Volume 3, Chapter 325 – Could It Be Her?

Chi Xiyan left in a daze.

After she was gone, Wei Qingyu strolled in with a quiet click of her tongue.

“Little Xiyan does not look well.”

“It seems you rattled her, Master Chi.”

Chi Jingwen’s expression did not change much in the face of Wei Qingyu’s teasing.

He said simply, “I did not rattle her. She rattled herself.”

“Hm.” Wei Qingyu laughed lightly. “I am a little curious.”

“What kind of aphrodisiac is it, that even Xiyan could not prepare an antidote for?”

“And how exactly was the toxin on Muxue purified?”

Chi Jingwen gave her a cold look. “Inspector Wei has quite the appetite for curiosity. Eavesdropping on a family’s private affairs does not seem like the conduct of a Demon Suppression Bureau inspector.”

“Or perhaps.” Chi Jingwen’s tone shifted. “This too is an order from the Empress?”

Tsk. That old fox.

Wei Qingyu cursed him inwardly.

But it was indeed the Empress’s order. She had no choice but to follow through.

She had not understood the instructions before. But after learning that the Empress intended to make a southern tour to select a consort, she suspected the Empress had her eye on someone from the Chi family.

The attention the Empress was paying to the Chi family had become unusual.

But Chi Xiyan had been the Young Sect Master of Lingxiao Sword Sect’s betrothed.

Even though the engagement banquet had been disrupted, neither Lingxiao Sword Sect nor the Chi family had formally announced the dissolution of the engagement.

In name, Chi Xiyan was still someone else’s fiancee.

Wei Qingyu suddenly felt a prickling along her scalp.

The Chi family’s situation was like a pool of murky water.

Who could say how many strange creatures were lurking beneath the surface, waiting to strike.

Wei Qingyu shook her head.

Never mind. None of this has anything to do with me. All I have to do is follow the Empress’s orders.

Be a detached instrument of intelligence gathering.

Whatever happens after that is the Empress’s problem. Nothing to do with me.

With that thought, the knot in her brow eased.

“As a woman, it is natural to be a little more sensitive about things like this.”

Chi Jingwen glanced at her but did not bother unpicking her roundabout reasoning.

He said, “Xiyan is not the only pill cultivator the Chi family has.”

“Xiyan has extraordinary talent in pill cultivation. But she is still young.”

“In that discipline, beyond talent, what matters most is accumulated experience. That child still has a great deal of room to grow.”

“The Chi family has long maintained good relations with Medical Immortal Valley. We know no small number of pill cultivators.”

“And yet the fact of the matter is that not a single one of them could analyze the composition of this toxin.”

Wei Qingyu’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean? Even Medical Immortal Valley could not identify it?”

“That is right.” Chi Jingwen said. “According to them, this toxin is almost like… something that does not belong to this era.”

Wei Qingyu went quiet.

She was beginning to feel that the Chi family’s affairs might be far more complicated than she had imagined.

Still, for now, the situation remained within Chi Jingwen’s control.

But there was one thing she could not make sense of.

“Was last night’s incident truly the work of Lingxiao Sword Sect?”

Chi Jingwen had driven Lingxiao Sword Sect away with a mountain of evidence, yet had turned around and dealt a heavy punishment to Chi Muxue’s handmaid.

Chi Jingwen was quiet for a moment. He let out a sigh. “Is that something the Empress wishes to know as well?”

Wei Qingyu’s eye twitched. “I am only asking in passing. This is a matter between the Chi family and Lingxiao Sword Sect. It is not my place to involve myself.”

“My being here at all was only to repay yesterday’s debt.”

Chi Jingwen offered no opinion on the reason Wei Qingyu gave.

And Wei Qingyu could not tell whether he believed her or not.

After a long silence, Chi Jingwen let out a quiet sigh.

“Inspector Wei, you saw everything that happened today.”

“Every piece of evidence pointed to Lingxiao Sword Sect. Mountains of it.”

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Wei Qingyu’s brow furrowed. “And yet it seems to me that you do not actually believe it was Lingxiao Sword Sect’s doing. Why?”

Chi Jingwen did not answer directly. He looked out toward the courtyard.

“Inspector Wei. Come with me.”

Wei Qingyu did not understand, but she followed him out regardless.

The two of them made their way to a courtyard.

On the ground, traces of blood still remained.

Chi Jingwen said, “This is where things happened to Muxue.”

Wei Qingyu looked surprised. “This is the scene?”

He had brought her here to examine it again?

Wei Qingyu considered for a moment, then stepped inside.

The courtyard had not been cleaned. Everything remained exactly as it had been when the incident occurred.

The blood on the ground. The shattered porcelain inside the room. The closed doors and windows. All of it unchanged.

