The Creators: From Night City

'Coincidence', all 'coincidence'.

Jiang Bing extended his hand to signal the other party to sit down and talk in detail.

"I used to herd cattle for the lord here, but before these Nilfgaardians arrived, the lord and his family fled to Novigrad first."

Niu Guan shrugged his shoulders, saying that this kind of behavior of leading by example was commonplace.

"But he can't take his large herd of cattle with him."

Jiang Bing asked, "So?"

"So, these cattle naturally became spoils of war and belonged to the group of men in black."

The other party added in a self-comforting manner.

"I'm just a cattle herder. Working for anyone is not work. Those southerners actually gave me more than the previous lord."

Jiang Bing is actually completely indifferent to these moral discussions about whether they constitute betrayal.

"Working for the men in black isn't bad. They don't care if I slack off or not. All I have to do is hand over the full amount of milk to the camp on time every day. They don't even send anyone to watch over the cows."

Jiang Bing continued: "What happened?"

Obviously, the other party encountered a problem, otherwise he would not take the initiative to contact the demon hunter that ordinary people avoid.

"There are cattle thieves!"

The other party slapped his thigh, filled with anger.

"At first, only one calf went missing. I thought it was taken away by wolves or other wild animals in the forest, so I didn't pay much attention to it. But then cattle started to disappear one after another. It was obvious that cattle thieves were responsible."

Jiang Bing keenly discovered the problem from the other party's words.

"According to your description, these cattle have been lost one after another. If that's the case, why don't you find their original owners, the Nilfgaardians, and let them take care of it for you?"

Looking at the hesitation on the other person's face, Jiang Bing understood.

"I'm afraid you've done something shameful!"

Chapter 116 Investigation into the Lost Cattle

"Have you ever done anything that you don't want the other person to do?"

The cowherd shuddered, obviously what Jiang Bing said was right.

His thick face displayed a hint of innocence. "How could that be possible? Every day I diligently feed the cows, milk them, and honestly complete the tasks assigned to me."

Even the expressionless Geralt couldn't be fooled by this performance.

You can never wake up a person who pretends to be asleep, and you can't expect someone who has done something bad to confess on his own initiative.

Fortunately, these cows have nothing to do with Jiang Bing, and he has no obligation to take care of them.

"So, you want to hire a demon hunter to help you find this cattle thief so that you can report to your superiors?"

The other person nodded.

"Very good, then let's talk about the compensation."

Jiang Bing seamlessly switched identities, ready to make some money.

The other party was well prepared.

"I can give you 50 kronor, sir." The other party looked at Jiang Bing's normal eyes and couldn't figure out how to address him.

The money is not much, but it is not small enough to catch a cattle thief.

The two of them successfully completed the transaction.

The war between Nilfgaard and the northern kingdoms not only changed the shape of national borders, but also turned the economy of the entire continent upside down. The currency in particular was particularly affected by the recent political turmoil.

The crown minted in Novigrad is considered the hard currency of the northern countries.

Whether it is the merchants, nobles, townspeople and ordinary farmers in the north, or the quartermasters, dwarf bankers, prostitutes and of course witchers in Nilfgaard, all are willing to accept it.

This is mainly due to the prosperous economy of Novigrad. It is also the largest port city in the entire northern kingdoms. Commercial activities are developed, and a large amount of materials flow from here to most kingdoms every day.

Of course, it is also related to the coin's excellent casting technology and high precious metal content.

Jiang Bing left a message for the two demon hunters with the female boss, and continued to carry the box, wearing a cloak, and carrying the "Principle" with half the hilt of the sword exposed through the cloak, and followed the other party to the crime scene.

The cowherd's name was Janus, a name that was very common in White Orchard.

This name is a bit similar to "Zhang Wei".

He did not live in the village, but lived alone in a hut near the sawmill.

Of course, his cattle were also there.

One side of the road is close to the forest and the other side is close to the large meadow. At the same time, one end of the road connects to the village of White Orchard and the other side connects to the lord's house.

It can be seen that this place was carefully selected by the other party.

The forest can provide cattlemen with daily firewood and occasional meat; the fertile land of the grasslands is full of pasture grass; the sawmill has very convenient transportation due to business needs, which also facilitates the transportation of milk and grain feed.

The village can provide agricultural and sideline products for people and cattle to eat.

The two men came to the dairy farm, one in front and one behind.

Cows in the Middle Ages were very important livestock and property, playing a key role in agricultural production, food supply and the economic development of the territory.

Although frequently visited by cattle thieves, there are still more than a dozen dairy cows inside the wooden fence.

Janus took a bundle of hay from the haystack and placed it in the fence, then brought out a barrel of beans and grains from the warehouse as supplementary food for the cows.

"The reason why I concluded that it was not a wild animal but a cattle thief who did it is because I didn't see any blood in the pasture."

He fed the animals skillfully while telling Jiang Bing about his discovery.

"Those missing cows must have been taken away. This gang of cattle thieves is very experienced. They didn't cause any trouble that time."

