Chapter 146: Case File

The students dispersed. Pei Ye chased after Zhang Junxue for two steps, raised his hand to pat her shoulder and smiled: "That sword move just now was really powerful!"

Zhang Junxue held the silver tightly in her hand, the corners of her mouth hooked slightly, and she didn't speak.

Pei Ye didn't speak again, until he watched the people around him walk away, then he tilted his head and said in a low voice: "To be honest, was there a third sword?"

Zhang Junxue actually nodded honestly.

Then she took out the Ascension Pill she had just obtained: "This, do you want it?"

Pei Ye was startled: "This is too precious! I can't take it."

The woman was silent for a while and said in a small, muffled voice: "You can buy it."

"... You should speak clearly in the future," Pei Ye looked at this pill. The medicinal properties of the last one had indeed been completely integrated into his body. "How much are you selling it for?"

"Eight taels and two hundred wen."

The martial arts hall might not use seven taels for this pill, but for martial arts practitioners without channels, this kind of medicine that helps cultivation is very precious. An Ascension Pill is indeed often over eight taels.

"... Not giving any discount at all?"

"Then," the woman paused, "round it off."

"..." Pei Ye calculated his assets—Shang Lang borrowed twenty taels, seven taels were left to Master Huang, and he had spent one tael on staying in the inn and eating so far, and spent eight hundred wen on the gift for Bai Sibing today. Counting other scattered expenses, there were still over eleven taels left.

Spending eight taels, only three taels were left.

Twenty taels, ten days, three taels.

Pei Ye realized for the first time the price of not using the Cloud Sky Covering Eyes Feather Loss.

He had a little doubt about his choice—perhaps, he didn't have to be so rule-abiding, it wouldn't matter if he used it, right?

"Do you... want it?"

"Another two hundred wen cheaper. There are still fifteen days, my inn money is not enough."

"Good."

Pei Ye took the silver, Zhang Junxue gave him the Ascension Pill, and adding the reward for second place in the small competition, Pei Ye still had five taels left.

"Why don't you take it yourself?" Pei Ye asked while putting away the medicine bottle.

Zhang Junxue shook her head.

Pei Ye was also used to her few words. When silent, it was either inconvenient to say or she didn't know. So he didn't ask anymore, bent down to pick up the sword, and was about to say goodbye to the woman, but saw that she had already raised her sword and set up a posture.

Only then did he remember that this was the time for the two to spar and practice together.

"Ah, that, why don't... you continue to find Chang Yue first?"

Zhang Junxue was stunned and slowly put away the posture.

"I might practice with others these few days," Pei Ye said while touching his neck. "Let's fight again when we have time later... otherwise?"

The sparring between the two was basically mutually beneficial. Zhang Junxue wanted to be familiar with the pressure brought by sword hands in the Clumsy Realm, and Pei Ye could hone the use of moves in a confrontation of equal strength.

But now Pei Ye seemed to have found a better object for mutual benefit.

He thought about whether to squeeze out half an hour to accompany Zhang Junxue to fight after sparring with Li Piaoqing, but the Cicada-Sparrow Sword hadn't been learned yet, and Spreading Wings and Clear Resonance still needed realization, and the time to absorb dragon blood to increase cultivation could not be compressed anymore.

Zhang Junxue nodded quietly and began to practice the sword by herself.

Pei Ye looked back, and Chang Yue already had a partner.

"... Then you practice by yourself first. There are still more than ten days before the martial arts competition... no, let's wait for me to learn it in these five days, and then we will practice well in the second half, the kind that one day is worth five days!"

——

Pei Ye turned his head, and Li Piaoqing was already standing in the corner. She had also just finished a round of practice, her face was rosy and her eyes were bright. Seeing Pei Ye still talking to people, she first held a volume of books and read.

Pei Ye carried the sword box and walked toward her. Li Piaoqing put down the book and smiled, lifting her sword.

The sparring between the two was actually not practice, a more appropriate word was "verification." The subject of "practice" was the two people, while the subject of "verification" was the sword technique.

Last night had already proven that the two were not suitable for sparring. Today, the two no longer used the Fingertip Sword as a medium, but directly discussed and performed moves with each other. When they encountered points worth noting, they would dismantle the sword moves and repeatedly study them.

This kind of discussion promoted the understanding of both sides. Pei Ye was also the first time to have this kind of discussion with a sword hand of the same level, and naturally had realizations repeatedly, and found that even in the same Clumsy Realm, the understanding of the sword actually deviated greatly.

When resting, the two sat under the lamp. Pei Ye reached into the sword box, and Li Piaoqing put the case file on her lap and flipped through it.

"Can I take a look?" Pei Ye asked.

Li Piaoqing didn't speak, and moved the case file toward the middle of the two.

Pei Ye poked his head over, but after flipping through three pages, he couldn't help but frown.

This case file had a total of twelve pages. For a case, the length was not small, and the record was not rough, but there was not much effective information in it, but it was filled with a lot of unnecessary details.

Was it because there was no more to write?

After flipping through this volume, Pei Ye only extracted a rough scene: Zhao the dart head escorted a dart, Li Piaoqing's senior brother accompanied him, and the two had a process of drawing swords and fighting on the way back, but there was no blood on the sword blades.

The process of fighting was the most worthy of writing. Experienced martial arts practitioners could summarize many habits and characteristics of the attacker from the traces left by the fighting. These were information of great value for finding the true murderer.

But the case file only mentioned it in two strokes.

Was the murderer's way of taking action so helpless?

Li Piaoqing's senior brother's wrists had been bound, and his body had suffered many injuries, while Zhao the dart head was only pierced through the heart by a sword.

The state of these two corpses was the most detailed part of this case file. Pei Ye flipped back to these pages and looked at them repeatedly, where the injury was light and where the injury was heavy, where the injury was received first and where the injury was received later; which were caused by fighting, which were left by short blades, which were caused by fists and feet... Every wound was recorded in detail.

But Li Piaoqing didn't look at these pages much, and raised her head, not knowing what she was thinking.

Pei Ye thought she was unbearable to look at, read these pages carefully, raised his head and said to the young girl: "Miss Li, as far as these wounds are concerned, some look like they were produced in the fighting, ruthless and calm, picking tendons and piercing bones, just to subdue the enemy; others look like they were produced after your senior brother was bound, with a large number of kicks and punches—even if the purpose was torture, this is not the most effective means, more like an emotional vent."

"So I think, either the murderer has both calm and fanatical states, or there are two people... I don't know if your senior brother had any enemies while alive."

"... Senior brother had no private enemies," Li Piaoqing suddenly smiled. "Thank you, Young Hero Pei, but I already knew these... actually, the record of the corpse's wounds was written by me word by word."

"..."

"Because the corpse was taken back by us for verification, I handed this record to the prefecture government and let them record it in the case file. But actually, there is one line they didn't record—there were traces of senior brother's head being stepped on with force, then thrown into a manure pit to be insulted, and his eyes were dug out."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 147 =====