After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 473: Chapter 472: Lying in Wait for the Rabbit

With Xu Dayou leading the way, they quickly found the medicine warehouse Hee Lingchuan was looking for.

This row of warehouses was divided into three rooms, storing four types of medicinal herbs. Prunella was among them, occupying an entire warehouse by itself.

”Does Luocang store Prunella anywhere else?”

”Yes, but it’s scattered across seven or eight smaller warehouses, and the herbs are all mixed together. We checked the inventory—the most in any of them is about four hundred jin, and the least is only forty. None of it is sorted.” The man in charge pointed to the warehouse behind him. ”This one here has already been sorted and packed. It’s seventeen thousand, three hundred jin in total, scheduled to be shipped to seven different locations within three days.”

”This is the place.” Hee Lingchuan went inside to have a look for himself. Only after confirming all the herbs were there did he let out a long sigh of relief.

His rushing about since last night hadn’t been in vain. He had finally managed to get one step ahead.

”Has this warehouse always stored Prunella?”

”It has. The warehouses in the center of town have the best security, so they store the most valuable medicinal herbs. These warehouses on the edge of town have always been used to stock Prunella, ephedra, and the like.”

These herbs are cheap, so no one bothers to steal them.

General Antelope, however, remained a little worried. ”Couldn’t Wan Song just rob a few apothecaries or medicine shops to get some Prunella to tide him over for now?”

Hee Lingchuan asked him, ”Why do you think Mr. Mai and Wan Song chose Zhitian Village as their base?”

General Antelope thought for a moment. ”Because it’s easy to get medicinal herbs here?”

If that were the real reason, then the Demon Puppet’s consumption of Prunella couldn’t be small. If they only needed a few jin, they could have bought enough from a couple of medicine shops. Why bother moving and settling in Zhitian Village?

Only in Zhitian Village could they buy herbs in bulk over the long term without attracting suspicion.

Before Hee Lingchuan could speak, Jiao Yu cut in, ”Now that Mr. Mai has been exposed, they can’t stay in Zhitian Village any longer. They have to retreat quickly. If you were Wan Song, and that monster of yours can’t survive without Prunella, what would you do?”

General Antelope blurted out, ”Pull one last big heist and then scram.”

Since they had to steal a stash anyway, it made more sense to go for a big one than a small one.

Hee Lingchuan patted a nearby medicine bag. ”There are over twenty thousand jin of Prunella here. That should be enough for it for some time, at least until they find a new supplier.”

”Will he know to look here?”

”Wan Song might not, but Mr. Mai almost certainly does,” Hee Lingchuan said calmly. ”Mr. Mai is a meticulous man; he would have planned his escape routes in advance. Luocang always has Prunella shipments moving through, so this place is their logical backup warehouse.”

In truth, he had an absurd thought he’d been harboring, one he hadn’t shared with any person or Demon.

It was a theory that still needed proving.

”So, what do we do now?”

”We make our preparations, then lie in wait.” Hee Lingchuan turned to Xu Dayou. ”I hear the green grass jelly here is delicious?”

”You know it!” Xu Dayou laughed. ”Every time I come to Luocang on business, I have to get a bowl of green grass jelly.”

It was now the height of summer, the seventh month, a season where the slightest movement left you drenched in sweat. Even though they all had True Power and Primordial Power to protect them from the worst of the heat, a cold treat on a hot day was still incredibly satisfying.

So, with Xu Dayou leading, the group found a nearby dessert shop.

The shop had been a local fixture for over sixty years, its techniques passed down to the fourth generation. The green grass jelly Hee Lingchuan ordered was made from a decoction boiled from an Immortal Grass Bundle, which was then set into a jelly by soaking it in cool well water overnight. When served, it was drizzled with osmanthus honey water and topped with a few soft, chewy Glutinous Rice Balls. The taste was a mixture of sweet and bitter that seemed to extinguish the fiery impatience in one’s heart.

Best of all, it was cheap.

