The Monk Who Died Violently

Second update

Fine snow drifted down.

A Black Awning Boat bobbed alone by the lakeshore. The canvas roof looked as though it had seen many years of use, with patches nailed on here and there.

Even so, it could barely conceal the lining made of reeds, swallow mud, and pasted paper.

This was clearly not the boat Sun Shaozong had used, nor could it possibly belong to Dali Temple—it seemed Tang Weishan had only heard about the matter and hurried off to report it without coming to verify it himself.

As an official in charge of investigating cases, such conduct was obviously negligent—especially since he had acted so flustered, disgracing the Left Temple all the more.

Perhaps...

He should find a way to replace the man—or at least sideline him and promote someone more capable in his place.

He just did not know whether Chen Jingde, the deputy of the Left Temple, was fit for the job.

"Where did this boat come from?"

Mulling it over, Sun Shaozong casually asked the question. Yet before anyone could answer, he had already leaped onto the bow, lifted the equally patched door curtain, and poked his head inside.

In the cramped cabin, two monks lay sprawled on their backs, bare-chested, with savage and terrifying wounds exposed across their chests and bellies.

Just as he was about to examine them more closely, someone behind him nervously reported, "Reporting to my lord, this boat drifted here on its own."

It drifted here on its own?

Sun Shaozong frowned at that. Putting aside the two corpses for the moment, he turned and demanded, "Then why did you stop it and inspect it?"

Since this Black Awning Boat had drifted downstream and looked nothing like something belonging to Dali Temple, why would these idle men—who had been