The sudden addition of over a hundred people needing accommodation made the temporary camp abnormally crowded, and food supplies immediately became critically low.
Li Yaoyang transported them to Twin Peaks Mountain and then paid no further attention.
After the crowd was inspected by several Restraint Officers, Song Zongwu directly handed them over to Ren Qing.
Ren Qing thought back to when he was at the Corpse Burners' Hall, there he had been the one delegating work to others. Now, he had no choice but to do the dirty and laborious tasks himself.
Sigh...
He had no choice but to temporarily stop mining and focus all his energy on managing affairs to prevent the camp from descending into chaos.
The newly arrived yamen runners were relatively easy to handle since there were only about twenty of them.
Ren Qing took this opportunity to meet them face-to-face, carefully examining each one with the information stream. Indeed, he found nothing unusual.
The hunters were slightly more troublesome.
A few of them had suffered injuries from wild beast attacks, so a separate wooden house was set aside for them.
Ren Qing had Wang Wen take the hunters there while he quickly instructed the yamen runners to prepare food. Multiple campfires were lit for cooking, filling the camp with smoke and chaos.
Immediately afterward, he busied himself arranging accommodations for the prisoners.
Ren Qing pondered for a long time.
After much deliberation, he concluded that only the cave could accommodate them. Thanks to their efforts over the past dozen or so days, it had become quite spacious.
Locking them inside and cutting off access to the outside would also make management easier.
But first, he needed to verify the prisoners using the information stream.
Ren Qing checked the information of over a hundred people in a row, his head beginning to ache faintly. Yet, he still found nothing, it seemed Song Rong had already given up.
However, he did discover that several disabled prisoners had once practiced techniques. Their left arms were all limp, as if the bones had been extracted.
According to the information stream, they had practiced a technique similar to the Divine Leg Sutra but had never mastered it.
This technique was called the "Snake Shedding Method."
[Snake Shedding Method]
[Created by Daoist Mu Snake. To practice this method, one must soak in a specific medicinal solution from childhood, making the body as soft as boneless, before it can be mastered.]
This reminded Ren Qing of the "Snake Scale Gang" in the eastern district of Sanxiang City. Perhaps there was some connection between the two.
He ordered the constables to seal the cave's entrances and exits, specifically assigning guards to watch the prisoners. He would decide how to assign mining tasks tomorrow.
After finishing these tasks, Ren Qing still felt uneasy.
He took some dry rations and headed toward the hunters' wooden house. As he approached, he smelled a strong medicinal odor.
Ren Qing couldn't help but take a deep breath, his right hand touching the blood heart hidden in his chest.
If the yamen runners and prisoners were fine, then the issue likely lay with the hunters. He still remembered the dozen or so missing people from Flat Top Mountain Village.
If something unexpected happened, he could only hope it wouldn't affect the Disaster Dispelling Forbidden Zone.
Zhou Wuqian, who was smoking a pipe outside the wooden house, saw Ren Qing approaching and knew he was the camp's manager. He quickly went up to greet him.
"Officer, this old man is Zhou Wuqian. I once worked for the yamen, serving as the county magistrate's horse groom for several years."
Ren Qing nodded and asked, "Old Man Liu, how are the injured hunters?"
Zhou Wuqian glanced at the other hunters and straightened his back before answering, "Officer, you must know how vicious the beasts have been lately."
He pointed inside the house and continued, "A few young lads were bitten by beasts on the way here. Now, they can only rest and recover..."
Ren Qing frowned slightly.
Zhou Wuqian smiled awkwardly and added, "Officer, we wouldn't dare ask for the yamen's reward during their recovery. We'll gather our own herbs."
"Where are you from, and what kind of beasts attacked you?"
"Officer, we're from Taoxing Village. We encountered a few starving wolves on the way here."
Wolves?
Why wolves again?
"Let me check their injuries first."
Ren Qing patted Zhou Wuqian's shoulder, and the two entered the house one after the other.
The wooden house was packed with over a dozen hunters, making it extremely cramped.
They stared at Ren Qing with wary eyes, moving aside to make space. The atmosphere grew silent.
Ren Qing noticed freshly dried herbs by the window, common mountain herbs with healing properties for external injuries.
In the corner of the house lay three hunters moaning in pain.
Two had injuries on their chests and abdomens, while the third was more severely wounded. His limbs were bandaged, likely from being surrounded by beasts.
Crudely processed herbs were applied to their wounds, to be replaced every half-day.
The injuries weren't life-threatening, unless they led to tetanus or rabies.
"Have something to eat. From now on, the camp will rely on you all for meat."
Ren Qing took out the dry rations and distributed some to each hunter, mainly to check their information while doing so.
Still, nothing unusual, everything seemed almost too normal.
If Ren Qing were in Song Rong's position, he would never pass up such a perfect opportunity to infiltrate the camp.
"Thank you, Officer..."
Zhou Wuqian accepted the rations with a pleased expression. It seemed that apart from the terrifying Restraint Officers, the yamen runners were quite approachable.
Still unconvinced, Ren Qing bent down to examine the injured men, pretending to check their pulses at the neck.
They were all ordinary hunters, showing no signs of being possessed by techniques. Their minds were unaffected during conversation.
If Song Rong controlled others using eyeballs, like the fishmonger Zhang Bingquan, they would inevitably act strangely.
After confirming there were no oversights, Ren Qing stood up and walked out.
Was Song Rong afraid of the numerous Restraint Officers and had thus abandoned entering the Disaster Dispelling Forbidden Zone?
Ren Qing vaguely sensed something was wrong, but all he could do now was be more cautious. He couldn't delay the sealing progress because of this.
Fortunately, there was Muyi, who had transformed into a tree-person. She could keep watch over the camp day and night as a precaution.
The following days passed relatively smoothly. With the yamen runners no longer doing hard labor, the living conditions improved rapidly.
The prisoners were gradually put to work excavating the mountain, though only in less critical branch tunnels.
They were forbidden from leaving the cave. Food and water were brought in by yamen runners, who also carried out the waste.
To prevent the prisoners from causing trouble, Ren Qing reassigned them randomly every day. Even bathroom breaks were supervised by yamen runners.
The camp gradually settled into a routine.
However, what deeply puzzled Ren Qing was that large wild beasts in the vicinity had simultaneously vanished. Now, the hunters could only catch rabbits and field mice.
Zhou Wuqian believed it was due to overhunting.
When Ren Qing had free time, he went out to search for clues using his Double Pupils. Once he got slightly farther from the camp, he did find traces of wild beasts.
He reported this to Song Zongwu. Afterward, the area within ten li of the camp was filled with swarms of insects, allowing Li Yaoyang to detect even the slightest movement.
Logically speaking, even Ren Qing himself couldn't spot any flaws now.
He still conducted daily inspections, but he could finally return to mining, seeking the breakthrough opportunity for the Human Skin Book.
And it was about time to try using great the Miao blade.
After prolonged tempering, Ren Qing could feel his blade techniques transforming. If he could push further with the stone walls, it would soon count as true mastery.