The villagers felt that something was amiss the moment they heard the set of instructions given by their village head.
Still, they reluctantly cancelled their plans for the day and abided by the given instructions.
One by one, the villagers streamed into the village hall with apprehension in their hearts.
And when they saw the imperious look on the cultivators' faces, as well as the look of guilt on Fu Du's, they immediately understood that the cat had been let out of the bag.
"You lot sure are amazing, even daring to lie to us!" Pu Feixiang scoffed.
The villagers felt their bodies go weak and fell to their knees.
They had thought that the cultivators would not be able to find out about the past incidents as long as nobody said a thing, which was why they had agreed to Fu Du's suggestion to collectively keep the past from them.
Alas, things still ended up like this.
Now, the villagers could not be more regretful, and were completely terrified of the potential consequences.
They knew that, if angered, these few cultivators were more than capable of levelling the entire East Stream Village!
"Please forgive us, great cultivator sirs!" Fu Du immediately pleaded. "We will never forget your magnanimity!"
"Please forgive us, great cultivator sirs!" the villagers bowed as they repeated.
"We will see about that," Mo Mian answered coldly. "Before that, you will be telling us every last thing you know about the monkey named Little Blackarms that used to stay in the village."
"And make sure you do not miss a single detail," Chu Han cautioned.
"Y-Yes, great cultivator sir! We will definitely do that!" Fu Du answered.
"I'm not asking you," Mo Mian glared at him, causing the old man to cower.
"We will definitely do as you say!" the other villagers quickly followed up.
"You'd better!" Pu Feixiang sneered.
What came next was a long series of interrogations.
Now that they realised most of the villagers actually knew of the monkey when it was young, Chu Han's plan was to extract every last bit of information from them.
What were its preferences in terms of food, treatment, and items?
How did it usually behave, and what did it enjoy doing?
What were its usual reactions to various events?
Who did it like or dislike the most?
Some of these questions sought answers that were rather subjective in nature, but the party had taken that into consideration as well.
After all, there was no smoke without fire.
When there were enough people sharing in on a particular opinion, there was usually some reason behind it as well.
At the very least, it would be something worthy of consideration.
The party split themselves into three different groups, with Gui Longcan and Zhao Yunxiao as the first, Chu Han as the second, and Mo Mian as the third.
They similarly divided the villagers into three sections, with each group taking one section to interview.
Despite being divided into sections, the villagers had to enter a house one by one, each of them to be interrogated alone.
It was not a huge village, but there were still more than a hundred people to be questioned, not to mention how detailed they needed to be to make sure they did not miss anything important.
That made the entire process long and tedious, both for the villagers and for the party.
Nevertheless, the party went ahead with this.
They would rather go through this long-drawn process than risk missing any information that could be of value.
Pu Feixiang was the only one among the Mystic Cavalry who was not part of the interviewing process.
Instead, he was responsible for watching over the rest of the villagers as they waited for their turn., making sure that they would not have any opportunities to align their stories.
Under his watchful gaze, the villagers felt extremely uncomfortable and dared not make a sound.
By the time they were done speaking to every single villager, dusk was already quickly approaching.
Most of the villagers had been allowed to leave the village hall with the consent of the party, the only exception being a middle aged man who had been specifically asked to stay behind.
"Ye Cangyu, is it?" Mo Mian asked.
"Y-Yes, great cultivator sir. This lowly one is called Ye Cangyu," the middle aged man answered nervously. "Is there something that I can help you with?"
Seeing that he was the only one left, it was only natural that Ye Cangyu would feel anxious about his fate.
"He is the smith of the village," Pu Feixiang added.
Pu Feixiang had just visited the smith when looking for information yesterday.
Back then, who knew that they would be meeting each other again this soon?
And in such a manner to boot!
"Is that so?" Mo Mian raised an eyebrow. "You must be really skilled at making weapons, then?"
"When it comes to making weapons, Ah Ye is the best in the village, for sure," Fu Du complimented from the side. "He is a valuable asset to the village, and everyone has always been relying on his craft."
