"Grand Elder Qi, the person who took Zhao Chong used Gu Changyue's Law Enforcement Token!"
Just after midnight, Gu Qinghe hurried back to Law Enforcement Peak.
The Seal Verification Room was full of elders. Her adoptive father, Gu Changyue, had removed his sword and Hall Master's token and stood alone beside the Array Disk. Four seal-verification disciples guarded the doors and windows. No one dared speak.
Gu Qinghe took half a Black Iron token from her robes and placed it on the white jade plate.
Dried blood clung to the token, and the broken edge bore scorch marks. Only half of the character "Enforce" remained on the front. The Array Pattern on the back had been scraped to pieces by a sharp weapon, yet its spiritual energy had not completely dissipated.
The seal-verification disciples activated the Array Disk.
Two auras lit up at once.
One belonged to Gu Changyue. The other matched the record of the door being opened in cell number fifteen.
An elder spoke in a grave voice. "Where did you get the token?"
"Under the cliff east of West Mountain Spirit Mine."
Gu Qinghe had spent the entire day flying on her sword, and her hem was caked with mountain mud. Only after returning to the sect had she learned that Zhao Chong was missing—and that half a token had pointed suspicion at her adoptive father.
"I investigated where Zhou Huai, the mine's bookkeeper, fell off the cliff and found bloodstains in a crevice. I followed the trail for thirty li and encountered a masked cultivator. They fled as soon as they saw me, and dropped this half-token during our fight."
"What happened to them?"
"They died after taking poison. They had no identifying items on them."
The elder looked at Gu Changyue.
"A high-grade Law Enforcement Token requires its owner's aura. Hall Master Gu, how do you explain this?"
Gu Changyue placed his intact token on another jade plate.
"This counterfeit token was made to frame me. Suspend my authority as Hall Master for now and let Grand Elder Qi preside over Law Enforcement Peak."
Gu Qinghe picked up the thread.
"This disciple requests that all Law Enforcement Tokens issued under my adoptive father's name be deactivated, and that his residence and files be sealed. Until the matter is cleared up, he must not have contact with anyone involved."
Gu Changyue looked at his adopted daughter.
"You understand what you're saying?"
"I do. If I help you avoid scrutiny, then if even one problem turns up later, people will doubt all the evidence gathered before it. You have to be suspended first if we're going to investigate thoroughly."
Qi Shouxuan took out a temporary Dharma Seal and stamped Gu Changyue's token.
"Granted. Gu Changyue will temporarily step down as Hall Master and may not leave the main peak. Gu Qinghe will handle the West Mountain leads. Li Sanshun will accompany her to investigate Zhao Chong's whereabouts."
Only then did Gu Qinghe look at Li Sanshun, who stood by the door.
A newly initiated Qi Refining disciple was actually allowed to take part in a case involving an order from the elders. Stranger still, neither Qi Shouxuan nor Xiong Baichuan offered any explanation.
She didn't ask. Instead, she pushed the half-token to the center of the Seal Verification Array.
"Blood has covered the core Array Pattern. Wash it off first, then verify when it was forged."
A seal-verification disciple brought over some cleansing liquid. When it touched the token, the dried blood hardened into a crust and wouldn't dissolve at all.
"The blood was mixed with Spirit-Fixing Powder."
"Spirit-Fixing Powder is commonly used at the mine to seal spirit-stone chests." Gu Qinghe took out a small knife. "Scrape it off from the edges."
Standing nearby, Li Sanshun caught a familiar smell.
It wasn't the smell of blood, nor was it Spirit-Fixing Powder.
When he had opened the spirit-stone chest paid by the Zhao Family at the Logistics Hall, the sealing wax had given off the same pungent odor. When Zhao Yuanqing cast fire spells, his Fire Talisman left behind a trace of it after burning.
"Don't scrape it yet."
Gu Qinghe stopped.
"What did you find?"
"There's Red Saltpeter Powder in the blood. The Zhao Family often uses it to stabilize the flames when crafting Fire Talismans."
A seal-verification disciple leaned closer and sniffed.
"Indeed. Red Saltpeter Powder clumps when it meets cleansing liquid. No wonder the blood wouldn't come off."
