Chapter 262: Probing the Bag

When Seeing Pei Ye returned to the martial arts hall, the sky had already darkened. Yang Yan was still sitting in the small courtyard, reading *Snow Collapse* by the light of the setting sun, his brows tightly furrowed in a dull, bitter distress.

"Look at yourself, what could you possibly learn?" Seeing Pei Ye walked over with a smile, reaching out to take the sword manual from his hands. "Give it to me."

Yang Yan dodged away, raised his eyes, and gave him a cold look.

"What?"

"I can read it just fine on my own." Yang Yan turned his back. "I don't need you bothering me."

"Get lost." Seeing Pei Ye raised his head, rolled his eyes in annoyance, and reached out to grab the book. "Are you going to let go or not? I'm only reading it for tonight; I won't have any free time tomorrow."

"..." Yang Yan glared at him, then huffed and let go.

Seeing Pei Ye smiled, turned the book around to face himself, and headed toward the room.

"Where are you going again?" Yang Yan glared.

"Inside to read it myself, so you don't bother me."

He closed the door from the inside.

The noise was blocked out, and the light was blocked out. Seeing Pei Ye leaned his back against the door, breathing quietly and gently.

It was as if he were exhaling all the chaotic emotions of the past two days.

Then, he jumped up suddenly and did a backflip onto the bed.

The black cat on the bed pressed its paws down to keep from being bounced off, turning a pair of eyes to watch him quietly.

"Hehe." Seeing Pei Ye met those eyes and chuckled.

Then he suppressed his smile and said angrily, "Little black cat! You clearly saw it, but you deliberately didn't say anything, just watching me suffer!"

The black cat couldn't be bothered to respond and closed its eyes again.

Seeing Pei Ye didn't care whether he got a response. He turned and leaned against the headboard, clutching the sword manual, his dazed eyes shining as he stared at the rafters.

After a long while, he muttered, "It should be possible, right..."

He slowly raised his hand and held the book up before his eyes.

Only half a quarter of an hour later, he spread his elbows, revealing a face furrowed in deep thought: "Should I... go find Li Piaoqing and talk to her first?"

But as soon as the words left his mouth, he felt nervous. He shifted his body and said, "Or, or I should find a way to confirm things first, lest..."

He lowered his eyes and brought the book back before his face.

This time, he didn't put it down again.

The sunset faded, the stars rose, and the light in the room remained dim, but it shifted from pale gold to cold white.

Seeing Pei Ye didn't know how long he had been studying the manual; he seemed to have flipped through a few pages.

As the night deepened, Seeing Pei Ye pressed the book against his chest, just about to close his eyes for a nap, when the door leaf moved slightly. The room suddenly grew dim, and the candlelight was blocked by a figure.

Seeing Pei Ye opened his eyes abruptly, his hand already on his sword hilt.

But his body stopped halfway through springing up; it was Sui Zaihua.

The old man's expression was solemn, still carrying the chill of the autumn night. It was the first time Seeing Pei Ye had seen him carrying a sword, and for a moment, the night seemed to grow even heavier.

"The blue bird sent a feather; something has happened at the Immortal Platform." His voice remained calm, without any panic. "I must go over there. To prevent them from luring the tiger away from the mountain, I must take you with me."

"Alright." Seeing Pei Ye listened solemnly, immediately flipped over and kicked into his boots, grabbed his long sword with one hand, and the next moment his body felt light. A cool breeze brushed his face, and he was already outside the martial arts hall.

"What happened?" Seeing Pei Ye asked in a low voice, carefully controlling his posture, trying his best not to let his clothes or boots offend this high-ranking official.

"I don't know yet, but the blue bird was swift, not frantic; it shouldn't be a bloody affair."

Sui Zaihua had already left Bowang yesterday, so he didn't show his face now. He carried Seeing Pei Ye straight into the deep shadows. In the gloom, Seeing Pei Ye couldn't see the walls or alleys at all, only feeling as if his body were a silent, flowing shadow. A moment later, his vision brightened; he was already outside the Immortal Platform courtyard.

Without thinking, he exerted force to leap, his body feeling light as he drifted into a fourth-floor window.

It was the very place where they had gathered the day before.

The room was not lit, and the clerks who had been walking around downstairs during the day were gone. It was silent in the darkness, the atmosphere as heavy as stagnant water. As soon as Seeing Pei Ye entered, his chest felt compressed, and he held his breath. A moment later, having arrived at this solemn place from the bed in the west courtyard, he composed his thoughts and stood firmly on the ground.

