# 216. The Plot Thickens
*Fuuu...* Upon seeing the dog meat shop owner, Xu Qi'an's mind was filled with a mix of confusion, anger, and slight fear.
Confusion stemmed from not understanding how things turned out this way, anger from feeling insulted intellectually, and fear from realizing that if the other party had malicious intentions, he might have been caught off guard.
"This person is called Liang Youping. Unlike Zhou Min, he is a native of Yunzhou. According to Yang Chuannan, Liang Youping was recruited into the Qi Clique through his connections," Li Miaozhen explained.
"An officer in the Military Command with the same authority as Zhou Min..." Inspector Zhang pondered for a moment before questioning, "Why didn't you and Yang Chuannan contact me earlier and be forthright?"
Li Miaozhen sat straight, her posture unmoved from the beginning, and she replied calmly, "In the year of the Official Evaluation, interparty warfare in court is at its most intense. How could we be sure Azure cloak Wei wasn't planning to use this opportunity to uproot Qi Clique officials from various regions?"
"I represent the emperor in my role, and I am committed to my duties, to care for the people, and to severely punish corrupt officials, to not betray the trust of His Majesty and Duke Wei," Inspector Zhang said solemnly.
Li Miaozhen sneered disdainfully.
*That damn Emperor Yuanjing...* Xu Qi'an could guess what was going through Number Two's mind at that moment.
He sighed wearily, tapped the table, and when the three of them turned their attention to him, he said in a low voice, "I know this person!"
The three were taken aback.
Xu Qi'an stared at the portrait and asked, "Is he a cripple?"
"Yes, Liang Youping fell off a cliff during a bandit raid and broke his leg," Li Miaozhen replied.
*...Nothing that guy says can be trusted, and I was actually moved at the time.* Xu Qi'an felt an urge to curse.
He also realized his mental state was really poor because he didn't even think to use the Qi-watching Technique to check the truth of what the person said at the time.
In normal circumstances, he wouldn't make such a big oversight.
"What’s going on?" Inspector Zhang couldn't help but ask.
Xu Qi'an waved his hand while pinching his eyebrows. "Inspector, my mind is a mess right now. Uh, let me go somewhere, and I'll explain it to you properly later."
Saying this, he looked at Jiang Lyuzhong, "Gold Gong Jiang, will you accompany me?"
Jiang Lyuzhong glanced at Inspector Zhang and shook his head, "Duke Wei's order is to always follow and protect the Inspector."
*Okay, that makes sense. If we came back and found the Inspector's head taken off and kicked around like a ball, it wouldn't be fun...* Xu Qi'an said, "Then call two Silver Gongs to accompany me and lend me thirty Huben Guards."
He didn't admit he was a bit scared; it was all for caution.
"I'll go with you!" Li Miaozhen was eager to join.
Xu Qi'an immediately changed his request, "Gold Gong Jiang, I'll need three Silver Gongs."
Li Miaozhen: "..."
This little Bronze Gong didn’t trust her. Li Miaozhen revealed a hint of feminine demeanour, glaring at him angrily.
Soon, Xu Qi'an, along with three Silver Gongs, thirty Huben Guards, Li Miaozhen, and Susu, rode out of the station towards the black market on Huangbo Street.
Due to the earlier large-scale operation, the patrolling soldiers didn't stop them upon seeing the Nightwatchers' uniforms and instead made way.
The Inspector's team from the capital had the right to act on their own discretion.
Leaving the inner city, they quickly reached Huangbo Street. A group of brightly armoured Huben Guards stormed into the black market, causing the onlookers to become wary and retreat in fear.
Xu Qi'an led the team to shop No. 15, stunned to find the door tightly shut and the windows dark inside, with no lights on.
His heart sank as he gestured for the Huben Guards to surround the shop, intending to break in.
"Wait!" Li Miaozhen called out.
She took a silk pouch from her waist, opened it, and wisps of green smoke floated out, slipping through the cracks in the doors and windows.
