A thousand enlightenments in one night, starting from being a menial apprentice.

Chapter 454 Conspiracy
Duan Rong and Zhu Zhengfu stayed in the courtyard for nearly an hour.

Zhu Zhengfu then went on to tell Duan Rong many details, picking out some of the ones he thought were important.

Duan Rong sat there listening, and when he encountered something he thought was important, he would ask Zhu Zhengfu questions one after another until he was satisfied.

After the two finished chatting, although it was still dark outside, the faint sound of roosters crowing could be heard.

The first wave of rooster crows means that the next day will soon be dawn.

Zhu Zhengfu had already finished the cup of tea beside him, with a piece of tea leaf stuck to the edge of the white porcelain teapot. Seeing that Duan Rong stopped asking questions and seemed to have reported everything, he took out a piece of paper from his sleeve, stepped forward and presented it to Duan Rong, saying, "Sir, this is a document I wrote to the ancestor before I came here. Please take a look at it. If there are no mistakes, I will send it to Yunfu Peak."

"Ancestor?" Duan Rong glanced at the paper Zhu Zhengfu presented. The ancestor Zhu Zhengfu was referring to was naturally Zhu He, the ancestor of their Zhu family.

Duan Rong said cautiously: "This is a secret letter you sent to the ancestor. I have no right to read it. Just report the truth."

Zhu Zhengfu was obviously stunned when he heard this, and then he said, "Yes, sir!"

Zhu Zhengfu originally thought that since Duan Rong was in charge of this matter, the document reported to the ancestor should naturally be reviewed by Duan Rong. But he also understood Duan Rong's refusal to review it, which was to avoid suspicion.

Then he took the paper and said, "Sir, I will take my leave now."

Duan Rong nodded, then he clasped his fists and walked out.

Duan Rong watched Zhu Zhengfu leave the room, his eyes flickering slightly. Facing a shrewd guy like Zhu He, he had to be cautious at every step.

Although Duan Rong had joined Yunfu Peak for more than half a year, he did not know Zhu He very well and they had only met a few times. However, he knew Fan Hongjiao and Wu Shidao quite well.

Although Duan Rong didn't know Zhu He very well, he understood one thing: all shrewd and calculating guys usually have one flaw, which is that they are very suspicious.

In view of this, he would rather not read the document that Zhu Zhengfu sent to Zhu He, because Zhu He could tell at a glance whether the document had passed through his hands or not.

If he were to narrate the same incident, he would definitely explain the entire incident in a concise and clear manner. However, since Zhu Zhengfu did not understand many things, he could only narrate the various phenomena he saw.

Because Zhu He could see it, he had to let Zhu Zhengfu send the document to Zhu He in its original form, so as not to arouse Zhu He's suspicion that he had just arrived and had already incorporated Zhu's secular power. Even the secret letter sent to Zhu He was first reviewed by him. This may seem like a trivial matter, but it is actually something that cannot be ignored!

After Zhu Zhengfu left, Ruyi walked in. Her hair was not combed yet and looked a little messy.

Duan Rong yawned, looked at Ruyi, and said, "Ruyi, close the door, turn off the lights! Go back to sleep!"

"Yes, sir!" Ruyi knelt down and bowed, then followed Duan Rong inside and helped him undress.

Duan Rong lay down again, but after a while, when the sky was slightly bright, he fell asleep again...

Zhu Zhengfu returned to his study and sent the secret letter. An hour before Zhu Zhengfu sent the secret letter, Ge Hengtai had already sent a secret letter to Ge Rushong.

Changliu Mountains, deep in the endless mountains.

In the morning light, clouds of mist, as ethereal as smoke, are rising in the valleys...

Countless mountains, large and small, appear and disappear in the mist.

Among them there is a lush mountain, Qingling Peak, which is the location of the Taiyi Sect’s Tongzhengshisi.

The chief of the Tongzhengshisi was the sect elder Ge Rushong.

At this time, in a remote room on the pavilion of Qingling Peak.

The room was not very large, but the furnishings were quite exquisite. The carved rosewood lantern hanging at the door was particularly delicate and elegant.

There were four people sitting on several Huanghuali armchairs in the room. All of them had unfriendly faces and frowned brows.

Ge Rushong sat at the first seat in the east row, and next to him sat two middle-aged men who looked to be about his age, except that they were both thin, not as sturdy as Ge Rushong.

On the second seat in the west row opposite Ge Rushong sat an old man with white hair and beard.

These three people, like Ge Rushong, are elders of the Taiyi Sect's Elder Council, but at this moment, they are all silent, and there is a solemn atmosphere in the air.

On the table next to Ge Rushong, there was an open secret letter.

