novelraw Chapter 134: Missing Person Notice in Pig-Slaughter Lane
Chapter 134: Missing Person Notice in Pig-Slaughter Lane
The new cultivation system established by the Emperor in his time encompassed the Dao Heart, the Dao Source, and the Dao Method.
The systems corresponding to these three pillars were, respectively, the illusory realm trials, the Elixir Viscera, and the official schools that now spread across every prefecture, commandery, and county.
Clear the illusory realm trials with three consecutive first-class ratings, and the official school would grant you an Elixir Viscera cultivation method of the corresponding grade.
A first-grade illusory realm corresponded to a first-grade Elixir Viscera.
Within each grade of illusory realm there were three tiers, and you could only advance to the next tier by earning a first-class rating in the one before it.
Fail a trial, and every result was wiped clean. Back to the very beginning.
This was exactly a ranked mode, no question about it.
And not only was there a ranked mode, there was a leaderboard.
The illusory realms spanning first through ninth grade were divided into the upper three grades, middle three grades, and lower three grades, corresponding respectively to the Heaven Boards, the Earth Boards, and the Human Boards.
The rankings encompassed every formally registered cultivator within the borders of Great Chu, and were updated once every ten years.Individual placement was determined by an aggregate score compiled from one's ratings across the relevant illusory realm trials.
Once Li Qiuchen had worked all this out, the pressure on his mind lifted considerably.
My ranking was over two million because I had only completed one run, and that was the tutorial.
So everything was fine. Otherwise, staring at that number every day would make him feel like a complete waste.
The second illusory realm Li Qiuchen drew was called Pig-Slaughter Lane.
The name alone felt grimy.
Master Qin made a point of warning him that a proper illusory realm trial was nothing like the tutorial in terms of difficulty. It could consume three to five days inside the illusion, or even longer, and he should make his preparations and plans accordingly.
Li Qiuchen himself had nothing particular to prepare. These past days he had been at home slowly working through the mountain of material his mind had recorded during his all-night reading session.
Grind through enough problems, and a conclusion emerges naturally.
However the illusory realm trials might vary, they all came down to four words at their core: destabilize your state of mind.
The modest rewards offered after clearing a trial were, if he was being candid, nothing more than compensation for the psychological trauma the trial had inflicted.
A beating followed by a sweet date to soften the blow.
So what was there to prepare? All you needed was to keep your composure. Everything else was secondary.
What he was genuinely worried about was the two young misses at home.
Not that they lacked the ability to take care of themselves...
Well. Actually, they did rather lack that ability.
Both of them were socially withdrawn. They had no real contact with the other students, not even the girls, maintaining nothing beyond surface-level courtesy at best.
Shallow friendship, as anyone familiar with that sort of thing would understand.
The longer he was away, the more uneasy Li Qiuchen felt. He was genuinely worried they might get into some kind of trouble, and with both families absent there would be nobody to stand up for them if things went wrong.
"Why don't you two stay overnight at the inner hall while I'm gone? It's safer than the house by any measure, and if anything happens you can find the master..."
"We don't need that. We're not helpless."
Tang Xiaoxue dismissed the suggestion with a sniff.
"We're going into the illusory realm too. A first-class student doesn't need to worry about us!"
Hu Caiyi stuck out her tongue and made a face.
With Li Qiuchen's outside coaching, she was now brimming with confidence about clearing the illusory realm.
Everyone wanted to cultivate, and her desire was especially urgent.
Li Qiuchen's hidden ability went without saying. Even without cultivation, Tang Xiaoxue's bloodline talent was frightening in its own right.
Hu Caiyi alone was a timid, useless little fox.
If she didn't start cultivating soon, how would they ever play together happily in the future?
She was in a hurry.
His persuasion having accomplished nothing, Li Qiuchen could only instruct Governess Zhang to keep a close eye on the two young misses while he was away.
With the household arrangements settled, Li Qiuchen took his bamboo slip and made his way to the outskirts of the city.
The outer edges of Yun County were covered in vast stretches of abandoned buildings, exuding a particularly bleak and desolate atmosphere.
Following Master Qin's directions and navigating by the map he had been given, Li Qiuchen arrived at an extremely secluded little alley.
Calling it an alley was generous. It had barely retained any trace of its original form. The walls of the residences on either side had all crumbled, weeds grew everywhere in tangled profusion, and the place looked little different from a wasteland burial ground.
Li Qiuchen produced his identity token, closed his eyes, and his figure dissolved into the air.
...
[First-Grade Illusory Realm: Pig-Slaughter Lane]
[Entry Restriction: First-grade illusory realm cleared with a first-class rating]
[Maximum Participants: 1]
[Current Participants: 1]
[Background: In seven days, the quiet little lane will meet its final reckoning.]
[Trial Rule 1: You may not disclose the contents of this illusory realm to other participants.]
[Trial Rule 2: You may not re-enter once you have left.]
[Additional Notes: Uncover the secrets hidden within Pig-Slaughter Lane.]
[Creator: The Hermit of Yu'an]
Li Qiuchen opened his eyes to find himself standing in a clean and tidy alleyway. Residences lined both sides in neat rows, shaded by leafy trees, with the occasional shop sign or banner hanging out front, stretching all the way into the distance.
So why exactly was this place called Pig-Slaughter Lane?
"Young friend."