"A perfect scout," Xu Qi'an praised.
Li Miaozhen responded modestly with a hum.
*The Daoist sects are really interesting. One spirit makes three purities… Heaven, Earth, and Human each have different cultivation paths. The Earth Sect cultivates merit, the Heaven Sect cultivates indifference, and the Human Sect does the opposite, turning a perfectly pure Daoist into a seductive fox...* Xu Qi'an thought to himself, suddenly getting an idea.
*Heaven and Humanity Sects are like fire and water, perhaps because of their opposite cultivation paths?*
*And the Earth Sect, which cultivates merit, doesn't involve itself with either side, maintaining decent relationships with both, having no grudges, and exchanging pleasantries when they meet.*
*Otherwise, Li Miaozhen, the Holy Maiden of the Heaven Sect, wouldn't be able to join the Heaven and Earth Society.*
*Sect Master Luo Yuheng wouldn’t have given the golden pill to Daoist Jinlian either.*
*Indeed, pleasing both sides is the way to go, just like how I balance between Lin’an and Huaiqing, able to charm both.*
*Girl-boy-girl!*
*Perfect.*
Just then, those several wisps of green smoke returned and whispered by Li Miaozhen's ear for a moment before retreating back into the silk pouch.
"There is no one in the shop, and no ambush," Li Miaozhen stated.
Xu Qi'an immediately signaled his men, and with the three Silver Gongs, they broke into the shop, searching upstairs and downstairs. Everything inside was undisturbed, and nothing appeared to have been damaged.
There were even twenty taels of silver in a locked drawer, which Xu Qi'an decided to confiscate and added to his own wallet.
*...No signs of a struggle, no traces of looting... It seemed like the owner had just temporarily left...* Xu Qi'an found nothing in the search and led his men out of the shop, approaching the neighboring shop owner who had come out to watch the commotion.
This shop also dealt in "dog meat."
"Come here, I have some questions for you," he ordered.
The owner of shop Ding No. 16 obediently came over, keeping his head down, "Sir."
"Where did the owner of Ding No. 15 go?"
"He hasn't opened for a few days. The girls he kept in his shop have all come to me for work," the owner of Ding No. 16 answered all questions but didn't offer any extra information.
"When did it close?" Xu Qi'an asked again.
"Three days ago."
*Three days ago... right after I left?* Xu Qi'an's eyes flickered as he continued questioning, "The owner of Ding No. 15, is he the one with the limp?"
"Yes, but he's not the original owner."
*...Not the original owner.* Xu Qi'an's suspicions were confirmed, "What happened to the original owner? When did the new owner take over?"
"The shop changed hands about ten days ago. I don't know where the original owner went."
Xu Qi'an then questioned the owners of the surrounding shops, receiving similar answers. They were also surprised by the sudden change of ownership at Ding No. 15. However, the black market was a place where people were generally indifferent to others' affairs, so no one paid much attention.
On the way back, as the horses walked slowly, Xu Qi'an, for the umpteenth time, pinched his brows.
Li Miaozhen turned her head to look at him, her voice carrying a mature woman's magnetism, "You seem exhausted."
*Just so you know I'm not a lecher...* Xu Qi'an said, "General Li seems to misunderstand me, thinking I am a lustful person. Otherwise, why would you send Miss Susu to seduce me?"
"Isn't it true?"
Faced with Xu Qi'an's confrontational behavior, Li Miaozhen chose to counter directly.
"I'm attempting to break through to the Refining Spirit stage. I haven't slept for a long time," Xu Qi'an explained.
He didn't specify exactly how many days.
*Breaking through to the Refining Spirit stage?* Li Miaozhen's beautiful eyes widened slightly as she scrutinized him.
