Suspicion

This jade pendant is carved with dragons and phoenixes; a dragon on the front, a phoenix on the back. The entire piece is pure white, without a single impurity, and its quality is exceptional.

Having been baked in a raging fire for so long, the pendant remains as smooth and clean as new, which she finds truly remarkable.

"This... must be a great treasure. No wonder that guy was so greedy and refused to pawn it."

She picks up the pendant in silence, but the residual heat burns her, and she nearly drops it.

Once it cools down, she tucks it into her bosom and continues to rummage through the still-warm ashes.

Soon, she finds silver that had been warped by the heat; it has lost its original luster and turned somewhat black, but it is still barely usable.

She manages to scrape together quite a few valuables here, totaling about ten taels of silver.

After clearing out the valuables here, she heads to another granary to see if any rice remains, hoping to cook something to fill her stomach and, incidentally, feed the children.

She is pleasantly surprised, for although the two men had moved away a good portion of the grain, some remained—about ten catties or so—and this small granary can also serve as her temporary shelter.

For the short term, she no longer needs to worry about survival.

A happy heart makes for a light step. Having escaped the bandit den, the women find their pace quickening; they realize for the first time how pure and vast the sky truly is.

Warm sunlight shines on their faces, and a gentle breeze brushes their fingertips, sweeping away the bad moods that had been suppressed for so long.

Asking for directions along the way, the women soon find the home of Qin Sheng and kneel, begging him to take them in.

"We are women abducted by the bandits of Wolf Cave Mountain. The bandits, over a dozen in total, were wiped out by two nameless masked young heroes. They told us to come and seek refuge with Young Master Qin, saying Young Master Qin could provide us with a way to live."

Another woman also pleads, "I beg you, we can work and endure hardship. We don't want to be freeloaders; we just want to find some work here and earn a living."

The steward of the Qin household tells the women, "Keep your voices down for now. I understand your intentions, but Young Master Qin is not here at the moment. Wait here, and when he returns, we shall see if he can take you in."

Qin Sheng keeps his servants well-disciplined, so these five women are not driven away or treated with violence, but are instead led to the side to wait for Qin Sheng's return to handle the matter.

Half an hour later, Qin Sheng returns from outside. Seeing several unfamiliar women in his residence, he cannot help but look puzzled and asks the steward, "What is going on? Why have these women come here?"

"Young Master, it is like this..." The steward recounts the entire story to Qin Sheng.

Upon hearing this, Qin Sheng's face is filled with disbelief.

He cannot help but mutter to himself, "In a single night, the Wolf Cave Mountain bandits, led by one in the Breath-Connecting Realm and over a dozen Bone Binding warriors, were wiped out? I truly wonder what kind of people those two young heroes are!"

"Young Master Qin, they were a young man and a young woman, and they didn't seem very old." At this moment, one of the women, eager to make an impression, provides this key piece of information.

"A young man and a young woman... a young man and a young woman!" Qin Sheng seems to realize something, pauses slightly, and then looks at the woman who spoke.

Qin Sheng says immediately, "Do not mention this to anyone else. Do not speak of these two young heroes to others, and do not disclose any information regarding them to anyone.

This concerns your very survival. Do you hear me clearly?"

Seeing Qin Sheng's stern attitude, the woman is truly frightened and nods silently.

Qin Sheng does not really want to manage these trivial matters; such things should be left to the servants.

He says, "Very well, Uncle Li, make some inquiries. See which of the military households under our jurisdiction have yet to take a wife, and ask these women their ages. If they are of suitable age, make the arrangements."

He thinks to himself with secret delight, "Lin Xuan... you have given me quite a surprise. How long have you been practicing martial arts, and you can already kill someone in the Breath-Connecting Realm?

You are truly ruthless as well; so many bandits, and you killed every last one of them. How on earth did you manage it?"

What is etched in Qin Sheng's mind now is not an imagined scene of Lin Xuan slaughtering the bandit den, but the image from nearly two months ago of that clumsy youth who fired several arrows without a single one hitting the Pheasant King.

Commander Zhang has been very irritable lately, because he only discovered a few days ago that the bandits of Wolf Cave Mountain, whom he had been indulging, had not provided him with their tribute money for a long time.

He sent men to the site to investigate, only to realize what had happened.

"Commander Zhang, the entire Wolf Cave Mountain stronghold was essentially burned to the ground. Only the granary remained unburned, but the grain inside had been cleared out. The whereabouts of all the bandits are unknown, and not even their corpses can be fully recovered.

That teenager with the photographic memory is also missing, fate unknown."

"A fine 'fate unknown'—does that mean he is dead?" Commander Zhang has been suppressing his anger, because these people were more than just bandits to him.

The bandit leader Xiao Chongyang was his brother-in-law, who brought him a significant amount of illicit income every year, not to mention his gifted nephew, who would have had a limitless future had he pursued a scholarly path.

But now they are dead, yet he does not even know who the culprit is, and he cannot report it to the authorities.

"Who on earth burned down Wolf Cave Mountain?"

It is highly likely that this person did not come for money; after all, how much silver could one squeeze out of a small bandit den? With such ability, one could easily earn far more.

It must have been for revenge.

He runs through the list of people he has made enemies with over the years, but time and again, he cannot figure out who did this.

The name "Lin Xuan" flashes through his mind, but he quickly dismisses it. After all, Lin Xuan is merely a Bone Binding warrior. Even if his martial talent is heaven-defying, could he really wipe out a Breath-Connecting expert and over a dozen Bone Binding warriors after practicing for less than two months?

Moreover, the job was done without leaving a trace. If there were still corpses, he could have determined whether the perpetrator used official blades or martial arts weapons based on the wounds.

But now, those bandits have essentially been burned to ash; he cannot find a single flaw to exploit.

If this were truly the work of Lin Xuan, it would be too shocking to believe. Could a fifteen-year-old boy really accomplish such things?

This matter is completely beyond his comprehension.

It is not until two days later that his subordinate provides him with a new piece of intelligence: Xiao Chongyang's corpse was found by someone on Rou Mountain. It was in a gruesome state when discovered, but his identity could still be vaguely recognized.

Commander Zhang thinks it over and over, feeling that his enemy must be within the Thousand-Household Office, someone from Liang City.

He cannot help but feel terrified. Since the other party has already clipped his wings, is it his turn next?