Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, but Thunderbolt Taoist Sect

"That's strange, where did everyone go?"

Looking at the empty and spacious realm, Liu Qingyuan was momentarily dazed. Several Xiantian realms had come and gone, and it was quite lively just a few days ago. How come he was all alone here today? When he first came to establish his base, at least Xiao Cui was there with him.

Why didn't Jian Feidao come back today?

Although Jian Feidao went to the city where Hong Yulianxiang lived, he would still come back every night to create the impression that he had actually settled down there.

It's almost evening, where is everyone?

[Jian Feidao heard about the disappearance of a scholar in Hongyu's town and, sensing something amiss, stayed behind to investigate.]

"And what about the World-Illuminating Lamp?"

This person doesn't go out for any particular reason. At most, someone will foolishly run deep into the mountains and get lost, requiring a guiding light to lead them out.

He's not saying this, but this mountain is already so dangerous, why do we have to go in here? Even hunters don't dare to go deep into it, yet some people are so confident that they can get through the deep mountains and forests without following the old paths of their predecessors?

He felt it was wrong that so many people kept getting lost in the mountains, so he wanted to hang some lanterns at the foot of the mountain to guide them. He went to discuss with the little monsters at the foot of the mountain how to hang them.

The lanterns lit by humans can burn forever, but they cannot disrupt the lives of small animals in order to guide them. Therefore, the World-Illuminating Lanterns need to ask around to find suitable places so that humans and demons can coexist without interfering with each other.

"...The lanterns were still lit."

It seems the lanterns still haven't been idle, but hanging lanterns at the foot of the mountain is better than hanging lanterns all over the open landscape.

"Why isn't Ling Ziling here either?"

There will be a curfew in the city tonight, so Ling Ziling should have returned by now.

She went to find Yingning to play with Xiaocui.

"The Heavenly Fan... never mind, I don't know about that."

Tian Shanzi was still fishing for seafood in the East China Sea, while also monitoring the progress of the seafood market's processing, waiting for the Third Prince of the East China Sea to finish processing and take the victims' families to the underworld to be questioned.

After sorting things out, it turned out that everyone had something to do, and no one was idle in a state of enlightenment.

"Hey, how did I become an empty nester without even realizing it?"

Each of the alternate identities had their own affairs, and in the end, it was actually him, the original self, alone in the realm of enlightenment.

However, it's good that Ling Ziling can get along well with Xiao Cui and the others. They are all lively young girls, and she will definitely feel more comfortable with them than with others. Since Miss Wu was killed by hooligans, it will be convenient for Ling Ziling and Xiao Cui to play around in the city more often, and they can also help maintain the city's security.

However, he really didn't know that the scholar from Jian Feidao's side had gone missing, since he had been fishing in various rivers outside the city and hadn't even entered the city.

"A scholar has gone missing? When did this happen?"

Making a move against a scholar is both easy and difficult. In terms of martial arts, most scholars nowadays only study books and few are proficient in all six arts of a gentleman. The current popular male image is that of a weak and delicate type, and most scholars are not strong enough to even kill a chicken. Whether it is drugging or hitting someone on the head with a stick, it is easy to hit them.

However, the status of scholars is very special. Anyone who has participated in major examinations and intends to take the imperial examination route, whether they are a student, a scholar, or a graduate, has their identity information recorded by the government. If they are missing for a long time, the government will take action to investigate.

The status of these scholars is very delicate. They seem to be everywhere in normal times, whether they are knights-errant with martial arts skills or officials with power. It seems that anyone can come and fight them. But in some special events, they become very important, and everyone will come to inquire about their well-being if something happens.

The scholar has simply disappeared without a trace, not because he offended any high-ranking official and was punished. This is something that needs to be investigated.

Jian Feidao knew this, which is why he chose to stay and investigate. The scholar's disappearance was just hearsay, and he needed to ask around for more details.

Jian Feidao did this immediately, but he forgot one thing: with his gorgeous platinum and gold outfit, he couldn't blend into the crowd at all, let alone gather information.

"Excuse me... oh..."

Seeing yet another person walk away as soon as he spoke, Jian Feidao felt helpless; this was something he hadn't expected.

Before coming here, he had visited the first town, but the people there had already been shocked by the images of the previous characters. They weren't immune to Jian Feidao, but they certainly wouldn't avoid him like this.

"It seems we won't be able to find out anything today."

He wasn't discouraged by this, but since he couldn't find out the missing scholar's specific identity, the investigation was less efficient, and he couldn't determine if there was any illegal traveler involved.

As a recurring protagonist in the Liaozhai stories, the scholar can be targeted by both local monsters and illegal transmigrators who want to destroy the world. The range of possibilities is too wide, making it difficult to make a move.

