The Demon Suppressing Division's prison.
An Interrogation Room deep inside the prison.
Sun Tai hung from the wall in chains. His official robe had long since been stripped off, leaving him in a tattered shirt.
His body was covered in lash marks and burn scars, and his face was bruised black and blue.
He looked utterly wretched, but his eyes still held a trace of stubbornness.
When he heard the cell door open, he lifted his head and glanced over. Then he saw Lin Hu walk in.
Sun Tai's eyes narrowed for a moment before he resumed his defiant, devil-may-care expression.
"Humph... you again."
His voice was hoarse, and carried a hint of mockery.
"How many times must I say it? I'm innocent! I've never colluded with any Demon Cult!"
"You seized me without evidence. That's an abuse of power! The first thing I'll do when I get out is petition His Majesty and report you, Lin Hu, for persecuting loyal subjects..."
Lin Hu walked up to him and looked down at his stubborn expression.
Then he smiled.
"You think I won't be able to find out just because you keep quiet?"
Sun Tai let out a cold laugh.
"I'm clean as a whistle. What are you going to investigate? What could you possibly find?"
"If you really had evidence, would you need to stand here wasting your breath?"
Lin Hu shook his head.
"You've got one thing wrong."
He crouched in front of Sun Tai. His voice was calm, yet it sent a chill down Sun Tai's spine.
"I came to interrogate you myself not because I lack evidence."
"It's because you're too stubborn for your own good, and you've wasted an entire night of my time."
As soon as he finished speaking,
he raised a hand and sent a streak of white Spiritual Power straight into Sun Tai's body.
The Spiritual Power slithered through Sun Tai's meridians like a venomous snake.
Everywhere it passed, his meridians burned, inch by inch.
It felt as if a red-hot iron rod had been shoved inside him!
"Ahhh—!"
Sun Tai jerked his head back and let out a shriek so horrific it barely sounded human.
His body convulsed violently, making the chains rattle and clank.
The muscles in his face twisted together, and his eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets.
But that was only the physical pain.
Lin Hu raised his other hand and pressed his index finger against Sun Tai's brow.
An even purer stream of Spiritual Power surged into Sun Tai's sea of consciousness.
Sun Tai felt as if an invisible hand were forcibly prying open his skull.
Terrifying visions flooded his mind.
He saw himself being subjected to the thousand cuts, each blow bringing agony so real he could feel every slice.
He saw his entire clan marched to the execution ground—his parents, wife, children, and kin, one by one, beheaded before his eyes.
He saw members of the Holy Demon God Sect find him and torture him with the most brutal methods, making him wish he were dead.
The visions looped endlessly, without end.
"Ahhhhh—!"
Sun Tai's screams echoed through the Interrogation Room. Even the jailers standing guard outside felt their scalps go numb.
In the face of such torment, his will was as thin as a sheet of paper.
Less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea had passed.
"I'll talk! I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"
Sun Tai finally broke. His voice was hoarse as a broken bellows.
Lin Hu withdrew his finger, and the white Spiritual Power faded away with it.
Sun Tai hung from the chains like a heap of mud, panting heavily.
His whole body was soaked with sweat, and his trousers were wet through.
He lifted his head.
His eyes were filled with fear as he looked at Lin Hu.
"Go on."
Lin Hu's tone was calm.
Sun Tai's lips trembled as he spoke in fits and starts.
"I... I really did have dealings with the Holy Demon God Sect."
"Three years ago, people from the Holy Demon God Sect approached me. They said they'd give me one million mid-grade Spirit Crystals each year if I provided them with intelligence on the movements of the Xu Province garrison."
"I was greedy for a moment, so... so I agreed."
"Later, they asked me to help establish Branch Sect hideouts across the prefectures of Xu Province, forge official government documents, cover their tracks, and regularly report on the deployment and movements of the Xu Province Prefectural Army."
"In exchange, they promised to help me break through to Eighth-Rank Grandmaster within five years. And when the Demon Realm descends and the world changes hands, they'd not only spare my entire family, but let me keep ruling Xu Province. They might even give me a few more provinces..."
At this point,
he hurriedly added, his voice tinged with eagerness to prove his worth.
"Still, I never helped them with anything involving the Branch Sect hideouts in Xu Province! I really don't know how those Branch Sects were set up or where they're hiding now!"
"They're extremely tight-lipped about it. They never let me come into contact with any information about the Branch Sects! I asked them a few times, but they warned me to mind my own business and said it was better for me to know less!"
Standing behind Lin Hu, Sun Zhengyang listened to Sun Tai confess every detail.
