Imperial henchmen? My divine skills are all hacked versions.

After killing four people, the enemy's Body Tempering Realm assassins completely collapsed. The few who were still standing began to retreat, and some dropped their knives and ran away.

Their numbers were already fewer than those of the combined forces of the Inspection Division, and with Xu Xian, who specialized in eliminating lower-ranking soldiers, they were even less likely to win.

Helan Heng, the only survivor, was locked in combat with Commander Lu. Seeing his men lying dead on the ground and half of them fleeing, a flicker of panic crossed his eyes. He forced Commander Feng back with a single slash, shouted "Retreat!" to the remaining assassins, and led the way into the dense forest.

"He Lan, you son of a bitch, stop right there!"

Old Lu shouted and led his men to give chase. Xu Xian withdrew his palm, picked up his goose-feather saber, turned around and walked up to Yang Xu.

"Why are you here?" Yang Xu asked, clutching his left arm and leaning against the wall.

"After you left, something suddenly occurred to me. The fact that the other side knew my whereabouts and wanted to assassinate me means they were probably keeping an eye on the Investigation Department and could have laid an ambush in Jingzhou in advance..."

"So I went to Lord Mo and asked for thirty men to come after us. Luckily... if we had arrived a little later, we would have been celebrating your one-month birthday next year."

"Get lost..."

Yang Xu cursed silently, glanced down at the pile of assassin corpses that Xu Xian had swatted away, then looked up at him.

"You, a mere third-level Body Tempering cultivator, managed to kill four mid-stage Body Tempering cultivators on this battlefield and only suffered minor injuries. Where did you learn that palm technique?"

Xu Xian helped Yang Xu up, grinned, and said, "My adoptive father taught me all this haphazardly, I just hit him randomly."

Yang Xu's lips twitched, but he didn't press the matter.

Of course, he didn't believe such nonsense as the old official's foster father. How could a minor official in a border town teach such a palm technique?

But he didn't ask any more questions.

Because he remembered Mo Feichang's instructions, "When using Xu Xian, don't ask too many questions. It doesn't matter where his skills come from, what matters is where he uses them."

Commander Feng sheathed his weapon, clasped his hands in a fist salute to Xu Xian,

"These assassins are ruthless and their origins are unknown; there's not a trace of their weapons."

But at that moment, a figure flew in, cursing and swearing.

"Damn it, Helan got away. That bastard has fought me so many times, he's become incredibly slippery. I really don't know why he got involved..."

He Lanheng had been imprisoned in the Investigation Department ten years ago and was a wanted criminal.

  

As a result, one day last year, he suddenly injured a group of guards and escaped. Lu Jing, who was supposed to be on duty that day, went to Taibai Tower to drink and have fun, which delayed important matters.

Therefore, he was demoted to the rank of commander of a thousand households.

As he spoke, he looked at the corpses lying scattered about.

"Damn it, the four people who died under Xu Xiaoqi's palm were all killed with a single blow, their sternums shattered and their internal organs crushed. This kind of palm force is not something that a Body Tempering Realm cultivator can produce. In my opinion, it won't be long before the Chief Commander gets another Thousand-Household Commander."

"A thousand households?"

Commander Feng stroked his chin, a smile playing on his lips, "Old Lu, what were you doing when you were twenty? Still learning swordsmanship from your master, weren't you?"

"I reached the second level of Body Tempering at twenty; I'm a late bloomer!"

Lu Jingqian chuckled, "This young magistrate is only twenty years old. He can take down a fourth-level Body Tempering cultivator with a single palm strike. If my master were still alive, he would probably be nagging me for three days straight and spitting in my face. Luckily, the old man is nowhere to be found..."

The Black Cavalry Guards turned the Jingzhou post station upside down.

Liu Shan led his men to search from the woodshed to the stable, from the stable to the attic, and even poked through the stove chimney.

When he searched the wall behind the postmaster's bedroom, he lost his footing and fell into a large hole with a thud, raising a cloud of dust.

Holy crap!

"Old Liu, are you hard yet?!" The Black Cavalry Guard above shouted down from the cave entrance.

"fine!"

Liu Shan got up from the ground, spat out two mouthfuls of mud, and held up the torch to look around.

Below is a secret passage, not long, at the end of which is a half-open wooden door.

He drew his sword and used the tip to push open the door, and a sour, foul smell wafted out.

The torchlight illuminated the space behind the door, a cellar about ten feet square, with dozens of empty silver chests piled in the corner and an abandoned transport wagon parked against the wall.

