Old Secrets Buried in Dust, Raised Again Today

Old Secrets Buried in Dust, Raised Again Today

At midnight, wind and snow filled the city.

South of Weishui City, lights blazed brightly.

These jianghu wanderers who feared neither heaven nor earth were truly frightened by the manner of death of the Blackwater Gang's five members.

And with the Zhengqing Gang and Blackwater Gang having remained wary and opposed to one another lately, the atmosphere throughout Southside Old Street had grown taut.

At the Zhengqing Gang, upstairs in the loft, Xie Qing sat cross-legged on the floor with his eyes closed and head lowered, as though dozing.

He seemed to be resting, yet also seemed to be waiting for someone.

A passing jianghu wanderer in the courtyard outside glanced in and could not help smacking his lips.

—The boss had kept up this pose every night for days now. Who knew what he was doing?

But despite his doubts, the jianghu wanderer did not dare ask. He turned and left.

What he did not notice was that the moment his front foot left, a figure clad in black robes and a black ghost-face mask appeared at the doorway.

Soundlessly.

Yu Chen entered the room.

Xie Qing finally opened his eyes as well.

The person he had been waiting for had arrived!

"Senior."

As if he had finally let out a breath, Xie Qing greeted him respectfully. "There are some leads on the matter you instructed me to investigate."

Yu Chen nodded, took a seat in a chair, and waited for him to continue.

Xie Qing took a stack of paper scrolls from a drawer and said, "I sent people to investigate every name on the lists you gave me. It is very strange. Fifteen years ago, these people were indeed all in Weishui, but after the case you mentioned, some died, some vanished, and some went far away. Almost exactly one year after that case occurred, not a single one remained."

Yu Chen's brows furrowed slightly after hearing that.

These names were the witnesses who had testified during that secret trial in the death lantern memory of the coroner, Deadmouth.

From Deadmouth's memories, their testimony had all proven that Yu Chen's parents were the murderers behind that massacre.

Yu Chen had therefore wanted to extract further information from them, such as who the hidden mastermind behind their testimony had been.

Yet fifteen years had passed, and not one of them remained.

Had the mastermind silenced them all?

But if so, why had Deadmouth lived for so many years?

Was it because he did not know the mastermind's true identity?

Or because he had once been a yamen coroner?

No one knew.

But one thing was certain: this path had come to an end.

Though disappointment stirred in his heart, Yu Chen's expression did not change in the slightest.

Xie Qing cautiously raised his head and looked at the ghost-face mask, but it was as though he saw only cold, hard iron and stone, without the faintest reaction. He hurriedly lowered his head and continued.

"But regarding the case from fifteen years ago that you asked me to investigate, I did uncover some things.

"At the time, because the culprit was someone from the yamen, the case was secretly tried to preserve the yamen's reputation and was never made public.

"But I have maintained a few connections in the yamen over the years. After making inquiries in every direction, I heard some information—enough to piece together fragments of what happened back then."

Then Xie Qing laid out all the information he had gathered.

Thus, a case buried beneath dust slowly unfolded before Yu Chen.

Fifteen years ago, the county magistrate had only just assumed office, with two great aides beneath him—one in the light, one in the shadows.

The one in the light was Yu Tiesheng, chief constable of the constabulary. He hated evil as though it were his enemy, possessed formidable martial skill, and was upright and impartial, iron-faced and selfless. Whether they were sons of wealthy households or descendants of officials, so long as they committed a crime, not one could escape.

As for the one in the shadows, he had always been a legend. No one knew who he was or what he looked like.

They only knew that when the county magistrate had first taken office, the lingering influence of the former magistrate had caused trouble both openly and in secret, throwing Weishui into utter chaos, with chickens flying and dogs jumping.

But one day, overnight, blood flowed like a river, and all those people became obedient. Thus, rumors spread that someone had been helping the county magistrate deal with matters that could not see the light of day. He was called the Cleaner.

Against such a backdrop, on a rainy night fifteen years ago, the Chen Household, a wealthy merchant family near Skybridge, suffered a massacre. All twelve members of the household, along with even a dog, were slaughtered without a single survivor!

At the crime scene, there were no other traces. Only a pair of bronze maces had been left behind.

In the end, investigation revealed that they were the weapons of the then chief constable Yu Tiesheng and his wife.

