Weird Cultivation, I have a five-organ temple

Chapter 414: Children's Strange Epidemic
Seeing Shang Lu's reaction, Du Feng and Tu Bin had already drawn their swords and raised their shields before the other thieves could react.

They called out to their companions, "Follow me!" and headed in the direction Shang Lu was looking for to conduct a forward reconnaissance.

But Shang Lu stopped him: "No need to go, the people who came are from Longyou County."

As he spoke, Shang Lu raised his hand and pointed to the sky.

People with sharp eyes immediately saw a wooden kite circling in the sky.

This wooden kite flying in the sky looks exactly like a real bird and you can't tell it's fake.

But everyone was a little surprised. They couldn't remember when Shang Lu released the wooden kite.

After a while, the thieves in the mass grave heard the hurried sound of horse hooves.

Then, dozens of fully armed county soldiers appeared.

The person leading the team was wearing a suit of armor engraved with witchcraft spells.

Although his face cannot be seen, the man who can use such equipment is most likely the county lieutenant of Longyou County.

Yue Ming and the others' gazes, which were intended to catch the thief, did not linger on the county lieutenant for long, but quickly turned to the people around him.

The man was actually wearing the thief uniform of the thief department.

Yue Ming immediately recognized the thief and shouted in surprise: "Sun Sanmazi? Is that you? You are not dead?"

The thief named Sun Sanmaizi also saw the people in the mass grave at this moment.

When he saw Shang Lu, he was overjoyed at first, but then he showed a somewhat panicked and guilty expression. He quickly jumped off the horse and saluted nervously.

Chen, the county magistrate of Longyou County, also quickly dismounted and saluted Shang Lu.

He had met Shang Lu before and knew that Shang Lu was not only a thief official, but also a witch official.

However, when he saw that there was an extra totem of Xiezhi on Shanglu's wizard robe, he was secretly shocked.

County Magistrate Chen clearly remembered that when Shang Lu was in Longyou County and helped the long-dead storyteller Liu Quan to find out the truth about his death and take revenge, there was no Xiezhi totem on his wizard robe.

How long has it been since then, and this merchant thief Cao has actually been imprisoned in the Discipline Department?
County Lieutenant Chen suddenly felt that the merchant thief Cao was so terrifying that he must not... ahem, must not offend him. Naturally, he was extremely considerate in terms of etiquette and did not dare to be negligent in the slightest.

Shang Lu bowed to County Magistrate Chen as a return gesture.

Then he looked at Sun Sanmaizi.

Yue Ming had already whispered the situation into his ear.

So he knew that this Sun Sanmaizi was the thief who patrolled the area with Chen Li.

Sun Sanmaizi is not dead. He also moved the county lieutenant and county soldiers of Longyou County here. He must know the cause of death of Chen Li and his group.

But at the same time, Shang Lu was also wondering why Chen Li died but Sun Sanmaizi was fine?
Sun Sanmaizi's strength is far inferior to Chen Li's.

Also, why did Sun Sanmazi only move people from Longyou County here three days after Chen Li and his men had been dead? Why didn't he notify the thief Cao's office?
Is there some secret hidden in this?
So Shang Lu didn't waste any time and went straight to the point, asking Sun Sanmazi: "How did Chen Zecao and the others die?"

Although Sun Sanmazi was nervous, he did not dare to neglect it and quickly answered: "They were killed by a peddler."

Hearing this answer, Shang Lu raised his eyebrows slightly. Before he could speak, several thieves around him exclaimed:
"A peddler?"

"only one person?"

"One person killed more than ten people including Chen Zecao?"

"Isn't this right? The coroner said that Chen, Cao and the others died at the same time. If it was just one peddler, how could he have sneaked up on and killed so many people at the same time?"

"Even if they used witchcraft, it's impossible for so many people to be completely defenseless, right? There's only one wound on these people."

"Quiet!"

Shang Lu snorted, and the thieves around him quickly shut their mouths and stopped shouting and talking.

Shang Lu signaled Sun Sanmazi:

"Tell me the story from the beginning, in detail. What did you come to Xiahuai Village to investigate? What clues did you find? How did you meet the peddler and get attacked by him? And you. Chen Zecao died at the hands of the peddler, so why were you okay? And why didn't you rush back to Zecao's office as soon as possible to report the death of Chen Zecao and others?!"

Shang Lu's words were eloquent, which put Sun Sanmaizi under great psychological pressure and made him dare not lie.

