Chapter 106: Lawless and Heartless!

Songhe Bay.

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

Inside the Zhou family mansion, it was packed—Red 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 hanged himself inside this house without a single sound? You saw nothing?”

Gongsun Duan was stunned, and since other officials were present, he wiped sweat from his brow and replied:

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

Cao Huai’an, Commander of the Red Lin Guards, had also been summoned; now holding Zhou Ming’an’s letter of repentance, he scanned the dozens of names blacked out and nodded slightly:

“To cleverly erase his name before death—this thing is likely genuine…”

Gongsun Duan knew that deliberately tampering with evidence would confirm the authenticity of Zhou Ming’an’s repentance letter.

But those names had to be erased—his own, Li Gongpu’s, and many other prominent figures from the capital were listed; if this letter reached the Emperor’s desk, it wouldn’t be just Zhou Ming’an who died.

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

But after verification by the Imperial Astronomical Bureau and the Red 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, seeing Zhou Ming’an’s bitter resentment in every stroke of his final words, now suspected Zhou had been too clever—realizing he’d been sacrificed, facing no hope of survival tonight, and choosing to die with dignity.

After careful thought, Li Gongpu turned to the immortal officials who had come to watch: Jingkong the monk and Jing Wuniang:

“You two are cultivators—do you have any methods to determine the cause of death?”

Jingkong the monk shook his head, his voice as smooth as ever:

“A wrongful death carries heavy resentment; if the spirit lingers, it becomes a vengeful ghost—and then we might uncover the truth. But becoming a vengeful ghost requires extreme conditions: death must occur at a yin hour on a yin day, in a place of great calamity.

“This location has excellent feng shui; if Zhou my lord ’s funeral rites were swift, he’d already be reborn. Even if not into wealth, he might have been reborn into a bird or beast’s nest—escaping the deceit and treachery of this world, gaining a peaceful lifetime.”

“Bird and beast” meant the animal realm; Jingkong clearly understood everything—he simply didn’t say it outright.

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

“When a person dies, the lamp goes out; when qi ceases, the soul scatters. Even necromancers and ghost sorcerers use living people to create their undead—someone already dead is merely fuel. If the dead could speak, there would be no more wrongful cases in this world.”

Seeing Li Gongpu’s frustration, Cao Huai’an added:

“Li Gong, don’t be overly suspicious. 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 if the Red Lin Guards wanted to investigate, they 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 assailant was found. To insist Xie Jinhuan was the killer 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; only when Li Gongpu boarded his carriage did he frown and say:

“Li Gong, I think Zhou Ming’an really might have killed himself. Even if Xie Jinhuan were supernaturally skilled, he couldn’t have erased 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 entire family’s lives, he still thought of preserving the green mountains for future firewood.

“But this setup left him no escape route—perhaps this dog was too clever, choosing 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 Prince’s mansion. If we send men to spy on the Crown Prince’s residence, 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 servant in the Dan Prince’s mansion is a loyal martyr…”

…

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. Let’s go outside the rules—secretly eliminate him…”

He drew his finger across his throat.

Li Gongpu stood with one hand behind his back, thinking seriously:

“The capital isn’t the Jianghu. Unless absolutely necessary, we can’t give anyone grounds to speak. If you can clean up a mess as thoroughly as Songhe Bay, then you can eliminate this boy now… boy…”

Squeak—

The servant ahead opened the door.

Li Gongpu stepped one foot across 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 mistaken the 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 ornate—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 bookshelves and desk.

As for everything else—not just antiques and paintings, but even inkstone, brush holders—gone. Only a naked table stood 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 in disbelief:

“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 men standing around fell utterly silent.

After all, the main courtyard of a second-rank official’s private residence had been stripped to bare walls—just by stepping out for a stroll!

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

Li Gongpu scanned the room—now only containing a large vase, empty shelves, and empty tables—and first thought the Red Lin Guards had secretly raided his home!

Only when he realized it had been looted by a heroic thief did his left hand, clasped behind his back, tremble slightly; his lips moved several times, then his body sagged—he collapsed straight backward!

“Hey? Li Gong? Li Gong?!”

“Call a physician…”

“Call your mother’s physician! Go find everything! If you can’t recover His Majesty’s imperial calligraphy, I’ll cut off your heads—even the old brush I used to pass the imperial examination was stolen! How much could that possibly be worth? This is utterly insane, lawless, and beyond reason! Go find it—!”

Li Gongpu pounded his chest and screamed, then rolled his eyes back and fainted from rage.

The many retainers and guards became like cats with their tails stepped on, scrambling wildly through the mansion…

…

——

Meanwhile, Xiaoyao Cave.

Night was deep; the chaotic streets teemed with all manner of underworld figures.

Bu Hanying, the incense master of Queyue Mountain Villa, stood as usual before the painting “Moonlit View of Shuoyue River,” sipping tea, his heart growing nostalgic for the barren southern lands.

Though the south couldn’t compare to the prosperity of the Central Plains, Queyue Mountain Villa was still one of the dominant powers across ten thousand li of the southern wastes; as a direct disciple incense master, he traveled with a retinue of lackeys and could pass for a minor elder.

