The moon shone bright and the stars were sparse, its clear glow turning into countless thin silver flakes.
One drifted into the little courtyard beside the Yamen's rear kitchen, while another gilded the Huang residence with a silver edge.
Huang Yuan'er strode beneath the moonlight into the study in the rear courtyard, his face dark.
"Second Uncle."
As soon as Huang Yuan'er entered, he saw a broad-shouldered, stout middle-aged man standing before the desk, offering a cup of tea to another middle-aged man whose build was exceptionally corpulent.
He gave Huang Tiansheng a cool greeting, then turned to the fat man seated steadily at the other end of the desk and bowed. "Father."
"You're here."
Huang Tianhe nodded. He looked at Huang Yuan'er and smiled, his eyes almost narrowing to slits.
"Elder Brother, although we caught most of the people involved today, there were too many eyes around. I'm afraid we won't be able to keep what happened in that house secret."
Huang Tiansheng furrowed his brow. His voice rumbled like a jar, making the dozen or so candle flames in the room flicker.
"Do we still have no leads on who did it?"
Huang Tianhe smiled as he glanced at Huang Tiansheng.
His voice was soft, and his gaze was not sharp, but that single gesture made Huang Tiansheng shudder.
Huang Tiansheng answered with a grim expression, "We searched the entire Ghost Market, but didn't even catch a glimpse of the person."
"The only lead is that the blade technique they used looked like the Yamen's Zhengyang Blade Technique."
As he spoke, Huang Tiansheng turned to Huang Yuan'er and asked,
"Dear nephew, did you find anything on your end?"
Huang Yuan'er shook his head, his expression darkening further.
He glanced cautiously at Huang Tianhe, then gritted his teeth and said,
"I checked every Yamen Runner in the Yamen. Twenty-eight were out on duty today. Three returned within an hour, seventeen came back at noon, and eight still haven't returned."
"Those eight all went to Dangyun Mountain. I asked the City Guard, and they said they saw all eight enter the mountain."
"No Yamen Runner went to the Ghost Market today."
Huang Tiansheng said impassively, "After all that, we still have no leads."
Hearing his Second Uncle's pointed sarcasm, Huang Yuan'er was displeased.
He wanted to lash out right there, but then caught sight of his father smiling at him. It was as if a basin of cold water had been dumped over his head, chilling him to the bone.
"Could it have been the Sun Family?"
Huang Tiansheng pondered for a moment, then raised a reasonable possibility.
The room fell silent.
Huang Tianhe sank into thought, reaching out to idly toy with the candle flame on the desk.
The firelight cast his hand's shadow on the wall, where it seemed to form five massive peaks, ready to crush everything in the study.
Huang Tiansheng's breath caught. His blood roiled, and it felt as if he were carrying ten thousand pounds on his shoulders. He could barely straighten up.
Just as he was about to buckle, Huang Tianhe finally spoke.
"The Autumn Hunt is near. The Sun Family wouldn't do something so foolish."
At his words, the pressure on Huang Tiansheng poured away like a broken dam.
The weight lifted.
A bead of sweat slowly ran down his cheek.
"There was a White-Uniform Runner who went to the Ghost Market today."
Huang Yuan'er had felt the same pressure as Huang Tiansheng. After it finally lifted, his calves wouldn't stop trembling, and his voice had grown hoarse.
"A White-Uniform Runner?"
Huang Tiansheng looked startled.
"Exactly."
Huang Yuan'er gritted his teeth. "I even exchanged a move with him today, but I couldn't take him down. That alone proves there's something wrong with him."
"Oh?"
Huang Tianhe asked with some surprise, "You haven't reached the second realm, but you've already undergone a blood change. You couldn't even handle a lowly White-Uniform Runner?"
Huang Yuan'er said bitterly, "If Sun Qifeng hadn't suddenly appeared, I'd have had him chopped to pieces after a few more exchanges."
Huang Tianhe furrowed his brow slightly. "Does the Sun Family have his back?"
