Chương 47: I Found You, My Little Treasure

The prisoner's name was Lin Gang, in his early thirties. He tensed up when he saw the visitors were not Yamen runners.

"Who are you?"

"First, I am a good person. Second, I am the City God of White Flower City. And third, I am not on the same side as Hu Tong." Fang Cheng said this to show goodwill and ease the man's wariness.

"A City God? A cultivator!" Lin Gang immediately grew nervous. His hands trembled, and sweat beaded on his forehead.

"My lord, I have nothing to do with Zhou Zhixin! Please do not misunderstand! Do not kill me! I beg you, do not kill me..." He backed away, pleading, until his back hit the wall. His eyes were full of terror. Fang Cheng sighed in exasperation.

"Can we just talk normally? Did I say I was going to kill you? Do I have to put my sword to your neck?" Fine. If that was what he wanted. Fang Cheng drew the demon sword, cut through the iron bars, stepped into the cell, and stood before Lin Gang. He placed the blade against the man's neck and said coldly, "Friend, I am doing this for the sake of all living beings. Answer my questions honestly, or else..." Lin Gang collapsed in fear, kowtowing and begging, "My lord! My most respected lord! Please ask!

I will tell you everything!" Fang Cheng withdrew the sword with satisfaction and questioned him.

"What is this about Zhou Zhixin? Why do you say he is the killer?" Lin Gang hesitated, struggling with whether to speak. After a long pause, he gritted his teeth and answered, "My lord, Zhou Zhixin is a member of the Anti-Cultivator Alliance. He wanted me to join. But I refused. I swear, I just want to live in peace."

"Anti-Cultivator Alliance? What the hell is that?" Fang Cheng's head filled with question marks.

"You do not know?" Lin Gang was surprised. Fang Cheng complained, "I only got here yesterday. What would I know? All I saw was your magistrate and secretary beating their bellies." Seeing that Fang Cheng genuinely did not know, Lin Gang sighed in relief and explained.

"Zhou Zhixin is not from Xiangshi City. He came from the capital last year. He keeps spouting nonsense about how times have changed, how mortals should stand on their own, and how cultivators are nothing but parasites who never truly serve the people... Uh, my lord, those are his words, not mine. Please do not misunderstand." Fang Cheng waved a hand.

"It is fine. To be fair, he is not wrong." Seeing that Fang Cheng did not mind, Lin Gang grew bolder and spoke louder.

"All of us at the Yamen thought his words were a joke at first. We laughed and forgot about them. But the magistrate took him seriously and hired him as secretary. Many of us suspected Zhou Zhixin was using some kind of magic to bewitch the magistrate. Later, the city got new textile equipment, and Hu Tong, the City God of Dongyang City, sent people to build a City God Temple here. Once the temple was built, Zhou Zhixin stopped saying those crazy things. He was not stupid.

He knew better than to say that stuff in front of Hu Tong's cultivators. But recently, Hu Tong's people pulled out, and Zhou Zhixin became active again. He wanted me to join his organization, the one I mentioned. The full name is: The New Era Anti-Cultivator Alliance. I am not stupid. I turned him down flat. But he would not give up. He said the world does not need cultivators. He said we should resist, starting with Hu Tong. He said the people of Xiangshi City and the factory workers would stand behind us.

He said if we all united and led all mortals, even the immortals above could not stop us! I thought to myself, holy hell, even the immortals? That is suicide. I was terrified. I quit my supervisor position at the factory that very night. If my family were not in Xiangshi City, I would have fled immediately. But the magistrate seemed to believe his lies. So did the factory workers. But please do not hold it against them, my lord. They were all bewitched by Zhou Zhixin. They are innocent.

As for the new supervisor who died, he must have discovered some secret of Zhou Zhixin's and was killed for it. So please, my lord, you must help us. Get rid of Zhou Zhixin!" Fang Cheng fell silent. There was a lot of information to process. But it did not make sense for Zhou Zhixin to have killed the magistrate. He was anti-cultivator, not anti-magistrate.

"I must find Zhou Zhixin and get some answers!" Just as Fang Cheng made up his mind, the prison door burst open. Qin Hao ran in shouting, "Found him! I found Zhou Zhixin!"

"Where?" Fang Cheng pressed.

"At the workshop we visited yesterday. I left Squad Leader Zhang to watch him and rushed back to tell you..."

"You left Squad Leader Zhang to watch him? Damn it! Do not let Zhou Zhixin escape!" Fang Cheng yelled and rushed out of the prison, flying toward the workshop.