In the center of the room stood a man with crane-like clothes and hawk-like eyes; it was the Shao Long Crane Inspector, Wu Dong. In his right hand was a bright long sword, held together with its scabbard. The heavy atmosphere of the entire room was tied to him. His sharp eyes, which seemed to pierce through everything, were staring straight at the desk, as if the answer to some ultimate question were hidden there, only shifting slightly when Sui Zaihua entered.

Standing quietly on the other side in white was the Tianshan Wind Inspector, An Zang. His sword was still safely hidden in its scabbard, clearly having arrived not long after the incident.

Seeing Pei Ye's gaze shifted back to Wu Dong, only to see that there were no signs of a struggle on him; his clothes were flat, his hair neat, and there were no injuries to be seen.

Just then, the Crane Inspector spoke coldly: "Someone has stolen the case files for the Soul-Snatching case, just now."

Silence fell.

The three masters had profound cultivation, and Seeing Pei Ye was ignorant of the details. This sentence seemed too light here, but in reality, if placed in the outside world, it would have already stirred up a wave of uproar.

A theft from the "Return-Storage Layer" of the Immortal Platform was, in the world of the Jianghu, absolutely something that required lowering one's voice and speaking vaguely about.

An Zang frowned and raised his eyes.

In the establishment of the State Platform, the functions of the various courtyards and rooms differed, and while each was indispensable, the true core was always this main building.

The so-called "Three-Floor Return-Storage," the "room within a room" that Seeing Pei Ye had passed by when he went upstairs the day before, where nothing could be seen, was precisely the place where various secret files were stored. The walls of the "inner room" were made of iron sandwiched between wood, with no windows, only a single door for entry and exit. Inside the door, it was divided into three layers based on importance, each with separate wrappings and partitions.

The case files for the "Soul-Snatching Sword-Theft" were naturally placed in the deepest layer. Most importantly, Wu Dong had clearly been on the fourth floor.

An Zang couldn't help but confirm: "Weren't the case files stored downstairs?"

Wu Dong looked at him: "If it had been stolen downstairs, I might not have realized it at all."

"..."

"Before nightfall, I took two volumes from the third cabinet to read carefully. The stolen ones were these two volumes."

"Where were these two volumes stolen from?"

Wu Dong's gaze had never moved from there. At this moment, he said quietly and coldly: "Right on this table."

"..." An Zang was silent for a moment, his expression also becoming solemn. "What was the Crane Inspector tied up with at the time? And where did you go?"

"I wasn't tied up with anything."

"..."

This sentence seemed to cut off the train of thought of all three people simultaneously. An Zang was bewildered, Seeing Pei Ye stared, and Sui Zaihua raised an eyebrow. The room was silent for a moment.

Wu Dong finally moved his eyes away from the desk, his voice cold and light: "And I didn't go anywhere. I was in this room the whole time."

"..."

A deeper silence followed. Seeing Pei Ye saw the old man beside him narrow his eyes, while An Zang opposite him shifted his feet and slowly walked toward the table.

"I was reading the section where 'Yang Hu is anxious to take the fruit,' and thought of some things, so I temporarily abandoned the scroll to ponder," Wu Dong recounted with a fixed gaze. "The pondering took three-quarters of an incense stick's time. The tea went cold, I re-brewed it, the water in the pot ran out, and I turned to add water."

He paused, his voice cold: "When I turned back, the desk was already empty."

"How much time passed?"

"Two and a half breaths."

"No traces at all?" An Zang's hand pressed lightly on the table, as if wanting to see if there were any mechanisms inside.

"The door was closed tight, the windows were not opened, I felt no disturbance in the airflow, and there were no ripples of true Qi," Wu Dong said. "Formless and traceless, without a single trace—that is the only trace."

"Not felt" and "none" were two different expressions. At the master level, one naturally had full knowledge of every movement in a small room and could see the finest details. One should have been able to assert it, but there were always realms higher than masters, and always things finer than autumn down. Wu Dong saying he "did not feel it" was precisely the cautious realism of a Crane Inspector, admitting the possibility of no tricks and being inferior in skill.

As for the assertion of "none," Seeing Pei Ye could roughly guess why—when chatting about anecdotes, Li Piaoqing had once told him that there was a magical artifact on the fifth floor of the Immortal Platform that was activated all year round, day and night, called "Mist-Water Listening to Truth." Its range covered the five-fold towers. It was rumored that if a living person entered it and released true Qi, the Qi mechanism would be startled and bound, immediately detected, and unable to escape.

