Imperial henchmen? My divine skills are all hacked versions.

Xu Xian and his party traveled day and night to reach Qingzhou, where they saw a row of people in the uniforms of the Inspection Department standing at the city gate.

The leader was a lean man in his forties with high cheekbones, slightly sunken eyes, and a pacification token hanging from his belt.

Behind him stood seven or eight constables from the Inspection Department, all looking exhausted, clearly having been thoroughly worn down by the massacre of his entire family.

Xu Xian dismounted, clasped his hands in greeting, and said, "Lord Wang, I am Xu Xian, a junior officer of the Chief Inspector, here to assist in this case on the orders of Lord Mo."

Wang Yanni took the warrant from Mo Feichang, glanced at it, and then looked Xu Xian up and down—besides being handsome, there wasn't much to say...

Behind him followed a commander with his arm in a sling, and a little girl holding a tortoise, looking around curiously.

"Lord Mo has sent a commander and a junior officer, which shows that he attaches great importance to this case."

Wang Yanni folded the warrant and returned it to Xu Xian, saying polite words as she did so.

"I have already had rooms prepared in the side rooms. Please settle in. The entire Qingzhou Investigation Department is doing its utmost to investigate this case. You can simply assist us from the sidelines."

Yang Xu frowned. "Tsk... Lord Wang..."

Xu lightly stepped on Yang Xu's foot, causing Yang Xu to pause for a second.

Xu Xian clasped his hands in a fist and smiled, "Thank you for your trouble, Lord Wang."

Wang Yanni instructed the constables behind her to lead them to the side room.

After the people from Qingzhou had walked away, Yang Xu pulled the bandage up a bit and asked Xu Xian in a low voice, "Why did you step on me?"

"What are you trying to say?"

"I want to say that we are not here to assist. Lord Mo's warrant clearly states that he has full authority to manage the manpower and case files of the Qingzhou Investigation Division. But he just dismisses us with a single word, 'assist,' clearly looking down on us!"

"It's his business if he looks down on us. We're not responsible to him; we're only responsible for solving the case."

Yang Xu paused for a moment, realizing it made sense, but he was still somewhat unwilling to accept it.

  

"Tsk... How come you're always so calm and collected?"

Xu Xian chuckled lightly, "I learned it from a turtle."

Hua Xi, holding the tortoise, peeked out from behind Xu Xian and asked, "Brother, can I go out to play? I saw someone selling sugar figurines when we passed the city gate."

"Go, but don't go too far. Come back before dark."

"Um!"

Hua Xi hugged the tortoise and ran out.

Watching Hua Xi skip and hop away until she disappeared into the alley, Yang Xu steered the conversation back on track, "So, how do you plan to investigate?"

"First, look through the case files. Go through all the files and see if there are any clues that have been overlooked."

...

The case file room of the Qingzhou Inspection Office was not large. There were two rows of wooden shelves against the wall, which were filled with case files from the past five years.

The case files for the family annihilation case were piled up separately on a long table—the scene investigation records, the coroner's autopsy records, and the interview records of neighbors and colleagues, all of which were no more than half a foot thick.

Mr. Xu sat down at the table and opened the first document.

The investigation record clearly states: Li Shanyu died in the study, his chest pierced by a sharp weapon, killing him instantly.

The weapon is speculated to be a narrow-bladed longsword.

The study's doors and windows were intact, with no signs of forced entry. The perpetrator entered from the front; either they were an acquaintance, or Li Shanyu opened the door voluntarily.

When Xu Xian turned to the autopsy section for the guards, he stopped moving.

Thirty-six corpses were found, including twelve guards who all died from Gu poison. They were weakened by the Gu poison, which greatly reduced their combat power, and they were killed from the front.

Several guards still had their swords in their sheaths, not having had time to draw them.

It's poison again.

Xu Xian's heart sank.

The mission case was a Heart-Eating Gu, the tax silver case was a Silver Gu, and the children case was a Modification Gu. The power that uses Gu is greater than he imagined!

Yang Xu leaned closer to take a look at the autopsy report, his brows furrowing deeply.

"Weren't all the Gu masters wiped out? How come Gu are reappearing in Qingzhou?"

"The world is so big, can you sweep it all clean?"

Mr. Xu placed the autopsy report on the table and pointed to one of the lines of text.

"Li Shanyu's guards are all experts, including four at the Bone Tempering Realm. Their combat power dropped significantly after being infected by the Gu, which means that this Gu is specifically designed to suppress a martial artist's blood and qi. It is not the same type as the one we saw in the capital."

"You mean there's another group of Gu masters?"

"It could also be different branches of the same group... The motives for murder are nothing more than a few: money, revenge, or to silence witnesses!"

"Killing a prefectural governor is tantamount to treason. It has nothing to do with money, and revenge is unlikely. So the most probable reason is—to silence him!"

