Critical

At first, they thought there was a problem on their end, that they had somehow offended the prefect, and he was deliberately causing trouble for them over such a matter.

Later, seeing Advisor Xue's serious and earnest demeanor during the investigation, and recalling Prefect Tong's usual character, they belatedly realized that something major might have actually happened.

Thus, guided by the local villagers, the runners finally found the mountain stronghold Han Weishu had mentioned.

Subsequently, under Xue Chengfeng's investigation, the runners successively found several other strongholds. According to the local villagers, these strongholds usually sent people down the mountain every few days, but there had been no activity from them for many days recently.

Unsurprisingly.

These strongholds were almost identical to the one Han Weishu had experienced. All the able-bodied laborers had been abducted, leaving only a bunch of the old, weak, sick, and disabled lingering on their last breath in the mountains.

One stronghold was particularly tragic; only a few elderly people paralyzed on their beds and two infants under a year old were left.

Before Xue Chengfeng and the others arrived, the elderly had already starved to death.

As for the infants, only some gnawed limbs and minced flesh remained.

Seeing such a miserable sight, Xue Chengfeng suppressed the surging emotions in his heart and ordered two runners to take the villagers to bury the bodies. After sending another person back to the government office to report the findings of the investigation, he led the remaining runners forward, following the drag marks on the ground.

Because a large number of people had been abducted from each stronghold, even though many days had passed, the traces left on the ground were still very obvious.

Obviously, those people had most likely done their research and knew the general situation of these mountain dwellers. They were very confident that they would not be discovered, which was why they acted this way, not even bothering to cover their tracks.

When the runner returned to the government office and informed Tong Shuzheng of the situation, Tong Shuzheng immediately sent an urgent dispatch to the imperial court, and at the same time, hurried to Xiushui Village.

Time waited for no one.

The slower they were, the more danger those people would be in.

Because at the hour of Chen today, Han Weishu, who was temporarily staying in the government office, suddenly told him that the abducted people might be in mortal danger.

The reason she said this was because in the latest news Qiuqiu had sent back to her, among the mountain dwellers abducted to mine, several of the older and younger ones had started getting nosebleeds that wouldn't stop.

They cried and complained to the guards, but those people completely ignored them.

Seeing that they were delaying the work, the guards just kept whipping them.

Han Weishu did not say much about how she knew this situation or the specific details, but Tong Shuzheng could feel the urgency in her words.

Therefore, after pondering for a moment, he decided to make a trip to the Lingxian Sect.

After all, if the situation was really as critical as this Immortal Han said, waiting for the imperial court's official document to arrive would be too late.

And facing these extraordinary existences, there was very little that mortals like them could do.

At times like this, they had no choice but to seek help from the sects.

One of the reasons the imperial court allied with the sects was to obtain their assistance at times like this.

Lin Xiao didn't expect to see Lord Tong again so soon and was quite surprised.

After hearing him explain the situation, Lin Xiao immediately furrowed his brows and took out the locating sound transmission talisman that stored Mo Yuanjiao's spiritual energy.

Mo Yuanjiao had long told them about his relationship with the current emperor, telling them that if they had an urgent matter to communicate with the royal family, they just needed to tell him.

Thus, Lin Xiao immediately transmitted this matter to Mo Yuanjiao.

After the transmission was complete, Lin Xiao said to Tong Shuzheng:

"I wonder where that fellow Daoist from the Qinghe Sect is? If he knows the way, can we have him lead the way? We'll go save them right now."

Seeing that he wanted to go save them right now, Tong Shuzheng thought to himself that he indeed hadn't found the wrong person, but at the same time, he sighed and said:

"Sect Master Lin, I'm afraid this matter won't be resolved so easily. For a long time, the nations have followed the creed of minding their own business, and the immortals of each nation are not allowed to casually step into the territory of other nations.

Although if others really want to sneak in privately and we don't notice, there's nothing we can do, but at least on the surface, it cannot be done.

If we step into another nation's territory with great fanfare without evidence, the consequence will very likely be triggering a war between the two nations."

Hearing this, Lin Xiao felt helpless.

He knew that if a war was launched, whether it depleted national strength was secondary; the most important thing was that it would affect the lives of the common people.

In this day and age, the lower-class commoners were already suffering enough. If they were made to bear the tragedy of war on top of that, they would truly have no way to live.

It was clearly the other party who broke the rules first, but now they were the ones hesitating for fear of collateral damage.

After thinking about it, he asked:

"Then is it fine as long as we find evidence before the other party discovers us?"

Tong Shuzheng smiled bitterly:

"Speaking of this evidence, it's really not easy to find. Because those people are mountain dwellers without household registrations. Without household registrations, they are undocumented, and there is nothing to investigate. If the neighboring country really wants to cover it up, they can just say those people are their citizens, and we would have no way to counter."

Lin Xiao frowned and said:

"Then we can only settle it privately."

Tong Shuzheng nodded helplessly:

"The best plan right now is to bring the people back privately, get them to safety first, and talk about the rest later."

"It's just unknown what the imperial court's intentions are."

Saying that, Tong Shuzheng asked:

"Sect Master Lin, does this matter require the Shangyang Sect and your noble sect to handle it jointly?"

The main reason he asked this was because both sects were currently in Hufang Province. Although the Shangyang Sect had been downgraded because they no longer had a Nascent Soul ancestor holding down the fort, he was not clear about the situation of these sects.

He didn't know if the Lingxian Sect wanted to cooperate with others to save effort or something.

Hence the question.

But he saw Lin Xiao deny it without even thinking:

"Don't, we'll do it ourselves."

He had already witnessed the Shangyang Sect's efficiency and methods of handling things twice, and he didn't want to witness them again.

After discussing, Lin Xiao decided to head to the border with the neighboring country first, which was the place where those people were initially taken onto the spirit ship. The time spent on the road would serve as the time waiting for Mo Yuanjiao's side to give a reply to the imperial court.

As such, Han Weishu's guidance was needed.

Tong Shuzheng was immediately grabbed by Lin Xiao and rushed back to Liaoju Prefecture.

Because the sect's only spirit ship had been given to Mo Yuanjiao by Lin Xiao, and time was tight now, there was no time for him to build a new one on the spot.

To save time, Lord Tong had to forgo his dignity for a while.

Along the way, Tong Shuzheng only felt that his face was numb from the wind.

Fortunately, Lin Xiao later noticed Tong Shuzheng's discomfort and thoughtfully put a protective shell of spiritual energy over him.

Only then was he spared from being air-dried on the road.

Following behind them was Liu Yunan, who had recently advanced to the Foundation Establishment stage.

Although Lin Xiao's cultivation was the highest, one always needed a helper when traveling away from home.