The old woman was brought into the City Lord Mansion, but soon passed out from a high fever. Fu Mingxia was about to send a bailiff to fetch a doctor when, unexpectedly, He Gan arrived first.
He came with a small box in his hand. “It’s late. Magistrate Kong is already resting. This matter is of grave importance; I felt I couldn’t wait, so I delivered it immediately.”
Kong Boshu couldn’t possibly fall asleep. But with the Devil Cultivator still at large, how would he dare come to the City Lord Mansion in the middle of the night?
Qin Jinghan took the box, frowning. “Soul Spirit?”
Vice Magistrate He nodded. “An hour ago, someone delivered it to the Kong residence, claiming it was the Soul Spirit of the City Lord’s daughter. I questioned the man as well. He said he was returning from chopping firewood when someone blocked his path, gave him the box and some silver, and asked him to do this.”
Rechen rushed over, grabbing He Gan’s hand and asking urgently, “Was it a Sword Cultivator about twenty years old, with a cool temperament, handsome looks, and an extraordinary manner of speaking?”
Qin Jinghan cut in, “Where did a little monk like you learn all these random terms?”
Rechen: “From reading books!”
Qin Jinghan: “Were they proper books?”
Rechen: “You’re just jealous, go away!”
He Gan awkwardly replied, “According to the woodcutter’s account, it was indeed a young man about twenty, not looking like an ordinary person, but I can’t confirm if it was…”
Fu Mingxia concluded, “It was him. He retrieved the Soul Spirit faster than we could. Jinghan, take the Number One Sword God Under Heaven, Li Weiyi, and help restore his sister’s Soul Spirit.”
Li Weiyi: “Okay!”
Fine, after hearing this name so many times, it’s not embarrassing anymore! The goddess called me Sword God!
Fu Mingxia found it strange, however. He took the Soul Spirit but didn’t return it himself. Instead, he paid someone else to bring it, and his whereabouts were now unknown.
After thinking for a moment, Fu Mingxia turned back to He Gan and asked, “The old woman at the gate, do you know her?”
At the mention of the old woman, He Gan’s expression shifted slightly. “This…”
Fu Mingxia pressed, “Regardless, she is a citizen of Xuzhou. If you don’t know, it means you don’t take the City Lord Mansion seriously. To have someone kneeling at the gate all day without your knowledge is dereliction of duty. If you do know—”
Her voice was quite soft, but every word struck He Gan like a hammer, causing cold sweat to stream down his back. “—then it means you watched an elder of Xuzhou suffer and face hardship, turning a blind eye with utter indifference. That is also dereliction of duty.”
He Gan sighed bitterly. “Goddess, please don’t be angry. This matter is a long story…”
Fu Mingxia, however, did not fall for this “I have my difficulties” act. She ordered directly, “She is currently lying on a bed in the side chamber. Send someone to find a doctor, and also call for a matron to help change the old woman into clean clothes.”
Rechen chimed in from the side, “She’s right. What are you waiting for? Human lives are at stake!”
He Gan hesitated. “At this hour, all the doctors are likely resting, and the city’s medical halls have long closed their doors. Perhaps we should wait until tomorrow…”
Rechen glared at him. “Can you go a whole day without eating, and then just wait three days to eat all at once?”
The young age of the monk might deceive the eye, but he was ultimately an Immortal cultivator. He Gan dared not offend him and quickly nodded. “I’ll send someone to handle it immediately.”
After he went outside to give instructions and returned, Fu Mingxia asked him again, “You know that old woman? What is this matter about her son she keeps mentioning?”
He Gan had no choice but to confess everything. “This old woman’s surname is Wu; she’s a washerwoman from the north of the city. Her husband passed away early, and she raised her son alone. This only son is named Zhang Youwen. Initially, he showed promise and was quite a famous child prodigy in the city. Lady Wu spent all the family’s savings on his education. But every time he entered the examination hall, Zhang Youwen would fall ill: his hands and feet would tremble, and he couldn’t hold a brush. He took the exams again and again, and failed each time.”
He Gan sighed. “This has gone on for thirty years. How could he still be called a prodigy? He only knows how to study foolishly, yet in the exam hall he becomes a coward. He has long been the laughingstock of the neighborhood and the city.”
