Whether the two Bai Family elders lived or died was not something Lang Jiuchuan cared about in the slightest. The sky had not yet brightened, so she simply took the opportunity to meditate and restore herself within the Duke’s compound — after all, she too had expended considerable spiritual power, and her own complexion was hardly presentable.
Lang Jiuchuan didn’t even concern herself with the bone bell currently locked inside the Little Nine Pagoda. It had nowhere to run.
By the time the sky had fully brightened and Lang Jiuchuan emerged from her meditative state, it was nearly midday. She walked out of the guest room. The maids attending her stepped forward attentively, and another went to inform the Young Lord.
After being served a cup of restorative ginseng and chicken soup by the household’s maids, Lang Jiuchuan received Zuo Yan.
Zuo Yan had dark circles beneath his eyes. After hearing what that creature said the previous night — the one that resembled both a tiger and a small nursing kitten — he had rushed to the Bai Family estate without delay, bringing people with him to help arrange matters there. Upon returning to the compound, he had gone first to check on his wife. Finding her pulse stronger than before, he finally set his mind at ease, managed a brief nap — and then a servant came to report that Lang Jiuchuan had risen.
He greeted Lang Jiuchuan with a respectful bow: “You have worked hard, Master.”
Lang Jiuchuan waved it off and did not ask about the Bai Family’s affairs, moving straight to the point: “Now that the matter concerning your honored wife has been settled, we should discuss the matter of compensation.”
Zuo Yan was momentarily taken aback — he had not expected Lang Jiuchuan to be quite so direct about asking for payment.
Seeing his stunned expression, Lang Jiuchuan raised an eyebrow: “Young Lord, surely you don’t imagine I’m some immortal descended from the heavens to save all living creatures — a volunteer exorcist who then simply ascends back to the sky when the work is done, never partaking in a single drop of mortal food?”
The color rose in Zuo Yan’s wheat-complexioned, handsome face. He rose and replied: “This one would not presume. I simply did not expect such straightforwardness from you, Master. I am not certain what this one can do to repay this debt of goodness — should it also involve funding the paving of bridges and roads?”
“Paving bridges and building roads — I certainly wouldn’t object to that either, and if you can do good works under your wife’s name, it will help her accumulate hidden virtue.” Lang Jiuchuan said: “But what I want is not limited to that.”
“Please speak plainly, Master.”
Lang Jiuchuan said: “The Duke’s compound has a hundred years of distinguished service behind it. I wonder — could it help me bring down a certain member of the nobility at court?”
Zuo Yan’s pupils contracted. The gaze he turned on her carried a note of assessment. He did not immediately answer, instead taking a moment to weigh his judgment of the kind of person Lang Jiuchuan was.
She was a daughter of a marquis’s household, yet she possessed abilities that reached to the heavens. To be frank, if she wanted to deal with someone, she could do it simply enough herself — so why did she insist on having the Duke’s household do it, with all this indirection?
Zuo Yan smiled lightly and remarked: “With your abilities, Master, dealing with someone is as simple as casting a technique, is it not? Using that as payment seems rather wasteful?”
“If I’ve already incurred the karmic debt of having the Young Lord help me act and do what needs doing, why should I expend my own spiritual power to cast techniques? Spiritual power is far harder to accumulate than dealing with those people. And if I’m not careful, I could end up suffering karmic backlash — the ledger of merits and demerits would take note, and those people aren’t even worth it. Furthermore, the Surveillance Division is right there — I’m not thick-headed enough to go smashing eggs against a stone. I am a person who abides by law and proper conduct, and I will not act in opposition to authority.”
Zuo Yan’s mouth twitched. He looked over at her, and that gaze carried a particular meaning — her words were simply difficult to believe.
The Surveillance Division — the one that oversaw and governed practitioners of the mystical arts — when it came to her, it was no more than a formality, wasn’t it?
Lang Jiuchuan held her thin-walled teacup delicately: “And besides — for an enemy, what could be more painful than forcing them to watch the family they worked so hard to build crumble before their very eyes? I also want them to watch their high towers fall with their own eyes.”
A faint chill emanated from those words, and Zuo Yan felt it. He asked: “Who is this person who had the poor judgment to offend you, Master?”
“Zhenbei Marquis, Xie Zhengming.”