"Haha, I'm just doing my best to help the village in whatever way I can," Ye Cangyu scratched his cheek in embarrassment. "I'm not good at anything else, so I can only do this for everyone."
"I don't know about the villagers relying on your craft, but you are popular for sure," Mo Mian replied. "Do you know that more than half of the villagers mentioned your name today?"
"They mentioned my name?" Ye Cangyu revealed a look of surprise. "May I know what they said about me?"
"What do you think they would say?" Mo Mian directed the question back to him.
"I... I'm not quite sure, great cultivator sir," Ye Cangyu answered hesitantly.
"Then I will tell you," Mo Mian said with a smile. "Congratulations. You have been voted as the person whom the monkey demon likely hates the most."
Mo Mian might be smiling, but Ye Cangyu felt no warmth from it whatsoever.
"I-Is that so...?" Ye Cangyu could only let out a bitter smile in response.
"And that is why..." Mo Mian's smile grew wider as he spoke. "We have decided that you will be helping us bait out the monkey demon."
"What?!" Ye Cangyu cried out in terror. "No! No, wait! Please spare me, great cultivator sir! There has to be some sort of misunderstanding here! I know, maybe it has been too long and the other villagers are confused! Yes, that's right. They have probably confused me for someone else! Why don't we ask them again? I'm sure they will change their mind this time!"
"Will you change your mind, Village Head Fu?" Mo Mian turned his attention towards Fu Du.
"Wait a minute! You said that too, Village Head Fu?" Ye Cangyu questioned.
"This..." Fu Du hesitated to answer.
"How can you do this to me?!" Ye Cangyu shouted in rage. "Do you know how much I have done for this village? How can you betray me like this?"
"H-How is this a betrayal?" Fu Du retorted despite being slightly flustered from being called out. "You heard the great cultivator sir. More than half of the villagers said the same thing. My statement alone wouldn't have made a difference!"
"The person who had abused the monkey demon the most," Pu Feixiang stated the reason that most villagers gave. "What an achievement!"
"Did you perhaps use those smithing skills that you are so proud of to make equipment for abusing others?" Gui Longcan questioned.
"N-No! Not at all! Please spare me, great cultivator sir!" Ye Cangyu turned his attention back to Mo Mian. "I have a family to take care of. I cannot afford to be taken by the demon!"
"Don't worry, we are here," Chu Han replied. "At the very least, you won't be dying from this. Probably."
Hearing that did not help Ye Cangyu feel the least bit better.
If anything, it actually made him feel worse.
"Please... I have a heart problem, and I'm plagued by numerous ailments. I cannot handle any shocks either!" Ye Cangyu continued to plead with them. "I'm sure there is another way to do this!"
"All right, shut up already," Mo Mian waved for him to be silent. "We will not need you to be there in person. For now, we will be trying this with just your scent."
"My... scent...?" Ye Cangyu seemed to have calmed down significantly after hearing that. "What does that mean?"
"We will be using your scent to increase the probability of our traps working," Mo Mian explained. "For that, we will be needing the clothes that you have been wearing recently."
"Ah, my clothes? I can do that..." an awkward smile started to form across Ye Cangyu's face. "Why didn't you say so earlier, great cultivator sir? If that is all that you need, then I will gladly cooperate to the best of my abilities!"
"Count yourself lucky," Pu Feixiang added grumpily. "If it were up to me, you will definitely be there in person to act as a live bait."
Ye Cangyu's smile froze.
"All right, go back and prepare the clothes that you have been wearing recently," Mo Mian instructed. "Make sure that you bring them to the inn by tonight so that we can use it tomorrow."
"For sure, great cultivator sir! Consider it done!" Ye Cangyu agreed immediately. "If there is nothing else, I will be taking my leave."
"Scram already!" Pu Feixiang snapped, and the middle aged smith hurried out of the village hall.
"Well then, we should also head back to make our own preparations," Mo Mian got up to leave.
