Six toes… Chai Xian?!
That was the first thought that flashed through Xu Qi’an’s mind, and in that instant he was so shocked that countless ideas raced through his head, leaving him unable to think calmly.
Several seconds later, he collected himself, took a deep breath, and carefully examined Chai Jianyuan.
The sixth toe was obviously deformed, pressed closely against the little toe, ugly and unsightly.
He touched Chai Jianyuan’s face to confirm that there was no disguise. If one wanted to determine the age of a corpse, besides the most obvious facial features, there were other ways, such as skin quality, bone structure, and teeth; the difference between a middle-aged person and a young adult was substantial.
For the experienced Xu Qi’an, identifying the corpse was not difficult.
It really is Chai Jianyuan, and he also has six toes. Interesting…
Xu Qi’an pried open the corpse’s mouth, and after checking his teeth, let out a brief chuckle.
Chai Xian had six toes, and so did Chai Jianyuan. Was it a coincidence?
Chai Jianyuan had only one adopted son, Chai Xian, who was an orphan and unrelated to Chai Jianyuan’s own family line. And since Chai Jianyuan himself had sons and daughters, yet took only one adopted son, it suggests he wasn’t inclined to adopt children at random.
Ordinarily, there’d be nothing to it, it could be that Chai Jianyuan and Chai Xian simply got on well, but for both to have six toes, that makes things rather interesting…
According to Chai Xing’er and others in the Chai family, Chai Jianyuan always refused Chai Xian’s request and was determined to marry Chai Lan off to the Huangfu family. Maximising their interests was a reasonable explanation.
But marrying off his daughter to his adopted son, strengthening family ties and ensuring the adopted son would be utterly loyal to the Chai family would be just as reasonable. Such arrangements, marrying daughters to adopted sons or favoured disciples, are very common.
But what if the adopted son was in fact an illegitimate child?
If Chai Xian is Chai Jianyuan’s adopted son and both had six toes, such an obvious trait couldn’t possibly have been kept from everyone. Did Chai Xing’er know Chai Xian was actually Chai Jianyuan’s illegitimate son?
If so, killing her brother and framing Chai Xian would be a double blow. As things stood, if events continued, Chai Xian would eventually become the heir and head of the Chai family.
Just as Xu Qi’an’s deductions were becoming clearer, he suddenly realised a bug.
Wait, if Chai Xian is Chai Jianyuan’s illegitimate son, there’s no reason for Chai Jianyuan to hide it. As a powerful Transforming Force martial artist and head of a household, what was wrong with having an illegitimate child?
He could have openly acknowledged it, there was no need to conceal it at all. After all, the jianghu doesn’t have the rigid etiquette or concern for reputation that prestigious noble families did.
Unless there’s some reason that forced Chai Jianyuan to conceal Chai Xian’s ancestry.
Chai Xian certainly didn’t know about his background. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have fallen in love with his own half-sister. And if he did know, then the ‘crime of passion’ motive would vanish.
As such, as long as I see Chai Xian and ask him straight if he knows his own background, the identity of the murderer who killed Chai Jianyuan can basically be determined.
Muttering to himself, he took out the Earth Book fragment and tapped its back lightly.
The Taiping Sabre emerged from the world within the mirror, emitting a buzzing sound that conveyed its mix of grievance and excitement.
The sabre then slipped from its scabbard of its own accord and began knocking its tip enthusiastically against Xu Qi’an’s back, “ding ding ding”, as if trying to express its eagerness.
“Stop that, enough, enough, it hurts…”
Xu Qi’an reached back and grasped the hilt and pressed the tip of the sabre against Chai Jianyuan’s throat, slicing forcefully.
Chai Jianyuan had been refined into an Iron Corpse. To dissect him one needed a supreme magical weapon like the Taiping Sabre, only such a blade could precisely and sharply cut through such muscle and flesh.
He was performing the autopsy because he suspected Chai Jianyuan had been poisoned before he died.
He had two reasons: First, the Chai family did not have a fourth-rank.
