Fallen from Power

Surrounded by singing girls, the Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang drank and toasted one another, having the time of their lives.

Little did they know that Liu Qing had already secretly drugged the wine on the table.

This knockout drug was enough to lay several Bone Forging Realm martial artists low for several hours.

After the Four Ghosts had eaten and drunk their fill.

Each of them put an arm around two pretty, voluptuous girls and headed for the guest rooms.

"Heh heh~ Baby, I'm coming..."

"Baby~ You smell so good..."

"Stop it~ Sir..."

Soon, several lewd laughs drifted faintly from the guest rooms.

Then they turned into a chorus of wanton moans.

"Those four **..."

Xia Qi'an, who had been lurking outside the window for a long while, watched everything unfold and cursed under his breath.

For some reason, Xia Qi'an was seething with rage at that moment.

After a while, the guest room, which had been bustling with noise, suddenly fell silent.

The knockout drug Liu Qing had administered must have taken effect.

Like a civet cat, Xia Qi'an carefully pushed open the window and peered through the gap. After confirming that the Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang inside had fallen unconscious, he...

He vaulted through the window, while Liu Qing slipped into another room like a wisp of smoke.

Inside, Ghost Four lay sprawled motionless on top of two women, like a dead dog.

He crept forward and lifted the clothes from Ghost Four's upper body.

Just as the rumors said, a dark bluish tattoo covered Ghost Four's back.

After dislocating Ghost Four's muscles and joints, Xia Qi'an bound him tightly with rope.

"Boom!"

A tremendous crash suddenly came from the room next door.

Then an enraged voice cursed, "You stinking wench! You actually poisoned me... I'll kill you!"

At the sound, Xia Qi'an hurriedly left Ghost Four and went to assist.

When he stepped out of the guest room, he saw Ghost One, the leader of the Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang, locked in combat with Liu Qing.

Ghost One looked disheveled, his clothes thrown haphazardly over his body.

The leader of the Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang, known as Ghost One, had the deepest cultivation.

Liu Qing's knockout drug had failed to drop him in one go.

But that was all.

The drug's effects had still reduced his strength considerably.

Ghost One's steps were unsteady, his body swaying.

Like a guttering candle in the wind, he kept shaking his head, trying to stay conscious.

Naturally, Liu Qing showed him no mercy.

The short blade in her hand shot out like a venomous snake from its lair, stabbing straight for Ghost One's throat.

Ghost One had no intention of surrendering meekly. He forcefully activated his movement technique and dodged the blade.

Ghostly Shadow Traceless was indeed a marvelous movement technique. When unleashed, it left several afterimages behind him like phantoms, making his direction impossible to discern.

He darted and shifted with astonishing speed, moving almost as if he were teleporting.

Liu Qing struck several times, but Ghost One relied on his strange movement technique to evade every blow.

If Ghost One had been at the peak of his strength.

Xia Qi'an and Liu Qing truly would have had difficulty taking him down.

Fortunately, the knockout drug's effects continued to spread through him.

Ghost One found it increasingly difficult to circulate the qi and blood within his body.

It was only a matter of time before Liu Qing captured him.

Ghost One also understood his current predicament perfectly.

Thus, he gritted his teeth, abandoned his three brothers, and smashed through the window.

However, what he never expected was this.

Just as Ghost One was about to burst out of Wind Moon Pavilion.

A hand as large as an iron smithing tong shot out like an iron chain spanning a river, seized his ankle, and dragged him back inside Wind Moon Pavilion.

Ghost One had very little strength left to begin with. That pull sent him crashing to the floor like a kite with its string cut.

Xia Qi'an immediately rushed forward and rained heavy punches onto Ghost One's face.

He beat Ghost One black and blue, blood streaming from his face until he lay on the verge of death.

The Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang had come to Jinling City to visit brothels, so they certainly had silver on them.

After searching all four of them, Xia Qi'an found a full twenty thousand taels in silver notes.

When the Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang woke again, they found themselves bound hand and foot in an unfamiliar dungeon.

Meanwhile, Xia Qi'an was making rubbings of the tattoos on their backs.

Ghostly Shadow Traceless had four levels, each engraved in secret patterns on the backs of the Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang.

"Boy... what's your name?"

Ghost One had already woken up. He asked Xia Qi'an in a hoarse voice.

"What? You want revenge?" Xia Qi'an was busy making a rubbing of the technique, and he shot back when he heard him.

Liu Qing's Power Dissipation Powder had temporarily dispersed the Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang's cultivation, so they no longer posed a threat.

"Heh heh... You're pretty arrogant! What do you want? Silver?... A technique?" Ghost One asked fearlessly.

"Where's the tax silver?" Xia Qi'an pressed.

