"That's only your guess. Maybe he simply entrusted the Soul-Seizing Pearl to someone else for a while," the girl said, her hoarse voice trembling. "It isn't necessarily such a coincidence... Mr. Lu."
Lu Yunsheng fell silent for a moment, then admitted, "Yes, perhaps I'm overthinking it. But there's a way to verify it."
"...What?"
"When we first encountered each other in the woods, I pursued him to the body. The killer hadn't quite escaped my sight yet. I picked up a fallen Fine Steel Spike and shot it into his right shoulder." The man looked down at the corpse. "You can check whether that wound is there."
Li Piaoqing sank to her knees and placed her hand on the old man's shoulder.
Only after pausing for four breaths did she clamp her fingers around his already tattered clothes and tear hard.
Almost none of the old man's upper body remained intact, but his right shoulder was indeed the area least stained with blood.
The gaping wound left by Qinghuang's short sword lay below it, hideous, but there were no other injuries.
The Lost Jade Sword fell limply to the ground with a clang, followed by the sodden, heavy hem of her robes as she crumpled.
"Clang."
It was the sound of iron striking a wall or falling to the ground.
Pei Ye knew this was not his first time hearing it. In the past ten days alone, he had heard it no fewer than thirty times, but only one source of that sound had ever stirred his curiosity and attention.
Before Pei Ye knew who lived in the Martial Arts Hall's West Courtyard, that sound had always come from behind its walls every morning and evening as he came and went.
Now Pei Ye knew.
The girl could not