Chapter 106

Songhe Bay.

Bamboo groves along the riverbank glowed with lantern light, nearly a hundred Chi Lin Guards scouring the area for traces.

Inside the Zhou family mansion, it was packed—Chi Lin Guards and officials from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau were all inside inspecting.

Li Gongpu stood in the study, gazing up at the corpse hanging from the beam, his face dark with anger as he asked:

"A full-grown man just hanged himself inside the house, and you saw not a single sign?"

Gong Sun Duan was stunned, but, with other officials present, he wiped sweat from his brow and replied:

"This evening, I and my men were fishing by the river the whole time—truly, we noticed nothing unusual. And comparing the handwriting, this letter of repentance was indeed written in Zhou Ming'an's own hand…"

Cao Huai'an, Commander of the Chi Lin Guards, had also been summoned. Holding Zhou Ming'an's letter of repentance, he scanned the dozens of names crossed out and nodded slightly:

"To erase his name before death shows some sense—this thing is likely genuine…"

Gong Sun Duan knew that deliberately tampering with evidence would confirm Zhou Ming'an's repentance letter as authentic.

But those names had to be crossed out—his own, Li Gongpu's, and many other Jingcheng nobles' names were on it; if this reached the Emperor's desk, it wouldn't be just Zhou Ming'an dying.

They didn't hide it outright because Gong Sun Duan needed experts to verify the handwriting and confirm it was truly Zhou Ming'an's.

After verification by the Imperial Astronomical Bureau and the Chi Lin Guards, the letter was confirmed as Zhou Ming'an's own handwriting—even Li Gongpu, whose calligraphy was highly skilled, accepted this conclusion.

Li Gongpu saw the hatred in Zhou Ming'an's final words and now suspected Zhou had been too clever—realizing he'd been sacrificed, with no hope of survival tonight, he chose to die with dignity.

After careful thought, Li Gongpu turned to the immortal official Jing Kong Monk and Jing Wuniang, who had come to watch the spectacle:

"You two are cultivators—do you have any method to determine the cause of death?"

Jing Kong Monk shook his head, his voice as smooth as ever:

"A wrongfully dead person's resentment is too heavy—it lingers as a vengeful ghost, which could reveal things. But becoming a vengeful ghost requires extreme conditions: must be dead at yin hour, on a yin day, in a place of great calamity.

"This place has excellent feng shui—if Zhou's funeral rites were swift, he's already been reborn. Even if not into wealth, he might have been reborn in a bird or beast's nest, escaping the deceit of mortal life and gaining a peaceful existence."

"Bird and beast" meant the animal realm—Jing Kong Monk clearly understood everything, he just didn't say it outright.

Jing Wuniang, a Daoist of the Xuanhu Temple, also nodded:

"When a person dies, the lamp goes out; when the breath ceases, the soul scatters. Even necromancers and ghost sorcerers use living people to forge their undead—someone already dead is merely fertilizer. If the dead could speak, there'd be no more wrongful cases in this world."

Seeing Li Gongpu's bitter frustration, Cao Huai'an added:

"Don't be overly suspicious, Li Gong. If Zhou Ming'an was truly murdered, what you should be worrying about now isn't catching the killer—but your own safety.

"If you were to die here too, even the Chi Lin Guards, eager to investigate, couldn't execute a loyal minister without evidence."

Li Gongpu wanted to blame Xie Jinhuan, but every official body ruled it suicide—no trace of an attacker was found. To insist Xie Jinhuan killed him would be sheer nonsense.

Thus, after receiving definitive answers, Li Gongpu swept his sleeve and left the mansion.

His retainer Du Mushan had been waiting outside. When Li Gongpu stepped into his carriage, Du Mushan frowned deeply and said:

"My lord, I think Zhou Ming'an really might have killed himself. Even if Xie Jinhuan were as cunning as a spirit, he couldn't erase all traces to the point where no one noticed anything…"

Li Gongpu's eyes were filled with gloom:

"Do you think I don't know what kind of man Zhou Ming'an was? Even when threatened with his family's lives, he still thought 'preserve the green hills, and firewood will never run out.'

"But this setup left Zhou no escape route—perhaps this dog was too clever, and chose to die with dignity.

"Since we can't find evidence, we'll investigate Xie Jinhuan—find out where he was tonight."

Du Mushan sighed and shook his head: "He's probably at the Dan Wang Fu. If we send men to surveil the Heir's mansion, we risk being accused of 'plotting to assassinate the imperial clan.' Given Xie Jinhuan's abilities, spotting our watchers won't be hard…"

"Then bribe an insider—I refuse to believe every single person in the Dan Wang Fu is a loyal death-soldier…"

…

As the two spoke, the carriage slowly returned to the inner-city residence.