Zuo Yan: “…”
His expression went blank. He recalled the story of how the Zhenbei Marquis had come to power, and in just a moment, he looked at her with a peculiar expression: “If I recall correctly, your father was General Anbei. The Zhenbei Marquis was once a subordinate general under your father’s command.”
“Yes. He killed my father.”
Zuo Yan stood abruptly, his expression turning sharp and cold: “Are you certain?”
It was strange — he found he did not feel the slightest doubt that she was falsely accusing the man just to eliminate a marquis. Was it because he was convinced she had the means to deal with the Zhenbei Marquis whenever she chose?
Lang Jiuchuan looked at him: “I am a person who places great weight on cause and effect, and on accumulated virtue. I cherish the virtue I have gained through cultivation deeply. So I would not fabricate some baseless charge against a person just to destroy their name. When I say it was him, it is because I have already confirmed it with certainty — and furthermore, he used a particularly underhanded and vile method.”
Zuo Yan’s expression sharpened: “Dark arts?”
Lang Jiuchuan nodded: “He placed a Soul-Devouring Parasite on my father. He exploited the grievous wounds my father suffered in battle, then activated the parasite, causing my father’s soul to perish on the battlefield.”
Fury blazed in Zuo Yan’s eyes. He slammed a fist down on the table: “How bold of him!”
The Duke’s household had earned its glory on horseback. Their generations had served in the military. He himself had come from the martial ranks, and when the time came for the old man to step down, he too would take up the mantle and guard the northern frontier. Men like them did not fear bleeding and dying in open battle — but they would never accept death by conspiracy and treachery, and still less by this kind of underhanded, wicked, malevolent dark art.
It seemed the establishment of the Surveillance Division had been the right call. Without it, there was truly no guarding against such poisonous and hidden techniques.
“Do you have any evidence?”
Lang Jiuchuan showed a look of mild chagrin: “There was evidence — but through a lack of foresight on my part, it was ruined. The person likely would not be reliable as a witness even if still alive.”
Zuo Yan: “?”
“The sorceress who refined the parasite for the Zhenbei Marquis — when I learned the truth from her, I already dealt with her.” She rubbed the tip of her nose with a touch of reluctant embarrassment. “That sorceress was cunning. I feared she had not told me the truth, so I used a soul-searching technique — this technique inflicts severe damage on the soul and will reduce a person to an imbecile. She has since been handed over to the enforcement hall of the mystical practitioners’ organization. I don’t know whether she’s alive or dead at this point — and even if she is alive, she would likely be difficult to use as a witness.”
Zuo Yan was at a loss for words. That impulsive?
“But the Zhenbei Marquis obtained more than just one parasite from her — he also received a pair of Affinity Parasites, which he passed on to his daughter, who is a consort in the palace.” Lang Jiuchuan continued: “One of that pair was placed on the grandson of Chief Imperial Physician Ou. Chief Imperial Physician Ou knew of this as well — and so they are both dead now.”
Zuo Yan sat in stunned silence.
Just listen to what he was hearing — the truth behind the deaths of Chief Imperial Physician Ou and his grandson was actually this?
“Before Imperial Physician Ou died, he had already confessed his guilt to the Emperor. Which means the Emperor already knows about the Affinity Parasites.” Lang Jiuchuan looked at him: “You see, Young Lord — I’ve already sharpened the knife and put it right in your hands. Helping me to push the Zhenbei Marquis’s household onto the road to ruin shouldn’t be beyond you, should it?”
He was the Young Lord of a ducal household, moved among the circles of the powerful and noble, and served in attendance near the Emperor himself. Could he not read even a trace of the Emperor’s thoughts?
A consort — even a lowly one — had dared to cuckold the Emperor. How could the Emperor possibly allow her unruly father to keep his grip on military power?
But now, no news had come out of the palace of Consort Xie being deposed. That meant the Emperor was also waiting for the Zhenbei Marquis to return — what he needed to do was give the Zhenbei Marquis that final push down the road to ruin.
As for how to do it — that was his business.
Zuo Yan cupped his hands in salute and bowed: “We both come from martial backgrounds. I would never stand by and watch a murderer live in comfort and power while General Anbei’s grievances go unaddressed in the afterlife.”
He had agreed.