But in Luojing, as a witch cult heretic despised by all, he could only move under cover of night—anyone, human or ghost, dared to bully him; even Xie Jinhuan, a half-ally, had come to intimidate him. His life was truly nerve-wracking.

As he pondered these thoughts, Bu Hanying hadn’t finished his tea when a hoarse voice suddenly spoke behind him:

“Colors shift with astonishing brilliance; the mountains and rivers in your brush are worthy of kingship. Is this the work of Queyue Mountain Villa’s master?”

Bu Hanying stiffened; even his teacup rippled. After a moment of silence, he didn’t turn around:

“Indeed it is. Who are you, elder?”

Thud~

Xie Jinhuan, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and hidden in shadow, dropped a massive bundle on the ground:

“The Thief Saint, Bai Zhan. Just acquired a few small trinkets—came to trade for travel funds.”

“The Thief Saint… Bai Zhan?”

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

His main mission in the Great Qian capital was recruiting disciples and selling controlled medicines—he didn’t deal in theft.

But fencing stolen goods was a sure profit if you had the right channels.

And since this man had already crept up behind him, refusing to do business tonight might mean no peaceful end.

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

“Queyue Mountain 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 prominent family in the capital.

He examined the other items and found half the bundle consisted of paintings and antiques, plus writing brushes, inkstones, and more; the glass cup was almost an insignificant cheap item among them.

The most valuable item was the Bodhi bead necklace.

Made from seeds taken from the Bodhi Tree of Tiantai Temple, thirty-six beads—each alone could be crafted into a spirit-suppressing artifact. This string was raw, unprocessed, flawless in quality; to wear it as a necklace or display it as ornament was extravagance enough to make cultivators weep. In a gold shop, each bead might be valued at a thousand taels.

Even Bu Hanying, raised in a powerful sect and seasoned in the Jianghu, had never seen so many rare treasures gathered together—he could hardly believe it:

“No wonder you dare call yourself the Thief Saint—did you empty the Emperor’s own study?!”

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

“Li Gongpu…”

Bu Hanying didn’t believe it—but upon closer inspection, he found a scroll titled “Ode to Luojing,” a copy by Fan Li, the Director of the Imperial Academy, imitating the dual sages Ye Ci. Though far less valuable than Ye Ci’s original, Fan Li’s calligraphy was universally renowned, making this piece highly collectible.

This scroll’s origin: Li Gongpu, fond of calligraphy, had begged Fan Li for a piece—but Fan Li refused. The Emperor heard of it and gifted Li Gongpu Fan Li’s work.

The incident had stirred minor 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 his greed, exploiting imperial favor to amass wealth—everyone knew it. But his background? Only the Emperor. He had no roots in the cultivation world; the Dan Yang Li clan was merely a minor branch of a wealthy family.

Li Gongpu had lost a sum of wealth beyond the common people’s imagination; to avoid stirring up public outrage and giving the imperial court’s upright officials grounds to attack him, he dare not produce an inventory of the items, and with Li Gongpu’s influence, he could not issue a kill order against the sects.

Thus, these items weren’t too hot to handle; after a moment’s consideration, Bu Hanying replied:

“Sir certainly has great ability. When running a legitimate business, who would refuse to accept goods? But these items of yours are indeed troublesome… On the black market, such goods are typically valued at thirty percent of market price.”

“Those are ordinary goods. These items are easy to sell and guarantee profit—valued at sixty percent of market price. If you’re not willing, I’ll take them to the Chi Dragon Cave; they’ll definitely buy.”

“Sixty percent…”

Bu Hanying felt this price was too steep—after all, these were illicit goods; even if they sold them elsewhere at market price, they’d bear risks and transportation costs, leaving at most a twenty percent profit.

But twenty percent was no small sum, and whether he made it or not wasn’t the point—what mattered was not letting the Chi Dragon Cave, a fellow trader, gain the upper hand!

Seeing this patron’s firm tone, Bu Hanying paused a moment, then sighed bitterly:

“Since you’ve come, and it’s your first transaction, I’ll grant you a favor. But the sum is too large—I can’t immediately gather this much cash, and I must first observe the origins of these items for a couple of days…”

“No problem. Leave the goods with you. You may begin selling them; I’ll return in a few days to collect the silver.”

“Huh?”

Bu Hanying was stunned, staring at the packed treasures:

“White Grandmaster, are you really that trusting?”

Xie Jin had left the glasses-wearing girl beside him—how could he fear the Crescent Moon Mountain Villa fleeing? He replied:

“Monks may run, but the temple remains. The Crescent Moon Mountain Villa, as the dominant power of the Southern Frontier, won’t betray its word over a few pieces of silver.”

Seeing this, Bu Hanying realized this patron either meant to frame him, or was utterly unconcerned that the Crescent Moon Mountain Villa might exploit its size to cheat customers.

Either way, he must first see this patron safely away—so he gave a slight nod:

“White Grandmaster is indeed a straightforward man. Within five days, I’ll find a way to gather the payment. Come back then to collect your silver.”

Xie Jin said no more, vanishing silently into the shadows…

…

—

Requesting moon tickets or 2!

(End of Chapter)