Luring the Mole Out at Midnight

Gu Qinghe picked up the paper packet of Breath-Closing Powder and examined the sealed, old prescription list once more.

"The news cannot spread too quickly, nor can it be told to only one person."

Li Sanshun leaned against the table. "You have to let the people who need to hear it hear it, and you have to make them believe it."

Gu Qinghe retrieved an inspection document, noting that the Breath-Closing Powder seized from Ding Sancang had originated from the Outer Sect Dispensing Room. She wrote that the inventory records for the medicinal materials would be delivered to the Law Enforcement Hall the following morning to be cross-referenced with the infant-nurturing prescription list from twenty-one years ago.

She added one final line at the bottom.

Relevant old ledgers are sealed in the Wu-Character Warehouse of the Outer Sect Dispensing Room.

She stamped the document with the Major Case seal, sending one copy to the Outer Sect Dispensing Room and posting another in the duty room of the Law Enforcement Hall. Seven people had handled the document, meaning Yan Song would also see it.

Before the sun had even set, two stewards from the Outer Sect Dispensing Room arrived.

Both claimed that Breath-Closing Powder was not a prohibited substance and that Outer Sect disciples occasionally requisitioned it for missions. As for where the paper packet in Ding Sancang's possession had come from, they insisted the ledgers would need to be audited.

Gu Qinghe replied with only one sentence.

"The warehouse opens tomorrow morning."

After the two stewards left, Zhao Rui closed the side hall doors.

"If we leak the news like this, will the mole really come?"

Li Sanshun picked up the empty paper packet from the table. "Breath-Closing Powder was used to make Zhao Chong look like a corpse, and it was used to swap Ma Quan's body. Once the ledgers are opened, we can trace exactly who requisitioned the medicine and who altered the figures."

"If he doesn't come, he waits for death tomorrow."

"If he does come, he gets caught tonight."

The Outer Sect Dispensing Room was located on the east side of Medicine Peak, and the Wu-Character Warehouse was used exclusively for storing old ledgers that had not been touched for years. The dust inside was thick, and the door lock had rusted shut.

Before nightfall, Gu Qinghe used the excuse of auditing old ledgers to reassign the warehouse guards to the front courtyard. Two patrol teams remained outside, passing by every quarter of an hour.

The ledger inside the warehouse was a fake.

Gu Qinghe had copied a dozen pages following the format of the old records, deliberately leaving half a name under the entry for Breath-Closing Powder. Whoever flipped to that page would surely take action.

She laid a warning array near the bookshelf.

Li Sanshun looked it over several times. "Too obvious."

"The mole is familiar with the Law Enforcement Hall's investigative methods; give him something he can dismantle first."

Gu Qinghe buried four array stones into the gaps between the bricks and hid an image-recording array inside an empty medicine jar. Even if the intruder destroyed the warning array, everything they did would still be captured.

Four Law Enforcement disciples hid in the adjacent storage room.

Li Sanshun squeezed behind the ledger cabinet, his nose filled with the scent of moldy paper and old medicine. Gu Qinghe crouched in the rafters, where she could see the entire room.

The first patrol team walked by.

The second patrol team didn't stop either.

After another half-hour, three bird calls sounded outside the back window.

This was the secret signal for the night shift change among the dispensing room disciples.

A thin iron strip slid into the window gap, pushing aside the wooden bolt. As the window opened a few inches, a figure in gray robes slipped into the warehouse.

The man was not masked, and a copper badge from the Outer Sect Dispensing Room hung from his waist.

After landing, he didn't touch the ledger cabinet; instead, he pulled out a short black awl and probed the floor tiles several times.

The awl struck an array stone, and the warning array was instantly disabled.

Li Sanshun didn't move.

This man knew exactly where the array would be placed and how deep the stones were buried. If he wasn't a veteran of the dispensing room, someone had coached him beforehand.

The man in gray put away the awl and walked toward the Wu-Character bookshelf. He didn't look anywhere else, pulling out exactly the fake ledger Gu Qinghe had prepared.

He was precise.

He flipped to the page for Breath-Closing Powder and took a small bottle from his sleeve, dripping the liquid onto the half-written name. The ink spread rapidly, and the paper began to yellow.

Destroying one page wasn't enough.

The man in gray continued flipping forward, intending to erase all records of medicine requisitions from the last five years.

Li Sanshun stepped out from behind the ledger cabinet.

"Brother, you're quite diligent, coming to clear the books in the middle of the night."

The man in gray threw the medicine bottle and kicked over the oil lamp.

Flames licked toward the old paper on the floor.

