Lin'an County boundary.
Several porters, carrying bundles of firewood on their shoulders, walked along the official road.
They chatted with each other from time to time, occasionally bursting into laughter.
It seemed they were discussing topics they were all very interested in.
"Old Ma, your Tiger Girl will be seven after the end of the year. It's time for her to learn to read. Put in a little more effort, cut more firewood before the New Year, sell it for a good price, and next year, have your Tiger Girl go to school with my Dog Boy at Mr. Wu's in the village. This way, my Dog Boy can also take care of her more."
"That's great. My Tiger Girl is timid and afraid of strangers. If she doesn't have someone familiar, I'm afraid she really won't dare to go..."
"Don't worry, my Dog Boy is very fond of your Tiger Girl. I guarantee your child won't be bullied..."
"With your words, I'm relieved, hehe..."
The porters chatted and laughed, not feeling too tired.
"Speaking of which, the price of firewood has risen quite a bit compared to last month. I think we can sell it for a good price this time."
"Yes, but I heard that Mihua Town, not far from our village, was attacked by bandits. Not a single person was left alive in the town. It's really pitiful."
"Who says it isn't? It seems that besides Mihua Town, Daobei Town on the other side was also massacred by that group of bandits. These bandits are really hateful. Fortunately, the official army has already wiped out this group of bandits, otherwise, our town might also be in some danger..."
When they spoke of this, everyone seemed a little silent.
After all, the world is not peaceful, and who knows what might happen to them in the future.
As ordinary people, they had no ability to resist.
As the few men walked with their heads down, the leading man suddenly stopped, his gaze fixed on the bushes beside the official road, a look of confusion in his eyes.
"There... there seems to be something?"
"What is it?"
The faces of the men behind him immediately showed vigilance. They took down the firewood knives hanging from their waists and looked in the direction the man was looking.
It was getting dark. The men focused their vision and looked carefully. Indeed, they found a dark object in the bushes twenty to thirty meters away from the official road, seemingly gnawing on something.
"There really is something! What is that dark thing?"
Looking at the constantly moving dark shadow in the bushes, the men exchanged whispers.
Someone couldn't help but step forward a couple of steps.
"That looks like a wild dog."
"Wild dog!?" Hearing this, the eyes of the remaining men lit up, and a hint of joy appeared on their faces.
Although there were generally no ferocious beasts near the official road, mountain wolves occasionally appeared. If it were a mountain wolf, they might turn around and run, keeping their distance and trying not to provoke it.
After all, these ordinary people only had a bit of strength. If they encountered a mountain wolf, even if they could deal with it, they might lose one or two people.
But a wild dog was different. The fighting power of a wild dog was far inferior to that of a mountain wolf. If they all went up together, it would only take one knife per person to kill it.
"We're really lucky today. I didn't expect to encounter a wild dog on the road. We can just kill it and split it among us brothers, then go back and eat the meat and make soup."
"Yes, today is really a good day."
"Alright, let's hurry and do it, or this wild dog will react and run away."
The men gripped their firewood knives and surrounded the dark shadow.
The black wild dog seemed quite engrossed in gnawing, completely ignoring the porters surrounding it.
While the men were happy, their steps quickened. Soon they were a few meters away from the wild dog. But when they saw the scene before them, they were all stunned.
In the bushes a few meters away from them lay broken corpses. The flesh on them had been mostly gnawed clean, revealing the stark white bone frames. The wild dog was gnawing on a corpse that was only half a body.
"This... this... what happened?"
With a clang, a porter's firewood knife fell to the ground. The wild dog paused its gnawing, raised its face covered in blood and shredded meat, and looked at the porters. Its eyes, as black as ink, showed no fluctuation.
"Run!!"
Such eyes sent a chilling shiver down the spines of the porters. With almost no hesitation, they shouted and turned to run back.
However, their movements were fast, but the wild dog's movements were even faster. It chased after the men like a black lightning bolt. Soon, screams and bone-chilling gnawing sounds came from the bushes.
Not long after, everything returned to calm. A black wild dog emerged from the bushes.
Perhaps because the smell of blood was too strong, a wolf howl sounded from not far away.
