Chapter 364: Dog Mountain Shelter

Chapter 364: The Inuyama Shelter

"These rats aren't easy to catch, are they?"

Li Jun was deeply impressed by the Honghu's ability to conceal themselves.

From the Imperial homeland to the current Japanese settlement area, he had encountered quite a few members of the Honghu, but he had always passively waited for them to come to him, never actively capturing anyone.

"Little Black, has the Songshan clone in the Nether Prison talked yet?"

In the battle at the Confucius Temple, Fan Wujiu captured one of Songshan's Three Corpse clones, and successfully cast the opponent's consciousness into the Nether Prison.

According to the characteristics of the Agricultural Sequence, the Three Corpses and the main body share a set of memories and personality through the brain-machine spiritual aperture; what the main body knows, the clone also knows.

"Not yet."

Fan Wujiu, with a dark face and gritted teeth, said: "That bastard is stubborn as hell. I've already maxed out the power of our station's Yellow Millet Mainframe. Now the internal time flow is one day outside, one year in the Nether Prison. But that kid has lasted two years in the void, and he's still lounging around as if on vacation!"

Upon hearing this, Li Jun frowned tightly. When it came to fighting or using force, he had some experience, but he knew nothing about interrogation.

Even an old Embroidered Uniform Guard like Fan Wujiu couldn't handle the opponent, let alone him.

"Old Zou."

Li Jun suddenly called out.

Zou Sijiu, who was still obediently squatting on the ground, looked up at the sound. "Huh?"

"Stand up first," Li Jun said helplessly.

"It's fine, I'm comfortable squatting. Just tell me what you need."

"... Do you have any way to make him talk?"

Zou Sijiu, the third specially-appointed guest official of the Inuyama City Embroidered Uniform Guard, didn't refuse. After a moment of contemplation, he said slowly: "If we want to use the Great Document Technique, we would need massive intelligence support. But almost all the attackers in this incident have been killed; we can't obtain information from others, so it's unlikely. Even if we compute a result, the error would be huge."

"If we were to throw him into the Yellow Millet Dream and perform dream theft..."

Zou Sijiu rubbed his chin back and forth for a long time, then shook his head.

"Although the Agricultural Sequence isn't good at mental will either, someone who can advance to Sequence Five can't have that low a mental strength. Our station's Yellow Millet Mainframe simply cannot simultaneously accommodate both me and Songshan while constructing a sufficiently real dream."

"To pry information from Songshan's mouth, we would need at least a fifth-grade Yellow Millet Mainframe!"

The Yellow Millet Mainframe, like the Nuo Mask and the Breath-Dragonfly that Li Jun had used, was also graded according to the Imperial court's rank system, with ninth grade being the lowest and first grade the highest.

However, the manufacturing process was extremely complex, and even the old ghost Lord Ma couldn't figure it out.

Moreover, the mainframe's strength was determined by its central core. According to Zou Sijiu, the core refined by the Dao Sequence was called 'Altar Suppression Wood,' that of the Buddha Sequence was 'Yama Relic,' and their Yin-Yang Sequence called it 'Yansheng Coin.'

Although the names differed, the principles were common, and the differences were minor.

For example, the Yellow Millet Mainframe used by a hundred household of the Embroidered Uniform Guard used the core 'Marketplace' created by the Confucian Sequence's technique of drawing shapes and painting tigers; under the same rank, its efficacy was much inferior to the three types mentioned above.

But even as a replica, the Inuyama City hundred-household station only had one Yellow Millet Mainframe that barely reached the sixth grade, serving as the foundation for constructing the Nether Prison.

In the entire Japanese region's Embroidered Uniform Guard, only the thousand-household station's Yellow Millet Mainframe had reached the fifth-grade level.

And even if the thousand-household station agreed to lend it, Zou Sijiu's success rate for dream theft was only fifty-fifty, and it would take a lot of time.

After all, dream theft required making the opponent completely lose themselves in the Yellow Millet Dream, not like the earthly Buddhist kingdom illusion that Li Jun had experienced, which was used to confuse the mind; the gap between the two was like the difference between clouds and mud.

"Old Chen, what about you?"

Li Jun turned to look at the second specially-appointed guest official of the station.

"If Old Rat Zou can't do it, I'm even less likely to."

Chen Qisheng spread his hands. "At most, I could refine him into a Yellow Turban Warrior, but then he'd likely become a fool, and we wouldn't get anything out of him."

Upon hearing this, Fan Wujiu instantly bristled, his bull eyes wide, glaring fiercely.

He had nearly become a Yellow Turban Warrior and regarded that experience as the shame of his life.

"Who are you calling a fool?!"

Chen Qisheng rolled his eyes. "I didn't refine you into a Yellow Turban Warrior, so why are you getting upset?"

"Don't mention those words to me!"

Fan Wujiu snorted angrily and said with a grim voice: "Brother Jun, no need to trouble yourself. Later I'll transfer a dozen vicious criminals to Songshan's cell. If he won't take the soft approach, I'll give him the hard one. I'll have them day and night..."

Just as he pursed his lips and curled his tongue, about to say that word, Fan Wujiu suddenly felt a chill all over, as if falling into an ice cave.

"Huh?"

Chen Qisheng appeared behind him like a ghost, and a silver-white engraved talisman quietly stuck to his back.

Sizzle...

A massive current discharged from the talisman. Fan Wujiu instantly had hair standing on end, his mouth and nose twisted, and his body stiffened.

Lord Ma moved in and swept his legs, knocking him directly to the ground.

Xie Bi'an followed closely, stepping on Fan Wujiu's face.

"Ah!!!"

