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Chapter 229 Immortality

"Your nephew can't even read a single character... and he still sends letters back home..." someone muttered sarcastically.

Aunt Li got a little annoyed by the teasing, and swung the basket in her hand at the man's head. The man covered his head and hurriedly dodged. Aunt Li chased after him relentlessly, and the two of them, one running and one chasing, squeezed out of the crowd.

The two of them made such a fuss that some people around them whispered among themselves, while others were amused but felt it was inappropriate to laugh out loud at this time, so they could only hide in the crowd and chuckle quietly.

Zhu Yu had been squatting to the side examining the newly unearthed remains, comparing them while listening to their chatter. After a while, he stood up and asked the people around him, "I wonder if any of you who lived in this area before heard any ghost stories or strange tales, anything scary?"

The people around her, who had been watching her handle the human bones with a mixture of curiosity and fear, quickly looked at each other and frantically tried to recall if they had heard any similar rumors before when she suddenly asked them this question.

They hadn't paid much attention to this slightly thin, scholarly-looking young man, thinking he looked like he couldn't lift a finger. But to their surprise, he could handle human bones without batting an eye.

So, inexplicably, after that initial disdain faded, a sense of awe arose instead.

However, after thinking about it, it seemed that no one could recall ever hearing any rumors about gods and ghosts.

Just then, a boy tugged at the old man beside him: "Grandpa, Grandpa, have you forgotten? There were a few wandering sorcerers before, and they said some strange things!"

The old man's eyes were already somewhat cloudy, but after being reminded by his grandson, he remembered: "Oh! That's right! There really is such a thing!"
If my little grandson hadn't mentioned it, I would have completely forgotten about it!
A few wandering sorcerers came to our village a while ago. They were dressed in strange ways and spoke with all sorts of accents, so it was impossible to tell where they came from.

When they arrived at our village, they went from house to house begging for alms. After we gave them food and drink, they started talking about heavenly calamities and man-made disasters, and even said that if they practiced martial arts with them, they could achieve immortality.

"Oh? Did anyone from your estate go with them?" Zhu Yu asked hurriedly.

The old man waved his hand, grinned with his few remaining teeth, and said, "No, if they said something could grow money from the ground, some people might actually follow suit."

The result was something about achieving immortality...

The people in our village say that they work from dawn till dusk, but in the end, they don't even have enough to eat, let alone surplus grain.

"Living like this, I'll just take it one day at a time. Who wants to live forever in a state of semi-starvation? That's torture!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the expressions of the people around him became somewhat subtle. They secretly glanced at Zhu Feng and the guards from the Shuo Prince's Mansion, and couldn't help but wonder.

This grandfather and grandson are truly a pair of such misfits: one is too young to understand things, and the other is senile!

Although they didn't know who the young master who was asking the question was, the men next to him were the real guards of the Prince of Shuo!

This old man is something else. He keeps saying that people in the Sunrise Ridge area are neither full nor starving, making them not even want the "immortality" that's offered to them. Isn't that tantamount to saying that the King of Shuo is a bad ruler who's leaving the people without food? Although the water shortage in Shuo is a natural disaster that can't be easily reversed by human effort, these people don't intend to blame the King of Shuo for it. Besides, hasn't the King of Shuo already sent people to repair the irrigation canals?
But some things are easier said than said. If the old man just said something casually and it gets back to the ears of the Prince of Shuo, it will become a complaint from these people about the vassal king's poor governance...

That's a huge burden! They simply can't carry it!
Fortunately, none of the guards showed any particular reaction, and even the handsome young man of unknown rank remained silent.

Those around them breathed a sigh of relief.

"Old man, when did these sorcerers come to your village and tell you to practice some kind of immortality magic with them?" Zhu Yu asked again.

"When..." The old man blinked his dry, cloudy eyes and looked at his grandson. He clearly couldn't remember and was counting on his grandson's clever little brain.

Fortunately, his grandson wasn't a child who couldn't remember things. After thinking for a moment, he said to Zhu Yu, "It was probably a year or so, at most two years ago!"

Zhu Yu nodded to the child, thanked him with a smile, and did not inquire further. However, from her eyes, it seemed that she had already made some inferences from the child's answer.

After a while, all the bones were finally dug out. At least in the area where they were digging the ditch, no one found any new piles of bones, which relieved everyone present.

Zhu Yu called Zhu Feng aside and whispered to him, "I'd like to trouble you, Second Brother, to send a few reliable people to inquire around the area and see if there are any similar claims to that old man from earlier, or if anyone is trying to lure others into practicing some kind of immortality technique with them."

Or it might not be immortality, but rather some kind of alchemical secret.

Remember to give the order: inquire as you please, but do not alert anyone else.

Although Zhu Feng was still somewhat confused about her intentions, he subconsciously agreed and turned to instruct his trusted confidant.

Zhu Yu pondered in his heart that the wandering sorcerer the old man mentioned was very likely the root cause of the many young people who later became obsessed and left home in the middle of the night.

Judging from the timing, that group of people clearly arrived at Sunrise Ridge first. They probably had their own considerations. Although Sunrise Ridge is not close to the iron mines of Shuo Kingdom and the area is known for its poor resources, it is located in a remote area. If they were to abduct some people, it would probably not attract much attention from the outside world.

However, despite all the careful planning, one thing was overlooked: while Sunrise Ridge was indeed barren and remote, the people there were not wealthy and their lives were far from comfortable.

Therefore, they had absolutely no interest in things like heavenly tribulations or immortality.

This tactic backfired, resulting in a failed attempt. Aside from managing to lure away a few blacksmiths under some unknown pretext, they failed to convince anyone else.

If these people later went elsewhere and succeeded in deceiving young adults again, their excuse would certainly not be immortality anymore.

Thank you Xiwuyuting for the monthly pass!