Liu Changan's Unease

Liu Changan chatted and laughed with his colleagues on the surface, but inside he was anxious as though on fire. When his shift ended, he hurried back to his residence.

The Di envoy Gantuji had already been waiting for a long time.

After dismissing everyone else, Liu Changan impatiently asked about the situation.

Disguised as he was, Gantuji's gaze still carried some arrogance. Yet at this moment, he had no choice but to rely on Liu Changan, a local snake of the Capital City. "An Baogu vanished after breaking out of the Imperial Prison. He has not returned since last night. We searched everywhere, but found no trace of him."

Liu Changan's heart immediately sank to the bottom, an overwhelmingly ominous feeling winding around it.

Under normal circumstances, he would not have given it much thought. As the right commander of the Eight Shadow Divisions in the very heart of Li Capital, An Baogu did not need to disclose his whereabouts to anyone save his superior, Lord Aquina. Liu Changan had no right to question him, either.

But first, the Punishment Slave investigating the East City Corpse Burning Facility had vanished for no apparent reason. Then An Baogu failed to return for an entire day and night.

Those in the spy trade never believed in "coincidences," because every coincidence in their line of work was exceedingly likely to be premeditated.

The information Gantuji provided was practically as good as none at all. Before taking action, An Baogu had only said that he would force his way into the Imperial Prison to search for the Punishment Slave's whereabouts. He had mentioned nothing else.

It was only after Gantuji and the others connected this with the Punishment Slave's inexplicable disappearance that they urgently came to seek his help.

An Baogu, An Baogu, you reckless brute, you've truly dragged me into this mess, Liu Changan cursed inwardly.

An Baogu could die openly and aboveboard. In fact, Liu Changan would be delighted if he died sooner. But An Baogu could not disappear.

Because disappearance meant something unclear and unexplained. Liu Cang had died without explanation, the Punishment Slave had vanished without explanation, and now An Baogu had added another unexplained mystery to the pile.

What would Lord Aquina think?

An Baogu possessed nearly fifty years of internal force and was immensely powerful. There were only two possibilities for his disappearance.

One was that he had encountered a terrifying external-force expert and been defeated in a single move. Otherwise, even if he were outmatched, he would have caused a huge commotion. The second was that an insider had plotted against him and silently taken him down.

Whether in Great Jin Kingdom or the Great Li Dynasty, there were only so many external-force experts. Every move they made was watched closely.

It was unlikely that an external-force expert had acted.

If it was not one of them, then it could only be an insider.

Who was the most suspicious?

Besides himself, who else could it be?

He was Han Chinese, so he had been at an inherent disadvantage where trust was concerned. He was also on bad terms with An Baogu, and he possessed the means to plot against An Baogu.

Even if he were Aquina, he would suspect himself first.

Recalling Lord Aquina's methods, Liu Changan felt chills shooting up the back of his neck.

After pacing back and forth for quite some time, Liu Changan looked at Gantuji and asked, "After An Baogu left the Imperial Prison, which direction did he go?"

Gantuji thought back for a moment. "I think... east."

"East of the city?"

Liu Changan's eyelid twitched.

"Oh, sir, this is fine steel indeed. Tsk, tsk." At an East City blacksmith shop, the blacksmith Tie Sanqi lightly tapped the shovel in his hand, his eyes shining.

"Can you tell what kind of steel this is?" Qin He asked curiously.

"Never seen it before." Tie Sanqi shook his head. "It probably wasn't produced in Great Li. I've seen every kind of steel made in Great Li."

Qin He nodded. He did not think Tie Sanqi was boasting. The Grand Canal connected north and south, with goods flowing everywhere. As long as something was produced in Great Li, it could be found here.

"Such fine steel, and you're using it to make a shovel? What a waste," Tie Sanqi said strangely.

"Well, I was having one made..."

"And the craftsmanship is atrocious. It's made so ugly. Sir, were you cheated? Fine steel mustn't be forged too many times. Forge it too much, and the steel loses its quality."

"Ah... well, a friend made it. I'll settle accounts with him in a few days."

"So what do you intend to forge with this steel?" Tie Sanqi asked.

"A shovel."

Tie Sanqi: "..."

"Can you make it?"

"Yes. When do you need it, sir?"

Tie Sanqi was only stunned for a moment before hurriedly nodding. Having forged iron for half his life, what kind of customer had he not seen?

Some had forged dog collars to put around their own necks. Some had forged iron coffins. Some had forged chastity pants for their wives.

All the myriad faces of life—Tie Sanqi had seen far too many in this blacksmith shop.

Using fine steel to forge a shovel was nothing at all.

"How soon can you make it?" Qin He was growing impatient.

The shovel was currently his only weapon for self-defense. More importantly, it could also be used to dig up corpses.

Concealed yet practical, it was absolutely a divine weapon for murder, arson, digging pits, and unearthing corpses.

Tie Sanqi pondered for a moment. "Come back in three days."

Qin He considered it, then agreed.

Three days it was. He did not plan to use it for the time being anyway.

He had suddenly burned another An Baogu. Who knew what Liu Changan's side would do now?