His eyes grew wider and wider, and his mouth fell farther and farther open.
When he heard Sun Tai admit that he really had colluded with the Demon Cult, it felt as if he'd been punched.
He staggered back two steps and struck the wall.
"You... you really did...!"
Sun Zhengyang pointed at Sun Tai, his finger trembling.
He'd interrogated him all night, all the while taken in by Sun Tai's act of a loyal official wrongfully accused.
He'd even spoken up for Sun Tai in front of Lin Hu several times, asking whether there might have been "some misunderstanding" and insisting that "Inspector Sun is wholeheartedly loyal to the imperial court."
Well, there it was. Sun Tai had admitted it himself.
The truth had slapped him across the face again and again.
He remembered what he'd said to Lin Hu earlier, and his old face flushed bright red.
Han Meng, who had come along to observe, was also rooted to the spot. His expression was just as ugly, as if he'd eaten a fly.
And he'd actually pleaded for Sun Tai!
Now he'd pleaded on behalf of a traitor who'd colluded with the Demon Cult. If word got out, he'd be investigated too!
Han Meng turned to Lin Hu and clasped his fists, his voice full of remorse.
"My lord envoy, I offended you earlier and even spoke up for this traitor."
"Your subordinate was foolish! I'm guilty! Please punish me, my lord envoy!"
Sun Zhengyang hurriedly bowed as well, his voice full of self-reproach.
"So was I! I failed to get a confession out of him, and even questioned your judgment, my lord envoy."
"Your subordinate is incompetent. Please punish me!"
Lin Hu waved a hand.
"Those who don't know are not to blame."
He glanced at Sun Tai, who hung limp on the wall and was barely clinging to life, and said indifferently,
"Keep questioning him. Dig out everything he knows."
"Even if he doesn't know the exact locations of the Branch Sect hideouts, he must know some clues."
"Once you've finished interrogating him, escort him to the capital and leave him to His Majesty and His... Lordship to deal with."
Han Meng and Sun Zhengyang clasped their fists in unison.
"As you command!"
This time, neither of them had the slightest trace of dissatisfaction as they looked at Lin Hu. It had been replaced with heartfelt awe and admiration.
The strength of a Ninth-Rank Martial Saint, judgment that never missed its mark, and interrogation methods that could make a man wish he were dead.
This White Tiger Guard under Prince Wu'an was far more terrifying than they'd imagined!
Meanwhile, while Sun Tai was being interrogated deep inside the prison, the Prefectural Governor's Mansion in Xu Province had already descended into chaos.
Once word spread that Sun Tai had been seized and thrown in prison, all the mansion's advisers, clerks, accountants, and stewards panicked.
Some tried to slip away in the confusion, but soldiers Han Meng had stationed there in advance blocked them inside the mansion.
After Lin Hu left the prison,
he went straight back to the Prefectural Governor's Mansion with his men and began a thorough search.
Ledgers, Secret Letters, Message Talismans, Storage Rings—anything that might contain a clue was dug up.
He flipped through the ledgers page by page.
"These entries don't add up."
He pointed to several altered records in the ledgers, his tone certain.
"For the past three years, there's been an annual income of five hundred thousand mid-grade Spirit Crystals. But the books show less than half that amount. Where did the rest go?"
The clerk detained nearby shuddered, his face turning deathly pale.
He stammered for a long while, but in the end, unable to withstand Lin Hu's gaze, he confessed.
"Yes, yes, it was Lord Sun who told us to falsify the books. He collected that money in secret and didn't want it recorded."
Lin Hu nodded, then found several Secret Letters hidden in a false compartment.
The letters didn't mention the Holy Demon God Sect by name, but every line was riddled with coded language.
"The goods have arrived," "the usual place for the exchange," "the people above are very satisfied."
Those furtive phrases clearly pointed to something shady.
He handed the letters to Sun Zhengyang, who stood beside him.
"Can you decipher these codes?"
Sun Zhengyang took the letters and read them carefully, then nodded.
"Yes. These are codes commonly used by the Demon Cult. We've seen similar ones elsewhere."
"I'll have someone decipher them right away. We should be able to find clues to other Branch Sect hideouts."
Lin Hu nodded.
"Make it quick."
Sun Zhengyang bowed and accepted the order, then hurried away with the letters.
After he left,
Lin Hu's gaze grew even sharper than before.
Sun Tai was only the beginning. The real prize was the Demon Cult's hidden strongholds scattered throughout Xu Province.
He had to root out every last rat before His Lordship arrived in Xu Province!