Lin Yubai's idea was simple and direct: to create as much commotion as possible and pressure the person behind the scenes.
If their search direction was wrong, there would be nothing to say. But if they were lucky enough to stumble upon something, it might make the orchestrator anxious enough to resort to measures to obstruct their progress.
This could even involve quietly moving the imprisoned City God and the spirit officials to another location.
This would undoubtedly leave some clues, allowing them to gain more leads and even find the missing City God and other deities.
However, while this idea was not bad, Ji Yuan and Jiang Yunzhou still shook their heads. They would not resort to it easily unless there was absolutely no other recourse.
After all, the person behind the scenes might resort to directly annihilating the City God and the spirit officials.
The abduction and imprisonment of the City God and his spirit officials were merely to prevent their actions from being obstructed and to avoid the constant scrutiny of the City God's Temple.
The reason they had not immediately killed the deities was to avoid alerting the Qin Tian Jian and the imperial court officials after the gods' demise.
Now that their actions were exposed, if they were to create further pressure, the other party might no longer hold back and would ruthlessly deal with the deities.
If that happened, it would be tantamount to harming the City God and his spirit officials, and they might even bear considerable guilt.
"Without sufficient clues, it's like walking with our eyes covered, and our actions are restricted at every turn."
Ji Yuan shook his head, his expression quite helpless.
Not to mention the few people present, even the Nine Profound Sect, with all its prestige, lacked a solid foundation here. Many things could not be accomplished on reputation alone.
And lacking intelligence sources, they were constrained everywhere, even lacking sufficient manpower to investigate suspicious areas.
"Now we can only see what surprises the two disciples left outside can bring us."
Lin Yubai also sighed.
He had originally brought eight disciples to Linfu County, but to allow Ji Yuan and Jiang Yunzhou to infiltrate the county yamen smoothly, two disciples were replaced.
Now, these two were in the county town, doing their best to investigate clues, but the possibility of any gain was indeed slim.
However, other than this, they had no other options. Ji Yuan had a dozen mountain and marsh cultivators under his command, but they were likely being watched now and could not play much of a role in the investigation.
As for the people in the county yamen, that was even more out of the question. They even suspected that there might be spies planted by the person behind the scenes among the yamen runners and constables.
At least, if they were to put themselves in their shoes, they would not overlook such an important place as the county yamen and would definitely have spies planted within.
"Perhaps the ritual to transcend the vengeful spirits in the river will be the key for us to turn the situation around."
Ji Yuan murmured, his eyes flashing with a peculiar light.
Once the vengeful spirits and water ghosts in the Linfu River were transcended, and their immense resentment and Yin energy were resolved, he would be able to completely control the origin of this river.
Given its geographical location and the spread of divine authority, even while in Linfu County, his divine avatar would still receive blessings from the power of heaven and earth, and even wield the authority of a deity.
This was absolutely something the person behind the scenes could not stand by and watch. They might be unable to resist using some means, thus revealing a trace of clues.
In the blink of an eye, a month and a half passed. After the incident at the Hebo Temple, there were no major events in Linfu County.
While dealing with the many crimes committed by the twelve temple custodians, someone from the Prefectural Governor's mansion finally arrived at the county yamen.
The visitor belonged to a faction opposing the Prefectural Governor and was a confidant of the General's mansion, which controlled the military forces of the prefecture. Besides several high-ranking generals, there were also three hundred elite soldiers.
These soldiers were different from the city garrison. Their strength was at the mid to late stage of the flesh and blood realm, and they were constantly engaged in bandit suppression and demon slaying. Their combat effectiveness was worlds apart, and they were all battle-hardened veterans who had seen blood and killed.
With such an elite force of three hundred soldiers stationed outside Linfu County, even the county magistrate Zhang Qingyang's confidence increased by severalfold.
With at least an inner disciple of the Nine Profound Sect and over a dozen military experts present, the county yamen was now safer than ever, and they no longer had to worry about retaliation from the person behind the scenes on a daily basis.
Now, whenever Zhang Qingyang went out, he was always accompanied by two or three martial artists of the second realm. These military experts formed a combined attack formation, capable of fending off enemies in the late stage of the second realm.
Unless a third-realm existence intervened, the young county magistrate no longer had to worry about anyone breaking through his guards to cause him harm.
While the military generals assisted the county yamen in continuing the investigation, a large number of Taoist priests and monks also gradually appeared in Linfu County.
These individuals either heard the news or were invited. Most of them were registered Taoist priests of the imperial court or monks with some level of cultivation.
At the same time, altars began to be built along the entire Linfu River, where Taoist priests and monks from all directions could perform rituals of transcendence.
Over three hundred years, countless innocent people who had died tragically had been buried in the river.
These included both ordinary citizens and cultivators. Over the long years, immense resentment had accumulated, lingering at the bottom of the river and unable to dissipate.
Not to mention that the person behind the Hebo Temple had also set up multiple formations in the Linfu River to gather Yin energy and prevent the souls of the living from reincarnating.
Now, to break these formations, they needed to first transcend the resentment in the river, then dismantle them one by one, and finally transcend the vengeful spirits who were detained there and had suffered greatly.
However, before that, there was another very important matter that needed to be handled properly.
On this day, Ji Yuan's divine avatar walked out of the Hebo Temple and ascended to the source of the Linfu River. Six Heavy Water Pearls, transformed into divine artifacts, orbited him, a Yuan Chen whip was tied around his waist, and in his hand, he held a scepter representing the authority of the River God.
He exhaled slowly, casually patted the spirit beast bag at his waist, and then a massive python appeared beside him. It finally submerged into the river water, appearing beneath his feet and lifting him up.
"Although it will be a bit harder from now on, you can also use this opportunity to wash away the demonic energy on your body."
Ji Yuan looked at the giant python beneath him and then said in a low voice, "As for the end, whether you choose the path of an immortal spirit or embark on the path of divinity like this avatar of mine, it will depend on your own choice."
The giant python, named Xiao Hei, immediately sent a blurry thought. Then, it carried him down into the Linfu River.
Divine light emanated from his body, not blocking the river water. This divine avatar followed the Great Dao of Water, and now that he had mastered some of the River God's authority, he was naturally unaffected by the water.
In fact, compared to being on land, his divine abilities were even stronger in the water.