Hee Lingchuan downed two huge bowls in a row, and it only cost him four copper coins.

Back in the Yuan Kingdom, the osmanthus honey alone would have cost more than that.

Sweeteners could fetch a high price anywhere, but only in the Beiga Kingdom were they a condiment even the common folk could use as they pleased.

Abundant in variety and affordably priced.

As a result, whether it was in the Treasure Tree Kingdom or the Chiyan Kingdom, the streets and alleys were filled with all kinds of sweet shops, many of which were long-established, time-honored businesses. The ratio of ”Immortal Herbs” in the green grass jelly Hee Lingchuan was currently eating, for example, was the owner’s secret recipe. It was said to use thirteen medicinal herbs and even two different types of honey.

The simple bliss of being able to enjoy sweets so freely was a rarity in the world.

The other Officials also sat down to rest their feet, each ordering a sweet drink or dessert. One of the Officials was a skunk, black with a white stripe, who passed on the green grass jelly and ordered two bowls of honey water instead.

Of course, it wasn’t just humans who worked for the Government Office.

In the summer, the sky darkens slowly. But now, a few dark clouds drifted over the horizon, brazenly chasing away the blazing sun and pulling a dark curtain across the sky.

Lightning flashed within the clouds. A storm was brewing.

This was exactly what Hee Lingchuan had been waiting for. He immediately stood up. ”Let’s head back. It’s time to get to work.”

...

The storm arrived with the night, a torrential downpour so immense it seemed to extinguish all light from the world.

All of Luocang was submerged in the hiss of the rain. There wasn’t a soul on the roads.

Dried medicinal herbs are most vulnerable to water, so even the busiest warehouses were forced to cease operations.

The men Hee Lingchuan had brought were spread out evenly among the surrounding warehouses, large and small, while he and Jiao Yu, along with four or five others, guarded the main warehouse where the Prunella was stored.

The warehouse occupied three hundred square meters and was perfectly square. Its beams were exceptionally high, more than two zhang (over twenty feet) from the floor. The twenty thousand jin of Prunella, stacked neatly, took up only half the storage space, leaving the rest of the warehouse empty.

Oh, right. There were also several black jars placed in the corners of the warehouse.

Hee Lingchuan and Jiao Yu played the part of ”gentlemen of the rafters,” hiding up among the high beams.

Three double-hours had passed since they had returned to the warehouse after eating the green grass jelly.

The warehouse remained eerily quiet, with no sign of anything unusual.

It was approaching midnight—the very dead of night.

Hee Lingchuan peered out of the warehouse’s small transom window but couldn’t see a single soul.

Fortunately, as a predator skilled in ambush, Jiao Yu was used to waiting and didn’t complain.

A sudden PAT from below instantly put Hee Lingchuan on high alert.

He quickly saw, however, that it was just a small twig that the wind had blown to the ground.

A few more thunderbolts flashed across the sky, illuminating the entire area.

Hee Lingchuan suddenly slapped the tiger’s back, pointed out the window, and said urgently, ”Look!”

Jiao Yu turned, and his fur instantly stood on end.

Outside the opposite window was what looked like a behemoth—a colossal, dark mass whose outline was difficult to discern, but which stood at least as tall as the warehouse itself.

If not for the timely flash of lightning, no one would have ever noticed such a creature appearing in the pitch-black, rainy night.

Immediately after, their window went dark.

”Go!”

As expected, no plan survives first contact. Hee Lingchuan had originally thought the monster would emerge from beneath the warehouse, but instead, it had appeared right outside.

The warehouse might be spacious, but the creature outside was so absurdly huge it couldn’t possibly squeeze inside!

Luckily, he had a Plan B. He spun around and shot out of a small window on the opposite wall.

Jiao Yu followed close behind.

Meanwhile, for the Officials and Demons guarding the other warehouses, the rainy night was proving to be long and dull.

