Done

He Lingchuan vaulted into the cellar in a single bound. The suspect, Wu Kai, was splayed across the floor. A guard was trying to prop him up, but his back would not straighten at all. Wu Kai was vomiting mouthfuls of blood, which, strangely, was pale yellow. "Remove his shackles!" He Lingchuan commanded. The guard immediately moved to unlock the runic fetters on the suspect. Whether from nervousness or haste, he failed to undo them after several tries. Shoving him aside, He Lingchuan drew his saber and struck. With a loud clang, the fetters split apart. The moment the runic fetters clattered to the ground, Wu Kai could channel his true power again, and the formation tattoos across his body flared to life. Stumbling toward a corner, he grabbed a bunch of protective talismans and put them on. He Lingchuan made no move to stop him. Heavily guarded as this cellar was, Wu Kai could not escape even if he were several times stronger. Once the talismans were on, Wu Kai seemed able to breathe again, gasping in deep, ragged breaths. Just moments earlier, his viscera had felt twisted in agony, and his throat had seemed gripped so tightly that he could not draw breath. The guards had already been on high alert; as soon as something went wrong, the guard stationed here had intended to report upstairs. But He Lingchuan trusted no one completely, having secretly positioned an eyeball spider on the rafters. After all, this prisoner was far too vital. Earlier, he had noticed Wu Kai shudder twice and suddenly convulse even before the guard did. Fu Shanyue's curse master arrived as well. Prying open Wu Kai's eyelids, he shone light into them, revealing what looked like countless tiny worms squirming beneath the whites of his eyes. "A curse! Cen Boqing has struck at you." He Lingchuan took out a mirror and angled it toward Wu Kai, letting him see his own condition. "Confess immediately, and we can save your life." During his recent visits to Panlong City, he had seen lectures posted on the Hall of Immortal Inquiries bulletin board, several of which concerned curses. Panlong City's conflict with foreign enemies spanned every front—Beijia had even waged biological warfare against the Chipa Plateau, so why would curses or forbidden arts be any surprise? Consequently, they had accumulated plenty of experience in dealing with them. He Lingchuan had hurried to attend those lectures and gained immense insight. When he borrowed books from Wenxuan Pavilion, the texts placed in the most prominent shelf positions were also those on curse defense. They did not explain how to cast curses or harm others, but prevention and countermeasures were laid out in systematic detail. Knowing by now that Panlong City was deliberately paving a smooth path for him, he had thrown himself into studying it. While he could not yet claim great mastery, he had at least acquired the basics and was no longer utterly ignorant of curses. Wu Kai looked up and saw that the space between his brows was pitch-black with the hue of death, while pale yellow spittle uncontrollably dribbled from between his teeth. Cen Boqing truly had no resolve—he had fallen for the Crown Prince's scheme of sowing discord so easily! Now both of them would die. Furious, Wu Kai squeezed his eyes shut, panting heavily. "If I talk... I'll die in the end anyway!" These were the first words he had spoken since his capture. "But your grandson can live—the Crown Prince guarantees it." He Lingchuan glanced at the curse master, saw him nod, and said quickly, "You've been stalling for time because you assumed the Minister of Agriculture would send someone to smooth things over so both you and Cen Boqing could be spared. In truth, the Duyun Emissary appointed by the Demon Emperor has arrived today. The celestial gods are investigating the elixir of immortality with utter severity; your entire family could be ground to dust and still never withstand the gods' thunderous wrath!" Wu Kai raised his head, glaring intently at him. "He is in the inn's front hall right now and will be down here in a few breaths." He Lingchuan pointed upward toward the cellar ceiling. "If you nod right now, he won't find out your grandson is in our hands. But once the Duyun Emissary arrives, if you still haven't agreed, the terms I offered are off the table. You've lived in Lingxu City for a long time; nobody knows better than you what measures the emissaries of the celestial gods have at their disposal. Once he gets here, your whole family will die! And your grandson will certainly die before you do." In any case, as the man in charge of hunting demons for their beads, Wu Kai was certainly doomed. Die alone, or have his whole family perish—he had to make his choice right now. "Even if we save you this time, Cen Boqing will try again if this curse fails, and sooner or later he'll succeed," He Lingchuan added. "After what he's done to you, think carefully: do you really want to protect him with the lives of your whole family?" Wu Kai trembled violently. The two protective jade pendants around his neck snapped suddenly, and his evil-warding talismans spontaneously ignited, reduced to ashes in an instant. He began retching and vomiting again. The fluid he brought up this time was yellowish-green, mingled with a mess of grayish-brown bird feathers. Looking even worse than when he vomited blood earlier, his body began to twitch and convulse uncontrollably like an epileptic fit, his eyes rolling back in his head. "First harms the liver, then the gallbladder; the next two strikes will target the lungs and heart." The curse master retrieved several peach-wood spikes and drove them into Wu Kai's Yutang and Yuzhen acupoints. "These are carved from branches of a three-hundred-year-old peach tree facing east, bearing the strongest yang energy, but even so, they can only offer temporary relief. A life-taking curse like this usually comes in five waves, each deadlier than the last. If you survive the first four—which an ordinary person couldn't possibly do—the fifth will strike directly into your brain." These peach-wood spikes had actually been bestowed by Fu Shanyue. That fellow looked no different from an ordinary human, often making people forget that his true form was a ba; when it came to the sinister arts of ghosts and baleful spirits, he naturally understood far more than ordinary cultivators. At the same time, He Lingchuan