Chapter 524: Mi Feng

Fan Sheng's temple vein throbbed; he struggled to suppress his temper and only asked about the major event that had just occurred: "Lord Zhongsun Mou was swallowed by the monster he was hunting?" During the return trip, his subordinates had already reported the details of Lord Zhongsun Mou's accident to him.

Fan Sheng had also been given a huge fright.

Lord Zhongsun Mou had met with an accident, and he himself was at Baishawan. If this matter were investigated later, it would implicate him as well.

Then everything he had done here would have to be accounted for in full.

Magistrate Tian's face grew even more bitter; this was truly a case of misfortunes never coming singly. Should he just resign from his post and return home to the Emperor? "Yes, yes, that thing swallowed Magistrate Lord Zhongsun in one gulp and dived into the sand to escape."

No matter how much Fan Sheng loathed He He Lingchuan, he had to ask at this moment: "Was that really the criminal you were hunting?"

"I didn't see it with my own eyes; we were wrestling in the Hegong at the time, remember?" He He Lingchuan shrugged, "But according to the testimony of the villagers, the monster that snatched Lord Zhongsun Mou away looked very much like the Snail Toad that Mai Xuewen used to hunt demons."

Even someone as knowledgeable as Fan Sheng found it inconceivable: "This Mai fellow has already escaped, so why would he come back to snatch Lord Zhongsun Mou?"

"Who knows? Perhaps he wanted revenge too," He He Lingchuan smiled, "Or perhaps Magistrate Lord Zhongsun was standing in his way?"

*Also? * This was a jab at him. Fan Sheng glared, about to snap at him, but He He Lingchuan cut him off again: "Now that even the Inspection Envoy has been snatched away, how does Magistrate Fan think Lingxu City will handle this matter?"

This was a serious question, and also the most important one at the moment. Fan Sheng's anger was suppressed, and after thinking for a moment, he said: "Once it is reported, it will be a major affair; they will certainly investigate until the truth is revealed."

First, the Bai Jiandiao that delivered letters to the front lines went missing, and then the Inspection Envoy handling the case was swallowed in broad daylight. This was two consecutive slaps to the face for Lingxu City—left cheek then right—so how could the Emperor swallow this insult?

The majesty of Lingxu City would not brook provocation.

"They will definitely send a special envoy down to investigate the case." The disappearance of the Bai Jiandiao might have been an accident, but Lord Zhongsun Mou's misfortune was witnessed by thousands of eyes here; Lingxu would never be so negligent again. When that time comes, it will be a dedicated person handling a dedicated case, investigating and punishing strictly; it won't be as casual as Lord Zhongsun Mou's investigation.

What a disaster.

He He Lingchuan asked him again: "Then, what about the personnel and physical evidence currently involved in the case?"

"Of course, they must all be detained; they are not allowed to leave Baishawan." Speaking of this, Fan Sheng let out a depressed breath. It seemed that he himself was included in that group.

This time he had wanted to return a favor to the Lord Zhongsun family, but who knew he would end up covered in filth? What was the point of it all?

He He Lingchuan saw his frustration and believed his previous explanation a little more. He didn't say anything else and turned to leave.

"Are you alright?" Jiao Yu saw that half of his clothes were red.

"I'm not, it hurts like hell." Being injured was a common occurrence, which didn't mean he didn't feel pain, especially since the analgesic effect of the Shituo powder had worn off, "But I have to go to a place first."

Magistrate Tian was still very thoughtful; seeing the Special Envoy was injured, he arranged a carriage for him despite his busy schedule.

Consequently, He He Lingchuan went to find Commander Lu to get Jia Yu back, then boarded the carriage and headed northwest along the lakeshore.

Wasn't this just walking back the way they came?

The tiger lay at the window, and two quarters of an hour later, the Hegong in the lake was vaguely visible.

Jia Yu asked curiously: "Why has the Special Envoy come here again?"

"I dropped something in the water and need to go back to retrieve it." His precious treasure that he had been thinking about.

