Did Old Master Liu die or not? No one knew.
Now, apart from the Liu family, no one had seen Old Master Liu's body.
The inner prison was so quiet it felt oppressive. Yun Yang waved his hand, and all the spies silently withdrew from the room.
He suddenly stood up and began to pace the room. "Old Master Liu isn't dead. Surely, it's because we've touched upon a crucial clue. The Liu family beca panicked and had no choice but to use this thod to force us to back off."
Chen Ji feigned surprise, "Old Master Liu is not dead? Is that possible? Would the Liu family resort to fakery over such a major issue? Liu Mingxian seed genuinely grief-stricken."
Yun Yang gave a cynical smile, "For power and profit, the officials in the empire have done even more outrageous things. For a ninety-year-old man to fake his death to protect the family's progeny is not so strange. And Liu Mingxian, those civil servants are adept at putting on an act."
Saying so, he turned to look at Chen Ji, "What do you think I should do?"
Chen Ji looked down, and after a mont, answered, "Exhu the coffin, perform an autopsy."
Yun Yang was startled, "Old Master Liu is the Empress Dowager's biological father. Investigating the Liu family is one thing, but opening his coffin is asking for death! I only now realize, you're braver than I am. What if he really is dead?"
Chen Ji clasped the Eight Diagrams Lamp in his hands and looked up at Yun Yang, "Lord Yunyang, even if Old Master Liu truly is dead, wouldn't you regret not looking inside the coffin?"
Yun Yang paced quickly around the room, rapidly considering all the possible outcos of the autopsy. Finally, he stopped and declared, word by word, "Exhu the coffin, perform an autopsy!"
At that mont, a chill breeze swept through from the depths of the inner prison, making the Eight Diagrams Lamp in Chen Ji's hand flicker wildly.
Just now, Chen Ji had taken only the Ice Flow from the cells marked with 'A' and 'B'. He hadn't dared look at the other cells.
But now, with the chilly wind, the Ice Flow from the more remote cells marked with 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F', and others, began to stir restlessly and surged up of its own accord!
Chen Ji could feel the Ice Flow inside him becoming nearly uncontrollable!
This was not a place to linger.
Chen Ji stood and walked out, "Lord Yunyang, my master must be worried after I've been away for so long. Please, take back first."
Yun Yang chuckled darkly, "It was your idea, and now you want to leave? Let's go together. We shouldn't bring any other forensic doctors. You happen to have so talent in autopsy. If Old Master Liu's body is in the coffin, you can also determine the cause of his death. If sothing goes wrong, no one can escape."
Chen Ji hesitated, "Lord Yunyang, the glory is yours and Jiao Tu's, I rely gave so advice."
"What if your advice turns out to be a trap that kills us?" Yun Yang sneered, "Hurry up, let's join up with Jiao Tu. We need to be near the Liu Family Ancestral Tomb before nightfall."
Yun Yang and Jiao Tu, not adept at catching spies, were skilled at self-preservation, shirking bla, and seizing glory.
He blindfolded Chen Ji again and said in surprise, "Why are you always holding that Eight Diagrams Lamp?"
With that, he snatched it away and put it back in its place.
Chen Ji allowed Yun Yang to grab his clothes and clumsily led him out of the inner prison.
Sitting stiffly in the swaying carriage, teeth clenched, without the lamp, the Ice Flow beca unruly.
The gray curtain at the carriage window occasionally fluttered in the wind, and the setting sun outside shone on his face, bringing not a hint of warmth.
After an unknown amount of ti, soone lifted the carriage curtain, and a piercingly cold fragrance filled the air as Jiao Tu climbed in. "Eh, Yun Yang, why did you bring this kid along?"
Yun Yang, driving the horses up front, replied, "It was the kid's idea, so naturally, he should co along."