Xu Xian closed the file and stood up. "That's all the information in the file. Let's go visit the people in the yamen and see what Li Shanyu was doing before he died."

...

Li Shanyu's advisor, surnamed Zhou, was nearly seventy years old and had served by Li Shanyu's side for twenty years.

When Mr. Xu arrived, the old man was sitting in the main room, playing chess alone. There was a cold cup of tea next to the chessboard, and his eyes were lifeless.

After Xu Xian explained his purpose, Zhou, the advisor, put down the chess pieces, invited Xu Xian to sit down, picked up his cup of cold tea, took a sip, and sighed.

"Lord Li is a good man and a good official, but good people always die young."

Mr. Xu nodded. "Mr. Zhou, was there anything unusual about Lord Li before his accident?"

Zhou's advisor remained silent for a long while before speaking.

"On the afternoon of the first three days, the lord went out for a while. When he came back, his face was ashen. He went into his study, smashed a teacup, and cursed, 'These rats dare to steal from the court. They want my hat, they want my head!' I have served the lord for twenty years and have never seen him so angry."

Did he say he stole anything?

"He didn't say. The adults rarely talk to me about the details of official business."

Zhou, the advisor, put down his teacup and wiped the corner of his eye with the back of his hand.

"That night, the adult wrote a very long letter, writing until midnight. The next morning, he had someone send the letter away. I don't know where it was sent. The incident happened on the third night."

His voice grew softer and softer until it was almost a soliloquy.

"If I hadn't gone home to see my sick old woman that day, I would have died there too..."

Xu Xian thought for a moment, then stood up and clasped his hands in a fist salute to Zhou's advisor.

"Thank you, Mr. Zhou. Take care."

...

As they walked out of the Zhou family's gate, Yang Xu followed.

"Li Shanyu said someone stole things from the imperial court and even threatened to kill him. What could have stolen from him that made him so afraid?"

Xu mounted his horse first, tugging at his beard, "We'll talk about it when we get back."

...

The two arrived at the Inspection Department, where Wang Yanni was having dinner set out in the side hall of the public housing. When she saw Xu Xian and Yang Xu return, she waved for them to sit down and eat together.

The meal consisted of three dishes and a soup, all local Qingzhou home-style cooking. Xu Xian picked up his rice bowl, picking at the food as he spoke.

"Li Shanyu said someone was stealing from the imperial court; he was trying to kill him!"

"The only things that could make a third-rank governor fear losing his head if stolen are salt, iron, and military equipment. Military equipment is strictly controlled, and if it's discovered, it's a collective punishment, so no one dares to tamper with it on a large scale..."

"As for salt, Qingzhou doesn't produce salt, so that only leaves... iron!"

Xu Xian looked up through the door at the Jishi Mountain, which was riddled with holes and dug up to the north of Qingzhou City. His voice deepened.

"Qingzhou has the largest cold iron mine in Jingguo. One ton of cold iron ore can only produce about twenty catties of cold iron, and twenty tons of cold iron are needed to produce one catty of elite cold iron..."

He touched his sword. "His Highness said that the finest cold iron is worth ten thousand gold pieces, and that's no exaggeration. This piece alone would be enough for the Qingzhou mines to mine for a year!"

"If someone stole Cold Iron, it could indeed cost Li Shanyu his job, or even his life!"

"But how far did Li Shanyu investigate to warrant the mastermind risking the extermination of an entire clan to wipe out a prefect's family?"

He took a sip of soup, wiped his mouth, and muttered, "The person behind this has connections everywhere..."

Wang Yanni kept watching Xu Xian mutter to himself, her hand holding the bowl suspended in mid-air, the perfunctory look in her eyes fading, replaced by scrutiny.

This junior officer from the capital, upon arriving in Qingzhou, didn't waste time with small talk or put on airs like a high-ranking official. He spent an hour rummaging through the files and interviewing two people, and by then, he had pieced together the entire story clearly.

He had initially assumed Xu Xian was some young master from a wealthy family, there to gain experience and prestige, which was why Yang Xu, a mere commander, was willing to accompany him. He hadn't expected...

"Xu Xiaoqi..."

Wang Yanni put down the bowl, picked up the teapot, and poured Xu Xian a cup of tea.

"I was a bit negligent at the city gate before, please don't take offense. I was biased. You've sorted out the clues so clearly on your first day in Qingzhou, you're really capable. If there's anything you need my cooperation with, just say so."

"Lord Wang, you're too kind. It's only natural, I understand your feelings..."

Xu Xian took the teacup and took a sip. It was so hot it made him wince, but he chuckled.

"This humble servant now requires the production records of the Cold Iron Mine for the past three years, as well as all the signed contracts between the mine and the imperial court..."

Wang Yanni nodded and smiled, "I'll have someone call the Registrar of Household Affairs over first thing tomorrow morning and have him bring you all the records."