Huang Yuan'er nodded. "Yan Ming does too. He spent the Sun Family's favor on this man. That's why the Sun Family switched sides at the last Morning Assembly."
Huang Tianhe thought it over, but couldn't recall anyone like that in Baiyun County.
Never mind. He couldn't be expected to remember some lowly White-Uniform Runner.
"I believe he's the prime suspect in today's affair. Should we bring him in for questioning?"
Huang Yuan'er made no effort to hide his murderous intent toward Chen Zhuo.
Huang Tianhe did not agree. Instead, he looked at Huang Tiansheng.
"Second Brother, what do you think?"
Huang Tiansheng pondered briefly before answering, "The Autumn Hunt is near. As long as the Sun Family is involved, we can't make a major move."
Then he turned to Huang Yuan'er.
"If you believe he's the prime suspect, I'll go to the Yamen with you tomorrow. We have plenty of ways to make him tell the truth."
"Don't disappoint your father."
Huang Yuan'er said coldly, "You'll see, Second Uncle. There's definitely something wrong with him."
"I hope your methods will work when the time comes."
"Father, what do you think?"
"Fine."
Huang Tianhe let his gaze pass over the two of them, nodded slightly, then slowly withdrew it.
"There's one more matter."
Huang Yuan'er continued, "Zhou Sheng is dead, so our side has an empty slot in this round of Yamen Runner promotions. Father, do you have anyone suitable in mind?"
"This concerns the Northern Suppressing Faction's selection later this year. I don't dare decide on my own, so I can only ask you to make the call."
"The Northern Suppressing Faction..."
Huang Tianhe murmured the four words. A trace of barely perceptible apprehension flickered in his eyes, along with anger buried deep beneath it.
If a dignitary from the Northern Suppressing Faction hadn't come to the Yong Prefecture government office to inspect the entire prefecture, he wouldn't have needed to feign civility toward the Sun Family.
As far as he was concerned, he should have killed them all. Then he wouldn't be as constrained as he was now.
Huang Tianhe toyed with the candle flame a few more times before saying coolly, "Quietly spread the word. Make sure all the county's prominent families and wealthy landowners know that the highest bidder gets the slot—and that they'll have to sign a twenty-year life contract with the Long River Gang."
"Yes."
"If anyone else dares lay claim to it, whoever they are, chop them up and feed them to the fish."
After training until midnight, Chen Zhuo emerged from his trance.
He looked out the window at the sky. The clear moonlight still blanketed everything; it was early yet.
His blood surged like a rushing current, but from what he could tell, his body had not undergone any fundamental change.
"Less than half a bottle of True Blood really isn't enough."
At a thought, a line of tiny, mosquito-like characters appeared before his eyes.
[Training Method: Iron Cloth Shirt: 198/200 (Minor Mastery)]
"Just a little more."
Chen Zhuo steadied himself, reached for a porcelain bottle beside the pool, and poured the False Blood inside straight into it.
The Blood-Strengthening Soup began to boil again.
It wasn't as effective as True Blood, which provided three times the boost, but it could still help him immensely.
With his energy intact, he could give his training everything he had.
As the soup grew scalding hot, Chen Zhuo calmed himself and settled into his stance, striking out with his hands. The soup splashed wildly around him.
[Iron Cloth Shirt +1] [Iron Cloth Shirt +1]
The two lines appeared before his eyes in quick succession.
A rumble sounded, as if an explosion had gone off beside his ear.
Then came immense pain, making him curl up involuntarily.
His whole body felt aflame, and it was as if every drop of blood inside him had evaporated in an instant.
But then, a new flow of blood gushed forth like a spring, filling every corner of his body in the blink of an eye.
In a daze, Chen Zhuo seemed to "see" his own heart. With one steady, powerful beat, it boomed.
The new blood began to flow slowly through his veins.
Very slowly, because it was so viscous.
"Blood like liquid mercury."
Those four words flashed through Chen Zhuo's mind.
He knew that he had completed the blood-changing stage.
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