This was precisely the solid defensive line that made even the boldest thieves shrink back from the Immortal Platform—all the "pretending to be ghosts" of cultivators must be based on true Qi. Once true Qi was sealed, who could come and go freely through the heavy defenses?

But at this moment, in the eyes of the three masters, this object was by no means flawless; it was merely an aid to narrow the scope. An Zang had already listed three possibilities.

"First, a sorcerer using spirits, which wouldn't startle the 'Mist-Water.' This is the most likely situation," An Zang left the table, confirming there were no mechanisms on it and no spirit patterns engraved, and looked up, saying softly, "I remember the Crane Inspector brought a Black Ribbon this time; we must consult him."

Wu Dong nodded.

"Second, I remember that 'Mist-Water Listening to Truth' records the true Qi of people on the Platform, so it doesn't react—but I don't know how many people were recorded here in Bowang?"

"Four people," Wu Dong said. "During the handover the day before yesterday, Cheng Lin told me everything."

"Then all four of these people must be investigated," An Zang continued. "Also, the two officials should know that there are some strange techniques, either imitating others' true Qi or temporarily absorbing others' true Qi for one's own use. This must also be started from these four people; perhaps someone has already been harmed."

Wu Dong nodded, his expression still solemn.

The minds of the others were not at ease either. An Zang's calm narration, while logical and seemingly pointing out a path, was not the core of the problem.

—Methods and cases of bypassing "Mist-Water Listening to Truth" had even been specially compiled into booklets by the Immortal Platform. How to start such a case was a mystery to outsiders, but to senior Goose Inspectors and Crane Inspectors, it was often just a few fixed steps to take.

But bypassing the eyes and ears of a second-rank Mystic Gate master was another matter.

In a sealed room, under the coverage of Qi mechanisms, what was more incredible than snatching food from a tiger's mouth was stealing food from a tiger's mouth.

If someone had really gently picked up the case files from the desk at that time, then at such a distance, Wu Dong, who felt nothing, had his life almost in that person's hands.

But at this moment, except for Seeing Pei Ye, who had little experience, the masters were not actually thinking about this chilling, ghostly scene. Their hearts were leaning more toward a more mysterious and formless "teleportation" or "spirit-Qi hand."

This matter seemed to have reached an end for the moment. In the silence, Sui Zaihua suddenly said: "What about the remaining case files downstairs?"

"I don't know," Wu Dong shook his head lightly. "From the moment I saw this scene, I only did two things: draw my sword and notify the two of you."

This Crane Inspector had no expression on his face, but Seeing Pei Ye could almost imagine the body that suddenly stiffened and the heart that clenched when he turned back with the pot. Confusion leads to mistakes; facing such a thing, every step could be a trap, and this master's experience was rich enough.

"Then let's go take a look."

"Alright."

"Seeing Pei Ye."

"Hmm?"

"You walk in the middle."

——————————

Third floor.

It was also empty. Several people arrived before the door of the Registry Cabinet, only to see the door closed and the lock fallen, all sealed according to standard procedures. The secret patterns left on the lock were also the secret codes for the day, with no signs of having been opened.

They didn't call for the clerks. Cheng Lin had gone out to investigate the Seven Serpents Cave on Wu Dong's orders that day, and the tokens he carried had all been handed over. Wu Dong used this to push open the door. The room was pitch black. Wu Dong flicked his finger, and a stream of true Qi swept past, instantly illuminating the room with pearls.

The three of them stepped into the cabinet and turned to close the main door.

The first cabinet was indeed not very strict; the hall was high and wide, and it could be seen that it was used for borrowing books quite often. There were even tables and chairs inside, presumably for some duties to be handled there on weekdays.

Now that people had left, everything was placed in perfect order.

And in the next instant, Seeing Pei Ye felt a true Qi as vast as the sea permeate past him. He couldn't tell which master it belonged to, but in the next moment, it was retracted, and there was nothing unusual about the expressions of the three.

Seeing Pei Ye realized—they had just been checking whether the walls of this cabinet had been damaged. But the conclusion was clearly the same as on the fourth floor; the door was closed, the walls were shut, and there was no abnormality.

Several people continued to walk inside.

The second cabinet was in the deepest part, with iron walls and no wood. The door was sealed with two locks, one requiring a mechanism and one requiring a key, both also intact. Wu Dong opened it to take a look, and according to the activation record in the mechanism, the last time it was opened was at dusk when Wu Dong entered to take the scrolls to read.

