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

Chapter 464 Exposed
There is a breakfast stall across the street not far from Taihe Building. Although it is still dawn, there are already several early customers sitting at the stall.

The breakfast stall is run by a middle-aged couple. The woman has a ruddy face and a plump waist, while the man is thin. They have only just opened the stall.

The couple was busy in the steaming heat...

But in such a busy schedule, the man kept glancing at the entrance of Taihe Building from the corner of his eye. When he just set up his stall, he found a waiter waiting there. At this time, some time had passed, and more and more waiters gathered at the entrance of Taihe Building, shouting and yelling, but the door of Taihe Building was still closed, and there seemed to be no intention of opening.

The man brought a bowl of wontons and a tray of dumplings to a seat, then quickly walked over and said to the woman who was wrapping wontons with her shadowless hands, "You go ahead and do your work. I'll go over there."

"We're busy! Why are you running around?!" the woman scolded the man, but her hands did not stop making wontons.

This is a technique she has practiced over the years, and it is so fast that it is a little dazzling. She uses a spoon to scoop the filling with one hand and pinches the skin to wrap the filling with the other hand. Her two hands move together and apart, and have already developed a certain rhythm.

However, she is not a warrior, and there are many talented people in this world who actually do not have the opportunity to learn martial arts.

The man ignored the woman's anger, turned around and walked across the street.

The woman glared at the man's back, sighed, and decided to stop making wontons. She put all the wontons into the pot, then carried a few trays of buns and went to her seat. Several guests were already sitting there waiting.

After serving the buns, she returned to the stall. The wontons were almost cooked. She deftly placed four bowls in front of the steaming pot, quickly threw several seasonings into the bowls, then used a large spoon to scoop up half a spoonful of wontons. With a shake of the spoon, the four bowls of wontons were ready. She added some soup and brought them over...

Meanwhile, the man arrived in front of Taihe Building. He glanced at the doors and windows of the building with a gloomy look and wiped his hands with his apron as he walked. From time to time, a waiter would go forward to knock on the door, but the building was dark and silent.

The man suddenly walked slowly to a place on the side of Taihe Building. He slightly turned sideways and looked up. He saw a pigeon cage hanging under the eaves high up. The bottom was empty and the whole pigeon cage was a transparent state with alternating iron wires.

The man was startled, and the warning was activated, but he didn't receive it.

What this means is self-evident!
The man's face suddenly turned very ugly. He turned around quickly, crossed the street and returned to the stall.

Seeing him coming back so quickly, the woman rolled her eyes at him and said, "Bring these bowls of wontons over. They're all busy, why are you still running around?!"

The man said gloomily, "I have something to do and I'm going to be out for a while. You watch over the stall first."

The woman was stunned for a moment when she heard this, but the man had already taken off his apron and strode away.

At this time, another customer started to urge him. "Hurry up! I've almost finished my buns, and you still haven't served me the wontons. Are you trying to choke me to death?"

"I'm right here!" the woman responded and picked up two bowls of wontons.

But her eyes were a little red. Soon, more and more people came. How could she handle it all by herself?
The man walked quickly into an alley in the dim light. He turned into the alley and looked around. Seeing no one in the alley, he suddenly moved quickly and whizzed away...

The man guarding the wonton stall was obviously a hidden master, and his body movements were not weak at all...

Zhu Peng drove the carriage to the entrance of an alley. Duan Rong flashed out of the carriage, leaped across the alley, and came to a private house.

Duan Rong's spiritual sense swept in, but he was slightly stunned. The bedding in the room was turned over and in a mess, but there was no one in the room.

He suddenly leaped up and his figure flashed into the room like a ghost. His eyes moved and he reached out to touch the inside of the quilt. There was still some warmth inside. It was obvious that the person on the bed had just left not long ago.

Moreover, the room was in a mess, and the man was obviously looking for something before he left.

Duan Rong stood there and sighed softly. The truth was exposed earlier than he thought.

"It seems that Ge Rushong must have arranged other means at Taihe Tower."

There was nothing that could be done about it. After all, Ge Rushong was a shrewd and calculating guy, and he had been in charge of the Ministry of Public Security for many years.

Duan Rong thought that if he failed in one place, he would probably fail everywhere.

The line of Taihe Building can only be dug to this point.

That night, they arrested more than twenty people in Taihe Tower and more than thirty people from various places near and far in Shenyun Mansion.

In one go, they caught nearly sixty people.

Moreover, many of them were masters of the Qi realm, and many had been lurking for many years. To Ge Rushong, these people were cultivated with great effort, but they were wiped out by Duan Rong overnight.

Since his attempt had failed, Duan Rong flashed out of the house.

As the saying goes, when you pull out a radish, you will also bring out the mud. Although some of the radish whiskers were now broken off in the mud, he had done what Zhu He instructed by pulling it up by the roots.