"Heh heh... Cough... Naturally, we handed it over to the person who hired us!"

"We brothers were only taking someone's money to do his bidding!"

The Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang had roamed the martial world for many years, and this was not their first time ending up behind bars.

So Ghost One did not think his life was in danger this time, either.

Xia Qi'an frowned and said coldly, "The one who ordered you... was Chu Shiqing of Jinling's Wei Dao Si?"

When Xia Qi'an revealed that he knew the name of the mastermind, Ghost One's brow twitched, and a bad feeling suddenly welled up in him. "You only want silver, don't you? Take the silver on us!"

"Ghostly Shadow Traceless should also have a formula outline, right?" Xia Qi'an did not answer. Instead, he spoke with deliberate meaning.

After studying the tattoos on the backs of the Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang, he had felt that the technique seemed incomplete with only the four tattoos.

"Haha! Easy enough... Just let the four of us go, and I'll give you the formula outline as well!" Realizing that things were going badly, Ghost One straightforwardly traded the technique for a way out.

Ghost One then recited the technique's formula outline from memory.

Liu Qing recorded every word.

But when Ghost One saw that Xia Qi'an still had no intention of releasing them afterward.

Ghost One grew frantic and shouted angrily, "What do you mean... We've given you both the technique and the silver!"

"Aren't you afraid of Chu Shiqing's punishment? He's the Snake Guard Commander!"

Liu Qing chuckled. "Lord Chu has committed something serious this time!... Besides, he doesn't even know that the Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang have fallen into our hands!"

The Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang cried out inwardly: It's over!

Xia Qi'an and Liu Qing had now become grasshoppers tied to the same rope.

After discussing it, the two decided to split the twenty thousand taels evenly, taking ten thousand each.

Moreover, the Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang's wealth accumulated over the years clearly amounted to far more than twenty thousand taels of silver.

It was just that the Wei Dao Si had been hunting them in Xiaoxiang, making it inconvenient to carry their valuables.

So they had hidden their wealth and treasures in a secret chamber.

As for the key and the location of the secret chamber, the Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang confessed everything under Xia Qi'an's interrogation.

The Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang had helped Chu Shiqing hijack the tax silver because Chu Shiqing had promised not to send the Snake Guards after them.

That would allow the Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang to establish themselves in Jinling City.

After each copied down a version of the technique.

The two decided to spare the Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang's lives for the time being.

After all, they were powerful witnesses who could bring down Chu Shiqing.

With that, the case of the stolen tribute silver was temporarily brought to an end.

After parting ways with Liu Qing, Xia Qi'an immediately hurried to Si Nan Manor to report.

He decided to truthfully submit the results of the investigation into the stolen tax silver to Si Nanyue.

She would then report it to the Wei Dao Si headquarters.

Liu Qing had also said frankly that if Chu Shiqing fell, she would most likely be promoted to the new Snake Guard Commander.

That would be the most favorable outcome for both of them.

Si Nan Manor.

"Stealing from under one's own watch... That's a grave taboo in the Wei Dao Si! Chu Shiqing has gone too far!"

After reading the Four Ghosts of Xiaoxiang's testimony, Si Nanyue appeared extremely angry.

The Wei Dao Si could exercise so many privileges within the secular dynasties not merely because of its martial strength, but also because of its duty to protect the world and the prestige it had built over the years.

If the Wei Dao Si's commanders all used their authority to steal from under their own watch for personal gain.

That would undoubtedly destroy the Wei Dao Si's credibility among the secular dynasties and undermine its very foundation.

Judging from Si Nanyue's reaction this time.

Chu Shiqing was probably in serious trouble.

Chu Shiqing could be considered a notable figure in Jinling City, but within the Wei Dao Si, he was nothing special.

Sure enough, three days after Si Nanyue submitted the investigation dossier and the prisoners' testimony.

The Wei Dao Si headquarters sent eight people to Jinling City specifically to investigate the case.

The Snake Guard Commander of an entire commandery had colluded with bandits and schemed to seize the tax silver of the government under his jurisdiction.

The Wei Dao Si's higher-ups would never allow such a scandal to leak.

Of the eight martial artists dispatched by the Wei Dao Si headquarters this time.

Two were Tiger Guards, while the other six were Snake Guard Commanders.

This showed just how severe the impact of the incident was.

That very night, while Chu Shiqing was still dreaming.

The Snake Guards seized him and dragged him into the Wei Dao Si prison.

On the other side, Qiu Qianshi, the boss of the Ghost Market, was also taken into the Wei Dao Si prison.

Furthermore, the Wei Dao Si had recovered five hundred thousand taels of silver and immediately returned it to the government of Jinling City.