Such a massacre naturally shook all of Weishui.

The yamen immediately sprang into action: examining corpses, arresting suspects, interrogating them, and confronting them in court!

The entire process took no more than three days before the water receded and the rocks emerged, the truth laid bare.

Yu Tiesheng and his wife, once the chief constable couple of Weishui, had committed the massacre. The evidence was conclusive, and they were sentenced to be beheaded!

—Of course, that was merely the surface of things, what everyone within the yamen outwardly accepted.

But in truth, Xie Qing had uncovered many suspicious points during his investigation.

First, motive.

Every murder had a motive. It might be murder for wealth, murder to silence someone, hatred born of love, or even, in the case of a deranged killer, slaughter to satisfy twisted desires.

But Yu Tiesheng and the Chen Household's thirteen lives had no conflicts whatsoever, no entanglements of interest, no emotional disputes. And from what was known of Yu Tiesheng and his wife, they were not bloodthirsty madmen.

Yu Tiesheng had absolutely no motive to wipe out the Chen Household.

On the contrary, Yu Tiesheng had done the Chen Household a great favor!

Before the Chen Household was massacred, they had already been entangled in another case. Their daughter had died, and it was Yu Tiesheng who caught the culprit, allowing the Chen daughter to close her eyes in peace.

Second, the abnormalities.

At the time, word spread throughout Weishui that Chief Constable Yu Tiesheng's martial arts had reached a miraculous state. His body was like iron and stone, impervious to blades and spears. He was already an Innate Grand Perfection martial arts grandmaster!

And the Chen Household?

Other than having some money, they had nothing.

Even setting aside the motive, if Yu Tiesheng had gone mad and wanted to kill, there was no need for him to use his and his wife's bronze maces as murder weapons. Maces were rare weapons to begin with, and after a crime, they would naturally make it easier to identify the target.

Taking ten thousand steps back, even if he truly had gone mad, insisting on brandishing bronze maces and dragging his wife along to kill!

He still could not possibly have lost his mind so completely as to leave the weapons at the crime scene. After all, he had been Weishui's chief constable and solved countless cases. How could he have made such a low-level mistake?!

"Fifteen years ago, I was not yet in Weishui."

After recounting everything he had found, Xie Qing frowned slightly and gave his own opinion. "So I can only piece together the truth from the scattered words passed down to this day. In short, I believe that Constable Yu was not the true culprit."

After hearing this, Yu Chen took a long time before slowly exhaling a breath of foul air.

At that sight, Xie Qing's expression suddenly froze.

—Back on Fanghua Mountain, when this senior had killed the great tiger, he had made the same motion.

That thick white mist had spilled from beneath the ghost face, making him look exactly like a ghost or god.

Thus, it was clear that this senior's emotions were far from calm.

Thinking this, Xie Qing lowered his posture even further and added.

"Additionally, I found something else. It is said that Constable Yu had a disciple back then, who also worked in the constabulary at the time.

"This person had originally been a wandering orphan, but Constable Yu later adopted and raised him.

"He was deeply respectful toward Constable Yu. He even handled every aspect of the Yu couple's food, clothing, shelter, and travel personally. And he possessed a key to the Yu couple's residence as well."

Yu Chen narrowed his eyes. "Go on."

"What follows is all my speculation. If I am wrong, Senior, please do not blame me."

Xie Qing drew a deep breath and said.

"I know quite a few martial artists. Those skilled in fists and kicks aside, people who wield spears and staves generally regard their weapons as dearly as their own lives.

"And a supreme expert like Constable Yu likely valued them even more. So if he was not the culprit, why were his and his wife's bronze maces left at the crime scene? I can only guess... they were framed! Someone deliberately stole his weapons and placed them at the crime scene to plant evidence and frame him!

"But for an Innate Realm supreme expert like Constable Yu, it would have been nothing but a fool's dream for an ordinary person to enter his residence and steal the bronze maces. Only someone close to him, someone familiar with him, could possibly have done so! For instance... the disciple who attended to his daily needs?"

By this point, it was impossible for Yu Chen not to understand what Xie Qing meant.

He nodded and asked concisely, "Who?"

"That disciple is the current chief constable of Weishui—Xiao Zihua!"