Chapter 1 Several Impacts

The ship suffered several impacts, and a large number of corpses jumped onto the ship to wreak havoc. Quite a few pieces of flesh were lost in the chaos. Ye Chuxiao secretly hid a piece, which wouldn't arouse suspicion from Corpse Shriveling Old Man.

Corpse Shriveling Old Man collected all the flesh and blood fragments on the entire ship into a pocket.

"Quickly give me the other half of what you owe, or else...even if you hide back in the Divine Capital, I can still take your lives at any time." Corpse Shriveling Old Man patted the pocket, his opening words a chilling threat.

Even Zhao Sibai, who seemed to have the worst temper, didn't dare indulge in glib talk at this time, forcing himself to say a few polite words.

Sometimes, ill-timed smart-aleck remarks can cost you your life.

Corpse Shriveling Old Man looked at the solemn and nervous expressions of the five, seemingly satisfied as he tugged at the corner of his mouth, then disappeared into the darkness, merging into the shadows.

Even though they couldn't see him, Jin Sanniang and the others didn't dare relax.

No one could be sure if Corpse Shriveling Old Man was hiding in some unseen place, secretly watching.

"Don't worry! I've already transmitted what happened earlier back to the Divine Capital through the golden badge. All expenses will be covered by the Six Doors," Jin Sanniang said.

These words were both comforting to her subordinates and a warning to Corpse Shriveling Old Man.

The golden, silver, and bronze badges of the Six Doors were not just simple symbols.

The bronze badge had a certain protective and mind-stabilizing effect. At the same time, the Six Doors had a unique method to recall all lost badges.

The silver badge, while enhancing these effects, also had the added ability to retain important information. This way, even if a person died, the information that needed to be transmitted could be recalled through the silver badge and released, ensuring the success rate of certain missions.

As for the golden badge, it was the most magical. Not only did it have powerful protective, mind-stabilizing, energy-storing, life-extending, and energy-replenishing effects, it was also an extremely effective long-range information transmission tool.

Most sealing formations couldn't block the transmission of information from the golden badge, but this kind of information transmission could only be sent back to the Six Doors in the Divine Capital, and couldn't summon companions within a few hundred *li*, like a golden talisman.

Many constables boarded the ship, and the eerie-feeling ship suddenly became lively.

However, those who came were mostly bronze badge holders and ordinary constables, not even a single silver badge holder.

This was also normal. Although there were many constables in the Six Doors, there were even more places that needed them.

Silver badge constables were considered the backbone of the Six Doors, with the most missions on weekdays. Since Daheng became a 'gathering' place for cultivators from various realms, the silver badge holders had even more and heavier tasks, and suffered many losses.

Therefore, very few silver badge holders were stationed in one place permanently, and were often transferred according to the orders of their superiors.

On the other hand, bronze badge constables were basically the heads of the constables' offices in each county.

When these constables saw Jin Sanniang, the golden badge constable, they all gathered around. Some of the slicker ones even wanted to step forward and flatter her, hoping to make an impression and get ahead.

Unfortunately, Jin Sanniang didn't give them the chance. She was in no mood for superficial pleasantries and social niceties at this time. With a straight face, she said, "Tow this ship ashore, and then find the best painting cultivator within a thousand *li*, and have him restore what happened as much as possible based on the traces on this ship."

Painting cultivators were not diviners like *guashi*, nor did they have the ability to travel through the past like Ye Chuxiao.

However, they could still paint through some traces and associations, trying to restore past events.

In this sense, they were a bit like profilers.

Of course, the abilities of painting cultivators were not limited to this.

Although they were not powerful combat-type cultivators, truly terrifying painting cultivators could easily seal mountains and everything into paintings, and could also transform the mountains and rivers in the paintings into reality, trapping people inside.

There were hundreds of cultivation paths, and each one, when taken to the highest level, possessed incredible and powerful abilities.

Many systems didn't show much power in the early stages, but became more and more mysterious, unpredictable, and difficult to understand in the later stages.

Therefore, combat-oriented and support-oriented categories such as martial cultivators, sword cultivators, talisman cultivators, formation cultivators, and art cultivators were not necessarily always superior.

They were only impressive in the first few realms.

Riding on the small boats brought by the constables, the group of five finally went ashore and officially arrived in Hedong.

However, at this time, the hearts of the five were shrouded in shadow, and they no longer had the high spirits they had when they left the capital.

Ye Chuxiao remained in the team, never revealing the truth.

To expose Corpse Shriveling Old Man, Ye Chuxiao not only needed a complete and plausible line of reasoning, but also needed to ensure that Corpse Shriveling Old Man wasn't following them around, watching them in the dark.

Moreover, Ye Chuxiao still didn't know what Corpse Shriveling Old Man's purpose was.

To reveal it rashly at this time might make things even more passive.

"Hedong has a total of three cities, seven counties, and several villages. These three cities are Dingchun, Kanghe, and Yongxing. Among them, Dingchun is in the middle and is the most prosperous. Because the great architectural cultivator Li Li built the famous Locking Dragon Dam nearby a thousand years ago, Dingchun has spring all year round and is known as a land of abundance, especially rich."

"For thousands of years, Dingchun has been an important grain-producing area of Daheng. At the same time, Dingchun's spring brocade and Yuhua tea are both unique, and are sought-after goods sold all over the world."

"The Hedong Governor's Office is located in Dingchun. At the same time, three of the four great clans are also located in Dingchun. Of course, now there are only two. The Bai family of Dingchun, Hedong, lost its main line eight years ago, and was almost exterminated. Although there are still some collateral relatives remaining in Dingchun, they have no cohesion and can no longer compete with the other three great clans."

"As for the remaining two families still in Dingchun, they are the Liu family and the Mo family, which are our destinations this time. The Liu family mainly runs the Yuhua tea business, while the Mo family, like the Bai family, used to run the spring brocade business. Now that the Bai family is gone, the spring brocade business has naturally become the sole domain of the Mo family."

Cui Yu was still the encyclopedia of the team, introducing the basic situation of Hedong to the other four while riding a horse to Dingchun City...mainly to Ye Chuxiao.

After all, Ye Chuxiao was a rookie in the Six Doors, and still lacked inherent knowledge of many things in the region.

"You suspect the Mo family has a problem?" Jin Sanniang asked.

Cui Yu shook his head and said, "Sister, you said that we can't be arbitrary, so I'm just making a certain reasonable deduction. From the result, the Mo family did benefit the most from the decline of the Bai family."

"Which is the fourth of the four great clans?" Ye Chuxiao interjected and asked.

Cui Yu said, "It's the Jin family. The Jin family's territory is in Kanghe, and they mainly engage in mining. They have excellent relations with the military. If we encounter problems in Dingchun that we can't solve, we can ask the Jin family for help."

Seeing Ye Chuxiao's confusion, Cui Yu said, "Jin Buyi, one of the five great constables, is from the Jin family of Hedong, so the Jin family and our Six Doors have a very deep relationship."

As he spoke, Cui Yu glanced at Jin Sanniang again.

Jin Sanniang said, "That's right! I'm also from the Jin family of Hedong, but only a distant relative of a collateral branch. My grandfather's generation had already moved away from Hedong."