My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Feedback indicated that the feed was only 61% complete, just barely passing.

Therefore, these feeds look no different from standard venomous snake feed.

However, the composition of the product is certainly not up to standard.

If you're not an alchemist, it's hard to tell the quality of the feed in front of you. Not to mention the warrior guild members who are running errands for you.

In conclusion, the anomalies in the snake pit were likely caused by the feed.

Xia Zuo floated outside the cage, quietly transformed into human form, took some feed samples, and then turned into a cloud of gas and left.

Outside the cave.

Xia Zuo found a shady spot to sit down.

He waited until the night vision potion wore off before setting off towards the town. Otherwise, the night vision would be far too bright in the sunlight.

The feed in the snake pit was obtained by the mercenaries from the feed store designated by the academy.

The entire feed supply chain can be traced back to the origin of the meat products.

Following this line of thought, Xia Zuo spent an afternoon visiting all the farms that supplied meat raw materials to feed stores.

It was nearing dusk.

He drifted out from the third farm.

If he could have expressions in his cloud form, he felt his brows would look very furrowed.

The meat raw materials are fine.

In order to ensure a stable supply of high-quality feed to the snake den, the feed store specifically requested that the farm supplying meat set aside a separate area to raise roosters and ducks.

Before slaughtering chickens and ducks, a specialist will come to sort them.

During the slaughtering process, separate personnel are assigned to handle only roosters and male ducks.

Every step in the entire process of raising, slaughtering, and transporting raw meat is verified twice.

The probability of an error is 0.

Therefore, the root of the problem is quite obvious.

The mercenaries sent by the Warriors' Guild to take care of the snake pit tampered with the feed.

The Warriors' Guild and Starry Night Academy have collaborated for many years. When Xia Zuo suddenly found himself suspecting the Warriors' Guild, he found it truly hard to accept…

He eventually found his way around the bend.

The problem isn't with the Warriors' Guild, it's just with the mercenaries.

In any case, we must investigate further. We should harbor reasonable doubts, carefully verify the facts, and avoid giving ourselves away.

Xia Zuo found an empty alley, bent down and activated the mechanism on the secret message ring. After receiving the secret message that permitted the search, he transformed back into his cloud form.

The personnel responsible for feeding and collecting the venom glands are fixed and are all locals.

Before nightfall that day, Xia Zuo checked the information in the file folder and visited all the residences of the relevant personnel.

It has to be said that Tivanas's Wind Walk is incredibly powerful in terms of reconnaissance.

After confirming that no one was inside the house, Xia Zuo floated in and searched the place. He didn't even need to meet the people in question to get a complete picture of their situation.

The results of tonight's survey show...

These four mercenaries, responsible for looking after the snake pit, secretly kept venomous snakes.

This clearly violates the kingdom's laws—commoners are allowed to keep venomous snakes, but they must first obtain a license.

The four mercenaries stole baby snakes from the snake den in batches, made their own feed, and kept them in a separate cave outside the city.

The abnormality at the adenine collection site was caused by an accident.

When they buy meat for feed, they often get the type of meat wrong, resulting in a lot of rooster and duck meat being mixed into their homemade feed.

The person in charge of making the feed accidentally knocked over the waterproof bag of snake food, mixing two different qualities of feed together.

Since it was difficult to distinguish the difference in feed by appearance alone, the four of them, after arguing fiercely, simply went with the flow and put enough feed into the snake pit, praying that they would not be discovered by the academy's mage apprentices.

Before this accident, the number of venomous snakes in the snake pit had been slowly decreasing, but had always remained above the warning line set by the university.

After the unexpected outbreak, the reproduction rate of the snakes in the snake pit plummeted, their numbers quickly fell below the warning line, and the amount of venom produced decreased sharply, which finally attracted the attention of the resident mages.

Tonight, all four mercenaries are not home.

They either fled.

Or perhaps, he was tending to the snakes in that burrow where he kept them in private.

Xia Zuo was able to fully understand the events thanks to the person in charge of making feed, who also managed the mercenary squad's ledgers.

Bookkeepers have a habit of treating their ledgers like diaries.

The ledger contained not only expense data, but also many complaints and grievances.

Shazo returned to the castle and reported the day's search findings to Mars.

Mars put down the watering can and scissors, stared at the herbs in dire need of pruning, frowned slightly, and after a moment of thought, said:

"Go and investigate the cave where those four mercenaries are raising venomous snakes. Try not to do anything yourself. I will gather soldiers to meet you."

"Alright, wait for my news." Xia Zuo transformed into a cloud of mist and drifted towards the outskirts of the city.

