Are You Serious?

Just as Chu Ming was wondering what to do with the body, a voice came from the mouth of the alley.

"I'm not going in. Chief Constable Hou can go in."

"Me?"

"Hmm? Captain Zhang, what's with that look?!"

"Chief Constable Hou, I've never tasted a martial artist's heart and liver before." Zhang Yi's eyes suddenly turned bloodshot. He licked his lips and stared hungrily at Hou Ping's chest.

Hou Ping jumped in fright and hastily covered his chest, but then something felt off. "Captain Zhang, are you serious?"

But Zhang Yi answered by pouncing on him.

Hou Ping had only condensed five streams of qi and blood, while Zhang Yi had cultivated the Blood Refining Technique and condensed six. Caught completely off guard, Hou Ping was knocked straight to the ground.

"Slurp~"

Drool slid from the corner of Zhang Yi's mouth and dripped onto Hou Ping's face.

As if pinning down a woman, Zhang Yi held Hou Ping firmly in place and clawed viciously at his chest with his right hand.

Hou Ping summoned all his qi and blood and struggled with all his might, but no matter what he did, he couldn't break free.

I'm done for!

Bang—

But in the next instant, the claws never came down, his chest wasn't torn open, and Zhang Yi, who had been on top of him, flew away for some reason.

Hou Ping sprang up. He saw only a figure flash past him, leaving behind a faint scent in the air... of ink?

Was that... Instructor Fang's young master?

The figure looked a lot like him.

The thought flashed through his mind. He wanted to chase after the figure and take a look, but he tripped over something. He lowered his head.

A body? Zhang Yi?

No, Zhang Yi was bigger than this.

That one must be Zhang Yi.

He narrowed his eyes and looked toward the bend in the alley. Zhang Yi was leaning there, motionless, as if...

Hou Ping walked over to check.

"He's really dead!"

He stood there in a daze, his back growing cold again and again.

Only after a long while did he slowly calm down and think through everything that had happened.

"Zhang Yi, a deputy constable of the Criminal Defense Division, cultivated the Blood Refining Technique and tried to kill me and eat my heart and liver!"

Hou Ping stared at the Blood Fiend Body-Forging Technique he had found inside Zhang Yi's clothes. His heart began to race again.

"If someone hadn't stepped in to save me just now, I'm afraid I would've..."

"That person..." The slender figure surfaced in his mind again, along with that scent of ink...

The same person sprang to mind once more: Instructor Fang's young master!

The scent of ink on the two of them was almost identical.

He'd been a constable for over a decade and had handled countless cases.

Experience told him never to overlook a single detail. Because of that scent of ink, he thought the person who'd saved him might have been Instructor Fang's young master.

"But... didn't that young master only just begin condensing qi and blood?"

Zhang Yi was a constable of the Criminal Defense Division. Even Hou Ping couldn't beat him. Could Instructor Fang's young master have killed him in an instant?

Impossible!

Even if the young master really was a genius who'd improved the Tiger Python Force, he still couldn't be a match for Zhang Yi, who had condensed six streams of qi and blood—let alone kill him with a single blow.

Hou Ping put the thought out of his mind and went over to the body he'd tripped on. He crouched to examine it.

"The Teahouse Owner?!"

Hadn't this man run away?

Wait... something was wrong!

He jerked in alarm.

"Zhang Yi said the Teahouse Owner and the little girl had run off, but Zhang Yi himself was another mole. In other words... he deliberately lured Instructor Fang, Instructor Lin, and the others away before attacking me?"

"Am I worth that much trouble?"

Hou Ping looked at the two bodies, his eyes shifting.

"Or were their real target the person who killed the Teahouse Owner—in other words, the person who saved me?"

Instructor Fang's young master had killed the Teahouse Owner?!

And then saved me along the way?!

A cold wind blew past, and Hou Ping shivered.

"Instructor Fang and the others were tricked. There's no way they'll catch up."

"This place isn't safe. I'd better get back to the Catching Yamen first."

Late that night.

