Dragon Tamer

Zhu Minglang didn’t mind, considering the bandits probably had already committed numerous acts of murder, he didn’t mind helping Zheng Yu eliminate those bandit gangs. However, the issue of the cannibal monsters was indeed important, killing one more of them was akin to saving a dozen or more lives.

“Zheng Yu, these cannibal monsters move in unpredictable ways, often attacking the vulnerabilities of our towns. Do you have any insights?” Zhu Minglang asked.

“Brother Zhu, you’re giving me too much credit. I don’t understand these monsters at all!” Zheng Yu replied.

“Alright then, be careful on the road eradicating bandits, and you, a weak scholar, better not rush into battle,” Zhu Minglang reminded him.

Zhu Minglang had a habit, that being, whenever someone around him was using their brain, he would habitually throw the problem over to them, enjoying his leisurely life for so many years because raising silkworms didn’t require thinking about complex issues.

But now, he could only rely on himself. When arriving at the site, he needed to observe more, think more.

Upon reaching White Tea Town, the town had already been secured by many official troops, with even some important exits guarded by the army.

The stench of death still wafted out from the town, considering the need to find clues, some of the corpses gnawed on by the cannibal monsters had not been disposed of, left to be scorched by the sun.

“With everyone dead, that’s when the official troops show up. What’s the point of encircling the town now? Afraid of corpses turning?” An old man vented his indignation at the town gate.

The City Lord felt a wave of shame and didn’t dare to look at the old man.

He led Zhu Minglang, Jin Minjun, Chu Yanyan and others into this desolate place, only to find that another team from the Dragon Taming Academy had arrived earlier, among whom was someone Zhu Minglang knew well, Nan Ye.

Nan Ye’s team seemed to mostly consist of Nan Family members, and with their own monster hunters, they didn’t need any guidance from the City Lord. Seeing Zhu Minglang and his group arrive, the Nan Family members didn’t even greet them, leaving arrogantly as if they already had a clue and were headed to the wilderness.

“We’re late,” Jin Minjun frowned.

“There are a lot of monsters; a single team might not be able to find them all. Let’s follow the City Lord,” Chu Yanyan suggested.

“You guys go look at the corpses, we…” said the female student, who was known for her beauty alongside Li Yunzi, as she covered her nose with a scented handkerchief.

“Alright, Senior Brother Jin and I will have a look. The rest of you search around for any clues left by the cannibal monsters, such as claw fragments, hairs, saliva, and the like,” Zhu Minglang nodded, understanding their psychological limits.

Not all students within the academy frequented the outside world, and it was not uncommon for Dragon Shepherds, especially female Dragon Shepherds, to have limited exposure to bloody scenes and rarely venture out alone without a team.

Senior Brother Jin and Zhu Minglang headed to the place where the corpses were stored, which was an old house that had been heavily damaged with bricks and tiles strewn about.

Because a whole family had been slaughtered here by the cannibal monsters, resulting in the largest number of bodies, the subsequent dead were all brought here.

An entire large, old house filled with corpses; as soon as Senior Brother Jin stepped in, his complexion changed, and he took out a scented handkerchief to cover his nose. The pattern on the handkerchief was consistent with the one previously used by the female student.

However, Senior Brother Jin was clearly accustomed to bloody scenes; while listening to the City Lord’s narration, he examined the corpses.

“The bite marks are very clear, most of the internal organs are eaten. Can you tell what kind of monster it was?” Zhu Minglang inquired of Senior Brother Jin.

Being able to become the guardian of the Five Flowers, Senior Brother Jin certainly had outstanding abilities.

“The gnawing is too severe, it’s difficult to distinguish, but the monster that eats the innards should be a Human-faced Rat,” Jin Minjun said.

“This woman has strangulation marks on her neck, and her body is smashed; someone probably took advantage of the chaos to rob and kill her,” Zhu

Minglang shook his head and pointed at one of the corpses, saying to Lian City Lord, “City Lord, send someone to check out who the woman’s neighbors are, it’s best to directly confront them and ask if they killed her.”

Lian City Lord leaned over to look and indeed discovered strangulation marks on the woman’s neck, so he hurriedly instructed the scribe beside him to record it, and then sent people to investigate.

“Don’t worry about those, someone is already ahead of us, a single Cannibal Monster is worth ten credits,” Senior Brother Jin glared at Zhu Minglang, displeased with his meddling.

“Some people’s evil is not less than that of Cannibal Monsters—they shouldn’t be allowed to hide among the crowd,” Zhu Minglang said.

“What have you discovered?” Jin Minjun snorted coldly and asked.

“This old mansion has many side doors, there are over a dozen to twenty people living here, including the master of the inner and outer courts and their servants. Not a single one of them escaped the Cannibal Monster’s clutches, and they also showed no signs of struggle…” Zhu Minglang’s attention had been on the people who died first in the old mansion.

“So what?” Senior Brother Jin asked.

“I think they might have been hypnotized, and then the Cannibal Monster dug out and ate their innards one by one; that’s why their deaths don’t seem so painful. Aside from the disembowelment, the rest of their bodies are intact…” Zhu Minglang continued.

“Hypnosis? Could it be a Night Vine Ratwolf!” Senior Brother Jin immediately thought of this creature.

Night Vine Ratwolves feed on night vines; they absorb the hypnotic elements from the plant so that the gas they excrete is not the foul stench of a Yellow Weasel, but a potent hypnotic effect!

The Cannibal Monster that killed this family must be a great demon with a cultivation base of over five hundred years. It took advantage of the night to hypnotize the entire family, then devoured all their innards without anyone noticing, even the nearby neighbors had no clue!

“So when we search the mountains, we should look for places with lots of night vines, we might find something,” Zhu Minglang said.

“Junior Zhu, your thinking is sharp,” Senior Brother Jin immediately nodded in acknowledgment, and his attitude toward Zhu Minglang changed slightly.

“These travelers who died in the inn, they have signs of being torn and fought over, and there are very few survivors. City Lord, could you help us investigate the inns that were attacked, especially those near the post stations? The location of the first inn is very important, it’s likely to be near the lair of the Human-faced Rats,” Zhu Minglang said.

Lian City Lord nodded and inquired with the scribe behind him.

“The first one attacked should be the Small Pond Mountain Post Station, twenty miles from the town,” the scribe flipped through his records and stated earnestly.

“There should be a large group of Human-faced Rats. If we are to go to Small Pond Mountain, we need to move as a group,” Zhu Minglang said.

Human-faced Rats live in groups, unlike Night Vine Ratwolves which can act alone. They are numerous and even Dragon Shepherds can fall victim to them.

Jin Minjun nodded heavily; there should be a large den of Human-faced Rats.

Several monsters, maybe even more, broke into the town together at night.

If one could analyze their species in advance, it would provide some basis for searching in the vast mountains and plains; otherwise, aimlessly searching might not yield a single one the entire winter.

“Sister Chu has dragons with a keen sense of smell. Later on, we can also use Spiritual Power to capture the demon aura in the mountains; I believe we can quickly capture them all in one fell swoop!” Jin Minjun said..