At this moment, the door of the room was gently pushed open, and a man in a green shirt and with his hair tied with a jade hairpin walked in slowly.

This person walked steadily and had a kind face, looking quite otherworldly.

The person who came was Lu Zhongtang, the descendant of Lu Yinlin, the sect's ancestor in the Council of Elders, and the one who was competing with Zhu He for the next sect leader.

He walked out of the room, glanced at everyone, and immediately sensed something was wrong in the air. He slowly walked to the seat of the head of the Western Ranks, sat down, looked at Ge Rushong, and asked, "What happened?"

Ge Rushong's face was gloomy. He looked up at Lu Zhongtang, sighed, and said, "Zhongtang! I just received news that Li Shensi is dead!"

"What!?" The muscles on Lu Zhongtang's face twitched and a hint of anger flashed in his eyes.

They spent a lot of effort to help Li Shensi take the throne, but he died only two months after taking office. All the efforts they had made were wasted!
Ge Rushong picked up the secret letter on the table beside him and threw it lightly. The secret letter seemed to be lifted by something and floated to Lu Zhongtang's side like a fallen leaf.

Lu Zhongtang took the secret letter, his eyes flashed with cold light, and he finished reading it in a few breaths.

"Rhinoceros Immortal?!" Lu Zhongtang said coldly, "The talk of ghosts, foxes, spirits and monsters is pure nonsense."

Ge Rusong said: "Ge Hengtai did not make any conclusions in the secret letter, but only stated the facts to us in detail. You have all read it. I wonder what you think about the cause of Li Shensi's death?"

The sect elder sitting next to Ge Rushong, named Xu Qie, heard this and said, "The story of ghosts, foxes, and monsters is naturally unbelievable. In my opinion, Li Shensi fell off the cliff after being hallucinated and crazy. He must have been hit by a soul magic."

"Spiritual illusion?!" Lu Zhongtang's eyebrows jumped. "Are you saying that the one who killed Li Shensi was someone from the sect?"

Zheng Yi's eyes narrowed, but he said, "It shouldn't be an illusion of the soul." Upon hearing this, Lu Zhongtang looked at Zheng Yi, who was sitting diagonally opposite Xu Qie, and his eyes showed encouragement for him to continue.

Zheng Yi said, "According to the description in the secret letter, if it was a soul illusion, then both the rhinoceros and Li Shensi should have been hit by it. Let's take a step back and say that only Li Shensi was hit by it. To be able to use the soul illusion, one must at least have achieved the eleventh level of the Taizang Sutra. Everyone knows how difficult it is to practice the Taizang Sutra. Before the eighth level, each level requires at least three or four years of hard practice. After the eighth level, the difficulty increases layer by layer. To achieve the eleventh level of the Taizang Sutra! How long did it take us to achieve the eleventh level? Don't you all know? If Li Shensi died from the soul illusion, it would have to be the old guy who did it himself."

Everyone present knew that the hometown Zheng Yi was talking about was Zhu He. However, they all knew that this was unlikely. Zhu He was not so shameless as to personally kill a civil servant in the secular world. Besides, someone had been keeping an eye on his whereabouts. He had been in Yunfu Peak for more than half a month.

Zheng Yi's words were quite convincing, and there was a brief silence in the hall.

"I have another secret letter here." Ge Rushong suddenly took out a document from his sleeve.

"There's another secret letter?!" Everyone in the hall was shocked.

Ge Rushong said, "It's about Duan Rong, Zhu He's personal disciple who was accepted into his school half a year ago. This guy moved into the other courtyard of Zhu Zhengfu's mansion six days before Li Shensi's death. And according to the spies lurking around him, this guy went out the night before Li Shensi's death and didn't come back for a whole day and a whole night. When he came back, there were grass scraps stuck on his clothes and hair. The timeline matches, and all the details show that Li Shensi died at the hands of this guy!"

The secret letter from Ge Rushong was circulated among the people in the hall. There was also a portrait in it. Although the man in the painting had a beard, his face looked very similar to Duan Rong.

When Duan Rong was studying under a master in the Dragon Fish Hall at Cuiwei Peak, everyone in the hall was present. They had all seen what Duan Rong looked like.

Xu Qie said, "That's right! I was talking about that old guy Zhu He, and his disciples, Fan Hongjiao, Wu Shidao, Lu Geng, they are all on Yunfu Peak. How come Li Shensi died? It turned out that the new kid did it! But the way Li Shensi died described in the secret letter is quite strange. Duan Rong has only been an inner disciple for half a year, so it is naturally impossible for him to achieve the soul illusion. So what method did he use to kill Li Shensi?"

Zheng Yi's eyes narrowed, and he said, "I think it's probably poison!"

