The next day, the sky was slightly bright.
Lin Sheng pushed open the door and saw a small stone wrapped in black cloth at his feet. He picked it up, and a line of small words was clearly written on the black cloth.
"Do you want to meet again? How troublesome."
Shaking his head slightly, a black light flashed in his hand, and the black cloth in his hand melted directly.
After tidying up and getting ready, he said goodbye to Lin Hong and Xie Guilan, who were in another courtyard, and then walked away.
In front of the Wanhua City gate, Lin Sheng's gaze swept briefly across the passing crowd, landing on a familiar figure outside the city gate. He frowned slightly but still stepped forward.
At this moment, Cao Luan was standing under an ancient pine tree outside the city gate, carrying a black cloth bundle on his back. His eyes occasionally darted around, sweeping over every figure entering and leaving, as if searching for something.
"Why haven't they come out yet? Could it be that they've already run away?"
He muttered to himself, feeling a bit anxious.
Last night, he found the contact person who had previously issued the commission again and asked them to deliver a message. Now that the message had been sent, why hadn't the person arrived yet?
Just as he was wondering if he had been tricked, he suddenly felt a hand appear in front of him. The hand landed directly on his shoulder, and then a powerful force pressed him, guiding him behind the ancient pine tree.
During this time, he wanted to turn around and see who it was, but his whole body seemed to be frozen, completely unable to move. In his panic, he wanted to shout out, but his neck was already being choked.
It wasn't until they were some distance away from the city gate that the arm on his body finally moved away. Cao Luan instantly felt his body relax.
"Who are you!?"
He immediately turned around and saw a young man in black tight-fitting clothes standing behind him.
The man had messy hair that was scattered over his shoulders. His features were distinct, and a pair of brown-black eyes were fixed on him. His whole body exuded a faint sense of danger.
Cao Luan immediately reached for his lower back, clutched the item inside his bundle, and looked at the other person with a vigilant expression.
"It was you who wanted to see me. Where is your sister?"
Looking at the half-grown boy in front of him, Lin Sheng spoke in a deep voice.
Only then did Cao Luan react. He carefully sized up Lin Sheng, and asked with some uncertainty.
"You... are you Ghost Face!?"
"That's right. Tell me, what do you want with me?"
Lin Sheng said indifferently. This time, he had no intention of hiding his appearance. After all, they would be interacting later, so he might as well show his true face.
"So young...!" Cao Luan thought to himself, feeling even more that the young man in front of him was unreliable. However, this time he had learned his lesson and didn't show anything on his face. He just snorted lightly and said.
"This time going to Pingshan County, I want to go with you..."
"Oh?"
Before he finished speaking, he saw the man opposite him frown slightly, then let out a light 'oh', and stepped towards him.
Cao Luan immediately felt something was wrong. He quickly retreated, shouting.
"I am your employer. I said I want to go with you. You can't refuse me, otherwise..."
But no matter what he said, Lin Sheng opposite him did not stop, still walking towards him expressionlessly.
He realized something was wrong and quickly changed his words.
"I am willing to increase the reward..."
Just as the word 'ward' fell, a palm had stopped in front of his eyes, about to grip his neck.
"Speak up, don't waste time."
Lin Sheng withdrew his hand and said indifferently.
"Let... let me go with you. I will add one, no, two thousand taels of silver."
Cao Luan said, still shaken.
He really didn't want to experience that suffocating feeling of being unable to resist again.
"Deal. However, you only have one life. I hope you understand this principle."
Lin Sheng showed a smile on his face.
Being able to earn an extra two thousand taels of silver still made him quite satisfied.
As for what this kid was thinking, he was too lazy to ask.
"I don't need you to worry about me. You should think about how to complete the task."
Cao Luan had now recovered from his panic. Seeing the smile on Lin Sheng's face, however, ignited anger in his heart.
"This bastard who only bullies the weak! If I had already entered the Forging Tendons Realm, let's see if you would still dare to treat me like this..."
Of course, these words were just his thoughts; he didn't show any of it on his face.
He always believed that the man in front of him was completely suppressing him based on his Realm.
If they were in the same Realm, he would definitely not be any worse than the other party.
"Let's go."
Having no intention of delaying further, Lin Sheng glanced at the other party, finished speaking, and turned around, heading towards Pingshan County.
Cao Luan seemed to have prepared beforehand. He ran back to the ancient pine tree, led out a fine horse, skillfully mounted it, and chased after Lin Sheng.
Pingshan County is quite far from Wanhua City.
One person and one horse only covered nearly half the distance in two days. Along the way, they encountered a few bandits who tried to rob them. Lin Sheng casually killed the bandit leader with a palm strike, and the remaining bandits fled in panic, but he gained a fine horse.
