The icy currents that had accumulated over the years in this inner prison surpassed anything Chen Ji had imagined... He had not expected there to be so many!
He walked along the prison corridor, watching one icy current after another flow into his body. His dantian, sealed by four furnace flames, was on the verge of collapse.
The gray-white currents were like flood dragons, roaring through the dim prison in voices no one else could hear. Like resentful spirits unwilling to accept their long confinement in a cage, they sought to devour Chen Ji whole.
They were a power in this mysterious world that could stand above both authority and might, yet now they were being stripped away bit by bit.
Chen Ji could feel the cold seeping from his internal organs, but with Cloud Goat beside him, he dared not show anything amiss.
But as he and Cloud Goat passed a cell, he saw an eight trigrams formation engraved into the base of an oil lamp on the wall.
Chen Ji suddenly remembered the eight trigrams formations beneath the oil-residue lamps he had seen on his way down the stairs... Each lamp was a prison. As long as the lamp did not go out, the person would not perish!
He quickly took down the lamp and gripped it in his palm!
In an instant, the icy currents in his dantian slowly receded like the tide.
Chen Ji panted softly. Cloud Goat looked back in surprise. "What did you take that lamp for?"
He replied, "It's too dark in this inner prison. I'm not used to it."
Cloud Goat scoffed. "I never would have thought that someone who dared bargain with me would be afraid of the dark."
Chen Ji did not answer. He was considering a question: Could it be that the icy currents don't dissipate after a person dies? Judging by how many there were just now, they must have accumulated over a long time.
Even if the Secret Intelligence Directorate was utterly ruthless, it could hardly have killed so many people in such a short time.
It was the work of the eight trigrams formations!
The Inner Minister had feared that, having killed so many people, he might be haunted by resentful spirits. So he had found someone to use the eight trigrams formations to imprison their souls in the inner prison, allowing so many icy currents to accumulate over the years.
Chen Ji steadied his breathing. "Lord Cloud Goat, bring me the case files to look through. We don't necessarily have to search for clues in the current case. There may be many secrets hidden in past cases."
Cloud Goat beckoned to the secret agents. "Give them to him!"
When the agents brought the files over, they filled more than a dozen large wooden chests.
Chen Ji casually took one out and leafed through it as he surveyed the inner prison.
Cloud Goat sat at a table, drinking tea and waiting, while the secret agents followed Chen Ji.
Chen Ji stopped in front of a cell door. "Cell Jia Twenty-seven once held Liu Yaozu, the deputy prefect of Yu Province? Where is he now?"
The agent hesitated, unsure how to address the masked youth before him. After a moment, he said quietly, "This... my lord, if the file says someone was released, that means they walked out of the inner prison alive. If it says nothing, they died inside."
Chen Ji was certain that Liu Yaozu had died in the inner prison four years ago.
He went to another cell door. "Cell Jia Twenty-eight held Chen Mingzhuo, a director at the Directorate of Works in Luo City?"
"He died too."
After that, Chen Ji stopped asking and simply recited the names silently to himself:
Cell Jia Fifty-two, Xu Jiawen, prefect of Guide Prefecture, dead.
Cell Yi One, Tian Hailong, magistrate of Shangcai County in Runing Prefecture, dead; Xu Dehong, assistant magistrate of Shangcai County, dead...
As he counted them, some cells had seen one person die in them, while others had seen several.
The more Chen Ji investigated, the more alarmed he grew. The files in his hands were like the register of life and death in the King of Hell's palace.
He continued through the files. Some people of the jianghu and some itinerant officials hidden among the common folk had also been imprisoned here, but no icy currents had emerged from their cells.
He took a deep breath. At last, he had found the pattern behind the icy currents.
Those who produced icy currents after death had only one thing in common: they were officials!
The inner prison, buried underground, was like a vast graveyard. There was no telling how many people had died in this place where daylight never reached.
This was not the jianghu, but a place where the jianghu and the imperial court were buried.
Chen Ji stood before a cell, an open file in his hands and a gloomy cage before him.
It took him roughly two hours to finish reading all the files for the Jia and Yi cells. There were still the Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui cells left, but there was no need to read them.
Chen Ji even dared to make a bold judgment: the icy current he had obtained at Evening Star Court that night had indeed come from Consort Jing's fetus. Those of imperial blood were born a cut above others.
Standing in the oppressive inner prison, Chen Ji found it all rather absurd.
His path of cultivation had placed him in opposition to the entire Ning Dynasty. To cultivate, he needed officials and those of imperial blood to die!
From the emperor down to the petty clerks, the officials of the Ning Dynasty held all the power in the dynasty.
And he was to become their enemy?
Cloud Goat was right. He really could not let anyone know what his path of cultivation was... It was indeed dangerous.
Cloud Goat sat beside a table with his legs crossed, cracking melon seeds. Seeing Chen Ji stop to think in the corridor, he asked, "Found a clue?"
Chen Ji came out of his long contemplation. "Not yet."
Cloud Goat frowned. "I went to fetch you myself and wasted two hours on the trip. Now I've waited another two hours for you, and you're telling me you haven't found a clue?"
Chen Ji had come for the icy currents and the case files, and he had obtained both, but he could not simply leave like this.
After thinking for a moment, he asked, "How did Liu Shiyu die? Did you kill him?"
Cloud Goat shook his head. "No. He couldn't withstand the interrogation and hanged himself."
Chen Ji frowned. "Is his body still in the inner prison?"
"It is. Want to take a look?" Cloud Goat's interest was piqued. He tossed the melon seeds in his palm onto the table. "I'll take you there."
Cloud Goat led Chen Ji deeper into the inner prison. They descended several more flights of stairs and passed through several levels before reaching the deepest point. Chen Ji could even hear an underground river flowing.
