Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 100: Investigation

As far as Ding Songyan was concerned, the worst scenario for the stolen luan tree flowers was that the job had been done by an outsider. That would mean they had come with a purpose, had no trouble offloading the goods afterward, and possessed either a clean-looking identity or some other way to pass through the city gates. Two days had already passed. They were most likely long gone by now and would be difficult to find.

"Could it not have been done by some other powerhouse within the prefecture city?" Ding Songyan asked, weighing his words.

Liang Qian shook his head with some certainty.

"Apart from my own lot, no other powerhouse would decide on a whim to rob Dangkang Temple. And Caretaker Zhu’s valuables only arrived in the prefecture city a few days ago, so there’s no way they had already been eying it, unless Caretaker Zhu obtained the item through one of them. But according to Constable Chief Xue, that’s not the case. Caretaker Zhu has his own discreet channels, and the relevant parties are all in Flame Capital."

Zheng Zhuxi pressed her lips together and gave a slight nod. She asked Liang Qian several more questions, then conferred with Ding Songyan and tentatively decided to first look into the powerhouses inside Dangkang Temple.

Ding Songyan turned to Liang Qian and asked with an artlessly amiable smile, "Elder Liang, what is this technique of yours that can actually hear people’s thoughts called?"

Seeing Ding Songyan bold enough to ask outright on the spot, Zheng Zhuxi and Xu Chang’an both perked up their ears to hear what Liang Qian would say.

They were just as curious, only too embarrassed to ask themselves.

With his greatest secret already laid bare, Liang Qian gave a sigh.

"It’s called the Mirror Lake Divine Reflection. It mirrors other people’s sea of consciousness and lets you hear whatever thoughts are moving through it."

"What’s the range?" Ding Songyan pressed.

"At my level, I have to be within four meters to hear anything," Liang Qian answered honestly.

His gaze on Ding Songyan remained strange. He couldn’t fathom how anyone could guard their inner unity to such a degree.

Ding Songyan reined in his urge to probe further and smiled.

"I’ll need to trouble you for a favor shortly, Elder Liang."

"What favor?" Liang Qian was instantly on guard.

Ding Songyan glanced at Zheng Zhuxi.

"Listen in on the thoughts of the powerhouses at Dangkang Temple and help us find the real thief."

At that, Ding Songyan deliberately laughed in a self-deprecatingly manner.

"Senior Sister Zheng and I have no skill at interrogation or coercion. It’s hard to tell whether a suspect is telling the truth. We can’t exactly kill them all and use spirit channeling, can we? Your technique is just what we need."

"Kill them all and use spirit channeling..." Thinking back on the thoughts he had just heard, Liang Qian still felt a chill.

He knew full well that Ding Songyan had done it deliberately to test him, to confirm whether the mind-reading was real, but he still couldn’t help thinking to himself: is this fellow a righteous young hero or a heretic?

Seeing Liang Qian hesitate, Ding Songyan added,

"You won’t need to say anything in the moment; just let Senior Sister Zheng and me know discreetly."

"Very well," Liang Qian agreed without further hesitation.

At his age, he had long since passed the stage of fighting and risking his life. Unless absolutely necessary, he had no desire to make enemies of other powerhouses. He valued keeping the peace above all else.

The group was just rising to leave when two more visitors arrived outside.

One was Cavalry Commander Xing Chang; the other was the traveling Xie Fengchao.

"Heroine Zheng, Young Hero Ding, what brings you here?" Xie Fengchao hadn’t expected to run into familiar faces.

He had met very few people in Dingjiang Prefecture and exchanged more than a few words with even fewer. These two counted as familiar acquaintances.

"We came to ask Elder Liang some questions about the matter of Caretaker Zhu’s lost valuables," Zheng Zhuxi said directly to Xie Fengchao and Xing Chang.

"Caretaker Zhu approached you too?" Xing Chang’s large navel opened and closed, producing a deep, resonant sound.

"All of it is his fortunate opportunity, apparently," Ding Songyan remarked with a touch of irony.

Xing Chang glanced at him and Zheng Zhuxi, then at Xie Fengchao, and seemed to understand something.

Xie Fengchao muttered something, half amused and half irritated. From the shape of his mouth, Ding Songyan suspected the refined young gentleman was cursing, but he had no proof, unless Liang Qian was willing to come forward as a witness.

"Whatever the case, I gave my word, so I’ll see it through." Xing Chang’s two chest-eyes looked left and right. "I also came to ask Liang Qian about this matter."

"As did I." The poised Xie Fengchao gave a resigned sigh.

You’re only just getting here? As expected, nobody knows the local scene like a local. Senior Sister and I had time for a nap and still beat you here... Ding Songyan glanced at Xu Chang’an and gave him an approving nod.

"Go ahead and ask your questions." Zheng Zhuxi gave a slight nod, then turned to Liang Qian with a smile. "We’ll wait for you outside, Elder."

Watching Liang Qian lead Xing Chang and Xie Fengchao into the main room, Zheng Zhuxi turned to Ding Songyan, the corners of her mouth curling in a faint smile.

"Junior Brother, how did you figure out that Liang Qian can hear people’s thoughts?"

The excuses he had fed Liang Qian could be set aside.

Ding Songyan glanced at Xu Chang’an, leaned close to Zheng Zhuxi’s ear, and lowered his voice.

"The Celestial Heart imprint, combined with my own special nature, means my thoughts normally can’t be heard. Liang Qian kept giving me those odd looks, which made me think back to what Xu Chang’an had said about the scheming and hidden intentions among Liang Qian’s own fences were impossible to hide from him. That made me suspicious, so I deliberately opened my mind and thought about killing him and using spirit channeling to test him."

