Chapter 75: Gifting the Jade Flute

"I... I..."

"Drip... drip..."

The embroiderer couldn't help but raise her sleeve to cover her nose. "How disgusting!"

Gu Zhao stood up, slapped Liu Qingfeng squarely across the face with his open hand, and knocked him straight to the ground. "Are you sober now?"

"Awake, awake!" Liu Qingfeng replied immediately, then knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly. "Young Master, spare my life! Young Lady, spare my life! The one marrying into the Yuan family is my aunt; it has nothing to do with me!"

Gu Zhao nodded and smiled. "You are quite clever, knowing whose trouble you have fallen into."

Liu Qingfeng cried out in protest. "That Yuan family—no, Yuan Wenrui—is a treacherous villain, a shameless scoundrel! When he first arrived at Changping Prefecture, he begged and pleaded to marry my aunt, but after connecting with the Golden Wind Sect, he took many concubines and has grown distant from my Liu family."

"Moreover, this man is wolf-eyed and hawk-gazed, with a heart of a snake and a scorpion; he treats the people like fish and meat, disregards human life, takes bribes and perverts the law, and brings disaster to the nation and harm to the people. He has harmed so many innocent lives that nine deaths cannot atone for his crimes!"

"Although I am a member of the Liu family, I truly have no connection with him at all, and... and I even have a grudge against him, yes, a grudge! Last time, he even scolded me severely!"

The embroiderer pouted. "He scolded you once, and you hold such a grudge? You truly have a narrow mind."

Liu Qingfeng cried out in indignation. "But I did nothing! I neither seduced his concubines nor stole his gold and silver on the side. I was just strolling casually in the prefect's garden when I saw him walk into a secret room; I didn't even follow him inside!"

"Hmm?" Gu Zhao's eyes flashed, and then he glanced at Zhu Qingyan.

Zhu Qingyan was also a clever girl; after thinking for a moment, she extended her jade hand and waved it gently before Liu Qingfeng's eyes.

Her jade hand was slender and soft, fair and tender. Under normal circumstances, one might play with it for two hours without growing tired, but at this moment, Liu Qingfeng felt every hair on his face stand on end, as if a chilling mist had seeped through his skin and penetrated deep into his bones.

"Tell me everything you know about Yuan Wenrui, or else..." Zhu Qingyan cut off at the critical point.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Liu Qingfeng agreed without hesitation, offering no conditions like "spare my life if I speak," and simply poured out everything like beans from a bamboo tube.

Although his account was jumbled and lacked proper order, it was indeed exhaustive in every detail, even including the news he had overheard from his third concubine about what positions he liked to use.

Gu Zhao clicked his tongue. "No wonder he is someone who follows the Golden Wind Sect; that position is actually quite difficult."

The embroiderer lowered her eyes and head, daring not to look up, while Zhu Qingyan's face, pale with a hint of blue, seemed to lose even more color.

Liu Qingfeng spoke for a long time, and they managed to summarize the key points.

Yuan Wenrui arrived at Changping Prefecture thirty years ago, accompanying the Prefectural Assistant. He later went to Jiangyang Prefecture to study, and twenty years ago returned with an appointment as the Prefect of Jiang Zhou to serve as the Prefect of Changping Prefecture, remaining in that post ever since for twenty years.

When Yuan Wenrui first became Prefect, he had no foundation, so he married a daughter of the powerful Liu family in Changping Prefecture, then publicly endorsed the Golden Wind Divine Sect, thereby securing his position.

According to Liu Qingfeng, Yuan Wenrui is now in his fifties, but is well-maintained, appearing to be only in his thirties. He is full of energy with a ruddy complexion, reportedly due to pills provided by the Golden Wind Divine Sect.

It is unknown whether Yuan Wenrui cultivates, but there are indeed two great masters serving as his retainers to protect his person.