No matter Chai Xian, Chai Jianyuan, or Chai Xing’er, all were fifth rank Transforming Force.
As everyone knew, martial artists were famous for their endurance; even in a sneak attack, it was difficult to kill them in a short period of time.
And if a fight couldn’t be quickly resolved, the experts in Chai Manor would have responded instantly. There would be no situation where “by the time they rushed to the study, the family head had already been killed by Chai Xian”.
Second, there were many injuries on Chai Jianyuan’s body.
Chai Jianyuan had not been instantly killed. After a close inspection, apart from the fatal wound to his heart, there were numerous hidden injuries all over his body.
This proved that he had experienced a very intense battle before his death.
So, under what circumstances would one get a situation where the battle was fierce, but concluded quickly?
A one-sided beating.
Chai Jianyuan almost had no power to fight back, he was beaten single-handedly, his Bronze Skin and Iron Bones protection quickly broken, and then butchered by the assailant’s blade.
The logical explanation was that Chai Jianyuan had been poisoned.
The dark red flesh was split open. After checking the throat, Xu Qi’an did not find any obvious signs of poisoning.
He then cut open the stomach, at last finding something new.
Inside Chai Jianyuan’s stomach were remnants of a blackish substance, which appeared to have formed as a result of a reaction between the poison and stomach acid.
Xu Qi’an used the power of the Poison Gu to make a preliminary analysis and could only identify the ingredients of three poisonous herbs. Too much time had passed to analyse anything further.
These three poisonous herbs possessed hallucinogenic and nerve-numbing properties.
A compound poison, and quite advanced too. According to the pharmaceutical standards of this era, compound poisons were typically made simply by mixing several poisons together. That would inevitably create an odour or colour, and no matter how the poison was administered, it couldn’t escape a martial artist’s sense of danger and sharp senses of smell or taste.
This poison must have been colourless and odourless. Ordinary people can’t produce poisons of this level, only two types of professionals could: Arcanists and Poison Gu Masters. Right, Chai Xing’er, she implanted a Desire Gu in Li Lingsu.
She’d been to the Southern Marches to seek a Desire Gu, so asking again for a rare poison that could silently incapacitate a Transforming Force martial artist wouldn’t be difficult.
With this thought, he pinched his brow. If she could brew such a poison, wouldn’t it have been cleaner to simply poison Chai Jianyuan to death directly?
Why go to all this trouble?
Xu Qi’an was a clever man, and he immediately grasped the reason: “Of course she couldn’t just poison him. If he died from poison, how could she prove that Chai Xian was the killer?”
It was all a trap, a trap aimed at Chai Xian.
There is a way to quickly advance the case, which is to capture Chai Xing’er and extract a confession by torture.
Xu Qi’an immediately dismissed this idea. First of all, he did not know the Qi-watching technique, nor did he have the Buddhist precept abilities. The first level of the Stupa Tower was the precept of ‘not killing’, set in stone.
‘Not killing’ and ‘not lying’ were obviously unrelated.
The tower spirit would certainly not have any precept magic. The tower spirit itself was simply the Stupa Tower, so it could not display abilities that the Stupa Tower did not possess.
The Heart Gu could only briefly affect intelligent beings. Chai Xing’er was a Transforming Force martial artist; with the Heart Gu’s current power, it was not enough to make her answer every question.
Secondly, treating Chai Xing’er roughly was bound to offend her. The Holy Son’s attitude was secondary; afterwards, she would definitely turn hostile and reveal Xu Qian’s existence to the Buddhist sect.
If that happened, Jingxin’s focus would shift from eliminating evil to targeting him personally, possibly even contacting Vajra Du’nan directly.
In that case, not only would the investigation grind to a halt, even the Dragon Qi would be seized by the Buddhists.
I think we’re good for tonight. I might as well use the corpse qi to nourish the Corpse Gu a bit too.
Xu Qi’an sat cross-legged on the ground, leaning against the wall, with corpses standing silently on either side.
In such a quiet and terrifying environment, he felt at ease, as if he had returned home. At this moment, the Corpse Gu felt immensely satisfied.
