Chapter 402: The Man in the White Paper Hat

Chapter 402: The Man in the White Paper Hat

“You two must be from out of town, right?” The bearded constable noticed Lu Yang’s unfamiliarity with the Desolate Lands and kindly warned him.

“If you encounter anyone wearing a white paper hat in the future, be careful. That bastard has been causing trouble all over the place and is incredibly slippery!”

“What do you mean?” the two asked, puzzled.

The bearded constable angrily replied, “We’ve been hunting down this guy with the white paper hat for a long time, but we’ve never managed to catch him. He seems to have come out of nowhere and has been active in the Desolate Lands for several years now.”

“He can pick any random spot in the Desolate Lands, and that’s where he commits his crimes. This time, he pretended to run the Qingming Inn as a black market shop. Last time, he manipulated his accomplices into stealing, got them wanted, and then turned them in for a reward. What’s worse is that none of us realized it was him who collected the bounty!”

“Another time, he disguised himself as a corpse and sold himself to a corpse driver. When the corpse driver was about to refine him, the ‘corpse’ moved on its own and almost scared the poor guy to death.”

“When the man with the white paper hat finally left, the corpse driver was still shaken, thinking it was a case of a Jiangshi. He chanted mantras for days before realizing he had been tricked!”

“And then there was another incident where the Barbarian Tribe reported a case of human trafficking at the edge of the Desolate Lands—turns out it was him too!”

“This bastard will do anything for money! If we could catch him, we’d all have five fewer workdays each year!”

Just thinking about the man with the white paper hat made the bearded constable furious. The more he talked, the angrier he became. If the man in the white paper hat were to appear now, he might just swallow him whole.

Catching the man in the white paper hat wasn’t just his wish, it was the wish of the entire Desolate Lands.

“There’s something else strange about this bastard—there’ve been several occasions where he appeared in two places at the same time, almost like there are two of him. We’re not sure if he’s got a twin or something.”

“And just now, we had the inn surrounded, and you two were at the entrance. Did anyone notice him leaving?”

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou nodded. With their levels of Cultivation, no ordinary cultivator’s actions would escape their detection range—not even a master thief.

For him to escape in such a situation meant that the man in the white paper hat either had some extraordinary technique or a level of Cultivation beyond everyone’s expectations.

“Fairy, did you notice when the man in the white paper hat escaped?” Lu Yang asked.

Everlasting Fairy rolled her eyes, feeling that Lu Yang was underestimating her.

“He ran west, but don’t expect the constables to catch him. Even with the two of you helping, it’s useless—it’d just be a waste of effort. His escape technique is nothing ordinary.”

“And even if you do catch him, it’ll just be a clone. It doesn’t really matter.”

Lu Yang was shocked. For Everlasting Fairy to make such an assessment, the man in the white paper hat was even more formidable than he had imagined.

“Who are you?”

Meng Jingzhou gave a friendly smile, one perfected after many nights at barbecue joints. “We’re just travelers passing through. It’s getting late, and we were hoping to stay for the night. We’re happy to pay, of course.”

The old man, clearly annoyed, tried to shoo them away. “Go, go! Jianshi Village doesn’t welcome outsiders. You’d better leave quickly, or the dead will eat you!”

“Eaten by the dead? You have corpses here? We’re cultivators. We can help you deal with them,” Meng Jingzhou offered.

Upon hearing this, the old man became even more agitated. “We don’t need your help. Now get out of here!” he said before slamming the door shut.

“Well, that was rude!” Meng Jingzhou grumbled, frustrated. He had only offered to help, and instead, they were chased away.

“Maybe the old man has womenfolk inside and doesn’t want to let you in?” Lu Yang teased with a mischievous grin.

“Get lost,” Meng Jingzhou waved Lu Yang away as if swatting a fly.

Unwilling to give up, Meng Jingzhou tried knocking on other doors, but each time the response was the same—either they were chased off, or the doors remained firmly shut.

“These people aren’t exactly hospitable,” Meng Jingzhou muttered.

“So, should we try another village?” Lu Yang asked.

Meng Jingzhou sighed. “Too much trouble. I saw a place by the village entrance earlier—a shrine or maybe an ancestral hall. It looked clean and still in use. We can make do there for the night.”

“That works,” Lu Yang agreed. After being turned away from the Qingming Inn and now Jianshi Village, who knew if the next village would be any different? Instead of going back and forth, it made more sense to settle in for the night and investigate in the daylight.

The two made their way to the ancestral hall and used Three Flavours True Fire to light the oil lamps, brightening the place instantly.

“It’s quite clean.”

The two paid their respects to the ancestral tablets. “Apologies to the ancestors; we’ll only be staying for one night.”

At the edge of the village, in the cemetery...

The stones trembled, and the graves shifted, as if something underneath was moving.

A withered claw broke through the soil.

Soon, more claws followed, bursting out of the ground one after another, too many to count...