Amid the storm-like rain of kicks, Fan Wujiu screamed repeatedly.

"Everyone get out of the way!"

Zou Sijiu let out a roar full of suppressed anger, accelerated with swift steps, charged forward, and thrust his right leg out like a shovel, with a fierce momentum.

The people who were beating him quickly dodged. A dull 'bang' was heard, and Fan Wujiu slid along the ground, kicking up bursts of snow.

"Sister, why is Uncle Fan being beaten?"

Li Hua, sitting on the top of the Painted Skin, watched this scene with a confused expression.

"Don't mind him, he deserves it!"

The Painted Skin, entrusted by Li Jun to take care of and guide Li Hua, put its hands on top of its head to block Li Hua's eyes.

Watching Fan Wujiu lying in the distance, beaten black and blue, Li Jun silently put down his foot that was still raised in the air, and looked at Xie Bi'an.

"If we can't make Songshan talk in a short time, can we catch so many Honghu with the intelligence we currently have?"

"It's difficult."

Xie Bi'an patted the dust off his trousers and said with a grave expression: "Inuyama City is not prosperous in the Japanese region, and its population is small. Plus, in recent years, the old ghost has maintained a high-pressure stance, so the number of Honghu active here is not many. Even fewer can be controlled by us."

"Actually, to dig useful information from Songshan, besides interrogation and dream theft, there is another way..."

Zou Sijiu's voice suddenly cut in.

"What way?"

"Conversion," Zou Sijiu slowly uttered two words.

Li Jun frowned slightly. "The Buddha Sequence?"

"Correct."

Zou Sijiu nodded. "Although the Yellow Millet Buddhist Kingdom that those bald donkeys concocted has many flaws, their methods of beguiling people are no worse than those of the Strategist Sequence. In fact, they are even more pure and direct in effect, because the Strategist Sequence still has to draw a big pie for people, while they directly take the pie out of you."

Although Zou Sijiu's words were vulgar, they were exceptionally vivid and picturesque.

Li Jun's understanding of other sequences mostly came from whether he had ever cut down someone of that sequence.

He had slaughtered many Buddhist Sequences, but the one that left the deepest impression was Longtu of the Jokhang Temple.

That was a Tibetan monk obsessed with conversion to the point of mania.

"Can conversion really be effective?"

Li Jun was somewhat perplexed, recalling that when he was in Chongqing, Longtu had failed to convert even Zhou You, a youth who had just entered the Sequence.

"Conversion is a craft; it depends on the skill of the practitioner and is not solely determined by sequence rank. Just as not every Strategist Sequence is adept at maneuvering."

Chen Qisheng knew what Li Jun was worried about. "Longtu is one of those monks who lack skill. Moreover, back then he was set on making Zhou You willingly convert, so he didn't use particularly harsh methods, not even the Yellow Millet Buddhist Kingdom."

"As long as we can find a Buddhist Sequence skilled in conversion, and let me enter his Buddhist kingdom to steal dreams, it should not be difficult to pry open Songshan's mouth," Zou Sijiu added from the side.

The solution to the problem had been found, but the problem that followed gave Li Jun an even greater headache.

Where could he find a willing Buddhist Sequence to help?

In the entire Japanese region, the only Buddhist Sequence he knew was Mingwang of the Hundred Households in Edo Castle.

But asking that fellow for help was completely out of the question.

Not to mention whether they would draw blades the moment they met, but even Li Jun himself couldn't bring himself to bow.

Since he couldn't find enough, he might as well just seize them!

Li Jun's eyes turned ruthless; after all, the Thousand Household Office had no rule against cross-jurisdiction arrests.

Mingwang's Edo Castle, Yelao's Shiga Castle, Jiaomu Jiao's Gangshan Castle, and Yu Canghai's Osaka Castle!

He refused to believe that if he plundered them one by one, he still wouldn't have enough people.

The decision made, just as Li Jun was about to instruct Xie Bi'an to begin preparations, a lazy, charming voice drifted in from the office entrance.

"Well, well, did you all know I was coming and so you're standing at the door to welcome me?"

A stunningly beautiful woman leaned against the office door. Her jet-black hair was coiled atop her head, revealing her pale neck. Skin-tight trousers wrapped around her long, slender legs, covering the two pale-gold lines that in Li Jun's memory extended from her ankles all the way to her thighs.

A black coat lay draped over her shoulders; her bare right arm was covered in tattoos of seductive celestial maidens, from wrist to shoulder, engulfing a Buddha among them.

"This woman is really something!"

Xie Bi'an's heart surged with excitement, but he remained impassive on the surface. He quietly gathered his loose white hair into a topknot, moved his lips slightly, and slowly shaped what he thought was a perfect smile.

Fan Wujiu sat up with a start, his eyes already staring fixedly.

"Why are you here too?"

Li Jun's gaze shifted from Zou Sijiu to Chen Qisheng, and finally landed on the woman, his tone full of helplessness.

"Then should I leave?"

Yuan Mingfei's eyes curved, a seductive charm laced with feigned grievance, as she made a show of turning away.

"A guest from afar is welcome!"

"Sit down first, we'll talk!"

A black and a white figure quickly pressed close, their eagerness making Li Jun's eye twitch.

"Two lecherous ghosts, utterly shameful, bah!"

Lord Ma's tone was disdainful, but his steps were not a bit slower. "So it's Mingfei! Long time no see, old Ma has missed you to death."

"Sister, who is this auntie?"

Li Hua looked at the noisy, chaotic courtyard and asked in bewildered confusion.

"I don't know her either, but one thing I am sure of."

Hua Pi said solemnly, "This aunt of yours, they can't handle her."