Six toes, Chai Xian?!

This was the first thought that flashed through Xu Qi’an’s mind, causing a flood of ideas to surge through his brain, leaving him momentarily unable to think calmly.

After a few seconds, he regained his composure, took a deep breath, and carefully examined Chai Jianyuan.

The sixth toe was deformed, tightly pressed against the little toe, ugly and unsightly.

He touched Chai Jianyuan’s face to confirm there was no disguise. To determine the age of a corpse, besides the most obvious feature of appearance, there were other methods.

For instance, skin texture, bone structure, and teeth. The differences between middle-aged and young people were quite significant.

For the experienced Xu Qi’an, identifying this corpse wasn’t difficult.

“It is Chai Jianyuan. He also has six toes. Interesting…”

Xu Qi’an pried open the corpse’s mouth, examined the teeth, and let out a soft chuckle…

Chai Xian had six toes, and so did Chai Jianyuan. Was it a coincidence?

“Chai Jianyuan only had one adopted son, Chai Xian, who was an orphan with no familial connection to Chai Jianyuan. Chai Jianyuan himself had biological children, but only one adopted son, indicating he didn’t have a habit of adopting many children.”

“This alone wouldn’t be suspicious. It could be understood that Chai Jianyuan and Chai Xian have a natural affinity. But the fact that both have six toes makes it very interesting.”

“According to Chai Xing’er and others in the Chai family, Chai Jianyuan adamantly refused Chai Xian’s request and insisted on marrying Chai Lan to the Huangfu family. Although maximizing benefits is a reasonable explanation…”

“Marrying a daughter to an adopted son, strengthening family ties, and ensuring the adopted son’s absolute loyalty to the family is equally reasonable. There are many examples of fathers marrying their daughters to adopted sons or beloved disciples.”

“But what if this adopted son was an illegitimate child?”

“If Chai Xian were truly Chai Jianyuan’s adopted son, their shared six-toe trait would be too obvious to hide from everyone. Did Chai Xing’er know that Chai Xian was Chai Jianyuan’s illegitimate son?”

“If she knew, then killing her brother and framing Chai Xian would be killing two birds with one stone. Because as the story developed, Chai Xian would eventually become the heir to the Chai family and the family head.”

Just as Xu Qi’an’s deductions were reaching their peak, he suddenly realized an inconsistency.

“Wait, if Chai Xian was Chai Jianyuan’s illegitimate son, Chai Jianyuan would have no reason to hide it. A powerful Huajin Martial Artist and head of the family – what’s wrong with having an illegitimate son?”

“He could have openly acknowledged it without any need for secrecy. Jianghu factions aren’t like noble clans obsessed with propriety and reputation, needing to consider morality and face.”

“Unless there was some reason forcing Chai Jianyuan to conceal Chai Xian’s true identity.”

“Chai Xian doesn’t know about his background, otherwise, he wouldn’t have fallen in love with his sister. And if he did know, the ‘for love’ motive for the crime wouldn’t exist.”

“Therefore, just by meeting Chai Xian and finding out if he knows about his background, we can determine who killed Chai Jianyuan.”

As he muttered to himself, Xu Qi’an took out a fragment of the Earth Book and lightly tapped its back.

The Taiping Saber emerged from the mirror world, emitting a “hum” that conveyed both resentment and excitement.

Then, it automatically left its scabbard, and its tip began to “ding” against Xu Qi’an’s back, expressing its enthusiasm.

“Stop, stop, you’re hurting me…” Xu Qi’an gripped the handle and pressed the tip against Chai Jianyuan’s throat, slicing it open with force.

Chai Jianyuan had been turned into an iron corpse. To dissect it required a supreme divine weapon like the Taiping Saber to precisely and sharply cut through skin and flesh.

The reason for the dissection was Xu Qi’an’s suspicion that Chai Jianyuan had been poisoned before death.

There were two reasons for this suspicion: First, the Chai family had no Fourth-Grade Martial Artists.

Whether it was Chai Xian, Chai Jianyuan, or Chai Xing’er, they were all Fifth-Grade Huajin Martial Artists.

