Another round of brainstorming

The mystery has been solved!

Everyone present was overjoyed, but also incredulous. How could they have done that? They had absolutely no clue.

He solved this unsolved case with ease, even though everyone involved had discussed it. With the same information and clues, everyone else was completely baffled. How did he manage to solve it?

Xu Ningyan really that terrifying?

Governor Zhang, who had been obsessively working on the riddle of "Miss Wen's Marriage," suddenly broke free of his inhibitions and excitedly grabbed Xu Qi'an's arm. At that moment, the old governor abandoned his composure and bombarded Xu with questions:

"You've solved the mystery? Really? Really?"

If I were to say at this point, "I was just kidding," I'd probably get beaten to death. Xu Qi'an got up and walked outside. "At least there's been a major breakthrough."

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, he went to the courtyard of the post station, took the geomantic map from the horse's bag, returned to the main hall, and spread it out on the table.

"The secret to the riddle lies in the geomantic map," Xu Qi'an explained, pressing his hands on the map and looking around at everyone.

"A single jade pendant cannot convey the information. Zhou Min will find a way to have Madam Yingying bring more information, but to keep it secret, he uses a word puzzle. He has fooled everyone, including Madam Yingying."

"But with the wisdom of Layman Ziyang, he will surely be able to unravel the secret of the riddle with careful questioning."

"Then why is the secret of the riddle in the geomantic map?" Zhu Guangxiao asked, frowning.

"Because a geomantic map is the easiest thing to obtain, and it's Layman Ziyang, who is visiting Yunzhou for the first time, will definitely want to get his hands on," Xu Qi'an replied.

"Yes, there are geomantic maps at the station. For newcomers, getting a geomantic map is the first thing to do," everyone suddenly realized.

"Whether my reasoning is right or wrong, let's verify it together." Xu Qian lowered his head and looked at the map. "The five fonts provided by the word puzzle are: Si, Bo, Gao, Huang, and Ming."

Everyone rushed to the table to look at the map with him.

This geomantic map, when unfolded, almost covered the entire desktop, encompassing the entire city of Baidi. Every street, every building, lake, bridge, government office, and so on was marked on it.

The group silently recited the five words while searching for the corresponding name.

Song Tingfeng suddenly pointed to a spot. "Siming Bridge!"

People's eyes then fell on the spot where he pointed, where the outline of the arched bridge was drawn, with the tiny characters: Siming Bridge.

Another gong player immediately pointed to another spot. "There's a Huangbo Street here."

The two words "gao" and "huang" did not find the corresponding location, especially the word "huang", which is so taboo that it is not included in the entire map.

"The clue is most likely in one of these two locations," Xu Qi'an analyzed.

"Are the remaining two words useless?" someone asked.

"The other words might be misleading, added in with watered-down text. Let's ignore them for now and see if we find anything after searching these two places," Xu Qi'an said.

Governor Zhang selected six Nightwatchers, dressed in plain clothes, to go to Huangbo Street to investigate the situation, while Xu Qi'an took his two good friends, Zhu Guangxiao and Song Tingfeng, to Siming Bridge to find out what was going on.

Huangbo Street is neither too far nor too close to the post station, about ten miles away. Siming Bridge, on the other hand, is more than twenty miles away.

The three rode their horses at full gallop through the wide streets. The pavilions and houses along the way had distinct southern characteristics, with white walls and black tiles, and loquat trees were often planted in the courtyards.

Loquat is one of the specialties of Yunzhou.

Furthermore, the clothing style of ordinary people is vastly different from that of the capital. Here, clothing is more free, and there are yellow people everywhere.

In the capital, bright yellow cloth was reserved for the royal family, but in Yunzhou, Xu Qi'an saw many passersby wearing bright yellow robes.

"Although customs vary from place to place, isn't the imperial court's control over Yunzhou too weak?" Xu Qi'an worried.

"The climate here in Yunzhou is really unbearable, damp and cold," Song Tingfeng said, frowning.

"Our capital is still the best. It's cold, but not this chilly. When I was seeing the merchants off today, I saw people walking along shivering," Zhu Guangxiao said.

"You two are like wolves from the north, frozen into huskies in the south," Xu Qi'an said with a laugh. Of course, martial artists at the Qi Refining Realm are not afraid of the cold or heat; he was just teasing.

The two looked at him blankly. What's a husky?

Actually, in those days, winters in the south were much better than in the north. Poor families could survive the winter by collecting straw and having a place to shelter from the wind and rain.

The situation is different in the North. Many impoverished people in the North who cannot afford charcoal die silently in the winter.

After all, there was no central heating in the northern part of Great Feng.

Another point is that in the south during winter, when you ride a horse, your nose starts to run. In the north during winter, when you ride a horse, your nose becomes useless.

Half an hour later, they arrived at their destination.

Siming Bridge spans a small river. It is an arched bridge with two large and two small holes, carved from white marble, and covered with moss.

The three of them carefully inspected the bridge for a long time. Finally, Xu Qi'an's gaze locked onto a protruding stone brick on the outer side of the bridge.

He pinched the stone brick with two fingers and slowly pulled it out, little by little, he pulled out the brick-sized stone brick.

He reached into the brick hole and groped around for a moment, then pulled out a brocade pouch.

