The Secret Is Out

He had, of course, already washed and groomed himself, though his eyes were still slightly bloodshot. The county magistrate took a seat, and a servant immediately served hot tea. He took a sip, set down the teacup, and only then asked the two visitors, "What brings you here rushing to see me so early in the morning?" Master Li said indignantly, "That Tu fellow actually slipped an accusation note to the Crown Prince's envoy to report us!" The county magistrate brushed it off. "A trifling township matter isn't worth a second glance from the Crown Prince's envoy. You're overthinking it." With the petty schemes they ran, how could someone in high authority ever care? Country bumpkins were country bumpkins after all—losing their composure over the slightest thing. Master Wang abruptly changed the subject. "The mineral deposits in the porcupines' territory—Your Honor, whom did you grant them to?" The County Magistrate of Baishi froze. "What kind of talk is that? Where would mineral deposits come from in the porcupines' territory?" Master Li, his belly full of stifled rage, said, "That envoy of the Crown Prince went into the mountains today to inspect the porcupine den and brought a good deal of mineral powder to my Shuojin Hall for appraisal. That stuff is stone sinew! There could very well be a mineral vein right near their den!" The County Magistrate of Baishi wore a blank look. "Stone sinew? Never heard of it. Is it important?" "It was appraised by Mr. Lu, the medicine ape whom my Shuojin Hall hired at great expense. Stone sinew is the essence of mountain ranges! You might not find a single stone blood vein across a thousand mountains. You tell me if it's precious or not!" "What exactly is it used for?" "It's indispensable in many folk remedies, and it's also used to forge magic artifacts." Master Li lowered his voice further. "Word is, it's also a vital guide ingredient for the elixir of immortality—or rather, the elixir of longevity." The County Magistrate of Baishi hissed through his teeth. The elixir of immortality was a legend of the Beijia Kingdom. Common folk spoke of it in vague, ambiguous whispers, and only those in the upper echelons knew whether it was real. But anything tied to it had to be extraordinarily precious! "Was it really retrieved from Mount Yulun?" The county magistrate thought a step deeper. "Could the envoy have brought it himself?" "Aiya, wouldn't we know if we just sent people into the porcupine den to check?" Master Li sighed. "That nest of porcupines died under murky circumstances. People used to say they were crushed by falling rocks from an avalanche, but the envoy said it didn't look like that. Don't you think someone might have killed them just to claim the stone sinew mine for themselves?" Master Wang chimed in, "Those porcupines have been dead for over half a year. The culprit has likely been secretly mining stone sinew there for over half a year too! This... this... Your Honor, you must look into this!" "No one has filed a mining claim with me!" the County Magistrate of Baishi said in irritation. "If I had approved one, do you think you wouldn't know?" In the countryside, news like that traveled faster than anything; keeping it under wraps was all but impossible. Master Li hadn't slept all night, turning the matter over in his head until his eyes were more bloodshot than anyone's. Seeing that it was time to present the fruit of his contemplation, he cleared his throat with a loud cough. "Your Honor, who else could dig and chisel in porcupine territory without drawing attention? In my view, it can only be the Wan family!" The county magistrate was taken aback. "The Wan family? The Wans building the lake and the dam?" "Hardly anyone goes to Mount Yulun normally; only their crew makes a racket up there. What could be easier than using lake excavation as a cover to blast rock and mine ore?" Master Li shot a glance at Master Wang, who took the cue and backed him up: "The lake excavation is way behind schedule. They originally claimed it would be finished by the end of this year, but the Wans insisted the ground was too loose and pushed the deadline all the way to next summer." "Exactly. Mr. Lu, my pharmacy's medicine ape, said that stone blood veins have very limited reserves—unlike rich copper or iron deposits that never seem to run dry. As I see it, by next summer the Wans will have extracted all the stone blood and backfilled the pits. Heh, not a soul would ever be the wiser!" Master Wang sneered. "Their family makes a quiet fortune, while we who toil away trading herbs are expected to take the blame for them? That's completely unfair! Utterly unacceptable!" Both of them were prominent local herb merchants, whereas the Wan family was not. Now the Wans were reaching into this domain to rake in wealth hand over fist while expecting them to take the fall? How could such a sweet deal ever be allowed! The land under his jurisdiction actually produced stone blood? The County Magistrate of Baishi was shocked at first, then displeased. Being a prudent man, however, he nodded and said, "I will dispatch men into the mountains immediately to investigate. We will wait until the evidence is solid before doing anything. Keep calm, and under no circumstances is word of this to leak out!" Both magnates agreed. None of them noticed a crow perched on the eaves outside the room, tilting its head upon hearing this. ... That evening, the scouts dispatched by the County Magistrate of Baishi finally returned from Mount Yulun, indeed bringing him a pinch of powder: Stone sinew powder scraped from the porcupine den. The scout had also spied on the Wan family's lake construction project, discovering that while the artisans were indeed clanging and chiseling away inside the cavern, they would occasionally unearth small chunks of deep-red ore, which the foreman would promptly scurry over to collect. The County Magistrate of Baishi was furious and dispatched constables to summon Master Wan. To his surprise, the constables returned quickly without the man, holding a letter instead. "Your Honor, Wan Xianneng has already been interrogated by the envoy! Both of his legs were broken, and they just brought in a doctor to tend to him..." The county magistrate was stunned. "What? The envoy has already gone to Wan?" Snatching the letter from the constable's hand, he demanded, "The envoy left this?" "Yes. Taking one of the Wan family's stewards with him, the envoy has already departed for Shuanglu Town." The magistrate tore the letter open, and his hands began to tremble. By the time he finished reading the hundred or so words, sweat was pouring down his face like rain. ... In truth, He Lingchuan had barged straight into Master Wan's residence with Jiao Yu that very morning. The crow had kept watch through the night, so He Lingchuan knew perfectly well that Master Wan was at home. Master Wan was having breakfast. Before he could even set down his chopsticks, a ferocious tiger crashed through the doorway, glaring at him with predatory intent. A young man followed behind the tiger, standing leisurely with his hands clasped behind his back, looking at him with a smile. "Wan Xianneng, the secret is out." *Clatter.