Page 941

"This is the ninth tribe already...."

Chen Qing and Wei Gongcheng were investigating urgently, but the island was truly vast—almost comparable in size to Jiangnan—sprawled with mountainous terrain, and most of all scattered extensively.

The distance between one tribe and another was about as far as Lyuzhou from its farthest county, which would take an ordinary person riding a fast horse almost an entire day.

Using their Divine Skills, the two hurried through, but searching among the newborns distributed across fourteen tribes was troublesome, especially with the Hell Ruler’s seal preventing them from using temple transference.

Chen Qing glanced at the sky; despite their hurried pace, two whole days had passed, yet they were still clueless.

By now, Ziyue should have returned to Jiangnan, right?

The island was far enough, and their voyage on a merchant ship—not a military ship powered by Energy Stones—took ten days just to land. Coupled with the two days of delay, Chen Qing calculated that by now, Ziyue and the others might have started making contact with the Southern Sea.

For a moment, a sense of unease rose in Chen Qing’s heart. While they seemed unrelated at first, the thought now struck him as odd.

The tribe’s Chieftain welcomed them warmly and even held a bonfire party.

The Caucasian’s attitude towards Chen Qing was still very respectful—after all, a person who could manipulate the Life and Death of spiritual bodies offered many conveniences here, and they were no fools, knowing that their next life’s fate was in his hands.

After exchanging pleasantries, Chen Qing revealed his purpose: he wanted to see the newborn children.

The excuse was always the same: he claimed the divination had revealed the children to be blessed, potentially future stars of fortune, so he wished to see them in advance.

The previous tribes had eagerly shown him the newborns, but upon hearing this, the locals’ expressions here turned somewhat strange.

A thought crossed Chen Qing’s mind; he knew something was amiss. Without revealing his concerns, he said, "At such evening parties in the other tribes, there’s always a Witch Doctor blessing the newborns. What about this tribe...?"

"The Witch Doctor is injured....."

"Injured?" Chen Qing feigned confusion, "What happened?"

The locals exchanged glances, and finally, the elder chief spoke, "His Highness King Qin is the lord of this island; there’s nothing that can’t be told to them."

Though this was a pristine island, untouched by the zombie plague, when the Western Sea Army took over, they demonstrated overwhelming military force.

Together with the unique Reincarnation system of the Divine Path Sect, as long as people believed Chen Qing could control the cycle of reincarnation, even the most obstinate native would submit.

The Western Sea Army stationed here usually received treatment akin to that of the Nobility, and even more reverence than the tribal leaders; Chen Qing’s status was simply unquestionable.

"Your Highness King Qin, about that Witch Doctor... he was injured before the children disappeared. It seems he suffered some curse and became delirious!"

"A curse?" Chen Qing’s expression immediately turned grave, "Why was this not reported to the garrison?"

"This..." The chieftain and others fell silent. Seeing the incongruity, Chen Qing pressed, "Speak your mind, there’s no need for restraint."

"We... we....," the chieftain hesitated, but eventually, a robust middle-aged man spoke up, "Let me explain..."

Chen Qing nodded towards him, the man then relieved, said, "After the Witch Doctor got injured, he became delirious right away, as if stricken with immense horror, and would even go mad and bite people.

Such an incident has never occurred in our tribe for so long; the older generation had heard that on the Central Mainland, there are many extraordinary beings with Techniques that can control minds.

We suspect the Witch Doctor saw something forbidden, thus was punished.

And those children... were originally brought here by your people. "

"Oh?" Chen Qing smiled, "How would you know those children were brought by us?"

The middle-aged man took a breath and said: "The old wizard said that he could see the ghosts of the dead, so each time someone in the tribe just died, it was the old wizard who performed the Soul-Calming Ritual.

According to what he said before, the souls used to linger within the body just after death, but as soon as death was complete, they would instantly be taken away by a force.

But now, ever since Your Highness King Qin started ruling over this place, after people die, their spiritual bodies can linger here, taken away by the Day Traveling God and Night Traveling God.

This is also why most tribes are willing to put their faith in you. "

"So that’s how it is..." Chen Qing nodded slightly. No wonder the tribes pledged allegiance so quickly when spreading faith here; it turns out the local wizards can communicate with spirits.

"At that time, the wizard saw with his own eyes, the Day Traveling God brought several young men with skin color similar to ours to wander here, and he personally said that this is where they would live from now on.

Then, within a few days, several women in the village became pregnant, the number of pregnancies was exactly the same as the number of people the Day Traveling God brought. .."

Chen Qing nodded: "Those children were indeed arranged by us. They are from another country, because they wished to keep the complexion of their previous lives; they were reluctant to be born in the Central Plains, so they chose to be born here instead."

"Complexion?" The middle-aged man was stunned: "Are they fools? Just for the sake of wanting to have such skin, they gave up the rich Central Plains?"

Initially, to strengthen faith, the nobility of this island went to Jiangnan and brought back many goods.

They also tried to establish maritime trade.

Those who had been to Jiangnan all yearned for it greatly, and now he was telling him that some people chose to be born in this poor tribe because of their complexion and gave up such a good place as the Central Plains.

Their minds must be troubled.

Chen Qing also felt that these Westerners who were obsessively troubled by skin color were somewhat irrational, but now was not the time to fret about such trivial matters.

He continued to ask: "Because you think these children were specially arranged by us, you didn’t dare to seek help from the garrison after they disappeared, right? "

"Yes..."

"I understand..." Chen Qing nodded: "Have all the children disappeared?"

"Seventeen... all gone."

"All gone..." Chen Qing’s face turned somber; it seemed likely that there was an issue with some people in this tribe.

Of course, it wouldn’t be as many as seventeen.

At the beginning, to prevent them from forming cliques that could cause trouble for the locals, these Caucasians were deliberately separated and scattered to be born in different tribes.

It was highly improbable for exactly seventeen of them to be problematic.

That could only mean one thing, to prevent themselves from being tracked, those remaining few took their compatriots away as well.

"Take me to see the places where those children were born."

The old chieftain hurriedly led Chen Qing to the homes where the children were born and called their parents as well.

The parents were already extremely anxious because of the children’s disappearance and the wizard’s disturbed state of mind, and now with His Highness King Qin himself coming to investigate, they naturally cooperated.

Chen Qing, led by those parents, visited the places where the children regularly lived.

People in this world give birth quite quickly after conception, taking only three months, but even so, by their age, all the children would merely be three months old and normally they wouldn’t even be able to crawl on the ground.

Yet their disappearance was extraordinarily clean.

Chen Qing visited all seventeen homes and immediately found not a trace!

By traces, it meant the scent of the children. According to what the parents said, the clothes the children wore daily, the objects they touched, including on the parents themselves, the scent of the children was gone.

Erased completely clean by someone!!