"Hey, Brother Fang! I am not done! The secretary cannot escape!" Qin Hao chased after him. In the prison, the bewildered Lin Gang stared at the cut iron bars, unsure whether to flee or stay. Moments later, Fang Cheng arrived above the workshop. He scanned below and quickly spotted Squad Leader Zhang crouched on the ground, vomiting. He landed and demanded the secretary's whereabouts. Squad Leader Zhang pointed at a large building behind him, trembling.

"Hanging from the beam inside..." What! Another one dead? Fang Cheng frowned and hurried into the building. The secretary's body hung from the beam, just like the magistrate's—completely naked, covered in whip marks. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. He leaped up, took the body down, and examined it. Haha. There was a problem. He smelled something demonic. Finally, his little treasure had shown its cute little feet.

He held the secretary's body close, sniffing at its back. It was the scent left by his little treasure—a fresh, clean fragrance, like a bamboo forest by a distant waterfall, the sound of wind through bamboo, the flow of water, and... Buzz! Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong!

"Who is playing the zither?"

"Wonderful. Truly wonderful!"

"The music is like a towering mountain, like a babbling stream. Magnificent. Absolutely magnificent! Show yourself, zither player. I am your kindred spirit. Let us sit down, drink tea, and admire the moon. Slurp. Your music is so beautiful it makes me drool..."

"Brother Fang, what are you doing?" Qin Hao's voice broke through. Fang Cheng snapped back to reality. He looked at the body in his arms, laughed, and wiped the drool from his mouth.

"Hao'er, this is my unique investigation technique. Unfortunately, I almost pinpointed the killer's location."

"As expected of Brother Fang! Such an amazing investigation technique!" Qin Hao did not overthink it. He gave a thumbs up. But this peculiar method reminded him of a certain cheap street novel. Wait! Qin Hao raised his hand and shouted, "I know! It is that novel! Brother Fang, the killer is imitating a scene from a novel!"

"A novel? What novel?" Fang Cheng pressed. Qin Hao explained, "The novel is called The Abai Detective Files. It is about a Yamen constable solving crimes. In the first episode, the killer hangs the victim and whips the body. It is exactly the same as our crime scene!"

"A constable named Abai solves crimes..." Fang Cheng felt something was off. Were demons these days so cultured that they used novels as reference?

"The constable is not Abai. Abai is his bird," Qin Hao corrected.

"What the hell? A bird?" Fang Cheng wanted to complain. His brain power was already limited, and now Qin Hao had muddled it further.

"Wait, Brother Fang. Let me explain slowly." Qin Hao summarized The Abai Detective Files. The story was set in a small border county of the Great Sheng Dynasty. The constable was named Ahei, and he was very dark-skinned. He had a spirit bird named Abai, pure white, capable of speech. The two solved cases together. The bird could spot minute clues with its sharp eyes. The first episode's killer was the victim's son.

Because the father wanted to spend all the family's silver on buying a concubine, the son got so angry that he hanged his father up and beat him to death. Then he took the money, bought back that concubine, and began living a shameless life. Until Abai flew onto the son's face and declared:"You are the killer!"

"..." Fang Cheng was speechless. The plot was ridiculous. He did not even know where to begin criticizing it.

"So the killer is the magistrate's son!" Qin Hao concluded.

"No, no, no!" Squad Leader Zhang shook his finger. He had finished vomiting and listened with great interest to the story.

"The magistrate had a son late in life. The boy is not even ten. He could not have hanged and beaten his father."

"Then it is the secretary's son!" Qin Hao said. Squad Leader Zhang shook his finger again.

"The secretary also only has one son. Same age as the magistrate's boy."

"Then... whose son would it be?" Qin Hao asked.

"Let us go find the secretary's son," Fang Cheng declared. The demon might be disguised as a child. He had already seen the magistrate's son, so only the secretary's son was left. Under Squad Leader Zhang's guidance, they went to the secretary's house. They knocked on the wooden gate and pushed it open. Inside, a woman was sewing, her head bowed. She was the secretary's wife, Wang.

"Sigh. Xiaofeng is so mischievous. His clothes are always torn." Wang sighed, then saw Squad Leader Zhang and two strangers entering.

"Are you looking for my husband? He went out last night and has not returned." She did not seem to know her husband was dead. Fang Cheng decided not to tell her and scare her. He simply said, "Ma'am, we are looking for Xiaofeng."

"What has Xiaofeng done wrong? Please do not punish him. Punish me if you must. I have failed to raise him properly." Wang's eyes reddened. He was her beloved son. She could not bear to see him punished. Fang Cheng said, "He has done nothing wrong. Do not worry. We just want to talk to him."

