Yin Yang Soul Searcher

"That's right." Bai Jueming glanced at Brother Shan and explained, "I didn't even have time to report it after it happened before the South Gate exploded."

"How did you know? I didn't see you at the scene!" Hu Jinggu asked, his voice trembling with agitation. "Did you see the faces of those two men in black? Who exactly are the demons hunting?"

I know you're in a hurry, but don't rush... Bai Jueming gestured for him to calm down.

Then he reported to the deputy hall master: "Early this morning, Miss Han and I heard the sounds of fighting in the street. We observed two demons chasing a man in black. Before Hall Master Hu arrived at the scene, another man in black appeared and rescued Master Siji."

"Miss Han happened to have two concealment talismans, so we quietly approached to observe. The first man in black to appear was Master Siji!"

"Four Seasons Masters!" Hu Jinggu exclaimed in surprise, "Aren't they cultivators unique to Western Shu? What are they doing in Great Xia?"

"Continue." Beneath the mask, the deputy hall master's expression was serious. He thought of General Wu Yong, who had been guarding the border for many years. General Wu had led troops to guard the two prefectures of Lei and Wei for many years, and had been constantly engaged in wars, large and small, with Western Shu.

Bai Jueming said with a serious expression: "I overheard some of their conversations and deduced from their fragments that the Four Seasons Master of Western Shu was threatening someone to embezzle the mineral deposits, and the demon race was hunting him down for this reason."

"What does the Four Seasons Master's theft of our Great Xia's mineral resources have to do with the demon race? Why are we hunting him down?" Hu Jinggu thought for a moment, then continued to ask, "It can't be that two forces are fighting over a mineral resource, can it?"

"As everyone knows, the demon race is tough and thick-skinned, and their main cultivation focus is on their innate supernatural abilities. They don't use mineral deposits to forge weapons; they mostly acquire them from the battlefield. The mineral deposits within their own territory have been left unused, so there's no need for them to come to Great Xia to plunder them."

Li Zhengshan nodded in agreement: "Besides the demon race, those uneducated brutes in the Northern Barbarians also don't know how to forge weapons."

The deputy hall master leaned back in his chair, seemingly casually glancing at Li Zhengshan, then forcefully squeezed the demon beast skull in his hand. He thought of something: the lost mineral deposits from when Bai Jueming was captured hadn't yet been found.

"That's right, the demon race isn't hunting down the Four Seasons Master for the mineral deposits. They're doing it to help the mastermind behind it all capture the person behind the Four Seasons Master. And!" Bai Jueming glanced at everyone in the room, a stiff smile playing on his lips, "The person who came to rescue the Four Seasons Master is an Onmyoji..."

"What did you say?!" The Four Seasons Master colluded with the Onmyoji?! The four hall masters were completely stunned. Hu Jinggu almost shouted, "Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"How did you know that man in black was an Onmyoji? My warriors chased after him without realizing it!"

"Aha!" Luo Wuju suddenly laughed as he sat in his chair, "Your Yin Yang Palace has a traitor."

No one paid any attention to Luo Wuju's taunts; everyone's eyes turned to Bai Jueming. The focus of the analysis had shifted from the South Gate bombing to this Four Seasons Master case. The common thread was the presence of unknown Onmyoji in both cases!

"I'm not sure if he's an Onmyoji; it was Miss Han who identified him," Bai Jueming said, shrugging. Everyone's attention shifted to Han Xueshan.

The deputy hall master asked in a gentle tone, "Miss Han, how did you know?"

Han Xueshan clasped her hands in a fist and explained, "Before the demons fled, they attacked that man in black. I clearly saw white mist appear in his hands, very similar to the black soul power of an Onmyoji. Isn't that a technique only Onmyoji of rank five or higher possess?"

"Is this it?" As he spoke, a wisp of white mist appeared in Li Zhengshan's hand.