pressed, "Cen Boqing is impatient to claim your life, so this curse is far fiercer than usual. The next three waves will hit fast and hard, making you realize the first two were just appetizers. If we don't treat you, you won't last ten breaths." Wu Kai's face was gradually turning green. That curse master surnamed Cheng had previously suffered a setback against He Xiao and coughed up blood from backlash, so Wu Kai had assumed the man merely boasted big and was nothing special. Yet now that he was experiencing it firsthand— The potency was truly formidable, ruthless, and venomous. He could not hold out. Just then, Commander Lu's voice boomed from the cellar entrance: "Your Highness, Emissary Bai has arrived—" The Duyun Emissary had arrived! Wu Kai's heart seized up. He Lingchuan grabbed him by the collar. "Last chance. Be quick!" With time running out, even a cautious man like Wu Kai felt dizzy, his thoughts churning in utter turmoil. Gritting his teeth, he finally endured the excruciating pain and gasped to He Lingchuan, "I'll talk! I confess! You must ensure my grandson's safety!" He Lingchuan gave a solemn nod. "It's a deal." Just as he finished speaking, the light at the cellar opening shifted, and Fu Shanyue, Bai Ziqi, and Fan Sheng all dropped down. Given the urgency of the situation, they dispensed with pleasantries. He Lingchuan looked toward Fu Shanyue and said tersely, "A curse was triggered on the suspect remotely. He just barely clung to life!" "Can he be saved?" The curse master nodded and ignited the peach-wood spikes. The flame was not golden-red, but a peculiar greenish-blue. The peach-wood spikes were hollow, packed with potent substances of supreme yang. Now, through moxibustion cauterization, he drove their energy into the prisoner's body to counter the baleful, venomous force of the curse. The curse master then ordered someone to fetch a three-year-old rooster, slit its throat for fresh blood, mixed in several medicines, and forced it down Wu Kai's throat while it was still warm. "Most evil entities loathe roosters, but they will rush to consume their blood." By the third gulp, Wu Kai's expression softened, no longer so strained. Seeing this, the curse master let out a quiet sigh of relief. This crucial prisoner's life was saved, and so was his own pay. What was more, Fu Shanyue offered a rare compliment: "Good. Well done this time." For His Highness to say so, a reward was sure to follow. Fan Sheng frowned. "Shouldn't curse assassinations be carried out at midnight? Why now?" He Lingchuan chuckled. "Commander Fan sounds quite experienced." Last time, when Cheng Yu had invoked a nightmare to plot against He Lingchuan, it had indeed been at midnight, with Fan Sheng standing guard. Pricked by his sarcastic jab, Fan Sheng bristled with irritation, but Bai Ziqi remarked, "It's dinner time right now. Guards are sparse, and the prisoner was fettered without the strength to truss a chicken. It's the perfect opportunity to strike." He Lingchuan nodded. "Emissary Bai is perceptive. That's precisely why!" Just as Fu Shanyue was about to question him, Wu Kai suddenly collapsed onto the ground again, vomiting incessantly and spewing out the rooster blood he had just swallowed. In the blood were numerous tiny black ladybird-like beetles the size of rice grains. With his sharp eyesight, He Lingchuan could see that their mouthparts had specialized into sharp spikes, clearly suited for boring into prey before burrowing inside. Presumably, these ghastly things had originally been set to attack Wu Kai's heart and lungs, but after encountering suppression midway and being lured by the rooster blood, they had been forcibly expelled. Once outside Wu Kai's body, they tottered a few steps, flipped onto their backs, and ceased moving. Right after, before everyone's eyes, the tiny bugs and the bird feathers Wu Kai had vomited earlier dissolved into black liquid and slowly seeped into the cellar floor. Wu Kai lay prostrate on the ground, panting heavily in exhaustion. Standing aside with his hands clasped behind his back, Bai Ziqi watched and remarked, "None of these things were real, merely physical manifestations of the curse. Yet the harm inflicted on the suspect was in no way diminished." The tiger Jiao Yu immediately asked, "Can a curse master truly take a life from a hundred li away?" "For a powerful curse master, yes," Bai Ziqi answered offhandedly. "However, it requires certain conditions; it cannot be triggered at will." He Lingchuan's mind stirred. "Now that the life-taking curse has been broken, will he suffer a backlash?" A few days ago, Cheng Yu's attempt to ambush him with a nightmare had failed, causing him to cough up blood from backlash. Would that old scene repeat itself? Bai Ziqi, however, looked at him with an odd gaze. "You don't know?" He Lingchuan was slightly startled. Why would Bai Ziqi ask that? His gaze flicked past Fan Sheng, and he immediately realized what was amiss. Right—Bai Ziqi had likely heard the full story of how Fan Sheng had crossed swords with him. Since Cheng Yu's sneak attack on He Xiao had failed, it implied that He Xiao had to be an adept of such arts himself, possessing formidable methods. Yet just now, an inappropriate question had immediately tipped Bai Ziqi off. This man was too sharp; if someone slipped up by a single word, he would seize on the flaw. I must be careful—extraordinarily careful. Bai Ziqi withdrew his gaze, however, as if he had only spoken in passing, and pressed Wu Kai without delay: "Was Cen Boqing the mastermind behind the courier case?" Wu Kai swallowed hard with great difficulty. "...Yes." "Do you or Cen Boqing still have any pulp beads?" "Yes," Wu Kai whispered. "I buried the remaining pulp beads under the locust tree at Taxingkou." Excellent. Physical evidence secured as well. "Did he order you to slaughter demons and harvest their beads to refine the elixir of immortality?" Wu Kai was very cooperative now. "Yes. But we were only responsible for hunting and harvesting the pulp beads. Someone else refined the elixir." "Who refined the elixir?" "Twice a year, I would deliver the blood beads to Qingfu Temple in Lingxu City. Whatever followed wasn't our concern." Fu Shanyue and He Lingchuan exchanged a glance, both quietly letting out a breath of relief. It was done. Wu Kai had confessed—and right before the special emissary sent from Lingxu City.