"This..." Wang looked at Squad Leader Zhang for an explanation. Squad Leader Zhang dared not tell the truth. He lied, "This gentleman is the City God of White Flower City. He has taken a liking to your son's talent and wants to teach him cultivation."

"No, no! Please do not! My son has no talent. He is only fit for reading and writing. Please spare him!" Wang knelt and begged. She was the secretary's wife and had been forced to join the Anti-Cultivator Alliance. She knew things and feared these men were here to arrest and interrogate her.

"Enough with the nonsense! Tell me where Xiaofeng is, or I will stab you to death. Then your husband, then your son, then your whole family. I will dig up all your ancestors and whip their corpses!" Fang Cheng threatened harshly and released a trace of killing intent, making Wang shiver. Sometimes, being a good person required ruthless means.

"No! Do not! Xiaofeng is in the study at the back." Wang pointed with trembling fingers, then collapsed to the ground, sobbing. Qin Hao sighed, helped her up, and told Squad Leader Zhang, "Watch over her. We will go talk to the boy." Fang Cheng said to Qin Hao, "I will go alone. You watch them." He walked quickly to the study. Inside, a child sat at a desk, writing seriously. He was about seven or eight, with delicate features. Fang Cheng approached, crouched, and sniffed the boy. Damn it. It was not him.

The boy put down his brush and stood up, puzzled.

"Uncle, who are you? Why are you sniffing my desk?" Fang Cheng stood and smiled.

"I am a good person. Little one, does your father have any other sons, or do you have any other fathers?"

"Uncle, I do not understand what you are saying." The boy scratched his head, thought for a moment, and recited, "My teacher said: Heaven, earth, the sovereign, parents, and teachers. If I had another father, it would be my teacher." He picked up a calligraphy copybook and showed it to Fang Cheng.

"This is written by my teacher. He told me to copy it." Fang Cheng took it and flipped through it. The handwriting was quite refined, with a master's touch. But then he saw—no, smelled—a line:"If a child is not taught, it is the father's fault." Hahahaha. The fresh fragrance. His kindred spirit from the mountain stream. He smelled its scent. Reading was wonderful. Its flesh carried the smell of ink, paper, brush, and inkstone. The fragrance of literature. Wonderful.

Fang Cheng sniffed the copybook, then could not resist devouring it. He bit the characters into pieces, sucked out the ink, and swallowed it all. Not a single drop left.

"Crazy! He has gone crazy!" The boy cried in terror and ran out screaming. Just then. BOOM! The sky darkened. The clouds came, with thunder and lightning, pressing down until Xiangshi City could barely breathe. BOOM! Another thunderclap. The dark clouds changed. They turned into a red spider out hunting for food, looking downward. On its shoulders appeared two swollen pig heads, with sticky liquid still at the corners of their mouths.

The pig heads were unbearably ugly, like wild boars from the Red River of the outer heavens. They loved eating the young of ancient humans, because that was all they could defeat. But here, hahaha, they were invincible.

"My children. My children." One pig head cried out, taking the form of Magistrate Liu Defu, his face full of tenderness. It flew over the workshop and shot white silk threads from its mouth, wrapping around a dye worker. It was Li Zhuangniu.

"Father! Magistrate, my father! You have ascended! Hahaha! Good! I will ascend too! I am your dog. I will follow you to heaven. Boom, boom, boom. Beat my belly!" Li Zhuangniu laughed foolishly, pounding his belly as the threads pulled him slowly skyward. The other pig head took the form of Secretary Zhou Zhixin. White silk shot from its mouth and wrapped around Xiao Cui in the workshop.

"Mother! Secretary, my beloved stepmother! You have ascended too! Hahaha! I am your rooster! Cock-a-doodle-doo! Hear how loud I crow! I am going to heaven! I will crow even louder up there!" Xiao Cui's neck was tightly bound. Her face turned purple, her eyes bulging. But she still laughed. She had ascended. Why should she not laugh? Laugh hard. Hahahaha. Soon, countless white threads fell. The people of Xiangshi City rose one by one into the sky.

"Hahaha! My parents have become immortals! Wonderful! I can become an immortal too!" Their faces beamed with happiness. The feeling of ascending was so wonderful. They wished they could float forever. Suddenly, the secretary's pig head turned its gaze to its own house. It shot a thread and pulled away Wang, the secretary's wife.

"Husband! You finally see me! I am also your child. You are my mother and my father. Take me with you! Hahahaha!" Wang rose from the ground, her smile wider than the pig's head.

"Crazy. They have all gone crazy. Wuwuwu... Mother, do not go." Xiaofeng wept, trying to hold onto his mother. But Wang kicked him away.

"Get lost, you little brat! Do not hold back my ascension!"