After swallowing his saliva, Sun Sanmazi followed Shang Lu's request and started from the beginning, telling the story in detail:

"A group of us followed Chen Zeicao to inspect the area and investigated a few cases, but Chen Zeicao was not satisfied and said that we had to solve one or two major cases like you, sir.

Three days ago, we heard someone say that several villages nearby had thrown their children into Yita. They said that the children had contracted a very serious infectious disease and could not be cured, so they had to be dealt with as soon as possible. When Chen Zecao heard about this, he felt it was very strange.

Now is not a time when epidemics are prevalent, and I have not heard of any outbreaks of pediatric epidemics in other places.

Chen Zeicao suspected that there was a beggar who used drugs to knock out the child and deceived the villagers into saying that there was an epidemic, tricking them into throwing the child into the Yi Tower. The beggar hid near the Yi Tower and waited for the villagers to throw the child away before stealing the child away.

So he brought us to this area to investigate.

Ten miles away from here, there is a Baiyu Village.

While we were there, we found out a piece of information that before the children in the village fell ill, a peddler had visited the village.

The people in Baiyu Village were cursing the peddler, saying that he brought the plague into the village. They also said that if they saw the peddler again next time, they would tie him up and drown him in the river.

After discussing with us, Chen Zecao agreed that there was something fishy about the peddler. And since he was active in this area, he certainly would not just cause trouble in one village.

So we visited other villages in the surrounding area, and sure enough, several villages said that their children had been visited by peddlers before they were infected with the disease.

We visited Xiahuai Village and found that no one in the village had gotten into trouble. After asking, we learned that a peddler had happened to come to the village a quarter of an hour before we arrived there.

The people in Xiahuai Village also said that the peddler was very good at doing business and gave candies to many children in the village.

Chen Zeicao immediately concluded that there was something strange about the peddler and the candies he distributed, so he took his men and chased after him.

I accepted the order and stayed in the village to see if I could find some candies that had not been eaten by the children so that I could take them back to the thieves' office and find professionals to analyze their ingredients.

By the time I got to the village and finally found a few pieces of uneaten candy, it was already completely dark.

I left the village in the dark and followed the signals left by Chen Zecao and the others.

As a result, when I caught up with him, I saw Chen Zeicao and his men surrounding a peddler.

No one knew what means the peddler used, but he suddenly released countless hands, which appeared behind Chen, Cao and the others.

Chen Zeicao and the others didn't even have time to react before the excavator pierced their backs and grabbed their hearts.

I originally wanted to go forward to help, but when I saw Chen Zecao and others died tragically in an instant, I was terrified and quickly rode my horse and hid in the woods.

After killing the man, the peddler left directly without searching the surroundings, and I was lucky enough to survive.

But I was so scared that I hid in the woods and didn't dare to move. I hid there until dawn. I was sure that the peddler had really gone far away, and then I left the woods...

Then... well, then I went all the way to Longyou County, found County Magistrate Chen, asked him to send someone to the government office to pass on the message, and brought him to look for the bodies of Chen, Cao and others..."

When Sun Sanmaizi finished speaking, his words were a little vague, and it was obvious that he had omitted a day.

Even if he didn't say it, Shang Lu could guess something.

This Sun Sanmaizi was indeed frightened by the peddler's strange tricks.

So he hid in the woods, and when daybreak came, his first reaction was not to rush back to the bandit Cao's office to report the death of Chen Li and others, nor to go to Longyou County to ask for reinforcements, but to escape.

Halfway through his escape, after calming down, he realized that running away was not an option.

If Chen Li and others had not returned to the thief Cao's office, the county government would definitely send people to investigate, and even send out wizards.

By then, even if we can’t find Chen Li and others, we will definitely be able to find him.

If he did nothing, he would definitely be punished.

So Sun Sanmaizi rushed to Longyou County, and the following events happened.

Now was not the time to pursue responsibility, so Shang Lu did not expose Sun Sanmazi, but only asked: "Where is the stove candy you found?"

After Sun Sanmaizi finished telling the story, he felt a little guilty.

Seeing that Shang Lu didn't seem to intend to pursue the matter, he breathed a sigh of relief.

After hearing Shang Lu's question, Sun Sanmaizi quickly took out a wooden box from his arms and handed it to Shang Lu.

"The candy is in this box," said Sun Sanmazi. "Chen Zecao told me to put it in a box because he was afraid it would melt."

Shang Lu took the box and opened it directly.

However, there was no candy, only a beam of black light flying out of the box rapidly.

Like a sharp arrow, it shot towards Shanglu's forehead with lightning speed.

(End of this chapter)