Tears flickered in the Elder Master’s eyes, and his voice was choked with grief.

“At the time, the heads of the Chen and Xu families and I decided to bury the wealth in the mountains to protect it from the warlords’ burning and looting. The three families’ combined fortune was an astounding sum — enough even now to sustain an entire army,” the Elder Master said, his gaze blank. “After the goods were buried, those porters began to collapse one after another. The cartographer who had drawn the map also did not escape. At the time I thought they had eaten something unsuitable — I had no idea they would simply die on the spot. I confronted the other two families — what on earth had happened? They said only dead men can keep secrets. If those workers went out and spread the word, then burying our wealth would have been entirely pointless. Someone with designs on it would certainly come and dig it up.”

“You didn’t know beforehand?” Shi Ting frowned.

The Elder Master shook his head. “Before the Qiao family made its fortune, I was a barefoot doctor, running about the county all day treating patients. My teacher told me that a doctor’s duty above all is to cure the sick and save lives — whether the person is good or bad. Perhaps because I had been a barefoot doctor, I was easily soft-hearted, and I was always willing to give to the poor. The other two families probably knew my temperament, so they made the decision without consulting me. Though I had no part in the plan to kill those people, the matter arose because of our wealth — I cannot escape my responsibility.”

“Father.” Master Qiao placed a hand on the Elder Master’s shoulder. “You didn’t want this to happen. Don’t blame yourself any more.”

Then he said to Shi Ting, “Father led us through all manner of hardship as we fled east and west before finally making it to Shun Cheng, where we gradually established ourselves. Once the Qiao family’s fortunes began to improve, Father built a nunnery in the rear courtyard where the spirits of the thirty-eight people who died on that mountain are enshrined. Father goes there every day to burn incense and kowtow, seeking atonement. But all of that can only provide a little psychological comfort. Father has been tormented by this matter ever since — not a single day of happiness.”

Yan Qing heard this and involuntarily looked at the Elder Master’s grief-stricken face. In the deep furrows of his wrinkles was carved the regret and guilt of years gone by.

The “illness” that Master Qiao had spoken of was most likely this kind of sickness of the heart.

“Father told me that the twenty-year deadline is approaching. But we have no intention of going to retrieve that wealth. The Qiao family’s life today is sufficient for all of us to live comfortably, and that fortune — let it remain buried in the deep mountains forever as burial goods for those people,” Master Qiao said with a long, quiet sigh. “As long as we don’t appear, even if the other two families go, there is nothing they can do — the map must be assembled from all three parts to locate the hiding place. But what we never anticipated was that the Chen and Xu families would meet with such terrible destruction.”

“Why was the agreement set for twenty years — not five or ten?”

Master Qiao said, “At the time the world was in such chaos, with one battle after another without end. Even if we retrieved the money sooner, it would likely have passed into someone else’s hands as war spoils before long. So the three families set the deadline at twenty years — believing that after twenty years, this land should have returned to peace, with everyone living in contentment and prosperity.”

But no one could have foreseen that twenty years later, this world would still be embroiled in endless conflict between warlords. The peace they had hoped for had not come.

“Elder Master, think carefully — did any witnesses survive from that time?” Shi Ting said. “At the murder scenes of both the Chen and Xu families, we discovered missing patches of skin. The two whose skin was removed were the eldest sons of the Chen and Xu families respectively.”

“What?” The Elder Master asked in shock. “The skin from their backs was flayed away?”

“Precisely.”

The Elder Master stared into the void, then suddenly let out a long sigh. “Retribution. All of it is retribution.”

He lamented for a good while before saying, “All who participated that night were poisoned to death — including the cartographer. I watched with my own eyes as they were thrown into the pit. Fearing they weren’t dead, those people struck them hard on the heads on top of that. Under those circumstances, it would have been impossible for anyone to survive.”

Deadly poison, plus blunt force trauma to the skull, plus burial under layers of earth — if the poison didn’t kill them, and the blows didn’t kill them, being buried beneath the ground would have suffocated them. Short of a miracle, no one should have survived.

Shi Ting thought of Zuo Liang’s age. Twenty years ago, he would have been about six years old.

Would a child that young have been present at a murder scene? And if he had been there, how could he have survived?

Moreover, according to what the Elder Master had said, those porters and the cartographer were all adults — there had been no children.

Without question, if Zuo Liang was the killer, then he must have had knowledge of what happened that night — or even witnessed it firsthand.

“Elder Master, that night at the scene — did you see a child, about six or seven years old?” Shi Ting ventured to ask.

The Elder Master shook his head. “At a scene like that — how could there have been a child?”

“Is it possible that one of the porters brought along his own child without your knowledge?”

“The porters were all hired from the docks. There’s no way any of them would have brought a child.” The Elder Master dismissed this outright.

“Father,” Master Qiao said from the side. “Do you remember the cartographer’s child?”

The Elder Master, being advanced in years, thought for a moment before nodding. “I remember.”