As is well known, Martial Artists are famously tough. Even with a sneak attack, it’s difficult to kill them quickly.

And if the battle couldn’t be resolved quickly, the experts in the Chai mansion would react instantly. Therefore, a scenario where “they arrived at the study to find the family head killed by Chai Xian” was unlikely.

Second, Chai Jianyuan’s body had numerous injuries.

Chai Jianyuan indeed wasn’t killed instantly. After careful examination, besides the fatal wound to the heart, Chai Jianyuan’s body had many hidden injuries.

This proved that he had been through an extremely fierce battle before death.

So, under what circumstances would a battle be fierce yet end quickly?

One-sided beating.

Chai Jianyuan had almost no ability to fight back, was subjected to one-sided violence, and quickly had his copper skin and iron bones defense broken, dying under the killer’s blade.

A reasonable explanation was that Chai Jianyuan had been poisoned.

The dark red flesh was cut open. After examining the throat, no obvious signs of poisoning were found.

So he cut open the stomach and finally made a discovery.

In Chai Jianyuan’s stomach, there were traces of a blackish substance that seemed to be the result of a reaction between poison and gastric acid.

Xu Qi’an used his poison gu ability to do a preliminary analysis, only identifying components of three poisonous herbs. Too much time had passed to analyze more.

These three poisonous herbs had hallucinogenic and nerve-paralyzing effects.

“A complex poison, quite advanced. With this era’s pharmaceutical level, complex poisons are crude mixtures of several poisons. This would inevitably produce odors and colors, making it impossible to escape a martial artist’s crisis intuition and keen sense of smell and taste, regardless of how it’s administered.”

“This poison must be colorless and odorless. Ordinary people can’t refine such high-level poisons. Only two professions can: sorcerers and poison gu masters. Right, Chai Xing’er, she implanted a love gu in Li Lingsu.”

“She went to the Southern Borderlands for a love gu. It wouldn’t be difficult for her to obtain another extraordinary poison that could silently take down a Huajin Martial Artist.”

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but pinch his brow. If one could refine such a poison, wouldn’t it be more straightforward to simply poison Chai Jianyuan to death?

Why go through all this trouble?

Xu Qi’an was a smart man and immediately thought of the reason: “Of course, they couldn’t just poison him. If he was poisoned, how could they prove Chai Xian killed him?”

This was a trap, a trap set for Chai Xian.

“Now there’s a quick way to advance the case: capture Chai Xing’er and subject her to severe interrogation.”

Xu Qi’an immediately dismissed this idea. First, he couldn’t read auras, nor did he have the Buddhist precept abilities. The first level of the Pagoda was the “no killing” precept, which was fixed.

“No killing” obviously had nothing to do with “no lying.”

The Pagoda Spirit couldn’t use precept magic either. The Pagoda Spirit was the Pagoda itself; it couldn’t manifest abilities that the Pagoda didn’t possess.

The Heart Gu could briefly influence intelligent beings, but Chai Xing’er was a Huajin Martial Artist. The current power of the Heart Gu wasn’t enough to make her answer every question truthfully.

Secondly, being rough with Chai Xing’er was not an option. The Holy Son’s attitude was secondary; afterward, she would certainly turn against him and reveal Xu Qian’s existence to the Buddhist sect.

If that happened, Jingxin’s focus would shift from eliminating evil and protecting the Way to Xu Qi’an himself, possibly even contacting Dunan Jingang directly.

In that case, not only would the investigation be impossible, but even the dragon qi would be snatched away by the Buddhist sect.

“I’ll make do here tonight. It’s a good opportunity to nourish the Corpse Gu with the corpse qi in the underground vault.”

Xu Qi’an sat cross-legged, leaning against the wall, with corpses standing silently on both sides.

He felt perfectly at ease in this quiet yet terrifying environment, as if he had returned home. The Corpse Gu experienced intense satisfaction at this moment.

At the back of Xu Qi’an’s neck, there was a slight bulge. Shortly after, an insect the size of a cockroach broke through the skin, followed by a second, then a third.

