Where Immortals Once Walked

Chapter 540: How Would I Know Any of the Inside Details?

Cheng Yu honestly shook his head.

Although he had asked the Hundred-Faced Nightmare to deal with He Lingchuan, he had never actually known what the intended victim looked like.

“The person you tried to kill and failed to kill.”

Cheng Yu’s eyes suddenly widened.

Bai Ziqi noticed that when Cheng Yu looked at He Lingchuan, there was not only hatred in his gaze, but also shock and uncertainty.

That kind of instinctive expression said more than anything else could.

He Lingchuan smiled back at Cheng Yu.

Cheng Yu swallowed.

Fushan Yue continued, “Speak honestly. Did Cen Boqing order this?”

Cheng Yu’s voice was weak as he answered, “Yes.”

His face was as white as a ghost’s, and it looked as if he might faint at any moment, but his eyes remained fixed on He Lingchuan the whole time.

Fushan Yue clapped his hands. “Good, good. As long as you admit it! Deputy Cloud Envoy Bai heard that.”

He really had asked the question well. Bai Ziqi was just about to continue when He Lingchuan suddenly said, “Cen Boqing’s wife is on her way here.”

“How did you cast the cur—hm? What did you say?”

“Cen Boqing’s wife, Yao Xingning, the Minister of Finance’s eldest daughter!” Fushan Yue pointed northeast as he spoke. “She just arrived in Baishajue. She ignored Commander Lu’s men trying to stop her and charged straight into the Cen Residence. I’d say in less than fifteen minutes, she’ll be charging over here too.”

The Cen Residence was still some distance from the county yamen, but if Fushan Yue could make it here, then Yao Xingning could certainly make it too.

Bai Ziqi’s eyebrows drew together at once. “That much of a coincidence?”

“Otherwise, why would I have come in the middle of the night to report it?” Fushan Yue clicked his tongue twice. “If she storms into the county yamen and finds her husband, then it probably won’t be so easy to get Cen Boqing to confess.”

Time was precious. Bai Ziqi only paused to think for a moment before turning to Fan Sheng, who was standing beside the bed.

“Deputy Commander Fan, I’ll trouble you to take men and guard the main entrance to the county yamen. During the interrogation, no one is allowed inside!”

He put heavy emphasis on the words “no one.”

He Lingchuan clearly saw the unwillingness on Fan Sheng’s face, but the man still answered with a curt “Yes” and strode out.

He Lingchuan found himself curious now. What kind of three-headed, six-armed figure is this Minister of Finance’s eldest daughter, for even the Crown Prince of Chiyan and a cloud envoy to be wary of her, and for the deputy commander of the Tongxin Guards to look so unwilling?

Bai Ziqi rose and said, “Let’s interrogate Cen Boqing first.”

Fushan Yue readily agreed.

The group headed for the county jail. He Lingchuan glanced back and saw two guards enter the side room before shutting the door behind them.

Just before the door fully closed, He Lingchuan thought he heard the thunder of hooves rolling from the far end of the long street.

A moment ago, he and Fushan Yue had come rushing the same way.

With a flick of his hand, Bai Ziqi set up a soundproof barrier, cutting off noise from both inside and out so that no unnecessary disturbance would reach them later.

Cen Boqing was being held in the innermost cell with a window.

Considering his special status, County Magistrate Tian had arranged a private cell for him on the second underground level, with only a single passage in and out.

There was a bed and a chair in the cell. The floor was clean and had obviously just been swept. The food and water were fresh as well, but Cen Boqing had not touched any of it.

He sat in the chair, looking utterly dispirited.

As the three men entered, the jailer had a few chairs brought over. Just as he was about to speak, Fushan Yue waved him away and sent him upstairs, leaving behind only the clerk responsible for taking down the testimony.

Unlike Cheng Yu, who was in a miserable state, Cen Boqing had no injuries inside or out. But his expression was dejected, and there was no light at all in his eyes.

The witnesses and physical evidence were complete, and the one who had personally captured him was a cloud envoy. He already knew that his fate had been sealed.

Even if his father-in-law, the Minister of Finance, stepped in to plead for mercy, it probably would not help much.

The moment he saw Bai Ziqi, he lowered his head listlessly. “This has nothing to do with the Minister of Finance. My wife... my wife knows nothing at all.”

