme Yin Cultivation Method was of little use to them, and only the Golden Crow and Jade Rabbit Visualization Diagram held any interest.

"This place appears to be well-governed by Mang Gu," they observed as they walked along the main street towards the yamen. It was daytime, the hour when the county magistrate typically held court. The roads were clean and orderly, children played boisterously, the clear sounds of reading echoed from schools, and officers patrolled the streets.

Upon reaching the yamen, they found Mang Gu presiding over a trial. Mang Gu, a tall and powerfully built man, looked somewhat awkward in his official robes, made more so by his rolled-up sleeves which revealed bulging muscles. He sat upright, slammed his palm on the table, and loudly declared, "Open court!" After shouting, he realized he'd forgotten to use his gavel, but dismissed it, thinking it made no difference.

Two women, each clutching a child, were weeping. From his spot in the crowd at the yamen entrance, Lu Yang gathered the general outline of the situation. One woman claimed her child had been lost since infancy and yesterday discovered a child in another household who bore a striking resemblance to her own, thus asserting it was her child. The other family, however, vehemently denied this, insisting the child was their biological offspring. The dispute escalated until it reached Mang Gu, whom both implored for a resolution.

The chief clerk whispered in Mang Gu's ear, "My Lord, you could order the child to be beaten, the harder the better. The one who shows the most distress for the child's pain will be the true mother."

Mang Gu gave the clerk an odd look. "Will that method work?" he asked. "Aside from the child taking a beating, even if the child isn't biologically theirs, they've raised them for years and would naturally feel distressed."

"So, what does Your Lordship propose?"

"A blood affinity test, of course."

"Oh? I've heard those tests aren't very accurate," the clerk responded.

"They're quite accurate, actually." Mang Gu instructed the two women and the child to each drop a single bead of blood into separate bowls. He then activated his spiritual power, causing one drop to burst, revealing the information contained within the blood to everyone present, while simultaneously explaining the process. "Blood contains billions of microscopic units. The arrangement of these units varies, but only among blood relatives will the arrangement be identical."

"Billions of microscopic units?" the chief clerk stammered. "How can one possibly compare them?"

"By simply looking, of course," Mang Gu stated matter-of-factly, carefully observing the arrangement of the units. He quickly reached a conclusion. "Strange, why are the arrangements of all three of you nearly identical?"

"Ah, I see now. You are all one family." Mang Gu pointed to one of the families. "In fact, you are over fifty years old; you appear young because you are a cultivator. Did you ever lose a daughter?"

The family nodded vigorously.

Next, Mang Gu pointed to the other woman. "Were you adopted as a child?"

The woman also nodded.

Mang Gu clapped his hand decisively, then pointed to the first family. "Then it's settled. She is your mother."

"In other words, you are the child's mother, and she is the child's grandmother."