Immortal Road.

Chapter 481: Mysterious Messenger at the Foot of Yelang Mountain

The antique shop was very classy. They hoisted the golden bell slightly, about three feet off the ground, and placed it in the center of the reception hall, where it was slowly rotating.

Guests wearing tall hats gathered around, watching and praising the performance.

"Since you have this golden bell on display, why don't you sell it?"

Lin Shan asked knowingly.

The waiter smiled and replied:

"This golden bell has already had an owner. It was left behind by the great guest official of my Zhao family. Therefore, it is only exhibited and not auctioned."

The Zhao family's supreme guest official, as known to everyone in the entire Zangke County, is a master who has reached the state of innate great perfection.

Fifty years ago, Lin Shan helped the Zhao family teach a lesson to a large number of people inside and outside the city. He was just a young man at that time, so his residual power was enough to intimidate people for more than sixty years.

The Zhao family naturally spared no effort to use the tiger's skin and wave the banner, and others didn't know whether this supreme guest official had left or not, so no one dared to touch the Zhao family.

Lin Shan nodded and smiled, without saying anything else.

He just told the waiter to leave and wandered around here casually.

As expected, there is no ancient charm.

The golden bell now seemed completely unworthy of mention, and I was too lazy to take it back.

He found the owner of the antique shop and took the initiative to reveal his identity.

An hour later, at the Zhao family.

The hall was filled with clan elders, and they all looked at the young man in white at the top with excitement, their hearts pounding wildly.

The head of the Zhao family had long been replaced, but the family had long admired this legendary supreme guest official.

"Sir, you are finally back. We thought that the small Zhao family had been forgotten long ago, but I didn't expect that you still remember it!"

"Ah."

Lin Shan slowly polished the tea lid, with no intention of drinking it.

Brother Ji was sitting restlessly next to him and wanted to speak, but Lin Shan had warned him not to speak too easily as it would easily shock the world.

"I'm going back to Southern Xinjiang this time, and there's something I need you to do."

Lin Shan was too lazy to beat around the bush. The Zhao family was just a small chess piece of his. He would use it when needed and throw it aside when not needed.

It's a dispensable character, so there's no need to exchange too much small talk.

In order to cling to this support, the Zhao family naturally agreed immediately and promised to do their best no matter what.

"Sir, please tell me, my Zhao family still has some connections and informants in Zangke County. We will get whatever you want, such as the collection you left behind before you left."

"Eh~"

Two elderly elders nearby stopped him immediately and signaled to him not to talk about this in public.

The head of the Zhao family then realized that he had spoken out of turn. After all, he was still young and had just taken office, and was not as thoughtful as the experienced ones.

Lin Shan's heart moved. It seemed that after he left, the Zhao family was still working hard to collect antiques for him. This thought was worthy of praise.

"Well, let's talk about that later. First, let me tell you the mission I gave you this time."

"Black Lotus Sect, does anyone among you know this?"

Everyone's eyes fixed, and some of them looked around quietly.

The older generation has basically heard of it, but the younger generation is not very clear about it.

"Sir, are you talking about the cult that the imperial court has recognized as a heresy?"

The head of the Zhao family inquired carefully, fearing that Lin Shan had something to do with this thing.

Lin Shan nodded.

"That's right! The Black Lotus Sect is an unforgivable evil cult. As long as we have justice in our hearts, we will kill them as soon as possible!"

He directly played the opposite role and stated his position.

"I recently heard that the Black Lotus Cult is active in southern Xinjiang. As the local bosses, you should find out their whereabouts for me."

"Once you have any news, don't alert the enemy and report back to me immediately."

"The evil cult must be eradicated. I will enforce justice on behalf of heaven, kill the evil and restore peace and order to the southern border of the Song Dynasty!"

Everyone in the Zhao family was confused when they heard this. Although they thought it was ridiculous, no one dared to laugh.

The air was frozen for a long time.

An elder from the Zhao family broke the awkward situation.

"Sir, the Black Lotus Sect is not an ordinary cult. Although it was wiped out by the imperial court a long time ago, the remnants are by no means ordinary people."

"We all know that you are extremely powerful, but those people are very evil. We are afraid that they will use despicable means. Why take this risk?"

"Those evil cults are at most brainwashing the barbarians in the mountains. They have nothing to do with us. It is better to leave it to the court to deal with."

He was actually trying to tactfully persuade Lin Shan not to get involved in this mess.

Although I don't know why this Grand Guest Official is still so young after all these years, I can only assume that he has some secret to maintain his youthful appearance and takes good care of himself. In any case, I don't think he can single-handedly defeat the Black Lotus Sect.

Everyone in the Zhao family echoed this. They had just welcomed the family's former big shot, and they didn't want him to die right after his arrival.

