Qiao Zhi charged ahead, while Chu Qiguang and Chen Gang hid in the shadows, waiting to ambush.
However, the fox monster was already heavily wounded. Fleeing all this way had drained his stamina and aggravated his injuries, and he could not even employ the human martial arts he excelled at. He was at an absolute disadvantage in every respect.
Watching Qiao Zhi dart back and forth like a bolt of lightning, the fox monster scrambled backward in panic.
Their clash was swift as thunder. Amidst the surging blast of air, the fox monster was defeated in the blink of an eye. As if struck by a giant warhammer, he collapsed to the ground, vomiting blood.
Furious, he rasped, "Orange cat! You are a martial arts expert of the demon race—why collude with humans to slaughter your own kind?"
Across from him, Qiao Zhi strolled leisurely toward the fox monster. "So what if we're both part of the demon race? You're a fox, and I'm a cat. What makes us 'our own kind'?"
Seeing that Qiao Zhi was about to deliver the killing blow, Chu Qiguang immediately stepped out and said, "Wait, I still have questions for him."
Yet the fox suddenly began coughing up mouthfuls of blood. After a few violent spasms, he collapsed into a pool of blood, his eyes wide and unblinking in death.
Surprised, Qiao Zhi walked up and inspected him. "He severed his own heart pulse. That's ruthless."
Puzzled, Qiao Zhi mused, "Was he afraid of leaking a secret? Just what secret could this fox have... to protect it even at the cost of his life?"
***
Early the next morning, the bloody murder of Hao Yongnian sent shockwaves through Qingyang County. The entire county yamen mobilized to thoroughly investigate the grisly case.
Because most of the bodies at the scene were torn limb from limb and drenched in vast amounts of blood, the investigators dubbed it the Bloody Corpse Case.
Yet several days passed with no leads on the Bloody Corpse Case. With the culprit nowhere to be found, the magistrate of Qingyang County wore a face clouded with worry all day long.
The Hao family even offered a bounty of one thousand taels to any brave soul who could capture the murderer.
***
That night, in a study belonging to the Ding family of Qingyang County.
Ding Daoxiao sat behind his desk and looked at Daoist Qingling before him. "Did you bring the goods?"
Daoist Qingling took out a square box and opened it before Ding Daoxiao. "Ten Qi-Benefiting Pills. They bolster qi and blood, helping you reach the peak of qi and blood in the fourth realm all the sooner.
"And a portion of Lion-Tiger Bone-Transforming Ointment. High-ranking masters of White Cloud Temple concocted this from the sinews and bones of tiger and lion monsters alongside thirty-two kinds of herbs, refining it for seven times seven—forty-nine days. A single portion is enough to transform the bones and marrow of your entire body, bringing you to the absolute limit of the fourth realm."
Daoist Qingling closed the box and said languidly, "All together, that will be five thousand taels of silver."
Ding Daoxiao looked at the square box with a mix of greed and heartache. The greed, naturally, was for these top-grade pills that the Heavenly Master Sect never sold to outsiders; the heartache was for his silver.
After all, even with the Ding family's immense wealth and influence, and though Ding Daoxiao, as the eldest direct grandson, had an annual budget of ten thousand taels of silver for martial training, this single purchase wiped out half of it.
Ding Daoxiao couldn't help saying, "Five thousand taels of silver is too steep."
Daoist Qingling snatched the box back in an instant and said coldly, "If not for me, you couldn't buy these pills even for ten thousand taels. Besides, this five thousand taels isn't just for me. Inside and outside the Pill Compound, the chiefs, supervisors, lecturers, warehouse masters... all of them need their cut. If you can't afford it, there are plenty of other buyers."
Seeing the box about to be pulled away, Ding Daoxiao immediately pressed his hand over it and chuckled. "I was only joking, Daoist. Please don't take it to heart. In a moment, your acolyte and my page can head over to the silver shop to settle the payment."
Only then did Daoist Qingling let go, allowing Ding Daoxiao to snatch the medicine box.
Ding Daoxiao gazed at the medicine box with utter satisfaction. With these, combined with the martial arts he had learned from the Sumeru Mountain King Sutra, he was confident he could cultivate to the peak of the fourth realm before this year's martial examinations, securing the rank of martial juren without a hitch. He might even push for a breakthrough into the fifth realm...
Locking the medicine box away, Ding Daoxiao looked back at Daoist Qingling. "Have you heard about the Bloody Corpse Case?"
Daoist Qingling nodded. "I have no time for that. Tomorrow morning, I have to head north to join masters from several other counties in investigating the corpse transformation case. You need to keep a close eye on the Hao family."
Ding Daoxiao smiled. "Don't worry. The Hao family hasn't had a single capable person in years; they won't alter the bigger picture. But as for this corpse transformation case, you must make sure all loose ends are tied up cleanly."
Daoist Qingling sneered. "Look after yourselves. If not for you lot... this string of corpse transformations wouldn't have happened in the first place."
***
At noon the following day, Chu Qiguang counted the silver in his pockets. "Feeding people, dogs, and cats every single day... I have less than seven hundred taels left.
"Sigh, silver vanishes much too fast. Fortunately, the Hao family put up a one-thousand-tael bounty this time. That should give my reserves a healthy boost."
With that, Chu Qiguang set off toward the county yamen with Chen Gang and Qiao Zhi.
At that moment, in the rear chambers of the county yamen, the current magistrate of Qingyang County, He Wenyan, stared gloomily at the case dossier before him. He sighed. "Still no lead on the culprit?"
Beside him, Gu Wei, the head bailiff of the kuaiban squad, buried his head low like an ostrich.
As the head bailiff of the kuaiban squad, he was normally in charge of investigating all manner of cases across the county. Among the yamen's three squads of runners—the zaoban squad, zhuangban squad, and kuaiban squad—he had the broadest social connections, the highest martial arts prowess, and the coziest life.
Not only did he extort carriage fees, horse fees, footwear fees, meal fees, and tea fees from the parties involved whenever he worked a case, but even when he wasn't investigating anything, he could collect customary dues—which was to say, bribes—from prostitutes, coachmen, boatmen, brokers, pawnshops, and the like.
Then again, throughout the present realm, both inside the imperial court and across the provinces, bribery was rampant from top to bottom. It had become an omnipresent unspoken rule, accepted by many as standard practice; anyone who actually did their job without taking silver was treated like an oddity.
As head bailiff, all of Gu Wei's various incomes combined easily amounted to several hundred taels of silver a year.
However, while a creature of the underworld and the establishment like Gu Wei could handle ordinary cases, this Bloody Corpse Case had kept him awake for days and nights without yielding a single shred of progress.
Seeing him like this, Magistrate He Wenyan grew all the more infuriated. He barked, "I gave you three days, yet you haven't uncovered the slightest trace of the killer! Utter incompetence! What do I keep you around for?"
Beside He Wenyan, a young man with sword-like brows and starry eyes spoke up: "Father, this case involves demons. It's only natural that Bailiff Gu couldn't crack it. Don't be too hard on him."
Magistrate He Wenyan waved his hand to dismiss the bailiff, then turned to his son. "My son, you don't know the fire burning beneath my seat as magistrate of Qingyang County. My superiors dispatched me here to measure the land and equalize the tax burden, which already met with unanimous opposition from every prominent family in the county.
"Now, under my governance, demons run amok and have wrought this gruesome Bloody Corpse Case. If the case goes unsolved much longer... I fear the memorials impeaching me are already written and waiting."
He Wenyan's expression darkened. "My own future is a trifling matter, but if this ruins my mentor's great undertaking of tax reform, your father could die ten thousand deaths and still not atone for it."
Chapter 53