The three of them walked in as well, and Wu Dong had already lit the pearls one step ahead.

"The air here is thin; be careful with using true Qi," the tall old man beside him reminded Seeing Pei Ye gently.

Seeing Pei Ye thanked him. He saw that this layer was much smaller, with only five bookshelves in total, and there was more empty space than real books. It was also in perfect order, without the slightest sign of having been invaded.

Arriving at the end of this cabinet, the final layer appeared before their eyes.

Arriving here, Seeing Pei Ye had a true realization of the silence brought about by the theft of the "Soul-Snatching case files" that Wu Dong had mentioned earlier.

Looking at this layer, Seeing Pei Ye couldn't help but have a thought—is it really necessary to open this?

It was a completely integrated cast-iron box. There were no doors, locks, or mechanisms; the entrance was half a magical artifact from a sorcerer's hand. Wu Dong placed his hand on it, and true Qi slowly poured in. The cast iron fluctuated slowly like water and opened, revealing a portal for people to enter.

The three of them entered.

The walls inside were self-illuminating.

Deep, quiet, neat, and silent—this was Seeing Pei Ye's first feeling after walking in. It looked like a place that would never be disturbed, and the youth who had come all this way really couldn't think of any way to enter and exit all this silently.

This could no longer be called a cabinet; it was merely a narrow, short corridor. Iron walls on the left and right sides were embedded with grids, inside which were placed classics. There were only thirty or forty volumes in total, and their shapes, paper, and ink colors were all different. It was clearly collected from all directions over the years. Although Seeing Pei Ye didn't recognize them, he knew that each one was important and unique enough.

The newer the scroll, the further out it was placed. Therefore, after entering, everyone stopped in their tracks at the first glance. A line of small characters, "Lock Scale, Autumn of the Xinsi Year · Soul-Snatching Sword-Theft Case," fell into their eyes.

It was in the fifth column of the first row on the right. This grid inscription had been engraved not long ago and still looked very new.

There were five volumes of records for the Soul-Snatching Sword-Theft case currently in Bowang. Excluding the two volumes Wu Dong had taken, there should have been three volumes here, and at this moment... they were all still there.

Seeing Pei Ye clearly felt the Wind Inspector An behind him breathe a sigh of relief. Wu Dong had already reached out to check with an expressionless face. After flipping through them one by one, he also nodded: "All are the originals."

"Therefore... this person actually cannot ignore obstacles and come and go freely," Sui Zaihua said slowly. "Or rather, it is precisely because he cannot break through this layer of obstacles that he could only choose to take action when you took the volumes out."

Wu Dong nodded.

If it had still been stolen here, the case would have fallen into a state of absolute confusion, and the perpetrator would have left them with nothing but composure or mockery. They wouldn't even be able to tell if he had just done it on a whim.

And only when truly encountering difficulties would the person's choices reveal sufficiently effective information—since this place was still intact, the person's motivation and logic suddenly stood out.

He indeed needed these case files, and this ability indeed had its boundaries.

Of course, snatching volumes silently under the eyes of a master was still incredible enough.

Wu Dong put the books back. The three of them didn't stay any longer and went out to call the clerks, assigning searches one by one according to what they had just obtained. Seeing Pei Ye was about to follow, but his gaze was suddenly nailed by the inscription in the adjacent grid.

Seeing Pei Ye remembered that in the two outer layers, every grid was numbered. Here, perhaps because there were so few, there was no need for numbers, so they were just named by event. And now, the text that made Seeing Pei Ye pause for a moment was precisely "Lock Scale, Autumn of the Xinsi Year · Fenghuai Candle-World Case."

It was only a pitifully thin little volume. Seeing Pei Ye really had the urge to take it down and examine it carefully, but he could guess that it should only contain records of the requests for aid and the responses here in Bowang; deeper things had already been cut off by the Divine Capital.

Besides, who else could know more about this matter than him?

Seeing Pei Ye sighed silently and gently. The three officials also happened to move their steps. He turned his head to follow, but suddenly his whole body stiffened.

His hair seemed like piercing cold needles stabbing deep into his flesh. Seeing Pei Ye shuddered to the bone.

His vision went completely rigid. In his right peripheral vision, the line of inscription "Lock Scale, Autumn of the Xinsi Year · Soul-Snatching Sword-Theft Case" was still as clear as new.

It was completely empty above it.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 263 =====