Duan Rong flashed out of the alley. Zhu Peng was sitting in the carriage. Seeing Duan Rong return empty-handed, he frowned and asked, "Where is the person you caught?"

"The room is empty." Duan Rong said, "Everyone has left."

"Retreat?!" Zhu Peng was a little surprised. This was the first time they had failed, and it was still daybreak and many people were still asleep.

"Let's go. Let's go back!" Duan Rong said, and got into the carriage.

Zhu Peng turned his horse around and rode back the way he came.

Duan Rong sat in the carriage with a tired look in his eyes. Now that the information about the raid on Taihe Tower had been exposed, there was no need for him to hide it any longer. It was time to expose the matter and make a good article about it.

Duan Rong rubbed his temples. Although he was very tired at the moment, he couldn't rest yet. There were still many things to do next.

Zhu Peng drove the carriage from the corner into the backyard. The two of them went to a farther place, while some carriages that went to a closer place had already returned and were parked there in a mess. It was obvious that they were not the only ones who had come back empty-handed.

Duan Rong and Zhu Peng walked into the dark room under the rockery, where seven or eight people were surrounding Zhu Cheng to report.

When Zhu Cheng saw Duan Rong coming in, he immediately pushed through the crowd and walked over, clasping his fists and saying, "Sir, something's wrong!"

Duan Rong glanced at the people who had just surrounded Zhu Cheng and said calmly, "All of them came in vain, right?"

"Yes!" Zhu Cheng's eyes moved slightly.

After a night, the dark room was already filled with a strong smell of blood. Duan Rong slowly walked to a stone chair, sat down, and said, "Zhu Cheng! Everyone has been busy all night. Send someone to buy some breakfast. Let's eat first."

Since the raid on Taihe Building has been exposed, it is meaningless to rush to interrogate and arrest people. Any efforts made there will basically be in vain.

Zhu Cheng was slightly surprised. He still had quite a few people on his side who had not been interrogated yet. Moreover, there was a problem with the arrest here, so why did Duan Rong act as if nothing had happened and asked him to send someone to buy breakfast? However, Duan Rong was the person in charge of this matter. Since he said so, Zhu Cheng could only do as he was told. He quickly called a few people and asked them to go buy breakfast.

When those people heard that there was breakfast, their eyes lit up. They had been busy all night and their stomachs were already rumbling.

At the wonton stall diagonally opposite Taihe Building, some customers were already sitting there, banging on the table and cursing. The woman was wiping her tears while making wontons.

"Coming, coming!" She was turning around with two bowls of wontons, when suddenly a figure flashed beside her. It was the thin man who came back.

The man took the wonton and immediately walked towards the yelling customer. He put the wonton down and said with a smile, "Excuse me, excuse me! Sorry to have kept you waiting!"

When the woman saw the man's expression, all the resentment and anger in her heart disappeared immediately. She immediately started making wontons. The man also started to work around the stall. The shouting and cursing in front of the stall soon subsided...

In the dim light of dawn, clouds of mist floated in the endless mountains of Changliu Mountain Range...

A lush mountain, looming in the mist, is the Qingling Peak where the Tongzhengshisi is located.

In a remote room in a pavilion inside the peak.

Lu Zhongtang, Ge Rushong, Sun Fujia, Zheng Yi, and Xu Qie were discussing matters in the room when news from Shenyun Mansion came back.

The pharmacist sent by the medicine cabinet found that Li Shensi was not poisoned. This result was obviously beyond the expectations of the five of them.

Ge Rushong's eyes were solemn, and his expression was obviously a little unnatural. He looked at Sun Fujia and asked, "Elder Sun, is the pharmacist you sent reliable? Could it be that some poisons are difficult to detect and he missed them?"

Upon hearing this, Sun Fujia just frowned and did not answer.

Lu Zhongtang glanced at Sun Fujia and said, "How could the person chosen by Elder Sun himself be wrong? I'm afraid the problem lies somewhere else."

Sun Fujia's expression eased slightly when he heard Lu Zhongtang say this. He glanced at Ge Rushong and said, "I dare not boast that Pharmacist Guo is unrivaled in the world in the art of poison, but in Qingzhou, there should be no one who can surpass him."

When Sun Fujia said this, Ge Rusong's pupils shrank involuntarily, but he said: "That's really weird!?"

Sun Fujia thought that Ge Rushong was still questioning the results of Pharmacist Guo's examination, and a flash of anger flashed across his face. He said, "Since Pharmacist Guo has found that Li Shensi is not poisoned, then he is not poisoned. I believe him on this point. If Elder Ge does not trust our medicine cabinet, you can send someone to check again."

Zheng Yi smiled and said, "Elder Sun, don't be angry! What Elder Ge is wondering about is probably not that Li Shensi was not poisoned, but if Li Shensi was not poisoned, what method did Duan Rong use to kill Li Shensi? How could he make him crazy and hallucinate, and fall off the cliff to his death?"