Rechen couldn’t understand. “If that’s the case, he should have switched careers long ago. Don’t tell me he’s been taking exams for thirty years?”
“What else could he do for a living?”
He Gan continued, “He failed time and again, yet always waited for the next exam. The imperial examinations are unlike other things. Xuzhou is the center of the West Ruins; students come and go from east to west, countless in number. Every year there are young talents. If he misses a single day of studying, he might fall far behind the others. He tried teaching for a few days, but soon quit.”
Rechen shook his head as he listened.
Just then, Qin Jinghan brought Li Weiyi back in, reporting that Su Yun’s soul had been restored to its proper place. She just needed a night’s rest and some care, and she would be fine.
Fu Mingxia nodded and signaled He Gan to continue.
He Gan nodded and said, “Three months ago, this Lady Wu came to report that her son had been missing for several days. Her son was already over forty; his legs are his own. Maybe, unable to bear the pressure of repeated failures, he went elsewhere to make a living. After all, walking down the street, even three-year-olds knew Zhang Youwen’s story and would inevitably mock him a few times.”
Seeing the newly refreshed quest, Li Weiyi knew immediately it wasn’t that simple. “Even if he really wanted to leave, he should have taken his mother along, right? That doesn’t make sense. I think something has happened to him.”
Qin Jinghan said, “You’re rambling. What does his business have to do with us? Missing persons cases are handled by the Government Office. The taxes the citizens pay don’t go to feeding these officials for nothing.”
He Gan knew Qin Jinghan was taking a jab at him. His old face reddened. “It’s not that we haven’t searched. But the Government Office has many cases, and recently, with the Devil Cultivator running rampant… besides, there really aren’t any leads…”
Suddenly, Rechen exclaimed, “Uh oh!”
Li Weiyi jumped in fright. “What is it?!”
He immediately looked around, fearing Zhuyong had returned to kill them.
But in the deep night mansion, the candle flames flickered. There was no trace of that Devil Cultivator.
Rechen said, “My God Duan is also missing. Don’t tell me something has happened to him too, just like Zhang Youwen?”
The child raised his head, his sharp gaze fixed intently on He Gan. “Is the public security here total garbage?”
Qin Jinghan frowned. “Is that how a monk speaks?”
Rechen retorted, “You’re not a monk, so why do you care how I speak?”
Fu Mingxia pondered. “This matter might not be that simple. Earlier, I saw that the aura of monsters and Devils in Xuzhou City was dense and assumed Zhuyong was the cause. But now Zhuyong has fled, and the Puppet Demon has been dealt with. Yet the Demonic aura not only hasn’t dispersed but has grown even stronger. This isn’t right.”
He Gan’s heart pounded with fear. “Are you saying… there’s still a Demon in the city?”
Fu Mingxia replied, “Not necessarily within the city. Xuzhou’s territory is vast. But I suspect that whatever Demon or strange entity is behind this, it must be nearby.”
She turned to Li Weiyi. “The sect is still waiting for our report. How about this: let Jinghan take you back first while I stay here to continue investigating.”
No way! If Fu Mingxia were taking him back, that’d be fine, but Qin Jinghan?
Who could stand being alone with him?!
Li Weiyi shook his head frantically. “I am, after all, a member of Xuzhou. The safety of Xuzhou is always on my mind!” he declared righteously. “I’ll stay. Once everything is clear, we can all leave together.”
Qin Jinghan turned and scrutinized the spirited youth. “Why do I feel like you have ulterior motives?”
Li Weiyi shot back, “Just say it, do you want to leave or not?”
Qin Jinghan let out a cold snort, his handsome young face showing some arrogance. “I’m staying to make sure Duan Nanyun doesn’t get swindled off to Penglai to work as a laborer, to prevent him from embarrassing our Fuxi.”
Li Weiyi fell silent off to the side.
Penglai’s reputation sounds just like Northern Myanmar.
In the latter half of the night, the group settled down in the City Lord Mansion. He Gan brought a doctor and two matrons: one to care for Lady Wu, the other for Su Yun. The doctor examined them both and prescribed medicine. It wasn’t until near dusk the following day that the old woman slowly regained consciousness.
