Mortal Mirror

At Tianjian Pass, the old beggar also rose in prominence along with Li Muzhen. Yesterday, he was a prisoner doing hard labor, but today, he became Li Muzhen's personal adjutant.

Li Muzhen also underwent a complete transformation, becoming a Qianzong (a military rank), proving that life can be strange and unpredictable. At the peak of despair, there's always a glimmer of unimaginable hope.

At this moment, Li Muzhen was clad in armor, which, combined with his tall and handsome physique and face, truly gave him a jade-like, elegant air. It really is true that clothes make the man. Yesterday's beggar had transformed into a strikingly handsome figure.

Even the slovenly old beggar now possessed an indescribable air of dignity.

Standing on the city wall, Li Muzhen gazed into the distance. The old beggar chuckled beside him and said, "I never thought that I, the Nine-Fingered Divine Beggar, would be basking in my disciple's glory in my old age.

However, Zhen'er, is this really the path you want to choose?"

Li Muzhen didn't know why the old beggar was asking this. He was slightly puzzled and said, "Master, do you have a different perspective?"

The Nine-Fingered Divine Beggar pondered for a moment and said, "Although this is a good place, you are different now. Since you have inherited the mantle of Sword Maniac Senior, you should travel the world and achieve even greater accomplishments. The world here is too small to allow you to experience more powerful things."

The Nine-Fingered Divine Beggar's words caused Li Muzhen to sink into deep thought.

In Fish City, inside Yellow Maple Valley, Li Ergou opened his eyes. Unknowingly, he had been cultivating for another half month. Now, calculating the time, there was less than a month left before the Strongest Constable Competition.

It was time to leave seclusion. After all, the competition venue was in Baojing Prefecture, so he had to set off in advance.

Without overthinking, he instructed the Five Ghosts to guard Yellow Maple Valley and headed towards Orange Mountain.

To his surprise, as soon as he returned to Orange Mountain, he saw Mei'er walking over with a worried expression, constantly saying, "Young Master, something has happened."

Li Ergou was shocked, unsure of what had occurred, and immediately asked, "What's wrong? What happened?"

Mei'er said without hesitation, "The chickens on the mountain have been mysteriously disappearing one each day for the past few days. We don't know what's been catching them.

Chen Bajin brought some people to investigate, but they couldn't figure it out.

To be honest, I suspect it's the monk's doing. After all, strange things have been happening on Orange Mountain since he arrived."

Li Ergou was slightly surprised and asked, "Really? Has anything else happened?"

Mei'er nodded and said, "Yes, at night, there are always ghostly wails on Orange Mountain, which are very frightening. If you don't believe me, check it out yourself tonight. There's something strange about this monk. Where exactly did you invite this great Buddha from?"

Li Ergou was dumbfounded. Mei'er would never lie to him. However, Monk Yinian was a reincarnated, enlightened monk. Why would he be up to something? It shouldn't be. Abbot Fakong wouldn't deceive him.

He had interacted with Yinian before, and he seemed like a good person.

Seeing Li Ergou fall silent, Mei'er said, "Young Master, you decide what to do. You'll know tonight."

Li Ergou nodded, unsure of what to say. However, the constant disappearance of his chickens was a major issue. He carefully inquired about the details of the missing chickens.

"How many chickens are left at home now? What exactly is the situation? Tell me specifically."

"We've lost a total of twenty-eight chickens during this period. They started disappearing the day you left. I didn't pay much attention at first, since some chickens like to run down the mountain to play, and those chickens are usually very strong; ordinary demons aren't their match.

However, in the following days, I paid special attention to this matter and discovered that their disappearances were very regular. One disappears every day, and they're all first-generation chickens, which is very strange.

Unfortunately, we can summon these guys back at night to keep them together, but during the day, we have to let them out to find food themselves. As a result, these chickens are decreasing every day. Jing'er and I are very anxious and are waiting for you to come back and make a decision."

Li Ergou had a general understanding of the situation. Orange Mountain wasn't too big, but it wasn't too small either, making it impossible to monitor every place completely.

After listening to Mei'er's words, he felt that if something was stealing the chickens, it had to be more powerful than the first-generation chickens to be able to kill them without anyone noticing.

Most importantly, if he wasn't mistaken, that thing must be hiding on Orange Mountain.

In his opinion, the demon disaster had just passed, so it might be a powerful demon that had been demonized. Although this matter was small, it concerned his chickens, and those chickens were his precious wealth. He couldn't afford to lose them for nothing.

He told Mei'er not to worry and that he would find a way to deal with it. As for Mei'er's suspicion that Yinian was stealing the chickens, that shouldn't be the case, since everyone knew that monks didn't eat meat.

Well, some do, like Abbot Guangzhi, whom he met at Golden Light Temple. Speaking of which, that guy still owes him a lot of Daoist money.

Forget it, he'd wait until tonight to see what happened. He hadn't been back for several days, and he wanted to eat chicken.

Upon hearing this, Mei'er immediately went to catch a chicken.

As for Jing'er, she was busy at the small shop in the city. Although the demon disaster had passed, there were still many demon beast tendons being sold. During this time, as the tendons decreased, their prices also increased.

Li Ergou's money was flowing out like water. Mei'er told him that if they didn't sell eggs again, they would soon run out of money.

She also said that Li Ergou didn't know the cost of living. A large group of brothers and a mountain full of chickens were all expenses, as well as the comings and goings. Silver was flowing out like water. In the past, they didn't care about the money from selling eggs every day, but now that there was no income, the problem became apparent.

The reason why Li Ergou hadn't re-bred new egg-laying chickens was because he had his own considerations. He knew that the current mountain full of chickens consumed too much. If he raised more egg-laying chickens, Orange Mountain would be eaten clean.

He had to think about what to do in the future. If he didn't settle these big chickens first, he wouldn't be able to raise any chickens at all.

He still had a lot of money on him, and this money was the replicated money that Mei'er didn't know about, so he was confident. It seemed that he had to find a time, make up a reason, and give some of the money to Mei'er.

It had to be said that Mei'er's cooking skills were excellent. The stewed chicken was getting better and better. After eating the chicken, it was already dark. Li Ergou originally wanted to go to the yamen, but since this kind of thing happened, he decided to go tomorrow.

Tonight, the night was dark and the wind was high. A breeze blew through the orange grove, and the leaves rustled. Li Ergou sat in the courtyard of Orange Mountain, released fireflies, and began to check the situation of the entire Orange Mountain.

Now, with the growth of his cultivation, the fireflies could explore farther places, covering a larger area. It was like his second eye.

Although his divine sense could cover a distance of two thousand meters, it was still too close for the vast Orange Mountain. Most importantly, the power of divine sense carried immense pressure, which could easily alarm the guy in the darkness.

The fireflies flew quickly around the mountain, but after searching for a long time, they didn't see anything unusual. Just when he was getting anxious, he suddenly heard a strange chicken cry from a place on Orange Mountain.