* The chopsticks dropped straight to the floor. Recognizing the intruder's identity, the head butler, servants, and courtyard guards dared not step forward. He Lingchuan said to Master Wan, "How did that nest of porcupines on Mount Yulun die? Do you want to confess voluntarily, or would you prefer a taste of torture first?" Cold sweat broke out on Master Wan's forehead. Knowing confession was also a death sentence, he gritted his teeth and said, "Lord Envoy, I know nothing about this! The families that had grievances with the porcupine demons—you met them all at the banquet the night before last. I wasn't among them!" He Lingchuan wasted no more words on him and turned to Jiao Yu. "Lord Jiao?" He didn't dare let General Ling handle it, fearing the wind-boring beast might accidentally trample the man to death. Jiao Yu offered no reply and lunged directly into the room. Screams, pleas for mercy, and agonized shrieks rang out incessantly. The fierce tiger did this and that to Master Wan, and oh dear... He Lingchuan covered his face, unable to look. Turning to the dumbfounded servants of the Wan household, he declared, "While this envoy is investigating the case, anyone who takes a single step outside the Wan residence will be deemed Wan Xianneng's accomplice and flayed alive!" The servants fell silent as cicadas in winter. Among them, a few guards had felt embarrassed about taking their master's wages for nothing and were itching to make a move. But when three tall, imposing sheep strode in, they instantly discarded the thought. Commoners do not fight the authorities—a lesson etched into their very bones. The scene inside was rather bloody, so He Lingchuan simply fetched a chair and sat waiting in the courtyard. Before long, the goshawk circling overhead suddenly swooped down. A human shriek of agony rang out from the west. Moments later, a man was herded stumbling into the courtyard, several bloody holes punctured in his shoulders. The moment he entered the courtyard, he fell to his knees before He Lingchuan, weeping and pleading, "My Lord, I was only following orders!" The goshawk perched on a tree branch behind He Lingchuan. "From above, I saw this man quietly grab a bundle and try to slip out through the back gate of the Wan residence." He Lingchuan asked the Wan household's head butler, "Who is this?" "This is the master's chief steward, surnamed Lu." He Lingchuan exchanged a few questions and answers with Steward Lu, then walked to the room and knocked on the door. "Wan Xianneng, your Steward Lu is about to confess. If you confess after him, I guarantee you'll suffer twice the misery." The moment the words fell, Master Wan's wailing spilled out: "I'll speak, I'll speak! Please, make it stop!" Jiao Yu's methods were simply too brutal; he could endure it no longer. "In Zhitian Township, the herb trade was too hard to break into, so I switched to quarrying, building roads, constructing bridges, and mining. Who knew that a flood last summer would wash away a bridge I built? The locals all decided I was untrustworthy, and that business took a sharp turn for the worse." Master Wan's heart had been full of bitterness too. "Just then, someone reported finding a stone blood vein on Mount Yulun. I knew stone blood was valuable, but that mountain slope wasn't mine. As it happened... as it happened, my nephew specializes in teaching mountain demons and wild monsters a lesson, so I asked him to help scare those porcupines... I really never meant to kill them!" "What did your nephew do?" "I don't know!" Master Wan looked bewildered. "Not long after I asked him, he came back and told me it was taken care of. When the snow melted the following spring, that nest of porcupines was indeed found dead in their burrow." "Once they were dead, all resistance to excavating the lake disappeared. The county magistrate assigned the project to me, and along the way I... I..." He went and mined the ore. "So, looking at it this way, you don't have much to do with this affair?" "Not much, truly not much! I really didn't want to kill those porcupines, and I wasn't the one who struck them down!" He Lingchuan asked him again, "Is this the only guilty deed you've done?" "Just this once! Only this once!" "Oh? But that's not what Steward Lu told me." He Lingchuan yanked Steward Lu in front of him. "How many trips did you tell me Master Wan had you make to Shuanglu Town?" "N-Nine trips!" Seeing Master Wan's gruesome state, how could Steward Lu dare to lie? He was only a hired hand earning a meager wage; why sell his life for an unscrupulous boss? "Including yesterday's trip!" "So Master Wan wasn't only in contact with his nephew?" "No, not only him," Steward Lu blurted out immediately. "He kept sending me to deliver blood beads to Shuanglu Town!" The moment the words "blood beads" were spoken, Wan Xianneng swallowed hard. It was over. Even that had been exposed. "What on earth are those blood beads?" Steward Lu lowered his head. "They're reddish round beads, about the size of a pellet. I don't know their exact purpose or where they come from. I was just following orders!" He Lingchuan cast a cold, menacing glance at Wan Xianneng. "Once he finishes telling me what he knows, you won't be of any use anymore." Sweat poured from Master Wan's forehead down to his chin. Suddenly, he gritted his teeth and said, "My Lord, pursuing this will do you—and the Crown Prince—no good at all!"