Imperial henchmen? My divine skills are all hacked versions.

As the group walked back to the Inspection Department, Yang Xu's bandage on his left arm began to bleed again. He kept walking, re-bandaging the bandage while muttering curses under his breath.

"Tsk... I'll go back and tell Si Zheng I'm never going on a mission with you again. Damn it, I've been with you for two months, and I've suffered more injuries than I've in the first half of my life. Xu Xian, are you my nemesis?"

Xu Xian chuckled lightly, "You're talking as if I wasn't injured. I'm a victim too. If you say that again, Shang K won't include you next time!"

Yang Xu's body stiffened. "Tsk...look at you, taking it seriously again. I was just joking..."

Just then, a delicate shout suddenly came from the sky.

The voice seemed to come from a very distant place, yet it was so clear that it felt as if it were being shouted right next to your ear.

Xu Xian suddenly looked up and saw a huge crimson figure appear on the distant horizon.

It was a fox, entirely crimson, with fur like flames, and seven tails slowly swaying behind it.

Its size was unbelievable. Xu Xian roughly estimated that it was at least a hundred feet tall, taller than the city wall of Qingzhou.

While Xu Xian was still in shock, an ancient seal suddenly appeared out of thin air in the sky opposite the fox.

The seal is entirely black, with a mythical beast whose face is obscured on the knob, and dense seal characters engraved on the seal face.

White mist emanated from around the seal, swirling and solidifying in the air, gradually transforming into a giant that was also a hundred feet tall.

The giant wore a scholar's cap and held a bamboo scroll. His face was blurred, but his temperament was gentle. He was exactly the same as the young man that Xu Xian had seen in the space of the monument of good deeds.

"It's a Confucian seal!"

Jun Jingyan looked up at the giant figure, and for the first time, she showed obvious emotional fluctuations.

Wang Yanni's pupils constricted sharply. "A powerful demon at the Venerable Realm! Why would it appear in Qingzhou territory?!"

The giant's voice was loud and peaceful, "As a descendant of the old friend of Yuandan Mountain, the Confucian seal cannot be given to you. I advise you, young friend, to take care of yourself and not to get entangled, lest you damage your true nature."

The fox sneered, and the sound of its laughter shook the ground beneath Xu Xian's feet.

Its seven tails twitched simultaneously, creating seven crimson whirlwinds that slammed into the large seal from seven directions at the same time.

The giant tossed the bamboo slip in his hand into the air.

The bamboo slips scattered, transforming into countless glowing bamboo pieces that formed a ring in the sky.

He spoke the truth.

"Defend, Stabilize, Wind, Collapse, Break, Thunder!"

As the word "御" (Yu) was uttered, an invisible barrier blocked the powerful attack of the seven-tailed fox, and a crimson whirlwind exploded, igniting a sky full of flames...

As the word "fixed" was uttered, the seven tails froze in mid-air. A bright red light shone from the fox's body, and after a moment, it broke free from its restraints...

As soon as the word "wind" was uttered, the world changed color, and an unnamed gale rose from the ground. Xu Xian subconsciously raised his arm to shield his eyes.

As the gale passed, the fox in the eye of the storm had its fur torn open and blood splattered out. The blood dripped into the forest below where the academy was located, and the trees sprouted new branches and buds like crazy, growing several times their original height in just a few breaths.

The last "thunder" character fell.

Six bolts of lightning, each several meters thick, descended from the sky and struck the fox, causing it to let out a mournful scream.

Just as the seventh bolt of lightning was about to strike, an oval phantom suddenly appeared out of thin air above the fox's head. The phantom had intricate patterns on it, with layers upon layers of patterns. Xu Xian stared at the phantom for a moment, and just as he was about to concentrate on taking a closer look, the phantom and the fox had already disappeared.

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The lightning struck empty air, leaving a charred crater in the ground.

A few breaths later, the figure of the Confucian giant slowly dissipated, and the seal transformed into a stream of light and fell back towards the academy.

The sky returned to calm, with only the charred, still-smoking crater in the forest below proving that what had just happened was indeed true.

Xu Xian stood there in silence for a long time. He had seen that young man in the Goodness Stele space. At the time, he only thought that the other party was a vague preacher. He did not expect that the real body was so strong.

If I had known this would happen, I would never have dared to lose my temper and kick someone's teapot away.

Yang Xu got up from the ground, brushed the dirt off his knees, and his voice was a little unsteady.

"What was that big seal just now? And who was that giant who was talking?"

"The Confucian seal is a supreme treasure of Confucianism. What just spoke was a divine thought left in the Confucian seal by three generations of sages."

Jun Jingyan held the bamboo slip in her hand, her voice already calm.

"Lord Wang, you just said you've seen portraits of three sages?"

Xu Xian frowned slightly, twirling his beard; he was thinking about something else:

The Confucian master's statement, "The Confucian seal is not for you," indicates that the fox is there to steal it.

What is the origin of that fox? Why did it appear in Qingzhou just when the investigation into the Cold Iron Case was halfway through?

