CHAPTER 381: CHAPTER 26: NIGHT SHIFT CAPTURE OF THE THIEF

Realizing that the breeding farm had been robbed, Granny Madan did not panic.

She was the wife of an Imperial Soldier, and although she had been living in seclusion in the Mazaro Mountains for many years, the desolate mountains and the years spent raising the Monster Snowflake Bulls told her that this cattle thief was no ordinary thief.

Granny Madan went out to the breeding farm to inspect the Dark Array left by her husband.

After operating overnight, the Advanced Defense Dark Array functioned well, showing no signs of malfunctions.

It seemed that the cattle thief had not broken in from the outside, could it be?

Granny Madan pondered, scrutinizing every corner of the breeding farm, she never doubted Yue Jinghua from beginning to end.

She searched from the front to the back of the farm, and just as Granny Madan was about to wake Yue Jinghua to tell her about the situation.

In the corner of the farm ahead, there lay a bloody skeleton of a cow.

"Ah!" Granny Madan got startled and let out a sharp scream.

In the cabin, Yue Jinghua had just finished a night of meditation and had just expelled the turbid air from her chest when she heard the screaming coming from behind the breeding farm.

Granny Madan!

Yue Jinghua immediately burst out the door, rushing toward the direction of the sound like a whirlwind.

In the darkest corner of the breeding farm, Granny Madan trembled, collapsing to the ground.

It was an adult Snowflake Bull, with beautifully contrasting black and white fur, its large eyes filled with tears, and its long eyelashes trembling in the morning breeze.

Yue Jinghua still remembered this cow; it was Granny Madan’s favorite cow, named Maggie. It was very gentle, and just half a month before her arrival, it had given birth to a calf.

Unlike the mother cow’s peaceful face, the body of the mother cow had completely disappeared, its meat and organs all gone, leaving only a skeleton and cow’s head.

This terrifying manner of death struck Granny Madan like a bolt of lightning.

"Wuu wuu, damn cattle thief, why did he have to mutilate Maggie like this," Granny Madan cried, embracing Yue Jinghua.

Old Kuru had only left for a day, and such an incident occurred.

Yue Jinghua consoled Granny Madan, staring at the horrifically dead cow carcass, feeling an uneasy premonition in her heart.

That night, Yue Jinghua carefully checked the Dark Arrays around the breeding farm, and to ensure their absolute reliability, she even summoned several giant-winged mosquitoes, confirming that not even a mosquito could escape, and then she searched every corner of the breeding farm again.

After confirming repeatedly that there was nothing unusual in the breeding farm, she returned to her cabin with a solemn expression.

That night, both Granny Madan and Yue Jinghua had an uneasy sleep, and at dawn, both with red eyes, they walked into the first cowshed.

After counting the number of cows in the shed, their expressions eased slightly.

But as they entered the second cowshed, the bizarre scene happened again.

Another cow was missing.

In the same spot where they had found Maggie’s body yesterday, another skeleton was discovered.

The same method of death, still a complete skull, but only a skeleton remained.

In the following days, no matter how vigilant Yue Jinghua and Granny Madan were, even staying up all night outside the cowshed, they did not find any clues about the cattle thief.

Due to a lack of sleep and shock, Granny Madan’s spirit was clearly much worse than before, with fine lines emerging on her forehead.

This made Yue Jinghua feel very guilty, fearing that Granny Madan would fall ill even before Old Kulu returned.

This situation absolutely cannot continue.

She pondered repeatedly over the recent conditions of the breeding farm; apart from one cow mysteriously disappearing each day, everything else was normal.

What baffled her the most was that she had stayed outside the cowshed all night yesterday, and she was certain that no one had intruded.

Or was it that the cattle thief had been hiding in the cowshed all along?

But upon reflection, Yue Jinghua dismissed this thought.

She had interacted with the Monster Snowflake Bulls, these Dark Beasts were definitely not docile by nature, having strong herd instincts; they would growl if strangers approached, or even launch a collective attack.

In such circumstances, how could a cattle thief stealthily carry away a large Snowflake Bull?

It seemed there was only one method left.

That evening, with much worry, Granny Madan proposed to Yue Jinghua the idea of hiring more mercenaries or calling members from the Second Generation Soldier Mercenary Team to guard the Mazaro Farm from Five Saints Town.

This suggestion was rejected by Yue Jinghua, who assured Granny Madan that tonight, she would find a way to catch the malicious cattle thief.

Granny Madan hesitantly agreed with Yue Jinghua, and taking the opportunity when Granny Madan was tidying up the dishes, Yue Jinghua secretly added a bit of Calming Powder, developed by Feng Chuo, into her tea.

After drinking it, Granny Madan soon fell asleep.

After escorting Granny Madan back to her room, Yue Jinghua pretended to return to her own cabin and quietly blew out the candle.

The night and tranquility enveloped the Mazaro Breeding Farm just as usual.

In the cowshed, several Snowflake Bulls were chewing the dry hay, everything was normal.

Several hours passed, and Yue Jinghua, once again in her Second Primordial Spirit state, like a highly alert Siberian Shepherd Dog, closely inspected her surroundings.

The Dark Array was operating normally, and there was no strange presence in the cowshed.

Just when Yue Jinghua thought that everything would be peaceful tonight, a few giant-winged mosquitos she had sent out to surveil sent a signal.

In the third cowshed, there was a disturbance.

Like a gentle breeze, Yue Jinghua dashed past several cowsheds and quietly snuck into the third one.

In the cowshed, a Dark Array filled with strange runes emitted a dim light.

The light enveloped a robust Snowflake Bull, and while it was nibbling on the dry hay, it silently swallowed it whole.

Having witnessed all this, Yue Jinghua instantly understood.

No wonder she and Granny Madan, who had been staking out the cowshed these past days, hadn’t discovered the cattle thief; it turned out that the thief was stealing the Snowflake Bulls in this manner.

Yue Jinghua had limited knowledge of Dark Arrays, but the one she saw just now, she happened to recognize.

It was a Transmission Array.

Yue Jinghua had once reached the distant Shaba Town, thousands of miles away from Shang Kingdom, via a Four-directions Transmission Array during the One-star Mercenary Assessment; the Transmission Dark Array she used then was very similar to the one she just saw, which was used to steal the Snowflake Bull.

The only differences were minor changes in the runes on the Dark Array and judging by the speed and light of the disappearance of the Dark Array, this transmission array was much smaller in scale.

"Damn cattle thief, making me busy for days, now I won’t catch you red-handed," mumbled Yue Jinghua, quickly moving towards the secluded corner where she had found the carcass of the Snowflake Bull during the day.