Wei Qingyu walked through it briefly and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Then she noticed Chi Jingwen move to stand at the center of the courtyard.

He turned slightly and said, “Look. This is where the guard was struck.”

“The courtyard gate is over there.”

“The direction the guard was facing was this way.”

“At the time, he heard movement in the flower beds and was preparing to go and investigate.”

Wei Qingyu did not understand at first what Chi Jingwen was doing. But after looking for a moment, she suddenly realized.

She scanned left and right.

“The guard was struck at this position. The distance to the room and the distance to the courtyard gate are nearly the same.”

“He would have had no way to determine which direction the attacker came from.”

“A very deliberate position.”

Wei Qingyu’s gaze sharpened. She turned to look at Chi Jingwen.

“You think it was not Song Shixuan? But the sword wound on that guard did carry Lingxiao Sword Sect’s sword qi. That cannot be fabricated.”

“If not Song Shixuan, then who? The guard who was attacked was a Fourth Realm martial artist. Among the Lingxiao sword cultivators capable of dropping a Fourth Realm martial artist in a single strike, without giving him any chance to react, there are only two. Lu Guan and Song Shixuan.”

“Lu Guan has witnesses placing him elsewhere. That leaves only Song Shixuan.”

Chi Jingwen shook his head. “Inspector Wei, you have fallen into a false assumption.”

“That guard was deliberately drawn to this specific position.”

“If the attacker had been Song Shixuan, there would have been no reason to go to that trouble.”

Wei Qingyu raised an eyebrow.

She tried to imagine it. If she were Song Shixuan and wanted to get past the courtyard guard and into the room, what would she need to do?

Then a flicker of surprise moved through her eyes.

“If it were Song Shixuan… he would not have needed to bother. He was the Chi family’s prospective son-in-law. The guards would not have been particularly wary of him.”

“All he would have needed to do was get close. Whether he used a sedative to incapacitate the guard, or simply drew his sword and struck from behind, either would have worked.”

“There would have been no need to deliberately lure the guard away from the door.”

“And if he feared being identified, he could have simply silenced him.”

Wei Qingyu’s eyes lit up. “Then the purpose of luring the guard away from the room’s entrance to the side of the courtyard was…”

Chi Jingwen finished what she was about to say. “To conceal the attacker’s true position.”

Wei Qingyu let out a wry smile. “But all of this is conjecture. It does not constitute evidence.”

“And Lingxiao Sword Sect’s sword qi is evidence that cannot be fabricated.”

“Besides, the theory about concealing the attacker’s position does not hold up either. The attacker could only have entered through the courtyard gate, could they not?”

Then, suddenly, an expression of shock crossed Wei Qingyu’s face. She understood the real meaning behind what Chi Jingwen had said.

“Family Head Chi’s meaning is that the attacker did not come from outside the courtyard at all. They were already inside.”

The guard had been watching the room, with his back to the door.

If the attacker had been inside the room, striking him from behind would have been simple.

If Chi Jingwen’s theory was correct, then whoever it was had gone through this elaborate detour for one reason.

Wei Qingyu’s brow furrowed deeply. She walked quickly toward the room.

Chi Jingwen said, “It has all been checked. The doors and windows show no sign of having been forced.”

“The room is protected by a technique. Unless the attacker was also a skilled formation master, there would have been no way to slip inside directly.”

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Wei Qingyu said with disbelief, “If that is so… then according to Family Head Chi’s reasoning, there is only one person who could be considered a suspect.”

“But… how could that be possible?”

Chi Jingwen lowered his gaze slightly and let out a quiet sigh. “Yes. How could it be possible?”

If his suspicion was correct, it would be extraordinary beyond imagining.

Wei Qingyu kept shaking her head. “I still lean toward it being Song Shixuan. I have heard the man’s reputation.”

“Lingxiao Sword Sect has always been overbearing. Nothing they do would surprise anyone.”

“He lured the guard away, cut him down, and left him alive. That was to mislead us into thinking he had been framed.”

“There is only one thing I cannot work out.” Wei Qingyu pressed on. “What was his motive? Did he simply find Chi Muxue beautiful and lose control of himself?”

“But what benefit was there in forcibly taking Chi Muxue at Xiyan’s engagement banquet? Was he really letting the lesser head think for the greater one?”

“The Young Sect Master of Lingxiao Sword Sect… surely he is not so lacking as that.”

“There would have to be a reason worth doing something like this for.”

Chi Jingwen’s expression remained unchanged.

Listening to Wei Qingyu’s low musing, something stirred in his chest.

He had no evidence to prove it had not been Song Shixuan.

But what was almost laughable was that he did know a reason Song Shixuan might have done exactly this.

Chi Muxue.

***

At that moment, in Song Shutao’s room.

Lu Guan’s face was still dark with fury.

“Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable!”