And that last oval silhouette, that pattern... I feel like I've seen it somewhere before.

However, the world of the big shots was too far removed from his own, so he immediately withdrew his gaze and continued walking forward.

"Let's go. The big shots' battle has nothing to do with us. The most important thing is to see if the brothers have found the caravan's whereabouts."

The group returned to the Inspection Office, where the Chief Officer of the Qingzhou Inspection Office, surnamed Zheng, was a capable man in his thirties who had been waiting in the office for almost half an hour.

Seeing Wang Yanni lead Xu Xian and his group in, he stood up from his chair and clasped his hands in a salute. "Lord Wang, Xu Xiaoqi, we have news about the Sun Quan caravan you asked us to investigate."

"Speak," Xu said, pulling up a chair and sitting down.

"Sun Quan's caravan crossed the border five days ago and headed towards the Di Kingdom. The border guard inspected the passage, found that the paperwork was complete, and had been approved by the Sima Mansion. They were allowed to pass without any obstruction."

"In addition, in recent years, Sun Quan's caravan has been regularly traveling between Di State and Qingzhou, making a trip every ten days or half a month. Each time they leave the pass, they are loaded with goods, and when they return, they bring back some grassland specialties such as furs and medicinal herbs. The quantity is not large, which should be to cover up their true intentions."

"Using cold iron to collude with the enemy..."

Xu Xian sneered.

"Is Sun Buhai just tired of living such a comfortable life... He's a Sima of Qingzhou, a fifth-rank official, second only to the emperor in Qingzhou. Is it really worth risking his life for money?"

"Sun Buhai is dead, this connection is completely severed..."

Yang Xu leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples. "The caravan surnamed Sun ran away five days ago. It's too late to catch them now. We've found out where the cold iron went and who handled the interception. It all points to Sun Buhai, but he's dead. How do we investigate next?"

Xu Xian remained silent for a while, then turned to Wang Yanni.

"Lord Wang, can you find out the location of that 'Hao Zai Lai' gang you mentioned? If we can catch the butcher, we might be able to get some information out of him."

"Absolutely impossible."

Wang Yanni shook her head.

"Nobody knows where Good Comes is; to be precise, they don't have a base at all!"

"The hitmen from Good Hope are ordinary people in their daily lives. They are butchers who sell meat, street vendors who sell sesame cakes, storytellers in teahouses. Anyone you meet on the street could be a member of Good Hope."

"When they're not taking jobs, they're just ordinary people. When they do take jobs, they become hitmen. After they're done, they go back to being ordinary people. They can't be caught or traced."

"Moreover, the rule of Haozailai is to take on jobs without leaving any survivors. This time, they lost three people at the Meridian Opening Realm and several at the peak of Body Tempering Realm. This feud is now established, and they will not let it go."

"I know I'll come again..."

Yang Xu took over the conversation.

"One year, they took on a job in the capital to kill a retired old general. Lord Mo personally led a team to capture him. They caught one of the assassins at the city gate and captured him alive. But just as they were about to interrogate him, the man turned into an idiot..."

"It's not an act, he's genuinely stupid. He can't even say his own name. Master Mo said it's a Confucian taboo against speech. The mastermind behind Haozailai hired a Confucian master to cast a silencing spell on every official member. If someone is captured alive and tries to confess, the silencing spell will be triggered, turning them into an idiot. So it's no use capturing him; we can't get anything out of him."

Xu Xian tugged at his beard, feeling a bit weary. The world was far more complex than he had imagined.

He sighed and looked at Wang Yanni, "In that case, Lord Wang, please write to the Chief Justice and report the facts, saying that we are powerless to help."

Yang Xu was taken aback. "Aren't you going back to Beijing to report it yourself?"

"My injury hasn't healed yet..."

Xu first moved his right shoulder.

"Besides, I'm really tired from traveling around these past few days. Since the first day I arrived in Qingzhou, I've either been investigating cases or being hunted down. I want to rest. Tomorrow I'll take Huaxi around and give myself a break."

"Tsk...it's time to take a break."

Yang Xu pulled the bandage up a bit. "When we get back, I'll formally request that I stop playing with you. It's too dangerous following you around; we're either being chased or on our way to be chased..."

"The assassins of Qinglang Forest, the killers of the pastry shops in the capital, the seductive women of Taibai Tower, the ambushers at Jingzhou Post Station, the Gu masters in the dyehouse, the butchers of the Sima Mansion..."

"I've never seen a junior officer like you, getting ambushed every day. I haven't had a full night's sleep in days. Look at my eye bags, they're practically drooping down to my chin."

"Is that so..."

Xu Xian glanced at him. "I was thinking of taking you to experience the local shopping malls in Qingzhou tomorrow, but unfortunately, Commander Yang doesn't want to play with me anymore..."

Yang Xu's body stiffened, then he chuckled, "Tsk... What are you saying, Lord Xu? I was just joking. Look at you, acting impulsively again..."