Du Yongchang's scolding instantly ruined the atmosphere.
How Steward Wei forged artifacts, what blanks he used-when did a mere Embryonic Breath cultivator ever have any right to butt in?
Perhaps Du Yongchang usually remembered his past ties with Jiang Che and tolerated him a bit more, but this time Jiang Che had pushed his luck too far, presuming to point fingers even at the affairs of their superiors. A reprimand for that was only natural.
At least he hadn't slapped him right across the face, hadn't he?
Jiang Che sighed inwardly.
"This disciple spoke out of turn," he bowed in apology. "The superiors' decisions naturally have their own logic; this disciple should not have meddled. Please forgive me, Your Honor."
"Hmph." A snort came from Du Yongchang's nose, and he had already lost all interest in conversing with him.
Knowing when to quit, Jiang Che bowed and withdrew.
Scolded by Du Yongchang as he was, he did not feel annoyed, nor did he harbor any such sentiment as, Today you dare scold me, and tomorrow when I grow strong I shall slaughter your entire clan.
When he spoke those words, he knew he was taking a risk, merely testing the waters.
Failure was a high-probability outcome.
Naturally, since he had failed, there was no need to press the matter further, lest he also sacrifice the hard-earned remnant of goodwill.
Yet the upper-level route was not entirely cut off either.
Their strength and cultivation realms were right there; if he truly wanted to resolve the problem, he ultimately still had to rely on Qi Refining.
Only, before that, he needed to acquire some solid, concrete proof to make things easier to handle.
Moreover, this trip had not been entirely in vain. Not only had he whitewashed the Candlelight Thousand-Jin Finger, but he had also obtained a clue: the Demon Sword was in Steward Wei's hands, and he intended to refine it into his own Dharma sword.
Once refined... would that count as being dealt with?
Jiang Che did not know.
Yet he suspected it was not that simple.
Returning to his quarters and waiting for about an hour, Hu Yan returned first.
"I searched the county gazetteer from cover to cover. First, regarding the Little Hidden Temple: in the fifteenth year of Xianxi, a Dharma master named Chunji wandered over from the west, built a thatched hut and established a temple on Bamboo Mountain outside the city, opened an altar to impart the Dharma, and edified the villagers-that is the origin of the Little Hidden Temple. The gazetteer records that his reputation was exceptionally good, yet mere months after the temple was built, this Dharma master disappeared."
"Afterward, the temple's properties were taken over by the Wang Clan, a prominent local household. That Wang clan certainly had clever methods; they built a market surrounding the temple, applied a golden body to the Buddha statue, and widely proclaimed the temple's miraculous efficacy. The incense offerings thus grew more prosperous with each passing year. Later, they even constructed quite a few new dwellings, renting them out to distant pilgrims for quiet lodging. The residential area near the Little Hidden Temple where we previously fought and slaughtered fiercely must have originated from that."
"Later still, in the twenty-second year of Xianxi, a month before the outbreak of the Demon Calamity, the entire Wang Clan, forty-seven mouths in all, died violently overnight. The perpetrator even left physical evidence in the temple, stating that for many years the Wang clan had fabricated tales of miraculous efficacy, falsely invoked Buddhist traces, and swindled people out of their money, with every single case backed by ledgers and documents as proof."
"The County Office investigated this annihilation case for a full month without ever finding a culprit. Then the Demon Calamity erupted, and the entire city was utterly destroyed, with the dead numbering a thousand or ten thousand times over. Naturally, the case was left unmanaged."
Hearing so much in one breath, Jiang Che pondered for a moment before asking, "In the county gazetteer, was a person named Puxin ever mentioned?"
"Puxin? I have never seen that name."
"Very well... Thank you for your hard work, Senior Sister."
Hu Yan nodded, her expression hesitant.
She wanted to ask Jiang Che what the matter was all about, and she also wanted to know what words and results had come from his finding Du Yongchang earlier.