Xu Dayou let out his tenth yawn and wiped a tear from his eye, only to see General Antelope beside him still completely focused, staring at the opposite warehouse without so much as a blink.

’The stamina of these Demons is amazing,’ he thought. ’An ordinary human could never hope to keep up.’

The view outside the window was exceptionally monotonous—nothing but the unceasing downpour and motionless objects.

Huh?

Something seemed off about the opposite warehouse. It was as if a massive black shadow had appeared behind it.

But the lightning was gone in a flash, and the world outside was plunged back into darkness.

What was that?

Xu Dayou thought his eyes were playing tricks on him and rubbed them. When the next bolt of lightning lit up the sky, he saw the warehouse was still there, and everything around it was unchanged.

The giant black shadow was gone, too.

’Was I just seeing things?’ he wondered.

But just then, Jiao Yu suddenly shot out from behind the warehouse, his long roar echoing through the night. ”Fire on the warehouse!”

The tiger’s roar cut through the rainy night, exploding beside their ears like a clap of thunder.

The doors to the surrounding warehouses burst open. Everyone rushed out, bows and crossbows in hand, and let their arrows fly!

A long rope was tied to the end of each arrow.

Even though they hadn’t seen any other suspicious targets, they followed Jiao Yu’s command without hesitation.

The Wind-Drilling Beasts also smashed open the doors of their warehouse and shot out like arrows.

The ten-zhang distance was nothing to them, a matter of two short strides.

The Wind-Drilling Beasts lowered their heads and, like charging bulls, violently rammed their spiraled horns into the warehouse’s outer wall!

At almost the exact same moment, the volley of arrows arrived, all striking the warehouse.

The target was so large that even Hee Lingchuan, who had only started learning Archery a few months ago, couldn’t possibly miss.

But then, a strange thing happened:

Though the arrows found their mark, they all glanced off. Not a single one managed to stick in the wall.

Even the horns of the two Wind-Drilling Beasts failed to pierce the wall’s surface. They only left behind a few deep gouges and produced three crisp sounds. DONG! DONG! DONG!

A sound like that meant one thing: not only was the surface incredibly hard, but it was also hollow!

The two Wind-Drilling Beast Guards staggered back a couple of steps and shook their heads, clearly dazed by the recoil.

Only General Antelope’s horn managed to pierce about a finger’s breadth deep, but it still didn’t seem to have hit flesh. A blow like that could have sent a Giant Elephant flying, yet the warehouse remained unmoved.

He had no choice but to struggle to pull his horn free and shake his head.

’That really rattled my head.’

By now, everyone could see how bizarre the situation was.

The warehouse was clearly made of wood. How could it possibly be so sturdy?

Even if these warehouses typically had a few Talisman Arrays on them, those were for waterproofing, fireproofing, and pest control; they had nothing to do with making them this durable.

Worst of all, after weathering that round of attacks, the warehouse actually began to sink rapidly.

That’s right—it was sinking into the ground.

If they let it, it would be completely submerged in three to five breaths!

This thing could actually escape that fast?

Fortunately, as General Antelope had charged forward, he had been roaring, ”Activate the array! Dammit, activate the array now!”

The words were barely out of his mouth when the Official Token on Jiao Yu’s neck began to glow.

With the Prunella Medicine Granary at the center, seven points on the ground within a twenty-zhang radius lit up with a faint yellow glow. The Array Talismans buried underground were activating.

An Official stood guard in front of each Array Talisman, weapon in hand.

The ground itself didn’t look much different—it was still a field of muck, splashing as people ran and leaving deep and shallow footprints—but the warehouse’s descent abruptly halted.

This was one of the most widely used Arrays in the Beiga Kingdom’s military arsenal—

The Tunneling Technique Prohibition.

It was typically used in sieges and defensive battles to block the enemy’s Earth Escape and Water Escape Magic, preventing them from slipping into friendly territory to wreak havoc. It was an exceptionally practical measure.

After all, the abilities and innate talents of Demons were bewilderingly diverse.