第47章 一出好戏,四个内鬼全麻了

Black smoke filled the air above the archives.

By the time Li Sanshun arrived, three windows were spewing fire. Over a dozen disciples were rushing in with water buckets, but the library's defensive array had sealed the main gate.

A deacon held an array tablet, his face slick with sweat.

"The gate doesn't recognize the token!"

Xiong Baichuan swung his copper hammer.

"Move aside, I'll smash it open!"

"Don't smash it yet."

Li Sanshun pressed his face to a gap in the door and inhaled the smoke.

The hot fumes seared his lungs, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.

[Fire oil detected.]

[Fire-starting hemp and red phosphorus powder detected.]

[Scent of burning files: faint.]

The fire had been burning for quite some time, yet the smell of burning paper was pitifully weak.

What was burning inside was not the old files at all.

"Xu Zhenchuan is willing to set a fire, but he isn't willing to burn the people inside."

Li Sanshun looked around.

The disciples carrying water were in a state of chaos. Some were ramming the door, others were tearing at the windows, and some were running toward the rear wall with fire-extinguishing sand.

Four people were not touching the water buckets.

They stood apart at the four cardinal directions, each clutching a fire-sealing jar to their chest.

"Peak Master Xiong, smash the right wall."

Xiong Baichuan turned and delivered a hammer blow.

BOOM!

Half the brick wall collapsed.

A wave of heat surged through the breach, and the disciples standing nearby scrambled back. Li Sanshun, however, stepped over the rubble and charged inside.

The fire inside was raging.

The aisles were carpeted with fire-starting hemp, and fire oil flowed along the brick seams. All four rows of wooden cabinets were ablaze, the flames licking directly toward the locations of the Xuan-class old files and the West Mountain mining accounts.

"Water-element technique!"

Several main peak disciples struck at once.

The water suppressed the flames near the door, but the fire oil on the ground flowed along with the water, causing the fire to spread even wider.

"Stop!"

Li Sanshun kicked over a nearby sand bin and used an earth-element technique to block the drainage channel.

"The fire oil is floating on the water; splashing it around will only make it burn faster. Cut off the four fire sources first!"

Xiong Baichuan led his men in, his copper hammer shattering two rows of wooden shelves and cutting the fire path in half.

The four disciples who had been holding the fire-sealing jars followed them in.

One headed straight for Xuan-class cabinet 3.

One circled toward the old mining accounts.

The remaining two rushed toward the Imperial old case and the Armory transfer order, respectively.

Once inside, the four did not fight the fire; each grabbed a file and tucked it into their robes.

Li Sanshun stood at the end of the aisle.

"Finally willing to take them?"

The four stopped in unison.

The disciple who had taken the mining accounts dropped his fire-sealing jar and threw a fire talisman.

The talisman struck the bookshelf.

POW!

The cabinet doors split open, and the files inside burst into flames.

The other three turned and fled.

Xiong Baichuan blocked the main entrance, his copper hammer held across his chest.

"Anyone who takes another step, I'll break his legs first!"

The four did not stop.

They crushed their fire-sealing jars, and a massive cloud of red smoke powder erupted. As the powder hit the flames, the entire aisle ignited.

A burning beam fell from the ceiling, effectively blocking Xiong Baichuan's path.

The four used the smoke and fire as cover to dash toward the broken wall on the right.

Just as they reached the wall, a law enforcement chain flew into the archive, wrapping around the ankles of the two in the lead.

The pair crashed into the rubble.

The remaining two drew short blades and lunged toward the source of the chain.

Gu Qinghe stood outside the wall.

She was still wearing the plain robes from when she had been locked in the quiet room, and her right hand dragged a broken length of sealing chain.

"The Law Enforcement Peak archives are on fire; I have the authority to break the seals to save the files."

One of them swung his blade.

Gu Qinghe sidestepped, the chain wrapping around the hilt of the blade and yanking downward. The short blade clattered to the ground, and she kicked the man back into the archive.

The other was about to form a seal, but Li Sanshun had already arrived from the fire, punching him in the abdomen.

The man doubled over, and the fire talisman in his hand fell to the ground.