“At least you still count as a man.” Bai Ziqi sighed. “If you knew it would come to this, why did you do it in the first place?”

But Fushan Yue crossed his arms and said, “Looking at you like this, you don’t seem like the one really in charge. Is there someone above you giving orders? Speak up! If you’re not the principal offender, your punishment will naturally be lighter!”

Cen Boqing lowered his head. “The gathering and sale of jiang beads was all handled by Uncle Wu. I... I rarely paid much attention to it myself. If you want to investigate, start at Qingfu Temple. Uncle Wu always sold the beads there. I know the temple also resold the elixir of youth.”

“So it was on your recommendation that Zhongsun Mou went to Qingfu Temple to buy the elixir of youth?”

Cen Boqing nodded.

“You never met the actual refiner? Other than that temple attendant surnamed Hu at Qingfu Temple?”

“Yes,” Cen Boqing said at once. “If you catch the attendant surnamed Hu, you’ll definitely be able to keep tracing it further...”

Bai Ziqi cut him off, “Just a few days ago, Qingfu Temple caught fire. The blaze was so fierce it couldn’t be put out. Within half an hour, the whole place was burned to ash. More than a hundred people in the temple failed to escape.”

Cen Boqing opened his mouth, and the color drained completely from his face.

All... all of them has been silenced?

“What a coincidence. It happened the very day after the ruler of the State of Chiyan submitted his memorial to Lingxu.” Bai Ziqi shot Fushan Yue a glance. If his father had not been in such a hurry to expose this case, and done so with absolutely no finesse, Qingfu Temple would probably still be standing just fine.

He had startled the snake in the grass. What a pity.

“So the case is now stuck at your end,” Bai Ziqi said patiently to Cen Boqing. “Do you understand what that means?”

Does that mean that all the punishment would fall on me alone? Cen Boqing sat there blankly for a long while, then shook his head so hard it looked like it might come off. “No, no! I really am not the mastermind. I’ve hardly even touched jiang beads more than a few times! Uncle Wu handled all these affairs. Question him, question him! You’ll definitely get something out of it!”

“Oh?” Bai Ziqi prompted him. “Uncle Wu has long since defended himself by saying that he, too, was only acting under orders.”

“Even if he was acting under orders, that doesn’t mean he was only following my orders!” Cen Boqing said hurriedly. “I inherited the jiang bead business from my father, and Uncle Wu had already been fully in charge of it back then. After I took it over, it... it just stayed the same. Normally, I didn’t need to worry about it at all! He handled all the connections himself. H-How would I know any of the inside details?”

Afraid that Bai Ziqi would not believe him, he even swore to Heaven.

Bai Ziqi fell silent in thought.

At that moment, one of Fan Sheng’s guards came down from above and murmured a few words into Bai Ziqi’s ear.

Bai Ziqi’s brow shifted slightly. “I know, fifteen minutes.”

The guard quickly left.

He Lingchuan and Fushan Yue exchanged a glance, both knowing this was probably Fan Sheng sending word from outside.

Bai Ziqi meant that he was to hold the entrance for at least another fifteen minutes.

Fushan Yue then said, “Given Cen Boqing’s temperament, he really doesn’t seem like the one in charge...”

Cen Boqing nodded so hard it looked like he was a chicken pecking rice.

“...By contrast, Wu Kai’s conduct was cautious, meticulous, and shrewd. He managed the whole affair and seems much more like someone using the father and son as a front while conducting these illegal operations himself. If Mai Xuewen could scheme against Wu Kai, then why couldn’t Wu Kai scheme against his own masters?” Fushan Yue asked Cen Boqing, “How did Wu Kai come to the Cen Residence in the first place?”

“My father said that more than twenty years ago, our old steward retired and went back to his hometown due to illness. Before leaving, he recommended Uncle Wu, saying he was capable and reliable.”

Fushan Yue mocked him. “Capable and reliable indeed. So capable that you never had to worry about a thing, and in the end you wandered muddleheaded all the way to your death.”

He Lingchuan, however, asked, “The Cen Family went from hardship back to wealth again. Did that happen after Uncle Wu arrived?”

Cen Boqing thought for a moment, then nodded.