"Use poison?" Xu Qie turned his head to look at Zheng Yi and said, "Poison is a side art that involves strange and tricky skills. As far as I know, very few elders have studied this art. And Zhu He has not dabbled in this art, right?"

"Speaking of the way of poison, we have to listen to Elder Sun's opinion." Ge Rusong nodded and looked at the white-haired old man sitting next to Lu Zhongtang, and smiled faintly: "Elder Sun has been in charge of the medicine cabinet for many years, and his understanding of the way of medicine and poison is naturally far beyond ours."

Sun Fujia, who had been silent the whole time, saw Ge Rushong looking at him with a smile, and then he said, "After all, Li Shensi is also a warrior at the fourth level of the True Qi Realm. Ordinary worldly poisons are useless to him. Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless it is poison from the Dark Forest. But these poisons must be made into a drug powder that causes hallucinations and madness, and can also be preserved. They must go through a complex refining process. Only the pharmacists in the medicine pavilion have this ability. But these people are all my subordinates. They will definitely not help Zhu He refine poisons. I can be sure of this. And Zhu He himself, as far as I know, has never been fond of using poison."

The hall fell silent again.

Duan Rong had just been an inner disciple for half a year. It was impossible for him to use soul illusion, nor was it possible for him to refine the poisons in the dark forest. So, what method did he use to cause Li Shensi to die so strangely?
Could it be a magic trick?

Ge Rushong suddenly cleared his throat and said, "Elder Sun, do you know who was under Duan Rong's command when he was a registered disciple in the sect?"

Upon hearing this, Sun Fujia looked at Ge Rushong with a strange look. He didn't understand why Ge Rushong suddenly talked about things he didn't want to do.

The others had the same idea and looked at Ge Rushong.

Ge Rusong asked, "Elder Sun, do you still remember Shang Xiangyu?"

"Shang Xiangyu?!" Sun Fujia's eyelids twitched slightly.

Shang Xiangyu was his apprentice, so he naturally remembered him. After accepting him as his disciple, he also taught him for two years, but this person was so obsessed with medicine and poison that he neglected his practice and failed twice in a row in the cyclone realm. Later, Sun Fujia gave up on him.

In the eyes of the sect elders, a disciple who cannot advance to the Cyclone Realm is no different from trash.

However, this guy disappeared later and was involved with the Filthy Blood Cult. When the Judgment and Clan Affairs Bureau was investigating the case, they bothered him a lot.

Sun Fujia asked, "Why? When Duan Rong was a registered disciple, did he follow Shang Xiangyu?"

"That's right!" Ge Rusong said, "Could the poison that Duan Rong used to cause Li Shensi to become hallucinogenic and insane come from Shang Xiangyu?"

Sun Fujia pondered for a moment and said, "With Shang Xiangyu's attainments in poison refining, he can naturally obtain a similar poison, but..."

Ge Rusong said: "After Shang Xiangyu disappeared, Duan Rong lived alone on that mountain for three years."

"Really?" Sun Fujia said, "Then it's not surprising that this kid has the poison that caused Li Shensi to become hallucinogenic and crazy."

Xu Qie smiled and said, "Elder Ge knows Duan Rong very well!"

Ge Rusong smiled and said, "I am the director of the Tongzhengshisi, and my job is to handle intelligence work. If I am not diligent, wouldn't you all be deaf and blind?"

"Well said!" Xu Qie praised.

Zheng Yi said: "Since we already know that it was Duan Rong who did this, and we have figured out his methods, we must hold on to this matter. As long as we can hold on to Duan Rong, we can also bring out Zhu He who is behind this."

Lu Zhongtang looked at Zheng Yi with admiration, he shared the same idea.

Ge Rushong said solemnly, "Everyone, do you remember the description in the secret letter? The old coroner at the Dali Temple has examined Li Shensi's body and found no signs of poisoning."

Yes!

This brief message in the secret letter flashed through the minds of everyone in the hall.

Ge Rusong looked at Sun Fujia and said, "Elder Sun, is it possible that a secular coroner cannot detect the poison in the Dark Forest?"

Sun Fujia said: "It is very likely. If the poison is handled well, it is difficult to detect it with ordinary means. However, if an experienced pharmacist can detect it, he will definitely be able to detect it."

Ge Rusong said, "Well, we will start the fight in the Elders' Council today! We must hold Duan Rong responsible for this case! We will also ask Sun Zhanglai to send a capable pharmacist to go with us. We must prove this!"

Sun Fujia said: "That's easy! Don't worry, everyone."

Ge Rusong then looked at Lu Zhongtang and said respectfully, "Zhongtang, do you think this is a good way to handle this matter?"

Lu Zhongtang nodded and said, "With everyone working together, we can accomplish great things!"

(End of this chapter)