Chapter 385: The Sky King Covers the Ground Tiger
On Wei Zhi’s side, after the interrogation was over, he used the apartment phone to call one of his friends, who lived on the seventeenth floor. Every unit was equipped with cluster network functionality, so residents could contact each other easily; it could be said that there were no gaps in this neighborhood.
But to be able to directly find someone through this cluster network proved that Wei Zhi was extraordinarily close with this friend.
About three minutes after the call, a tall and sturdy man who was bundled up tightly and wearing sunglasses came upstairs. Although he was dressed a little strangely, his strength wasn’t ordinary.
After the man stepped through the door, he swept his gaze over the trussed up men in black, and a rough voice came out of the face mask he was wearing. “Just these ones?”
“Yes, please.” Wei Zhi smiled.
In tacit understanding, the burly man tied the five people together into one lump and directly dragged them away with a rope.
Loopy Toad: “Who’s that?”
“Little Gang,” said Wei Zhi.
Loopy Toad: “…”
Wei Zhi: “He’s one of my bros; he’s a retired captain of the criminal police force. He’s still in contact with them, so leaving this group of men to him to handle won’t be a problem at all.”
Loopy Toad: “Do you also have a gal pal called Little Xia(1)?”
Wei Zhi was greatly surprised. “How did you know?”
Loopy Toad: “…”
…
It was a small town which had almost been forgotten on the fringes of Songhai city.
The Demon Hunters Association’s base of operations had been set up here.
When Wei Zhi arrived with Loopy Toad, the faint scent of blood that permeated the air made them frown instinctively. In order not to expose Loopy Toad, Wei Zhi had gotten a large travel bag for Loopy Toad to hide in. Even hiding as it was amidst the smell of leather, Loopy Toad could still smell the blood in the air — there was no mistake: this was the blood of spirit beasts.
This was nothing more than a small town, but the Demon Hunters Association was clearly using it as an actual spirit beast slaughterhouse.
After discussing it, Wei Zhi and Loopy Toad’s plan was to find a way to infiltrate the association to check out the actual situation and then look for a chance to end these guys in one go!
With a large bag on his back, Wei Zhi walked down the street. On the surface, the entire street looked very clean and didn’t revealed anything blasphemous going on.
However, there was no concealing the smell in the air; perhaps an ordinary cultivator might not smell it, but for Wei Zhi who was a professional pet trainer with a particularly keen nose for smell, it was simply too pungent.
Wei Zhi casually walked into a shop. It sold steamed buns, but Wei Zhi could smell that something wasn’t right about the meat in the buns.
The shopkeeper was a fat man of three hundred jin , and the ground seemed to tremble when he moved.
“This new brother, would you like a steamed bun?” The shopkeeper lifted the lid of the steamer basket and looked at Wei Zhi.
Feigning calm, Wei Zhi exhaled, and just said three words: “I have goods.”
The shopkeeper gave him a look. “The sky king covers the ground tiger!”
“The pagoda subdues the river monster(2)!” Wei Zhi replied quickly.
The shopkeeper continued, “Crispy roast duck is good!”
Wei Zhi: “Sweet and sour pork is cooked!”
Loopy Toad: “…”
These were the secret passwords of the Demon Hunters Association which Wei Zhi had specifically asked for during the previous interrogation.
Since the passwords were right, the fat shopkeeper then turned off the fire under the steamer basket. He smiled as he looked at Wei Zhi, and then stood to one side and made a welcoming gesture. “This brother, please come in.”
Following the shopkeeper as he led him inside, Wei Zhi could sense the smell of blood in the air getting stronger and stronger.
After walking through the secret passage in the steamed buns shop, Wei Zhi arrived at a hidden backstreet, and was met with a ghastly sight.
This was the true face of the town.
The backstreet was lined with high walls on both sides, under which several pet traffickers were peddling their wares. The whole street was filled with the smell of meat and blood. Wei Zhi could see many cages made out of black iron along the ground, with every type of spirit beast you could think of trapped inside: cats, dogs, foxes… Most of these animals had been caught by the Demon Hunters Association.
Some of them still had on collars with their owners’ names engraved on them.
Some of the spirit beasts in the cages had been beaten black and blue and lay dying, gasping out their last breaths.
Seeing Wei Zhi’s expression, the shopkeeper had the smile of one used to it. “From the looks of it, this little brother probably hasn’t joined the association for very long. It’s to be expected: for most newcomers, it would be a miracle if they didn’t vomit each time they pass through this street.”
“Do you see those little guys with the serious injuries?” The shopkeeper pointed at the wounded spirit beasts in the cages on the sides of the road. “These guys were hurt because they refused to break the contracts with their old owners.”
Wei Zhi didn’t speak, and just listened as the shopkeeper continued to talk.
“Although we have a barrier here, we’re worried that the owners will find this place, so when the spirit beasts are sent here, we have them cancel the contracts with their owners.” The shopkeeper chuckled. “But some spirit animals are so loyal that they don’t want to cancel the contracts, so we have to force them.”
“So… you beat them to this extent?” Wei Zhi struggled to keep the tremor out of his voice.
“Generally, a third party can only intervene in a contract when the spirit beasts are on the verge of death,” the shopkeeper said lightly. “We’ll pay to get those with pure blood treated. As for those of a low grade…”
Speaking up to this point, the shopkeeper pointed back to where the steamed buns shop was. “They’ll all be delivered to my shop.”
As he had been speaking, he had already led Wei Zhi deeper into the backstreet.
Wei Zhi realized that the captured spirit beasts here were organized according to their grades. Those at the top of the street didn’t have high grades. As he passed deeper into the backstreet, Wei Zhi grimly discovered many state-protected spirit beasts.
These spirit beasts were enclosed in elaborate cages. They had blank eyes, as if they had been fed something similar to an “obedience potion” so that they would do whatever the sellers asked.
Finally, the shopkeeper stopped in front of a wooden house. “New brother, I’ll leave you here. The person you are looking for is in this house.”
Wei Zhi nodded and went in with the large bag on his back. There weren’t many people in the wooden house, but they all had the signs of the Demon Hunters Association. Judging from their auras alone, these people were probably some of the Demon Hunters Association’s core members.
This wooden house wasn’t a regular trade venue, but a tearoom which was very likely used to discuss business.
After Wei Zhi sized up his surroundings for a bit, a man who looked to be fifty years old asked him, “Little brother, are you buying or selling?”
In his black apron and with cigarettes tucked behind both ears, the man looked like a butcher.
“I want to sell a spirit dog.” Wei Zhi narrowed his eyes, found a place to sit down, then put the large travel bag he had been carrying on his lap.
This group of people had very sensitive sense of smell; from the moment Wei Zhi had entered the house, their eyes had been fixed unwaveringly on the large travel bag.
“Oh? What breed?”
“Akita.”
Wei Zhi opened the travel bag and directly grabbed Loopy Toad’s cheeks to lift its face — it felt so nice!
“Akita?”
This group of people was nonplussed when they heard this since akitas weren’t part of the ranks of spirit dogs.
A moment later, the uncle who looked like a butcher spoke again, his eyes fixed on Loopy Toad. “Is this… a mongrel?”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Loopy Toad: “What! Are you! Looking at?!”
The uncle was greatly shocked. “From the northeast(3)?!”
Loopy Toad: “…”
(1) Little Zhi, Little Gang and Little Xia are the Chinese names of the main characters in the original ‘Pokemon’ series.
(2) This is the pass code used by bandits in the 1960 Chinese film “Track in the Snowy Forest.”
(3) Loopy Toad here is speaking in a northeastern dialect.