Chapter 168: Chapter 82 I Found a Blind Spot (Please Subscribe)_6
He was born in the countryside, a person from a humble family, and he had empathy for these farmers living on the bottom rung of the Great Zhou, knowing that even if their actions did notply with rules, he could not force them to do anything.
If they were really forced to leave Xiaobai Vige, they wouldn’t be able to nt this year’s crops. Without a harvest next year, even if they weren’t harmed by the Devil n, they’d still be starved to death.
At this moment, Cheng Guang also slightly furrowed his brow.
After all, Xiaobai Vige was still under the Emperor’s feet, and yet, life was so difficult here. Survival was a struggle, and for the sake of livelihood, all the elderly of the vige came out to farm, risking their lives…
This…
Cheng Guang was at a loss for words for a moment.
He dared not imagine what life was like for those living on the bottom rung of Great Zhou in other remote viges far from the Great Zhou Capital.
This era was just like this.
Under Emperor Zhou’s rule, things had improved a lot.
In the past, the farmers’ living conditions were even more difficult, constantly oppressed by the powerful and government officials. Ny percent of their annual harvest would be skinned offyer byyer.
The remaining ten percent was barely sufficient to sustain the most basic livelihood of a family.<div>
If the overall harvest was poor in a year, then inevitably someone in the family would die of starvation.
This had already be the norm.
Apart from Cheng Guang, who felt ufortable about this, others also felt that it was not worth it for the elderly farmers to risk their lives, yet they didn’t have the same strong feelings as Cheng Guang did.
“My lords, would you care for a few cups of cold tea in the vige? Although our vige is poor and has little to offer, we still manage to have simple meals and tea. If the lords do not mind, pleasee inside for a bite and some tea, and take a rest.”
Cheng Guang shook his head, “There’s no need, vige chief. Do you know where those members of the Devil n appeared?”
As soon as Cheng Guang posed the question, the vige chief of Xiaobai Vige pointed towards a spot on the distant riverbank, saying, “The Devil n that the lord mentioned suddenly emerged from that direction, abducting many of our vige’s young people.”
With that, the vige chief of Xiaobai Vige showed a sorrowful face: “So many people, eaten by the Devil n, captured. If it hadn’t been for the timely arrival of the officials from the Bureau of the Lamp, our Xiaobai Vige would probably have beenpletely destroyed by now.”
Cheng Guang was silent for a moment upon hearing this.
Before even approaching Xiaobai Vige, he had smelled that strong stench of blood, and he suspected that the situation in Xiaobai Vige was not good, but he did not expect it to be this severe.
“Let’s go take a look,” he said.
Cheng Guang headed towards the direction indicated by the vige chief of Xiaobai Vige.
Lin Cheng and Xu Hongfei followed closely behind him.
The vige chief of Xiaobai Vige took the initiative to lead the way for Cheng Guang.
After walking for a short while, they arrived at the riverbank.
There, the river’s edge bore the huge footprints of a Devil Beast, and the level of Devil Qi was the most intense that they had felt all the way here.
Even though some time had passed, the Devil Qi in this area was still very conspicuous.
This Cultivation Realm must be at least Fourth Rank…
Not particrly powerful.
Cheng Guang stroked his chin, specting quietly.<div>
He knew.
The Devil n that appeared here and attacked Xiaobai Vige was not to satisfy their hunger but rather to coincide with Bai Shuxuan’s assassination attempt on him in order to divert Cheng Zhihai’s attention.
To lure Cheng Zhihai out of the Capital City, far away from where Cheng Guang was; the farther Cheng Zhihai was, the greater the chance of sessfully assassinating Cheng Guang.
But in the end, they had failed.<div>
Even though Cheng Zhihai had started an investigation into how the Devil n had smuggled themselves into Great Zhou and from where, before he could figure it out, the unforeseen events at the Great Zhou–Great Wei martialpetition disrupted his ns.
The investigation into the Devil n’s smuggling had been dyed.
And now, the matter concerning remembrance of the Crown Prince had emerged.
Cheng Zhihai, as well as the entire Bureau of the Lamp, were already unable to focus all their thoughts on investigating the Devil n’s smuggling, having cast it aside, and started to investigate the matter concerning the Crown Prince with all their might instead.
The priority of the matters had naturally changed.
Compared to the issue of the Crown Prince’s remembrance, the Devil n’s smuggling seemed too insignificant to capture the full attention of the Bureau of the Lamp.
If it weren’t for Cheng Guang’s current investigation, I’m afraid no one would havee to care about the smuggling of the Devil n on this side.
Cheng Guang mulled over in his mind as he walked to the riverbank and squatted down.
The Devil n had swum along the riverbank, leaving not many traces in the water, making it quite unrealistic to trace their path all the way to the canal, let alone pinpointing the exact location of the spacetime rift within it.
But at least, he could pinpoint a general direction.
Cheng Guang stood up and said with a smile to the Vige Chief of Xiaobai Vige, “Chief, if all goes well, there shouldn’t be any more appearances of the Devil n nearby. You can rest a bit easier. If there are any unexpected incidents, just report them to the government promptly, and let us from the Bureau of the Lamp handle them.”
The Vige Chief of Xiaobai Vige nodded hurriedly in response.
His face was a portrait of sincerity and fear.<div>
For them, the government was an entity best avoided if possible.
It was only when they were left with no choice that they would go to the government and ask for the help of the Bureau of the Lamp.
The Bureau of the Lamp’s people were not a problem.
Some of the government officials were even more frightening to them than Demon Beasts and ghosts.
Cheng Guang read such information from the Vige Chief’s expression.
He sighed inwardly, unsure of what to say. After wandering around the vicinity, he moved on to investigate the other viges Xu Hongfei had mentioned where Demon Beasts had appeared.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om
After spending several days, Cheng Guang traversed thousands of miles around the Capital, covering the entire canal basin.
Having ascertained the general strength of the Demon Beasts appearing in each vige, as well as their rough distance from the canal, he hade to a conclusion.
Generally speaking, the weaker the Demon Beast, the shorter the distance from the spacetime rift in the canal.
Their cultivation realm could not support them to travel too far.
The stronger the Demon Beast, the farther they could travel, preventing the Demon Beasts from being too concentrated.
Basing on this pattern, Cheng Guang found that the Demon Beasts around Xiaobai Vige actually had the lowest strength.
The farther away from Xiaobai Vige, the stronger the Demon Beasts became.<div>
Doesn’t this mean that among all the viges around Xiaobai Vige, where Demon Beasts appeared, Xiaobai Vige was the closest to the spacetime rift?
Thinking further, Xiaobai Vige indeed was quite close to the Crane-Crying Ind, separated only by a short distance, much of which was due to the detours caused by the tributaries of the canal.
Realizing this, Cheng Guang’s brows involuntarily twitched slightly.
Damn it, after all the searching, it turns out we’re back to square one.
So it’s right here, huh.
Cheng Guang felt he had found a blind spot.
It’s just that the spacetime rift is a focal area of the Devil Beasts, most of them with no simple strength; there might even be traces of the Devil Emperor, and he really couldn’t afford to provoke them now.
When in doubt, don’t panic, go back and get backup first.