Gu Qinghe switched to fire-melting liquid. The crust of blood gradually peeled away, revealing the Array Pattern beneath.
At first glance, the pattern looked identical to the one on Gu Changyue's token, but the third loop had an extra gap.
"The counterfeiter copied only the permissions to open doors and seal formations." Gu Qinghe pointed to the gap. "They couldn't command the law-enforcement disciples or access the files. From the start, their only goal was to get into the cell."
Li Sanshun asked, "How many times can the token be used?"
"Three at most. Once its spiritual energy is used up, it'll break."
"The Back Mountain Teleportation Array counts as one use, the cell door as another, and sealing the Communication Array as a third. The token's already been used up. Why destroy half of it?"
Gu Qinghe turned the token over.
"To conceal the forging number inside."
A seal-verification disciple channeled spiritual energy into the broken edge. A few small characters surfaced within the Array Pattern, though only half remained.
"West Mountain Spirit Mine, Ding-Character Furnace."
Gu Qinghe opened the mine's register.
The Ding-Character Furnace had been shut down six years ago. Before it was sealed, its final batch of Black Iron had all been sent to Law Enforcement Peak to forge the updated Elder Tokens.
Gu Changyue's token had been made from that very batch.
"Who was in charge of the Ding-Character Furnace six years ago?"
"Bookkeeper Zhou Huai." Gu Qinghe closed the register. "The same person who fell off the cliff and went missing."
Several elders exchanged glances.
Zhou Huai had access to the old furnace records and had handled the raw materials for Gu Changyue's token. If he had kept some Black Iron from the same furnace, he really could have forged a token with a similar aura.
But Gu Qinghe hadn't told them everything.
When she found half the token beneath the cliff, Zhou Huai's identity token had been beside it. It was covered in blood, and his life flame had already gone out.
Zhou Huai was dead.
The half-token hadn't fallen from the masked cultivator. It had been in the dead Zhou Huai's hand.
Until they figured out why Zhou Huai had kept the token, she couldn't reveal this yet. If the news got out, whoever had really carried out the deed would immediately destroy the remaining clues.
Li Sanshun walked a circle around the verification table.
"Were there any traces of a Fire Talisman burning in Zhao Chong's cell before he disappeared?"
The law-enforcement disciple checked the inspection records.
"No. Fire Talismans are forbidden inside the cells, and there were no scorch marks on the walls."
"The Red Saltpeter Powder might not just be used to counterfeit the token. It could also have rubbed off on whoever carried Zhao Chong away. Check the soles of the meal-delivery disciples and corpse-carriers, their sleeves, and the cell's ventilation shafts."
Gu Qinghe picked up the train of thought.
"The underground cells have only one main entrance. It'd be easy for the guards to spot someone carrying out a living person. But if they drugged Zhao Chong into seeming dead, hid him in a corpse chest, and took him out through the corpse passage, the guards wouldn't suspect a thing."
Qi Shouxuan gave an order at once.
"Seal off the Corpse Room and ventilation shafts. Keep all corpse carts inside the peak."
A law-enforcement disciple hurried out.
Gu Qinghe continued cleaning the token. Once all the blood was gone, a patch the size of a grain of rice appeared in the center of the Array Pattern.
The patch wasn't made using the standard techniques of Law Enforcement Peak. It looked like a marker that had been inserted later.
She pried it open with a silver needle.
Two neatly carved digits lay inside.
Fifteen.
Li Sanshun took out a rubbing of the portrait's reference number and set it beside the token. The two numbers had been written in exactly the same way, down to the pause in the final stroke.
The Ninth Floor of the Scripture Pavilion, the imperial portrait, Zhao Chong's cell, the counterfeit token—four trails all pointed to fifteen.
A bronze bell rang outside the Seal Verification Room.
The disciple investigating the cells stood outside, holding a witness-protection register.
"Grand Elder Qi, there's also a problem with the protection records for cell number fifteen. Li Sanshun is listed as a related witness, and his default guardian has been changed to the Fourth Imperial Grandson, Ji Jingyao."
Gu Qinghe picked up the half Blood Token.
"Check the protection register first. There's a fifteen carved inside the token, too!"
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