Yet she also knew that if Jiang Che had been willing to speak, he would have done so long ago. Since she could not pry it out of him, she did not ask, only saying that once Zhang Erguo returned, she wanted to listen as well.
An hour later, Zhang Erguo also returned. Jiang Che first had him call Hu Yan over, and only then did he begin to discuss the results of his investigation.
"...About half a month ago, a squad of soldiers on routine patrol in the old city happened to run into a True Demon that had entered the Little Hidden Temple. They returned to report it, which led to the subsequent encirclement and suppression of the Little Hidden Temple... Even back then, I felt something was a bit off. Ordinary soldiers who ran into a True Demon-could they still come back alive to report the news and claim a reward?"
Hu Yan added, "It's not impossible. Perhaps they only saw it from very far away, and the True Demon had other matters to attend to and didn't bother with them?"
"Uh... That's possible," Zhang Erguo paused, then continued, "However, I still followed this lead to investigate. Once I investigated, guess what? The man who reported the news, along with the entire squad on patrol that day, every single one of them is already dead, killed right within these past few days of suppression operations."
"I refused to give up and went looking for the family of the man who reported the news, and I actually managed to find his elderly mother. Both his mother and younger brother said that ever since a few days before he went to report the news, the man had been somewhat dazed and muddled. At the time, they simply thought he was too exhausted from his official duties. Now that they are separated by the divide of heaven and man, and questioned by me again, they only just realized something was amiss."
Hearing this up to here, even Hu Yan no longer picked faults in his account.
Were these circumstances reasonable?
They were all reasonable.
Seeing a True Demon and escaping alive to report the news because they were far away and the True Demon couldn't be bothered to care about such small fry was barely reasonable.
The combat intensity of the previous few days had been extremely high, and the mortality rate of ordinary soldiers was even higher. For a squad of twenty-one people to all die was likewise possible and reasonable.
Being somewhat dazed and muddled when returning home on leave due to the hardship of official duties was reasonable.
Yet, when these seemingly justifiable matters were all piled together, they became worth pondering once more.
Both Jiang Che and Hu Yan were deep in careful thought over the entire affair. A moment later, the two exchanged glances, and realization dawned on Hu Yan.
She had guessed that the matter Jiang Che was investigating was related to the True Demon and the Little Hidden Temple, yet she had never expected that, according to the results of Zhang Erguo's investigation, the entire affair concerning the True Demon might actually have been deliberately guided toward its present state and outcome!
Who had done it? And what was their purpose?
Both of them felt a chill run through them.
Turning their heads back, however, they saw Zhang Erguo wearing a hesitating expression, as if he had more to say.
Jiang Che asked, "What is it? Are there any other circumstances?"
"There is one more matter, though it isn't really a clue. It's just... sigh, didn't I go looking for the home of that man who reported the news? Their family are remnants of Ailin who survived that catastrophe back then, yet now they've still ended up dying right here... The reward money that man received for reporting the news was only paid out in a fraction. The severance pay after his death hasn't been issued yet either. When I went there, his family was living in absolute misery."
"So I asked, since Ailin is such a perilous place, why didn't they move their entire household away and find a safe place to live?"
"As a result, that was when I learned they couldn't move. Every single inhabitant, up and down the whole county of Ailin, belongs to a Military Household. The registry of Military Households remains unchanged for generations, and none are permitted to leave the county. No matter how many generations pass down, they must remain in this place and fight Demonic Beasts to the death."
For a moment, no one spoke.
Jiang Che recalled the midsummer Ailin within the illusion realm, then looked at the Ailin before his eyes.
The people of this entire city were born in this place and died in this place, lacking even the qualification to flee.
Indeed, without even speaking of others, was Jiang Che himself not much the same?
Now, knowing full well that Ailin would in all probability face a great catastrophe, he was equally unable to run.
A Military Household member would face military law, and he-a disciple of the Azure Mystic Sect who had accepted a sect mission-would likewise forfeit his life to the sect if he became a deserter.
He had no choice but to continue investigating.
Before you continue