He might as well travel by horse now. Originally, he planned to go alone and rush at full speed on foot. By choosing a suitable exotic beast to integrate, his stamina would far exceed that of ordinary people, allowing him to save a lot of time.
But now that he had a burden, he naturally couldn't run at full speed without any reservations. Having a horse to travel by was also a leisure.
...
Linjiang Prefecture territory.
An unnamed low mountain with dense vegetation.
Several mountain wolves were vigorously tearing at a Rock Sheep.
The Rock Sheep lay on the ground, its eyes wide open, occasionally blinking. If its body hadn't been torn open by the mountain wolves, one might have thought it was just resting.
As time passed, the Rock Sheep's life soon came to an end. Its eyes slowly closed, and its heavy breathing completely disappeared.
The mountain wolves were eating heartily and didn't pay attention to the Rock Sheep's reaction. After all, to them, it was just food.
Just then, the ears of one mountain wolf, which was larger than its companions, twitched as if it sensed something.
It lifted its blood-soaked head from the Rock Sheep's abdomen, scanned the surroundings cautiously, and quickly focused on one direction.
There was a gray-furred wild rabbit there, staring intently at them.
The leading mountain wolf tilted its head slightly, looking at the gray-furred wild rabbit with some suspicion. It seemed a bit confused as to why something that was usually food didn't turn and run when it saw them now.
No, not only that, but it was also slowly walking towards them, seemingly unafraid of death.
This made the mountain wolf, whose intelligence wasn't outstanding, feel a bit surprised at this moment.
With enough food in front of it, it didn't plan to expend extra effort chasing this wild rabbit, but now that it had delivered itself, it was happy to have an extra meal.
In its memory, the taste of wild rabbit seemed to be better than that of Rock Sheep.
It just didn't know why, but it always felt that this approaching gray-furred wild rabbit was somewhat unusual compared to those it had seen in the past. But where exactly was it unusual? It was a bit confused, but the bloodthirsty urge in its heart made it not want to waste time thinking about this.
It left the Rock Sheep, leaped into the air, and pounced towards the wild rabbit. The wild rabbit didn't evade, like a wooden puppet without consciousness.
Puff!
The sound of sharp teeth piercing skin rang out, but the mountain wolf was a bit dazed because the expected fresh blood did not appear.
A look of confusion flashed in its eyes. Before it could understand, its body stiffened, and it stood frozen in place. The wild rabbit in its mouth had already turned into a shriveled, dried-up corpse.
Soon, the mountain wolf returned to normal. He turned his head, looked at his companions who were vigorously gnawing on the flesh and blood, and slowly walked over. However, his original brown-yellow pupils had now completely turned black, even the whites of his eyes were no exception.
In just a few breaths, the mountain wolves, who had been ravenously eating, turned into shriveled corpses. Only the mountain wolf leader remained in the scene. It sniffed lightly and quickly disappeared into the mountain forest.
Half a day later.
Two figures appeared from the mountain forest.
One of them was wearing black profound armor, with a strong build, a rugged-looking strong man.
The other was a tall woman with beautiful features.
The beautiful woman's gaze swept around the mountain forest, a faint green light in her eyes. Soon, she found something. Her figure flickered, and in just a breath, she had crossed hundreds of meters.
Seeing this, the strong man in profound armor also took large strides and followed. Although he was strongly built, his speed was not slow at all.
The beautiful woman soon stopped in a part of the mountain forest.
"Has Fairy Song found something?"
The strong man in profound armor looked at the woman and asked, narrowing his eyes.
As soon as the words left his mouth, he too had detected the abnormality.
He opened his palm, and several shriveled corpses on the ground, covered by withered leaves, were revealed and fell into his hand.
"Looking at this appearance, it is indeed that Phantom Demon Beast."
The beautiful woman, Song Yan, was also holding a shriveled corpse in her hand at this moment, which looked like a wild rabbit. The green light in her eyes flickered, sweeping over the wild rabbit's body.
"The absorption efficiency is not high. These corpses still have some toughness. It seems the Magic Seed's state is not good. Looking at the time, it hasn't been long. It shouldn't take too long to corner it."
"Very good. I really want to see how capable this Magic Seed is. I never thought that Phantom Demon Beast could send out a Magic Seed from the Blood Demon Grand Formation personally arranged by General Manager Long."
The strong man in profound armor narrowed his eyes, but a hint of cold laughter hung on his face.
"Let's go, don't delay. Although this Magic Seed is not much of a threat now, if given time to devour enough flesh and blood, it will be a troublesome thing."