Li Sanshun raised his hand to draw water; a stream swept across the floor, extinguishing the fire just as it touched the corner of the paper.

The warehouse door swung open immediately.

Four Law Enforcement disciples blocked the front and back exits.

The man in gray turned to bolt for the back window, but Gu Qinghe leaped down from above, her short sword blocking his path.

"Cao An, ledger clerk of the Outer Sect Dispensing Room, twelve years in the sect."

Cao An drew his waist saber. "I was just here to alter my own private accounts!"

"Does altering private accounts require a breaking-array awl?"

"I sold a few batches of medicinal materials on the side; I was afraid of the Cold Prison, so I destroyed the records."

He ripped the copper badge from his waist and hurled it at the medicine jar containing the image-recording array.

Gu Qinghe deflected the badge with her sword.

Li Sanshun, however, chuckled.

This bastard even knew where the image-recording array was hidden.

Seeing that the badge hadn't hit the jar, Cao An turned and lunged for the bookshelf. He bit down on a black pill hidden behind his teeth, but just as he was about to swallow, Li Sanshun flicked a gust of wind.

The pill flew from his mouth and rolled into the corner.

Two Law Enforcement disciples pounced, pinning Cao An to the ground.

Cao An tried to struggle, but Li Sanshun stepped on his lower back.

"Six people on North Mountain all used this trick to keep their mouths shut. You want to try it too?"

The pill was sealed into a porcelain bottle, and Gu Qinghe retrieved the image-recording array.

The array displayed the entire process of Cao An breaking the formation, retrieving the ledger, and dripping the liquid. It even captured his attempt to smash the medicine jar.

Cao An lay on the ground, still refusing to admit it.

"I was only clearing records of stolen medicine; it has nothing to do with Zhao Chong."

Li Sanshun squatted beside him and took a breath.

The smell of old paper was tainted with the lingering scent of Breath-Closing Powder and pine resin.

[Detection: Residual Breath-Closing Powder.]

[Detection: Residual Ink-Eroding Liquid.]

[Detection: Trace amounts of pine resin.]

"You've been compounding Breath-Closing Powder recently."

Cao An turned his head away. "I work in the dispensing room; what's strange about my clothes smelling like medicine?"

Li Sanshun tore off his outer robe and found several pre-cut medicinal papers in the inner pocket lining.

The papers were stamped with the complete seal of the dispensing room.

Outer Sect Dispensing Room, No. 2 Dispensing Room.

The paper packet seized from Ding Sancang only had half of the character "Outer" left, but the thickness, the cut edges, and the folding method were identical.

Gu Qinghe placed the two types of paper side by side. "Who is in charge of the No. 2 Dispensing Room?"

A disciple accompanying them flipped through the roster.

"Cao An is in charge of requisition registration, and he also helps the pharmacist count the medicine cabinets at the beginning of every month."

It was clear where the Breath-Closing Powder had come from.

Cao An was escorted back to Law Enforcement Peak.

Inside the side hall, the image-recording jade, the medicinal paper, the ink-eroding liquid, and the breaking-array awl were laid out on the table one by one. Gu Qinghe did not send him to the dungeon, choosing instead to interrogate him under the guard of the North Mountain disciples.

Cao An first insisted that he had only stolen medicine.

Gu Qinghe placed the black poison pill in front of him.

"Does stealing a few packets of medicine require carrying a Soul-Severing Pill?"

Cao An kept his head down, refusing to speak.

Li Sanshun threw the Breath-Closing Powder seized from Ding Sancang onto the table.

"You can refuse to admit it. Tomorrow morning, we will publicly audit the ledgers and show the image-recording array to the Outer Sect disciples. The person working for Mr. Bai didn't die by our hands, but the entire Medicine Peak now knows his identity. Do you think he will keep you alive?"

Cao An's shoulders trembled.

"I have never met Mr. Bai."

"Then name the person you have met."

"The Breath-Closing Powder was dispensed according to the annotations; I was only responsible for releasing the medicine."

Gu Qinghe pushed a sheet of paper toward him. "Who wrote the annotations?"

Cao An hesitated, his pen hovering.

Li Sanshun picked up the Soul-Severing Pill. "Zhao Chong had someone use Breath-Closing Powder to fake his death, and Ma Quan's body went missing. To prescribe medicine for a dead man, there must have been an autopsy result. Who wrote that report?"

Cao An looked up, his forehead drenched in sweat.

"I can confess, but you must go arrest him immediately."

"Name."

"Coroner Du of the Law Enforcement Hall. He is the one who wrote the fake death annotation for Ma Quan, but if you wait until dawn, there won't be anything left in his medicine furnace!"