These were the offspring gu nurtured by the Seven Absolutes Gu’s Corpse Gu.

The Corpse Gu could currently nurture at most four offspring gu, one of which had been parasitized on the corpse of Hengyin, the abbot of Sanhua Temple. The remaining three had just been born.

As soon as the offspring gu were born, they excitedly crawled towards the surrounding corpses. Two of them, following the principle of proximity, chose the nearest iron corpses.

The remaining one circled the secret room a few times before selecting a female corpse with a slightly protruding chest.

“This little guy has potential!” Xu Qi’an clicked his tongue, then closed his eyes to sense the condition of the three iron corpses.

There was no trace of life energy within them. Two iron corpses only retained the original strength and defense of their physical bodies, while the female corpse retained some of her abilities from when she was alive – the ability to predict danger.

This ability could be directly fed back to the master controlling the corpse.

This meant that the female corpse had been turned into a walking corpse shortly after death, thus retaining some of her abilities.

“The lifespan of a walking corpse doesn’t exceed five years. The corpse refining technique is a bit crude, and not quite orthodox. Well, the Chai family’s ancestor was a slave from the Southern Borderlands. Whether he stole the knowledge or received teachings from the Corpse Gu clan, he definitely couldn’t have learned the orthodox secret techniques.”

Xu Qi’an withdrew his control over the offspring gu and focused on analyzing tonight’s findings.

“Chai Xian is very likely Chai Jianyuan’s illegitimate son, but for some reason, Chai Jianyuan always concealed his true identity.”

“Chai Jianyuan was poisoned before death, which is why he was killed in the study. The poisoner must be someone close to him. Chai Xian, Chai Xing’er, and the missing Chai Lan are all possibilities.”

“The next direction for investigation is why Chai Jianyuan concealed Chai Xian’s background; investigate Chai Xing’er – well, that part will rely on the Sea King Holy Son.”

As he pondered, he absorbed the corpse qi in the underground vault, nourishing the Corpse Gu.

After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly heard a faint noise and immediately opened his eyes.

The candle had burned down to its end and was about to be extinguished. In the weak firelight, the female corpse was lying on the ground with her buttocks raised.

A male corpse was on top of the female corpse, while another male corpse was on top of “him.”

What are you doing… Xu Qi’an almost lost control of his expression. He immediately used the absolute authority of the “mother gu” to control the three offspring gu, finally understanding what they were trying to do.

They were attempting to reproduce instinctively.

What are you doing? Don’t you need to take off clothes to mate? Bah, isn’t it good to just be tool insects? Tools should be aware of their role; you don’t have mating rights… Xu Qi’an stopped this outrageous behavior.

He suddenly understood why some Corpse Gu masters couldn’t control their urges and developed relationships with walking corpses that went beyond master and puppet.

It was due to the influence of the Corpse Gu’s reproductive instincts.

…

On the same deep night, far away in Leizhou, at the Wenren mansion.

In the boudoir of the eldest daughter, Wenren Qianrou, the charcoal fire burned brightly, making the room as warm as spring. Wenren Qianrou, with her delicate features and only a slightly high hairline as a flaw, lay under a brocade quilt, breathing softly and evenly.

“Are you Miss Wenren Qianrou?”

The cold, emotionless voice startled Wenren Qianrou from her sleep.

She sat up abruptly, vigilantly scanning the room while shouting, “Guards!”

As she called out, she saw the uninvited guests in her room. There were three: a middle-aged Daoist priest in a black robe, meticulously groomed; a female Daoist in feather garments wearing a lotus crown, whose age was indiscernible but whose beauty was celestial; and a vibrant, charming girl in her late teens.

The girl’s hands were bound with a rope, the other end of which was held by the female Daoist with the lotus crown.

Why am I still bound by my master in someone else’s dream… Li Miaozen couldn’t help but complain inwardly.

“Who are you?” Wenren Qianrou didn’t call for her maids or guards, realizing that the three by her table must be extraordinary individuals.