“Does Chi Jingwen actually want to make a full enemy of Lingxiao Sword Sect?!”

“And he had the nerve to use the Demon Suppression Bureau against me!”

“Ha!”

Song Shutao sat on her bed and listened to Lu Guan’s complaints in silence, head lowered, not saying a word.

Her hands were moving without thinking, rubbing the tips of her fingers together.

She had washed her hands when she returned. But that faint trace of dark red seemed branded into her memory.

Every time she raised her hands, she could not stop herself from thinking of that girl. From remembering what had been left on her fingertips.

Song Shutao bit her lip, trying to drive that girl’s face from her mind.

It was useless. The more she tried to forget, the more that face surfaced, unbidden, with perfect clarity. The sound of her voice. The look in her eyes.

The sweetness of last night lingered in her mouth like something she could not spit out.

That forbidden experience sent the blood rushing through her.

Song Shutao bit down harder on her lip, despising herself.

Lu Guan ranted for a while longer, then turned and saw the wretched state Song Shutao was in. Fresh irritation flared inside him.

“Junior Brother Song.” Lu Guan said. “I do not understand. Why did you do it?”

“That woman called Chi Muxue. Does she really have that much of a hold over you?”

Song Shutao startled, then let a defeated, bitter smile cross her face.

Yes. Did that woman really have that much of a hold over her? Even now that it was all over, she still could not drive her from her thoughts.

Song Shutao kept her head down, pressing her fingers hard into her own palm.

As if she wanted to dig out the flesh entirely.

“Hm.” Lu Guan let out a cold laugh. “Lingxiao Sword Sect came out of today looking like fools.”

He shot Song Shutao a look of contempt. “And you. How could you fall into such an obvious trap?”

“The Chi family clearly had bad intentions from the start!”

“That Chi Muxue is nothing but a seductress.”

“The Chi family put her there deliberately, to reel you in!”

“Once you took the bait, they used it to slander you and drag Lingxiao Sword Sect’s name through the mud.”

“Chi Jingwen. That old fox!”

“All it cost them was one expendable second daughter, and they managed to dissolve the engagement between your families and dump every drop of blame onto Lingxiao Sword Sect. What a scheme!”

“Is the Chi family in such a rush to break with the Song family because they have found a new patron?”

“Or are the rumors that have been going around actually true?”

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Lu Guan went on cursing.

Song Shutao listened, her eyes distant and unfocused.

Had Chi Muxue been deliberately trying to seduce her?

That girl. Her gift was extraordinary.

The Sword Saint’s constitution. The reincarnation of the Sword Venerable.

Would she really need to resort to something like that?

With someone like her, the Chi family might genuinely want to be rid of the Song family.

But not by sacrificing Chi Muxue.

That makes no sense.

“It was not Chi Muxue.” Song Shutao said weakly. “The Chi family would not sacrifice her for something like this.”

“Why are you still defending that seductress?” Lu Guan’s temper flared. “Junior Brother Song. I know you have exceptional talent and sharp judgment. But your ability to read women is simply terrible!”

“You are far too easily taken in by them. That is your weakness.”

“No, that is not it.” Song Shutao gave a hollow laugh. “She did not take me in.”

It was Song Shutao herself who had not held firm. Her own will that had wavered.

Lu Guan’s expression went cold. “Junior Brother Song. You spent one night with her and actually fell for her? How are you still thinking about her even now?”

“Mm…” Song Shutao looked as though something had struck her in a tender spot. Her breath caught.

He was not entirely wrong.

After that one night with that girl, she genuinely could not stop thinking about her.

“Ha!” Lu Guan felt as though he might die of frustration at this useless junior of his.

From the look on her face, she was clearly thinking about that seductress again.

“She is nothing more than an irrelevant second daughter.”

“Once you marry Chi Xiyan, according to the Sect Master’s plan, the entire Chi family falls into our hands. By then, whether it is the third daughter or the fourth, you can have whoever you like.”

“Why the hurry?”

“And that Chi Xiyan. The Chi family asked me for an accounting, and I offered to have you take Chi Muxue as a concubine. She refused.”

“She has absolutely no regard for Lingxiao Sword Sect.”

Taking Chi Muxue as a concubine?

Song Shutao smiled bitterly. What a shameless demand. Of course the Chi family would never agree to that.

“She is just a village girl who has not even begun cultivating yet. What happened, happened.”

“The Chi family is simply using her as a pretext to stir up trouble.”

“Insufferable!”

“I should simply find an opportunity and run her through with a sword.”

Hearing the murderous intent in Lu Guan’s words, Song Shutao jolted sharply.

“No! You cannot kill her.”

Lu Guan looked at Song Shutao with annoyance. “She is just a seductress. Why not?”

Song Shutao said tightly, “If something happens to her, the Chi family and the Song family are finished. Truly finished.”