There was a Ministry of Revenue mark that had been scratched off on the car body. It was done hastily, but the outline of the Ministry of Revenue official seal could still be vaguely seen.

Several tiny, rice-grain-sized Gu worm corpses lay scattered on the ground, their bodies shriveled and dark red.

Liu Shan squatted down and poked at the insect corpse with the tip of his knife. The surface of the insect corpse had a layer of fine silver powder, which reflected a grayish-white matte light under the firelight.

He stood up and shouted towards the cave entrance, "Go and fetch Xu Xiaoqi! There's something in the cellar!"

...

Xu Xian squatted in the cellar and turned an empty silver box upside down.

The bottom of the box is engraved with the four characters "Jingxi Customs", and there is also a serial number and the year of casting next to it.

The boxes still bear the dents left by the silver ingots. Each box contained five thousand taels of silver, with the ingots neatly stacked. Over time, the bottom of the boxes was pressed into regular square dents.

These dents are very new; the wood shavings haven't oxidized and turned black yet.

However, a fine layer of silver powder adhered to the dent, giving it a matte finish in the firelight.

Xu Xian picked up a bit of silver powder, rubbed it between his fingertips, and smelled it. There was a faint sour and rotten smell, which reminded him of the smell he had when examining corpses poisoned by Gu in the Iron Gate Pass mortuary.

He put down the silver powder, picked up the scattered corpses of Gu worms on the ground, wrapped them in oil paper, and stuffed them into his bosom.

"The tax silver was melted down, not into ingots to be resold, but directly corroded into powder..."

Xu Xian stood up and dusted off his hands. "Combined with the corpses of the Gu worms on the ground, it can be basically confirmed that a Gu Master was involved in this."

Yang Xu poked half his body into the cellar entrance, the firelight casting his face in half-light and half-shadow. "A Gu Master? Is he in cahoots with the one from Iron Gate Pass?"

"I'm not sure, but the methods are the same, both following the Southern Region's Gu Dao (a type of poisonous insect cultivation) style."

Xu Xian kicked an empty silver box at his feet. "What does a Gu Master need so much silver for? That's the real question."

Yang Xu jumped down from the ladder, walked to the abandoned carriage, bent down to look at the Ministry of Revenue insignia that had been scratched off the carriage, then looked at the pile of empty silver chests in the corner, his brows furrowing.

"These boxes together could hold at least tens of thousands of taels of silver. If a Gu Master took them, and this gets out, the civil officials in the court will tear the roof off the Inspection Department."

"more than."

Xu Xian looked around the cellar. "These were intercepted by a post station in Jingzhou. The Jingzhou post station had been stationed on the transportation line for three years, handling at least three million taels of tax in those three years. These dozens of empty boxes in the cellar are just one batch."

"Where did the rest of the silver go? And where is the box? Besides, all the old people at the post station are gone; they've all been transferred away."

Yang Xu remained silent for a few moments, then slammed his fist on the carriage shaft. "Damn it, that was tough!"

Yang Xu had all the empty silver chests moved out of the cellar and loaded onto the carriage, and the abandoned transport carriage was also taken away.

The remaining situation at the post station was taken over by the local garrison that arrived later.

...

Meanwhile, in a secluded courtyard, the main house was unfurnished, with only a few long tables.

There were more than a dozen earthenware jars on the table, each filled with half a jar of dark red, viscous liquid. Occasionally, a bubble would rise to the surface of the liquid, pop with a "pop," and splash out a few silvery droplets.

A handsome man sat at the end of the long table, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his fingers long and slender.

He picked up a tiny silver Gu worm, no bigger than a grain of rice, from the wooden box beside him. The worm wriggled on his fingertip and kicked wildly in the air.

He used bamboo tweezers to pick up the insect and put it into the bowl of silver liquid in front of him. Tiny bubbles rose to the surface of the liquid, and the insect struggled a few times before becoming still. After the liquid had been mostly drained, the insect's abdomen swelled up.

He picked out the worm and threw it into the bowl of purple liquid next to him. The worm sank to the bottom of the liquid, and after a few breaths, a faint golden luster began to emanate from its body.

The man smiled slightly, scooped the insect out of the box and put it back in the wooden box, then took out a new one from the box.

Behind him were dozens of empty silver boxes, with the words "Jingxi Customs" engraved on the bottom.

From the side room deep in the courtyard, the faint sound of chains dragging on the ground and low sobbing could be heard.