Song Yan said indifferently, throwing the wild rabbit corpse in her hand aside. Then she determined a direction and leaped away.
The strong man in profound armor didn't say anything more, took large strides, and quickly followed. The two, one in front and one behind, disappeared in the blink of an eye.
...
Clip-clop, clip-clop...
The sound of hurried horse hooves echoed from the official road.
On the bay horse behind him, Cao Luan was tearing at the flatbread in his hand, while looking with disdain at Lin Sheng, who was sitting cross-legged on the horse's back in front, his eyes slightly closed, seemingly cultivating.
"At a time like this, choosing to seek help at the last minute is truly the height of absurdity..."
Although he didn't dare to say anything aloud, it didn't stop him from thinking this in his heart.
It had been four days since they left Wanhua City. Ever since the other party had taken a fine horse from those few bandits, he had been in this state for most of the journey.
He didn't know what martial art or technique the other party was cultivating, but he was very clear that one or two days of cultivation would have no effect at all, and would even harm one's condition, especially like this on horseback.
If he hadn't been somewhat afraid of the other party's methods, he would have already spoken out to mock him.
After finishing the flatbread in his hand, he took out the cylindrical object from the black cloth bundle, held it in his hand, and carefully wiped it.
Looking closely, one could see that this cylindrical ornament was made of finely polished iron, covered with small square protrusions, looking extremely exquisite.
"Wait nearby, this time I will avenge you..."
He murmured softly, and then carefully placed the cylindrical object back into the bundle.
"Pingshan County is just ahead."
At this moment, Lin Sheng, who had been keeping his eyes closed, suddenly spoke.
This startled Cao Luan.
However, after hearing the other party's words clearly, his spirits immediately lifted.
"Then what are you waiting for? Quickly release the Snow Silver Moth and find the whereabouts of those Red Hair Bandits."
Hearing this, Lin Sheng was not in a hurry. Instead, he slapped the horse's rump and continued to ride forward.
"You..."
Seeing the other party's behavior, Cao Luan was furious. He immediately urged his horse to catch up.
"What do you mean!?"
"Pingshan County covers an area of more than a thousand li. Are you perhaps planning to search little by little?"
Lin Sheng said irritably.
Along the way, this burden had been quite quiet, not spouting any more pointless nonsense. But now that they had arrived at Pingshan County, he could no longer hold back.
Hearing Lin Sheng's words, Cao Luan's words choked. He opened his mouth wanting to say something in refutation, but he couldn't utter a single word for a long time.
Because the other party was right. Although the Snow Silver Moth could search a range of about ten li, Pingshan County was very large. If they were to search aimlessly like this, who knows how much time it would take, and perhaps they wouldn't even find the target before the Snow Silver Moth was exhausted to death.
"Then where are you going?"
He couldn't help but ask again, but this time Lin Sheng didn't intend to answer him. The horse's speed became faster and faster, pulling him further and further away in just a few breaths.
"Damn it!!"
Cao Luan couldn't help but curse inwardly, and could only fiercely slap his horse's rump to quickly follow.
An hour later.
Ping Shan County.
"You're not looking for the Red Hair Bandits' whereabouts, so why did you come here?"
In a restaurant in the County Town, Cao Luan's eyes were almost spitting fire as he looked at Lin Sheng opposite him, who was eating heartily.
The other party had led him directly to the County Town, and as soon as they arrived, they came to the largest restaurant in the town, rented a high-class room, and then ordered a table of rich food, completely without any appearance of looking for someone. How could this not make him angry?
"This one is quite good. Do you want to try it?"
Lin Sheng held the wine cup, took a sip, pointed at a dish with his chopsticks, and said indifferently.
"Bastard!!"
Seeing this, Cao Luan finally couldn't hold back anymore, stood up, and slammed the table hard.
"I paid you to come here not to eat and drink and enjoy yourself! Now go find that Red Ha... cough cough cough... cough..."
Before he finished speaking, a piece of tofu had shot into his mouth, causing him to cough violently.
Lin Sheng, however, didn't care and picked up another piece of white jade tofu, slowly putting it into his mouth.
"You... I..."
Cao Luan's face was flushed red as if it was engorged with blood. He pointed at Lin Sheng, while his other hand had already gripped the black cloth bundle he carried with him.
"Hmm!?"
With a soft 'hmm', a dangerous aura surged from the person opposite him. Cao Luan felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. The hand holding the bundle loosened and tightened, but he finally calmed down, snorted coldly, and got up to return to his room upstairs.
Lin Sheng didn't even look at him, still enjoying the delicious food by himself.
Although the commotion between the two was not great, there were many people in the restaurant, and it still attracted many glances.