There was a slight bulge on the back of Xu Qi’an’s neck. After a moment, an insect the size of a cockroach broke through the skin, followed by a second, then a third.
These were the Corpse Gu child go, produced by the Sevenfold Gu.
At present, the Corpse Gu could produce up to four child gu. One had already parasitized the corpse of Hengyin, the abbot of the Sanhua Monastery, leaving three just born.
No sooner had the child gu emerged than they excitedly crawled towards the nearest corpses, two, by proximity, chose the nearest iron corpses.
The last one circled the chamber a few times before choosing a female corpse with a slightly bulged chest.
“You lad have bright prospects!”
Clicking his tongue, Xu Qi’an closed his eyes and sensed the state of the three iron corpses.
Inside them there was no trace of life. The two iron corpses retained only their original strength and defensive power, but the female corpse had also retained part of her ability—danger sense.
This ability could be directly relayed to the one controlling the corpse.
This meant the female corpse had been turned into a walking corpse shortly after death, thus retaining part of her abilities.
These corpses only have a usable life no more than five years. Your corpse-refining skills are rather rough! Not orthodox enough. Well, that’s understandable. The Chai family’s ancestor was a slave from the Southern Marches. Whether he stole the art or learned it from the shaman clans’ Corpse Gu tribe, it was surely never the secret true method.
With that, Xu Qi’an withdrew control over the Gu offspring, focusing on analysing tonight’s gains.
Chai Xian is highly likely to be Chai Jianyuan’s illegitimate son, but for some reason, Chai Jianyuan had always concealed this.
Chai Jianyuan was poisoned before he died, only then was he killed in his study. The poisoner is someone close to him. Chai Xian, Chai Xing’er, and the missing Chai Lan are all possible suspects.
The next steps are to investigate why Chai Jianyuan hid Chai Xian’s identity, and to look into Chai Xing’er. Hmm, I’ll leave that to the Sea King Holy Son.
As he pondered, he continued absorbing the corpse qi in the cellar, using it to nourish the Corpse Gu.
No knowing how much time passed, suddenly he heard a faint disturbance and immediately opened his eyes.
The candle had already burned down to its base, only moments from extinguishing. In the dim light, he saw the female corpse lying prone on the ground with her buttocks raised.
A male corpse was lying on top of her, and the second male corpse was on top of ‘him’.
What the hell are you doing… Xu Qi’an almost failed to keep a straight face. He immediately used the absolute authority of the ‘mother Gu’ to rein in the three Gu offspring, finally understanding what they had set out to do.
They were driven by their instinct to reproduce.
What’s this? Mating without undressing, honestly, being a tool worm isn’t good enough for you, is it? A tool should know its place; you do not have mating rights… Xu Qi’an stopped this insane behaviour.
All of a sudden, he realised why some Corpse Gu practitioners could not control themselves and developed relationships with their walking corpses that went beyond that of master and puppet.
It was the influence of the Corpse Gu’s reproductive instinct.
…
That same night, far away at Wenren Manor in Leizhou.
In the boudoir of Miss Wenren Qianrou, the charcoal fire burned brightly and the room was as warm as spring. Her features were delicate and soft, and aside from a slightly high hairline, she was nearly flawless. She lay beneath a brocade quilt, breathing soft and slow.
“Are you Wenren Qianrou?”
A flat but cold voice startled Wenren Qianrou awake from her dreams.
She sat up abruptly, glancing around the room with vigilance and called out, “Someone, help!”
At the same time, she spotted three intruders: a stern-looking middle-aged man in a black Daoist robe, a woman in feathered robes and a lotus crown, whose age could not be discerned but whose beauty was otherworldly,
And a spirited, beautiful young woman in her twenties.
The young woman’s hands were tied with a rope, its other end held by the Daoist woman in the lotus crown.
Why am I getting tied up by teacher even in someone else’s dream… Li Miaozhen muttered powerlessly.
“Who are you people?”
