Volume One: Menial Servant of Changshui County Chapter Forty-Six: Vanished Without a Trace

“Huff… huff…” Wang Yunshan gasped heavily, standing at the mouth of the cave.

Exhausted!

It had taken a long time to enter, but far less to make his way out.

Behind him, several dozen menials from the Demon Slaying Bureau burst out as well.

Afraid these people would beat him back to the Bureau, Wang Yunshan took off running down the mountain.

“Wang Yunshan?”

Half a quarter of an hour later, just as Wang Yunshan was about to reach the foot of the mountain, a voice sounded in his ear.

The voice was somewhat familiar.

Wang Yunshan slowly looked up and saw, atop a tall tree, a man in fluttering robes.

If that wasn’t Chen Xuanfeng, who else could it be?

Chen Xuanfeng had previously sought out Wang Yunshan to deliver a message, so he still remembered him somewhat.

“Director Chen, help me!” Wang Yunshan immediately fell to his knees, banging his head on the ground, begging for rescue.

“Panicking like this? You’ve served in the Demon Slaying Bureau for several years, haven’t you?” Chen Xuanfeng glared at him. “You must remain steady when things happen. Don’t you understand even that much?”

“Speak. What happened?” Chen Xuanfeng asked.

“Director Chen, damn it, the information was wrong. There’s more than one demon at Sanyi Manor. We encountered one on the way, and just now, inside the cave, there were three more!”

“Brother Lu and Lord Zhou are besieged inside the cave. Please, you must save them!” Wang Yunshan’s words were already jumbled from anxiety.

Who would have thought that such a remote, impoverished place would have so many demons?

After Wang Yunshan finished, Chen Xuanfeng did not reply.

When Wang Yunshan looked up again, Chen Xuanfeng was already gone.

He was a Martial Artist of the Eighth Rank—his speed was astonishing.

In the blink of an eye, he was out of sight.

With Director Chen here, there was nothing to worry about.

Wang Yunshan turned and headed back up the mountain. He couldn’t just leave Brother Lu behind.

When he returned to the cave entrance, Chen Xuanfeng was already there.

Had the matter been resolved?

As expected of Lord Chen!

A Martial Artist of the Eighth Rank truly was formidable!

Wang Yunshan stepped forward, eager to flatter. “Lord Chen, it’s only thanks to your intervention. Without you, Brother Lu and Lord Zhou would be finished.”

“By the way, where are Brother Lu and Lord Zhou?” Wang Yunshan looked past Chen Xuanfeng.

Logically, with so much time having passed, Chen Xuanfeng must have slain those three demons and brought Lu Jiuzhang and Zhou Cheng out.

“They’re not in the cave,” Chen Xuanfeng said, his face grim, looking at Wang Yunshan.

“Not in the cave? That doesn’t make sense!” Wang Yunshan was also confused. “When we fled the cave, I was heading back to the Bureau for help, but at the foot of the mountain, I ran into the illustrious Lord Chen. So I turned around and came back!”

Chen Xuanfeng shook his head. “They’re truly not in the cave. When I entered, I only saw the corpses of three demons, and bloodstains everywhere.”

In truth, this puzzled Chen Xuanfeng as well.

Why were Zhou Cheng and Lu Jiuzhang missing?

There had been a fight in the cave, confirming Wang Yunshan’s account.

Moreover, the blood had not yet dried, indicating the two had left not long before—but even after searching the area, Chen Xuanfeng saw no sign of them.

Where could they have gone?

Chen Xuanfeng did not believe Zhou Cheng and Lu Jiuzhang could have slain all three demons and then escaped on their own.

Zhou Cheng’s strength had waned, and Lu Jiuzhang had only just entered the Ninth Rank of the Scholarly Path. The two of them could not possibly handle those three demons alone.

Could they already have been eaten?

Or perhaps someone had rescued them?

The last person to appear was Miss Muyun—Lu Jiuzhang’s brother’s former lover.

But, as Chen Xuanfeng had heard, Miss Muyun had already gone to Anxi Prefecture.

Moreover, at best, she was a Ninth-Rank Martial Artist. Even if she joined the battle, it was unlikely she could withdraw with the two men so swiftly.

“Describe in detail what you encountered on the way here,” Chen Xuanfeng leaned against the stone wall and ordered.

“Director Chen, it began half a day ago. We were about to enter Sanyi Manor, and as we passed through the old forest ahead, every few hundred yards, we’d come across a dead animal.”

“At first, people were shocked, but after a while, we grew numb.”

“Just as everyone was relaxing, about to leave the forest, one of the animal corpses on the ground suddenly sprang up.”

“Good heavens, that scared everyone half to death.”

“It took a great deal of effort to kill that demon.”

“No, actually, the demon was already dead to begin with, so maybe this counts as killing it a second time.”

“Director Chen, Brother Lu did most of the work. When you return, you should see that he gets credit for a great accomplishment,” Wang Yunshan said.

If Lu Jiuzhang received a commendation, he’d have to treat them all—wouldn’t that mean a night at the Red Joy Pavilion?

The girls there were truly something!

“Animals… demons, rising from the dead?” Chen Xuanfeng quickly analyzed.

“At first, the corpses were just ordinary animals. The last one to appear was a demon, but it was wearing the rotting skin of a beast, so we didn’t notice at first,” Wang Yunshan added.

As soon as he finished, Chen Xuanfeng rushed back into the cave.

A moment later, Chen Xuanfeng emerged again, this time dragging out three demon corpses.

These corpses were covered in blade wounds—deep cuts, far beyond what a Ninth-Rank Martial Artist could inflict.

Around the deep cuts, there were more erratic slashes, with traces of scholarly energy among them—likely from Lu Jiuzhang.

“It doesn’t look like the work of a Ninth-Rank Martial Artist,” Wang Yunshan said coldly. “At the very least, it would take someone of the Eighth Rank. Who could it have been?”

“Director Chen, what’s the story with these demons?” Wang Yunshan pressed.

“The demons were dead to begin with, and bear traces of sorcery,” Chen Xuanfeng’s analysis was much more thorough than Zhou Cheng’s. “Sorcery is mysterious and hard to fathom.”

“However, that also means the sorcerer can’t be far. To control the dead with sorcery, his own strength shouldn’t be high, and with the demons destroyed, he’ll have suffered backlash from his art.”

“Leave a dozen men to search the mountain. The rest, head to the village at the foot of the mountain and apprehend the sorcerer,” Chen Xuanfeng ordered.

“At your command!” the men responded, bowing, and quickly set about their tasks.

Wang Yunshan thought for a moment—he should look for Brother Lu first.

After all, Brother Lu’s safety was important.

Of course, more importantly, there was a sorcerer down in the village. Even if he’d suffered backlash, he was still an Eighth-Rank practitioner of the Sorcerous Path.