"Okay, stop talking nonsense!"

Lin Shan didn't want to explain to them, nor was there any need to explain to them. He just ordered them to mobilize all their connections to investigate.

The Zhao family tried to persuade him in vain, so they had no choice but to obey the orders and dispatch on the spot.

Those who have connections in the officialdom look for officials, those who have connections in the garrison look for the garrison, rewards and tasks are posted on the black market, and people are also sent to various places to collect information.

As for the huge noise, will it attract any attention?
Neither Lin Shan nor the Zhao family are worried about this.

The Zhao family felt that their big brother had returned and it was the perfect time to show off their muscles. They wanted to let everyone know that their backer was still there, and of course they wanted to make a big fanfare.

Lin Shan also doesn't care about the mortal world at all. This little thing is not worth mentioning to the world of cultivation. The righteous sects in the Song Dynasty have their own opponents to restrain them and have no time to deal with such a small matter.

What's more, if an ignorant martial arts master wants to go to the Black Lotus Sect, no cultivation force will pay attention to such a thing and just treat it as a joke.

After giving the order, the Zhao family members dispersed in a hurry and began to mobilize all their connections to work for Lin Shan, while the head of the Zhao family stayed behind.

It didn't take long.

He led Lin Shan to a warehouse, which was filled with ancient items.

"Sir, these are the antiques we have purchased from the surrounding areas over the years. Would you like to take a look?"

Lin Shan nodded: "That's thoughtful."

The head of the Zhao family bowed and left.

After a while, Lin Shan came out and saw Brother Ji scolding the head of the Zhao family in the yard.

"What's wrong with you? You have the nerve to offer those coarse grains to me? Are you sick?" The Zhao family patriarch was so frightened that his face turned pale. He was kneeling there trembling. He didn't expect to meet a monster!
When he saw Lin Shan coming out, his face was overjoyed and he looked towards this side with hope, hoping that the Supreme Guest Official would save him from the dire situation.

Lin Shan walked over reluctantly, waved his hand and asked the head of the Zhao family to leave first, frowned and discussed seriously with Brother Ji.

"Can you please not easily reveal that you can talk in the mortal world in the future? This is very dangerous and can easily cause big trouble!"

“Oh, I see.”

Brother Chicken hung his head and explained reluctantly that if the grains served to him by the Patriarch of the Zhao family were not hard to swallow, he would not have grabbed that guy and scolded him.

It eats spiritual grains, so ordinary chaff is naturally difficult for it to swallow. It's like someone is feeding it shit. If it were you, would you be angry?

Lin Shan didn't dwell on this issue.

He just gained 8 points of ancient charm, a number that the Zhao family had obtained after spending more than years and basically purchasing all the antiques and antiquities in southern Xinjiang!
Of course, Lin Shan doesn’t think that this is all there is to southern Xinjiang.

Because the Zhao family is just a mortal family, there are often limitations. If the forces of cultivation were to collect the information, the number would have to at least double.

But after all, it was just a casual move back then. It's already very impressive to be able to do this, and we can't ask for too much.

Before he left Bianliang a while ago, he secretly instructed Great Elder Nightingale and Prince Chenliu to collect antiques for him all over the country, so the Zhao family was dispensable.

"I'm going to the Nightingale branch in Zangke County to get the assassins there to help find clues about the Black Lotus Sect. You stay at the Zhao family and watch over them first."

Lin Shan informed him and went out. Brother Ji was bored and lay in the yard to bask in the sun.

Five days later.

The news about Nightingale and the Zhao family were placed in front of Lin Shan.

These two companies are really efficient!

A total of five suspected Black Lotus haunts were found.

One of them happened to be the place that Lin Shan and Ji Ge had been to before, Taoyuan Village at the foot of Yelang Mountain!

The Yelang Ancient Tomb is located in Yelang Mountain.

After discussing it with each other, they decided to go to the nearest and most familiar place first. If there was no gain, they would go to the other ones.

When the head of the Zhao family reacted and found that the Grand Guest and the monster had disappeared together, he became very anxious.

However, on the table in Lin Shan's courtyard, he unexpectedly found a cloth bag, which was not sealed and contained a bunch of things that he and his entire family had dreamed of.
Taoyuan Village at the foot of Yelang Mountain.

This place is surrounded by mountains and rivers, with crisscrossing fields and paths, and it is seldom visited by outsiders, so it can indeed be called a paradise.

However, since the Yelang Tomb was opened, countless tomb robbers and speculators have visited here one after another, breaking the tranquility here.

When the Yelang Ancient Tomb was popular, 80% of the Black Lotus Buddha statues sold in the entire Zangke County were counterfeit and shoddy products processed by Taoyuan Village!
Everyone often thinks that villagers are kind and honest, but have you ever heard of the old saying that poor mountains and bad waters produce unruly people.