Wenren Qianrou did not manage to wake her maid or guards; this made her realise that those at her table were no ordinary people.
“My Daoist name is Xuancheng, master of Wuwang Peak of the Heaven Sect. Miss, do you know Li Lingsu?”
The middle-aged man spoke indifferently.
Neither of the two Daoist women said a word.
“You’re…”
Wenren Qianrou’s expression changed slightly.
“Li Lingsu is my disciple.”
Daoist Xuancheng stated coolly.
Wenren Qianrou was alarmed. She lifted her quilt and knelt to the floor, performing a full kowtow. “Disciple Wenren Qianrou greets Master.”
She knew Li Lingsu was the Holy Son of Heaven Sect.
So she’s positioning herself as a daughter-in-law already… Li Miaozhen glanced sideways at her Senior Uncle, who showed no reaction.
With a blank face, Daoist Xuancheng said, “Half a month ago, Li Lingsu was in Leizhou. Where has he gone now?”
Wenren Qianrou shook her head. “Li Lang was afraid of implicating me, so he did not reveal his whereabouts.”
Worried Daoist Xuancheng might not know the details, she recounted everything that had happened.
Daoist Xuancheng and Bingyi Yuanjun listened patiently, though they had already investigated thoroughly before coming.
After Wenren Qianrou finished, Daoist Xuancheng asked,
“Does Miss Wenren know the true identity of this Xu Qian?”
Wenren Qianrou shook her head. “That senior was very mysterious. Even Li Lang did not know much, only that he is an elder who has lived for centuries and is closely associated with the Jianzheng of the Sitianjian.”
“Closely associated with the Jianzheng?”
Daoist Xuancheng frowned. This was something his investigation had not turned up.
Wenren Qianrou nodded, explaining,
“Li Lang said that this senior not only had a special relationship with the Jianzheng, he even played Go against him, and won. He’s a true master. Moreover, this man can command Sun Xuanji, the Jianzheng’s second disciple, which speaks for his status.”
Beat the Jianzheng at Go… Daoist Xuancheng and Bingyi Yuanjun exchanged a look. Even as cold and aloof as they were, they could not help being surprised.
Beat the Jianzheng at Go, lived for centuries… it must be him, there’s no mistake, this familiar style… Li Miaozhen almost buried her face in her hands.
Xu Qi’an, that scoundrel, still hasn’t lost his habit of bragging. Let’s see how he’ll face Li Lingsu when his real identity is revealed… No, with his slyness, Li Lingsu must already be “full of holes;” once the truth comes out, it will be Li Lingsu who will be most embarrassed… Thinking of her own experience, Li Miaozhen fumed inwardly.
Daoist Xuancheng asked, “What else do you know?”
Wenren Qianrou thought for a moment and said, “Li Lang said Senior Xu helped him; it was this senior who rescued him from the Dongfang sisters and freed him from a life of misery.”
Daoist Xuancheng nodded slightly, then asked a few more questions before saying indifferently,
“Forgive us for disturbing your dreams, Miss.”
With that, the three vanished from the room.
Wenren Qianrou opened her eyes to find herself still lying in bed, unsure if what had just happened was a dream or reality.
…
Leizhou City, an inn.
Daoist Xuancheng, who was sitting cross-legged on the large bed, and Li Miaozhen and her master, who were sitting cross-legged on the small couch, all opened their eyes at the same time.
“Junior sister, have you ever heard of a man named Xu Qian among the beyond-mortal ranks?”
Daoist Xuancheng furrowed his brows, raising his question.
Bingyi Yuanjun shook her head. “We live in seclusion, uninvolved with worldly affairs, so our information is inevitably delayed. However, for someone in this world to best the Jianzheng…”
She pondered for a moment and said, “I fear even the Heavenly Venerable himself could not say for certain that he could do so.”
Daoist Xuancheng grunted, his expression unreadable, and said,
“Perhaps the Jianzheng did not go all out. There are too many possibilities, so there is no need to dwell on it. For now, what we need to do is follow this person’s trail and find Li Lingsu.”
