Yin Yang Soul Searcher

"Good question," Bai Jueming praised, then said, "Let's connect these two things. Could it be that the mastermind knew the Craftsmen's Hall was going to forge magical artifacts, so they sent someone to poison Yang Yongyuan with miasma?"

"Assassinating someone from the Craftsmen's Hall is too difficult; there are many people who can refine weapons, and they all have cultivation levels. But assassinating an ordinary court official is much easier."

"If we follow your logic, it seems only the demon race would stop the weapon forging, because they fear the revenge of the Great Xia." Li Zhengshan frowned. "But even if Yang Yongyuan is assassinated, the weapon forging will continue. If the demon race is smart, they won't be unaware of this outcome. There's no point in doing this. It won't delay things for long."

Brother Shan is right. The demon race couldn't have been unaware of this outcome. If the demon race isn't the mastermind, then who is? Bai Jueming shook his head; he knew too little to speculate.

Li Zhengshan nodded slightly in affirmation: "Don't be discouraged. It's already quite good that you were able to analyze so much without relying on soul searching."

Zhou Dahai patted him on the shoulder encouragingly: "You're just a little bit better than me."

Wang Pang and Wu Yuan deeply agreed.

After saying that, Li Zhengshan walked towards the purplish-blue corpse; he was about to begin the soul search.

Li Zhengshan squatted beside the corpse, his right hand forming a palm with fingers together as he began to mobilize his soul power, then placed it about an inch from Lianzhu's forehead. A wisp of faint black smoke emerged from Li Zhengshan's palm, flowing downwards like ripples, before slowly seeping into Lianzhu's forehead. After a moment, Li Zhengshan slowly closed his eyes and began searching her soul for answers.

The scenes of soul searching are slightly different from those of questioning in a dream. During soul searching, the surroundings are completely dark, unlike the movie-like scenes of questioning in a dream.

In the pitch black, Lianzhu's soul floated silently in mid-air like a hanged ghost. It was her soul, still dressed in the clothes she wore at the time of death, her face a purplish-blue, lifeless color. When a person dies, their soul remains within the body for seven days, after which it dissipates. After that time, even a soul search will yield nothing.

Most importantly, soul searching has certain limitations; it can only elicit the deceased's identity and a general outline of their past actions. The specific details of those actions are only remembered by the deceased within the seven days prior to their death. If it were possible to extract all the information about a deceased person's life, there would likely be no more wronged souls in the world.

Even with numerous restrictions, the souls of high-ranking officials in the imperial court could not be searched at will; an imperial decree was required.

Li Zhengshan's illusory figure slowly appeared before Lianzhu. He began a methodical question-and-answer session.

Inside the private room, the waiter bowed and withdrew after serving the food and drinks, saying, "Please enjoy your meal, sir."

He couldn't help but wonder where the man and woman opposite him had come from. But he wouldn't ask; in the world of cultivators, one shouldn't ask what shouldn't be asked. That's the survival rule for insignificant people.

"You guys were far too careless." The man, gazing out the window, shook his head. "You knew to hire someone to kill Yang Yongyuan, but didn't you consider that since Lianzhu is a cultivator, what kind of identity does she have?"

"With the information given by Lianzhu, I think it won't be difficult to find you."

"I see." Jinxiu nodded, then said, "It's not our fault. We haven't been in the capital for long. How could we possibly investigate her identity? Even if we knew she had cultivation, so what? We're confident we can keep her firmly under control!"

"Fool!" the man cursed inwardly. "If you could control her, would I know about this?" However, for the sake of future cooperation, he didn't say it aloud, only maintaining a faint smile.

"That's not right." After thinking for a moment, the man continued, "You could just use ordinary methods to control your servants to poison the food. Why go through all this trouble? Besides, you could have had Yang Yongyuan's concubines poison the food; wouldn't that have been much easier?"

"It's just a task from my master." The fox girl Jinxiu pouted and said aggrievedly, "The person behind us knows that Yang Yongyuan often visits Lianzhu. He even sent someone to inquire about Yang Yongyuan from Lianzhu. That idiot actually asked Lianzhu directly when Yang Yongyuan would visit her next."

"The person behind us is afraid that Lianzhu will leak information about people inquiring about Yang Yongyuan, leading to an investigation. So they're thinking of having us get rid of Lianzhu to prevent her from leaking information. We're short on time, so to complete this mission as quickly as possible, we have to use this two-birds-with-one-stone method. What do you think? What do you think of our plan?"

Jinxiu wore a smug smile, quite pleased with her method.

"So-so," the man commented casually. Finally, he asked, "Why not handle the two matters separately? That would leave the Yin-Yang Palace with fewer clues."

Jinxiu smiled seductively, the fox-like image on her face flashing by: "I am a fox, you know. I've thought of everything you're saying. It's just too much trouble, and we don't have that much time to waste!"

The man nodded slightly. He had underestimated this fox; this must be one of their clan's innate talents—charm and cunning! As for the fox's claim of limited time, the man wasn't interested. Their purpose was simply to cause trouble for the Great Xia. This coincided perfectly with his own.