Jiao Tu pulled off Chen Ji's blindfold and removed the cotton from his ears, asking curiously, "Yun Yang, I heard you dispatched all the prison guards from Luocheng City's inner prison to Lingnan? Prisoner won't be angry you decided for her, right? After all, the inner prison is her turf."
Yun Yang wore a mocking expression, "She better think about how she's going to face Lord Pri Minister's wrath. The inner prison is so compromised it might as well be a sieve, intelligence leaks at will, I must report her misconduct."
Jiao Tu pondered, "But dispatching to Lingnan is harsh, it's a long journey. I heard that malaria is rampant there, and after contracting it, one suffers greatly for days before death."
Yun Yang paused, "Ah... What should we do then?"
"Kill them in Luocheng City—why make them travel that far?" Jiao Tu said seriously.
"Good point."
With that, Jiao Tu looked at Chen Ji and said again, seriously, "You wouldn't set us up, right? You know, betraying us ans death."
Chen Ji smiled, "Jiao Tu, if I set you and Lord Yunyang up, who else would pay ?"
"Good to know!" Jiao Tu chirped cheerfully, lifting her wrist to Chen Ji's nose, "Sll this, I just bought the perfu at Daughter Pavilion, nice isn't it? Quite expensive."
Yun Yang frowned, "Why let him sll that?"
Jiao Tu glanced at him, "Drive your horses, mind your own business."
Yun Yang scowled and kept silent.
Along the way, Chen Ji saw white paper money scattered on both sides of the road, which were tossed upward by the Liu family on the day of their great mourning procession.
Yun Yang disdainfully said, "In life, they dressed in silk and ate delicacies, and even after death they continue to scatter such an amount of paper money, hoping to perpetuate their wealth and glory on the other side. Yet the children of the poor can't even afford paper."
Jiao Tu laughed mischievously, "Seeing you hate evil like an enemy, Lord Pri Minister should have you transferred to the Criminal Justice Departnt. They investigate corrupt officials every day."
"I don't want to go. The Criminal Justice Departnt is full of stuffy old n, boring to death."
...
...
Co nightfall, Yun Yang and Jiao Tu took turns driving the carriage, while he entered the carriage to guard Chen Ji.
"By the way," Yun Yang said, staring into Chen Ji's eyes: "During the interrogation of the Liu Family mbers, it was ntioned that Liu Shenyu had an extrely close relationship with a high-ranking individual from Prince Jing Mansion. I'm suspicious that Prince Jing Mansion is also involved, and there might even be Jing Dynasty spies active within the Mansion... Have you discovered any clues there?"
Chen Ji's heart tightened, "Lord Yunyang, are you certain there are spies in the Mansion?"
The air inside the carriage suddenly beca tense, as if an invisible hand was pulling at the space between them.
Yun Yang pondered thoughtfully, "Do you think it's possible for Doctor Yao to be a Jing Dynasty spy? He's highly respected in the Imperial Hospital, and countless dignitaries would like him to make house calls. Even His Majesty wishes to summon him to reside in the palace permanently. Yet he refuses, and three years ago he ca to Luocheng City to beco the Imperial Physician for Prince Jing Mansion... Don't you find that odd?"
"Odd," Chen Ji asked curiously, "Has my master changed in any way over these years?"
"Doctor Yao gained a reputation in the Imperial Capital for being harsh, but Lord Pri Minister once said he wasn't like that in his early years. Back then, Doctor Yao was kind and charitable, even willing to see patients for free."
Chen Ji pondered for a while, "I don't think my master is much like a spy. Before, when soone from the Mansion sought him out for a consultation, he was unwilling to go. If he were a spy, how could he pass up the opportunity to co into contact with the great personages of the Mansion?"
"That makes sense," Yun Yang stroked his chin, "What about your two senior brothers? I've checked them, and Liu Quxing is from a side branch of the Liu Family. Could it be possible for him?"
Chen Ji took a deep breath, his face showing doubt, "Lord Yunyang, you aren't suggesting indirectly, are you?"