"Ah, yes, yes, yes." Bai Jueming nodded frantically, pointing at the mist in his hand, then leaned closer to Li Zhengshan and whispered, "Brother Shan, does black soul power turn white after reaching the fifth rank?"

Li Zhengshan nodded solemnly and explained simply, "Not all of them, but half of them will turn white."

Bai Jueming knew this wasn't the time for detailed questioning, and continued, "Let's go back to our initial question: which force stole the gunpowder from the South Gate? Could the Onmyoji behind the South Gate and the Onmyoji next to the Four Seasons Master be the same person?"

"A Yin-Yang Master of the fifth rank or higher can destroy souls, and the souls of all the soldiers who died at the South Gate were destroyed. Could it be that the Four Seasons Master and the Yin-Yang Master collaborated on this? If it was him, then the person who stole the gunpowder was from Western Shu!"

Bai Jueming had no idea how much information was in those words; he only saw the deputy hall master stop stroking the skull and sit there without saying a word.

Inside a luxurious mansion in the capital city.

The injured Shikishi was lying on the bed recovering, while a man dressed in luxurious clothes stood with his back to the bed.

The room was magnificent, with a luxurious gold-threaded carpet on the floor. In the center stood an exquisitely crafted hut, filled with the fragrance of sandalwood. The man's face was hidden in the misty haze.

Shiki Shi grinned: "Your Onmyoji from Great Xia are really not that great. I've been fighting with the demon race for so long and you still haven't arrived."

"Arrogant fool, you and the demon race have already been discovered," the man with his back to the Four Seasons Master said.

The Four Seasons Master asked with some disbelief, "When? Since you knew, why didn't you kill them?"

"When I arrived, I saw two people observing you from a distance." The man shook his head. "The man was from the Yin-Yang Hall, and the woman was dressed like a Taoist. They didn't know my identity, so why would I kill them? Besides, the leader of the Yin-Yang Hall was already nearby."

"I have more important things to do," the man said with a smirk.

"Oh?" Shikishi scratched his wound, then asked, "What did you do after you saved me?"

"That person collaborated with the demon race to find me. I want to know what conditions he offered to persuade them to do so." The man walked to the window, looking at the scenery outside. "Under my threats, I learned some of the demon race's plans. I never imagined that the demon race had been plotting for so long, all for that one thing."

"What is it?" Shikishi asked, frowning. He had no respect for the person in front of him.

"You'll find out when the time comes." The man waved his hand, not caring. "The South Gate case was their doing. I helped them out by giving the Onmyoji some material. I destroyed all the souls so the Onmyoji couldn't find them."

"Aren't you afraid they'll find out your identity as an Onmyoji?" Shikishi asked rhetorically.

"They'll only think I'm from Beichen!" The man said confidently, a slight smirk playing on his lips. "My soul power isn't in any of the soul lamps. Only one person in the world knows my identity, but that person isn't in the Yin-Yang Palace. I won't expose myself."

"You seem quite confident." Shikishi's tone was disdainful, then he frowned and asked, "Why are you helping that person? Haven't you been threatening him the whole time?" He was somewhat confused by the actions of the person in front of him.

"Of course I'm not doing this to help him, but rather..." the man smiled slightly.

...

Yin Yang Hall

Bai Jueming summarized all the information in his mind, but still couldn't come up with a clue.

First, the demon race hunted down the Four Seasons Master, then the Onmyoji rescued him. Next, the South Gate exploded, Haifeng was lured away by a powerful figure, and all his souls were destroyed. Was this the work of the Onmyoji? Did the demon race participate in the South Gate explosion?

The deputy temple master, who had been sitting there, slowly stood up: "Both of these matters involve Onmyoji. Let's conduct a self-examination first."

After speaking, the deputy hall master clenched his fist towards the corpse in the room. A wisp of residual black soul power slowly flew out from the corpse. That wisp of soul power flowed past everyone like water and finally gathered in the deputy hall master's hand.

