Stepping on the demon door, the witch becomes the strongest.

Chapter 597: The Pill Seller
Continuing to fly with Ye Jun, Yan Yu saw that the gathering point of the folk cultivators was not in Yanjiao, but near Gaolou Town, further north of Yanjiao.

This place was originally barren, but with the influx of more than 2,000 folk monks, it became prosperous almost immediately. Many local villagers even set up stalls to sell goods at night, and various barbecue snack stalls were lined up along the roadside, with an endless stream of people.

Plastic stools were set up in front of almost every stall. Monks from all corners of the country sat there, drinking beer and feasting, giving the impression of being part of a set of "Water Margin."

Flying swords in the air is prohibited. Dingbei Army monks patrolled regularly. When they saw the two people coming, they confirmed their identities and then took Yan Yu and Ye Jun to the county government office.

All the offices in the government office building have been vacated as temporary accommodation for the monks of the Dingbei Army. There is no other reason for this, but mainly because it is the highest building in the town and any chaos can be spotted at a glance and rushed over in time by flying on swords.

Due to the preparations for the monks' competition, the leadership teams of the neighboring county governments of Langfang and Sanhe were all working here, and they came out to receive Yan Yu who had come from afar.

Yan Yu spoke with the leaders and learned that livelihoods hadn't been significantly impacted. Civilian cultivators generally had plenty of money, and many hadn't completed their fasting, so they were willing to spend lavishly. This, in turn, had a significant stimulating effect on the local economy.

The negative effects are basically concentrated on public security.

When ordinary people fight, it's nothing more than throwing benches and flying wine bottles; when monks fight, they use magic and fly swords, and if they are not careful, the whole situation will be affected. Even if the constables are armed with guns, they dare not intervene. They just use the walkie-talkie to call the monks of Dingbei Army to deal with it.

If the Dingbei Army's military monks want to fight violence with violence, they have to defeat both sides at the same time, which makes it easy for them to be besieged by both sides at the same time. Therefore, if they can't win, they have to call Ye Jun over quickly.

Ye Jun's Xuanguang ruler emitted a flower of light, which covered the monks from the military mansion, making it basically impossible for the civilian monks to attack him.

Therefore, as time went on, these civilian cultivators were still not afraid of the military cultivators. Instead, they were in awe of Ye Jun. When they saw her sword light flying towards them, they immediately scattered like birds and beasts and ran away.

"I didn't expect that you could scare away evil spirits." Yan Yu joked with her.

"Oh, forget it," Ye Jun said helplessly. "Running away when they see me is nothing! They're just trying to avoid the limelight. Some even go back to their old places and continue beating me after I'm gone... It's just treating the symptoms, not the root cause."

"Indeed." Yan Yu agreed. "What happened to the people who were caught?"

"At first, they were locked up," Ye Jun said. "Then the detention center became overcrowded, and the relatives and friends of the individuals involved came to visit frequently. In the end, they signed a letter of guarantee and were released. The main reason was that they were worried about the negative impact."

The law doesn't punish everyone, a long-standing tradition in China. The main concern is public outrage, making it difficult to suppress. Of course, the unruly residents are aware of this, which is why they see the scene of a truck overturning and the surrounding villagers rushing to pick up the debris. "We've all broken the law, so how can you arrest us all? I don't believe it!"
The same applies to common monks. If more and more people violate the law with force, and you don't punish them, they'll see you're being cautious, and under the broken windows effect, more and more people will cause trouble.

Yan Yu was just pondering when he suddenly heard a folk monk come to report:
"There's another fight happening near Xingfu Canal!"

Ye Jun pulled Yan Yu up and ran out without saying a word.

The two followed the Dingbei Army monk who led the way and rushed to the vicinity of the incident. From a distance, they saw several sword lights coming and going. It turned out that three sword immortals were fighting with swords.

Yan Yu had very good eyesight and could see that on one side were two women who looked similar and were actually twins; on the other side was a one-armed man who was fighting the two women alone with a sword in one hand.

All three were at the Marrow Cleansing Stage, looking like they'd only recently completed it. The one-armed man's swordsmanship was more sophisticated, and his foundation was stronger. He held the two female swordsmen at bay throughout their attacks. While the opponent, though weaker, seemed to have a method for combined attacks, and with their coordination, they were able to hold their own.

The fight was so intense that the surrounding vendors naturally suffered, with some running away and others escaping, leaving broken stalls, plastic stools, and carts everywhere.

Ye Jun was quick-eyed and quick-handed. He activated the Xuanguang Ruler, which quickly sent down a large number of light flowers, covering all the surrounding cultivators and the three people. He then took out the lantern secret treasure he got from the palace and tapped it lightly. Flames of light then spurted out from the magic weapon again, quickly forming a circle of fire around them, completely blocking the three people's retreat.

The three men did not dodge or evade. Seeing that the light flower covered the opponent and they could not hit him, they put away their swords and stopped.