“In other words, from the very beginning, your father had Uncle Wu managing this...” He Lingchuan had been about to say business, “...trade. From the moment he first came to the Cen Residence.”

The trade of killing Beijia monsterfolk, extracting jiang beads, and refining the elixir of youth.

This was like a major company hiring a new employee and then, on the very first day on the job, handing over all its core secrets and putting him in charge of a business worth tens of millions.

And this particular trade, namely hunting monsters for beads, combined enormous profit with enormous risk. If Cen Boqing’s father had simply handed it over to a complete stranger, he could not possibly have been in his right mind.

Mai Xuewen had once saved Uncle Wu’s life, and even then, Uncle Wu had tested him for three full years before daring to recruit him as one of his core people.

“So your father knew very well what background Uncle Wu came from.”

Bai Ziqi gave He Lingchuan an approving look. “Excellent analysis.”

In only a few sentences, he had already peeled away the suspicious points.

If a flaw this obvious could be spotted at a glance by a youth, then could Cen Boqing, who was already decades old, really have remained in the dark the whole time?

“I...” Cen Boqing stammered. “Those are all old matters from long ago. Every time I wanted to ask in more detail, my father scolded me for prying and said it was better if I didn’t know. Th-then he died too suddenly, and he never got the chance to explain it to me.”

“You said that this monster-hunting bead-harvesting business was fully controlled by Uncle Wu,” Bai Ziqi said. “Yet when Uncle Wu was cursed yesterday evening, you acted very decisively. Without him, you still handled things well enough.”

To his surprise, Cen Boqing looked blank. “What curse attack yesterday evening? That wasn’t me!”

Huh?

“Yesterday evening...” Bai Ziqi had personally seen the curse flare up in Uncle Wu, and Fushan Yue had only just managed to drag him back from death.

“Cheng Yu said we only had one chance, and nighttime was the best time to act.” Cen Boqing shook his head like a rattle drum. “The curse cast yesterday evening was absolutely not ours. Uncle Wu may have had some other enemy!”

“...” Bai Ziqi fell into thought and cast a sidelong glance at Fushan Yue.

Now that he thought about it carefully, the timing of the curse on Wu Kai last night really had been a little too perfect. Lingxu City’s envoy had only just found the crown prince and begun asking about the case when Wu Kai suddenly went down. Then, right in front of the cloud envoy, he confessed and implicated Cen Boqing.

Bai Ziqi had originally intended to go to the Cen Residence himself to look into the matter. But with that sudden development, things immediately turned into a direct arrest, which led to the large-scale pursuit afterward.

So who, exactly, had planted the curse on Wu Kai?

Meeting Bai Ziqi’s gaze, Fushan Yue put on a thoughtful expression. “If it wasn’t Cheng Yu, then who else could it have been?”

He Lingchuan silently gave him a thumbs-up.

Convincing. Very convincing.

One of Fushan Yue’s own spellcasters also knew a bit about curse arts. His skill was no match for Cheng Yu’s, but placing a curse on Wu Kai while the man was trapped had not been difficult at all.

Waiting for Cen Boqing and Cheng Yu to make their move had been too slow. So they had simply done it themselves.

As long as they chose the right moment, there was no need to fear that Wu Kai would refuse to confess.

He Lingchuan then asked Cen Boqing, “When I brought Wu Kai back, I found several protective talismans on him already broken. It looks like he’d been under secret curses for some time. Cheng Yu, that great expert, only acted last night.” He Lingchuan continued, “After Wu Kai was captured, his cultivation was sealed as well. At that point, just about anyone could have cursed him.”

Bai Ziqi looked at Cen Boqing. “Why didn’t you have Cheng Yu act earlier?”

If Cheng Yu had acted earlier, the witness would have died long ago. They never would have ended up in this position.

In Bai Ziqi’s eyes, Cen Boqing’s indecision had cost him his life.

Cen Boqing gave a bitter smile. “Cheng Yu claimed that the damage to his soul was too severe. Even if he forced himself out of seclusion early, he wouldn’t have been able to help me.”

Everything had gone wrong by a series of cruel coincidences.

Bai Ziqi seemed somewhat moved by that too, and then asked, “The attempt to frame Fu Songhua, was that also Uncle Wu’s doing?”

“Yes. He was completely the one directing it!”