Li Sanshun stepped on it, extinguishing the flame.

"After hiding for so long, is this all you've learned—burning your own archives?"

Gu Qinghe did not chase them after entering.

She walked to the west wall and pulled on an inconspicuous iron ring.

The sound of gears turning echoed from within the wall.

Four fire-blocking stone slabs descended from the ceiling, partitioning the aisles. Immediately after, the water troughs on the roof flipped, pouring a massive amount of stored water into the four fire zones.

The fire oil tried to flow outward, but the drainage channels had already been blocked by Li Sanshun.

The water grew deeper and deeper.

The fire oil floating on the surface was trapped within the squares formed by the stone slabs, unable to spread to the other bookshelves.

Gu Qinghe walked to the array platform and pulled out the fire-suppressing nail embedded in the base.

The array patterns in the archive flickered out.

The locked underground drainage system opened, and the sewage mixed with fire oil flowed into the fire-blocking pool. The remaining flames lasted only a moment before the main peak disciples extinguished them completely.

The four undercover disciples were also pinned to the ground.

Xiong Baichuan kicked open the scorched Xuan-class cabinet.

A dozen files fell out, leaving only charred covers.

"What about the old infant case?"

"Burned."

One of the undercover disciples lay on the ground, actually managing a smile.

"The 15 infant blood old files, the West Mountain miner accounts, Gu Changyue's furnace sealing order—all burned to ash."

Gu Qinghe picked up a remnant of a file.

The pages had burned to ash.

But the Imperial old seal on the cover remained.

She turned to look at Li Sanshun.

"Where are the real files?"

"The corpse room."

The undercover disciple's laughter died.

Li Sanshun took a small key from his robe.

After the sealing registry assassin stole the Mystic-15 sealing sword, he had guessed that Xu Zhenchuan would clean out the remaining files.

Before rushing to furnace No. 7, he had Zhao Rui swap out the Imperial old case, the West Mountain mining accounts, and Gu Changyue's furnace sealing order, hiding them in the deepest cold corpse cabinet in the Law Enforcement Peak's corpse room.

The corpse cabinet was cast from mysterious iron and sealed with a corpse plague seal.

The living avoided it.

The mole wouldn't dare open it, either.

Everything left in the archives had been fake copies made from the originals.

Each file had been placed in a different location.

By seeing who grabbed which file, they could determine who had received which order.

Xiong Baichuan looked down at the four men.

"How many years have you four been at Law Enforcement Peak?"

No one answered.

Zhao Rui arrived with his men and placed an iron casket on the table.

Inside the casket lay the complete old infant case, the mining accounts, and the furnace sealing order. The seals were still intact, and not even the edges of the paper had touched water.

"All evidence recovered."

He then produced four transfer orders seized from the four undercover disciples.

Each order listed only one target.

The Imperial infant case.

The West Mountain mining accounts.

The Armory transfer files.

Gu Changyue's furnace sealing order.

Each was stamped with Xu Zhenchuan's deputy hall master seal.

Gu Qinghe pieced the four orders together; the corners of the paper formed exactly half of a Black Mountain crest.

"The split-route order of the old dark patrol guard."

She looked up at the four men.

"Where is Xu Zhenchuan?"

One of them gritted his teeth.

Li Sanshun pried his mouth open and extracted a soul-devouring tooth that hadn't been bitten through yet.

"Fang Shao died to this thing, and you still want to try it?"

Rapid hoofbeats sounded from outside.

A law enforcement disciple crashed through the broken wall, his left arm drenched in blood.

"Deacon Gu, Peak Master Xiong, Xu Zhenchuan has taken the elite of the Law Enforcement Hall to the judgment platform!"

Gu Qinghe grabbed his arm.

"Where is my father?"

"The moment Hall Master Gu arrived at the judgment platform, Xu Zhenchuan sealed all four roads and publicly produced an Imperial treason order."

The undercover disciple on the ground spat out a mouthful of blood and looked up, smiling.

"What use is it that you saved a few dead files?"

"Deputy Hall Master Xu has already surrounded Gu Changyue; he intends for the father and daughter of the Gu family to confess their crimes together tonight!"