By comparing this wisp of soul power with the soul lamp of the Yin-Yang Hall, it can be determined whether he is an Yin-Yang Master from the Great Xia Dynasty! The Vice Hall Master, clutching the soul power in his hand, walked towards the ninth floor under the gaze of everyone...

Inside the restaurant

The disguised man said calmly, "It is said that the master of the Great Xia Craftsmen's Hall has taken in a disciple with great talent in array formations in the past two years. I wonder how long it will take him to finish repairing this array."

"If it were you, how long would it take you to repair that formation?" Yang Liu asked, her face flushed with embarrassment.

"I can't fix things, I can only destroy them," the man said casually, shrugging and smiling indifferently.

"How do you know so much about the Craftsmen's Hall?" Jinxiu's eyes flashed with a sharp light. "And you seem to have a lot of hostility towards the Craftsmen's Hall."

"Really?" The man reached out and touched his dough, looking surprised.

"First, you switched the pills with Cheng Yanbing, then you deliberately sabotaged the formation at the South Gate. Your actions are constantly targeting the Craftsmen's Hall." Jinxiu narrowed her foxy eyes: "Just who are you?"

"I've already said, we're just business partners. My identity doesn't matter. Just remember I won't harm you." The man's smile faded, and his tone turned cold.

Jinxiu pouted, a wronged expression appearing on her foxy face: "Hmph, why are you so fierce?"

"Contact your Lord Eagle, and don't forget what we agreed on." The man remained unmoved by Jinxiu's feigned pitifulness, his voice still cold: "And you two, hurry up and get that matter done!"

The green willows bowed their heads, looking at the miasma rising from their hands.

The ninth floor of the Yin-Yang Palace is where the Imperial Preceptor secluded himself for training.

The deputy hall master passed through the water-like formation, and the national advisor, dressed in a yin-yang robe, sat cross-legged with his back to the deputy hall master.

The deputy hall master first bowed respectfully to the Grand Preceptor's back, and then recounted the two cases of the day in detail.

"Another Onmyoji?" The Imperial Advisor's voice was somewhat hoarse.

"This humble servant cannot confirm whether the Onmyoji who colluded with the Four Seasons Master on the street is the same Onmyoji who destroyed souls at the South Gate!"

"If we add the Onmyoji behind Bai Jueming, then there are three Onmyoji!" The deputy hall master's tone was unusually anxious.

After speaking, a wisp of black soul power slowly appeared in the deputy hall master's hand: "Grand Preceptor, this is a remnant soul collected from the dead soldiers."

The Imperial Preceptor remained silent for a moment, then gently raised his left hand, and the wisp of soul power in the Vice Hall Master's hand slowly flew into his own. With a wave of his right hand, hundreds of soul lamps appeared before him.

Every Onmyoji will dedicate a wisp of their soul power to create a soul lamp for the management of the Onmyo Palace. If an Onmyoji commits evil, the soul lamp can be used to locate the perpetrator. Furthermore, when an Onmyoji dies, their soul lamp will go out, symbolizing the extinguishing of the lamp upon death, allowing the Onmyo Palace to immediately know where the problem lies.

The bases of the soul lamps were made of bronze, with red flames dancing on them, some no bigger than sesame seeds. Bai Jueming belonged to this category. The largest one was the Imperial Preceptor's own soul lamp, with flames the size of a fist.

The red flames cast flickering light on the deputy hall master's mask as he intently watched the Grand Preceptor test the wisp of remnant soul on the soul lamps. It failed to merge into any of them, indicating that the Onmyoji who destroyed the soul did not belong to anyone in the Onmyoji Hall.

Then the Imperial Preceptor took the initiative to send each wisp of remnant soul into the soul lamp. When it came to Bai Jueming's lamp, the Deputy Hall Master's eyes, hidden behind his mask, were fixed on that soul lamp.

If that wisp of remnant soul did not separate on its own, then it means that it was Bai Jueming who was instructed by the Yin-Yang Master who destroyed the soul!