"No wonder he was frightened like that." Zheng Zhuxi understood at once. She turned her head and leaned close to Ding Songyan’s ear in turn, speaking quietly. "I wasn’t thinking about you just now. After you warned me, I kept my thoughts on the matter of Caretaker Zhu, guarding my inner unity while still having to ask questions. It’s genuinely difficult."

"That’s exactly what the Celestial Heart imprint addresses—splitting your mind and spirit in two," Ding Songyan shared the insight with his senior sister.

Standing nearby, Xu Chang’an watched the two of them leaning in close, heads together, whispering to each other. He gradually froze, then felt a pang of feeling he couldn’t quite name.

What a perfect pair they make...

Before long, they sent Xu Chang’an home, and Ding Songyan and Zheng Zhuxi headed for Dangkang Temple with Liang Qian. Having no other leads, Xing Chang and Xie Fengchao, followed along.

At Dangkang Temple, Zheng Zhuxi explained their purpose. Caretaker Zhu didn’t understand why they wanted to redo what Constable Chief Xue had already done, but they were all helping him search for what was lost, so he agreed readily enough.

He had the temple’s steward arrange for all the Great Proliferation Realm personnel—disciples, Elders, and associate members alike—to come to the side courtyard where he lived, in batches, and submit to questioning by Zheng Zhuxi, Xing Chang, and the rest.

Ding Songyan asked about details from time to time, checking whether different people’s accounts contradicted each other.

But he wasn’t being especially thorough. The main goal was to stir up the targets’ thoughts so that Liang Qian, following behind him without drawing notice, could pick up what was running through their minds.

When each batch was done, Liang Qian discreetly shook his head at Zheng Zhuxi and Ding Songyan.

No one is a suspect? Ding Songyan frowned and turned to the steward in charge of bringing people in and out.

"Have all the Great Proliferation Realm members of the temple come through?"

"Not all of them." The steward’s answer was direct. "It’s the end of autumn and the farming doldrums are approaching, so a number of disciples have gone to nearby villages and market towns under the protection of associate members, either to distribute improved seeds or to teach cultivation techniques."

Not everyone is accounted for... Zheng Zhuxi asked, "Did any of them leave within the past two days?"

"Around 12," the steward answered.

After having him compile and hand over the relevant list, Zheng Zhuxi turned to Caretaker Zhu and asked without a trace of discouragement, "Were the alarm protections on the hidden chamber relatively easy to deactivate?"

The answer would help determine the thief’s actual capabilities.

"Yes." Caretaker Zhu could no longer hide his disappointment after all this effort with no result. He sighed and said, "Its main function was to give an alarm and only allow me to enter the hidden chamber. Perhaps it was too simple. The thief bypassed it entirely without triggering it at all. Not deactivated, mind you. Simply not triggered."

Simply not triggered... Ding Songyan and Zheng Zhuxi glanced at each other. Both had a vague sense of grasping something, but couldn’t yet form it into a clear thought.

"Is the ritual protection on the small iron chest both difficult to deactivate and difficult to bypass?" Xie Fengchao pressed.

"Yes." Caretaker Zhu rubbed his protruding belly. "Even I need a fair amount of effort to open it. Sigh, I even had a dream last night. I dreamed that I found the small iron chest, spent the time for a cup of tea opening it, and found the flower inside, safe and unharmed. I can still feel the feeling of relief in that dream."

Such a vivid dream... could it have been real? Ding Songyan raised an eyebrow.

Before he could signal to his senior sister, Zheng Zhuxi, who had been reading the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas frequently these past months, spoke in a grave tone, "Caretaker Zhu, before the flower went missing, did you have any dream where you entered the hidden chamber and took away the small iron chest?"

She had begun to suspect that Caretaker Zhu had been manipulated through a dream, and had sleepwalked to do all the thief’s bidding!

Caretaker Zhu turned stupefied. After several breaths, he said, "That day, during my afternoon nap, I dreamed that someone was coming to steal the flower. I rushed to the hidden chamber, took the iron chest out, handed it to a trusted person, and told him to bring it to the prefecture office for safekeeping. I woke up shortly after. It was just a nap."

"Who was this trusted person?" Xie Fengchao, who had come from Flame Capital and heard of many strange cases, had also made the connection and pressed Caretaker Zhu.

Caretaker Zhu shook his head instinctively.

"How could I see clearly in a dream..."

"Is there anyone in the temple who is skilled in dream-entering arts or something similar?" Ding Songyan stepped forward.

Caretaker Zhu barely needed to think.

"Yes. One of the temple’s associate members—my adopted son, He Luo. He practices the Great Dream of Three Thousand Years.

"No, it couldn’t be him. I saved his life once. He has always been filial, contented, and good-natured, and has done a great deal for the temple over the years. How could it be him?"

"Where is He Luo right now?" Zheng Zhuxi walked slowly toward Caretaker Zhu.

Caretaker Zhu looked to the steward beside him.

The steward thought for a moment.

"He Luo... Yes, he left the city this morning. I’m not sure whether he’s back. Let me ask around."

"If he hasn’t returned, find out which gate he left by and what reason he gave," Zheng Zhuxi added without missing a beat.

Before long, the steward—surnamed Hu—came running back and reported to Zheng Zhuxi, Ding Songyan, and the others,

"He Luo returned not long ago and is resting in his quarters. Shall I go and fetch him?"

He Luo came back? Ding Songyan, Zheng Zhuxi, Xie Fengchao, and Xing Chang all reacted with surprise.

Had they suspected the wrong person, or was this fellow truly brazen enough to think he had done it perfectly?

Zheng Zhuxi considered for a moment.

"Caretaker Zhu, Steward Hu, have everyone else stay away from the quarters.

"We’ll go to He Luo ourselves."