Weird Cultivation, I have a five-organ temple

Chapter 269 Preparation before departure
After carefully concealing the remnant spirit and the sorcery artifact, Shang Lu left the Thieves' Office and went to the nearby Prefectural Governor's Mansion.

He found the official who had previously delivered the order to the Thieves' Office and inquired about Liang Jihu's hometown address.

During this time, Liang Jihu stayed in his hometown taking care of his sick elders and did not return to the prefectural governor's office to perform his duties.

Shang Lu didn't know when he would return, so before going to Feiwu County, he simply delivered the letter that the shaman had asked him to carry to Liang Jihu.

Even if it's a bit of a detour, it doesn't matter.

"Liang Jihu's hometown is Xipinggou, which is located below Yunhe Town."

When the official saw that Shang Lu was going to find Liang Jihu, he not only gave him the address, but also took out a map of the prefecture and county.

After searching for a while, they pointed to a small village nestled against the mountain.

“Look, Xipinggou is right here. After you leave the city, just follow the official road like this, and you'll get there in just one day.”

Shang Lu noted down the location and route, then bowed and thanked him.

"No need for thanks for such a small matter." The official waved his hand repeatedly and asked Shang Lu to convey his regards to Liang Jihu's sick elder after he met Liang Jihu.

“That’s natural.” Shang Lu nodded in agreement.

Seeing that the official still had work to do, he took his leave.

Just as he was leaving his room on business and about to return to the Bureau of Bandits, someone called out to him.

"Shop thief Cao, what brings you to the prefect's residence today?"

Shang Lu looked in the direction of the voice and saw Lü Yang.

"Greetings, Senior Brother Lü."

After Shang Lu stepped forward and bowed, he explained his purpose.

"I was asked to deliver a letter to Liang Jihu. I just happened to have taken on a trial mission and had to go to Feiwu County, so I thought I would deliver the letter at the same time."

"To Feiwu County?"

Lu Yang raised an eyebrow: "Is it to assist the Great Witch Zhongli in capturing the Mountain Demon?"

"Senior Brother Lü also knows about this?"

Shang Lu was somewhat surprised, but quickly realized what was happening.

"You took on this job too?"

Lu Yang smiled and nodded: "I also have a post as an inspector in the prefectural governor's office. It is my duty to inspect the local area, eliminate illicit worship, and hunt down demons and evil spirits."

Upon hearing this, how could Shang Lu not understand anything?
Lü Yang's approach was based on Wang Chao's suggestion to combine the duties of the yamen (government office) and the witch's academy.

You put in one effort and get paid twice.

Shang Lu said happily, "That's great! With Senior Brother Lü going with me, my trial assignment is definitely going to be settled."

Lu Yang laughed heartily. Although he knew Shang Lu was flattering him, the flattery, delivered with Shang Lu's eloquence, made him feel very pleased.

After exchanging a few words, the two agreed to meet in Feiwu County.

Shang Lu needs to detour to Xipinggou, and Lü Yang also needs to arrange his current tasks before he can set off. Calculating the time, they will arrive at Feiwu County around the same time and can travel together.

After the agreement was made, Lü Yang exclaimed, "You've only been in the Witch Academy for a short time, yet you've already succeeded in Qi Refining and advanced to the Inner Mountain. Back then, I spent over a year cultivating diligently in the Outer Academy before I finally succeeded in Qi Refining."

"It was pure luck."

Shang Lu humbly said, "I made many contributions in Luoshui County before, and the imperial court and the Witch Academy rewarded me with a lot of pills and spiritual liquids. I was also valued by a noble person who helped me a lot, which is why I was fortunate enough to succeed in Qi Refining."

Lü Yang, however, did not think so.

He shook his head and said, "Your ability to earn merit and receive rewards is also a skill!"

But she didn't continue that topic, and instead asked about something else: "At the execution ground before, I saw you were carrying two ghosts. Were they people who were killed by Zhao Qi?"

"Yes."

Shang Lu recounted the situation of the Qin mother and daughter to Lü Yang.

After listening, Lü Yang nodded and said, "I guessed it was them too. No wonder they gave you the Yin Pearl."

