Hu Xiaotian listened from the side. Once Fu Yuhong had finished, he suddenly remarked, "Since no intruder was found, could someone on the inside have started this fire?"
Hong Beimo's expression tightened at Hu Xiaotian's words. The fellow had gone too far; he was outright suggesting that something was wrong within the Heavenly Secrets Bureau. Hong Beimo gave a dry cough but did not rush to argue. Instead, he suggested to Qiqi, "Your Highness, what has happened cannot be undone. Our first priority now is to determine the exact extent of the losses."
Qiqi nodded and approached the Seven-Treasure Exquisite Tower alone to open the bronze gate outside. After the fire, however, the gate had warped from the heat, and its original mechanisms no longer worked. In the end, they had no choice but to force it open, a task that took nearly two hours. Hong Beimo ordered everyone uninvolved to wait outside, and only he and Hu Xiaotian accompanied Qiqi into the Seven-Treasure Exquisite Tower. The tower consisted of an inner and an outer structure, rather like nesting dolls. Their shapes were almost identical, but their materials were entirely different: the outer structure was made of refined iron and cast bronze, while the inner one was built wholly of ironwood. Though wood, it was harder than metal or stone. The two towers were not connected, and a water channel ten feet wide separated them. The water circulated within this channel. At the center of the ironwood tower, another channel ran straight up to the roof. A mechanism continually pumped water up through it, and the water flowed down over the roof into the surrounding channel, repeating the cycle endlessly. The little ironwood tower thus seemed perpetually shrouded in falling rain.
Hong Beimo had supervised the construction of the Seven-Treasure