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Chapter 402: The Man in the White Paper Hat

“What do you mean?” the two asked, puzzled.

The bearded constable angrily replied, “We’ve been hunting down this guy with the white paper hat for a long time, but we’ve never managed to catch him. He seems to have come out of nowhere and has been active in the Desolate Lands for several years now.”

“He can pick any random spot in the Desolate Lands, and that’s where he commits his crimes. This time, he pretended to run the Qingming Inn as a black market shop. Last time, he manipulated his accomplices into stealing, got them wanted, and then turned them in for a reward. What’s worse is that none of us realized it was him who collected the bounty!”

“Another time, he disguised himself as a corpse and sold himself to a corpse driver. When the corpse driver was about to refine him, the ‘corpse’ moved on its own and almost scared the poor guy to death.”

“When the man with the white paper hat finally left, the corpse driver was still shaken, thinking it was a case of a Jiangshi. He chanted mantras for days before realizing he had been tricked!”

“And then there was another incident where the Barbarian Tribe reported a case of human trafficking at the edge of the Desolate Lands—turns out it was him too!”

“This bastard will do anything for money! If we could catch him, we’d all have five fewer workdays each year!”

Just thinking about the man with the white paper hat made the bearded constable furious. The more he talked, the angrier he became. If the man in the white paper hat were to appear now, he might just swallow him whole.

Catching the man in the white paper hat wasn’t just his wish, it was the wish of the entire Desolate Lands.

“There’s something else strange about this bastard—there’ve been several occasions where he appeared in two places at the same time, almost like there are two of him. We’re not sure if he’s got a twin or something.”

“And just now, we had the inn surrounded, and you two were at the entrance. Did anyone notice him leaving?”

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou nodded. With their levels of Cultivation, no ordinary cultivator’s actions would escape their detection range—not even a master thief.

For him to escape in such a situation meant that the man in the white paper hat either had some extraordinary technique or a level of Cultivation beyond everyone’s expectations.

“Fairy, did you notice when the man in the white paper hat escaped?” Lu Yang asked.

Everlasting Fairy rolled her eyes, feeling that Lu Yang was underestimating her.

“He ran west, but don’t expect the constables to catch him. Even with the two of you helping, it’s useless—it’d just be a waste of effort. His escape technique is nothing ordinary.”

“And even if you do catch him, it’ll just be a clone. It doesn’t really matter.”

Lu Yang was shocked. For Everlasting Fairy to make such an assessment, the man in the white paper hat was even more formidable than he had imagined.

The bearded constable commanded his subordinates to secure the area and see if they could find any clues.

“Don’t forget to put up the seals!” he shouted.

“Boss, do the seals really help? He tears them down every time,” one of the constables nervously asked.

Given the man in the white paper hat’s blatant disregard for the law, even if they put up seals, he’d just tear them down and reopen the inn.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The bearded constable glared at him. “Just put them up! If he tears them down, we’ll add another charge!”

“We’ll be taking our leave now,” Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou said as they bid farewell to the bearded constable.

Before leaving, Lu Yang kindly suggested, “I had a feeling when the man in the white paper hat escaped—he fled westward.”

The bearded constable looked at Lu Yang in surprise but said nothing further.

“The Desolate Lands is indeed a land full of extraordinary people. Perhaps we can really find a way to break my curse here.”

Meng Jingzhou sighed, feeling that they really should travel more often. They had only just entered the Desolate Lands and had already encountered such strange events and people.

“We’ve been wandering around all day and still haven’t found a place to rest,” Lu Yang reminded Meng Jingzhou, urging him to focus on the current problem.

Meng Jingzhou patted the horse’s back and said, “Old horse, can you find us a village to rest in?”

The old horse flicked its tail, took a bite of the fresh grass by the roadside, and then began pulling the cart towards the nearest village.

Before long, the old horse brought them to the closest village. At the village entrance stood a large stone with the words “Jianshi Village” engraved on it.

“Why is it so quiet?”

The two dismounted, intending to find a place to stay for the night. They soon noticed that every household had its doors shut, oil lamps lit, but not a single sound could be heard. Naturally, the village streets were completely empty.

In Lu Yang’s mind, in a place with no entertainment, this time of night should have been when villagers left their doors open and visited one another to chat.

“It feels like they’re afraid of something. Strange,” Lu Yang muttered with a frown.

Meng Jingzhou chose the largest house in the village and knocked on the door. “Excuse me, we are looking for a place to stay for the night.”

Bang—Creak—

The door opened slightly, and an old man peeked out, eyeing Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou warily.

“Who are you?”

Meng Jingzhou gave a friendly smile, one perfected after many nights at barbecue joints. “We’re just travelers passing through. It’s getting late, and we were hoping to stay for the night. We’re happy to pay, of course.”

The old man, clearly annoyed, tried to shoo them away. “Go, go! Jianshi Village doesn’t welcome outsiders. You’d better leave quickly, or the dead will eat you!”

“Eaten by the dead? You have corpses here? We’re cultivators. We can help you deal with them,” Meng Jingzhou offered.

Upon hearing this, the old man became even more agitated. “We don’t need your help. Now get out of here!” he said before slamming the door shut.

“Well, that was rude!” Meng Jingzhou grumbled, frustrated. He had only offered to help, and instead, they were chased away.

“Maybe the old man has womenfolk inside and doesn’t want to let you in?” Lu Yang teased with a mischievous grin.

“Get lost,” Meng Jingzhou waved Lu Yang away as if swatting a fly.

Unwilling to give up, Meng Jingzhou tried knocking on other doors, but each time the response was the same—either they were chased off, or the doors remained firmly shut.

“These people aren’t exactly hospitable,” Meng Jingzhou muttered.

“So, should we try another village?” Lu Yang asked.

Meng Jingzhou sighed. “Too much trouble. I saw a place by the village entrance earlier—a shrine or maybe an ancestral hall. It looked clean and still in use. We can make do there for the night.”

“That works,” Lu Yang agreed. After being turned away from the Qingming Inn and now Jianshi Village, who knew if the next village would be any different? Instead of going back and forth, it made more sense to settle in for the night and investigate in the daylight.

The two made their way to the ancestral hall and used Three Flavours True Fire to light the oil lamps, brightening the place instantly.

“It’s quite clean.”

The two paid their respects to the ancestral tablets. “Apologies to the ancestors; we’ll only be staying for one night.”

At the edge of the village, in the cemetery…

The stones trembled, and the graves shifted, as if something underneath was moving.

A withered claw broke through the soil.

Soon, more claws followed, bursting out of the ground one after another, too many to count…