The wild dog's black eyes looked in the direction the sound came from. The next moment, it opened its mouth, and a wisp of black mist emerged from it, shooting towards the wolf howl. The black wild dog then seemed to suddenly lose its life, collapsing to the ground, motionless. In just a few breaths, its body withered, as if it had been dead for a long time.
...
"Gongzi, Xiao Shi's injuries have stabilized, but he is temporarily in a coma. What should we do next?"
In the residence in Tongzhi County, Lao Zhou looked at Lin Sheng, who was calm and silent, and asked softly.
The change in address was because Lin Sheng requested it. After all, the address 'Lord' didn't seem suitable for him; 'Gongzi' was more appropriate.
"My things are not that easy to take."
Tapping his fingers rhythmically on the stone table in the courtyard, Lin Sheng said in a deep voice.
He didn't expect that he would still be targeted.
He originally thought that since Tongzhi County was a prosperous large county, the public order within it would be much better than in Lin'an, so he didn't deliberately hide when he had Xiao Shi purchase things.
But it was clear that he had underestimated the dangers of the Jianghu and had become somewhat relaxed and careless.
Fortunately, Lin Hong and Xie Guilan had already returned and nothing had happened.
However, how to find out who the perpetrator was was also a problem, as he had no connections in Tongzhi County.
No, he did have some.
"It seems I'll have to rely on the intelligence of the Dark Star Organization."
With this thought in mind, he decided to go and find Huang Quan first.
Woof...
Just then, Big Yellow ran to Lin Sheng, spat out a piece of torn cloth with bloodstains, and barked at Lin Sheng.
"This is..."
Looking at the torn cloth spat out by Big Yellow, Lin Sheng picked it up and squinted at it, but couldn't make anything out.
"Big Yellow, what is this thing?"
"Woof!!"
Big Yellow barked again, stepped forward, bit Lin Sheng's pants leg, and tugged outwards.
Seeing this, his heart stirred, and he immediately understood.
Big Yellow's intelligence was high, and this reaction was clearly expressing something.
"You can find those people?"
"Woof!!"
Big Yellow immediately barked excitedly twice, wagging its tail non-stop.
Seeing Big Yellow's response, Lin Sheng's eyes lit up. He reached out and patted its raised head.
"Then take me there. If you can find those people for me, I'll reward you with two pieces of jerky."
"Woof..."
Big Yellow seemed to understand, and its tail, which had no fur, wagged even faster. It immediately ran towards the door.
"Lao Zhou, stay here and look after my Father and Mother."
"Yes, Gongzi!" Lao Zhou quickly responded, but couldn't help but remind him.
"Is it a bit too risky for Gongzi to go alone like this? Should we find some more helpers?"
"No need, I alone am enough."
Lin Sheng shook his head slightly and had already disappeared from the courtyard with Big Yellow.
Although Tongzhi was significantly larger and more prosperous than Lin'an, it was still just a County Town.
These days, he had also sent Lao Zhou and Xiao Shi out to inquire and had some understanding of the forces in this County Town.
Although the number and quality of Martial Artists were higher than in Lin'an County, the highest combat power was still only in the Blood Transportation Realm.
After exploding and killing the Black Bear, he was very clear about his current combat power.
Even facing a Blood Transportation Warrior, he had the strength to fight. He didn't think the little wealth he showed would attract a Blood Transportation Warrior to act.
Moreover, if it were truly a large force with a Blood Transportation Warrior in charge, they wouldn't need to be so secretive to deal with him.
Big Yellow led Lin Sheng through the County Town, stopping from time to time, looking around, and sniffing to determine the direction.
Finally, it actually led Lin Sheng out of the County Town.
"Not in the County Town?"
Looking at the foot of the low mountain not far away, Lin Sheng narrowed his eyes, a cold glint flashing in them.
It wasn't surprise that the thieves would run out of the city, but surprise at Big Yellow's tracking ability. It seemed some things were much stronger than he had imagined, being able to track so far.
"It seems Big Yellow's three points of Perception are focused on his sense of smell."
Even with the same attribute increase, the increased attributes would vary depending on the innate talent of the Spirit Beast itself.
The Horned Owl he had previously integrated with had its two points of Perception primarily focused on vision.
During his time in the city, he also specifically experimented with the changes in integration at different stages of the same Spirit Beast.