Finding no clues, Jian Feidao didn't plan to leave. He randomly found an inn to stay at. He was almost refused entry because the innkeeper couldn't make change for his silver ingots. Only after the innkeeper repeatedly told him that he didn't need to make change for him, did Jian Feidao finally agree to stay.

The price difference between the two worlds is indeed huge. In the Bitter Realm, a silver ingot can't buy much, but here, a tiny bit of silver can buy you a big meal at a restaurant, and a whole palm-sized silver ingot can buy this inn.

It seems that in the future, when we need to use money, we should break the silver ingots into small pieces to avoid causing trouble for the indigenous people.

As for the most widely used copper coins, they are rarely seen in their area. Jian Feidao doesn't have any. Moreover, unlike precious metals like broken silver and gold, which can be crushed without revealing anything, copper coins are different. These coins are issued by the state and are printed with the reign title of the current dynasty. Even if he had copper coins from the Bitter Realm, he couldn't use them here. They would be considered counterfeit and no one would recognize them.

Too conspicuous during the day, Jian Feidao waited until late at night to go out and investigate. Monsters like to travel at night, and if the scholar's disappearance was related to monsters, they could find some traces of him when the night was quiet.

Although the fact that the person who asked the question would hide hindered the investigation, Jian Feidao, being a Xiantian person, had a pair of good ears and overheard some additional information. He didn't know who the missing scholar was, but he did know some background information about the matter.

Scholars have been disappearing for some time now, and it's not just one case. Some have remained missing, while others suddenly reappear after two or three months. Those who returned safely were, for some reason, secretive and unwilling to talk about what they had experienced, explicitly stating that there was no need to pursue the matter further. Those who went missing were mostly poor people whose families couldn't afford to file lawsuits, so the cases were eventually dropped.

Those who have gone missing have no clue, and those who have returned remain silent and even advise the government not to continue the investigation. This strange attitude has led to the current delicate situation: people are missing, and the public is discussing it, but no one is willing to take responsibility or take charge.

You asked about the government and the county magistrate? Feng Xiangru lived here, and the county magistrate here is probably the one from his story. He's not a good official either. Although he doesn't commit all sorts of evil deeds that cause the people to suffer, he's a coward who hates trouble. This matter is obviously difficult to handle. Since the people who came back are unwilling to investigate further, the county magistrate just brushed it off.

Moreover, among the missing scholars, only one or two are truly unaccounted for; most have returned, and perhaps the rest will return in a few months as well, so there's no need to worry about them.

Regarding these matters, even Jian Feidao couldn't help but sigh at the Schrödinger-like social status of scholars. When needed, they were the elite of scholars; when not needed, anyone could poke at them.

"There are no signs of demonic interference, could it be a man-made disaster?"

As night fell, Jian Feidao climbed out of the window and onto the roof of the inn to look down. Most towns were under curfew, and the common people didn't have much of a nightlife. The streets were very quiet at this time, with nothing in sight, including monsters.

No, there was still some; he saw Lianxiang at the edge of his field of vision. He almost forgot, Lianxiang's lover, Sang Xiao, lived in the city, and his illness caused by the yin energy from the ghost should have been cured by now.

"Miss Lianxiang."

"Swordsman is not a Daoist immortal?"

These past few days, Jian Feidao has been wandering around and has already gotten to know Lianxiang and Hongyu. However, Lianxiang is not a fox spirit but a fox demon, so she is even more afraid of Jian Feidao's sharp eyes, as well as that Miss Li.

Jian Feidao had never appeared at night before. Lianxiang was quite surprised to see him and was somewhat afraid to meet his gaze. But then she thought that he might be able to help her.

"Has the Immortal Master seen Sister Li recently?"

"Miss Li? What happened to her?"

Sang Xiao's illness was cured. When Lianxiang went back to treat other people, she happened to run into Miss Li. The two beauties, one a fox and the other a ghost, revealed their identities to Sang Xiao. Lianxiang was also certain that Miss Li was completely ignorant and had no idea that the yin energy on a ghost was too heavy and would be harmful to the human body no matter what.

Miss Li was the daughter of former Magistrate Li. She died young and was buried near Sang Xiao's house. For some reason, she was unable to enter the underworld and go through the cycle of reincarnation. As a ghost, she had no one to teach her, did not know the function of the ghost's yin energy, and never thought of harming people.

Seeing that Miss Li was pitiful, Lianxiang did not pursue the matter. In treating Sang Xiao, the other party was even more obedient. Lianxiang felt even more affection for Miss Li and treated her like a younger sister.

“Sister Li hasn’t shown up for more than ten days. She has no cultivation, and we are all very worried.”

After learning that Sang Xiao's illness was caused by the yin energy in her body, Miss Li deliberately avoided contact with Sang Xiao. The other two had no choice but to take extra care of her.