"There, inside. Liu Shiyu's is the only corpse," Cloud Goat said, walking in with a torch.
Liu Shiyu was around thirty, with a slender build and fair skin. His face was deathly pale, his tongue protruded, and he had lost control of his bowels and bladder.
These were the typical signs of death by hanging. There was nothing unusual.
At the sight of the corpse, Chen Ji held his breath, feeling uncomfortable.
Cloud Goat teased him. "I thought you really could do anything. You can't even look at a corpse?"
Chen Ji composed himself. "Lord Cloud Goat, being able to examine the corpse of a fellow human being indifferently is nothing to boast about... Liu Shiyu didn't kill himself. He was murdered to silence him."
Cloud Goat shook his head. "You're wrong this time. I've killed many people, so I have more experience in this matter. All the signs point to death by hanging. I've helped plenty of people hang themselves. A hanged person's face turns deathly pale, their tongue sticks out, and they lose control of their bowels and bladder. There's no mistaking it. You might be wondering whether he was strangled first and then strung up. He wasn't. A strangled person's face turns a deep purplish red. I'm familiar with that too."
"In theory, you're right, Lord Cloud Goat," Chen Ji said with a nod.
"Hmm?" Cloud Goat was puzzled.
"But all of those things can be faked," Chen Ji said.
Death by hanging was caused by the carotid artery being cut off, depriving the brain of oxygen.
Because the carotid artery was blocked instantly while the veins continued to function for a time, the face of someone who died by hanging would turn deathly pale, while that of someone who was strangled would turn a deep purplish red.
The person who had killed Liu Shiyu to silence him must have understood the principle and faked the appearance of death by hanging. The tongue could be forced out by tightening a cord, acupuncture could cause loss of bowel and bladder control, and precisely constricting the carotid sinus could turn the face deathly pale.
The killer was a professional at staging suicides, but had overlooked one detail: the feet.
Chen Ji explained, "A hanged person's toes point downward, almost perpendicular to the ground. Rigor mortis sets in after two hours, and they remain that way even after the body is taken down. But look at Liu Shiyu. Before he was strangled, his legs kicked out forcefully as he struggled, and his feet became fixed pointing in different directions."
Cloud Goat looked thoughtful after hearing this. "Is that so... Come on, back to the Jia level. Bring a condemned prisoner over, and we'll know once we try it!"
Chen Ji and the others returned to the upper level, where he watched two secret agents drag a condemned prisoner over.
The prisoner had already wet his pants before he was even hanged.
Cloud Goat sat at the table, cracking melon seeds as he sneered, "This is a civil official of our Ning Dynasty. He looks unbending on the surface, but in truth he can't withstand a single blow."
Chen Ji hesitated. "Lord Cloud Goat, what was his crime?"
"Colluding with the enemy and betraying the country. He forged household registrations and travel permits for Jing Dynasty spies without authorization." Cloud Goat turned to the agents. "Hang him from the ceiling. I want to observe!"
Chen Ji wanted to say something, but in the end chose to keep his mouth shut.
The next moment, the agents looped a rope around the prisoner's neck, strung him up from the ceiling, and kicked the stool out from under him.
In just a few seconds, the prisoner stopped moving altogether.
They waited like that, the corpse hanging before them. Cloud Goat, however, drank tea and cracked melon seeds as if nothing were amiss, as though it were a pig hanging there rather than a person.
Chen Ji concentrated on reading the case files to pass the time.
Four hours later, the agents took the body down from the ceiling. Just as Chen Ji had said, the toes were pointed straight.
Cloud Goat clapped his hands in admiration. "I used to hang people up, but I never took them down afterward. I never noticed that detail!"
Chen Ji said calmly, "Someone wanted to kill Liu Shiyu to silence him, which means there's a bigger fish behind him. More than one person in the Liu Family is colluding with the enemy. Liu Mingxian of the second branch and Liu Mingde of the first branch are both suspects."
Cloud Goat frowned. "Liu Gun will be back in Luo City in a few days. If I go after the Minister of Personnel now without any evidence, wouldn't I be asking for trouble? You're not trying to trick me into jumping into a pit of fire, are you?"
In the room, Chen Ji held the oil-residue lamp, its flame flickering endlessly in his eyes. "How could I? I'm still counting on you to promote me, Lord Cloud Goat. But you yourself spoke earlier of the harm Jing Dynasty spies do to the soldiers at the front. Why are you now seeking only to protect yourself?"
Cloud Goat sighed. "One must learn from a fall. I used to do nothing but kill, and I've only held my position among the Twelve Zodiac Animals for half a year. What a shame it would be to lose it... Officialdom isn't easy."
Chen Ji looked at him and asked sincerely, "Lord Cloud Goat, you and Lady Bright Rabbit are skilled at killing, and the Inner Minister is exceptionally clever. Why would he send you to do something you aren't skilled at?"
Cloud Goat was puzzled. "Yes... Could it be that the Inner Minister wanted to use our penchant for killing to wipe out the Liu Family all along? The Inner Minister sent us here to kill, so what should I..."
He instinctively picked up the teapot to pour Chen Ji a cup, but then thought better of it. Wait, the only person I've ever poured tea for before was the Inner Minister!
He put the teapot back on the table. "But even if we know someone killed Liu Shiyu to silence him, it'll still be hard to find something on the Liu Family. How should I continue the investigation?"
Chen Ji shook his head. "There are too few clues at present. I don't have any good suggestions either. But Lord Cloud Goat, don't you think Old Master Liu's death was too suspicious? The moment he died, you were put on the defensive. My master was invited to examine him, but the carriage he was riding in broke down halfway there, and he never even saw Old Master Liu."
A thunderclap flashed through Cloud Goat's mind. "Old Master Liu may very well not be dead!"