"Silver crossbow bolts? You're such a spendthrift," A Ming remarked.

Silver was too soft to be used for arrowheads.

"Only truly useless things can be called art."

Xue San's fingers caressed the silver arrowhead as he continued:

"Besides, who knows if there might be some native vampires in this world? I call this being prepared for anything.

If I hadn't seen you add garlic to your mao xue wang (a spicy and flavorful dish with duck blood and various ingredients), and learned that garlic doesn't work on vampires, I really would have liked to smear some garlic juice on them."

"What are you doing?" Si Niang's voice came from outside the room.

"Hmm?" A Ming looked at Si Niang in confusion, because he had just watched Si Niang accompany the master back to his room.

So fast?

"Something's happened. Come and take a look," Si Niang said.

Something had indeed happened.

The corpse of a barbarian soldier had been discovered and brought back.

When A Ming and Xue San arrived, Zheng Fan and the Blind Man, among others, were gathered in the courtyard.

Zheng Fan, draped in a fox fur cloak, was frowning as he looked at the corpse before him.

The barbarian soldier was a scout for Cuiliu Fortress. Until the imperial decree was issued, Zheng Fan was still the garrison commander of Cuiliu Fortress. Moreover, although the great battle was over, there had been no peace treaty with Qian, so the necessary precautions had to be taken. In case Qian went crazy again, like that Zhong Tianlang last time, and charged north only to have his home raided, there would be no place to cry.

The barbarian soldier had died a miserable death, his face filled with terror. Most importantly, his body was in a state of shriveled dehydration.

A Ming's eyes narrowed slightly.

He had been drained of his blood!

Liang Cheng was also standing nearby, seemingly lost in thought.

A Ming walked up to Zheng Fan and said:

"Master, I didn't do it."

He was one of those in Cuiliu Fortress who liked to suck human blood. As for Liang Cheng, he was different.

A Ming treated blood as food, while Liang Cheng just liked a cigarette now and then.

The Blind Man said, "Don't worry, we know you didn't do it."

Zheng Fan also nodded, saying:

"If you had, you would have cleaned up the mess."

"........" A Ming.

Xue San was a little surprised and said, "So, there's a vampire near us again?"

Was the joke he had just made to A Ming, and that silver arrowhead, actually going to come in handy?

Xue San suddenly felt like his mouth was blessed, like he was a little princess on the stage, bathed in the spotlight.

A Ming then said, "It might not be a vampire. In this world, some people can replenish themselves by sucking people's qi and blood because of the cultivation methods they practice.

Moreover, according to my experience, in this world, the better and stronger one's kung fu is, the sweeter their blood will be."

This might be why the other party chose to attack the barbarian soldier.

"No matter what the reason, we can't let anyone who dares to touch our people go." Zheng Fan set the tone, and at the same time said to the Blind Man, "Send someone to report this to Xu Wenzu in Nanwang City, and have him investigate whether any other soldiers or civilians have gone missing recently. Also, send out most of the cavalry in the fortress to search. The other party must be not far from us!"

It was one thing to lose soldiers and generals during a war. Although Zheng Fan felt heartache, he could comfort himself. But now that the war was over, he was starting to lose soldiers again. Garrison Commander Zheng really couldn't stand it.

He was going to take these assets to Jin to take up his post. Unless Fatty Xu agreed to replenish his troops, he could only rely on the soldiers under his command to rebuild his base in Jin.

"Subordinate obeys!"

"Subordinate obeys!"

The cavalry of Cuiliu Fortress were sent out to search. When some other nearby military outposts sensed the movements of their friendly forces and sent people to inquire about the reason, they also sent out their own troops to help with the search.

These movements were passed back by the remaining Silver Armor Guards of Yinlang County, causing the Qian border to become tense, thinking that the Yan were about to make another big move.

Of course, that was another story.

The search soon yielded results. At nightfall, a team of Cuiliu Fortress cavalry discovered that something was wrong with a village.

Zheng Fan immediately led the Blind Man, A Ming, and Si Niang to rush over. As for the other Demon Kings, they were leading teams to search in other directions and could not get here in time.

The village had no name, because it was a place where people who had migrated from Qian in the autumn lived. Yan had always adopted an accepting attitude towards Qian immigrants.

After all, at any time, population was an extremely valuable resource.

However, later, because the Yan Emperor trampled the aristocratic families and then the great war began, the matter of registering and enrolling them had been delayed and had not yet been implemented.

Therefore, on the Qian side of Yinlang County, there were indeed many small villages of Qian immigrants like this one.

According to common sense, this village should have had dozens of people. They were a Qian clan that had migrated collectively, but at this time, the village was extremely quiet.

Rows of corpses had already been collected by the Cuiliu Fortress knights who had arrived earlier and arranged in the open space.

There were men, women, old people, and children. A Ming went to check their bodies, then flipped over one of the male corpses and pointed to a hole behind the man's neck, saying:

"Master, that thing might not be human."