Black Lotus Buddha statues have been forged here for a long time, and have become the main target of crackdowns by local officials of the Song Dynasty!

The government sent people to destroy the firing den, arrested dozens of villagers, and warned them not to touch anything related to the cult in the future.

Taoyuan Village suffered a great loss since then and dared not continue to make fake Buddha statues. From then on, it settled down and returned to its original life.

The popularity of the Yelang Ancient Tomb would not last long. After a while, its popularity faded and no one came to visit it anymore, and it became a paradise again.

But a few days ago, a piece of news came from the black market in Zangke County. It was said that a wandering ranger passed by there and accidentally discovered the shadow of the Black Lotus Buddha statue when he was staying overnight in a villager's house.

Whether this information is reliable or not is another matter. Anyway, the Zhao family posted a reward on the black market, and someone took the initiative to provide information and promised that he was absolutely not lying.

Besides, as a mere ranger, he probably doesn’t have the courage to offend the local bullies.

When Lin Shan and Ji Ge arrived here, it was already getting dark. Fires were flickering in the village. Every household had finished their farm work and were just coming back to light the stove.

There was a cloud floating in the sky, and no one could notice it.

"What are we waiting for here? They are just a bunch of mortals. Just go down and search them all. If you find anything wrong, interrogate them. Why worry?"

Brother Ji was lying on the cloud, puzzled, while Lin Shan next to him looked calm and at ease, just looking at the lights below.

He has his own plans.

"I have scanned the village with my spiritual sense and found that something is indeed wrong with the village below."

"What's wrong?"

Brother Ji stuck his head out of the clouds and pursed his mouth to look around, but it was a pity that his demon consciousness could not compare with Lin Shan's divine consciousness. Even though it could scan every house, the images it fed back were definitely not as clear and detailed.

This is also one of the differences between humans and demons, not to mention that Lin Shan has the cultivation of soul pills, and spiritual awareness is his strong point.

"Except for a few villagers who have the Black Lotus Buddha statue in their homes, most of them don't have that thing. You don't have to bother looking for it. I'll point it out to you directly. There's an open-air corn cage in the yard of the house in the northwest corner. Do you see it?"

Lin Shan pointed with his finger in the night. Ji Ge's night vision was not very good, so he looked in the distance along the direction of his finger.

"Oh, oh, I can't see clearly. Can you bring Yunfei closer?"

Birds are basically blind at night, and even if they become monsters, their vision is still a shortcoming.

Lin Shan remained unmoved and told it to wait patiently.

"It's not just the one in the northwest that's wrong. There are warehouses of the same standard in the corners to the east and south. Just keep an eye on them."

Lin Shan directly used his spiritual consciousness to project the shared image into Brother Ji’s mind.

Brother Ji was shocked!
It almost thought that it was going to be possessed by another body, but fortunately it trusted Lin Shan enough to accept his spiritual connection, which was equivalent to Lin Shan's spiritual consciousness becoming its "eyes".

Look at the observed picture together.

This is a little trick, spiritual consciousness is shared, and it should not be used indiscriminately unless the relationship is close enough.

Because no matter whether it is the sharer or the receiver, one is afraid of having their consciousness swallowed up, and the other is also afraid of being invaded and possessed. There are huge security risks, and if you are not careful, you can easily be backstabbed.

With the help of Lin Shan's spiritual sense, Brother Ji saw scenes that he could not see at night.

In the village below, in three corners, inside the thick sorghum sheds, braziers were burning brightly.

A group of shirtless men were pouring mud and molding black lotus Buddha statues. Some of them seemed to require more advanced craftsmanship, with strange patterns being painted on the pottery and gorgeous robes being worn.

Next to it, there were frames of bamboo and rattan woven into several layers, all filled with finished Black Lotus Buddha statues!
They look like three Black Lotus Buddha statues being produced by a production workshop!

"Come on, work harder!"

"Hurry up and finish polishing those Buddha statues, and pack them immediately!"

"The envoy said that he will come to inspect the goods tonight. If the quantity is not enough and the construction period is delayed, everyone's wages will be deducted!"

"Hurry up and finish it, let's go to the nearby county town to visit brothels. The girls in the city are fair, pretty, and caring, much gentler than the yellow-faced hags at home!"

The supervisor shouted as he worked, and the villagers also worked as hard as they could. When they heard that they would get their wages immediately and could go to the city to have fun, they worked even harder.

Brother Chicken in the sky listened and thought, and also heard some clues.

It seems that the villagers are mass-producing the Black Lotus Buddha statues not for the purpose of selling them as counterfeit goods, but because they are tasked by some mysterious messenger.

Judging from the scale, it seems to be a large-scale order, and the profits seem to be considerable.

(End of this chapter)