Fu Mingxia had gone out with Qin Jinghan, leaving Rechen and Li Weiyi to wait.
Lady Wu was frantic with worry that the Immortals had left. Li Weiyi expended great effort soothing her, then fell into silence upon seeing the four-character task displayed on his quest tracker: [Comfort the Elderly].
He had initially thought the quests he’d receive in this world would be about Subduing Demons, Exterminating Devils, and saving the world—or, at the very least, grand battles between immortals and devils, with a Devil Lord demanding, “How do you intend to repay what you owe me?” He never expected the actual quests to be—Temple Run, a moonlit countryside stroll, and caring for the elderly.
But it made sense, considering he hadn’t even officially joined a sect yet.
The southern part of Xuzhou City housed the wealthy. Only the north side was where ordinary commoners were in the majority, along with some destitute folk clustered together, forming a unique shantytown area over time.
Though Lady Wu’s family was poor, her husband had left behind a small courtyard, sparing them from homelessness. The courtyard walls were low; Fu Mingxia and Qin Jinghan easily vaulted over them and entered. The yard was piled high with Chinese honey locust pods. Remembering the old woman’s hands, covered in old sores and scars, one could tell she made her living by washing clothes for others.
The door bolt could simply be pulled open from inside. There was nothing of value within; even the tables, chairs, and stools were broken. The main room contained a rice jar, long since scraped empty, its bottom showing. Only a basket to the side held some wilted wild vegetables. A courtyard this poor, even thieves would likely disdain to visit.
Fu Mingxia completed a circuit but found no useful clues, so she told Qin Jinghan to ask around the neighborhood.
She then went to Zhang Youwen’s bedroom, which also served as his study. The bedding was clean, but the desk had gathered dust. Several hand-copied books were worn to the point of falling apart.
From outside the courtyard, a woman’s shrill voice rang out: “Oh my, since when did the Government Office hire such a handsome young constable?”
“…Be serious!”
“Stay away from me!”
“Keep a meter’s distance!”
It was Qin Jinghan’s alert yet panicked voice.
Seeing Fu Mingxia emerge, Qin Jinghan breathed a sigh of relief and flashed behind her. “Let’s go, go, go!”
Fu Mingxia asked, “Go where? And who is this?”
The woman standing in the alleyway by the gate was in her early forties, stout and robust. Her beady black eyes darted between the two. “A female constable? No way? Looking that pretty and daring to come to the north side of the city? Must be some young lady from a noble family. Don’t you know this place is dangerous!”
Fu Mingxia asked, “You live around here?”
The woman grunted an affirmative. “They all call me Lady Wang. I live in the next courtyard over. What’s going on here? Why’d you two jump out of Lady Wu’s yard? Pretty and handsome as you are, you can’t be thieves, right?”
Qin Jinghan was clearly struggling to deal with this woman, so Fu Mingxia took over. “Lady Wu called us here. You guessed right; the one behind me is indeed a constable from the Government Office. We’re here to investigate Zhang Youwen’s disappearance. Whatever you know, tell us.”
At the mention of the name Zhang Youwen, Lady Wang’s face twisted with disgust. “That bookworm? At first, people said he was kidnapped by bandits. But, tsk, as you can see, their family’s dirt poor. After that last swindler came by, they didn’t have a single cent left!”
Fu Mingxia: “Swindler?”
The mention of gossip immediately energized Lady Wang. “That Lady Wu, she was so frantic she lost her mind. She heard Zhang Youwen went missing on a trip to buy books, took the book money that day to a shop in the west of the city and never came back. If you ask me, he just didn’t want to suffer studying and taking exams anymore and ran off with the money!”
The case file He Gan had given them did contain the bookshop owner’s statement. On the day Zhang Youwen disappeared, and ever since, there had been no record of him purchasing any books. No one at the shop had seen him either.
This sprawling Xuzhou City was unlike the desolate wilderness; outside of monsters and Devils, no one dared commit violence or crimes in broad daylight.
Qin Jinghan reminded her, “Tell us about the swindler.”
