Mythology Returns! Starting with Folklore and Strange Tales

Chapter 135 Patrol, Outpost, Tortoise Shell Broken

After all, they have a permanent position and enjoy the benefits, so there's nothing wrong with following the rules when doing things.

Moreover, it's not just the patrolmen; even though the civilian wanderers aren't monitored by recording devices, their silhouettes are still noticed. If they commit evil deeds or massacres, someone will always report them to the meteorological department, which will then handle the matter.

Don't try to push things to the extreme. Even if a village in the background suddenly turns into a deserted place, it will attract meteorological investigations. Technology, magic, or some other method will surely be able to reflect the previous situation.

The figures in the silhouettes, if they truly wanted to rebel against the Jin, would surely rise up in a massive attack, just like the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the biggest upheaval during the Later Jin period, with tens of thousands of people making a great show of force. Even with official seals to suppress them, a mere prefecture city might not be able to remain unscathed.

Most amateur travelers don't have this ability, and even the few who do are closely monitored. Every time they enter a place, there is always information circulating within the local meteorological department.

And it's even less likely that the patrolmen were carrying recording devices.

Therefore, Li Shuhan was somewhat confused.

Regardless, at this moment, the prefect of Zhengding Prefecture used his official seal to mobilize the earth's energy and human resources to temporarily withstand the offensive, and they also had time to communicate with each other to understand the situation.

Thinking this, Li Shuhan went to the lobby to settle the bill, and led his two assistant patrolmen and several interns through the streets and alleys until they arrived at the gate of a small courtyard at the end of an alley. Following the signal they had agreed on, he knocked lightly on the dilapidated wooden door with one long knock followed by seven short knocks.

A moment later, the wooden door opened, and a woman peeked out, looked around, and then welcomed the group in.

Upon entering, one sees that the originally cramped courtyard, only a little over 100 square meters, is now filled with dozens of people, some sitting and some standing. When they see Li Shuhan enter, some nod familiarly and greet him, but most of them continue to communicate with others and tap on their terminals.

Seeing this, Li Shuhan was not surprised.

This small courtyard, located in the slums, was the meeting place for the inspectors of Zhengding Prefecture and several surrounding counties and towns. Information exchange and some temporary tasks were conveyed here.

He instructed the rest of his team to wait near the gate, while he himself bypassed many people and went straight into the dilapidated house that looked like it was about to collapse from the outside.

Outside the door, it felt like two different worlds.

From the outside, the house looked dilapidated, with broken bricks and tiles on the roof exposing thatch and mud, and the walls on both sides leaning violently outward, as if it could collapse at any moment.

The interior of the house was reconstructed with cement and steel bars, and a corridor leading directly underground occupied almost half of the interior space.

As you descend the steps, stepping out of the narrow passage, you are greeted by two large machines operating at high speed at opposite ends of the underground space.

Earth and gas exploration instrument, celestial phenomenon detector.

Its main function is to scan the direction and changes of all airflow within the range of the scanner. Simply talking about the direction of airflow is superficial, but people have human energy, animals have scents, eerie and sinister atmospheres permeate, demonic energy dissipates, underground disturbances cause tremors, and changes in weather cause changes in the composition of the air.

Everything in the world exists, and these two instruments are used to detect abnormal changes in these things.

Of course, the scientific names are a bit convoluted to explain, but the common folk explanations are much easier to understand: a net of heaven and earth!

The reason why meteorology was able to steadily and proactively advance through the silhouette, and ultimately sweep away the silhouette with a grand momentum, can be partly attributed to these two machines.

However, what was rare to outsiders was something a seasoned inspector had seen countless times. Li Shuhan glanced at it before shifting his gaze to the mature woman in front of him with long red hair and wearing a flowing, wide-sleeved dress from later times: "Zhang Meng, do you have any information about which side the people who sealed off Zhengding Prefecture belong to?"

"You said it was under lockdown, how am I supposed to know!" Zhang Meng rolled her eyes dramatically and said speechlessly, "A vicious person who raises evil spirits, plus this lousy prefect's shabby cover, with mixed earth and evil energy everywhere outside, how do you expect to see anything?"

"I know, but we can't just sit here and wait, can we? Even a wrecked ship has three thousand nails. If we wait for the Later Jin to react and amass a large army, won't that just make things more difficult for us?"

Seeing her anxious colleagues, Zhang Meng shook her head: "Everyone is anxious, but there's nothing we can do. Either one of them loses and the Qi mechanism resolves itself, or we have to wait another half hour for the instrument to collect and adapt to the new data before giving us the results."

"How about you keep an eye on the machine, and I'll go pick one and try my luck?"

Seeing Zhang Meng transform from an intellectual and sophisticated woman into someone eager to get started, Li Shuhan's lips twitched.

What were they thinking, sending this living devil to check the equipment? It's just letting him build up his anger!

Taking care of Zhang Meng's equipment and letting her go out and have fun wouldn't be much better than what she's doing now.

He meant that we should wait a little longer.

The official seals of the Later Jin dynasty were forged with reference to the city god and earth god system of the Ming dynasty, in order to enable the officials of the Later Jin to hold both yin and yang positions by themselves.

The idea is quite good, and the thought process is interesting.

But the Later Jin forgot that when it comes to divine positions, one must either have thriving incense offerings or be loyal to one's duties.

However, the common people feared the power and influence of the emperor and did not yearn for it. The Manchus only regarded these county magistrates and prefects as their household stewards and servants, and did not regard them as important figures.

With few worshippers, loyalty and dedication to duty were rendered meaningless due to the indulgence of those noble lords.

All that effort to pull off this whole thing, and it didn't even achieve half the expected result. It was even worse than if they hadn't collected the divine authority of the city gods in the first place... Actually, that wouldn't have worked either. While the Later Jin's massacres were subjectively due to their desire to control the land, in a world where mythology exists, a small part of the reason was to weaken the earth spirits and underworld gods who remained loyal to the Red Ming Dynasty...

Just as the atmosphere between the two reached a stalemate, the unusual sound from the nearby instruments suddenly caught their attention.

The colors that had been obscuring the two large screens were now in a state of violent flux, and the earthy yellow hue seemed to be on the verge of collapse.

Meanwhile, outside...

The thin, yellowish-brown hue that had been erected only lasted for a little over ten minutes above Zhengding Prefecture before it began to flicker intermittently. This immediately made the local natives and the villains of various trades in the city, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, anxious and fearful again.

This also made Zhang Wei, who was standing on the city gate tower overlooking Zhengding Prefecture, pause in his act of scratching Afu's itch: "What a hard tortoise shell, what many filial sons and grandsons!"

Although Zhang Wei was not familiar with the Later Jin, especially the silhouettes of Later Jin forces.

But unfortunately, he had a helpful friend behind him who could ask anyone for help wherever he was stuck.

He understood the intricacies of the prefect concurrently serving as the city god, but he never expected that after he had launched a surprise attack and slaughtered so many pig-men, the prefect would still be able to find so many filial sons and grandsons to provide him with manpower support for such a long time.

This was somewhat beyond Zhang Wei's expectations.

But it's nothing serious.

Seeing the barrier pierced by the rain of arrows and hissing like a deflated tire, Zhang Wei raised his hand and swung it down.

The next instant, the crimson sky naturally crumbled, and countless streams of blood mist rushed in through the hole, then transformed into a surging torrent that crashed down upon a section of the city, adorning a luxurious mansion courtyard...

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