"What's going on? What's going on?" Ye Jun landed with his men and asked, "What are your names and why are you fighting? Tell us the truth!"

The twin sword immortals introduced themselves as Ye Qianru, the elder sister, and Ye Qianqian, the younger sister. The one-armed male sword immortal simply took out his ID card, which showed his surname was Feng Minghang.

The three had originally come here to do business. The Ye sisters wanted to trade their younger sister a better flying sword, so they offered a bottle of medicinal elixirs. Feng Hang, on the other hand, happened to have a spare flying sword for sale. After comparing the goods, the elder sister felt the sword was of subpar quality. After a brief discussion with her younger sister, they decided not to make the deal.

As a result, when they retrieved the pills from Feng Hang, they found that the pills had lost their luster and had no spirituality. They immediately suspected that the man had secretly switched the pills and used a bottle of useless pills to fool them, so they fought.

Feng Hang was a taciturn person. Facing Ye Jun's questioning and inquiries, he just said, "I didn't switch the items," and said no more.

Ye Jun narrowed his eyes and looked at the three of them. He felt that the anger and grievance on the two sisters' faces did not seem fake, and Feng Hang did not look like a treacherous person. But how many people in this world are double-faced? He waved his hand, intending to let the police take the three people away for interrogation.

"Wait." Yan Yu, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly asked, "Let me see the pill."

Ye Qianru took out the pill bottle and threw it to Yan Yu.

Yan Yu quickly caught it, uncorked the bottle, took a look, and asked:

“The bottle hasn’t changed in appearance, has it?”

"Of course, but what does that even mean?" Ye Qianru sneered. "There are pill bottles made of this material everywhere on the street. Maybe he just happened to have an identical bottle, so he suddenly came up with the idea of switching it. Who knows?"

"Haha." Yan Yu laughed, "Are the pills in here bluish green and smell like grass and trees?"

"How do you know?" Ye Qianqian asked in astonishment. "You were there at the time?"

"That's it." Yan Yu threw the pill bottle back to her and turned to Feng Hang and asked, "You poured out the pills and checked them, right?"

"Yes." Feng Hang said concisely.

The bottle was small, and could only hold seven or eight pills halfway. If they didn't pour them out and check them one by one, they might find that only the surface layer was pills, and the bottom was full of fake glass marbles. Then they would be cheated. Therefore, the Ye sisters didn't think there was anything wrong. They only heard Yan Yu say:
"It's green with a hint of blue, and it's called the Yuanling Replenishing Qi Pill. It belongs to the Jia wood element, and its spiritual energy is overwhelming. It's a miraculous medicine for replenishing the body's damage, but it can't be seen with metal or iron. It will lose its effect if it touches it, so it has to be stored in an elm wood bottle. If you take it out and pour it on your hand, and it touches metal or iron, the spiritual energy will naturally be dispersed."

"He caught it with his hands, where did the gold and iron come from?" Ye Qianqian asked in surprise.

Feng Hang suddenly stretched out his right hand, and everyone saw that there were many metal fragments on his work gloves.

"You, what's wrong with your hand?" Ye Qianru asked gritting her teeth.

"I'm a worker." Feng Hang replied.

Metal workers in factories inevitably get metal filings on their bodies. The Ye sisters were speechless, realizing they were the ones who would bear the brunt of the blame. As potential buyers, they couldn't have known the bottle contained Yuanling Qi-boosting pills, and therefore couldn't have taken precautions. As sellers, they already had the goods in their possession, so they naturally had to understand what they were and take the responsibility of alerting the buyer.

Unfortunately, the two sisters had no idea what was going on, which led to this misunderstanding, so logically they should be the ones at fault.

Of course, logic is logic and reality is reality. As long as the seller makes unreasonable trouble and acts like "It's true that I didn't understand this, but you have no responsibility at all", and then meets a referee who likes to smooth things over, some losses may be recovered.

However, the Ye sisters were very strong-willed and wanted to make a scene, but when the words came to their lips, they were too embarrassed to speak and could only stare blankly. On the other hand, Feng Hang was silent for a moment, then suddenly took out the flying sword he had intended to exchange with them, threw it directly to the sisters, and said:
"This is all I have."

The two sisters looked at each other, exchanged glances for a moment, and then hesitantly took the flying sword.

Ye Jun was unhappy with what he saw and secretly sent a message to Yan Yu:
"It's clearly the sisters who didn't understand, so why are they asking this man to pay for it? If I were the buyer, and you didn't tell me 'don't pour out the pills', and then something went wrong and you asked me to pay for it, I absolutely wouldn't do it."

"You are a woman after all." Yan Yu said with a smile.

"I don't like hearing that." Ye Jun glared at him with dissatisfaction and asked in a voice transmission, "What's wrong with being a woman? Can't a woman defend her own rights? I went to buy a soup dumpling and the soup leaked out, and I had to ask the boss to replace it for me!"

"What I mean is, you don't understand men," Yan Yu explained.

