Yaoqin frowned slightly at that. "Didn't I tell her I'd let her know when I had news?"
"She seems to have an important lead... and she looked badly injured when she arrived."
Badly injured?
Yaoqin glanced at her maid, Xiao Ling. After a long moment, she sighed. "Let her in."
"Yes, miss."
The maid rose and headed out.
Yaoqin sat back down and poured herself a cup of tea.
Zhao Wanqing and Yaoqin did have something of an acquaintance.
Still, it amounted to sharing a couple of cups of tea and meeting a few times.
A little later, a knock came at the door. With Yaoqin's permission, it slowly opened.
The sight that greeted Yaoqin was Zhao Wanqing, covered in blood. Several vicious saber wounds scored her body, nearly deep enough to expose bone, and her Demon-Suppression Bureau uniform was torn to shreds.
Her expression was utterly exhausted as well. She had clearly been through a fierce battle.
Yaoqin knew Zhao Wanqing's cultivation: she was already at the middle stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm, enough to count as an expert in a place like Yuzhou City.
How had she ended up wounded like this in the time it took to eat a meal?
Even for a Foundation Establishment cultivator, these injuries were indeed severe.
Besides, this hardly seemed like her style.
Yaoqin sipped her tea. What had tasted so smooth before now seemed to be missing something:
"How did you get hurt like this? I don't remember you being the sort to risk your life over official duties."
A trace of conflict crossed Zhao Wanqing's face, but she answered honestly. "The one who was badly injured is my own younger brother."
Her own younger brother?
No wonder Zhao Wanqing was so concerned.
Yaoqin raised her eyes to Zhao Wanqing, her tone unchanged. "Then why have you come to me now? The matter of the talisman won't be resolved that quickly."
The faint arrogance Zhao Wanqing usually wore had wilted away. She lowered her head and said softly:
"I need someone to help... someone at least at the Golden Core Stage."
Making such a request in Yuzhou City was already asking too much. After all, even the Bureau Chief of the city's Demon-Suppression Bureau only had Golden Core cultivation.
Around here, Golden Core cultivation was enough to earn someone an elder's position in a sect.
Who would come investigate a case for the Demon-Suppression Bureau without good reason, let alone alongside a Foundation Establishment cultivator?
"When I went to investigate this afternoon, I encountered a group of evil cultivators. They were clearly only at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage, but with the help of that blood energy, their techniques were at least as powerful as those of the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage."
"The Bureau Chief has already been reassigned to a mission at Yuzhou's main river. Unless someone at the Golden Core Stage can overwhelm them through the difference in realms..."
Zhao Wanqing lowered her eyes. Since growing up, she had never asked anyone for help again. Even now, driven to it by necessity, she found the words difficult to say.
After all, the culprits' cultivation was far from low this time. Zhao Wanqing could hardly order the Qi Refining officers to gather intelligence. That was plainly a mission with nine chances of death and one of survival.
As for the other Foundation Establishment squad leaders, every one of them had several urgent assignments on their shoulders. They were all busy, and this mission was particularly dangerous.
Even for a squad leader.
But if she did not investigate quickly, once the perpetrators left Yuzhou City, pursuing the case would be like dropping a stone into the sea.
This was not some groundless fear that the sky might fall, but the judgment Zhao Wanqing had gained from years of investigating cases.
Still, Zhao Wanqing had prepared herself for Yaoqin to refuse.
After all, it truly was an excessive request. But aside from the Bamboo Jade Court, Zhao Wanqing genuinely did not know where else in Yuzhou City she could enlist a Golden Core True Person.
Surely she couldn't ask the Zhao Household's ancestor, who was on the brink of old age and undertaking death seclusion?
Zhao Wanqing had only come to do everything she could. Trying and failing was better than doing nothing at all.
Yaoqin listened carefully to Zhao Wanqing's request. She had to admit, the timing really was fortunate.
Had she not accepted Chu Xingchen's commission, she would most likely have had no choice but to turn Zhao Wanqing down.
After all, Yaoqin had only come to Yuzhou City for a sect trial, and there was still a sect elder overseeing her.
The timing really was fortunate.
Yaoqin asked, "How many spirit stones can you offer?"
Zhao Wanqing froze at that, but after giving it some serious thought, she answered:
"The most I can offer is three hundred spirit stones."
As long as she could pay spirit stones, that would do. Chu Xingchen was poor through and through anyway, so money should be enough to enlist him. He could probably be considered the easiest Golden Core to enlist in Yuzhou City.
And he was at the late Golden Core stage, too...
Who knew what fortuitous encounter he had stumbled upon for his cultivation to rise so quickly!
Yaoqin took out paper and a brush and wrote down a detailed account of the situation. Chu Xingchen could decide for himself whether to help based on that information.
After all, Chu Xingchen was connected to this matter as well. If they uncovered anything, it might even help with his commission.
"Take my letter." Yaoqin handed Zhao Wanqing a sheet bearing Chu Xingchen's address. "Remember, if he refuses, you can try offering more spirit stones."
Zhao Wanqing quickly reached out and took the note from Yaoqin.
Yaoqin added, "Oh, and remember, whether he agrees or not, you owe me a favor."
"I understand. Thank you."
Night had already fallen over Yuzhou City.
Zhao Wanqing first went back to give her wounds some basic treatment and change into clean clothes.
After all, she was going to meet a Golden Core True Person, and one recommended by Yaoqin at that.
As someone from an aristocratic clan, Zhao Wanqing understood etiquette.
After all, if she went to ask for help covered in blood... anyone could tell at a glance that it would not be an easy favor.
Zhao Wanqing could already find her way around Yuzhou City with her eyes closed.
She knew every street by heart.
Her gaze remained lowered. A vicious slash had struck her right thigh, and every step now brought intense pain.
To keep the blood from staining her trousers red, she had wrapped it in several layers of bandages.
The same went for both her arms.
She could have used spiritual power to dull the pain, but Zhao Wanqing did not.
Zhao Wanqing and Zhao Zhengyang were full siblings, members of the Zhao Household's direct line.
After Zhao Zhengyang was born, their parents had contracted a terrible illness and passed away not long afterward.
Zhao Wanqing still remembered her mother holding her hand on her deathbed, her voice so faint it was barely audible.
There had been so much that Zhao Wanqing could not make out.
Perhaps her own choking sobs had drowned out her mother's words.
But Zhao Wanqing had still heard her mother's parting wish-you must both be well. Both of you, sister and brother, must be well.
Zhao Wanqing herself could no longer remember how many promises she had made to her mother.
But... she had broken her word.
She lifted her eyes toward the bright moon hanging high overhead.
Zhao Wanqing had not kept in close contact with her younger brother. Not long after their mother died, she had begun cultivating.
Only in recent years had she returned from elsewhere and taken a post at the Demon-Suppression Bureau, bringing her back to the Zhao Household.
Only then had she come to know her now-grown younger brother. Before that, they had merely exchanged occasional letters.
Zhao Zhengyang was not particularly gifted, but he worked hard and was an upright person.
Zhao Wanqing had originally intended to bring him into her own squad, but he had refused.
That was why he had joined the second squad.
Zhao Wanqing suppressed the endless emotions in her heart. Her mother's parting wish kept echoing in her ears.
She had failed in her duty as his older sister.
At this moment, she could do nothing except avenge her younger brother.
She could not restore him to how he had been. Even his chances of becoming an ordinary person again were slim.
All she could rely on was the short saber at her waist.
Zhao Wanqing stopped. She had reached the address written on the note, and before her stood a tightly shut gate.
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