Sure enough, it was this brocade pouch that prevented the stone bricks from fitting together perfectly.

"There really is something!" Song Tingfeng was overjoyed and moved closer, urging, "Open it and see what it is."

Xu Qi'an opened the brocade pouch; inside was a slip of paper. Unfolding it, he read:

162

Three hundred and four, seven and four, one and two

What do the numbers 162.347,4,1,2 mean? Damn, Zhou Min was a real talent, so flashy! Too bad he's dead. Xu Qi'an stared at the note, falling silent.

Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao exchanged a glance, the former asking blankly, "What do you mean?"

"How should I know!" Xu Qi'an replied irritably, "You're both Nightwatchers, how come there's such a big difference? Look at that hidden agent, he's much better than the two of you, there's no comparison, no comparison at all."

"The agents themselves are all top-notch, each with their own unique strengths; otherwise, how could they carry out infiltration missions?" Song Tingfeng retorted, Qi Ingestion.

"We Nightwatchers in these government offices are only responsible for using force."

Secret agents are individuals with special skills, such as meticulousness or exceptional intelligence, while Nightwatchers in government offices are only responsible for brute force; the two are different.

It was nearing dusk.

Xu Qi'an put away the note and said helplessly, "Let's go back first."

What awaits them—no, what awaits him—is yet another brainstorming session.

Post station.

Because Huangbo Street was closer to the post station, the Nightwatchers went to scout the area had returned with disappointing news.

"Nothing found? Did you investigate properly?" Governor Zhang questioned.

"There are hardly any people on that street during the day. I asked a resident on the next street and found out it's a dog market. It only opens at night, and there's nobody here right now."

The gong-wielding man who went to investigate replied dejectedly.

The street isn't particularly big or small; what could one possibly gain by blindly rushing in like a headless fly? Asking everyone if they know Zhou Minzhou, the former commander of the Capital Garrison?

"Alas!" The night Nightwatchers were all disheartened, shaking their heads.

Governor Zhang took a sip of tea, sat for a while, but couldn't sit still any longer, and paced back and forth in the main hall.

There are no leads on Huangbo Street, so now we can only wait for news from Xu Ningyan. If they also don't find anything, then the case is back to square one.

They are still making no progress.

"We must find something, otherwise this will truly remain an unsolved case," Governor Zhang muttered.

His muttering reached the ears of several silver gongs and Jiang Luzhong without missing a single word.

"They're back!" the gong at the doorway announced with delight.

The group of people turned their heads in unison, looking towards the door, watching Xu Qi'an return with two colleagues.

"How is it?" Jiang Luzhong asked hurriedly.

Governor Zhang clenched his fists beneath his sleeves, watching them with a mixture of anticipation and nervousness.

Xu Qi'an took out the note and placed it on the table. In an instant, more than a dozen hands reached out at him.

Snap!

Jiang Luzhong slapped away all the claws, hurriedly snatched the letter, unfolded it, and frowned again:

What does this say?

"Alright, it's not a code from the Nightwatchers's office," Xu Qi'an concluded.

"Let me see!" Governor Zhang rushed over, snatched the slip of paper, which contained two sets of numbers:

162

Three hundred and four, seven and four, one and two

Governor Zhang was trapped in a prolonged state of confinement, his mind flashing through the classics he had read, before he ruled out the option that echoed the allusions in those books.

This, like "Miss Wen's Marriage," is a topic that bullies people. Governor Zhang was troubled when he saw Xu Qi'an silently go upstairs.

"Ningyan, what are you going to do?"

Xu Qi'an looked back on the stairs, listless. "Go back to your room and meditate, otherwise, I feel like I might suddenly die at any moment. Hmm, I haven't slept for twelve days."

"!!!" Jiang Luzhong's eyebrows twitched violently.

He already knew that Xu Qi'an was attempting to break through to the Refining Spirit Refining Realm. Xu Qi'an had asked a similar question on the canal: how to break through to the Spirit Refining Realm.

Seeing his dark circles getting deeper and deeper these past few days, Jiang Luzhong guessed that the kid might be trying to break through to the Spirit Refining Realm, but he didn't know how many days he had been working on it.

Twelve days! Twelve days and he still hasn't broken through the limit. He even got into a fight in the middle of it.

This means that Xu Qi'an's Primordial Spirit has great potential, extremely great potential. If he enters the Spirit Refining Realm, his Primordial Spirit will undergo a qualitative change.

Jiang Luzhong himself took sixteen days to advance to the Spirit Refining Realm, and the other Golden Gongs were not much different.

"Judging from this kid's appearance, twelve days is clearly not his limit. I wonder how long he can last in one go." Thinking of this, Jiang Luzhong said in a deep voice, "Remember not to fall asleep."

Back in his room, Xu Qi'an took off his shoes, sat cross-legged on the bed, and Qi Refinement breathing exercises while visualizing the giant image, occasionally switching to the image of the roaring golden lion.

Just as things were getting into a good mood, there was a knock on the door.

"What is it?" He opened his eyes.

"Ningyan, are you feeling better?" Governor Zhang's voice came from the doorway. After receiving an affirmative reply from Xu Qi'an, he immediately said:

"Come with me to the banquet and get acquainted with the officials of Yunzhou."

PS: Updated first, revised later.