Huh?
Liang Yue's mind buzzed at those words.
How did I know?
I only knew because you told me!
No wonder this brute's cultivation was so high. So he was one of the legendary Nine Yang spies? No wonder he had suddenly erupted when he saw the three of them charging at him with blades drawn...
He must have had a guilty conscience and mistakenly thought the three of them were coming for him, so he had brazenly struck first.
The brothers had originally been heading for that old man pushing a cart behind him. Their routes had merely overlapped a little.
Who would have thought they would reap such an unexpected gain?
"We didn't know he was a Nine Yang spy either..." Liang Yue said with a sincere expression and resolute tone. "We merely noticed during our daily street patrol that this man was acting suspiciously. He seemed to carry a faint baleful aura and did not look like a decent person, so we stepped forward to investigate. Sure enough, his guilty conscience exposed him..."
"Sharp eyes." Wen Yifan praised him lightly and handed over the portrait in her hand.
Liang Yue accepted it and found that it was a wanted notice. Only then did he realize this man's identity was no small matter.
Yu Wenlong had previously been a sixth-rank Traveling Official of Wu'an Hall and a deputy general in the army. During the Yin Dynasty's campaign against Haiyue Kingdom, he had slaughtered civilians on a massive scale, killed innocents to claim military merits, and was apprehended by East Sea General Ling Sansi.
Later investigations revealed that he was actually one of the long-planted spies Nine Yang had sent into the Yin Dynasty. Beyond climbing the ranks, his purpose in doing so had been to destroy military discipline, spread infamy, and ruin the Yin Dynasty's reputation among neighboring nations.
His intentions had been vicious beyond measure.
While being escorted back to the Divine Capital for trial, he had actually slipped away through sheer cunning. The Evil Extermination Division issued wanted notices overnight and posted them at the gates of every city. Who would have thought this bastard would be so bold as to return to Dragon Abyss City? To evade pursuit, he had even shaved his head and disfigured his face, making him impossible to recognize from the portrait.
Still, he had been a little too ruthless. When Liang Yue and the others rushed over, he had decisively chosen to strike first.
Had he hesitated even a little before attacking, he might have escaped disaster.
"Today, he was just unlucky!" Liang Yue said heavily after reading it.
To outsiders, that might have sounded like boasting—like he was saying they were formidable, and any criminal who encountered them was simply unlucky.
But the brothers themselves knew the truth.
This bastard had really been unlucky.
Wen Yifan raised a white silk handkerchief in her left hand, took out a white porcelain bottle with her right, and poured three pills onto the handkerchief.
"The three of you are injured. These pills can stabilize your blood and qi and heal internal wounds." Wen Yifan handed the pills over as well.
"Thank you." Liang Yue nodded.
"Once we escort him back to the Evil Extermination Division, we will send a letter to the Imperial Capital Guard office to request credit for you." Having left behind those final words, Wen Yifan turned and drifted away.
Liang Yue held the pills in his palm and watched her willow-swaying figure vanish like the wind, falling briefly into a daze.
In all his prior experience, he had never seen a woman like this. She seemed to possess an innate aura of crystalline purity, as though there was not a trace of filth within or without.
He wondered whether it had something to do with cultivating the Great Dao.
Judging by her divine abilities and spells, she was clearly an accomplished Qi Refiner. Perhaps that was also the source of her immortal-like bearing.
And the startling sword strike she had just unleashed across ten miles of street had been truly shocking, letting Liang Yue feel for the first time the power of the legendary Qi Refiners.
"Liang Yue..."
"A Yue..."
Two weak calls came from behind him. He turned to see Pang Chun and Chen Ju lying on the ground, feebly waving at him.
"I know that lady is beautiful, but..." Chen Ju wailed, "could you give us the medicine first?"
"What flavor is it?" Pang Chun also craned his neck in their direction. "I want a taste too."
"Ah." Liang Yue came back to himself and hurriedly helped his two brothers up, feeding them Wen Yifan's pills one by one.
After Chen Ju swallowed his pill, he suddenly exclaimed, "Is this a Profound Gate Deer Blood Pill?"
"What about it?" Liang Yue asked.
"This pill is a secret preparation of the Profound Gate. It can strengthen one's blood and qi and open up the meridians, and its effects are extremely potent! A single pill costs at least several hundred taels, and even then, it is unavailable on the market." Chen Ju marveled. "That lady casually gave us three of them. She's so generous."
Liang Yue looked in the direction where Wen Yifan had disappeared, equally astonished in his heart.
It was one thing for this woman's cultivation to be extraordinary, and another for her beauty to be peerless. But she was not only peerlessly beautiful—she was also a wealthy lady who spent money like water?
The old farmer selling iced sour plum juice in the alley heard the commotion behind him and glanced back. When he saw the officials arresting someone, he hastily turned around again.
He seemed frightened. Lowering his head, he pushed his cart without calling out to sell and quickly passed through the alley toward the city gate. Fukang Ward was close to the Divine Capital South Gate, and he arrived before long.