The Blind Man walked over, closed his eyes, and began to use his mental power to probe the wound. Then he squatted down and drew a long tentacle on the ground with a tree branch, saying:

"Based on the wound and the damage it caused inside the body, what pierced the body should be a long, tentacle-like object, similar to an octopus leg."

As he spoke, the Blind Man also said to A Ming:

"Cut open the wound."

A Ming took a knife from a soldier next to him and cut along the wound on the back of the male corpse's neck.

Everything was very skilled, like an old butcher.

After the skin was cut open, there was a clear circle of flocculent material near the wound.

"Master, this should be the secretion from the tentacle of the thing that sucked the blood."

Zheng Fan didn't care about the disgusting feeling, squatted down next to him and observed it. After a while, he slowly said:

"But the barbarian soldier in our fortress didn't have any obvious wounds on his body."

As he spoke, Zheng Fan gestured to his subordinates to flip over some other corpses as well, and found that the backs of their necks all had that kind of hole.

"No, the sizes of the holes are different," Zheng Fan said.

"Yes, Master, the wounds used to break open the body and suck blood are different in size, but if we arrange them according to size..."

The Blind Man ordered the soldiers beside him:

"Arrange them according to the size of the wounds, from largest to smallest."

The soldiers immediately obeyed and started working. They were all soldiers who had been on the battlefield and killed people, so they were not afraid of corpses, even if these corpses looked like mummies and were quite terrifying.

After the corpses were arranged according to the pattern, the Blind Man said to A Ming, "A Ming, you judge their date of death."

"This job should be done by Liang Cheng."

A Ming began to examine them while complaining. Even though the blood of these corpses had been sucked out, it was impossible for there to be no residue at all. A Ming had a very high level of appreciation and tasting of blood.

Like a real wine taster, he could tell how old the wine was and how it was preserved just by taking a sip.

After a while, A Ming clapped his hands and said:

"The most recent death was this woman, who died about two days ago. The earliest death was that man, who died about eight days ago.

Moreover, the closer the number of days since death, the smaller the wound on the back of the neck becomes."

Zheng Fan pondered for a moment, then said:

"In other words, that thing is evolving?"

"Master is wise."

"Master is wise."

"Take care of business first, save the flattery for when we get home," Zheng Fan reminded.

"Then it might be a demon beast," A Ming guessed. "I heard that demon beasts have always been active in the Tianduan Mountains of Jin."

"A demon beast with such strong aggressiveness and the ability to evolve?" Zheng Fan was a little puzzled. "This is really interesting."

The Blind Man reminded him: "Master, strictly speaking, if the Pixiu (mythical hybrid creature) under the command of the Marquis of Zhenbei and the Marquis of Jingnan went crazy and were released, the damage and killing they would cause would only be greater than this."

"That thing has been in this village for several days?" Zheng Fan wondered. "But there are no traces of them being tied up. Right, before you came, were they dying in their own homes one by one?"

"Reporting to the military lord, yes," Zuo Jiqian on the side responded.

These people were being "eaten" in batches.

"Yes, normally speaking, even if ordinary people are not a demon beast's match, it's impossible for them to stay here and not run away. Moreover, there are no traces of a group of demon beasts in the vicinity."

There was most likely only one demon beast, but this demon beast had the ability to make the people of this village wait here to be eaten by it.

A Ming suddenly smiled and looked at the Blind Man, saying:

"Well, at first I thought it was my relative, but it turns out it might be your relative."

The next sentence was said by the Blind Man in the "black channel," because there were other soldiers present, and also because the subordinate who had been found dead during the day was also their comrade. It would be inappropriate to say it to their faces:

"Master, if it's a demon beast with skills like bewitching and charming, it's often very valuable."

A demon beast that can breathe fire or water is just so-so, but if it's a demon beast that can carry out "mental" manipulation, then it's really unusual.

Back in Tuman City, the Blind Man had encountered that husky by the side of that Western merchant named Winter. That husky also had a talent for mental powers, but its talent wasn't actually very high.

But even so, that kind of demon beast could really play a big role at critical moments. Just like Western mages, mental and space mages are the most precious beings.

Zheng Fan knew what the Blind Man meant. If he could capture it alive and take it for his own use, that would naturally be the best.

But Zheng Fan still shook his head and said:

"Don't think so much for now. Let's find that thing first. Don't let it continue to kill people under your nose tomorrow."

He had just finished fighting and wanted to give himself a vacation, resting while waiting for new orders. Zheng Fan really didn't want any trouble to happen at this time.

Just then,

Zheng Fan suddenly felt the demon seed in his chest start to tremble.

"What's wrong, son?"

Zheng Fan asked, covering his chest with one hand.

A Ming asked curiously, "Could it be that the demon seed can sense the existence of that thing? Master, did you add a police dog function when you drew the demon seed?"

The Blind Man suddenly spoke up:

"No, the demon seed is a soul body. If the demon seed can sense the existence of that thing, does that mean that that thing also has no physical body?"

"If it has no physical body, then what about the tentacles?" A Ming retorted.

Zheng Fan then said thoughtfully:

"Parasitism?"