Upon hearing this, Shang Lu hurriedly asked, "Did Senior Sister Gongshu tell Senior Brother Lü?"

“That’s right,” Lü Yang said with a smile. “She suspected that the Yin Pearl was made by you through evil means, by killing people and capturing souls. She came to me to ask about it. I told her you’re not that kind of person.”

Shang Lu cupped his hands and said, "Thank you for being my witness, Senior Brother Lü." Lü Yang waved his hand and sighed, "You're quite bold, daring to provoke Senior Sister Gongshu. When she gets angry, even the doctors and scholars in the Witch Academy avoid her like the plague."

If there's really something wrong with that Yin Pearl, she'll truly tear you apart. However, she's incredibly skilled in weapon crafting; asking her for help is even more reliable than seeking help from the weapon-crafting professors at the Witch Academy.

After chatting for a few minutes, Shang Lu bid farewell to Lü Yang and left the prefectural governor's residence.

As soon as he returned to the Bureau of Thieves, Shen Tu came to greet him, carrying a scroll of case files.

"My lord, I just finished reviewing the case files related to Feiwu County over the past two years with the clerks in the yamen."

It's just that our Thieves Bureau is mainly responsible for thieves and robbers. Even if there are demons or ghosts causing trouble in Feiwu County, they are reported to the Witch Temple and asked to deal with them. Very few cases of demons or ghosts are reported to us.

Only at the beginning of this year did a few villages and towns in Feiwu County report banditry.

We sent people to investigate, but by the time they arrived, the banditry had already disappeared.

Local villagers say it was the mountain god who appeared to them and rid them of the bandits.

"The mountain god has appeared?"

Upon hearing this, Shang Lu raised an eyebrow.

Zhao Qi used to worship the Mountain Spirit as a deity.

Could the mountain god that the villagers were talking about be the mountain ghost in disguise?

But can an evil mountain spirit also protect the peace of a region?
"How did those bandits die?"

Shang Lu wanted to find some clues from the way the bandits died.

But Shen Tu said, "Those who went there did not see the bandits' bodies."

"Why?"

"The person who led the team at that time was Fang Yi, a clerk in the bandit bureau."

I just asked him about the situation, and he said that when he arrived, he only saw the bandits' camp, but he didn't see a single corpse.

People from several nearby villages and towns all said that the mountain god had used his great powers to take away the bandits.

Oh, right. They also saw people from those villages and towns offering sacrifices of three kinds of animals to thank the mountain god for his divine intervention.

Afterwards, Fang Yi and his group reported the incident to the Wumiao Temple in Feiwu County.

The people at the shamanic temple consulted relevant records and said that the villagers were indeed describing and worshipping a recorded mountain god.

Shang Lu thought to himself that even if there were such a righteous god, it didn't necessarily mean that the villagers were worshipping Him.

After all, that mountain spirit was not only good at bewitching people, but also at impersonating a deity.

Shang Lu thought for a moment and then asked Shen Tu to call Fang Yi over and ask him if he had seen anything strange in those villages and towns.

"Something strange?"

Fang Yi thought about it carefully for a moment, then shook his head and said, "There's nothing strange about it..."

Speaking of this, something came to mind.

"By the way, they used live animal sacrifices."

At that time, there was a live sacrificial sheep that kept bleating at us and even knelt down before us, as if begging us to save it.

We felt it possessed a certain spiritual quality and wanted to buy it, but the local villagers refused, saying it would ruin the results of the ritual, so we had to give up.

A sheep with a spirit, begging for mercy from humans?

Shang Lu seemed to be deep in thought, but didn't say much. Instead, he asked some more questions.

After carefully recalling the events, Fang Yi answered them one by one.

Unfortunately, there weren't many clues.

Finally, Shang Lu asked Fang Yi to write down the specific locations of those villages and towns, as well as the addresses of the places where the sacrifices would be held, on a piece of paper.

He planned to report to Zhongli Dawu after arriving in Feiwu County, or perhaps investigate with Lü Yang.

See if we can find any clues related to the mountain spirit in these places, and then trace its whereabouts, or even find out where it might be hiding.

(End of this chapter)