Master Qiao said, “At the time we needed someone skilled in the art of geomancy who could also draw maps, so we hired a cartographer. That cartographer had a child who often followed him around — I saw them together twice. Afterward, once we went up the mountain and the cartographer died, I didn’t think much more about the child — I’m not clear whether he lived or died.”

“Could Master Qiao still recall the cartographer’s name?”

“I believe the surname was Zuo. I’ve forgotten his given name. The reason I remember him at all is because of his surname — he was also left-handed, and I thought to myself, how interesting — a man surnamed Zuo who is also a lefty.”

Shi Ting and Yan Qing couldn’t help but exchange a glance.

If the cartographer’s surname was Zuo, then it matched Zuo Liang’s surname. Not only did the surname match — Zuo Liang was also left-handed, and left-handedness tends to run in families.

More and more clues were pointing to Zuo Liang, tying him ever more tightly to these two cases of family annihilation.

At that moment, Master Qiao suddenly said, “Now that you mention it, I do recall something. I remember that cartographer — he was the only one among all those people that I personally knew. So after I came down from the mountain, I had someone locate his family and arrange for them to be resettled.”

This was the only thing Master Qiao had been able to do for those people.

“His family? Do you remember where his family ended up?”

The Elder Master shook his head. “I only handed them over to a trustworthy person to arrange. As for where they ultimately went, I never asked further.”

“After all this time, that cache of wealth has probably been swallowed up by the deep mountains,” Master Qiao said with some regret. “I’ve brought it up with Father many times, but Father’s attitude has grown stricter each time. The last time I mentioned it, he directly picked up a teacup and split my head open with it. After that, I never dared to raise the matter again — even as the agreed deadline drew closer and closer.”

“Master Qiao — the Qiao family’s portion of the map is tattooed on your back?”

But Master Qiao shook his head. “I am not the eldest son. I have two brothers above me. The map was tattooed on my eldest brother’s back. My eldest and second brothers perished at sea two years ago when they encountered a storm.”

At these words, the Elder Master’s face became veiled in sorrow, and he couldn’t help but sigh with deep regret. “Retribution — all of it is retribution for my sins.”

“Father, Elder Brother’s and Second Brother’s deaths have nothing to do with you — stop blaming yourself,” Master Qiao urged with earnest consolation. “What happened back then, you didn’t want any of it.”

“Alas,” the Elder Master shook his head.

Shi Ting was taken aback. “Then the map…”

“My eldest and second brothers had long been in the maritime trade. Sea conditions are unpredictable — the weather changes constantly. After surviving one maritime disaster, my eldest brother decided to copy down the map from his back as a precaution, and I was the one tasked with drawing it. Not long after I drew the map, my two brothers encountered another disaster and their bodies were never found,” Master Qiao said, his voice carrying a concealed grief.

“Master Qiao, aside from the amulets, in what other places does the Qiao family use its family crest?”

“Only on ancestral worship items and coffins,” Master Qiao said. “The crest was not used on amulets before. But this past year, one thing after another has gone wrong in the household. I consulted a fortune master who divined that something of great power was needed to be fashioned into amulets for the family to wear. I thought and thought — the thing most precious to the Qiao family is this family crest. So I discussed it with Father, asking whether the crest could be incorporated into amulets. Father also agreed.”

“Qiao Yiran mentioned that only Qiao family bloodline members are permitted to wear these amulets — is that correct?”

Master Qiao nodded. “The family crest means everything to the Qiao family. Naturally it can only be worn by Qiao family members. Besides me and my wife and our children, no one else is entitled to wear it.”

“Elder Master,” Shi Ting said gravely. “The killer who murdered the Chen and Xu families is still searching for the remaining map. The reference he is using to locate these families may be the family crest itself. Therefore, you and your family are all in danger right now. If the killer has already discovered your existence, he will stop at nothing to obtain the map.”

“Young Marshal,” Master Qiao said. “I also agree with your analysis. This killer is very likely someone who witnessed events from that time — a relative of those buried in the pit. Twenty years later, he seeks vengeance for his family, while at the same time seeking to obtain that immense fortune.”

“Elder Master, Master Qiao — the killer could act at any moment. You must be vigilant and take every precaution to protect yourselves.”

Upon hearing this, Master Qiao naturally wore an expression of great anxiety. But the Elder Master’s face was expressionless — the look of someone who had accepted his fate.

All these years, he had been haunted by the events of twenty years ago. To him, if he truly could die at the killer’s hand, it would be as if he were repaying the debt of sin from twenty years past.

“I will not intrude any further. Elder Master, please rest.”

Shi Ting and Yan Qing left the Elder Master’s courtyard. Master Qiao couldn’t help but ask anxiously, “Young Marshal, what do you think we should do now? Should we close the gates and prohibit the entire family from going out?”

Shi Ting stopped walking and looked at him. “In both of the previous cases, the killer went directly to the victims’ homes. His methods are ruthless and he leaves no survivors. Moreover, this person is highly skilled in martial arts and very difficult to deal with.”