Miss Li is a ghost with little cultivation, so she can only appear at night and hide in her coffin during the day. Even so, Miss Li would visit Sang Xiao's house every night, but now more than ten days have passed and Lianxiang and Sang Xiao have not seen her on any night.

Even though Lianxiang kept stroking the embroidered shoe left by Miss Li, she did not appear at the door as before. Lianxiang even went to the place where Miss Li's body was buried and found that the yin energy there had weakened a lot. It looked like Miss Li, who had become a ghost, had already left.

Miss Li has been dead for many years, and her father, Magistrate Li, and his family are long gone. The fact that she has been a ghost for so many years in such a muddled way is enough to show the level of the underworld officials in charge of this place. Lianxiang concluded that Miss Li was definitely not captured by the underworld officials, but could only have encountered some kind of accident.

"Since you can see through the evil and wickedness of the world, I wonder if the immortal could see if there is any trace of Sister Li nearby?"

Miss Li is a ghost. Even if she herself is not bad, the extremely heavy yin energy on her body will not make her existence appear positive. In the eyes of cultivators, she will not have a good image at first glance. Although it is helpless, it is also a good angle to look for her.

Unexpectedly, while investigating the missing scholar's clues, he also encountered Lianxiang looking for Miss Li. Jian Feidao calculated the time in his mind, and if the plot was correct, he could roughly guess where Miss Li had gone.

"Doesn't Hongyu know either?"

"Sister Hongyu has been outside the city and hasn't seen Sister Li yet."

Lianxiang sighed. Hongyu was a more powerful fox spirit. Of course, she had looked for her, but she had never met Hongyu. Later, she asked me some questions and only knew that Miss Li had never left the city and had suddenly disappeared one day.

“Recently, a family surnamed Zhang had a daughter who died at the age of fifteen. However, Miss Zhang came back to life while her family was preparing for the funeral. Her behavior and speech changed drastically. Miss Lianxiang might as well go and take a look.”

"Resurrected from the dead... Could it be Sister Li...?"

Having found a clue, Lianxiang was about to go find Miss Zhang, but she quickly stopped herself. Jian Feidao must have something to do at this time. She had received help and couldn't just leave like that.

"Thank you for your guidance, Immortal Master. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Rumors are circulating in the city that a scholar has gone missing. Have you heard of it, Miss Lianxiang?"

Sang Xiao's house was in a red-light district, surrounded by brothels. Because of this, he never doubted Lianxiang's casual claim that she was a prostitute and welcomed her into his home. He wondered if he could hear about the scholar's disappearance in this environment.

"Indeed, the scholars went missing, but most of them were released. Two or three months passed in between. I didn't sense any demonic energy, so it shouldn't be the work of monsters."

Because the victim was a scholar, Sang Xiaodui was quite curious about the matter. Lianxiang secretly looked at the people who had returned. Their complexions were rosy and their bodies were healthy, so it could be basically determined that it was not the work of demons or ghosts.

If she had to say, she discovered some traces of sleeping pills.

“I smelled the scent of sleeping pills at the home of the missing scholar. It’s possible that someone drugged them and arrested them.”

This operation was clearly man-made, a human-caused disaster. No matter what kind of monster it is, when it captures someone, it either waves its hand and takes them away, or uses a trick to lure them away. Why would it use sleeping potion to drug someone? Getting someone drunk and coaxing them away would be more dignified than this method.

However, anyone capable of moving someone from their home without them noticing is certainly not an ordinary person.

"Moreover... the victims were all young scholars, the oldest of whom were no more than thirty years old."

This description does indeed make it seem like a monster is capturing people and draining their yang energy, but the victims who returned were perfectly healthy, and Lianxiang doesn't remember any monsters in the vicinity using this method to capture people.

The fact that they disappeared for two or three months without any harm means that after capturing them, the people who captured them fed and cared for them for two or three months before releasing them. Monsters causing trouble are basically one-off deals, so why would they have so much free time to support them?

"Thank you for informing me, Miss Lianxiang."

Having each found a clue, the two went their separate ways to handle their respective tasks. Watching Lianxiang disappear into the night, Jian Feidao looked up at the night sky. Using sleeping pills to capture people was indeed a mortal's method, but with so many people and so many opinions in the city, how did the other party manage to bring the person out of their home and move them away without anyone noticing?

Moreover, they couldn't be found for two or three months, and those who returned remained silent. Could it be that illegal time travelers were involved? But apart from one or two who are currently missing, the others all returned safely, without harming anyone or causing any major trouble. This doesn't seem like the behavior of illegal time travelers.

In the darkness of night, a white shadow flew by. Jian Feidao planned to ask those scholars who had been captured but returned safely what had happened to them, and why they were all reluctant to talk about it and wanted to keep quiet.