Ten Thousand Sword Masters

Three days passed, and Zhang Jianyun gained 6000 hostility points from the slaughterhouse, and also sparred with Zhu Yiwen several times.

That day, he had just finished sparring with Zhu Yiwen and was preparing to rest for a while before sparring with Zhou Wei on swordsmanship.

Just then, Du Zhong, the scribe, rushed to the training ground.

"Sir, someone from Yeli Village just reported that several strong, adult men from their village have disappeared one after another at night. The government officials have been investigating for several days but have not found any clues."

"People are going missing one after another?" Zhang Jianyun frowned, then said, "Zhou Wei, you come with me to Tangye Village."

Immediately afterwards, Zhang Jianyun and Zhou Wei rode their horses to Yeli Village.

Upon arriving at Yeli Village, Jiang Gulin and some other constables were searching for clues in the village.

"Lord Zhang, let me take you to the homes of the missing persons first," said Xing An, the village chief of Yeli Village.

Immediately afterwards, Zhang Jianyun and Zhou Wei followed Xing An to check the homes of the five missing strong men one by one, but they found nothing unusual.

"They all look ordinary, and it's hard to tell how these people disappeared," Zhou Wei said.

"My lords, all we know is that these people disappeared during the night. We saw them during the day the day before, but they were gone by the next morning."

"What's strange is that almost every household in the village keeps a dog. If there's any noise at night, the dogs should react and bark," said village chief Xing An.

Zhang Jianyun asked, "Didn't the government constables conduct a search at night?"

"Officer Jiang and his men staked out the village all night last night. I didn't ask them if they had found anything," Xing An said.

"Where are Officer Jiang and the others now?" Zhang Jianyun asked.

"They should be at the east end of the village now, let's go look for them," Xing An said as he walked forward.

Zhang Jianyun and Zhou Wei followed Xing An to the east end of the village, where they saw Jiang Gulin leading several constables to question some villagers.

"Lord Zhang, you've arrived." Jiang Gulin walked over to greet Zhang Jianyun.

"Officer Jiang, did you find anything last night after staking out the area all night?" Zhang Jianyun asked.

Jiang Gulin shook his head: "We didn't gain anything."

"Are you still keeping watch tonight?"

"We'll see. I don't have a clue at all right now," Jiang Gulin said.

"Your Excellency, Your Excellency, you must save my slave trader!"

An old woman rushed to Zhang Jianyun, knelt down in front of him, and kept kowtowing.

"Grandma Chen, get up quickly, don't delay the officials from handling the case." Xing An lifted Grandma Chen up.

"Don't worry, Grandma, we will find all the missing people as soon as possible," Zhang Jianyun said.

"Please, please, please find my son as soon as possible."

Xing An carried Granny Chen away, while Zhang Jianyun continued exchanging opinions with Jiang Gulin.

"The five strong young men disappeared without a sound in the middle of the night, without even the dogs in the village barking. It's probably not the work of humans," Jiang Gulin analyzed.

"Ordinary demons and monsters will also cause dogs to bark, but some people can use methods such as the Concealing Breath Pill to prevent dogs from barking," Zhang Jianyun said.

"We certainly won't judge whether it's the work of humans or demons and monsters based on whether or not it caused dogs to bark. But I doubt an ordinary person would come and grab five grown men, would they?" Jiang Gulin said.

"Why not? What if someone kidnapped these men to make some kind of puppet?" Zhou Wei said.

"We don't need to dwell on this issue. I think we should stake out the village together tonight and see what's lying on the ground trying to catch people," Zhang Jianyun said.

"Alright, tonight we constables will follow your arrangements, Lord Zhang," Jiang Gulin said.

As night fell, with five people missing from the village, every household closed their doors and turned off their lights early, plunging the entire village into darkness.

Zhang Jianyun, Zhou Wei, Jiang Gulin, and a group of constables were all at the village chief Xing An's house.

Xing An also turned off the oil lamp in the room, and the group stood by the window, observing the situation outside through the faint moonlight.

Time passed slowly, and the whole village fell into a deathly silence, with only the occasional barking of dogs.

Late at night, Xing An cooked a bowl of scallion noodles for everyone. After they finished eating, Zhang Jianyun took Zhou Wei and Jiang Gulin to the roof of the village chief's house and observed the village from there.

As time went by, fog began to appear in the village, gradually enveloping the entire village.

Da da da~

Just then, a faint, slow sound of horses' hooves came from afar.

Upon hearing the sound of horses' hooves, Zhang Jianyun, Zhou Weijiang, and Gu Lin exchanged glances, then held their breath and looked toward the source of the sound.

Da da da~

The sound of horses' hooves grew clearer, and the fog thickened.

Finally, as the sound of hooves drew closer, Zhang Jianyun and the other two saw a red carriage appear.

Two white lanterns hung on either side of the carriage, and a coachman dressed in white led the carriage slowly forward.

Finally, the carriage stopped in front of a house.

A short while later, a young and strong man came out of the house, and then the carriage turned around and went back, with the young and strong man following behind the carriage.

"Let's go, let's follow them."

As Zhang Jianyun spoke, he led Zhou Wei and Jiang Gulin to follow behind the carriage.

Da da da~

The carriage traveled for a while and came to a large jujube tree.

The driver got out of the carriage, circled the jujube tree six times to the left and six times to the right, and then a portal of light appeared in front of the jujube tree.

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After the light gate appeared, the coachman led the carriage and a strong young man through the gate.

As soon as the carriage and the young men entered the gate, the gate disappeared.

Zhang Jianyun, along with Zhou Wei and Jiang Gulin, hurriedly arrived in front of the jujube tree. They circled the tree six times, and a portal of light appeared.

They quickly entered the portal, and Zhang Jianyun and the others felt as if the world had turned upside down, leaving them dizzy and disoriented.

When they regained consciousness, they had arrived in a small world.

They could see a city in the distance, not very large, and the two carriages were carrying young men toward the city gate.

Zhang Jianyun and his companions hurriedly followed, entered the city, and saw the carriage heading towards a mansion.

"The Jade Palace?"

Zhang Jianyun pondered the words on the plaque for a moment.

They saw that the Gouyu Mansion was decorated with lanterns and colorful streamers, as if a happy occasion was being held.

As the carriage arrived outside Gouyu Mansion, a middle-aged woman quickly emerged from the mansion.

"Quickly, quickly, put the bride and groom on the altar. This is the last couple." The middle-aged woman said, raising her hand to beckon several guards to come out and help the bride in the carriage and the young man from Yeli Village into the mansion.

Zhang Jianyun and his two companions immediately jumped onto the wall pillars to observe the situation inside the mansion.

They saw that in the center of the courtyard of the Gouyu Mansion, there was a nine-tiered altar, and five couples of newlyweds were kneeling on the altar. Adding the couple from before, that made six couples.

"High Priest, all six newlywed couples have arrived. We may begin the ceremony," the middle-aged woman said as she approached an elderly man in white.

The man in white nodded, then raised his scepter high: "The ceremony begins!"

I like the Ten Thousand Swords Master.