Chapter 168

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 not comply with rules, he could not force them to do anything.

If they were really forced to leave Xiaobai Village, they wouldn’t be able to plant this year’s crops. Without a harvest next year, even if they weren’t harmed by the Devil Clan, they’d still be starved to death.

At this moment, Cheng Guang also slightly furrowed his brow.

After all, Xiaobai Village 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 village 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 villages 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. Ninety percent of their annual harvest would be skinned off layer by layer.

The remaining ten percent was barely sufficient to sustain the most basic livelihood of a family.

If the overall harvest was poor in a year, then inevitably someone in the family would die of starvation.

This had already become the norm.

Apart from Cheng Guang, who felt uncomfortable 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 village? Although our village is poor and has little to offer, we still manage to have simple meals and tea. If the lords do not mind, please come inside for a bite and some tea, and take a rest.”

Cheng Guang shook his head, “There’s no need, village chief. Do you know where those members of the Devil Clan appeared?”

As soon as Cheng Guang posed the question, the village chief of Xiaobai Village pointed towards a spot on the distant riverbank, saying, “The Devil Clan that the lord mentioned suddenly emerged from that direction, abducting many of our village’s young people.”

With that, the village chief of Xiaobai Village showed a sorrowful face: “So many people, eaten by the Devil Clan, captured. If it hadn’t been for the timely arrival of the officials from the Bureau of the Lamp, our Xiaobai Village would probably have been completely destroyed by now.”

Cheng Guang was silent for a moment upon hearing this.

Before even approaching Xiaobai Village, he had smelled that strong stench of blood, and he suspected that the situation in Xiaobai Village 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 village chief of Xiaobai Village.

Lin Cheng and Xu Hongfei followed closely behind him.

The village chief of Xiaobai Village 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 particularly powerful.

Cheng Guang stroked his chin, speculating quietly.

He knew.

The Devil Clan that appeared here and attacked Xiaobai Village 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 successfully assassinating Cheng Guang.

But in the end, they had failed.

Even though Cheng Zhihai had started an investigation into how the Devil Clan had smuggled themselves into Great Zhou and from where, before he could figure it out, the unforeseen events at the Great Zhou–Great Wei martial competition disrupted his plans.

The investigation into the Devil Clan’s smuggling had been delayed.

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 Clan’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 Clan’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 have come to care about the smuggling of the Devil Clan on this side.

Cheng Guang mulled over in his mind as he walked to the riverbank and squatted down.

The Devil Clan 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 Village Chief of Xiaobai Village, “Chief, if all goes well, there shouldn’t be any more appearances of the Devil Clan 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 Village Chief of Xiaobai Village nodded hurriedly in response.

His face was a portrait of sincerity and fear.

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 Village Chief’s expression.

He sighed inwardly, unsure of what to say. After wandering around the vicinity, he moved on to investigate the other villages Xu Hongfei had mentioned where Demon Beasts had appeared.

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 village, as well as their rough distance from the canal, he had come 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 Village actually had the lowest strength.

The farther away from Xiaobai Village, the stronger the Demon Beasts became.

Doesn’t this mean that among all the villages around Xiaobai Village, where Demon Beasts appeared, Xiaobai Village was the closest to the spacetime rift?

Thinking further, Xiaobai Village indeed was quite close to the Crane-Crying Island, 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.