"Got it," the rest of the party followed suit.
"Is there anything else that I can do for you?" Fu Du asked out of courtesy.
"Not lying again will be a good start," Mo Mian answered coldly before walking off.
"You are not off the hook yet either!" Pu Feixiang cautioned the village head.
Fu Du had no retort. All he could do was watch on in silence as the cultivators left the village hall.
At the same time, a wave of emotions flooded his mind – one that was a mixture of both exhaustion and relief.
***
The party returned to the inn and convened in Mo Mian's room for a discussion once more.
"The more I think about today, the angrier I get!" Pu Feixiang grumbled. "Why do we have to pick up the pieces for them?"
"Should we just let them die to the monkey demon then?" Gui Longcan snapped back, obviously not in a good mood himself.
"The monkey demon is only kidnapping those by the river anyway. It is not like it is out to kill all the villagers," Pu Feixiang argued. "The village won't die out."
"Tch!" Gui Longcan clicked his tongue in frustration. "Without the ability to fish by the river, who do you think the resulting lack of food will impact the most?"
"Definitely not the village head or the more senior villagers," Mo Mian answered instead. "And they are the main culprits."
"Damn..." Pu Feixiang sighed. "But I just feel so indignant!"
"Are you feeling indignant for the demon?" Gui Longcan asked. "Since when have you been so benevolent towards demons?"
"That's not it, but I just think that we shouldn't be helping scum like these!" Pu Feixiang said.
"What is the matter, Junior Martial Brother Zhao?" Chu Han asked all of a sudden. "Is there something on your mind?"
His comment drew everyone's attention to Zhao Yunxiao who had been silent for a while now.
Zhao Yunxiao slowly looked around the room to meet everyone's gaze before asking, "Don't you feel that we have been focusing on the wrong things?"
"We have been focusing on the wrong things?" Mo Mian frowned. "Explain."
"There are three ways for a demon to form," Zhao Yunxiao started. "It could be through self cultivation, external creation, or if they were another demon's offspring."
Everyone furrowed their brows simultaneously.
Those words were more than enough for everyone to understand just what Zhao Yunxiao was trying to say.
"If the young monkey had attained demonhood through self cultivation or external creation, it would be unlikely to have been taken down and imprisoned by the villagers in the past, even if they had all worked together..." Mo Mian rubbed his chin in contemplation.
They had seen the villagers for themselves.
While they did possess decent weapons, they could not be considered strong warriors by any measure.
Injuring a full-fledged demon might be doable for them, but actually imprisoning one was nigh impossible.
"In fact, self cultivation can be ruled out completely, considering how young the monkey was," Chu Han added.
"That means it had somehow managed to attain demonhood while it was in the wild during the past twenty years!" Pu Feixiang exclaimed.
"Don't speak nonsense if you don't know anything," Gui Longcan chided. "If that is the case, then it would not have exhibited an unusual level of strength back then either. Junior Martial Brother Zhao is trying to say that the monkey demon is likely to be the offspring of another demon!"
"If it is the offspring of another demon, then it makes sense that it was relatively weak back when it was still young," Chu Han agreed.
"What? Does that mean we are dealing with multiple demons here?" Pu Feixiang asked in surprise. "Do we have to deal with its parents too?"
"I'm just saying that it is a possibility," Zhao Yunxiao clarified. "And even if it really is the offspring of other demons, there is also a chance that its parents are no longer around."
"But if they are still around, then this is going to be a lot more complicated," Chu Han said solemnly.
"This is complicated indeed," Mo Mian agreed. "Until we fully understand what we are dealing with here, we will only be moving together as a group from now on. Let's ensure that there are no accidents until the very end."
"Understood!" the party members acknowledged.
As they adjourned the meeting and returned to their assigned rooms, Chu Han could not help but steal a glance at the departing Zhao Yunxiao.
Zheng Biru did the right thing to have recommended Zhao Yunxiao as his replacement for this mission.
This young junior martial brother was really proving to be far more interesting than he had originally expected!