“This humble Daoist’s religious name is Xuancheng, the master of Wuwang Peak of the Celestial Sect. Do you know Li Lingsu, young lady?” the middle-aged Daoist said calmly.

The other two female Daoists remained silent.

“You are…” Wenren Qianrou’s expression changed slightly.

“Li Lingsu is my disciple,” Xuancheng Daoist said flatly.

Wenren Qianrou was shocked. She threw off her covers, got out of bed, and knelt in a deep bow. “Disciple Wenren Qianrou pays respects to Master.”

Wenren Qianrou knew that Li Lingsu was the Holy Son of the Celestial Sect.

Tsk tsk, she’s already considering herself a daughter-in-law… Li Miaozen glanced at her grand-uncle’s reaction, but there was none.

Xuancheng Daoist’s expression remained impassive. “Half a month ago, Li Lingsu came to Leizhou. Where has he gone now?”

Wenren Qianrou shook her head, “Young Master Li was afraid of implicating me and didn’t tell me where he was going.”

Fearing that Xuancheng Daoist might not be clear on the situation, she recounted the events in detail.

Xuancheng Daoist and Bingyi Yuanjun listened patiently, even though they had already thoroughly investigated before coming here.

After Wenren Qianrou finished speaking, Xuancheng Daoist asked, “Does Miss Wenren know the identity of that Xu Qian?”

Wenren Qianrou shook her head, “That senior’s identity is mysterious. Even Young Master Li wasn’t very clear about it. He only knew that he was a senior who had lived for several hundred years and had a close relationship with the Director of the Bureau of Astronomy.”

“A close relationship with the Director?” Xuancheng Daoist frowned slightly. This was something he hadn’t uncovered in his investigation.

Wenren Qianrou nodded and explained, “Young Master Li said that this senior not only had an unusual relationship with the Director but also played chess with him and won a game against the Director. He’s truly an expert. Moreover, this expert can command Sun Xuanji, the Director’s second disciple, which shows his status.”

Won a game against the Director… Xuancheng Daoist and Bingyi Yuanjun exchanged a glance. Even as detached and indifferent as they were, they couldn’t help but be somewhat surprised.

Winning a game against the Director, an expert who has lived for hundreds of years… It’s him, it must be him, this familiar style… Li Miaozen almost covered her face with both hands.

That bastard Xu Qi’an still hasn’t gotten rid of his habit of bragging. When Li Lingsu finds out his true identity later, let’s see how he deals with it… No, given how cunning he is, Li Lingsu has probably already “exposed many flaws.” When his true identity is revealed, Li Lingsu will truly be unable to show his face… Thinking of her own experience, Li Miaozen thought resentfully.

Xuancheng Daoist asked, “What else do you know?”

Wenren Qianrou thought for a moment, “I heard Young Master Li say that Senior Xu had shown him great kindness. It was this senior who rescued him from the Eastern Sisters, freeing him from a life of misery.”

Xuancheng Daoist nodded slightly, asked a few more questions, and then said calmly, “We’ve disturbed your peaceful dreams, please forgive us.”

With that, the three disappeared from the room.

Wenren Qianrou opened her eyes to find herself still lying in bed, unable to distinguish for a moment whether what had just happened was a dream or reality.

…

In an inn in Leizhou city.

Xuancheng Daoist, sitting cross-legged on the large bed, and the master-disciple pair of Li Miaozen sitting on a small couch, all opened their eyes simultaneously.

“Junior sister, have you ever heard of someone called Xu Qian among the transcendent realm?” Xuancheng Daoist asked with furrowed brows.

Bingyi Yuanjun shook her head, “We have secluded ourselves from the world, not inquiring about mortal affairs, so our information is inevitably outdated. However, in this world, those who can win a game against the Director…”

She thought for a moment and said, “I’m afraid even the Celestial Venerable wouldn’t dare say they could do it for certain.”

Xuancheng Daoist made a sound of acknowledgment and said expressionlessly, “Perhaps the Director wasn’t using his full strength. There are too many possibilities; we needn’t dwell on them. The current priority is to follow this person’s trail to find Li Lingsu.”