Jia Yu understood immediately and said obediently: "I will go row the boat back, please wait a moment!"

The carriage arrived at the spot; he stepped off the carriage in two strides, kicked off his shoes into the water, and soon swam far away.

He He Lingchuan hadn't waited long before Jia Yu rowed a small boat to the shore.

This was the Cen family's boat; it had previously carried Fan Sheng over to ambush He He Lingchuan, but failed, and the boat had been pushed away by Jia Yu.

Now he had rowed it back to carry the wounded He He Lingchuan into the lake once more.

The tiger didn't get a seat this time either; the boat was too small and it was too heavy, so it could only lie on the shore and wait.

Soon, the small boat returned to the place where He He Lingchuan had fought Fan Sheng.

Both of them were dumbfounded; the scene before them was completely different from when they had left: centered on where Fan Sheng had fallen into the water, the area within a ten-zhang radius was filled with broken lotus flowers and withered stamens; not a single lotus was intact.

This stretch of water looked like it had been swept clean. Besides plant stems and leaves, the corpses of water birds, insects, and fish floated on the surface. Those arrogant and overbearing piranhas had mostly turned belly-up; over a dozen were even dismembered, and only two were still alive, circling in place while flapping their remaining fins.

They weren't far from death either.

Jia Yu muttered: "What happened here?"

"Fan Sheng unleashed a life-saving ultimate move and nearly perished together with the lotus demon." He He Lingchuan had him row closer to the position where he had previously picked the Overlord Lotus and circled the area a few more times.

The location of the treasure indicated by the Divine Bone Necklace was slightly different from before.

He He Lingchuan had an idea, pinpointed the location, and went into the water again.

This time he dived all the way to the bottom and carefully felt around.

The water was full of messy floating debris, but He He Lingchuan only swam back and forth on the lakebed.

Jia Yu widened his eyes, watching him grope in the lake mud for a long time before he finally surfaced.

He helped He He Lingchuan back onto the small boat and saw that the other was holding something in his arms, like a piece of broken pottery; it was impossible to tell if it was a jar or a vat, but it was full of mud and buried with a large piece of lotus root.

He He Lingchuan rinsed the mud off with lake water and discovered that the broken pottery was surprisingly clean—not even a bug carcass or snail egg—only that lotus root segment remained.

This lotus root didn't know why it had snapped; the cross-section of its peers was rice-white, but only this one was blood-red, and at this moment, it was still oozing a pale red mucus that looked a bit like human blood at first glance.

"This is?" Jia Yu was somewhat incredulous, "Could this be the lotus...?"

"It's probably the water spirit of the lake." Jia Yu had once mentioned that the water spirit punished cheaters. Fan Sheng had ambushed He He Lingchuan this time and cut down a large patch of the lotus wall; the lotus demon would know at a glance that this wasn't someone participating in the event properly, but someone here to cause trouble.

He He Lingchuan had guessed it had a bad temper, but he hadn't expected it to take revenge while Fan Sheng was trapped in the spider web, only to be wiped out by the ultimate move the other had unleashed.

Over two hundred years of bitter cultivation had vanished into thin air, leaving only this half-broken lotus root.

However, was it really dead?

"Let's go back."

The small boat rowed toward the shore; this time, the Divine Bone Necklace no longer heated up.

It seemed he had finally struck gold.

After going ashore, He He Lingchuan transferred to a carriage to return to the inn and gave Jia Yu a tael of silver as a service fee.

The soldier left happily, and the tiger went to find Commander Lu. He He Lingchuan had the inn send up hot water so he could clean off the silt, residual leaves, and insect carcasses from his body.

After soaking in the water, his wounds also needed to be re-treated.

By the time he finished all this, half an hour had passed. He He Lingchuan finally found a comfortable chair to sit in and took out the broken pottery dug from the lake to examine it.

Actually, the material of this thing wasn't pottery; it was jade-like yet not jade, iron-like yet not iron, and it made a resonant sound when tapped.