For this, he specifically had Lao Zhou buy a wild rabbit that could barely be considered a low-level common beast, then fed it with Spirit Beast jerky and blood enhancement pills, causing it to more than double in size in a short time.
And when Lin Sheng tried integrating with it again, it had already gained a Strength increase of 1 in addition to the previous Agility increase of 1.
"It seems I can find a time to integrate with Big Yellow."
While he was contemplating this, one person and one dog had already disappeared outside the city.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
"Five blood enhancement pills, three thousand taels of banknotes. Not bad, it really is a fat sheep."
Ba Long toyed with the small porcelain bottle in his hand, his eyes greedily looking at the several banknotes in front of him, his face full of smiles.
Including the pills in his hand, this trip earned him over 4000 taels.
Even for him, this amount of money was definitely a huge sum.
"Leader, and these jerky snacks, these jerky snacks must also be good stuff!!"
Two bandits, still dressed as hunters, also explained with smiles from the side.
These two were the two hunters who had previously attacked Xiao Shi.
"These jerky snacks?" Ba Long raised an eyebrow, his gaze falling on the inconspicuous jerky beside him.
These jerky snacks looked no different from ordinary Rock Sheep jerky, only their color was a bit darker.
Hearing their words, he reached out, took a piece of jerky, tore off a strip of meat from it, put it into his mouth, and chewed carefully.
Because the meat was quite tough, he frowned slightly, but soon his eyes lit up, and a look of pleasant surprise appeared on his face.
He clearly felt a warmth immediately spreading through his body as that bit of jerky entered his stomach, making his blood flow a bit more active.
"This is actually Spirit Beast meat!!"
As a bandit who had been entrenched outside Tongzhi County for many years, although he had not broken through to the Blood Transportation Realm, his strength in the Forging Tendons Late Stage had few rivals.
Coupled with having many brothers and connections with the Governor in the city, he could be said to be living quite comfortably.
But he had only eaten Spirit Beast meat a few times, and he remembered it clearly.
As soon as the jerky entered his stomach, he immediately recognized it.
Moreover, there seemed to be at least ten to twenty catties of these jerky snacks in front of him.
Adding these five blood enhancement pills, if he was lucky, he might be able to try and break through to the Blood Transportation stage.
Thinking of this, he was in a good mood.
"Second Brother, Third Brother, you did very well this time. Don't worry, Brother, I will definitely not forget your benefits."
"This is also thanks to Brother. If it weren't for Brother, we wouldn't have found that kid. However, this time's harvest, what about Fatty Yang from the Herbal Hall..."
The tall bandit spoke, his words trailing off.
Hearing this, the smile on Ba Long's face also froze for a moment, but he quickly sneered and said.
"Tomorrow, you take two thousand taels of banknotes to the Gongzi, and also inform the Gongzi about this matter. I want to see what else that Fatty Yang dares to say. He's just an ignorant Second Brother, and if he didn't have a good Father, hmph, he would have been killed by someone long ago."
"Okay, I'll make a trip tomorrow morning."
Hearing this, the tall bandit didn't say anything more and readily agreed.
"Alright, let's not talk about this. Have someone prepare a feast. Today, we brothers must celebrate properly."
The other short bandit, Third Brother, chuckled, covering his butt, and went down to make arrangements.
"Brother, Second Brother, I'll go make the arrangements now."
Watching Third Brother leave, Second Brother seemed to think of something and asked again.
"Brother, we have captured two or three hundred people during this time. Eating is a problem every day. I don't know what the Gongzi wants so many people for?"
Hearing this, Ba Long shook his head slightly and said indifferently.
"What else could it be? Don't tell me you don't know about that rumor."
"Could it be that the Gongzi is really related to the Yuanyang Beast Sect!!?"
Second Brother's face showed a strange expression as he blurted out.
"Alright, don't speculate on the Gongzi's matters. Don't spread it, otherwise, no one can protect you."
Ba Long's tone was a bit serious as he instructed.
"I understand, I understand, Brother, don't worry, I know what can be said and what cannot."
Second Brother patted his chest and repeatedly assured him.
Just then, Third Brother had already ordered people to bring in good wine and food.
And at this time, outside the bandit camp, one person and one dog had already reached the vicinity.
"Is it here?"
Looking at the mountainside of the low mountain not far away, Lin Sheng narrowed his eyes, a cold light flickering in them.
