’Damn it, what am I thinking?’ Hee Lingchuan rubbed his face.
Perhaps spurred on by his anxiety, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him.
Perhaps he had to return to the question that had troubled Nian Songyu and Sunx Fuping from the very beginning: Where exactly was the Zhong Residence?
Why did the Illusion Realm hiding the Grand Square Pot have to depict this particular period of history? Panlong City had countless other glorious monts.
The only lead they could follow—or rather, the only lead the Baling Expedition Team could have followed—was Zhong Shengguang.
The bones of the Baling People had been discarded in the cellar of the Chen Residence, which ant the expedition team’s original goal was the sa as theirs: to find clues in the Zhong Residence.
’But they found nothing there... or did they?’
In other words, if they could just find the Zhong Residence, they could find the rest of the Baling Expedition Team.
Hee Lingchuan wracked his brain, trying to recall every legend, story, and anecdote he had ever heard about Panlong City, the Great Wind Army, and the Zhong Family.
Almost every piece of history was related to Zhong Shengguang. ’What kind of clue could be hidden in all this?’
In this version of Panlong City, the beautiful, gray-brick mansion was still the Chen Residence; it didn’t belong to Zhong Shengguang yet. ’Assuming Zhong Shengguang only acquired the mansion from the Chen Family later, where would he have been living at this ti?’
Back then, he was still a Deputy Commander, ordered by the king to rush from the Central Region of the Xiluo Kingdom to Panlong City to assu his post.
As a newcor, he had no ho in Panlong City and would have needed to find a place to live.
’Would he have stayed at a post-house inn?’
Hee Lingchuan shook his head, dismissing the idea.
Only bachelors stayed at post-house inns. He rembered from several plays that Vice Commander Zhong was a newlywed who had taken up his post the month after his wedding.
The man nad Zhong spent the rest of his life here and later had sons and daughters—and he certainly couldn’t have produced them all on his own.
Therefore, he must have brought his family with him, which made staying at a post-house impossible.
Those places were filthy, noisy, and slly, with walls as thin as paper. If a couple wanted to "clap" a little at night, the guests next door would hear every single sound.
’So where would Zhong Shengguang have settled his family?’
Hee Lingchuan leaped down from the roof ridge. "National Preceptor, didn’t we just pass the Governnt Office?"
"We did. Why?" Sunx Fuping replied. "I already checked the Governnt Office before you all even entered the city." But there hadn’t been any useful clues there.
"The Chen Residence—which later beca the Zhong Residence—is quite a distance from the Governnt Office. But Zhong Shengguang at this ti would have needed to frequent the office daily. He might have settled nearby. He had family with him."
Sunx Fuping was a sharp man and understood at once. "You’re right! I only searched the Governnt Office itself and didn’t check the surrounding area!"
The two imdiately turned and raced back the way they ca.
A city’s Governnt Office always occupied a pri, auspicious location, and Panlong City’s was no exception.
Before long, they spotted a cluster of simple gray buildings by the river. In terms of grandeur and appearance, they couldn’t compare to the tavern thirty zhang away.
"This is it."
There’s an old saying: officials don’t repair their offices, only patching them up when sothing breaks. As a result, Governnt Offices were rarely splendid, being at best neat and somber.
But its location was truly excellent.
Hee Lingchuan quickly scrambled up the tallest nearby tavern and scanned the surroundings.
Sunx Fuping heard him shout from above, "To the north is a wetland! Uninhabitable."
"To the west is the market, full of shops." Shops typically had a storefront with a courtyard residence behind it—business in the front, living in the back. It was fine for small business owners who weren’t too particular. ’I doubt Zhong Shengguang would live there, though.’
The western market district wasn’t the best environnt. Zhong Shengguang was a newlywed, after all, and an official. He would have wanted to find a nicer place for his wife.
He then looked south and saw several rows of houses across the water from the Governnt Office. Each was of a similar size, mostly small, one- or two-section courtyards that appeared to have been built to a uniform plan. While not the residences of great families, they were situated by the water and would have been quiet and pleasant to live in.
"South!" he yelled, pointing. "Those are the Official Residences!"
Official Residences were housing for governnt officials, usually built adjacent to the Governnt Office in a large complex. Having seen them before in Black Water City, Hee Lingchuan knew exactly what they were. ’It’s basically a governnt compound, or dormitories!’
But Panlong City’s geography was unique. The Governnt Office was hemd in by water, leaving no room, so the Official Residences had been built on the opposite bank.
Officials assigned to posts in other regions naturally required housing. The regulations for this varied in strictness from one kingdom to another.
The Da Yuan Kingdom, for example, required officials on assignnt to live in the Official Residences, forbidding them from purchasing their own hos. But Qiansong County was extrely remote, and the Yuan Kingdom of that era was beset by internal and external crises. The court had no ti to enforce such regulations, so countless officials, both high and low—like Hee Chunhua—had purchased fertile lands and fine mansions for themselves.
As for Zhong Shengguang, that was another matter entirely. After the Panlong Wasteland beca an exclave, he was the supre authority. The Xiluo Capital wasn’t even aware the Panlong Wasteland was still its territory, so no one dared question anything Zhong Shengguang did there.
But back in these peaceful, early days in the Panlong Wasteland, he wasn’t yet the powerful Commander-in-Chief. He should have been living in an Official Residence!
Sunx Fuping’s eyes lit up as he reached the sa conclusion. "Let’s go!"
There were over forty residences, but since the two of them had a specific target in mind, the search wasn’t difficult.
Soon, Sunx Fuping fired a Command Arrow from a residence in the second-to-last row, summoning the others to co at once.
***
When the others arrived, they found Sunx Fuping and Hee Lingchuan standing in the small courtyard of an Official Residence.
In the middle of the courtyard stood a burial mound, marked by a wooden plank serving as a gravestone.
Even Nian Songyu couldn’t read the script on it.
Sunx Fuping read it aloud for them. "Grave of the loyal friend, Yul Qingyuan. It’s written in the Baling Language."
Fuzzy Peach was overjoyed. "We found it! We found it! Er, we found... another one of the Baling People?"
"But not the last of them to die, otherwise who would have buried him?" Hee Lingchuan said, pinching a bit of the soil. "What was so special about this person that he deserved a proper burial?"
This expedition team was ruthless enough to resort to cannibalism, and the bodies of their other consud comrades were simply tossed into a cellar. Why did this man alone rit a proper burial?
This was an Illusion Realm, after all; nothing here was real. Not the courtyard, and not the dirt.
The Baling Expedition Team had been forced to cannibalism to survive, so they must have been utterly exhausted. Why would they waste precious energy digging a grave and building a mound to perform such a aningless act?
Nian Songyu, anwhile, was inspecting the wooden grave marker. He even wiped it with his hand before bringing it to his nose for a sniff.
"The ink was mixed with blood. They must have run out of water." Without water, they couldn’t prepare the ink, so they had to use blood instead.
"Dig it up!" They had to get to the bottom of this.
Sunx Fuping had only to give the word, and Hee Lingchuan and Fuzzy Peach had to start the back-breaking work of digging up the grave. Luckily, there were so farming tools in the courtyard, though there was no telling if they were the sa ones the Baling team had once used.
While the two of them worked up a storm, Nian Songyu supervised from the side, and Sunx Fuping stared up at the sky, seemingly lost in a daze.
Soon, the grave’s occupant was once again exposed to the light of day.
Fuzzy Peach wiped a smudge of dirt from his face. "Got it! Phew. It’s just a skeleton."
"It’s been buried for decades. It’d be strange if it wasn’t a skeleton," Hee Lingchuan said, using his shovel to clear away the rest of the dirt and reveal most of the bones.
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