Then, as if struck by a sudden thought, Jinxiu asked, "Why did you just stand by and watch Lianzhu's body be taken away? Aren't you afraid the Onmyoji will find out something through soul-searching?"

"When I arrived, the people from the Yin-Yang Palace were already there. I wouldn't dare to attack them in the capital." The man waved his hand dismissively. "Besides, finding out my identity isn't that easy. Lianzhu's job is to be an undercover agent. She doesn't even know who her superiors are. How could an Onmyoji find out by searching her soul? Death might be her best fate."

"You humans are so cruel. I've served you loyally for so many years, and you treat me like this." Jinxiu wrinkled her delicate nose and said coquettishly.

"Didn't you kill her?" The man smiled calmly. "You make it sound like I discarded her after I'd served my purpose. Besides, by the time I arrived, it was too late to save her!"

"That's true..."

"But you, the Yin-Yang Palace searched her soul. Aren't you afraid your identities will be exposed?" the man continued. "Did you disguise yourselves?"

"Otherwise, why would we use miasma to poison Yang Yongyuan?" Jinxiu's voice was alluring. "Wasn't it so that Lianzhu would have enough time to leave the scene of death, and then we could take her body away? Otherwise, we wouldn't be here. We just didn't expect that by the time we wanted to take her body away to cut off the clues, the people from the Yin-Yang Palace had already arrived. We didn't dare to attack the Yin-Yang Masters in the capital, so we could only hide here by the window and watch."

"I don't think we need to worry. Since entering the capital, we haven't shown our faces to outsiders. Only Lianzhu has seen us. Those idiots in the Yin-Yang Palace wouldn't guess our identities." The man, who was terrified by the green color, was very confident.

"One last question!" The man's faint smile vanished, his eyes becoming more serious than ever before: "Did the demon race kill Yang Yongyuan because of the Great Xia Emperor's decree to forge weapons? Are they afraid that Yunzhou will send troops to attack the Great Demon Kingdom after obtaining the weapons, to avenge their national advisor!"

"Do you think our demon race is afraid of war? And how can killing an official stop such a thing?" Yang Liu, who was glowing green, couldn't help but speak up.

Jinxiu shook her head, then pointed to the window behind her. "You can ask him."

The man's gaze passed over the brocade and landed on an ordinary sparrow circling outside the window.

Inside Zhengshan Hall, the room was relatively quiet, and everyone waited silently for the results of Li Zhengshan's soul search.

In the dream, Li Zhengshan's illusory figure asked, "What is your identity? What are you doing in the capital?"

The spirit of Lianzhu answered woodenly, "I am a spy, lurking in the capital to collect intelligence and then send it to my superiors via carrier pigeon."

Li Zhengshan bombarded him with questions: "Which faction are you working for? Who is your superior? Where is he?"

Lotus Pearl's soul was momentarily stunned, and after what seemed like a long period of thought, she finally spoke: "I have never known the name of that force, nor who its superior is, nor where it is. Only the carrier pigeon knows."

"You know nothing? This force is hiding so deeply?" Li Zhengshan frowned, his brows furrowed, clearly dissatisfied with the answer: "If you know nothing, how could you be a spy for this force?"

"When I was young, my hometown suffered a severe drought, and my family all starved to death. I was rescued by a passing monk, and later I followed him and some other people my age to practice. After I grew up, he arranged for me to become a spy in the capital, and then I lost contact with him."

Li Zhengshan's eyes lit up: "Do you remember what that person looked like?"

Upon hearing this, the blackness behind Lianzhu flickered like a mosaic. This was her soul recalling the person's face. After a moment, the mosaic-like image ended, and Lianzhu remained standing there quietly, offering no reply. The darkness behind her returned to its previous inky blackness. This meant she could not answer.

"As expected, I shouldn't have had such hope," Li Zhengshan sighed helplessly. Soul searching also has its limitations. For something that happened seven days ago, you can only ask questions; you won't see any images, and the corpse might not even answer.

"What intelligence are you passing on to your superiors?"

"Through contact with high-ranking officials and dignitaries, I reported some miscellaneous intelligence about the capital to my superiors."

"This miscellaneous intelligence is useless, which also shows that the location of Lianzhu is not important, otherwise she wouldn't have died so easily." After thinking for a moment, Li Zhengshan continued, "When was the last time you transmitted intelligence to your superiors?"

At that moment, the dark scene behind Lianzhu began to churn. It quickly transformed into a cinematic scene.

It seems this all happened within the last seven days of the deceased's death. Li Zhengshan stared intently, afraid of missing any details.

The scene depicts Lianzhu in her private room at Qingyue Tower. A candle flickers dimly on the table, and Lianzhu holds a brush, writing on a letter.

My lord, I have been found by two uninvited guests. They forced me to take a pill made from miasma, and they want this miasma-made pill to enter Yang Yongyuan's body the next time he invites me to his residence.

After the miasma entered my body, I had enough time to leave the Yang residence. They promised me that they would let me go once they learned of Yang Yongyuan's death.

They are powerful, and I had no choice but to write to you for help. Lianzhu hopes to continue serving you.

Moreover, since they knew when Yang Yongyuan contacted me, I suspect it was related to the man who asked me about Yang Yongyuan that day!