Only now did she realize she had always misunderstood. Seeing Xu Qi'an with heavy dark circles, anyone would instinctively think he was overindulgent, rather than first considering that he was attempting to break through to the Refining Spirit stage. Moreover, within the Heaven and Earth Society, hearing Number One describe Xu Qi'an as a lecher, addicted to the Jiaofangsi, solidified her impression of him as a lustful person.
*Even if these changes were due to breaking through to the Refining Spirit stage, it didn't change the fact that you are a lecher... you will never know how well I understand you...* Li Miaozhen thought to herself.
But she was curious about how long this boy had been enduring.
Li Miaozhen didn't know much about the martial artist system. After all, she had only been out training for a few years and hadn't encountered many martial artists attempting to break through to the Refining Spirit stage.
Someone as experienced as Yang Chuannan could easily see that Xu Qi'an was attempting to break through. This was the insight of someone who had been through it.
"If I remember correctly, the limit for breaking through to the Refining Spirit stage is ten days?"
"General Li doesn't seem to understand the martial artist system well."
"Why should I?"
"You don't seem to think highly of martial artists."
Li Miaozhen humorously replied, "Not as if I’m the only one."
Xu Qi'an: "..."
He couldn't help but think of the proud white-robed arcanists and the Confucian scholars who also looked down on martial artists. The world's disdain hierarchy was: no one respected anyone, but everyone looked down on martial artists.
Xu Qi'an used to think the most nauseating discrimination was against sex workers and black market dealers. Now there was another, called: martial artists.
Apart from arcanists and martial artists, each major system had beings beyond the ranking system or had produced such beings in the past. But the roles of arcanists far exceeded those of martial artists, making arcanists more respected.
He wondered when the martial artist system would produce a martial god.
"It's really frustrating," Xu Qi'an said.
…
When they returned to the station, Inspector Zhang and Jiang Lyuzhong were no longer in the hall. They had left a Huben Guard behind, who informed Xu Qi'an and Li Miaozhen that the Inspector General was waiting in his room.
Knocking on Inspector Zhang's door, Xu Qi'an and Li Miaozhen entered the room.
"The person General Li drew is the black market shop owner who kept the evidence for Zhou Min. I deciphered the code Zhou Min left behind, explored the place, and found the ledger," Xu Qi'an explained to Inspector Zhang and Jiang Lyuzhong.
After listening, Inspector Zhang's expression became serious. "Could the original owner be the one who truly kept the ledger?"
Xu Qi'an nodded, "Most likely. And if I'm not mistaken, he was probably silenced. The shop owner I met later was Liang Youping in disguise."
Jiang Lyuzhong stroked his stubbly chin, puzzled. "How did they find the black market?"
"Remember what I said when analysing the case," Xu Qi'an rubbed his brow, "We found shop Ding No. 15 in the black market through Yang Yingying's clue. But this clue wasn't meant for us; it was for Lord Yang, the Provincial Governor of Qingzhou.
"In other words, Zhou Min's original clue to us was decoded by someone else earlier."
There were many smart people in this world.
Li Miaozhen shook her head, "Don’t you find it odd? If they had found the ledger, why not just destroy it? Why wait for you to find it and then hand it over?"
Jiang Lyuzhong was shocked, "Was the ledger switched? Did we get a fake?"
"No!" Inspector Zhang shook his head, "If the ledger were fake, it would quickly be exposed when I compare it at the Military Command. What would be the point of sending a fake ledger?"
Jiang Lyuzhong frowned even more, "But sending the real ledger is even more absurd. Killing the original shop owner, then returning the ledger to us unchanged?"
"Indeed, the ledger, whether real or fake, defies logic." Xu Qi'an rubbed his brow and paced the room:
“Let’s review the case thoroughly.
“Zhou Min discovered Yang Chuannan secretly supporting bandits and reported it in a secret letter to the authorities. The Qi Clique learned of this and immediately created a corruption case to pressure Duke Wei.