“When does losing cattle usually happen?”

Jiang Bing looked around the not-so-big dairy farm and asked.

"All at night."

"Did you hear any unusual noises?"

The wooden house that the other party lived in was also built with split logs and hay.

Jiang Bing does not think that this building with air leaks everywhere has good sound insulation capabilities.

The cowherd scratched his face with his rough big hands, and a small piece of cow dung on the back of his hands sparkled in the sun.

"No, I didn't hear anything, not even a cow mooing."

This is undoubtedly abnormal. It is impossible for a cow that is forcibly taken away in the middle of the night not to make a sound.

But this is a world where magic exists, so this kind of thing is not impossible.

There are no cameras in this era. Except for some wizards' residences that have magical recording equipment, other places are all wild and desolate.

However, the unhardened ground is somewhat like a video.

Whenever someone walks on the soft mud, footprints will be left behind for people to see.

The demon hunter's special cat's eyes provide them with a detailed observation ability that is many times greater than that of ordinary people, and they can see traces that ordinary people cannot find.

For example, footprints from four or five days ago.

Jiang Bing, who has more sensitive senses, can naturally do it as well.

Then things became even more confusing.

These lost cows all walked out on their own.

Jiang Bing followed those almost invisible traces and moved forward all the way. When he passed by a newly opened logging site, his image wearing a cloak and carrying a metal box on his shoulder attracted the attention of the workers.

The cow hoof prints extended all the way into the depths of the forest until they reached a cave.

The pitch-black space inside the cave was as bright as day in Jiang Bing's eyes. Before he even entered the cave, he could smell the stinking odor of a rotting corpse.

Sure enough, all the missing cow carcasses were found here.

The ground was littered with cow carcasses, but the ways in which these cows died were extremely bizarre.

The cow that recently went missing had no visible injuries, but its hide was swollen like a balloon, its belly bulging out.

This is caused by the highly decomposed and fermented flesh and blood in the corpse, the growth of a large number of bacteria, and the production of putrefactive gases.

The stomachs of several other cow carcasses that were lost earlier had already exploded, and blood and flesh were splattered all around the cave.

A layer of light green poisonous gas floated in the airless cave, and the air was filled with a foul stench.

This is not the sort of thing a cattle thief would do.

Jiang Bing searched the cave but found no traces of wild animals, but he did find another kind of hoof prints.

These marks were deeply sunken into the soil, and it was obvious that their owner was very heavy.

A giant ungulate monster, using some unknown method, lured these cows into its trap, then killed them and dumped them here.

However, there were no signs of being eaten on the body, which puzzled Jiang Bing.

If it's not for hunting, then why is this monster doing this?

Jiang Bing followed the trail and only figured out the distribution of the footprints when he was not far from the cave.

The hoof prints are in pairs, and the distance between them is the same as that of humans.

There is only one answer that can explain it.

The opponent was a standing humanoid monster.

reasonable.

Also, a commission of 50 kroner is definitely too little.

Chapter 117 Griffins and Boxing

Jiang Bing followed the huge hoof prints all the way until he came to a big tree that two people could hug. The hoof prints disappeared from the ground covered with green moss, ferns and humus.

He rubbed his chin, and although it was unbelievable, he still struggled to come to a further conclusion in his mind.

This cow climbed up the tree from here.

At this point, the evil image of the real culprit behind the scenes in Jiang Bing's mind has become weird.

Following the footsteps on the tree trunk, I continued to track upwards and successfully found the traces of the other party's jump on a thick branch.

Also discovered were hoof prints left on a branch at about the same height in the distance.

Tarzan? Ape God?

Relying on his superhuman eyesight, Jiang Bing managed to follow for a distance, and this time the opponent's trace completely disappeared.

After searching all the trees of the right age within a hundred meters and confirming that there were no traces of footsteps, Jiang Bing completely gave up rational thinking.

This cow most likely flew away.

It's weird. Anyone who has anything to do with Master Mirror is more weird than the other.

At this point, he was completely out of ideas and could only return home and go back to Baiguoyuan to consult two experienced demon hunters to see if they knew of any demons that could do these things.

Inside the tavern in White Orchard.

Jiang Bing only saw old man Vesemir himself.

After listening to Jiang Bing's question, although he was puzzled by Jiang Bing's rapid rise to proficiency in the common language, he also gave his own opinion.

"There are indeed many types of ungulate monsters, but there aren't many that can simultaneously walk upright on two hooves and control animals."

The old witcher frowned and thought for a moment before giving his final opinion.

"The only ones that meet the conditions you mentioned that come to mind are the Bull Demon or the Female Night Demon."

This world is so vast that even a master of the Wolf School who has lived for more than two hundred years would not dare to say that he has seen all the monsters.

In fact, he knew very little about the situation on the other side of the Dragon Mountains.

As the two were discussing the possibility of this matter, Geralt hurried in from outside, soaking wet, with a strong stench emanating from the pocket around his waist.

"Have you collected enough buckthorn?"