Li Gongpu ascended the steps, surrounded by servants, still pondering how to crush this fledgling dragon as slippery as a mud eel turned spirit.

Du Mushan, his personal bodyguard and strategist, also considered options. As a martial man from the Jianghu, he finally suggested:

"Xie Jinhuan is too troublesome to handle by the rules. Why not use an outside move—silently eliminate him directly…"

He drew his finger across his throat.

Li Gongpu held one hand behind his back, thinking seriously:

"Jingcheng isn't the Jianghu. Unless absolutely necessary, we can't give anyone grounds to speak. If you could clean up a mess as thoroughly as Songhe Bay, then you could kill this boy now… boy…"

Squeak—

The servant ahead opened the door first.

Li Gongpu stepped one foot over the threshold, saw the bare, empty room, and fell silent.

???

Because the room was so unfamiliar, Li Gongpu stepped back out, looked left and right, confirmed he hadn't entered the wrong courtyard, then peered inside again—his eyes blank with confusion.

Du Mushan bowed to speak to Li Gongpu, noticed the disturbance, and turned to look inside—his eyes turned to shock!

Li Gongpu's original study had been filled with treasures, lavish and splendid—he couldn't even count all the precious ornaments inside.

Now, the study had been stripped bare—only four white walls remained, along with the immovable bookshelf and desk.

As for everything else—not just antiques and paintings—even inkstone, brush holders were gone, leaving only a naked table beside the window.

"Huh? This… did someone clean the room just now?"

The retainer assigned to guard the courtyard finally arrived, glanced inside, and froze:

"No one cleaned it! How could this… could this be a robbery?"

Jiji jiji~~

Faint insect chirps echoed through the vast courtyard; the dozen or so people standing around fell utterly silent.

After all, this was the main courtyard of a second-rank official's private residence—just stepped out for a stroll, and now it was stripped to bare walls!

Since the founding of the dynasty, this had never happened before!

Li Gongpu scanned the room—only the large vase, empty shelves, and empty table remained—and at first thought the Chi Lin Guards had secretly raided his home!

Upon confirming he had been bundled away by chivalrous heroes, Li Gongpu's left hand behind his back trembled slightly; his lips moved several times before his body suddenly went limp and he collapsed straight backward.

"Hey? Li Gong? Li Gong?!"

"Quick, call a physician…"

"Call your mother's physician! Go find it all! If you can't recover the Emperor's imperial calligraphy and paintings, I'll cut off your heads—even stealing my old brush from when I passed the imperial exams? How much is that worth? This is outright madness, lawless and insane! Go find it—!"

Li Gongpu pounded his chest and stamped his feet, cursed loudly a few times, rolled his eyes, and fainted straight from rage.

The many guests and guards all became like blind cats with their tails stepped on, scrambling wildly around the mansion…

…

——

Meanwhile, at the Free and Easy Cave.

Night had deepened; the chaotic streets teemed with even more of the three teachings and nine streams.

Bu Hanying, the incense master of the Crescent Moon Villa, stood as usual before the "View of Shuoyue River," holding a teacup, his heart growing slightly nostalgic for the barren, hostile southlands.

Though the southlands paled in splendor compared to the Central Plains, the Crescent Moon Villa was still one of the dominant powers across ten thousand li of the southern wastes; as a direct-line incense master, he traveled with a retinue of lackeys and could reasonably pass for a minor elder.

But in Luojing, it was different: as a member of a witchcraft sect universally despised, he could only move under cover of night, bullied by anyone or anything—even Xie Jinhuan, a distant relative, had come to intimidate him; his life was truly nerve-wracking.

As he drifted in such thoughts, Bu Hanying had not yet finished his tea when a hoarse voice suddenly sounded behind him:

"Colors shift with astonishing brilliance; the mountains and rivers under your brush deserve kingship. Is this the work of the Crescent Moon Villa's lord?"

Bu Hanying froze, the tea in his cup rippling slightly; after a moment of silence, he dared not turn around:

"Indeed it is. Which elder are you?"

Thump~

Xie Jinhuan, his face hidden beneath a wide-brimmed hat in shadow, dropped a massive bundle onto the ground:

"Bai Zhan, the Thief Saint. Just acquired a few small items—came to trade for travel funds."

"The Thief Saint… Bai Zhan?"

Bu Hanying had never heard the name, but understood its meaning—a big shot from the underworld coming to fence stolen goods.