The final key point is the secret room where Liu Qingfeng was scolded by Yuan Wenrui. He indeed did not enter that secret room, but not because he didn't want to; rather, he wanted to enter but was discovered.

"I had been drinking at the time and was just a bit curious!" Liu Qingfeng explained. "I didn't actually go inside!"

Yuan Wenrui's secret room was neither in the bedroom nor in the study, but oddly located in the backyard garden, making it extremely hidden.

"If he had built the secret room in the study, I wouldn't have even seen it, so how could I have been curious enough to want to enter?" Liu Qingfeng felt he was wrongly accused.

Gu Zhao nodded. "That makes sense."

Liu Qingfeng nodded repeatedly, then licked his lips and asked hopefully, "I, I have finished speaking. Can, can I go now?"

"Of course." Gu Zhao nodded, patted Liu Qingfeng on the shoulder, and said, "I will send you off right now."

Liu Qingfeng's eyes lit up; he concealed the ferocity in his gaze, put on an innocent smile, and then heard Gu Zhao say, "Be a good person in your next life."

"What?" Liu Qingfeng's pupils contracted. He was about to beg for mercy, but then felt a pain in his head, everything went dark before his eyes, and he knew nothing more.

Looking at Liu Qingfeng lying overturned on the ground, Gu Zhao took a deep breath. "Killing people as a mage is indeed very simple."

He had not used a spell just now; he merely condensed his divine sense into a spike of mental power, gave a slight thrust into Liu Qingfeng's brain, and scattered his soul and spirit.

Daoist Yan Song stood up. "The rain has stopped."

Gu Zhao nodded. "Then let us go."

Moments later, a carriage drove away from the dilapidated River God Shrine. A fire broke out in the side hall of the ancestral hall after the rain, and in a short time, the side hall burned down and collapsed, burying several corpses of those who had committed great evils and aided the wicked.

"Liu Qingfeng was merely an ordinary person after all and knew nothing about the strength of those two great masters." Gu Zhao began to summarize. "Moreover, Yuan Wenrui is colluding with the Golden Wind Sect; there may even be people of the Golden Wind Sect within the prefectural residence."

"Additionally, there may be other experts within the residence." Daoist Yan Song added. "The visible sentries are merely targets; the hidden sentries are the key."

Gu Zhao ate a melon seed handed to him by the embroiderer and chuckled. "The Changping Prefectural Yamen is indeed a place where tigers lie hidden and dragons are concealed!"

Zhu Qingyan fell silent for a few breaths, just about to speak, when she saw Gu Zhao cup his hands toward her. "Miss Zhu, regarding the matter of dealing with Yuan Wenrui, I still need your help; I need you to break your precepts."

"Eh?" Zhu Qingyan was momentarily stunned.

Gu Zhao opened a side cabinet, took out a jade-green hollow flute from inside, and said, "If you play music with this flute, can you increase its power?"

Zhu Qingyan took the jade flute somewhat blankly and immediately sensed the spiritual energy and mental fluctuations within it.

This was a magical treasure of the mental attribute.

Zhu Qingyan's eyes flickered; instinctively, she brought the jade flute to her lips. With just a single note played, Gu Zhao and the other two felt their souls jump.

Zhu Qingyan held the jade flute in her hand and looked deeply at Gu Zhao.

"How is it?" Gu Zhao asked.

"A fine treasure." Zhu Qingyan gently stroked the jade flute.

"That is good." Gu Zhao nodded. "I am tone-deaf and simply cannot play; among us, only you can bring out the full power of this flute."

Zhu Qingyan pressed her lips together, raised the jade flute again, and then a melody filled with tenderness and longing began to play, like spring rain, gently brushing over the heart-lakes of the few present, stirring up a few ripples.

The music ended, the sound dispersed, yet the lingering notes circled the beams.

Zhu Qingyan put away the jade flute, bowed her head slightly, and moved her cherry lips. "Thank you, Brother Gu."