Hearing a voice from behind him, Li Qiuchen turned to find a young constable who had one hand resting loosely on the hilt of the saber at his waist, looking in his direction.
The plot was already starting? Not even a moment of free time to explore first?
"Do you live around here?"
When Li Qiuchen didn't respond, the young constable asked again in a mild tone.
"Me? No, I don't live here. Just passing through."
Li Qiuchen denied it on the spot. "Has something happened here?"
"Well..."
The young constable's expression became conflicted, as though he wasn't quite sure how to explain.
"Officer?"
"It's nothing. Since you don't live here, there's no need to linger."
The young constable waved a hand to indicate Li Qiuchen shouldn't ask further, and started walking ahead.
Li Qiuchen was in no rush. He watched quietly until the constable had gone some twenty zhang ahead and was barely paying attention to him anymore, then lifted his feet and followed.
According to the background information, he had at least seven days to slowly investigate the secrets of this alley.
But this was obviously a trap.
Anyone who had done enough problem-grinding would know there was such a thing as a misleading option.
Telling you that you have seven days, and then expecting you to actually pace yourself across all seven, would leave you with no time for anything that mattered.
Seven days was the minimum. If there were any hidden side threads or unusual developments, the signs would appear on the very first day.
Li Qiuchen walked on, flipping through his mental archive of problems as he went.
If it was called Pig-Slaughter Lane, there had to be pigs. At least on the surface.
Then came the question of how to define pigs.
This type of problem generally had three approaches...
Li Qiuchen stopped in front of a shop selling roasted snacks, raised a hand, and asked for a bag of freshly made sugar-roasted chestnuts.
"How much?"
"Six copper."
Good. He was not the pig. One option eliminated.
Li Qiuchen walked on and came to a butcher's shop.
The shop occupied three storefronts and was run by seven or eight assistants. Several whole sides of pork hung inside. The owner was a sturdy man weighing well over two hundred jin, sitting on a stool in the summer heat with bare arms, a grimy apron across his chest, drinking tea.
Li Qiuchen looked around and confirmed that this butcher's shop was the dirtiest spot on the entire lane.
It wasn't a matter of poor housekeeping. Lard and pig bristles mixed with dust and grime simply could not be fully wiped away no matter what you did. Add the raw meat smell drawing flies that buzzed and circled the shop in lazy swarms, and the effect was complete.
This was a trap option.
His mental archive contained stories of murder victims butchered and sold as pork, as well as stories of spirits tricked into taking pig form and sold to butchers. In short, pork was not always what it appeared to be.
But placed in the current context, pork being sold in Pig-Slaughter Lane struck him as entirely unremarkable.
The exaggerated contrast between the cleanliness of the lane and this one grimy shop felt too deliberate, more like a psychological cue designed to draw the participant's attention here.
He set this option aside for now.
The young constable ahead was still questioning passersby, but each one shook their head. None of them seemed to be giving him the answer he was looking for.
Li Qiuchen walked up to a shop assistant who had just been questioned, and flicked a stack of copper coins over to him.
"What was that officer asking you just now? I've been watching him nose around the place for ages."
The assistant weighed the coins in his palm with a grin. "What else would he be asking about? The county magistrate's daughter has gone missing, no trace of her alive or dead. So the county office has been ordered to go door to door making inquiries... can't imagine what that officer was thinking, coming to look around here. A young miss like that, delicate and pampered, how would she ever end up in a place as rough and unwashed as this?"
Li Qiuchen raised an eyebrow. "You've seen this young miss yourself?"
The assistant's expression shifted immediately and he waved his hands. "Don't go saying things like that, I can't have seen her."
"If you've never seen her, how do you know what she looks like well enough to say she hasn't come here?"
Li Qiuchen pointed at the assistant with a grin. "You're not being straight with me. Concealing the truth right in front of an officer. You're done for."
The assistant panicked at once. "Hey, what kind of person are you? I was doing you a kindness by telling you..."
"Concealing what truth?"
The young constable's voice appeared directly behind Li Qiuchen, startling the assistant so badly he stumbled back three full steps, waving his arms frantically. "Nothing, nothing, nothing! Officer, he's trying to frame me!"
"Right, I was joking with him."
Li Qiuchen admitted it without hesitation. "I was just curious what the county magistrate's daughter looks like. How old is she? Is she pretty?"
The young constable frowned. "What exactly are you after, asking questions like that?"
Li Qiuchen said with genuine puzzlement, "What do you mean, what am I after? If you're trying to find someone, and you don't even describe what they look like, I wouldn't be able to recognize them even if I saw them. Unless... the young miss hasn't actually gone missing at all?"
The young constable said with deliberate earnestness, "A young lady's appearance cannot be described freely to all and sundry. It would compromise her reputation. So I'm only asking whether anyone has seen an unfamiliar woman travelling alone."
Li Qiuchen pressed further. "But what if the young miss had someone with her, or she was disguised as a man?"
The young constable's expression froze.
Besides, the person was already missing. Wasn't that itself a compromise of her reputation?
Li Qiuchen lowered his voice and said, "Officer, might I have a word with you somewhere private?"
The young constable followed Li Qiuchen to a deserted spot nearby, and was just opening his mouth when he noticed Li Qiuchen holding something round in his hand.
"You..."
The young constable managed only that single syllable before Li Qiuchen raised his hand and tossed the earth elemental pearl into the air. It made a nimble arc, and landed squarely on the back of the young constable's head with a sharp crack.
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