His primary mission in the capital of Daqian was recruiting disciples and selling controlled medicines; he did not deal in this trade.

But fencing stolen goods, if you had a way to distribute them, was virtually guaranteed profit.

Moreover, the man had already crept up behind him—if he refused this deal, he wouldn't walk away unscathed tonight.

After brief consideration, Bu Hanying set down his teacup and stepped beside the bundle, still not looking up at the shadowed figure:

"The Crescent Moon Villa does have some connections—if you're interested… Ssshh—?!"

Before he finished speaking, Bu Hanying sucked in a sharp breath.

Inside the bundle, even the most obvious item—the seven-colored glass cup—was worth at least three thousand taels of silver, undoubtedly from a noble household in the capital.

He examined the other items and found half the bundle consisted of calligraphy, paintings, and antiques, along with writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones; the glass cup was even an insignificant, cheap item among them.

The most valuable item was surely the Bodhi bead necklace.

Made from seeds taken from the Bodhi ancestral tree of TianTai Temple, thirty-six beads, each capable alone of forming a spirit-subduing artifact; this string remained unprocessed raw material, flawless in condition, perfect as a display piece—so extravagant it would make cultivators spit blood; in a gold shop, each bead might fetch a thousand taels.

Even Bu Hanying, raised in a mighty sect and long accustomed to the world's treasures, had never seen so many rare artifacts gathered together—he could hardly believe it:

"No wonder you dare call yourself the Thief Saint—did you empty the Emperor's imperial study?!"

Xie Jinhuan replied hoarsely: "Not quite. What about the contents of Li Gongpu's study? Will you take them?"

"Li Gongpu…"

Bu Hanying found it hard to believe, but upon closer inspection, he found a scroll titled "Ode to Luojing," a copy by Fan Li of the dual sages' work from Ye Ci; though far less valuable than Ye Ci's original, Fan Li's calligraphy was universally renowned, granting it immense collectible worth.

This scroll's origin: Li Gongpu, fond of calligraphy, had requested a piece from Fan Li, but Fan Li refused; upon hearing this, the Emperor gifted Li Gongpu one of Fan Li's works.

The incident had stirred minor public gossip in the capital; Bu Hanying had heard of it. Since this scroll was among the items, it was almost certainly taken from Li Gongpu's study.

Li Gongpu was infamous for hoarding wealth, exploiting imperial favor to amass riches—this was common knowledge. But as for background, Li Gongpu had only the Emperor's patronage, no roots in the cultivation world; the Li family of Danyang was merely a branch of a wealthy clan.

Having lost an unimaginable fortune, Li Gongpu would dare not issue a public inventory, lest the clean officials seize the chance to strike; with his power, he could not issue a death warrant against all sects.

Thus, these items were not too hot to handle; after brief consideration, Bu Hanying replied:

"You truly have remarkable skill. A shop open for business wouldn't refuse goods—but these items are unusually risky… hmm… on the black market, goods are typically valued at three-tenths of market price."

"That's for ordinary goods. These items are easy to sell and guaranteed profit—six-tenths market price. If you won't, I'll take them to the Chi Long Dong—they'll buy them."

"Six-tenths…"

Bu Hanying thought the price too steep; after all, these were stolen goods—even if sold abroad at market price, they'd bear risks and transport costs, leaving at most a two-tenths profit.

But two-tenths profit was no small sum, and whether he profited or not mattered less than preventing the Chi Long Dong, their rival, from gaining the advantage!

Seeing the man's firm tone, Bu Hanying paused, then sighed bitterly:

"Since you've come, and it's your first deal, I'll grant you a favor. But the sum is too large—I can't gather this much cash on short notice; I must also observe the origins of these items for a few days…"

"No problem. Leave the goods with you. You may begin selling them; I'll return in a few days for the silver."

"Huh?"

Bu Hanying was stunned, staring at the bundle full of treasures:

"White the Hero, are you really that trusting?"

Xie Jinhuan, having left his glasses-wearing companion nearby, had no fear of the Crescent Moon Villa fleeing; he replied:

"A monk may run, but the temple stays. The Crescent Moon Villa, as the dominant power of the southlands, wouldn't betray its word over a few taels."

Hearing this, Bu Hanying realized this man either meant to frame him or was utterly unconcerned that the Crescent Moon Villa might cheat him.

Either way, he must first see this man safely away to survive; he gave a slight nod:

"White the Hero is indeed a straightforward man. Within five days, I'll arrange the payment. Come back then to collect your silver."

Xie Jinhuan said nothing more, vanishing silently into the shadows…

…

——

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(End of Chapter)