Ge Rushong said, "That's exactly what I meant. Elder Sun, please don't misunderstand me. I was rude at first because I was concerned and didn't mean to offend you."

Sun Fujia's expression finally eased a lot, but the doubts lingering in everyone's mind became even heavier.

There was silence in the room for a moment.

Lu Zhongtang frowned slightly and asked in a deep voice: "We started a fight in the Elders' Council and insisted that Duan Rong had poisoned Li Shensi. Now that the results of the investigation are like this, how should we end it? What do you think?"

As Lu Zhongtang spoke, he glanced at Ge Rushong indifferently. After all, he was the one who proposed to launch the attack in the Council of Elders.

"There must be something fishy about this!" Ge Rushong's eyes were deep, and he said thoughtfully, "Duan Rong has only been a direct disciple for half a year, but he was able to use some means to make Li Shensi fall off the cliff strangely, and made up the story of the Rhinoceros Immortal to eliminate the pressure of market opinion on this matter. Even if Li Shensi died of poisoning, his methods are already frightening. This is one of the reasons why I want to make trouble in the Elders' Council and bite him to death."

"But Li Shensi did not die of poisoning!" Zheng Yi continued.

Ge Rushong turned his head to look at him and said, "So, it's even more terrifying. This shows that this kid's methods are difficult for even us to see through. And he is just a junior who has not even achieved the Cyclone Realm."

Xu Qie suddenly said, "Elder Ge, don't forget that when he was tested in the Valley, he was only half a step away from stepping onto the stage! He almost became the first person in hundreds of years. This kind of guy can't be judged by common sense. And..."

Xu Qie's eyes drooped slightly, and he paused for a moment, as if he was in deep thought. Everyone looked at him, and he raised his eyes and continued, "After discussing him last time, I was curious about this kid, so I went to the database of the Ministry of Public Administration, retrieved his information, and studied it. Do you know that after three years as an outer sect disciple, this kid has gained such a great reputation as a detective in the four southeastern prefectures?"

Hearing this, Ge Rushong sneered. He had already read all the information about Duan Rong, but he didn't care. "It's just a remote place like the four prefectures in the southeast... What kind of detective is this! It's just a few trivial criminal cases. That beautiful woman murdered her husband and there's even evidence of her absence... What the hell is this? If you don't know, you might think I'm listening to a story in a teahouse?"

Ge Rusong didn't take Duan Rong's title of super detective seriously at all, and continued: "Yang Sixuan solved many strange cases in the past, but no one called him a super detective?"

Xu Qie ignored the contempt in Ge Rushong's eyes and sighed, "Elder Ge, do you still remember the first bloodbath case that happened in Xiangu County three years ago?"

Ge Rushong was slightly stunned. He was so eager to get credit in that case that he almost made a big mistake. Although he eventually forced Wei Ziyang, one of the five chief magicians of the Filthy Blood Sect, to self-destruct, an inner disciple also died on the spot. For this, Chu Qiushan publicly blamed him.

Ge Rushong glanced at Xu Qie and said nothing. He didn't know why Xu Qie suddenly brought up this matter.

Xu Qie said, "The person who first started that bloody case was Duan Rong!"

"Is it him?" Ge Rushong's eyebrows jumped. This case was a failure in his hands. Later, he did not ask about it again and handed it over to Jiang Zhe to handle. He really did not pay attention to who uncovered this case in the first place.

"That's right!" Xu Qie said, "I have carefully watched several of the cases he handled, and every one of them was amazing. This guy's reputation as a detective is not in vain!"

Ge Rusong's face was grim. He had indeed glanced over those trivial criminal cases and didn't care about them. After all, the Tongzhengshisi reported a lot of information every day! If he hadn't wanted to take Duan Rong as his apprentice that day and retrieved his information, he wouldn't even know these. What he saw in Duan Rong was just Duan Rong's talent of half-stepping on the stage.

Ge Rushong was about to say something, but suddenly stopped talking, his face suddenly becoming as gloomy as ice. The others also stopped talking at the same time, because their spiritual sense had already detected someone coming over the corridor.

After a few breaths, rustling footsteps were heard at the door.

"Knock, knock, knock." Three knocks on the door sounded softly.

Ge Rushong's voice was cold and angry, and he said, "Come in!"

The door opened gently, and a middle-aged man dressed in a blue robe, dressed like a scholar, walked in slowly.

As soon as the man came in, Ge Rushong glared at him and said, "Chen Yu, didn't I tell you? We are discussing matters, and no one is allowed to disturb us!"

The man bowed to everyone in the hall at the door and said, "I deserve to die for disturbing you all!" Then he looked up at Ge Rushong and said, "Your Excellency, Taihe Tower has fallen!"

"What!?"

Ge Rushong stood up suddenly, his hair and beard fluttering without any wind. The tables and chairs beside him were all turned into dust, and there was a faint spatial fluctuation above his head...

An elder was so angry that he lost his composure...

(End of this chapter)