Hou Ping was waiting anxiously in the yamen hall when several figures came in from outside, their faces filled with frustration and exhaustion.

"Didn't catch them?"

"Mm." Shao Pengshu grabbed a pot of cold tea and gulped down several mouthfuls. "We didn't even see a trace of them."

Fang Xiao looked solemn. Lin Zhenwu, meanwhile, wore a guilty expression. Holding a long spear, he stood to one side. "Old Fang, this is on me. I got here too late."

Tan Hong, at the back, looked around and suddenly asked, "Chief Constable Hou, where's Zhang Yi?"

"Where'd that brat go? How could he lose the people he was following?" Shao Pengshu scolded.

The two young runners outside the hall twitched their mouths and glanced toward a corner of the room.

Hou Ping slowly got to his feet and walked over. He nudged the white cloth covering the bodies with his foot. "He died here."

Lin Zhenwu and Fang Xiao both turned to look.

Shao Pengshu and Tan Hong hadn't caught on yet. "Chief Constable Hou?"

"He died here." Hou Ping lifted the white cloth, revealing two bodies: one was a gaunt old man, the other wore the Criminal Defense Division's Flying Fish Robe and was Zhang Yi.

"Old Zhang!" Tan Hong rushed over. "Chief Constable Hou, what happened? How did Old Zhang die?!"

His tone was sharp, and he fixed Hou Ping with a glare that should have been reserved for criminals.

As if Hou Ping were the murderer.

For a moment, no one even paid attention to the Teahouse Owner's body.

"Chief Constable Hou, you'd better explain this to me!" Shao Pengshu drew his Embroidered Saber and pointed it furiously at Hou Ping.

"Zhang Yi, Tan Hong, and I already apologized for what happened a few days ago. You know Instructor Fang told us to put on that act. Even if Zhang Yi had a bad attitude, that didn't deserve death, did it?!"

His words had gone beyond suspicion. He'd decided that Hou Ping had held a grudge over their staged act a few days earlier and had killed Zhang Yi while they were out of town pursuing the Teahouse Owner and the little girl.

The atmosphere in the hall turned oppressive in an instant. It seemed that unless Hou Ping explained himself, they were about to take him down on the spot.

Seeing this, Fang Xiao hurriedly stepped in front of Hou Ping. "Constable Shao, Constable Tan, could you let Hou Ping explain?"

Hou Ping said nothing. He calmly pulled the white cloth all the way off, then picked up two wooden plaques from Zhang Yi and the gaunt corpse.

Lin Zhenwu came over with a frown to examine the bodies.

"The Blood Fiend Cult?"

The fronts of both bloodstained plaques bore the words "Blood Fiend Cult."

Turning them over, he saw "Hong Yan, Lower Protector" on the Teahouse Owner's plaque.

The back of Zhang Yi's plaque, however, bore the words "Zhang Yi."

If the plaque was genuine, then Zhang Yi had been using a false name.

"Shao Pengshu, Tan Hong, put your sabers away first." Lin Zhenwu already had a theory. He continued examining the bodies.

The gaunt old man's chest had caved in, with a palm print clearly visible on it. Zhang Yi had a palm print in roughly the same spot on his chest.

Aside from these two similar palm prints, neither man had any other fatal wounds.

In other words, the same palm technique had killed them both with a single blow.

He then pried open their mouths, checked their nasal cavities, and even examined their internal organs.

"There are undigested, rotting organs in his stomach. It looks like they were already rotten when he ate them."

"Both men's blood is dark in color and contains a faint trace of killing intent. They must have cultivated the same kind of Blood Fiend Technique."

As an expert who had condensed eleven streams of qi and blood, Lin Zhenwu could easily determine the general condition of both bodies.

He slowly got to his feet, took the plaques from Hou Ping, and looked at Shao Pengshu and Tan Hong. "The plaques are made of the same material, and they were both made a long time ago."

In other words, Hou Ping hadn't forged the plaques on the spot.

"This man is the Teahouse Owner we were pursuing."