“Then, through my serendipitous discovery, we uncovered the Qi Clique's collusion with the Church of the Warlock God, secretly supporting the bandits. The court then realized the seriousness of the matter and sent me…”
Inspector Zhang coughed forcefully.
Xu Qi'an corrected himself, "Sent the Inspector General to Yunzhou to investigate."
"I asked around in the black market earlier. The original owner of shop Ding No. 15 was killed about ten days ago. At that time, we were still at the Qingzhou border. General Li, when did Yang Chuannan receive the secret letter from the capital?"
"The letter arrived about six days ago, from a friend of Lord Yang," Li Miaozhen replied.
“Exactly. We travelled the fastest route. Even if the Qi Clique was faster, they couldn't have been more than ten days ahead," Xu Qi'an nodded. "Killing Zhou Min to silence him and killing the shop owner should have nothing to do with the Qi Clique in the capital. Our real enemy is in Yunzhou.
“There are only two possibilities for this case: One, it's a ruse by Yang Chuannan. Two, there's a mastermind preparing to use Yang Chuannan as a scapegoat. The scheme began as soon as the secret letter was sent back to the capital, killing Zhou Min, finding the hidden evidence, and attempting to frame Yang Chuannan.
“If the ledger is real, the first scenario is unlikely because it would be like handing us the knife.
"If the ledger is fake, it makes even less sense. Yang Chuannan neither clears his name nor is he truly convicted. Liang Youping giving us the ledger would instead arouse suspicion, inadvertently saving Yang Chuannan."
Li Miaozhen keenly spotted a logical flaw, "So, the ledger must be real. According to your theory, the ledger is real; there's a mastermind trying to push Yang Chuannan out as a scapegoat.
"In that case, Liang Youping killing the shop owner and handing you the ledger is unreasonable."
Yes, if the ledger is real, the mastermind only needs to wait for the Inspector's team to find it, making Yang Chuannan defenseless.
Liang Youping's actions were superfluous.
Inspector Zhang pondered, “Perhaps there's an issue with the ledger. The ledger is real, but it has a problem that will point us to the real mastermind. So they had to find it and eliminate the flaw.
"Then, they impersonated the shop owner, waiting for us to find them and hand over the ledger."
Jiang Lyuzhong first nodded, then shook his head, "How would they know there's an issue with the ledger? Wasn't it created by Zhou Min?"
Inspector Zhang smiled, "Zhou Min found the evidence because he was a clerk at the Military Command, overseeing warehouses and supplies. Liang Youping was also a clerk."
Xu Qi'an suddenly said, "There's something I don't understand."
"Hmm?" Li Miaozhen looked over.
"Why was Liang Youping the one responsible for handing us the ledger?" Xu Qi'an glanced at the three of them, “Don’t you find it odd? Liang Youping was already exposed. Once we capture Yang Chuannan and interrogate him, he'll reveal everything to prove his innocence.
"In that case, just comparing Liang Youping's portrait... well, we'd end up having this meeting."
Li Miaozhen frowned, "Because only Liang Youping could find the problem with the ledger?"
Jiang Lyuzhong glanced at her, "They had plenty of time to find the issue with the ledger. They could then switch disguises, no need to keep Liang Youping there. If Ningyan hadn't seen your portrait, he wouldn't have realized the shop owner was fake.
"In other words, if it weren't Liang Youping, we wouldn't have noticed. It seems they exposed the flaw on purpose."
As for disguises, with Xu Qi'an and others' keen eyesight, any close encounter would be sufficient to see through them.
…
Zhu Guangxiao woke up from a dream, feeling his bladder full, so he got up to use the toilet.
Leaving his room and walking down the corridor, he suddenly saw a woman in a white dress sitting at a table in the hall.
She had long, beautiful black hair. From this angle, Zhu Guangxiao could only see her profile, and just this profile was stunningly beautiful, not of this mortal world, making his heart skip a beat.
*Su, Miss Susu... no, it’s that female ghost!!*
Zhu Guangxiao's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets.