Taking advantage of the moment Yue Huaiyuan turned his head to look at Xie Tinglan.
Jiang Yuechu quickly lowered her head.
"So that's it!"
After hearing this, Yue Huaiyuan slapped his thigh hard.
He picked up his wine bowl and raised it in a distant salute to Lord Jiang.
"Lord Jiang, since you are here to help, Old Yue won't stand on ceremony with you."
"This bowl, I shall drink first as a sign of respect!"
Jiang Yuechu raised her head, her expression returning to its usual coldness.
"General, you are too kind."
After three rounds of wine and five courses of dishes.
Jiang Yuechu didn't want to waste time and went straight to the point.
"On the way here, I heard Lieutenant Xie mention that in the County territory, there is still a great Demon in the Perfection in the Ink-Dipping Realm entrenched?"
Hearing this, Yue Huaiyuan frowned and sighed.
"Alas..."
Jiang Yuechu slightly furrowed her brows and asked the question in her heart.
"With the General's strength, even if you can't kill it, you shouldn't let it run rampant right under your nose, should you?"
Seeing him today, Yue Huaiyuan's fierce spear strike left a very deep impression on her.
Such a fierce person likely has few rivals within the same realm.
Xie Tinglan also looked puzzled and couldn't help but interject: "That's right, General Yue. My teacher once said that even facing the great Seed Lotus Demon back then, you never frowned once. Why are you acting like this now?"
Hearing this, Yue Huaiyuan's gaze wavered: "This... well..."
"Oh, Lieutenant Xie, Lord Jiang, the complexities involved here are truly hard to explain in a few words, truly hard to explain!"
After speaking, he tilted his head back and drained the strong liquor in the bowl, seemingly trying to swallow his words back with the alcohol.
Xie Tinglan's brows were tightly furrowed.
Currently, the situation in the Region East of the River is precarious, and the County is the most critical area.
As the Great General of a commandery, what kind of conduct is this, speaking so evasively?
"General Yue, Inspector Jiang is now representing the General Bureau on a southward trip precisely to solve problems."
Xie Tinglan's voice deepened slightly, "If you conceal even the enemy's background, and if this delays important matters, can you bear the responsibility for the lives of all the people in this city?"
This was indeed the case.
The scene by the Drinking Horse River today, upon reflection, seemed strange in every detail.
Although that Demon had also entered the Ink Dot Realm, in front of a fierce person like Yue Huaiyuan, who was in Perfection in the Ink-Dipping Realm, it should be easily annihilated.
Yet, it dared to openly and brazenly come ashore and enter the city in broad daylight.
Such a phenomenon only suggests two possibilities.
Either that Demon is a brainless idiot.
That is clearly incorrect.
How could something brainless survive until today?
Or... such an event has long become the norm in the County commandery.
"Could it be..."
Jiang Yuechu leaned forward slightly, "This Demon, cannot be killed?"
Yue Huaiyuan's body stiffened, and most of the intoxication on his face instantly vanished.
If an ordinary person had asked this, he naturally wouldn't have wanted to say more.
But the person before him was different.
The Inspector Envoy monitors the Demons of the world and also investigates the crimes of dereliction of duty within the Demon Suppression Divisions across various Regions.
If he continued to conceal things and was charged with failing to report information, or even colluding with Demons... then his head, Yue Huaiyuan's head, would likely be hung at the execution ground before any Demon came for it.
"Fine!"
"Since Lord Jiang has asked, Old Yue won't hide anything anymore. Since death is inevitable, I might as well speak frankly!"
He raised his head and said bitterly: "Lord Jiang, Lieutenant Xie, to be honest... if it were an ordinary Perfection in the Ink-Dipping Realm Demon, even an unusual one possessing a Divine Ability, I would risk my life, and even if I didn't want mutual destruction, I could still skin it alive."
"Why would I leave it until now, allowing it to stir up trouble in the Qiantang River, causing panic throughout the city?"
Jiang Yuechu narrowed her eyes.
"Why is that?"
Yue Huaiyuan said: "Lord Jiang has the Wisdom Eye, shining like a torch. Just as you said, this Demon truly cannot be killed. This is not an ordinary Demon; it is a Demon with a background."
Xie Tinglan, standing nearby, frowned fiercely, "It is a Demon! You are a soldier! Slaying Demons is your sacred duty! Why can't it be killed?!"
However.
Facing this interrogation, Yue Huaiyuan merely uttered three words:
"Drinking Horse River."
As soon as the three words came out.
Jiang Yuechu sharply noticed that Xie Tinglan's body next to her suddenly stiffened.
The young Brigade Commander, who had just been full of righteous indignation, silently lowered his head, picked up his chopsticks, and frantically shoveled food into his mouth.
She looked at the demoralized Yue Huaiyuan, and then at the feigning-ignorance Xie Tinglan.
The confusion in her heart deepened.
"Drinking Horse River?"
She repeated the name, her tone carrying a hint of doubt.
"What place is this?"
"..."
Yue Huaiyuan was filled with shock and uncertainty, "Lord Jiang... you... don't know?"
As the Silver Robe Inspector of the General Bureau, how could she have never heard of such a Yao Race power?
A trace of unnaturalness inexplicably flashed across Jiang Yuechu's face.
Although her strength was formidable now, she had only been in this world for a few months at most.
She usually spent her days either slaying Demons or on the way to slay Demons, so she truly knew little about the overall structure of the world.
"Ahem."
Jiang Yuechu lightly coughed, picking up her tea cup to mask her embarrassment.
"I have long resided in the cold and desolate Region of Longyou, and my tenure is still short. Regarding these secrets, I truly... have never heard of them."
Yue Huaiyuan opened his mouth, momentarily unsure of what to say.
What kind of secret was this?
Anyone who had dealt with Demons for a few years, even those in the Seed Lotus or Mountain Gazing Realms, would fall silent upon hearing those three words.
But then he remembered that this person was a Prodigy who could reach the Ink Dot Realm at seventeen.
For a Prodigy, a lack of common knowledge seems... reasonable?
"Allow me to explain then."
Xie Tinglan, who had been burying his head in his food, finally put down his bowl and chopsticks.
He sighed, his expression complex: "The so-called Drinking Horse River is not a stream, nor is it a mountain. It is located at the Furthest Edge of the East Sea, east of Fusang.
"East of Fusang, there are ten thousand acres of waves, and the clouds and mist never disperse throughout the year. The world considers it the ends of the earth, but for the Yao Race, it is the supreme Holy Land."
"It is said that the Drinking Horse River has a total of Seventy-Two Islands, with a great Demon guarding each one. Those who govern these Seventy-Two Islands are eight Yao Sages."
Yao Sage.
Jiang Yuechu's eyelids twitched.
In the Martial Dao Realms, after Ink Dot Realm is Seed Lotus, and after Seed Lotus is Mountain Gazing.
Only by stepping past Mountain Gazing, lighting the Heart Lamp, and illuminating the path ahead, can one be called the Lamp Lighting Realm.
Which is what the people of the world call... a Sage.
The Great Tang has been established for eight hundred years, and figures of this caliber can probably be counted on one hand.
But that Drinking Horse River... actually has eight of them?
As if seeing the shock in Jiang Yuechu's eyes, Xie Tinglan gave a wry smile.
"What's more troublesome is that the Drinking Horse River is not isolated and helpless. It is rumored that those eight Yao Sages are all ancient, unusual species with deep roots. Standing behind them are the legendary ones who have long been hidden from the world..."
"Immortal Sects."
Immortal Sects?
Jiang Yuechu slightly furrowed her brow.
Are there truly Immortals in this world?