After buying several hundred iron nails as well, Qin He left the blacksmith shop and headed toward Tang's Restaurant.

He had burned two corpses in total last night. The Abyssal Fire had cut the corpse-burning time in half. It was only because he had been too bored in the latter half of the night that he had gone out to get milk.

In the end, he had brought back a fierce Di general along with the milk.

The first had been an ordinary Mutated Corpse, which had given him six years of internal force.

Added together, Qin He's internal force was already nearing a full sixty years.

Besides the Corpse Burning Rewards, An Baogu had also contributed more than fifty taels of silver to Qin He.

Qin He was now—

Very!

Rich!

More than fifty taels of silver was a small fortune in this era.

With money in hand, naturally the first thing was to fill the temple of his five organs.

Off to Tang's Restaurant.

He swept through the food like a whirlwind—noodles, shredded meat, roast goose, roast duck, eating to his heart's content.

Then three huge jars of wine.

He spent more than twenty taels of silver.

A savage feast directly pushed Qin He's internal force past sixty years.

Full and satisfied, Qin He went to the bathhouse.

He paid for someone to scrub his back, having every inch of himself scrubbed thoroughly clean.

After bathing, Qin He bought a bolt of cloth and went to a tailor shop, where he ordered two outfits.

Fortunately, he still kept a taut string in his heart and only bought coarse linen and hemp cloth. Otherwise, if he let himself go, Qin He could have gone back dressed head to toe in mink fur.

There was no helping it.

He had to spend those fifty taels as quickly as possible.

Corpse Burners had never been able to bear the blessing of wealth. Before Qin He figured out exactly what "Heaven's Will" was, he did not intend to break that rule.

Only caution could keep the ship sailing for ten thousand years.

Leaving the tailor shop, Qin He looked at the more than thirty taels of silver still in his pocket.

For the first time, he understood the trouble of having so much money that he did not know how to spend it.

Rubbing his stomach, Qin He continued eating.

Street snacks. Merchants from north and south flooded the Grand Canal docks like a tide, and there was no shortage of snacks of every kind. Aside from being a little expensive, there was nothing to complain about.

But Qin He was not short on money today.

First, Candied Hawthorn Skewers—thirty skewers.

Then tofu pudding, with plenty of honey added—twenty bowls.

Fragrant fried pancakes—fifty of them.

Dried cheese from the grasslands, pastries from Yangzhou, candied fruits from Suzhou... Qin He ate wherever he went.

As he walked and ate, Qin He arrived at the city gate.

The Capital City guards were stopping people beneath the gate passage. A line was entering the city, and from time to time someone would be shouted at and driven away.

After the Refugee Camp riot, the authorities had posted an announcement at the city gates. It rambled on and on, but in the end it boiled down to one sentence.

Poor devils without Capital City household registration were forbidden from entering the city.

It was aimed specifically at refugees and beggars from outside the city.

The city guards judged by clothing and appearance first, then by accent. They rarely made mistakes.

Though Qin He's clothes were somewhat tattered, they were washed spotlessly clean. His back was straight, and he was brimming with vigor.

The guards at the gate merely glanced at him, then waved him in and told him not to block the entrance.

This was Qin He's first true entry into the Capital City since arriving in this world.

Rows upon rows of shops and small buildings stood close together. Voices surged, traffic bustled.

The clothes worn by the crowd were also clearly very different from those outside the city. Far more people wore colored garments.

Grand residences and courtyards, red walls and green tiles, roads paved with blue bricks—the streets were clean as well.

The refugees and beggars had been driven out, the great fire extinguished, and the corpses gathered away. The Capital City seemed unchanged, still as prosperous as ever.

Only by standing before the ruins left by last night's fire could one sense a trace of the danger lurking beneath that prosperity.

At the very center of the Capital City stood palace walls enclosed by red walls and countless golden gates, a resplendent Forbidden Palace soaring beneath the purple heavens. Its towering buildings were majestic, solemn, and austere.

That was the heart of the Great Li Dynasty's heart—the Imperial City.

A dark gleam flashed in Qin He's eyes. The Imperial City's Divine Light blazed ten thousand zhang high, rivaling the rising sun. A mere hurried glance made his eyes ache, while the tremendous pressure even hindered the circulation of his internal force.

At the heart of the Divine Light was a mass of purple qi surrounded by gray qi. The purple qi could not spread, while the gray qi churned.

This was the classic sign of traitors at the ruler's side.

Just then, an incomparably sharp aura of slaughter suddenly poured out from the Imperial City. Like a sharp sword, it cleaved straight toward Qin He's crown.

Qin He was greatly alarmed and had no time to think.

His internal force roared, and his mana surged forth, turning into ripples of water above his crown.

The killing aura was blocked. Taking the chance, Qin He's feet flashed, and he vanished from where he stood.

Boom!

The next instant, the bluestone ground where Qin He had been standing exploded into powder.

Qin He hurriedly withdrew the Qi Gazing Technique. In the haze, he saw a golden dragon open its eyes amid the ten-thousand-zhang Divine Light.