Bingyi Yuanjun continued, “We can be certain this person has no ill intentions, but if Li Lingsu is unwilling to return with us, this Xu Qian will likely interfere. We don’t know his true capabilities now. If he’s in Third Grade, the two of us are sufficient. But if he’s Second Grade or even First Grade…”

If he were in Second Grade, they would have to negotiate politely. If he were in First Grade, whatever he said would go.

If they wanted to take Li Lingsu away, they would have to return to the mountain and ask the Celestial Venerable to intervene.

Bingyi Yuanjun noticed from the corner of her eye that Li Miaozen was pressing her lips together, looking as if she was suppressing laughter.

This ageless beauty said coldly, “Miaozen, what are you laughing at?”

“I’m not laughing!” Li Miaozen denied it.

“You want to laugh,” Bingyi Yuanjun said coldly.

“Master, I’m not. I’m the Holy Maiden of the Celestial Sect, practicing the Supreme Emotionlessness. I don’t laugh easily,” Li Miaozen said with a cold and detached demeanor.

I can’t take it anymore, I’m about to burst out laughing… The little soul inside Li Miaozen was slapping its thighs in laughter.

Bingyi Yuanjun gave her a cold look, then turned back to discuss important matters with Xuancheng Daoist.

“According to the information we’ve gathered, that Xu Qian took away the Pagoda from Sanhua Temple. The Buddhist sect won’t let this go. If we can find out where the Western Region monks have gone, we might be able to track down Xu Qian.”

The ice-cold beauty said calmly.

Master is still as clever as ever… Li Miaozen sighed inwardly.

…

Early morning.

Li Lingsu was still in deep sleep when he was awakened by a series of short knocks on the door and a woman’s voice calling out.

“Aunt, Aunt, something terrible has happened.”

Chai Xing’er opened her eyes, her demeanor that of a beautiful wife, cool yet delicate, lazily saying in a soft voice, “Young Master Li, please help me open the door.”

Li Lingsu frowned slightly, “You should get dressed first.”

Chai Xing’er shook her head, her voice lazy and weak, “I told you it’s urgent, hurry up and go.”

It was more troublesome for women to get dressed.

Li Lingsu put on a robe and walked to the door, opening it.

Outside stood a woman from the Chai family named Chai Ping, dressed in practical short clothes, with cultivation evident in her bearing.

Chai Ping looked anxious, but her gaze couldn’t help but fall on Li Lingsu’s incomparably handsome face and the well-proportioned chest exposed by his half-open robe.

Chai Ping forced herself to look away, gave a curtsy, and then stepped over the threshold into the room.

By this time, Chai Xing’er had sat up and was putting on a white undergarment, covering her pale green dudou.

“Aunt, someone has broken into the underground vault again,” Chai Ping reported.

Chai Xing’er continued dressing, remaining calm and composed, “Were any corpses stolen?”

“No, but the family head’s corpse was dissected,” Chai Ping said.

Chai Xing’er’s hand paused briefly, then she nodded slowly, “I see.”

She dismissed Chai Ping, finished putting on her gauze dress, picked up a jade hairpin with her delicate hands, and simply put her hair up in a bun. She said, “Young Master Li, I’m going to check the underground vault. If you’re still tired, you can sleep a bit longer.”

Li Lingsu made a sound of acknowledgment, then suddenly grabbed Chai Xing’er’s hand.

Under her confused gaze, he pulled her into his arms, then planted a firm kiss on Chai Xing’er’s fair and delicate cheek, smiling as he said, “I’ll always be by your side.”

Chai Xing’er stared at him in a daze, her eyes seeming to glisten with tears, and she smiled charmingly.

The door closed again, and Li Lingsu sat alone at the table, thinking about what Chai Ping had reported.

“Chai Jianyuan’s corpse was dissected? It must have been Senior Xu. He said he wanted to solve this case. I wonder if he found anything…”

Li Lingsu suddenly felt eager to find Xu Qian immediately and asked him what he had discovered.

Just as he was thinking this, the unlocked door was pushed open slightly, and an orange cat slipped in.