Yun Yang laughed, "How could it be you? I have absolute trust in you. I'm just reminding you to be cautious of those around you."
Jiao Tu suddenly said, "Let's stop the carriage by the woods over there; we're nearly at the Liu Family Ancestral Tomb. We'll cross this mountain and walk the rest of the way."
The three of them got out of the carriage and climbed along the mountain path beside the official road, reaching the peak of Zhuangyuan Mountain.
Yun Yang and Jiao Tu moved quickly. Chen Ji thought he would be panting with exhaustion, but to his surprise, when he reached the summit, he had hardly broken a sweat.
He lay on the mountain, gasping for breath and exhaustedly said, "Can we see the Liu Family Ancestral Tomb from here?"
Yun Yang pointed ahead, "There it is, at the highest point of Beimang."
Chen Ji propped himself up and looked out, only to see at the highest point of Beimang Mountain a continuous series of steles and stone mausoleums that stretched across dozens of acres; the Liu Family Ancestral Tomb was indeed grand.
In front of the tombs stood stone figures, stone sheep, stone tigers, and watch pillars, so tombs reaching over ten feet high!
It was known that in the Ning Dynasty, the class hierarchy was strict; common folk couldn't be carried in palanquins, commoners couldn't wear boots, and non-officials couldn't wear broad-rimd hats—a myriad of clear laws that flaunted ritual and rank.
For the Liu Family to have these tombs that were over ten feet high, one had to be of a third-rank or above in life.
Yun Yang looked at that field of ancestral tombs and sighed, "For a thousand years, civil servant families of our Ning Dynasty, generation after generation of officials, have rode on the backs of the common people, drinking blood, amassing great wealth, only to receive such glory."
Chen Ji subconsciously felt sothing was wrong. Could the Ning Dynasty's reign really have lasted a thousand years? This was unthinkable, historically impossible.
Unless there was an external force.
At that mont, Jiao Tu said, "The death of Old Master Liu indeed had problems. Look inside the tomb complex; there are stationed over a hundred private soldiers, and they might even have an Executive Officer in charge. When spies were last sent to Luocheng City for reconnaissance, there were only a dozen or so people guarding the Liu Family Ancestral Tomb."
"We can't just barge in," Yun Yang frowned and looked at Jiao Tu, "Your move? It's not good for to open the coffin."
Jiao Tu glanced at Chen Ji, "Have him blindfold his eyes and turn his back to , guard ."
Chen Ji proactively turned his back. He understood that the Cultivation Path of an Executive Officer was not to be known by others.
Yet after he blindfolded himself, Jiao Tu sat cross-legged at the peak, pulled out the short knife at her waist, and made a cut on her brow.
Yun Yang made a cut on his finger, awakened over a dozen shadow puppet paper n, and stood guard closely by Jiao Tu's side.
The next mont, a yin shadow appeared to burst forth from Jiao Tu's brow, like a crab shedding its shell, detaching from her body.
The yin shadow stood still, looking exactly like Jiao Tu, except cloaked in black Light Armor, holding in her hands a Qinglong Yanyuedao that was even taller than a person!
Jiao Tu's true body remained still, while the Yin God turned to Yun Yang and spoke, "I'm off."
Having said that, the Yin God went to the cliff edge and jumped down, landing lightly on the treetops below, weighting as if nothing at all. With each leap, it could easily clear over a dozen large trees, heading straight for the Liu Family Ancestral Tomb!
Gradually, the sky turned completely dark, and the Yin God blended into the night.
When Jiao Tu's Yin God arrived at the tomb of Old Master Liu, taking advantage of everyone's inattention, it burst straight into the stone-constructed mausoleum!
The stone wall seed as if it didn't exist at all!
After so ti, the Yin God retreated at high speed and vanished into Jiao Tu's brow, never to be seen again. Suddenly she opened her eyes in shock and exclaid, "There's really no one inside the coffin!"
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