Heartslaying

The moment those words left his mouth, the old Daoist hurriedly made as if to cover it.

But he had the sense not to truly make a fool of himself. He merely bowed slightly, then sat back down. Still, he lowered his voice. "Brother Xin, ah... how can you speak such nonsense! What sort of person is the Prefect? He is the parental official of Weicheng! Even in the Great Qing Dynasty, how many Principal Fifth Rank officials are there? Brother Xin, do not mention such things again in the future... If anything happens to Prefect Li, leaving everything else aside, Brother Xin, you surely would not want..."

"I don't want people noticing me." Li Yunxin poured the old Daoist a cup of wine and smiled faintly as he shook his head. "But if this keeps developing, I won't be happy about it."

"The best outcome would be for the two of us to move out of this residence and find somewhere else to live. If it comes to that, my thoughts won't flow freely anymore. I don't bully people, but I don't want to be bullied either. I'm standing here perfectly well, and you run over and kick me—what kind of bullshit is that?"

"A worse outcome would be that not only would they confiscate the residence, but the two of us would have to eat prison food too. By then... it would be hard for me not to expose my identity. All my life, I've only slept on a straw mat for a few days in Qinghe County. Let me tell you, I'm picky about beds, and I get grumpy when I wake up. Once I don't sleep well, I start wanting to mess people up."

"So you see, we can only kill him. He's a Principal Fifth Rank prefect of the Great Qing Dynasty, so impressive. Who would imagine that a little Daoist boy like me killed him—or that an old man like you had that kind of ability? Outside his door, there are masters from the Dao Tradition and the Sword Sect who set up the Yin Spirit Grand Formation!"

"He has enemies, and powerful ones at that. Once he dies, anyone who isn't brain-dead will think those enemies did it. What the hell does it have to do with me? Then we deal with those people from the Qiao Household. Once they stop stirring up trouble, who will remember what happened with the Hongfu Escort Agency? Your old friend, if his life is still tough enough by then, can get out of his predicament too. What are you staring at? Drink your wine and think it over properly. Isn't what I said perfectly reasonable?"

The old Daoist did not know who "Li Jufu" was. But after thinking it over, though he felt Li Yunxin's analysis was orderly and logical, he still sensed that something was off.

After he drank the cup of wine and smacked his lips, he realized what the problem was.

"But Brother Xin... how, um... would you... deal with him?" The old Daoist still could not bring himself to say those outrageously rebellious words. "Brother Xin said it yourself—he has that grand formation protecting him. You did not even dare use any methods tonight, for fear of being discovered. If you use ordinary means... there will always be traces to follow. Those coroners and yamen runners aren't being paid to eat for nothing. Sooner or later, they'll trace it back to us. And there are people from the Dao Tradition and the Sword Sect too... no one knows what miraculous methods they might possess..."

Li Yunxin drained the last dregs from the wine pot, downed them in one gulp, and stood.

Perhaps it was an illusion, but Liu Laodao felt that an uncanny light had blossomed over his face—even... something that could be called demonic.

"I don't know what miraculous methods those people possess." Li Yunxin seemed to have thought of something and looked as though he were about to laugh. His eyes seemed filled with some emotion brimming with malice and delight, yet mixed with an impulse toward destruction. "But they don't know what miraculous methods I possess either. Let me tell you. My divine art... is called Heartslaying."

Liu Laodao did not quite understand what he meant.

But he understood one thing. He had once thought he had more or less grasped the temperament and preferences of this young master. But now he knew... what he understood might not even count as a scrap of fur.

This youth... was not as gentle and easygoing as he appeared.

Deep in his bones, perhaps...

Liu Laodao shivered slightly and forced himself not to look at Li Yunxin at this moment.

Deep in his bones, perhaps... some terrifying demon was hidden...

When the third-watch clapper sounded, a night wind rose.

Li Yunxin set down his brush and used the moonlight to examine a sheet of paper on the table.

It contained information he had organized—information about Prefect Li.

Liu Laodao did not know how he could possibly do it,

how he could kill Prefect Li under the protection of masters from the Dao Tradition and the Sword Sect without leaving behind the slightest trace. But to Li Yunxin, this matter had unlocked certain dust-covered memories from his previous life.

Killing people... killing people.

Li Yunxin laughed in the darkness.

He had loved doing that most in the past.

From the servant Aze, he learned that Prefect Li was forty-six this year.

Slightly overweight, and suspected of having high blood pressure and fatty liver. His family had served as officials for generations, and his ancestors had produced a second-rank grand official. But counting four generations upward from his father, almost none had died naturally—three ancestors had "died of fright," while his father had lived somewhat longer and died of "palpitations and shortness of breath."

Heart disease. Most likely hereditary within the Lineage.

Aze said Prefect Li greatly resembled his father in both appearance and manner. Then the possibility that he was surnamed Wang could be ruled out...

Recently, he had suddenly stopped liking fish. Whenever he ate chicken, its skin had to be removed.

Some days ago, when funds were needed to renovate the Sanhekou Dragon King Temple, he first fiercely berated the people involved before approving the money—the sum was even a little greater than requested.

There was one more matter.

Five or six days ago, there had been a torrential downpour. That night, lightning flashed and thunder roared, and a bolt of lightning struck down the main hall of the prefectural yamen. Then, according to Aze, "My lord no longer cared for his usual snacks. Only today did his appetite improve somewhat, and he ordered me to buy sour soup dumplings."

Li Yunxin stared at the paper for a while, then rose and took down the sword Bai Yunxin had given him from the western wall. The blade glimmered softly in the moonlight as he gripped it and swung it a few times.

"I hate this feeling most," he said quietly.

Over the next two or three days, fewer people came to the temple. Li Yunxin wandered through the front courtyard as usual, but he was no longer focusing solely on breaking through his seal.

For one thing, the pain brought by so little Votive Power was not enough to demand his full attention. For another, he was trying to gather information. But people seemed to have begun treating him and Liu Laodao with wary distance. With his keen ears and sharp eyes, he would sometimes hear passersby avoid them with strange expressions, then catch words like, "...colluding with bandits..." and "...they say arrests will be made soon."

This turn of events truly surprised him.

In his impression, the government of this sort of feudal society ought to be vicious and ferocious—if they wanted to arrest someone, they would throw chains over their head, bind them up, and send them straight to prison.

Yet he actually heard idle chatter from passersby saying things like, "...they say that old servant still hasn't confessed, and the evidence isn't conclusive." At the time, he had been utterly dumbfounded—"The evidence isn't conclusive"??

In an era like this...

They spoke of "conclusive evidence"??

But thinking back to what had happened in Qinghe County... it had already seemed somewhat strange. In such a remote county where the mountains were high and the emperor far away, Constable Xing, the local tyrant, had actually gone to such lengths to trick him into escaping prison... before trying to kill him!

He, too, had cared about...

"Conclusive evidence," perhaps?

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