Bingyi Yuanjun continued,
“We can be sure this person means no harm, but if Li Lingsu is unwilling to return with us, this Xu Qian will most likely try to stop us. We do not yet know the extent of his strength. If he is third rank, the two of us will suffice. But if he is second rank, or even first rank…”
If he was second rank, they would have to negotiate carefully and with courtesy. If he was first rank, whatever he said would be final.
If they wanted to take Li Lingsu away, they would have to return to the mountains and ask the Heavenly Venerable to intervene.
Out of the corner of her eye, Bingyi Yuanjun noticed Li Miaozhen pressing her lips together, trying hard not to laugh.
This great beauty of indeterminate age said coolly, “Miaozhen, what are you laughing at?”
“I’m not laughing!”
Li Miaozhen denied it.
“You want to laugh.”
Bingyi Yuanjun’s tone was cold.
“Master, I’m not. I am the Holy Maiden of the Heaven Sect; what I cultivate is the Supreme Forgetting of Emotion. I don’t casually laugh.”
Li Miaozhen put on a cold, heartless look.
This is bad, I can’t hold it in anymore… The little soul inside Li Miaozhen was slapping its thighs with laughter.
Bingyi Yuanjun gave her a cold glance, then turned back to Daoist Xuancheng to continue their discussion.
“According to the information we have gathered, that Xu Qian took the precious Stupa tower from Sanhua Temple. The Buddhist sect will not let this go. If we find out where the Western monks have gone, perhaps we can track down Xu Qian.”
The ice-cold beauty said calmly.
Master is as clever as ever… thought Li Miaozhen, full of admiration.
…
Morning.
Li Lingsu was still asleep when a flurry of knocking, coupled with a woman’s voice, woke him.
“Auntie, auntie, something terrible has happened.”
Chai Xing’er opened her eyes, radiating the enchanting, gentle aura of a beautiful wife. She spoke softly,
“Li Lang, open the door for me, would you?”
Li Lingsu frowned. “Perhaps you should get dressed first.”
Chai Xing’er shook her head, her tone languid and feeble. “I told you, it’s urgent. Go on, quickly.”
It was more troublesome for women to get dressed.
Li Lingsu threw on a robe, walked over, and opened the door.
Standing outside was a woman from the Chai family named Chai Ping, dressed neatly in short attire, a cultivator as well.
Chai Ping looked anxious, but her gaze involuntarily landed on Li Lingsu’s handsome face and his half-opened robe, his well-proportioned chest bared to her maiden’s eyes.
Chai Ping forced herself to look away, bowed, then stepped inside.
By now, Chai Xing’er had already sat up, slipping on a white inner garment to cover her spring green undergarment.
“Auntie, the cellar has been broken into again.”
Chai Ping reported.
Chai Xing’er continued dressing, calm and unhurried. “Was any body stolen?”
“No, but the family head’s body was dissected,” Chai Ping replied.
Chai Xing’er paused briefly, then nodded slowly. “I see.”
She dismissed Chai Ping, finished dressing in her gauzy skirt, picked up a jade hairpin to tie her hair in a simple bun, and said,
“Li Lang, I’m going to check the cellar. If you’re still tired, sleep a little longer.”
Li Lingsu grunted in response, then suddenly grabbed Chai Xing’er’s hand.
Meeting her puzzled gaze, he pulled her into his arms, and planted a firm kiss on her fair, delicate cheek, smiling as he said,
“I’ll always be by your side.”
Chai Xing’er stared at him in a daze, a sheen of moisture shimmering in her eyes; she smiled sweetly.
The room’s door closed once more. Li Lingsu sat alone at the table, mulling over what Chai Ping had reported.
Chai Jianyuan’s body was dissected? That must have been Senior Xu’s doing. He said he would get to the bottom of this case… I wonder if he’s found anything…
A sense of anticipation suddenly welled up in Li Lingsu’s heart. He wanted to find Xu Qian at once and ask what he had uncovered.
As he was thinking, the unlatched door opened a crack, and an orange cat slipped inside.
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