Lady Wang threw him a flirtatious glance. “Don’t be so impatient, handsome. I hadn’t finished my story. After Zhang Youwen went missing, his poor mother, she nearly went mad with worry. The Government Office came by once, but there were no results. She kept asking around everywhere. Then a big, bearded man showed up, a stranger in these parts. Said he could help find her son, guaranteed, for just three taels of silver!”
Three taels might seem little, but it was enough for an ordinary family to live on for one or two years.
Qin Jinghan asked, “How do you know he was a swindler?”
Lady Wang let out a cold snort. “With my experience reading people, I can tell at a glance who’s reliable and who’s not. That demon-bewitched husband of mine, he wasn’t reliable. If only I had met someone with your looks and bearing back then, wouldn’t that have been—”
As she spoke, Lady Wang twisted her hips and sidled closer again.
Qin Jinghan and she both circled around Fu Mingxia, switching positions.
Seeing the youth who showed no fear before monsters and Devils being scared stiff by a mere woman, Fu Mingxia let out a laugh and still blocked for him. “Lady Wang, let’s focus on the swindler.”
Standing behind her, grip on his saber hilt, Qin Jinghan breathed a sigh of relief.
Lady Wang coughed a few times. “This Lady Wu, she sold everything of any value in the house. If people didn’t need to eat, I think she’d even sell her rice jar! This little courtyard, she mortgaged it to someone else. She borrowed everything she could from everyone she could. Even I lent her a string of coins! If she can’t pay it back by the winter solstice, I’m afraid she won’t even have a place to live. She spends her days waiting at the Government Office; only at night can she come back and wash a few clothes to earn a few copper coins. I say, her son probably ran off himself. Searching like this is no solution. She’d be better off just living her own life.”
Qin Jinghan frowned. “That man took her money, then what?”
Lady Wang covered her mouth and laughed. “You, handsome, with such a fine face, yet so dull-witted? I said he was a swindler. He took the money and ran, naturally. Now look, not only does she have to find her son, but she has to find the swindler too!”
Fu Mingxia asked further, “Did they have any enemies?”
Lady Wang shook her head. “That family, a bookworm and an old woman, who could they possibly offend? When they see people, they walk with their heads down. You two are a novelty, dressed so richly and yet bothering with their trash fire of a situation. Don’t tell me you took three taels of silver too?”
Qin Jinghan caught her implication. “Are you saying we’re swindlers?”
Lady Wang shook her head, her expression playful. “I never said that~ Oh my, that brat of mine is calling for me. I need to go home and cook. Oh, right—”
She took a few steps back before turning her head again. Her beady black eyes were like two black beads. “If you really do find Zhang Youwen, be sure to give me the good news. I’ve saved up three taels of silver too.”
Qin Jinghan went around asking a few more neighbors. He didn’t run into any more middle-aged women like Lady Wang who took to flirting with him, but the yield of information wasn’t significant.
As Lady Wang said, the neighbors all knew Zhang Youwen had vanished, but they could understand it. The family’s entire hope rested on his shoulders. The more failures, the greater the pressure. Who knows, one day he might just snap and run off. It was only logical.
In years past, when Lady Wu took her son out, everyone they met would praise him and ask him to recite poetry, followed by more compliments. But as his age increased, when Zhang Youwen went out alone, his head, once held high with a smile, now hung low, his face hidden.
Seeing that the sky was growing dark, the two decided to head back.
Qin Jinghan asked, “Where to?”
Fu Mingxia said flatly, “The Government Office.”
“Not back to the City Lord Mansion?”
“There are some things I need to verify at the Government Office.”
Qin Jinghan was puzzled. “You still think this case is connected to a Demon? I didn’t see anything. Besides, he’s been missing for so many days; the odds he’s still alive are slim. If this is just a dispute between mortals, then it’s none of our business.”
Fu Mingxia pulled a tattered copy of “The Doctrine of the Mean” from her sleeve. “I found this in Zhang Youwen’s bedroom.”
Qin Jinghan glanced at it, and his expression shifted. “Demonic Qi?”
The Demonic Qi on it was very faint, almost imperceptible. Without careful attention, one wouldn’t detect it at all.
Fu Mingxia nodded. “It must be related to a Demon. There’s still a Demon hidden in Xuzhou.”