Chương 46: Dead Again

Nothing happened that night. In the morning, Fang Cheng and Qin Hao arrived at the Yamen gate. The day before, there had been Yamen runners standing guard. Today, there was no one in sight. Fang Cheng sensed something was wrong. He hurried into the Yamen and saw a body hanging from the beam in the main hall. It was completely naked. He stepped closer and recognized Magistrate Liu Defu. The magistrate's eyes were closed, his face pale. A ring of purple bruises circled his neck.

He had clearly been dead for some time. Qin Hao followed and saw the body.

"Did he hang himself, or...?"

"Definitely not suicide." Fang Cheng took the body down from the beam. The back was covered in whip marks, many of them deep enough to expose bone. Faint traces of internal organs were visible through the wounds.

"He was whipped to death." Qin Hao gasped at the gruesome sight. Something about it felt familiar, though he could not place where he had seen it before. The demon sword sensed the blood on the corpse and stirred restlessly inside Fang Cheng, but a force from his Dao Field held it down. Ever since reaching the Fourth Level Inviting the Deity, Fang Cheng could suppress the demon sword as long as he stayed calm and focused. His mind was clear. He used his divine sense to examine the body carefully.

There were no traces of Divine Energy left behind, and the demon sword detected no demonic aura or spirit beast scent. It looked like an ordinary person's work. But the problem was that no ordinary person, no matter how bold, would dare whip a county magistrate to death in the Yamen's main hall.

"Could Hu Tong have sent someone?" He considered the possibility, but it was too early to jump to conclusions. He needed more clues. He also felt that there was a demon or spirit beast hiding somewhere in the city. This was his sixth sense as a righteous cultivator.

"Where is everyone? Not a single Yamen runner in sight! Where is the secretary? Get out here!" Fang Cheng shouted, but the Yamen was empty. No one answered. Everyone had probably seen the magistrate's body and fled in terror. Qin Hao snapped out of his thoughts. He had been racking his brain but could not figure anything out. He turned to Fang Cheng.

"Brother Fang, our business partner is dead. What do we do now?"

"We find the killer! As cultivators, we have a duty to uphold justice! We cannot stand by and do nothing!" Fang Cheng declared firmly, then added, "Even if this magistrate was not a good person." Qin Hao scratched his head.

"We cannot even find anyone to question. How are we supposed to investigate? There are just the two of us, and Xiangshi City has over a hundred thousand people. Finding a killer here is like finding a needle in a haystack." You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Fang Cheng thought for a moment.

"Let us go to the city gate. The soldiers there might not have heard about the magistrate's death yet." He flew toward the gate, with Qin Hao following close behind. But Qin Hao's Divine Energy was limited, and Fang Cheng soon pulled ahead. At Xiangshi City's gate, the same squad of soldiers was on duty as the day before. The squad leader, Zhang, was still in charge. Fang Cheng landed before him.

"Your magistrate is dead."

"You jest, sir," Squad Leader Zhang said at first. But then he thought better of it. A cultivator would not lie about something like this.

"Oh no. Hu Tong really sent someone to retaliate." Wait. Why was this cultivator telling him this? Could he be one of Hu Tong's men? Squad Leader Zhang's legs went weak. He wanted to collapse, but his brave heart kept him standing.

"Sigh. Magistrate, may you rest in peace." He shook his head and sighed, slowly edging toward his soldiers, as if to share the sad news. Just as he reached them, he suddenly shouted, "Brothers! See you around!" As he yelled, he sprinted south like a windblown wheel. The other soldiers understood immediately. They scattered in all directions, each running a different way, as if they had rehearsed it many times. Fang Cheng was stunned for a moment, then realized they thought he was the killer. Damn it.

He could not let them get away. He leaped forward and blocked Squad Leader Zhang's path.

"Oh no, I knew it. You are going to kill me, the leader. Wuwuwu... Brothers, stop running and fight with me!" Squad Leader Zhang shouted at his men, but none of them listened. They all ran without looking back. They were brave enough to flee, but not to fight.

"I am not the killer," Fang Cheng explained patiently. But Squad Leader Zhang did not believe him. He knew Hu Tong's men loved to torment people. They would say "I am not going to kill you" while their weapons did the talking. Fang Cheng had no choice.

"If you do not believe me, I will just stab you to death right now. You do not look like a good person anyway." That did the trick. Squad Leader Zhang believed him. Fang Cheng nodded approvingly and began questioning him.

"Has anyone suspicious entered or left the city?" Squad Leader Zhang thought for a moment.

"To be honest, plenty of people. I find everyone suspicious."

"Focus on cultivators or things that do not look human," Fang Cheng reminded him. Squad Leader Zhang thought again.

"I did not see any other cultivators, aside from you two gentlemen yesterday."

"Other than Hu Tong, who do you think would want the magistrate dead?" Fang Cheng continued, then added, "Is there anyone in the city who had a grudge against him?"

"Yes. There is one locked up in the prison," Squad Leader Zhang blurted out.

"The prison? What happened?" Fang Cheng asked. Squad Leader Zhang explained, "He used to be a Yamen runner. Then he was put in charge of the workshop. Later, the magistrate took a dislike to him and fired him. He held a grudge and secretly killed the new supervisor. Fortunately, Secretary Zhou investigated and caught him."

"If he held a grudge, why did he kill the new supervisor instead of the magistrate?" Fang Cheng was puzzled. Something did not add up. The magistrate and secretary had definitely been hiding things yesterday. Just then, Qin Hao arrived at the gate. Fang Cheng decided to split up. He would go to the prison to question the prisoner, while Qin Hao would take Squad Leader Zhang and gather the scattered soldiers, then find the missing secretary. Fang Cheng needed more information from him.

After giving his orders, Fang Cheng hurried back to the Yamen and found the prison based on Squad Leader Zhang's directions. It was a crude building with earthen walls dividing small cells enclosed by iron bars. It was dim, damp, and covered in cobwebs. A couple of rats were sprawled by the wall. They looked up and gave a lazy glance at the approaching person, scratched their butts, rolled over, and went back to just lying there.

Looking at this, Fang Cheng was reminded of the magistrate's talk of rampant robbers in the city, and he couldn't suppress a wry smile. That cur of an official had not a single truthful word to spare. There was only one prisoner in the jail. He was a disheveled man in coarse cloth, his hands bound in shackles. Hearing the prison door open, he started banging on the bars before he even saw who it was.

"I have told you a thousand times! It was not me! Secretary Zhou Zhixin is the real killer!"

"Arrest him now, or everyone in the Yamen will die!"