"A man should give in to a woman and suffer the loss in silence?" Ye Jun asked in reply, "He didn't do anything wrong, and gained nothing. He just lost a sword in vain."

"He got the emotional value." Yan Yu said slowly.

Ye Jun was speechless. Thinking about it carefully, some men seemed to be like this... In real life, when they had a conflict with a woman, they would take the initiative to give in, and then they would be so proud of themselves, with a face full of pride and pride that "a grown man should be like me".

Okay, okay, just be happy, no one will bother you.

Feng Hang really put on a carefree attitude, turned his back to the Ye sisters, and asked Yan Yu:

"Can I go?"

"Wait a moment." Yan Yu said with a smile, "I have a job here, do you want to do it?"

"What kind of work?" Feng Hang asked.

"Temporary worker," Yan Yu said. "As you can see, there are fights every few days here, and we need someone to maintain order."

The Dingbei Army monks were already working to maintain order. The problem was that the higher-ups were planning a monk competition and encouraging civilian monks to sign up, so they needed to maintain a relatively positive public opinion. The Dingbei Army monks were a bit hesitant to act decisively—but if civilian monks were in charge, they wouldn't have such concerns. They'd just beat them when they needed to, and kill them when they needed to. And if something went wrong, what would they do? They could just say it was a civil war! Our officials were still tolerant and benevolent toward the civilian monks!

The approach adopted by Yan Yu was exactly the idea that Yan Jiao had repeatedly tested in his previous life and finally confirmed to be effective. The essence was actually to win over a group of civilian cultivators, then divide them and let them fight among themselves.

These monks also knew that they were temporary workers. If anything went wrong, they would be the ones to take the blame. The higher-ups were always innocent and right... But so what? They took the blame anyway. The only real benefit was the reward.

"Okay." Feng Hang nodded.

The only extra flying sword he had that he could use to exchange for things had already been given to the Ye sisters. He had originally planned to return to his hometown in Qilu Province, but now that he had a job to stay, that was of course the best thing.

The Ye sisters were also a little anxious, wanting to ask Yan Yu if he was still short of people, but they were too embarrassed to speak. They only heard Yan Yu say:
"Where did you get this bottle of medicine?"

"From the secret realm." Ye Qianru replied, "That secret realm has disappeared now. We couldn't find it even when we went back."

Yan Yu didn't care whether what she said was true or not, and continued to ask:
"After you got it, didn't you think of finding someone who knows how to identify it?"

"We found a pill seller before, but the appraisal fee he charged was too high. He wanted to take 30% of the pills as payment! So we..." Ye Qianqian hadn't finished her words when her sister immediately realized and shouted:

"Sissi!"

It was too late to react. Yan Yu had already smiled, "Haha, I knew it," and asked Ye's sister kindly:

"I'm very interested in this person who sells pills. Could you introduce me to him?"

----------

Ye Jun didn't expect that the guy who sold the elixir privately could find clues here.

In fact, they did question other folk cultivators, but they basically claimed to be ignorant. The Dingbei Army was also worried that if they asked too many people, it would alert the enemy and the news would reach the other party, so they did not dare to ask any more.

Now that I finally have a clue, I was so excited that I thought to myself that asking Yan Yu to come was indeed my best choice.

The higher-ups had originally considered transferring Captain Liu over here and letting Yan Yu take over his shift! Fortunately, they listened to my advice as the on-site supervisor. Captain Liu is actually quite capable in battlefield combat, but when it comes to improvisation, the captain isn't even worthy of Yan Yu's shoes!
Yan Yu was not in a hurry and asked the Ye sisters for further clues.

"...So, to meet the pill seller, I have to be introduced by his subordinates?"

"Yeah." Ye Qianru replied, "He seems to have at least seven or eight subordinates. Only these people know where he is, and his location is different every time he meets with clients."

"That is to say, you have inquired about this person."

"It's not just us," Ye Qianqian said quickly. "A lot of people are offering rewards for information about this guy. Some want to make purchases, others think he's planning to rob. Anyway, no one can figure it out. Someone even captured one of his men and tried to torture him for information, but he ended up committing suicide."

"Suicide?" Yan Yu laughed. "After death, are there any strange changes to the body?"

"You guessed right," Ye Qianqian said with a smile. "They say corpses decay very quickly, and they stink really badly. They're completely rotten in no time."

Hearing this, Yan Yu fell into silence.

"What did you think of?" Ye Jun asked curiously from the side.

"I'm thinking of you." Yan Yu said casually.

"Stop joking, I'm asking you seriously." Ye Jun said angrily.

"His men are definitely not real people." Yan Yu said mysteriously, "I know at least four secret methods that can create this kind of flesh and blood puppet."

"Then how do we catch him?" Ye Jun was not interested in any secret method, he just frowned.

The other party used the secret method of flesh and blood puppets to create his subordinates. Once something happened, they would be cut directly, and the clues would be lost. How can we find them?
"I have my own way." Yan Yu said with a smile.

(End of this chapter)