The Great Bandit of Journey to the West

Chapter 7 Split Operations

Lu Ziwang led Jiang Feng to the county government's morgue.

On a simple wooden bed lay two corpses, while the county yamen's coroner and clerk examined and recorded the bodies.

The two victims died horribly, both with large holes in their chests where their hearts had been ripped out.

Lu Ziwang pointed to the corpse on the left and said, "This is the Wang Lao Er you are looking for. Two murders have occurred in two consecutive days, with the same manner of death, so it should be the work of the same killer."

Jiang Feng looked around and saw Zhao Ping'an and Li Fugui trembling at the door. He called out, "Fugui, come in and see if this is the person you saw yesterday!"

Li Fugui's eyes darted around, and his voice trembled: "I, I dare not... Look at his neck, is there a red birthmark that looks like a butterfly?"

Jiang Feng looked at Wang Lao Er's corpse and, sure enough, saw a conspicuous red birthmark on his neck. He said, "That's him. Good news: you didn't see a ghost yesterday."

The bad news is, he might really have become a ghost now. Next time he goes to see your stepmother, you absolutely must avoid him.

Li Fugui gave a wry smile: "Don't try to scare me..."

Jiang Feng examined the two corpses carefully and said, "These rough wounds don't look like they were caused by swords or knives; they look more like they were dug by animal claws."

There were no bite marks on their bodies; each kill was instantaneous, the target was clear—the heart of the deceased. It didn't seem like the work of a wild animal; it was more like…”

"The work of a monster!"

Suddenly a crisp sound rang out.

Jiang Feng turned his head and saw that the person who spoke was a woman wearing a blue Taoist robe, standing quietly to the side. She had a beautiful face and a pure and otherworldly aura.

The woman had clearly been there for a long time; he was quite surprised that he hadn't noticed there was someone else in the room when he came in.

Jiang Feng quickly came to his senses, nodded to the woman, and then said, "That's right, it looks like it was done by a monster, and a truly honest one at that."

The woman was taken aback, and asked with some doubt, "How do you know?"

Jiang Feng pointed at the chest of a corpse: "They've laid their hearts bare; how could they not be honest!"

Woman: "@#￥%￥#@……"

Lu Ziwang coughed and introduced them to the two: "This master is Jiang Feng from Xuyuan Temple. Jiang Feng, this is my wife's niece, Miss Cui Ying."

"Oh, the Cui family of Boling, I suppose."

It was almost always common for prominent families to intermarry, and women rarely married into humble or lowly families. The fact that she could marry into the Lu family of Fanyang, and that she was surnamed Cui, gave Jiang Feng a general idea of ​​Cui Ying's background.

After carefully examining Cui Ying for a few moments, he noticed traces of cultivation on her body and asked, "From the Shangqing Sect?"

Cui Ying regained her previous aloof demeanor, performed a Taoist salute, and solemnly said, "Master, you have excellent eyesight. Can you find any trace of the demon?"

Jiang Feng pondered for a moment, then took out a piece of white paper from his treasure pouch, dabbed a trace of blood on Wang Lao Er's chest, and folded the paper into a paper crane, placing it in his palm.

Blow a breath at the paper crane, and it floats and sways into the air, then stabilizes itself and flies away into the distance.

A hint of surprise flashed in Cui Ying's eyes as she asked curiously, "The Paper Crane Search Technique—where did you learn this secret technique of our sect?"

Jiang Feng sighed deeply, "The child has no mother; it's a long story. Go ask the elders in the family; they should remember. This happened around the time Pangu separated heaven and earth..."

Cui Ying: "@#￥%￥#@……"

My elderly relative doesn't remember!

When Pangu separated heaven and earth, my ancestor hadn't even been born yet!

Seeing Cui Ying's flustered expression, Jiang Feng changed the subject: "We can talk about this another time. If we don't leave now, we'll miss the paper cranes."