“The Chi family will come for us with everything they have over her.”

Song Shutao thought of that night when Chi Xiyan had come to find her.

Chi Xiyan had been willing to stake her own marriage to secure Chi Muxue’s place as a disciple under Immortal Venerable Qingzhi.

Song Shutao did not dare imagine what would happen if Chi Muxue truly died at Lu Guan’s hand.

She pressed on. “If Lingxiao Sword Sect still does not want to make a complete enemy of the Chi family, then Chi Muxue cannot be touched. Not under any circumstances.”

“The stakes involved are too great.”

Lu Guan’s brow furrowed.

Song Shutao’s gravity and earnestness had caught him off guard.

Song Shixuan had become the Young Sect Master of Lingxiao Sword Sect for good reason. Whatever flaws in conduct he might have, he was no fool.

Lingxiao Sword Sect genuinely could not afford a true falling-out with the Chi family. The cost would outweigh any gain.

Especially now that Lingxiao Sword Sect had lost Immortal Venerable Qingzhi. The last thing they needed was to make more enemies.

Lu Guan’s aggressiveness earlier had been nothing more than posturing, trying to hold as much ground as possible through sheer force of bearing.

Lingxiao Sword Sect had always carried itself with arrogance. A sudden change in attitude would only invite suspicion.

“Chi Muxue is truly that important to the Chi family?” Lu Guan narrowed his eyes at Song Shutao.

“Yes.” Song Shutao nodded heavily.

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For the Song family’s sake, she had to put out the fire in Lu Guan’s mind. “Trust me. Do not touch her.”

“Unless you truly want to declare war on the Chi family.”

Lu Guan thought it over. From Song Shixuan’s expression, he was not joking.

He asked carefully, “Junior Brother Song. Do you know something?”

Song Shutao’s expression stiffened briefly. A bitter curve came to her lips.

Things had gone this far. It was becoming very difficult to keep it hidden.

“Yes. I do know something.”

“Which is why I know how important that girl is to the Chi family.”

She shook her head. “I cannot say the details right now. I need to return to the Song family first and report this to the family head.”

Lu Guan’s face went still.

The fury on it had slowly faded, replaced by something heavier.

“So Chi Muxue has the Sword Saint’s constitution. The reincarnation of the Sword Venerable.”

Hearing those familiar words, Song Shutao’s head snapped up. She stared at Lu Guan in disbelief.

“How do you know that?!”

Lu Guan laughed coldly. “It has already spread throughout the sect!”

Song Shutao’s face went blank.

Lu Guan continued. “Everyone took it as a joke. No one thought it could actually be true!”

Song Shutao opened her mouth. She said nothing. Only smiled, hollow and bitter.

But inside Lu Guan’s chest, a storm had already broken.

“No wonder! No wonder Chi Xiyan looked the way she did!”

“So that is how it is!”

“Junior Brother Song!” Lu Guan looked at her with the exasperation of someone watching iron refuse to become steel. “You knew, and yet you have no idea what opportunity you just threw away!”

“You should have told me sooner!”

“You took her body! She should by rights become a Song family bride!”

“Junior Brother Song, you are usually so sharp-minded. How did you manage to stumble over something like this?!”

Song Shutao stared at Lu Guan blankly. She almost wondered if she had heard him wrong.

Had that not been the exact opposite of what he said just moments ago?

Lu Guan’s brow was knotted. He paced the room back and forth.

“But perhaps it is not too late!”

“There is still a chance!”

“The strategy needs to change!”

“The one who was with you was Chi Muxue, not Chi Xiyan.”

“By every measure of reason and propriety, the Chi family should transfer the marriage contract to Chi Muxue!”

“Yes. That is exactly how it should be!”

Lu Guan muttered to himself.

“Though right now it may not be possible. The position we took was too firm.”

“No wonder Chi Xiyan insisted on declaring Chi Muxue untouched! She was making sure to cut all ties with you cleanly.”

“Insufferable! We were outmaneuvered by the Chi family!”

“No, no, this will not do. We must inform the Sect Master immediately!”

“The Sect Master was injured and has gone into seclusion. Ordinary transmission talismans cannot reach him.”

“I must return to Lingxiao Sword Sect myself. The Sect Master needs to come in person!”

“The Sword Saint’s constitution. A Sword Saint’s constitution!”

Lu Guan repeated it again and again, a gleam of excitement kindling in his eyes.

He turned to Song Shutao. “Junior Brother Song. The implications of this are too far-reaching. We cannot afford to waste a single moment.”

“And we cannot let another sect get there first.”

“Stay here. Keep the Chi family settled.”

He finished speaking and walked out in quick strides.

Leaving Song Shutao behind, alone and motionless.

“Did I… do something wrong?”