...

Starting from the southwest gate of West City, travel 5 kilometers along the main road, and behind the first hill you encounter lies the burrow where the venomous snakes are kept. For this reason, the four mercenaries have been renting a carriage for an extended period.

The description recorded in the mercenary ledger is vague.

But Xia Zuo found the exact location in no time.

The two old carriages were parked deep in a dense forest. The packhorses were resting quietly against a tree.

It seems that the mercenaries did not flee.

Xia Zuo drifted into the carriage.

There were odds and ends piled up here: coarse cloth bags for wrapping feed, two shovels for digging holes, two logging axes, odds and ends of clothing and rations, and a bucket of water.

The burlap sack was full of feed, and it didn't look fresh.

These mercenaries didn't come tonight to feed us.

Xia Zuo floated into the ceiling and floor of the carriage and took a look.

This carriage has no hidden compartments, so there are no weapons hidden there.

He transformed into human form, drank a night vision potion, and then cast the Windwalk spell again.

The entrance to the burrow where the venomous snakes were kept was in the bushes directly in front of the carriage.

The entrance to the cave was also camouflaged with leaves and turf.

Xia Zuo slipped through the camouflage of grass and drifted through the narrow tunnel.

The air inside the cave was even worse than in the snake pit at the academy. I really don't know how those four mercenaries could stay underground for so long.

A faint light emanated from the corner at the end of the tunnel.

Xia Zuo floated closer and carefully peered inside.

This is a simple, man-made basement, with wood shaped into stakes supporting the soil, and a wooden floor covered with moss.

The light in the basement came from the alchemical lantern hanging at the far end of the basement.

Four mercenaries were crouching by the pool, whispering in hushed tones as they handled venomous snakes with their gloved hands.

A longsword, a short axe, a short bow, and a long knife—these weapons were a hindrance in the cramped basement, leaning quietly against the wall to the right of the entrance. The mercenary only had a short dagger with him.

Xia Zuo cast a detection spell on the mercenaries' figures, confirming that none of the four had reached 9 points in spirit attribute value, and then confidently floated towards the mercenaries.

A balding mercenary shrank back. "Hiss, guys, don't you feel a bit cold? Why is there a gust of wind blowing from behind..."

The mercenary looked at the dark doorway, put down his work, walked to the door, and peered into the hole diagonally above, where it was also completely dark.

He touched his thinning hair in confusion, then realized that his leather gloves were covered in snake venom, and a sour, foul smell was emanating from the top of his head.

"Damn it!"

"Shh, keep your voice down." A short, thin mercenary turned around and gestured for silence.

He stood up and looked at the size of the fluorite in the alchemy lantern. "Hurry up. It's already night. We need to set off before dawn, or we won't make it to the village in the west."

"Jia Shi, is that buyer you contacted reliable?"

The mercenary who was speaking had a neat head of short hair.

He put the venom gland in his hand into the barrel next to him. "I mean, if that guy finds out about us keeping venomous snakes, all four of us will be in trouble."

The three mercenaries looked at the short, thin mercenary, and all four of them stopped what they were doing.

The short, thin mercenary known as Jia Shi paused for a moment before speaking:

"Guys, do you want to waste these snakes?"

"Alright. I admit, I can't be sure about the buyer's background, nor do I know why he wanted to buy venom glands; he came to us himself. If you're not comfortable with that, we'll destroy this cave and bury these venomous snakes underground."

"Let those copper coins we wasted... go with them! As long as we can find other jobs, we can always earn them back."

The short-haired mercenary waved his hands repeatedly, "We shouldn't abandon these venomous snakes that we've raised with such difficulty. Selling their venom glands will make us feel better."

He paused, his tone low, "What I'm really worried about isn't the buyer, Jia Shi. You should know that there's been a problem with the snake pit we've been taking care of, but no one from the academy has come to question us yet. Don't you find that strange?"

"According to the mercenaries, the four of us should have been taken to the dungeon by the guards to await interrogation long ago."

The short-haired mercenary's words made the other three's eyebrows twitch.

Jia Shi glanced at the poison glands in the barrel. "You mean... the people from the academy have actually been watching us for a while. The reason they haven't made a move is... to catch that buyer?"

Ah this...

Xia Zuo was taken aback when he heard this.

Mars was clearly delayed by more than a day because he went north to pick up his junior, so how did it become the resident mage's assistant trying to play the long game...?

That being said, Xia Zuo does indeed have this idea now.

Within the kingdom, the buying and selling of poison glands requires a license.