After saying that, Jiang Feng made a hand seal and began chanting an incantation.

"The sky is clear, the earth is bright, the secret incantation invokes the gods. Please, True Lord Bolt, guide my true form across ten thousand miles! So be it!"

The next instant, a shadowy figure, entirely black, dressed in shorts and a shirt, with a number sticker on its back, descended and enveloped Jiang Feng.

With the blessing of the divine summoning spell, Jiang Feng darted out of the morgue in a flash, his speed so fast that his legs left afterimages.

Cui Ying had already witnessed Jiang Feng's paper crane search for people, so she wasn't surprised to see him use the summoning spell.

She glanced at Jiang Feng's retreating figure, then calmly took out a talisman, affixed it to her body, and chanted an incantation:

"Thunder God, swiftly arrive! Wind God, follow! Light as a feather, treading on shooting stars, covering a thousand miles in an instant, traversing ten thousand miles without stopping! So be it!"

Cui Ying moved with the speed of the wind, leaping a hundred feet in a single bound to catch up with Jiang Feng. She asked with a puzzled expression, "Which True Lord did you invite? I've never heard of him before?"

Jiang Feng calmly replied, "Usain Bolt, the true sprinter, is extremely skilled at short-distance running."

As soon as he finished speaking, his speed immediately slowed down, and he fell far behind Cui Ying.

Cui Ying was speechless: "@#￥%￥#@……"

Even if you're going to summon mountain spirits or wild monsters, you should at least summon one that can last a while...

Speechless, Cui Ying glanced back at Jiang Feng, then affixed a talisman to his body and used her magic to carry him forward.

The two walked one after the other, and before long, they followed the paper crane to the foot of Tiger Head Mountain.

Tiger Head Mountain is famous for its abundance of wild animals. There was once a hunter who hunted a thousand catties of game on the mountain by himself in half a month.

Having tasted success, the hunter organized other people in the county to hunt in Tiger Head Mountain, aiming to build a team of a thousand people and prepare to hunt a million catties of game in two months. Later, he... was almost beaten to death.

However, although the total weight of wild animals on Tiger Head Mountain is less than one million jin, the number and variety of wild animals are indeed astonishing, and tigers are frequently seen, hence the name Tiger Head Mountain.

The paper crane flew to the foot of Tiger Head Mountain, but before it could fly up the mountain, it wobbled and fell to the ground.

Cui Ying glanced at the fallen paper crane, a hint of worry appearing between her brows: "Such strong demonic energy, it seems to be a powerful demon."

"A wise man does not stand under a crumbling wall. This journey is extremely dangerous. Jiang Feng, you should go back first. I'll go up the mountain alone."

Jiang Feng tried to sense the demonic energy on the mountain, but... he couldn't sense it at all...

Indeed, without a complete system of cultivation, there is still a certain gap between them and those cultivators with established lineages.

Jiang Feng stepped forward and stood beside her, saying, "Tiger Head Mountain is dozens of miles in circumference, and there are many places where monsters can hide. In order to save time, I think we should split up."

Before Cui Ying could even speak, his head snapped off his neck.

"??!!"

Cui Ying stared blankly at Jiang Feng, whose head and body had separated in the blink of an eye, her mouth agape, wide enough to swallow a fist.

No, does that mean splitting up?!

Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about this word?

As she watched in shock, Jiang Feng's body vanished in a glimmer of light.

At the same time, the paper cranes on the ground transformed into the likeness of Jiang Feng.

Cui Ying immediately realized: "It's an illusion. Did you cast it when you were searching for people with paper cranes?"

Jiang Feng shook his head slightly: "I cast an illusion spell the moment I walked in and saw you. After all, one can never be too careful. I'm always very cautious when dealing with cultivators."

Cui Ying's feelings were complicated: "I'm being treated like a bad person."

Jiang Feng handed over a Bodhi seed and said, "If you encounter danger, crush it; there will be an unexpected surprise."