He blended into the line of people leaving the city, inconspicuous among the crowd. He was just about to follow the flow of people out of the city.
Suddenly.
A hand reached out from the side and pressed down on his cart.
"You still have more than half your sour plum juice left, and it's still broad daylight. Why are you in such a hurry to go home?"
The old farmer pushing the cart shuddered. Looking up, he saw a lean, tall, handsome young Imperial Capital Guard smiling at him. The young man's other hand had already lifted the quilt covering the ice bucket to inspect it. It was Liang Yue.
"Officer, this humble one is feeling unwell. I may have caught an illness, so I want to go home and rest." The old farmer forced a smile as he explained.
"What?" Liang Yue asked with a smile. "Played with fire too much?"
"Huh?" The old farmer's eyes were filled with confusion. "Officer, what are you talking about?"
"A Yue!" Two more sickly-looking Imperial Capital Guards hurried over. They were Pang Chun and Chen Ju.
Although their injuries had been severe, the pills Wen Yifan gave them had produced an immediate effect after they took them. Their blood and qi had stabilized at once and received a great boost. Now, only a few external injuries remained.
At that moment, Pang Chun held a chunk of ice wrapped in cloth in his large hand. Its outer layer had melted, while its interior was murky.
It was precisely the piece the old farmer had thrown into the rear courtyard of the shop earlier.
"I saw with my own eyes that you threw this chunk of ice into someone's rear courtyard, and you still claim not to know?" Liang Yue barked. "Tell us the truth! Why did you set fires in Fukang Ward?"
"Aiya!" The old farmer dropped to his knees with a thump. "Officer, this humble one truly does not know what you are talking about!"
"Yeah?" Pang Chun was confused as well. "Didn't he just throw a chunk of ice into someone's backyard? Ice and fire have nothing to do with each other."
Chen Ju blinked and whispered, "It depends where. Sometimes they do."
"Da Chun, throw that ice onto the ground," Liang Yue said to Pang Chun.
Pang Chun did as told and slammed the ice aside. It had frozen solid, and even then it did not shatter. Liang Yue drew his blade and struck it, only then cutting the solid ice into two halves.
A pile of white powder spilled out from within and scattered across the ground.
"What is that?" Chen Ju asked curiously, wanting to lean closer for a look.
"It's phosphorus powder." Liang Yue hurriedly said, "Stay back!"
At first, nothing happened. But as a gust of wind scattered the powder, a cluster of green flames suddenly burst into existence. With a sizzling crackle, fierce fire and thick smoke erupted in an instant, burning with astonishing intensity!
"Ah!" Pang Chun and Chen Ju were both startled.
"This substance is called white phosphorus. Once exposed to air, it ignites very easily." Liang Yue took a small packet from his clothes and opened it, revealing dirt mixed with white chunks of powder. "I found this at last night's fire scene. It is exactly the residue left behind after phosphorus powder burns."
"Oh..." Chen Ju let out a cry of realization. "No wonder we could never catch the arsonist at night!"
"That's right." Liang Yue said, "In the daytime, he used selling sour plum juice as a cover to throw ice blocks containing wrapped phosphorus powder into the rear courtyards of shops. Those places were usually wooden sheds storing firewood and miscellaneous items. Once the ice fully melted at night and the moisture evaporated, the phosphorus powder would be exposed. At the slightest stirring of wind or grass, it would ignite, and the blaze would spread with terrifying speed. The ice not only made the phosphorus powder easy to transport, but also served as a delay. That is why we saw green Ghost Fire, and why we could never catch the arsonist at night."
"There is only one truth..."
"The source of these fires was what he threw in during the day!"
Liang Yue pointed at the old farmer selling ice. The man immediately collapsed onto the ground, never imagining that such a concealed method could be discovered. His expression was filled with panic.
"You really are something." Chen Ju gave Liang Yue a thumbs-up. "If it hadn't been for you, I never would have figured this out in a lifetime."
Liang Yue smiled lightly.
It was nothing.
Just the power of knowledge.
The three escorted the arsonist back to the Imperial Capital Guard office and locked him up first. As for why he had set the fires, they would need to interrogate him carefully.
When they went to report back to Hu Tiehan, the letter from the Evil Extermination Division requesting credit for the three of them happened to arrive as well.
According to the Evil Extermination Division's letter, it had not been the three Imperial Capital Guards "assisting" in the capture of a Nine Yang spy. Rather, it was "entirely thanks to" their caution while patrolling the streets that they had exposed the spy's altered identity.
That wording meant the Evil Extermination Bureau had requested not a "secondary merit" for them, but the "primary merit."
The three of them were overjoyed.
Compared to that, the credit for catching the Fukang Ward arsonist was hardly worth mentioning.
Hu Tiehan looked at the documents on the table and remained silent for a long while.
After some time, he slowly spoke. "Little Liang..."
"I was somewhat impatient before, which was why I said something angry to you... I never imagined that you would be this determined."
"I told you to catch a Nine Yang spy, and you really caught one?"
Before you continue