Seeing its black body and white rim, it was probably a pot-shaped container originally, but now at most one-third remained, with only the bottom being relatively complete.

Anyway, it was a fragment, so he wasn't afraid of breaking it; He He Lingchuan simply tapped it twice with a small knife.

*Clang, clang, clang*—nothing happened.

He He Lingchuan simply slammed it against the edge of the table.

With a *snap*, it was still fine, but the corner of the table fell off.

The texture of this fragment was surprisingly hard!

That was it; how could something favored by the Divine Bone not have some trick to it? But this thing had a frosted texture all over with no patterns, or perhaps the part with patterns had already shattered; only a few characters were engraved on the bottom:

Mi Feng.

To have wind when one wants wind, to have rain when one wants rain.

The first two characters were large, the latter eight were small, and they were actually all in the language of ancient immortals.

"So I really did pick up an ancient relic." He He Lingchuan looked at it, then at the half-broken lotus root, and speculated that this ancient relic had shattered for some reason, the fragments fell into Chaohu, and the result caused the lotus flowers growing within to turn into monsters.

He turned it over and over but found no new clues, so he fed the fragment to the Divine Bone Necklace.

The Divine Bone Necklace was overjoyed and ate it without leaving a scrap.

How it digested such hard fragments was a mystery. Having seen too many strange things, He He Lingchuan couldn't be bothered to think about it.

As for that lotus root, its cross-section was porous, so He He Lingchuan tossed it into the water basin.

Only then did he close his eyes to rest and begin to review the day's events.

Ever since the investigation into the messenger case had stalled, Fu Fu Songhua's hiding had become increasingly difficult, and He He Lingchuan himself had been ambushed twice. At that time, he understood that his opponent was acting unscrupulously, relying on their status as officials of Lingxu City; if he wanted to seize the initiative and break the passive situation, he needed a turning point.

This turning point was called:

Lord Zhongsun Mou must die!

On one hand, Lord Zhongsun Mou had strongly advocated taking Fu Fu Songhua back to Lingxu City to close the case. If he died, no one would be organizing this matter, and Fu Fu Songhua could continue to stay in Baishawan.

He He Lingchuan's urgent crisis was immediately resolved.

Originally, Fu Fu Songhua was about to be unable to hide any longer. The power of the Cen family was truly no joke, yet He He Lingchuan could not stop them.

On the other hand, Lord Zhongsun Mou's death would inevitably enrage Lingxu City. Once this matter was blown up, if the Emperor refused to let it go and the Lord Zhongsun family refused to let it go, then the special envoy sent down to handle the case could not be like Lord Zhongsun Mou, thinking about muddling through and dealing with it.

At that time, all evidence involved in the case would be placed under the sun and repeatedly scrutinized.

The Bai Jiandiao messenger case would also be overturned and retried.

Could the tricks the Cen family had pulled still be effective? Wouldn't the new special envoy be suspicious of them? It could be said that as soon as Lord Zhongsun Mou died, this game of chess came alive.

In extraordinary times, one must use extraordinary means.

Besides, it was Lord Zhongsun Mou and the others who had struck at him with dark and lethal blows first; He He Lingchuan was merely returning the favor.

Therefore, he had used the Snail Toad's eggs.

Wan Song had once confessed that they only needed to crush the eggs and stand on the ground to summon the Snail Toad.

If it were the master, the Snail Toad would naturally be obedient;

If it were someone else, such as He He Lingchuan or Lord Zhongsun Mou—those with ill intentions who had killed its offspring—the Snail Toad wouldn't bother thinking of a more vengeful method than swallowing them in one gulp.

Its brain wasn't much bigger than a peach; it wasn't meant for thinking in the first place.

During the gamble on the Chaohu Tower, He He Lingchuan had taken the opportunity to crush the Snail Toad egg, coated the Soul-Absorbing Mirror with its juices, and then dried it with true power.

(End of chapter)